text:
Planning Your New Born Session
Congratulations on your new arrival! :-) or your little bump, 'soon to be here' baby xx What an exciting time and I'm delighted you're checking out my work and thinking about capturing those precious moments with your newborn.
There is 14 days after your baby is born that is preferable for capturing those 'new born' images but please don't worry if you're slightly over this. This time period is recommended because our little bundles are instinctively wanting to curl up and those images are super cute, they are more likely to sleep peacefully and we are able to position them in lovely little poses without disturbing them too much :-)
I offer a range of 'looks' for my newborn sessions, from backgrounds with props to very natural and casual and I chat this through with all my clients ahead of our sessions. This is also where we plan our images and if there are props and certain things you'd like to include, (gifts from friends and family) then we note those down and ensure we capture them all on the day.
This post has just a little gathering of images and if you would like to chat things through and have questions, please call me on 07754 757716 xx


text:
As a mother of a child with autism and as a trusted children's educator, I thank HBO for focusing on the gifts - the abilities within the challenges of autism. I commend everyone who was involved in the making of Temple Grandin and beg all to see this fabulous film. Claire Danes is riveting in her embodiment of the beloved Temple Grandin. The entire cast - exceptional; the script and direction - perfection.
I cannot help but be reminded of Dustin Hoffman's portrayal of Rain Man and must compare Claire Danes to this legendary performance. The difference, however, between Rain Man and Temple Grandin - is that today people with autism - because of the real-life Temple Grandin: who she is and what she has accomplished - are no longer sentenced to an institutionalized life. Thank you HBO for highlighting the gifts of autistics. This film will truly change the world for people like my son.
Elaine Hall
"CoachE" in Autism: The Musical
Author, Now I See the Moon (HarperStudio, HarperCollins June 2010)

subset: commoncrawl


text:
I'm not planning on getting married anytime soon (sorry mum), but this hasn't stopped me, like most other girls, from planning my dream wedding. And we all know the most important part of a girl's wedding day is the wedding gowns itself.
I do spend ages scouring the internet looking for pretty dresses and imagining myself in them (tell me I'm not the only person who does this...). I have found some really gorgeous and unique dresses out there, which I would be happy to wear.
Here are some of the prettiest dresses that I've found recently:
Vera Wang had to be on the list; the dresses are definitely very iconic and classic.
Photo's Credit
I've only recently discovered Priscilla of Boston and they have some beautiful designs. The dresses are really original and some are quite fairytale-esque. (The first one is actuallyl my dream wedding dress!!)
Finally, Oscar De La Renta has a beautiful selection of bridal dresses. Some of them are definitely ones to make you stand out as a bride!
Photo's Credit
Note: This is a sponsored post!!


text:
A Doctor's Selection Dwelling Health Companies is a privately owned, licensed house-health company based in 1993. Sufferers of this agency usually tend to have their bladder control improve, have to be admitted to the hospital less typically, and want unplanned medical care associated to a wound less typically, when compared to different businesses within the state. Please contact AmeriCare Residence Health Company, LLC in Moraine, OH for extra data. Mr. Sarris was dismissive of the settlements Americare paid in different circumstances, including $7 million to Medicaid in 2005, after the state attorney common's Medicaid Fraud Control Unit discovered that Americare had billed for excessive and unwarranted hours in adult properties.
As a comfort to our sufferers and their family members, Americare Dwelling Well being Services can present all durable medical provides and equipment, along with the following providers which is able to ensure you receive premium care right in the comfort and privacy of your home. The entire house well being agency related Medicare Elements A & B funds made to this provider in 2006.
How usually the house health staff took physician-ordered action to stop stress sores (mattress sores). A $16 million income Medicare home care supplier was purchased by a financial purchaser. How often patients receiving residence well being care wanted any pressing, unplanned care within the hospital emergency room – with out being admitted to the hospital. The average Medicare funds made to this provider per Medicare Elements A & B covered dwelling health agency go to in 2006.
Patients who reported YES, they would positively advocate the home health agency to family and friends. Louise Stewart, who together with fellow nurses Suzanne Kappert and Marlene Kern co-founded AmeriCare House Health Providers on U.S. forty one North a decade in the past, said the preliminary idea for the business grew out of Southwest Florida's unstable employment prospects for well being care professionals during the offseason.


text:
We started working on this page on 03/12/2011, and work in progress.
Use BatchFTP as automated back up tool.
Pulling all images from a websites under all directory.
Share FTP server information without sharing password.
Peter is a website administrator, Peter wants that all of his websites should be auto backed up everyday in night. Peter can relax, because once Peter created a batch of all files and folders that he want to back up from server. He can schedule the batch to run automatically every night. Note Peter can also pick from bunch of smart overwrite options available. For example overwrite if there is difference in size, or if there is difference in time stamp and so on. Note Peter can select parent folder only, any files that were found or created later on within that folder will be automatically backed up.
John who is an end user, wants to download all files of a certain type from a FTP server inside all directory. He can easily do with few clicks with BatchFTP. Simply create batch file with FTP server, select the main folder to download. Select filters to use for, add as many as you need. For example *.jpg, *.png *.gif *.bmp and so on. Now either you start the batch for one time download, or schedule it so that BatchFTP will download anytime a new file of that types shows up on the server. Note that same can be done not just for download but also for upload. BatchFTP works exactly same way both for download and for upload.
Let say you want to share something (files or folder) from your FTP server, so that your friends and co-workers can download it. All you do is create a batch file with FTP information and chose encrypted option for password. Save the batch file and pass it on to friends/co-workers. All they have to do is simply double click the batch file. Batch file will be opened in BatchFTP and it will be auto connected to FTP server. Note that your friends/co-worker needs to have BatchFTP installed.


text:
Devdas 3D (2015)
Devdas 3D > Confirming the news says the director, "This is the tenth year of DEVDAS and, somehow, the film hasn't lost its sheen. We're now going to do a 3D version of the film to commemorate these ten years."Devdas 3D movie is under production and will release in July 12, 2015.
Directed : Sanjay Leela Bhansali
Producer : Bharat Shah
Genre : Drama
Cast : Shahrukh Khan, Madhuri Dixit, Aishwariya Rai, Jackie Shroff and Kirron Kher
Release Date : July 12, 2015
*Note: Keep in touch for latest updates about the movie.
Follow us on Twitter : Follow @albumartin


text:
If you're the average person, you are probably aware of the significance of getting your financial house in order for retirement. The federal government makes it possible for individuals and spouses, to create retirement savings accounts with certain options for paying taxes. These options are the basis for the main difference between a Roth IRA vs Tradition IRA.
Contributions to a Roth are made by way of earnings which have already been taxed. Contributions to a traditional IRA are deferred until the account owner reaches retirement age and begins pulling out their funds. It is at this point that income taxes are levied against BOTH contributions and profits.
But given these facts, how is it possible to which type of IRA presents the best option?
Okay, the truth is, there is no way to be absolutely sure...that is until the time you retire and you can look back at your decision.
The closest you can come to making a good decision is to look at the tax bracket you fit into at the time of the IRA creation and make an educated guess about what tax bracket you will be in at retirement.
If you believe you are likely to be in the same or even lower tax bracket retirement time, then a Roth IRA will be the more sensible choice. But if you think your future tax bracket will ultimately be lower than your current tax bracket, a traditional IRA will be the more suitable alternative.
Something else to consider when trying to make the choice between a Roth IRA vs traditional IRA is your age and what stage you are at in your career.
Younger people, in early stages of their occupations, can safely assume their income will increase as time passes. In this situation, a Roth IRA may perhaps be a smarter alternative.
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/6200159


text:
I finally finished making the wrap up video of our road trip back in December of 2014. This is my first travel video and it actually wasn't as hard as I thought it was going to be. Enjoy!
If you missed any of my posts about each stop on our trip click any of the links below!
Our Route // Arkansas // Dallas // Santa Fe // Turquoise Trail // Grand Canyon // Vegas // Death Valley // Tahoe // San Fran // Costanoa Lodge // Big Sur // Pasadena


text:
Our project began with footage of Zack Bastian, a young paraplegic surfer on the beaches of Rhode Island. With hopes of bringing the short film to rehabilitation hospitals to inspire the newly disabled, Zack and filmmakers Will, Harvey, and Tripp realized they could not stop with surfing. Piers Park in Boston soon added sailing that fall, and New England Disabled Sports taught us to mono-ski that winter. Momentum throughout New England for our project erupted, and we soon decided to take our film to the next level, with the goal of shooting a feature length documentary on a cross country road trip. And with it - an important shift in our approach: Endless Abilities became bigger than the four of us, instead a story about the amazing individuals we meet and the sports that empower them to overcome adversity.
A. Newport, RI - Zack, Will, Harvey, and Tripp bought a mini-bus from a local church and departed on an adventure of a lifetime.
B. Hartford, CT - Swim with Kristin Duquette, London 2012 Paralympic hopeful despite having muscular dystrophy.
C. Washington DC - Pack hiking backpack with President of Disabled Sports USA and single leg amputee Kirk Bauer as he prepares to hike Denali, the tallest peak in North America.
D. Baltimore, MA - Meet parents of Emily Obert, an MIT Engineering student we met at Spaulding Hospital in Boston after becoming a paraplegic.
E. Pittsburgh, PA - Sled hockey with the Pittsburgh Penguins and extreme wheelchairing with paraplegic Jonathan Stark.
F. St. Louis, MO - Track and field, swimming, and sled hockey with Disabled Athletes Sports Association (DASA).
G. Chicago, IL - Hand cycling for paraplegics and tandem biking for the blind with Dare2Tri. Road race with Anjali Forber-Pratt, paraplegic Paralympic medalist and world record holder.
H. Denver, CO - Outreach with top ranking rehabilitation center, Craig Hospital, and white water rafting and blind rock climbing with National Sporting Center for the Disabled.
I. Moab, UT - Hiking at the Arches National Park.
J. Salt Lake City, UT - Cross country road racing with Therapeutic Recreation and Independent Lifestyles (TRAILS)
K. Wawona, CA - Camping in Yosemite National Park.
L. Berkeley, CA - Soccer with quadriplegics with Bay Area Outreach and Recreation Program (BORP). Tour of Center for Disability Rights with activist Victor Pineda.
M. Santa Cruz, CA - Surfing with paraplegic pro-surfer Otter Bailey and walking quadriplegic Stretch… just Stretch. No last name.
N. San Diego, CA - Surfing with paraplegic Mark Thornton, revisiting Infinity Surf Boards and Challenged Athletes Foundation.
O. Los Angeles, CA - Surfing with quadriplegic and head of Life Rolls On, Jesse Billauer.


