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I won Sarah J. Maas book "A Court of Thorns and Roses" (ISBN 1619634449; 421p.; Goodreads) in a contest at P.S. I Love That Book. And once I finished the Silo trilogy, I really had no reasons to put the reading of this book off, as I did in the past, without the physical copy to beckon me (I'm an advocate for e-books, but I admit, sometimes there's more moral obligation in me to read a physical book, than the endless supply of e-books provides). And besides, I like pointy-eared warriors…
In the dark forest, thin due to it being dead of winter, and so very too close to the wall separating world of mortals from that of the immortal and brutal fae realm, Fayre is searching for any prey that could feed her family. The only solace to her heart, filled with dread by stories on fae being merciless, is the sole ash arrow in her quiver, said to be the only weapon against the immortal folk. But the giant beast of a wolf she gazes upon in the dark gives her doubt enough to stop and reconsider the purpose of that highly priced and rare arrow. If it eats her, her family starves. If it eats her prey, her family starves. And the two meager regular arrows she has might not even slow the great creature down. There's only one way out of this.
One night later their whole hut shivers in protest, as the door splits apart, huge horned creature storming in through it. He's here for a blood debt. Life for life. He's here for the hunter who killed his friend.
I admit, at points this book is mighty boring. But then the good parts are oh so worth it. I believe I loved their world the most, in the whole setting. Much like Shades of Magic, this one too was so alike our own, that I could almost believe it real, but so very different, and thus so very much more worthy to imagine as true. A world full of magic, curses, and unbreakable promises. I will also admit that I already started the second one. I'll give this one 4 out of 5, due to some things bothering me a lot. Like constant "male" and "female". While it made sense, it also made me cringe oh so many times. And second thing being empty threats. "There won't be anything to burn once I'm done with you" – and then the "done" part is as good as a stab with a butter knife. Even if it did work – there'd still be plenty to burn!


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A Nigeria man who based in Malaysian identified as Ikenna has gone heavily mad in Malaysia. Below in the article is Nigerian Man, Ikenna Goes Mad In Malaysia.
Nigerian Man, Ikenna Goes Mad In Malaysia
According to his friend, who shared the photos and videos said they were all sitting at a Hotel bar in Punchong Province, Malaysia when he suddenly stood up, stripped completely Unclad and jumped into the swimming pool.
Security operatives at the Hotel then rushed out and tied him up.
In the video he could be seen struggling with them and saying;
"I am a murderer, tie me, tie me, i kill people, am a black man, kill me oh, kill me oh..
Also Read: Watch Precious vs Grace "When A Man Love's A Woman" Video | The Voice Nigeria
Nigerian Man, Ikenna Goes Mad In Malaysia, Strips Completely Unclad As Juju Fails
He also mentioned a man named "Jeffrey."
According to reports gathered, this was his first trip to Malaysia and he's been there for only 3 months, before he went exclusively mad yesterday, September 13th.
His friend said that Ikenna had always boasted that he will never return to Nigeria the same way he left, that he must return with money at all cost.
This is definitely a get rich quick scheme gone wrong..
Watch video below;
Use the comment box below for any observations.

subset: commoncrawl


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11 bra hacks every woman should know
If your bra strap has ever come undone in a big meeting or started to pinch uncontrollably, this video is for you. We show you 11, count them 11, bra hacks that will make your day (slash life) a little easier.
Check out the video above to see what we're talking about!


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Enter Shikari subreddit theme
Client: /r/EnterShikari
Date: July, 2014