text:
I'm going to start this week's post with a question for the under 25s: How many of you have seen Paul Verhoeven's 1990 version of Total Recall, or Sam Raimi's take on Spider-Man from only a decade ago? Judging by the new trailer for Len Wiseman's remake of the former and a screening I caught earlier this week of Marc Webb's reboot of the latter, Hollywood is banking on its key box office demographic not having ever watched either movie.
I can just about accept film-makers' current penchant for plundering the 1980s (hey, it's been a while), but rebooting entities that have had only 20 or so years – or, in the case of Spider-Man, just 10 – to establish a legacy seems like a cheap trick. The key, if they must, is to ensure that the new version is bigger and better than the original, or failing that, radically different. Christopher Nolan's Batman Begins, Peter Jackson's The Lord of the Rings trilogy and Daniel Craig's first outing as Bond, Casino Royale, are remakes or reboots of a sort, but all managed to surpass or offer a fresh take on the films that preceded them. It's a legacy I can't see this latest crop living up to.
First to Wiseman's Total Recall. While the Underworld director has reportedly jettisoned the original's wonderful third-act sojourn to Mars and tacked on a generic Orwellian backstory about warring megapowers, the promo has me thinking I'm watching virtually the same film minus Verhoeven's brilliantly barmy and bombastic razzamatazz. The Dutch director's over-the-top, B-moviesque schtick was the perfect vehicle for the larger-than-life Arnold Schwarzenegger; the film's surreal futuristic storyline far out enough to make you forget in the first five minutes that you're watching a 20-stone guy with an Austrian accent in a world where everyone else is normal-sized and American.
This time we get the rather more orthodox form of Colin Farrell, a fine actor whose scene-stealing turn in Minority Report a decade ago always hinted at a fertile future in science fiction. The problem is that the scenes in the trailer appear to be taken from a film that is almost a shot-for-shot remake of the original. Just like Arnie, he visits Rekall to get an adventurous memory implanted, kills everyone in the room when something apparently goes wrong, ends up in a fight with the woman who may or may not be his wife, takes advice from himself via a recorded video message, and even gives the glad-eye to a three-boobed woman who's interested in his hard-earned wonga.
Tell me again why I would want to watch such a perfect movie remade by a film-maker who lacks 1% of Verhoeven's dazzling, hyper-real vision, especially as the production design seems to be a mishmash of Blade Runner and Minority Report? Is the way the future appears in Hollywood movies so set in steel now?
No doubt there are readers straining at the bit to inform me that the new Total Recall is a straighter adaptation of Philip K Dick's short story We Can Remember It for You Wholesale, upon which Verhoeven's film was also based, and therefore a wholly reasonable remake. Well, I've read the original tale and I don't remember anything about 1984-style warring superstates, resistance leaders or multiple-mammaried ladies of the night. Do you?
Deep breath, and on to The Amazing Spider-Man, about which I cannot say too much as none of you will have seen it yet. Firstly, this is without doubt a well acted, well-directed and scripted film. But it is not a well-conceived movie. For rights reasons, studio Sony has decided to bring the wall-crawler back to the big screen only a few years after the failure of Raimi's final effort, Spider-Man 3, to please critics. Webb and his creative team have done their damnedest to mark the new Spidey as a different beast from the version starring Tobey Maguire: he has a new backstory, love interest (Gwen Stacy, not Mary Jane Watson) and enemy in the form of the Lizard.
Unfortunately, and despite everyone's best efforts, anyone who saw 2002's Spider-Man is likely to suffer a considerable degree of deja vu. There is only so far you can shift a Spidey origins tale before it is no longer the same character, and Webb has wisely erred on the side of caution. Unfortunately, this means we still get a huge dose of poor, old Uncle Ben's "With great power comes great responsibility" gubbins from the first movie, though the screenwriters are working so hard not to use those exact words that one can almost hear the biros squeaking in anguish. Likewise, there is a similar high school scene involving a bully. Some of the methods used to avoid repeating scenes wholesale from Raimi's film are ingenious, but I still felt uncomfortably aware of the fact that they were being employed when I should have been able to sit back and enjoy the movie.
The worst thing about the film is the villain, the Lizard. In order to save the Green Goblin and Doc Ock for later, Webb has plumped for a lesser-known bad guy, who comes to life appallingly on the big screen. The CGI is deeply incongruous, and both Spider-Man and Spider-Man 2 looked better, despite technology having supposedly advanced in the intervening years.
The Amazing Spider-Man is getting good reviews from the critics, holding an 80% "fresh" rating on the Rotten Tomatoes aggregator website. And if Raimi's film had never existed, I would be roundly in agreement. Unfortunately, Webb and Sony have failed to do what Nolan did so impressively with 2005's Batman Begins: namely to craft an origins story radically different from the previous iteration that feels like the definitive take on the character. The Maguire/Raimi Spider-Man feels like the definitive version for me, and I suspect Total Recall could be remade 1,000 times without approaching the bonkers majesty of Verhoeven's film. Come on Hollywood, pull your finger out. I've already seen this movie.


text:
Fight Interference by Trump in the Mueller Investigation
Donald Trump and some Republican members of Congress have repeatedly thrown out spurious and unfounded accusations of misdeeds and claims of bias by Mr. Mueller, the Special Prosecutor appointed initially to investigate the Russian meddling in our last national election. This is being done either as a prelude to an unwarranted and improper termination of the investigation or to cast doubt before the investigation is even completed on the results it has produced and may further produce. Right-wing broadcasters have been and are continuing to do the same.
If Donald Trump takes further action to obstruct this investigation by firing Robert Mueller, we must act. Events are being planned across the United States for rapid response (info HERE), including one in Olympia If Donald Trump takes such reckless action prior to 2pm local time on any given day, the action is planned for 5pm that evening; if after 2pm, the action would be held at noon on the following day.
An Olympia event is planned for start at the Insurance Building on the State Capital campus. This building (also home now to the Washington State Auditor's Office) is located just south of the Winged Victory monument and to the east of the Capitol rotunda and Legislative building. The sign-up for the event previously stated that the action was "full", but is now allowing for sign-ups again. Even if the event again lists as "full" or you have not previously signed up, SHOW UP ANYWAY! Following the initial gathering at the Insurance Building, the plan is for demonstrators to line both sides of Capital Blvd.
In the face of any such anti-democratic action by Trump we must push back loudly and strongly, demanding that Congress take action in response. Additional action at other venues are being planned, and will be posted on the linked website when they have been confirmed.
More information will be posted here as it becomes available. Be ready to act on short notice.


text:
Compare cheap flights to Luanda
Luanda is Angola's capital and largest city. It is benefitting from the large revenue the government receives from oil and diamonds. The city is getting a facelift and more social services as instituted. It is expected to have a new airport.
When is the cheapest time to fly to Luanda?
The Quatro de Fevereiro Airport is the main airport that services Luanda. This is the hub of TAAG Angola Airlines that offer international and domestic flights. SonAir and Air Gemini, Lufthansa, Emirates, British Airways, Air France, and other Asian, African, South American and European airlines land and take off at this airport.
Historical sites
Greeting you in Luanda is the towering mausoleum of Augostinho Neto, Angola's first president. Do not miss the self-contained colonial city of Fortaleza de São Miguel, the Benfica Market and Mussulo Beach. There are several museums, art galleries and churches. Igreja da Nazare has an Italian rose marble altar. Its ceiling and walls are equally enchanting.
Cheapest time to fly to Luanda (LAD)
All prices refer to return flights to Luanda and include taxes and charges.
Our experiences customer support team is there to help you every step of the way.
With the Skiddoo Price Promise, if you find a cheaper price online we'll match it!


text:
By Jonathan Kaplan, Ph.D.
Meditation can be quite challenging for people with anxiety difficulties. In addition to the usual difficulty with concentration, they can be overly sensitive to physical sensations, jittery, and prone to rumination. As a result, seated breath meditation--the typical starting point for newbies--often becomes too frustrating or overly provocative. Indeed, many just give-up and resolve never to meditate again. [Of course, a breath focus might be a useful exposure exercise, but it is not one that is initially relaxing.]
Fortunately, there are many kinds of meditation available. And, there are a few that are particularly helpful in cultivating relaxation for people with anxiety:
Sound Meditation: Listen to sounds in the environment. While sound ultimately is perceived internally through listening, the apparent focus is external to the body and thus less anxiety-provoking.
Walking Meditation: Pay attention to the physical sensations of walking by noting shifting body weight, tensing muscles in the legs, and the "lift, move, place" of each foot. It is a more active meditation because you're physically moving and the object of meditation keeps changing.
Word Focus: Repeat an anchor word or phrase in one's mind. Based on Herbert Benson's work on the relaxation response, this style of meditation provides a verbal object of focus, which occupies the thinking mind. I advise people to pick two simple words and synchronize their repetition with each breath in and out. For example, you might inhale while thinking the word "one" and exhale while thinking the word "peace." I also like Thich Nhat Hanh's suggestion: "Breathing in, I know that I am breathing in. Breathing out, I smile."
Last month, I started recording professional, guided meditations, available on our website and Insight Timer. My inaugural meditation, Sound Meditation, is 9 minutes long and can be found here: Resources. Give it a try and let me know what you think--or hear. :-)


text:
Squaremouth helps travelers search, compare, and buy the best travel insurance for the lowest price. More than 300,000 travelers use Squaremouth each year to protect their trips.
Begin your search by entering your trip details to view policies from the most reputable travel insurance companies in the industry. Use our custom search filters to only show the policies that match your coverage needs. Compare policies side-by-side to find the right policy at the best price for your trip.
2019 Customer Service Department of the Year
Squaremouth's customer service has been recognized with 12 national and international awards from Travel Weekly, The Stevie Awards, Customer Sales and Service Awards, and Best in the Biz.See All Awards
Multi-Award Winning Customer Service Team
Squaremouth's outside-the-box approach to customer service has been recognized nationally and internationally, with 12 awards in 5 years. Customer service is part of everybody's job at Squaremouth. Every employee spends time on the phone with customers each week.Read more
$30,000 Contest Encourages Reading Policy Documents
To highlight the importance of reading policy documents from start to finish, Squaremouth awarded one customer $10,000 in a secret contest for being the first to read hers. Then, we gave another $10,000 to a children's literacy charity and $5,000 each to two schools.Read more
$1,000 Tips Shine a Light on Service
Squaremouth, a company that puts a focus on customer service, rewards 20 outstanding customer service providers in St. Petersburg, Florida with $1,000 cash tips. Then, one received an additional $10,000 as the Thank You Campaign's grand prize winner.Read more
One of America's Best and Fastest-Growing Companies
Squaremouth is consistently awarded for its unique company culture and steady revenue growth. This includes national recognition from Inc. Magazine, Fortune, and Entrepreneur, and local recognition from the Tampa Bay Business Journal and Florida Trend.Read more


text:
Tokyo is a very addictive place, if you have ever been there you can't stop praising this beautiful place to anyone you meet. Though the 'cherry blossom' season from March to April is considered the best time to visit but you will always find something interesting to do here regardless of the season.
The city is very much widespread and you might be lost if you are first time visitor. So if you're traveling Tokyo for the first time, rent a pocket wifi as it will help you to navigate the correct direction with the help of google maps.
- The transportation can be used through purchasing a card which you can top up at most of the stations as per your need. Along with this, you can also use railway map. The map is very helpful in the case if you miss or forget the way. Never get hesitate to ask for help as people there are very open minded and remain ready to help.
- If you ask if Japan is budget friendly or not, my answer will be YES, it is a place very kind to your wallet. You can do a huge amount of shopping and still save a lot.
Book your hotel through Ctrip, the most promising online hotel booking agency of Singapore at discounted rate as it is offering hefty off on each booking.
For more savings, join hands with CollectOffers.com as it avails you a handful of discount coupon codes and voucher codes so you can save adequate amount effortlessly.
Here some cozy hotels are listed. Take a look!
Hotel Skycourt Koiwa Tokyo
Conveniently located a 1-minute walk from Keisei Koiwa Station, Hotel Sky Court Koiwa offers cozy rooms with free WiFi access and an on-site restaurant. Guests can reach Ueno with a 20-minute train ride while Tokyo Disneyland and JR Tokyo Station are located a 55-minute train ride away. Book this hotel through Ctrip at discounted rate.
tateru bnb 001 Tokyo
With antique decorating, you will feel like home at Tareru bnb. Only 1 min walk from the nearest convenient shop, and 5mins walk from Musashinda station. You can enjoy the "Showa" atmosphere as soon as arriving at Tareru bnb. Book this hotel through Ctrip and save voluminous amount.
Hotel Metropolitan Tokyo Ikebukuro
Hotel Metropolitan is in central Tokyo, next to Ikebukuro Train Station, and has great access to public transportation. The hotel features a spa, 9 restaurants and free in-room wired internet. Wi-Fi (free WiFi) is available in all rooms.Ikebukuro Station offers 5 train lines and 3 subway lines, including direct access to the Shinjuku, Harajuku and Shibuya areas. Airport buses to Haneda and Narita Airport come directly to Metropolitan Hotel.The air-conditioned rooms at Hotel Metropolitan Tokyo feature panoramic city views. Each room includes tea-making facilities and a flat-screen TV with cable channels and on-demand movies (VOD).Guests can relax in the spa tub, swim in the indoor pool or work out at the fitness center (all with minimum age limit and fees). The hotel also features a beauty salon and business center. Free Wi-Fi is available in the lobby.Dining options at the hotel include Japanese, Chinese and European cuisines. The 25th-floor Est Italian Restaurant and Ovest Bar offer spectacular city views. Cross Dine Restaurant serves an international buffet spread.


text:
FineAndDandyVintage is taking a short break
No reviews in the last year
See reviews that mention:quality 5 shipping 34 customer service 12
Anonymous on Jul 22, 20135 out of 5 stars
Perfectly described and a wonderful, wonderful seller. I can't thank you enough.
Anonymous on Jul 22, 20135 out of 5 stars
Anonymous on Jul 13, 20135 out of 5 stars
Anonymous on May 15, 20135 out of 5 stars
the loveliest shirt! just as described! couldn't be happier :)
Anonymous on Apr 12, 20135 out of 5 stars
Amazing coat, thanks
Shop policies
Last updated on July 19, 2013
I search far and wide for vintage 60s, 70s, and 80s apparel and accessories that match up with current styles and trends in today's world of fashion.
Check out my personal blog: http://candimandi.typepad.com
Check out my personal blog: http://candimandi.typepad.com
Accepted payment methods
- Money Order
- Check
Returns and exchanges
You may contact Fine & Dandy before paying to request insurance for your package. This way you can receive compensation from USPS should anything happen to the item in transit. Refunds and exchanges will be offered only if an item is grossly misrepresented in its description, in which case I will reimburse the original shipping price as well as the cost to return the item to us. All measurements are listed in the description, so please make sure something will fit before you purchase it. If something arrives brocken due to my packaging job, all you need to do is take a photograph of the broken piece and I will refund the price of what was broken. For instance, if you buy three cups, and one arrives broken, I will refund 1/3 of the total price (including shipping). Also, if insurance is purchased, the price of your entire purchase might be refunded by USPS, although the claim must be filed by yourself. Please contact me if you have any concerns on this matter.
Payments will be accepted via paypal only. If you don't have an account with paypal, why not set up one today? Payments must be received within two days of choosing to purchase an item, or item will be relisted. I do not reserve items any more, because unfortunately, most instances I have experienced, the potential buyer never purchases, and others who are interested are dissuaded from coming back. If it's meant to be- the item you're pining for will still be available when you're ready to buy!
Shipments are usually made twice a week through the USPS. The shipping price includes the price charged by the USPS for shipping cost, delivery confirmation (tracking #), and also the cost of materials. Shipping upgrades may be available (i.e. insurance or next day delivery), but please contact us first for information.
Additional policies and FAQs
All items come from a smoke free home. Because each item has had a previous life, I cannot take responsibility for where all it has been. Some pieces will arrive unwashed and may smell musty with age. Because of the vintage nature of each item, quality may vary. I look for fashionable pieces that are in excellent condition, but occasionally, there will be flaws in a garment. Details of flaws will be made known in the item description, so be sure to read the description carefully before making a purchase. Belts and other accessories are never included unless otherwise noted.
Each purchase will arrive at its destination well packaged, but if you would like an item gift wrapped, I will do so for an additional $5.00 charge.
Each purchase will arrive at its destination well packaged, but if you would like an item gift wrapped, I will do so for an additional $5.00 charge.


text:
The Critec SES40 Service Entrance Suppression is designed to protect sensitive electronics at the service entrance for residential or light commercial service panels. Designed for 120/240VAC power systems, the unit provides surge protection totaling 80 kA 8/20 µs total, or 40 kA per phase. UL 1449-listed as a Type 1 device, the product offers protection on either the line side or load side of the service panel without additional external protection being required by circuit breakers or fuses.
For more information, visit www.erico.com.
Hide comments


text:
Blog Posts
Bad Grades in School? 5 strategies for parents!
Is your child getting bad grades in school? Is it affecting their academic confidence and self esteem? Here are 5 strategies San Diego families can do to help their children at home.
1. Evaluate your child's Social & Emotional Intelligence
Social and emotional skills are strongly tied to academic success. When students aren't getting along with peers, have a hard time talking to their teachers, or have a negative attitude about school, it can be very hard to want to succeed and do well. Building up a student's confidence within the social setting and improving their emotional awareness can help them to overcome frustrations, stay calm and motivated, and feel comfortable interacting with others when they need support to succeed! Tutoring companies like Club Xcite in San Diego can offer a FREE In-Home Social / Emotional Assessment and also provide in-home 1-1 coaching and tutoring focusing on social / emotional skill building. Club Xcite contact: 858 779 9674 to find out more.
2. Evaluate your child's Executive Functioning Skills
When a student has a hard time managing time, staying organized, using flexible thinking, and regulating their attention span, school can become quite challenging. In the classroom, teachers don't always have the time and resources to help every child in these areas. With the right support of a parent, tutor or coach who can assess and teach executive functioning skills, students can build these life long skills and incorporate them into their school and home lives! Learn more about how to build Executive Functioning skills. Club Xcite in San Diego offers a FREE In-Home Executive Functioning Assessment. Call 858 779 9674 for more information.
3. Find out what motivates your child to succeed
While some kids love school, others don't. To help your child be successful, it is important that they have a motivator that helps them to stay strong, dedicated, and interested in their academic success. For some students, getting an A on an assignment is enough, but others need a stronger push. Find out what makes your child excited and motivated to do well, and help them stay accountable. Create a system to earn their desired outcome when they reach their goals! A fun engaging private tutor can help set up motivators, and can take the pressure off parents to get homework done, prepare for school and help students stay accountable.
4. Make learning relevant & fun!
Retaining information can be difficult when you don't have a connection to the material. Students are much more likely to be engaged in learning and retain information when it is presented to them in a fun and engaging way! Unfortunately teachers need to teach to the mean and since all students have different learning styles and interests, teachers can't always make learning relevant and fun for every student. It is important that struggling students find other support systems to connect to the material. Evaluate your child's learning styles and interests and find out how to present the information in a relevant way.
5. Get Support! Hire an experienced tutor who can motivate your child, make learning fun, and build social, emotional, and executive functioning skills!
Start with getting an academic, social, emotional and executive functioning assessment through a local education professional like Club Xcite. This assessment will evaluate areas of weakness and strength that are leading to academic struggles and can be used by a tutor to create a skill building program leading to success and confidence. Confidence is built through successful reputations, and building academic confidence takes a consistent approach. Club Xcite is the leading tutoring provider in San Diego as we know how to get to the root of your child's struggle and have many tools to support them to reach success.
For more information or to learn more about Club Xcite's services, call or text (858)779-9674.
Mention this blog for $100 off your first tutoring package.
Sign up below: COUPON CODE: FBK2016
- NEWS RELEASE: ( June 16, 2015 ) Summer Social Skills Program Author: ClubXcite
- NEWS RELEASE: ( June 11, 2015 ) San Diego Public Schools approve Club Xcite's Social Skills and Executive Functioning Programs! Author: ClubXcite
- NEWS RELEASE: ( November 26, 2010 ) Mentorship comes full circle for San Diego Pair Author: ClubXcite
ARTICLES: ( February 25, 2019 )
The Power of Setting Intentions: 5 Reasons Why You and Your Family Should Adopt Intention Setting Practices
Source: ClubXcite
ARTICLES: ( June 27, 2016 )
Social Emotional Learning (SEL). What is it and why is it important?
Source: ClubXcite
ARTICLES: ( March 25, 2016 )
The Homework Battle! 5 tips to getting a win/win
Source: ClubXcite


text:
School Council
Meet Our School Council
Year 2
Our reps in Year 2 enjoy Art and D.T because they like
making things. They also like using their imaginations to write stories and in Maths they like the challenge of learning new times tables.
Ou reps believe that they will be a good addition to our school council because they are good listeners and are keen to make sure that everyone at Goosehill is happy.
Year 3
Our Year 3 reps enjoy their Topic lessons because they like to learn new facts. They are particularly interested in
History and learning about the past and what the future might hold.
The children think they will make great school council reps because they have lots of ideas that they would like to share.
Year 4
Our Year 4 reps really enjoy ICT and designing new things using computer programmes. They are also interested in Art and using different things to colour with.
As the oldest and most experienced children on our school council, the Year 4 reps are keen to get ideas and opinions from their classmates and feed these back.
School Council Agenda Autumn Term 2017
|Meeting 1
|Welcome to the school council! Photographs and introductions. Expectations – what a typical meeting will entail.
|Meeting 2
|Evaluation of World Faiths Week. What did children learn/enjoy? What activities did different year groups do? Why is it important to learn about different faiths?
|Meeting 3
|Marking and purple pen work. Look at examples. Why do we do this and how is it helpful? Children's feedback on marking in their books.
|Meeting 4
|How do feel about the new building opposite our school? What are the positive and negative points?
|Meeting 5
|What are our favourite lessons and why? Which lessons are fun and what makes them better than others?
|Meeting 6
|Golden time – what do different year groups do and how do we feel about this? Any ideas for improvement.
|Meeting 7
|Homework – share ideas and opinions for getting this done without it becoming a huge chore!! Create a homework top tips poster for the website.
|Meeting 8
|To be confirmed nearer the time depending on school projects/non uniform days etc.


text:
Celtic Christmas Music
From Brittany to Scotland, from traditional Christmas carols to New Age winter solstice celebrations, these wonderful Celtic Christmas music CDs will warm your heart and put you in the holiday spirit!
We've also included some sacred music from Brittany and Ireland, and even some New World piping and fiddling - whatever means a Celtic Christmas to you, there is music here to please.
|Buy Celtic Christmas Music CDs
Get More Info
Celtic Woman: A Christmas Celebration (2006)
Celtic Woman
"The vocal performances are expectedly polished, with the quintet breaking off into smaller units and solo showcases such as Lisa Kelly's Broadway-lullaby take on 'The Christmas Song,' a neo-classical 'Panis Angelicus' by Chloe Agnew, and the muscular orchestral/choral setting for Mariead Nesbitt's earthy fiddle on 'Carol of the Bells.' The quintet (backed only by Nesbitt's spare strings) harmonize richly on 'Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas' and bring their trademark neo-Celtic charms more fully to bear on intimate translations of 'Silent Night' and 'The Wexford Carol' as well as a glorious take on the Gaelic traditional 'That Night in Bethlehem.' Perhaps to remind fans of their true range, the swinging, big-band bonus track 'Let It Snow' closes the collection with upbeat flair." --Jerry McCulley for Amazon.com.
Get More Info
Christmas Celtic Sojourn (2001)
Various Artists
From Bonnie Rideout to the Breton choir Ensemble Choral du Bout du Monde, Brian O'Donovan, host of the Celtic Sojourn radio program, has compiled a beautiful selection of traditional Christmas music, at least for those from Celtic countries. Only a couple of the songs will be familiar to Americans - It Came Upon a Midnight Clear and Silent Night.
Get More Info
& Joy: A Christmas Celtic Sojourn (2003)
Various Artists
"Traditional Celtic music has a peculiar way of turning the simplest musical phrase or familiar carol into a timeless reverie. At 17-tracks deep, Comfort and Joy is indeed a joy and a comfort. There's a distinctive dramatic sweep in many of these pieces, especially in Cherish The Ladies' elegiac medley of "The Distressed Soldier/Angels We Have Heard on High," Maddy Prior with The Carnival Band's "God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen," and the Watersons' stirring and powerful "Shepherd's Arise." Among the traditional Irish, Scottish, and French Celtic favorites (Group Vocal Jef Le Penven's "Noelenn Brehed" is a discovery!) are Robbie O'Connell, harpist Aine Minogue, and Dordan. O'Connell's own "Three Kings" is a smart seasonal sing-along, while Boys of the Lough's splendid vocal realization of "The Wexford Carol" will stay with you for days. Lovely instrumental pieces such as Minogue's "Horn Dance" and her original "Christmas Capers," plus other delights like Cherish The Ladies' pop-styled arrangement of "The Little Drummer Boy" make this yet another treasure of fine Celtic Christmas music." --Martin Keller for amazon.com.
Get More Info
Presents: The Best of Celtic Christmas (2002)
Various Artists
The Best of Celtic Christmas is a double CD jam-packed with great Celtic Christmas music. The first CD features several of Ireland's best-known traditional musicians such as Altan and Natalie MacMaster. The second CD belongs to the Galway band Dordan, with a terrific selection of jigs, reels, and carols, many sung in Gaelic. A great double album for an Irish Christmas celebration.
Get More Info
Christmas: Silver Anniversary Edition (2001)
Various Artists
Celtic New Age artists contributed original compositions and occasional reworkings of traditional folk tunes for this primarily instrumental album that captures the flavor of Christmas in unique ways. No traditional carols here.
Get More Info
Christmas, Vol. 3 (1997)
Celtic Christmas (Windham Hill Series)
"Bright pennywhistles, lonesome fiddles, mysterious flutes, strumming guitars, the brushed and pounding bodhran sounding like a horse at gallop over snowy roads, and female voices so clear and focused they might be angels calling out through the ether of time. All these elements combine to shape Celtic Christmas III. Among the more sterling tracks are David Agnew and David Downes's "Wexford Carol" and the original compositions by Lisa Lynne ("Circle of Joy," "Home") and Brian Dunning and Jeff Johnson (the vivid "A Raven in the Snow")." --Martin Keller for amazon.com.
Get More Info
Thistle & Shamrock Christmas Ceilidh (2000)
Altan, Lunasa, Capercaillie, Tannahill Weavers, Cherish the Ladies, et al
Selections from some of the best Irish and Scottish folk bands appear on this eclectic New Age Celtic Christmas CD, which is not particularly Christmasy, but is a great selection from a wide variety of musicians, if you want to try them out. The Tannahill Weavers do Auld Lang Syne.
Get More Info
Greet the Time (2003)
Sue Richards & Maggie Sansone
Merrily Greet the Time features four-time Scottish harp champion Sue Richards on Celtic harp and Maggie Sansone on hammered dulcimer with special guest musician appearances on tracks 3,9,15,19 that includes Connie McKenna-Irish & English vocals; Karen Ashbrook-Irish flute, hammered dulcimer;Ralph Gordon-cello performing seasonal music from Autumn Equinox to the Celtic New Year ( Samhain), the Winter Solstice, 12 days of Christmas and the New Year from Ireland, Scotland, Wales, and other lands where Celtic people settled.
Get More Info
Bells of Dublin (1991)
The Chieftains
Ireland's most loved band, The Chieftains, team up with a wide variety of guest musicians (Jackson Browne, Elvis Costello, Rickie Lee Jones, etc.) to bring you a rousing and memorable Irish Christmas with both Irish traditional and worldover favorites such as O Holy Night and the Wexford Carol.
Get More Info
Celtiques: Celtic Christmas Music from Brittany (1998)
L'Ensemble Choral du Bout du Monde
Their name means "Chorale Ensemble of the World's End" and their wonderful goal is to preserve Brittany's culture heritage. Here they perform a variety of Breton sacred Christmas songs. The music has a distinct, yet uniquely Breton, Celtic flavor performed using flutes, claviers, bagpipes, guitar, and organ with singing in French. This is a lovely, lovely CD.
Get More Info
Virgin's Lament (Caoineadhi Na Maighdine) (1998)
N�ir�n N� Riain and the monks of Glenstal Abbey
Ní Riain's soaring soprano, in Gaelic and Latin, flies over the deep voices of the monks, as they sing ancient Celtic sacred songs and Gregorian chant in the sean nos or "old style" tradition. Recorded at the Abbey, this album must be heard to be believed. Her voice is absolutely amazing.
Get More Info
Christmas (1998)
The Highland Bagpipes
Favorite traditional English and Scottish Christmas carols played on the bagpipes. Selections include Si Beag Se Mor, Highland Laddie/Talus Canon, Greensleeves (What Child Is This?), Eibli Geal Ciuin Ni Cearhaill (Bright Quiet Eileen O'Carroll), God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen/Paddy's Leather Breeches, Kiss the Child for Me, Mary, Brian Boru's March , Joy to the World, Auld Lang Syne, more.


text:
Dallas News Homes / SEARCH: North Pecan Parkway Northlake, TX 76226
- 4 beds
- 4 baths
- $579,990 price
- 1716881 mls id
- Square Feet: 4,214 sqft
- Neighborhood: Pecan Square
Listing Description
Pecan Square is a highly desirable new community by Hillwood in Northlake.. Reminiscent of a classic Texas town, the community will be centered around ?The Square??a destination at the end of a long boulevard lined with heritage pecan trees, ideal for the entire town to come together. The new community center is inspired by the iconic horse barn and will feature a lounge, resort-style pools, event areas, open green spaces and a fitness center.
- Bhi Subdivision Community Style MasterPlanned
- Builder Website
- NewHomeSource Listing
- NewHomeSource Subdivision Website
- New Construction Yes
Subdivision: Pecan Square
North Pecan Parkway Northlake, TX
Dallas News Real Estate Powered by Placester


text:
The stipend amount that we see on the offer letter is not what we will take home. We will have to pay both federal tax and state tax on our stipend.
I am personally not very familiar with the tax rates involved, and I am sure there are several other students (especially intl students) who are not 100% clear on how much we will end up paying as tax. Would some knowledgeable folks here care to englighten us on this?
From what I have read, it seems we have to pay a federal tax of 14% on what we earn above $ 8500 and the money we spend to buy books and lab supplies + a state tax that varies a lot from state to state + in few cases like New York City, a city tax.
A clear implication of the variable state tax is: if you are comparing stipends of different programs, please be sure to take the sifferent state taxes into consideration. For example, Providence seems to have a much lower state tax than New York. Also, do you know any site that gives reliable info on the tax rates in different states? I have come across two sites that seem to give somewhat conflicting info on state tax rates!


text:
Career Day
I pulled away from the campus, having worked a day talking and teaching, full of adrenaline, excitement and passion. "I LOVED it! It was so great, I'm totally meant to share and teach!" I called my mom to elaborate on sharing at Waianae Intermediate's career day several months ago. Yes, career day. When asked I jumped at the opportunity to indulge in my job as a wedding photographer to 4 groups of middle schoolers. I meticulously designed a slideshow, devised a makeshift instax photo booth and went all out creating a promo video in hopes it would peek their interest.
Glaring deep into the glow of my laptop late the night before Marshall admittedly became frustrated. "I think you're taking this too seriously" he declared, annoyed I was putting so much energy into a presentation. But to me, this was everything. A chance to share my photography story that brought me full circle from Makaha and back, how I taught myself the trade (twice!), how I learned a business in a new state that may as well be a foreign country and how I keep doing it. Because I love it. And, of course, my adoration for film. And more than anything it was a learning experience for me. A day to hone my speaking skills, engage a tough crowd and learn to work around technical difficulties (which were plentiful).
So I packed up early and headed against morning traffic, driving to the school alone, full of nerves, eagerness and wonder. I was assigned Angel, a real gem of a student as my assistant, and hit play on my slideshow. I was happily met with wonderment and questions, mainly about how to edit Instagram photos, and hopefully saw stars dazzle in the eyes of a few budding photographers. Mostly stylish girls. I wish I had photos and video of the day, it is currently one of my favorite moments as a photographer. Thank you, Waianae Intermediate for asking me to be apart of career day last spring, I didn't want it to end.


text:
Date – August 2, 2013
Shrouded in white cloth, their names and home towns carefully printed on the fabric in black pen, the bodies lay side-by-side on the floor at a field hospital in Cairo's Nasr City.
Their deaths — five of the 72 supporters of the deposed Muslim Brotherhood-led government killed this week at the hands of Egyptian security forces and the armed thugs who fight beside them — marked another crisis point for the Islamic movement that in just one year had risen to the heights of political power and then crashed back to earth.
With its senior officials, including the deposed president Mohamed Mursi held incommunicado for a month, Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood appears to be struggling to find a coherent response, pushed aside by a surge of anti-Islamist sentiment sweeping through the countries of the Arab revolutions.
The aftershocks of Egypt's political earthquake — when millions took to the streets to call for Mursi's overthrow on June 30 and the military stepped in to grant them their wish three days later — are being felt far and wide.
Across the border in Libya and in its neighbour Tunisia, Brotherhood-affiliated parties are also under fire, their headquarters attacked and their political wings accused of having a hand in the high-profile assassinations of two opposition figures in the last week.
On the streets of Egypt, the Brotherhood has few friends — at best people are relieved that its disastrous year-long rule is over, at worst, many support the violent actions of the security forces who in attempting to break up protests calling for Mursi's reinstatement have killed at least 123 people in two incidents alone.
It is a far cry from the Brotherhood's triumphant entrance into Egypt's first post-Mubarak parliamentary elections, in which its Freedom and Justice Party won 47 per cent of the vote, followed by Mursi's victory — albeit slim — in last year's presidential elections.
The Brotherhood was founded in Egypt in 1928 — formed by Hassan al-Banna to Islamicise society through a combination of religion, political activism and social welfare. It has since spawned other Islamic movements, branches and affiliates in about 70 countries across the Arab and Muslim world, from Jordan to Syria, Kuwait to Indonesia.
The movement has mostly lived underground, in the shadows, after being banned in Egypt in the 1940s. It has been repressed across the Arab world, often violently, in incidents such as the Hama massacre in Syria, in which Hafez al-Assad's Baathist regime crushed a Muslim Brotherhood uprising in 1982, killing upwards of 10,000 people.
So when it stepped out of the shadows after the fall of Hosni Mubarak in February 2011, it did so cautiously, at first insisting it would not run candidates in all electorates and that it would not contest the presidency.
As the popular uprising across Egypt gained momentum and the Mubarak regime was about to collapse, the then spokesman for the Brotherhood, Mohamed Mursi, wrote in The Guardian: "While the Muslim Brotherhood is unequivocal regarding its basis in Islamic thought, it rejects any attempt to enforce any ideological line upon the Egyptian people."
But after deciding to run candidates across the country and contest the presidency, it set about doing just that, ignoring the revolution's demands for bread, freedom and justice.
Mursi's constitutional declaration on November 22 last year, which gave him sweeping powers, tapped into deeply held fears about the Brotherhood.
It sparked huge public protests, and rang alarm bells for women, youth, revolutionaries, Coptic Christians and other religious minorities that an Islamist agenda would quickly follow. It was, it seems, the beginning of the end for Mursi.
"Instead of delivering on his promises, such as building a broadly based inclusive government … Mursi went to great lengths to monopolise power and place Muslim Brothers in state institutions," Fawaz Gerges, a professor of Middle Eastern Politics and International Relations at the London School of Economics, writes in Foreign Policy.
"There is a widespread belief among Egyptians of all walks of life that Mursi tried to ikhwanat misr (make Egypt in the Brotherhood's image) and subordinated the presidency to the Brotherhood."
And Egyptians resented it to their very core.
"I am protesting," said many Egyptians interviewed by Fairfax Media over the past three weeks, "because I cannot accept the Muslim Brotherhood telling me they are more holy than me."
"I fast, I pray, I go to the mosque — who are they to tell me I am not a good enough Muslim?" said protester Ahmad Omari in Tahrir Square last week, indignant that his faith was even in question.
"Egypt created the Muslim Brotherhood movement in 1928 and it killed the movement in 2013," said Said Sadek, a professor of political sociology at the American University in Cairo.
Since the Brotherhood was established 85 years ago, the military, the police and the intelligence community have told Egyptians: "Israel is the external enemy and the Muslim Brotherhood is the internal enemy", he said.
So when Mursi failed to deliver on his promises – fixing the security vacuum, traffic congestion, fuel shortages, bread scarcities and public sanitation – he blamed the "deep state" that was programmed to undermine him.
His economic mismanagement of Egypt's already paralysed economy dismayed his supporters and angered his opponents.
And in the end Egyptians — even those who voted for him — deemed the experiment with political Islam a failure and declared: "I told you so."
Political Islam was bound to fail, says Sadek, because it had no solutions, only slogans.
"Mursi's position on democracy was flawed — he looked at democracy as a ladder to reach power and then he got rid of the ladder, just like Hamas did in Gaza.
"He said 'we carry the word of god and we have the solution' but it was all a mask, and eventually, the mask fell to reveal the truth."
But the depth of hatred for the Brotherhood is alarming even the most seasoned Egypt analysts.
"This is really a very fateful moment for the Brotherhood," says Nathan Brown, professor of political science and international affairs at George Washington University and a senior associate with the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.
"It is an extremely significant chapter — you had a Brotherhood president — something that would have been unimaginable before and that has ended in complete collapse and failure.
"You have a political atmosphere that resembles a lynch mob and the people in position of authority who may be able to channel this into a calmer situation … don't seem to have either the interest or the ability to do so."
After only recently getting legal registration in Egypt as a political movement, the Brotherhood is now "hated to the extent that it has been totally rejected", Brown says.
"If this were any other country I would be convinced it was on the brink of a state of civil war."
In this situation, the Egyptian military, lead by the charismatic General Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, and the military-appointed interim government, holds all the power.
One possibility, he warns, is that Egypt will return to a period where Islamists are excluded from the mainstream at a high political cost.
Most analysts agree it is way too soon to write the obituary of political Islam. There are other strong Islamist parties, such as Egypt's Al Nour, who may benefit from the Brotherhood's failings.
Indeed many who are disappointed in the Brotherhood's performance in government will simply vote for another Islamist party next time, says Geneive Abdo, a Middle East fellow at the Washington-based Stimson Centre.
"I would argue that the Brotherhood will still do well in parliamentary elections because they are extremely well organised on the ground.
"They failed in a leadership role but they are back in the underdog role that they have historically played very well," she says. "We shouldn't underestimate them. It is the largest Islamist group in Egypt and Egypt is a very, very religious and socially conservative society."
Hand-in-hand with the Brotherhood's failure comes the failure of US foreign policy, Abdo says.
"The US has lost the Islamists, Egyptian society and the military," she warns.
"This shows Islamist groups that they should never trust the US, because they are just backing whoever is on top."
Add to that the competition between the gulf states of Qatar and Saudi Arabia for influence in Egypt, and the situation becomes very complicated, says AUC's Said Sadek.
Traditionally antagonistic towards the Muslim Brotherhood, many of the Gulf monarchies had held back their support while Mursi was in power.
Soon after Mursi's fall, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Kuwait stepped into pledge $US12 billion in aid to stabilise Egypt's struggling economy.
Egypt's relations with Qatar, however, are now much less clear.
"They are competing with the Saudis for influence and for who is closer to the United States," Sadek says. "Saudi Arabia is winning because Qatar has now lost its investment — Egypt — and is also losing its influence with the Syrian opposition as well."
"Qatar is nothing but a TV channel and money, and Al Jazeera Masr (Egypt) is the voice of the Muslim Brotherhood," he says.
Hazem Kandil, a lecturer in political sociology at Cambridge, argues the behaviour of the Brotherhood, both while in government and over the last month of protests at the Rabaa al-Adawiya Mosque in Nasr City and Nahda in Giza, has forced many Egyptians to re-evaluate the relationship between Islam and Islamism.
Kandil, who wrote Soldiers, Spies and Statesmen: Egypt's Road to Revolt, says: "It has forced Egypt to disentangle the two … being a Muslim is one thing and Islamism is another thing, and something we are likely to reject."
It will have long-term consequences across the region because the strength of Islamists in most countries was based on the fact that the population identified two camps — secularists and Islamists — and believed, wrongly, that secularists were mostly resentful of Islam or at least indifferent to it, he says.
"This is only the beginning … this will erode the popular base of Islamist movements in all these countries."
In Tunisia, the July 25 assassination of Mohamed Brahmi, the leftist leader of the opposition Popular Front coalition, drew thousands of protesters onto the streets. They blame the al-Nahda, Muslim Brotherhood-connected Islamist party that leads the government.
Calling on al-Nahda to relinquish power, the protesters say the party has created a sense of impunity among the country's more hardline Islamists.
But unlike Egypt's Mursi, the al-Nahda party has offered concessions and on Tuesday said it was ready to form a new government with an even broader base.
Still, the pressure is on the ruling party. Tunisian protesters are emulating Egypt's Tamarod, or Rebellion movement, by collecting signatures on the street calling for the government's downfall.
And while Tunisia's transition to democracy was better designed than Egypt's, and its Islamists did not win the same level of power, there is very real cause for concern, says Carnegie's Nathan Brown.
"Tunisia is in danger of following the Egyptian path where … they are fighting their political battles outside any kind of normal political or constitutional framework," Brown says.
In Libya, where the Justice and Construction Party — the Brotherhood's political wing — controls the second-largest number of seats in the country's legislature, there is also disquiet at their influence.
Last Friday there were protests outside the party's offices in the capital Tripoli and in Benghazi to denounce the killing of a prominent political activist and critic of the Brotherhood, Abdelsalam al-Mosmary, who was shot dead leaving a mosque.
The Brotherhood can stay in the political game if they admit their mistakes, if they modernise and democratise, experts say. But the brand has been seriously damaged.
Along the baking hot pavements of the Rabaa protest, there is no pressure for the movement to change.
Support for the Muslim Brotherhood is enduring, and officials say they do not have any plans to give up their demands that Mohamed Mursi is reinstated as president.
Despite the interim government's promise of a safe exit for demonstrators and its public vow to clear the protest site, most show no signs of leaving.
"I believe peace is stronger than bullets," said Ahmed Gamal Hussein, a father of two who has been maintaining his vigil for 32 days. "We will stay to make sure that our families can live their lives in freedom, that democracy and the president are restored."


text:
The strongest oil price collapse since the financial crisis has seen crude plunge to six-year lows.
A new report from Goldman Sachs paints a grim picture for the prospects of a quick recovery in oil prices in 2015. However, in my opinion, the oil collapse presents a great long-term profit and income potential for investors in four particular high-yielding oil and gas producing investments: Breitburn Energy Partners (OTC:BBEPQ), Vanguard Natural Resources (OTC:VNRSQ), Linn Energy (OTC:LINEQ), and its non-MLP equivalent LinnCo (UNKNOWN:LNCO.DL).
Note that LinnCo is a holding company for units of Linn Energy and exists to allow investors who don't want to deal with the tax implications of MLPs to invest in the partnership. Investors should be aware that any reference made to Linn Energy applies equally to both securities.
Why Goldman is so bearish on crude prices
Goldman Sachs analysts predict that oil will need to drop to $40 per barrel for six months before U.S. shale production declines enough for the world's oil glut, estimated at 2 million barrels per day, to reverse course.
The analysts also lowered their respective six- and 12-month West Texas Intermediate oil price forecasts down from $75 and $80 per barrel to just $39 and $65 per barrel. They cited global oil storage capacity of approximately 365 million barrels and a belief that OPEC won't cut production at its next meeting, scheduled for June 5, as key reasons for their estimate that oil will average $55 per barrel over the next year.
What makes these upstream MLPs well-suited to weather the oil price storm
There are two main reasons I think these four investments are relatively secure in a time of cheap oil: strong short-term hedging portfolios and their recent distribution and capital spending cuts.
As this image shows, Breitburn has 75% of its oil and 71% of its natural gas production hedged this year.
Similarly, as indicated in the above slide, Vanguard has 70% and 81% of its respective oil and gas production hedged.
Meanwhile, Linn's hedge portfolio covers 90% to 100% of its natural gas production through 2016 with this year's oil hedged up to 70%, and 60% going into 2016.
Linn Energy recently slashed its annual distribution by 56% from $2.90 per unit to $1.25 per unit, making its new yield 13.1%. As the above image illustrates, this payout is sustainable as long as the average oil price for the year remains at $52.5 or above, which would be in line with Goldman's six- and 12-month forecasts.
Why is management so confident that it can maintain this distribution in the face of oil prices that seem to crash lower on a daily basis? The answer lies in its 2015 budget, which cuts capital expenditures by 53%, from $1.55 billion to just $730 million.
That's $820 million of cash available to support the new payout as management streamlines its spending to focus on maintaining current production levels and drilling only its most productive and slowest declining assets.
Slashing the distribution and capital investment budget are painful but necessary moves that Breitburn also recently made. In the case of Breitburn, on Jan 2. it announced it was cutting distribution and capital spending for 2015 by 52% and 47%, respectively. The annual distribution is falling from $2.08 per unit to $1 per unit while capital expenditures are declining from $375 million to $200 million. Like Linn Energy, Breitburn's management is focused on mainly maintaining existing production and being far more selective with new drilling. Only the most profitable areas will receive growth capital unless oil prices rebound sharply.
Vanguard Natural Resources has yet to announce similar measures. However, given that it hasn't been able to cover its distribution -- which now yields 18.9% -- for three of the last four quarters and has a 12 month distribution coverage ratio of 0.9; I expect it to follow suit sooner rather than later.
That being said, Vanguard's distribution cut may not be as severe as Linn Energy and Breitburn's were courtesy of its smaller dependence on oil production. Specifically, Vanguard's production is 68% focused on gas compared to Linn and Breitburn whose production is composed of 54% and 36% natural gas, respectively. While natural gas prices have declined 30% in the last six months, that pales in comparison to oil's 55% collapse over the same period.
Vanguard is focusing its remaining 2014 capital expenditure budget very heavily on gas, with 63% of its fourth-quarter budgeting targeting the gas rich Green River basin and only 18% of funds going to the oil rich Permian Basin. Thanks to less exposure to oil than either Linn Energy or Breitburn, I think Vanguard's distribution cut may be more along the lines of a 33% to 40% cut. This would bring Vanguard's 2015 yield to a still generous 11.3% to 12.5% on today's price while achieving a 2015 coverage ratio of 1.20 to 1.26. That's along the lines of Linn Energy's and Breitburn's projected 2015 distribution coverage ratios of 1.18 and 1.35, respectively.
Risks worth considering
The biggest risk to buying these MLPs today are that oil prices could remain weak for several years and natural gas prices might also continue falling. Beginning in 2016 many of Vanguard's hedges end. And by 2017, Breitburn and Linn Energy would be likewise exposed to far lower commodity prices for their production. While I don't expect that scenario to play out, should energy prices continue to fall and remain lower than most analysts are currently predicting through 2016 and 2017, all three MLPs and LinnCo would likely be forced to cut their distributions even further.
Bottom line: When others are fearful, being greedy is the best way to earn out-sized returns
If Goldman Sachs is right and oil prices remain low throughout 2015 the best way for long-term investors to position themselves to profit from crude's eventual recovery is to stick with large, well-managed MLPs like Breitburn Energy Partners, Vanguard Natural Resources, Linn Energy, and its non-MLP alternative, LinnCo. All four are well protected by sizable hedging, and after their recent distribution cuts, Linn Energy and Breitburn Energy Partners' new distributions should prove sustainable as long as low oil prices don't persist into 2016. Meanwhile, investors might want to consider dollar-cost averaging into Vanguard Natural Resources, which may be forced to cut its own distribution in the coming weeks. As seen on Jan 2, with Linn Energy's distribution cut announcement -- which saw the unit price jump 12% that day -- the market's reaction to such a painful but strategically smart decision can be unpredictable. Thus, trying to time your entry based on an anticipated distribution cut and subsequent price drop may not work out as you might expect.


text:
There is no doubt that small things done with great love can change the world. A random act of kindness with no strings attached is a great way to show the love of Jesus to those around us.
Who doesn't like to be given a free cup of coffee? Especially by someone who is smiling, happy, and having fun. This type of servant evangelism wins the heart before it confronts the mind. A small act of kindness nudges a person closer to God, often in a profound way.
Here are some "random acts of kindness" ideas. You'll hear responses like, "Oh, thank you!" "This is so nice!" "I can't believe this is for free!" and, "Why are you doing this?"
With each act, leave the little card with them to let them know that God loves them. Kindness builds the bridge for the person to receive a touch of love from God. It's simple, practical, effective, inexpensive, and fun!
Ideas for Acts of Kindness
1. Deliver fresh-baked cookies to a neighbor or co-worker.
2. Bring flowers to someone.
3. Offer to baby-sit for free.
4. Pay for someone's Starbucks coffee behind you in the drive-through.
5. Pay for someone's fast food meal behind you in the drive-through.
6. Send a note of encouragement to someone.
7. Give another driver your parking spot.
8. Give a treat to the postman or delivery person.
9. Leave a big tip for a waiter or waitress.
10. Pay for someone's movie that is behind you in line.
11. Slip a $20 bill to someone who you know is struggling financially.
12. Pay for someone's meal or dessert at a restaurant.
13. Bake goodies and take them to the police station, fire station, or hospital.
14. Take a box of doughnuts to a school, office, etc.
15. Cook a meal for a neighbor or co-worker.


text:
Overwatch Tier list and Hero Meta Report #13: 1 Hero Limit and you
Opening Thoughts
Whats up guys and gals, CaptainPlanet here to present the Overwatch Hero Tier List and Meta Report #13: 1 Hero Limit and You. This week, the Gosugamers NA and EU weekly tournaments stormed back -- with a vengeance. Both Tournament's Finals exceeded 25,000 concurrent viewers -- eclipsing Blizzard's own Heroes of the Storm LAN broadcasts by several times over without the appearance of the world's number one team, Cloud 9. If you needed any more evidence to get hyped about the future of Esports in Overwatch look no further.
Lately, some of you may have begun to notice a lot of Eggplants floating around the Competitive scene and in this Report I intend to spill the beans. Before it escaped into the verbal melee that is Twitch chat to blossom into a meme of its own, the Eggplant emote meant much more to the Competitive Overwatch "Old Guard" than simply being a vegetable to spam in Discord. Many an argument was had between Pros trying to solve the issues of Hero stacking and Cancer Comps that plagued the scene in Beta 1 and 2, and the same three conclusions were always reached as the best way to "Save Overwatch." These three rules embody a Tournament Format, and they are as follows: Ban all 2CP Maps, implement a 1 Hero Limit, and use True Stopwatch as the scoring system. This got a little wordy to keep repeating, so Pros opted to use the Eggplant emote as its symbol. It's this rule format that GosuGamers rolled out with in their Tournaments this week, and its this rule format that I will be analyzing -- seeking to answer the question of "What happens when you give Pros exactly what they want?". This is the Overwatch Hero Meta Report: 1 Hero Limit and You.
As always, Raw Data for this and subsequent charts can be found HERE. REMINDER: This Data was collected from the GosuGamers weekly NA and EU tourneys, where they used 1 Hero Limit, no 2CP Maps, and True Stopwatch format
The Tiers
S Tier (>=100% Usage Rate**): No one!
A Tier (>80% Usage Rate): Mercy, McCree, Reinhardt
B Tier (>40% Usage Rate): Widowmaker, Winston, Lucio
C Tier (>20% Usage Rate): Zarya, Genji, Reaper, Junkrat, Soldier 76, Pharah, Symmetra, Tracer
D Tier (>5% Usage Rate): Roadhog
F Tier (<5 % Usage Rate): Hanzo, Torbjorn, Mei, Bastion, Zenyatta, D.Va
**What is Usage Rate? It is NOT the percent chance of seeing a particular Hero in a Match, it's actually a little different than that! Please see this glossary page explaining the term.
The Tier Ranges I've chosen*** reflect different states of "Balance" in the Meta. This week, the Meta that is being analyzed is the Meta of 1 Hero Limit, 2 CP Maps Banned, Stopwatch Scoring.
The beauty of 1 Hero Limits is that its actually impossible for a Hero to reach the S Tier, unless they're used on every single map by every single team on both Offense and Defense, as well as by both teams simultaneously on all King of the Hill Maps. As you may have guessed, this didn't happen (although, Mercy came close, at 96.43%).
The A Tier Heroes are what I'm dubbing the Non-Negotiable Core Heroes, which you should try to always include in your lineup under 1 Hero Limit restrictions. Mercy has seen a crazy rise in popularity not only just because of the format change, but also because of a recent shift in the Map-Selection Meta. Without having to worry about 2CP Maps like Hanamura, Volskaya, and Anubis, Teams have been opting more and more to ban King of the Hill Maps instead. This put Lucio, the darling of King of the Hill Maps, out high and dry -- he was still used often on Payload Maps, just not nearly as often as King of the Hill. Moving on, it doesn't matter what format you implement: as of June 7th, 2016 McCree is still the best DPS in Overwatch so it's no surprise seeing him make an appearance in the highest possible Tier this week. The same argument goes for Reinhardt and his position as Top Tank of the any and all formats -- save a King of the Hill-only Map Pool.
Traditionally I've referred to the B Tier Heroes as the "Balanced Heroes" but under 1 Hero Limit rules, they better fit the description of "Negotiable Core Heroes". These Heroes are the first Heroes that get subbed out whenever a Team needs to bring in a Specialist, but for the most part still get used in most situations of most Maps. For example, Lucio is often subbed for Symmetra on Defense, Winston can be subbed for Flanking Heroes on Offense, and Widowmaker shares lineup space with Pharah, Junkrat, Reaper, Soldier 76, and many other DPS depending on what part of the Map the Teams currently find themselves.
This week, the truly "Balanced" Tier is the C Tier. Under 1 Hero Limit Restrictions, the C Tier was populated by Heroes being used in the manner Blizzard seemed to have in mind for Overwatch: Heroes that were close in power level but diverse in skill-set that were constantly being subbed in and out in lineups depending on Map position or Opponent Team Composition. It comes as no surprise that the C Tier is the most highly populated Tier -- providing an example of what a "healthy" for Overwatch Competitive Scene might look like.
Strangely enough, the D Tier was populated by only one hero -- Roadhog -- whose 10.71% Usage Rate stands as the only Hero who falls in the 5-20% range. Roadhog was used seriously in a few situations (notably by Reunited on Route 66), just not quite at the same rate as other Tanks. He's a deadly pick-generator, but unfortunately he lives by the picks as much as he dies by the picks. Without getting push-initiating kills, Roadhog is simply an Ultimate-generating battery for the enemy team, so his Cons often outweigh the Pros.
Finally, the F Tier. Unfortunately for D.Va, Hanzo, Bastion, and Mei -- not even 1 Hero Limit rules were enough to make them usable. An interesting thing to note though, is that Zenyatta is absolutely TERRIBLE, and was only picked once in all of the 168 sides I recorded this weekend. Someone put out a milk carton ad for our missing Robot Monk!
*** I do not chose the placement of Heroes in a Tier, only the Range which defines the Tier. By determining Usage Rate directly from Hero Picks in Tournament Matches, my data is Objectively determined, and not subjective at all.
1 Hero limit and you
I have some good news and some bad news
The Full Eggplant format -- Banning all 2 CP Maps, implementing 1 Hero Limit, and utilizing True Stopwatch scoring -- was what many in the Pro Scene believe would save Competitive Overwatch. With Blizzard's own "Competitive Mode" patch still several weeks away, many Tournament Organizations and Players alike have been on several month's long journey attempting to develop the best format for Overwatch moving forward: balancing factors like fairness to players, watchability, maintaining a dynamic Meta, and generally being fun to compete in. For many in the scene, the Eggplant Format was the best idea they had -- and now its time to put that idea to the test. For those who have championed the Eggplant Format: I have some good news and some bad news.
1 hero limit saved competitive overwatch
Under 1 Hero Limit, Hero Diversity is Much Higher
One of the main emergent phenomena from implementing a 1 Hero lineup restriction was the coalescing of several distinct Tiers of Heroes. I'm not usually a fan of Tier lists, but this Week's Usage Rates (see top of the page) paint an explicit picture. First, there are two "Flavors" of Core Heroes -- the Negotiable and the Non-Negotiable. The Non-Negotiable are hardly a surprise -- they already lead the Usage charts in Unrestricted Formats, but the Negotiable Heroes represent a Hero-switching phenomenon which is happening at a much more accelerated rate than ever before, all thanks to the Format. Look no further than the next tier of Heroes, the "Balanced" C Tier, for evidence of this. These Heroes comprise a Pool of Flexibility, so named due to these Heroes having a high diversity in skills that compliment lineups in very different ways. These are the Heroes who, under Unrestricted Formats, would lose their spot to either a second McCree or another stackable Hero. With Hero restrictions in place, there's finally room for this cohort to shine.
1 Hero Limit Rewards Specialist Heroes, and Punishes Heroes that are too "Special"
Examining the Heroes in the infographic above who gained ground in Usage under 1 Hero Limit, you'll find four in particular that stand out for their huge gain in usage on either Offense or Defense: Junkrat, Symmetra, Zarya, and Pharah. While Zarya and Pharah were already known for their Offensive leaning -- and Symmetra and Junkrat for their Defense -- Hero restrictions pushed these Heroes' bias to new heights. Zarya and Pharah grew from the mid 30's in usage rate to high 50's on Offense, demonstrating the powerful synergy of pairing their two Team-wiping Ultimates together on a tough Capture Point. It's interesting to note, however, that Zarya's gain in Offensive usage was almost completely offset by a loss in Defensive Usage, a phenomenon whose explanation still eludes me. Symmetra and Junkrat's boost in usage under 1 Hero Limit was even more staggering, gaining 39% and 43% usage respectively. Junkrat had already been climbing the usage charts prior to this but a boost this significant is unprecedented.
On the flip side, forcing teams to remove duplicates left behind a cast of Heroes who simply do not fit. For some, the problem is Meta in nature: Zenyatta will continue to never see play as long as Widowmaker is at least somewhat used competitively. For others, the problem is stepping on other, better, Heroes toes: there's almost no reason to bring a Hanzo when you can just bring a Widowmaker instead (hmm...her again…). For Mei and D.Va, it's more a problem of overall power level. They've seen buffs and nerfs in the past which have brought them into and out of Meta play -- similar buffs could easily vault them back into viability. Unfortunately for Bastion and Torbjorn, the problem seems to be Design-based: Turret classes by their nature are far too susceptible to a game filled with Heroes who have long-range abilities that can be safely spammed to destroy fixed-place threats.
Knocking down One Hero to Boost Two
The basis of the 1 Hero Limit is that in many situations, reducing the effectiveness of stacking one Hero actually allows two Heroes to move up in Usage. For example, Junkrat and Symmetra gained significant ground this week under 1 Hero Limit rules, but why? The answer lies in their role on Defense, and a Hero Stacking strategy that counters it. When it comes to roles, Junkrat and Symmetra are chokepoint specialists. Symmetra can transform an entire line of attack into a Death Zone with well-placed Turrets -- all while spamming high-damage, Shield-bypassing Right-Click Orbs into the main chokepoint. Similarly, Junkrat can deny routes of Attack with his Traps while spamming the main chokepoint from safety by bouncing his Grenades around corners. How do you break through a chokepoint that's being bombarded in such a way? In a match with no Hero Restrictions, the solution is Winston -- Double Winston.
Stacking Winston counters these chokepoint specialists in two ways. First, two Winstons can "skip" a chokepoint simply by leaping over it -- jumping on the Symmetra or Junkrat in the backline and focus-firing them down. Second, two Winston Shields dropped at the chokepoint itself effectively negates Junkrat's spam in particular, allowing your team to move through in relative safety to take better positions of Attack. Under 1 Hero Limit, this strategy falls apart: a single Winston cannot complete either of the aforementioned tasks: a solo Jump results in near instant focus fire upon crossing into the Opponent's backline, and a single Winston Shield doesn't have nearly enough Health to stand up to a Junkrat's barrage. Without their natural, Double-Winston predator lurking in the pockets of Attacking Opponents, Teams wishing to make the best Defensive stand have rushed to set up their Junkrat Symmetra combo, to great effect.
1 hero limit is destroying competitive overwatch
Team Composition Diversity is Much Lower
We've only seen one tournament of 1 Hero Limit, and Pros are already complaining. Grego has a point here though: while Individual Hero usage has increased in variety, the actual Team Compositions being used in Competition has decreased substantially. Without the ability to stack Heroes, most of the areas of Overwatch's Maps have been "solved". The coalescing of distinct Tiers demonstrates this: Pros know precisely what lineup to bring to what part of the current Map at whatever time. Even the newly minted "Balanced but Specialist" C Tier, seems misleading now: while these Heroes were getting used more often, it's actually because Pros are forced to use these Heroes on specific areas due to lack of flexibility. First Point Defense on King's Row or Hollywood? Better bring a Symmetra. Attacking the same First Point? Zarya's your girl. If I had a nickel for each time a Defending Team swapped to a Widowmaker - Winston combo on Hollywood's second escort leg....you get the idea.
"Cheese" Strategies were the most Innovative Lineups in Overwatch, and 1 Hero Limit has Killed Them
What ever happened to the days of the D.Va-spam Defense? Protect the President? The Orb-ital Destruction "God Comp"? The Crossfire Defense? We can debate the definition of a "Cheese" strategy until High Noon, but it was these lineups that exemplified the innovation and creativity that is possible in an Overwatch without Restrictions. Even though some of these Lineups were the definition of unfair, there's something to say for the entertainment value of seeing two Reinhardts protecting two Widowmakers, a Bastion, and a Mercy on a moving Payload. Under 1 Hero Limit, no one's making up fun names to describe the McCree/Reinhardt/Mercy/Lucio/Widowmaker/Winston "Standard" Lineup except for exactly that: The "Standard." There's not enough room for Lineup creativity in the 1 Hero Limit Format, and games will quickly become stale without a little bit of cheesey help.
There simply aren't enough Heroes for a 1 Hero Limit
Borrowing once more from our friend Grego, there's simply not enough Heroes currently in Overwatch for a 1 Hero Limit to work. I stated above that without the ability to stack Heroes, Teams don't have the flexibility they need to create interesting Lineups and counters -- and the reason is that they don't have a large enough pool to pull from. In any competitive game, you're going to have Core Heroes, Flex Heroes, and Garbage Heroes depending on the state of the game's Meta, but with only 21 Heroes we can already see that the choices are just too limited. As the current Meta stands, three of the 21 are Non-Negotiable inclusions to a Team's Lineup, three are "usually" included, and five are almost completely unusable. Overwatch needs a Hero pool of much greater than 21 to fill the ranks of all Tiers of Heroes, which will result in enough flexibility in Lineup choices for a proper 1 Hero Limit Format to have a healthy, dynamic Meta.
Icarus' corner
This week, as always, I partnered with Icarus to compile the data necessary for both of our Meta Reports. If you'd prefer your Meta Reports in audio/video form, head over to his YouTube channel, or check back here around every Wednesday of the week! Icarus was travelling this week sadly, so no video T_T
Final Thoughts and Shout-Outs
As always, none of this Data could exist without the help of the Competitive Overwatch Community -- so remember to check out my Competitive Overwatch Beta Twitch Directory! This Directory features all of the Twitch Streams and Social Media of as many of the people who helped make the Beta Competitive Scene great as I could find. Get out there and give these people a Follow -- without them there would be no Competitive Scene and no Overwatch Hero Meta Report. I'd also like to thank the admins of the GosuGamer Weekly Tournaments for having the cojones to actually test out the 1 Hero Limit Format which has given me quite a bit of stuff to write about. Looking forward to the coming weekend's tournaments, where we'll get to see if the Meta really is as stale as everyone fears!
Until next time,
Like this content? Tweet and Share it with your followers!


text:
Videos added by Jenny-Kate
With every additional second you see of this clip, the context of the placement will become even smaller.
Ahh Toilet Paper Foam
And you control the wetness!
Amazing Art Performance at Pageant
Good old Narcissus pageant!
Baby is Geography Wizard
Smarty Pants dance! Smarty Pants Dance!
Laughing Gas Kid
Little David is completely out of it after a visit to the dentist.


text:
Brendan Early and Dana Moon have tracked renegade Apaches together and gunned down scalp hunters to become Arizona legends. But now they face each other from opposite sides of what newspapers are calling The Rincon Mountain War. Brendan and a gang of mining company gun thugs are dead set on running Dana and "the People of the Mountain" from their land. The characters are unforgettable, the plot packed with action and gunfights from beginning to end.
Product Details
|HarperCollins Publishers
|Publication date:
|Edition description:
|Sales rank:
|Product dimensions:
|5.31(w) x 8.00(h) x 0.64(d)
About the Author
Elmore Leonard wrote more than forty books during his long career, including the bestsellers Raylan, Tishomingo Blues, Be Cool, Get Shorty, and Rum Punch, as well as the acclaimed collection When the Women Come Out to Dance, which was a New York Times Notable Book. Many of his books have been made into movies, including Get Shorty and Out of Sight. The short story "Fire in the Hole," and three books, including Raylan, were the basis for the FX hit show Justified. Leonard received the Lifetime Achievement Award from PEN USA and the Grand Master Award from the Mystery Writers of America. He died in 2013.
Hometown:Bloomfield Village, Michigan
Date of Birth:October 11, 1925
Place of Birth:New Orleans, Louisiana
Education:B.Ph., University of Detroit, 1950
Read an Excerpt
Chapter One
The gentleman from Harper's Weekly, who didn't know mesquite beans from goat shit, looked up from his reference collection of back issues and said, "I've got it!" Very pleased with himself. "We'll call this affair ... are you ready? The EarlyMoon Feud."
The news reporters in the Gold Dollar shrugged and thought some more, though most of them went on calling it the Rincon Mountains War, which seemed to have enough ring to it.
Somebody said, "What's the matter with the Sweetmary War?" Sweetmary being the name of the mining town where all the gawkers and news reporters had gathered to watch the show. The man from the St. Louis Globe-Democrat wanted to call it the Last of The Great Indian Wars. Or -- he also mentioned to see how it would sound -- the Great Apache Uprising of 1893. Or the Bloody Apache Uprising, etc.
The man from the St. Louis newspaper was reminded that, first, it wasn't an uprising and, second, there weren't just Apache Indians up in the mountains; there were also some niggers. The man from St. Louis, being funny, said, "Well, what if we call it the Last of the Great Indian-Nigger Wars?" A man from Florence said, "Well, you have got the chili-pickers in it also. What about them?" Yes, there were some Mexican settlers too, who had been farming up there a hundred years; they were also involved.
What it was, it was a land war.
The LaSalle Mining Company of New Jersey wanted the land. And the Indians from the White Tanks agency, the colored and the Mexicans -- all of them actually living up there -- wanted it also.
Dana Moon was the Indian Agent at White Tanks, originally established as areservation for Warm Springs Apaches, or Mimbreños, and a few Lipan and Tonto-Mojave family groups. The agency was located sixteen miles north of SweetMary and about the same distance west of the San Pedro River. The reservation land was not in dispute. The problem was, many of Moon's Apaches had wandered away from White Tanks -- a bleak, young-desert area -- to set up rancherías in the mountains. No one, until now, had complained about it.
Brendan Early worked for LaSalle Mining, sort of, with the title Coordinating Manager, Southwest Region, and was living in Sweetmary at the time.
It was said that he and Dana Moon had been up and down the trail together, had shared dry camps and hot corners, and that was why the Harper's Weekly man wanted to call it the Early-Moon Feud; which, as you see, had nothing to do with the heavens or astrology.
Nor was there any personal bitterness between them. The question was: What would happen to their bond of friendship, which had tied them together as though on two ends of a short riata, one not venturing too far without running into the other? Would their friendship endure? Or would they now, holding to opposite principles, cut the riata clean and try to kill one another?
Bringing the land question down to personalities, it presented these two as the star attractions: two well-known, soon-to-be-legendary figures about to butt heads. It brought the crowds to Sweetmary to fill up both hotels, the Congress and the Alamosa, a dozen boarding houses, the seven restaurants and thirteen saloons in town. For several weeks this throng swelled the normal population of about four hundred souls, which included the locals, those engaged in commerce, nearby farmers and ranchers and the miners at the Sweetmary Works. Now there were curiosity seekers, gawkers, from all over the Territory and parts of New Mexico.
(Not here yet were the hundred or more gunmen eventually hired by the company to "protect its leases" and quartered at the mine works. These men were paid, it was said, twenty dollars a week.)
There were newspaper representatives from the Phoenix Republican, Phoenix Gazette, Yuma Sentinel, Safford Arizonian, Tucson Star, Florence Enterprise, Prescott Courier, Cococino Sun, Clifton Copper Era, Graham County Bulletin, Tombstone Prospector, St. Louis Globe-Democrat, Chicago Times and the New York Tribune.
Harper's Weekly had hired the renowned photographer C.S. Fly of Tombstone to cover the war with his camera, the way he had pictorially recorded Crook's campaign against Geronimo and his renegade Apaches.
C.S. Fly set up a studio on LaSalle Street and there presented "showings" of many of his celebrated photographs of Indians, hangings, memorial parades and well-known personages, including Geronimo, former president Garfield and several of Brendan Early and Dana Moon. The two photos that were perhaps best known showed them at Fort Huachuca, June 16, 1887, with a prisoner they had brought in that day.
There they were, six years ago:
Brendan Early, in his hip-cocked cavalry pose. First Lieutenant of the 110th at Huachuca but wearing civilian dress, a very tight-fitting light-colored suit of clothes; bare-headed to show his brown wavy hair; a silky-looking kerchief at his throat; a matched pair of Smith and Wesson .44 Russians, butt-forward in Army holsters, each with the flap cut off; cavalry boots wiped clean for the pose; Brendan holding his Spencer carbine like a walking cane, palm resting on the upraised barrel. He seems to be trying to look down his nose like an Eastern dandy while suppressing a grin that shows clearly in his eyes.
In contrast:
Dana Moon with his dark, drooping mustache that makes him appear sad; hat brim straight and low over his eyes, a bulge in his bony countenance indicating the ever-present plug of tobacco; dark suit of clothes and a polka-dot neckerchief. Dana's .44 Colts revolver is in a shoulder rig, a glint of it showing. He grips a Big-fifty Sharps in one hand, a sawed-off 12-gauge Greener in the other. All those guns for a man who looks so mild, so solemn.
Between the two:
Half a head shorter is a one-eyed Mimbreño Apache named Loco. What a funny-looking little man, huh? Black eyepatch, black stringy hair hanging from the bandana covering his head, he looks like a pirate of some kind, wearing an old dirty suitcoat and a loincloth. But don't laugh at him. Loco has killed many people and went to Washington to meet Grover Cleveland when times were better.Gunsights. Copyright © by Elmore Leonard. Reprinted by permission of HarperCollins Publishers, Inc. All rights reserved. Available now wherever books are sold.
Customer Reviews
Average Review
Most Helpful Customer Reviews


text:
As promised, I tried out Trello for organizing what I need to do next to The Dangers of Fraternization (the current writing project) and have some thoughts to share with y'all.
I'm just not sure how much use I'm going to get out of Trello for my personal projects that I couldn't get out of my to-do list (I use Wunderlist, btw). I definitely see the utility for collaborative projects — it's been useful coordinating between Partner, myself, and Tom, the guy we're working on pulling together a Red Markets pick-up-and-play convention packet. We can leave ideas we know we need to happen up on the board and folks can grab tasks as they have time. But that's not really relevant when it's just me on a project.
I used labels? It's nice to have color markers for quick visual reference whether a task is organizational or writing or editing. I guess that could be good if I have a variety of tasks and have more energy for dealing with one over the others that day. But that's not really how I work on projects... I tend to do all the organizational work. Then build a skeleton of scenes based off the outline I built (in the previous step). Then do the writing. Then the editing. Then... Point! Point being that I work more iteratively and less with multiple types of tasks to do.
The checklist feature in Trello matches up with the subtasks feature of Wunderlist. Neither lets me assign a due date to the checklist item/subtask, so there's no gain in features there (that is something I like to have). I suppose I could accomplish that by converting each checklist item to a card (Trello has a button for that) and assigning a due date to the card. Which defeats the purpose of using a checklist in the first place?
Comments on a card seem more useful when multiple folks are on the project, otherwise I might as well just call them notes to myself.
I think the real thing Trello provides that Wunderlist does is visual organization. Moving cards around on a board between lists is dang useful for some folks, just not my thing. I am primarily a visual organizer, but visual in that I want to see the task written down, not that I want a cork board of index cards I can move around to organize my thoughts.
Don't get me wrong, Trello is a good product — heck, writing this post reminded me to suggest using it to the Technical Difficulties crew. I just don't find it useful for how I think about my non-collaborative project. If you're one of the folks who likes the cork board of index cards of ideas or more visual organization than a to-do list or stuff like that, I'd recommend Trello. It's really robust, with good features, that's free for personal use. I'll just be sticking to Wunderlist for solo writing projects and expanding into Trello for collaborative projects, of all varieties. Gods help me if/when Partner and I need to go house hunting...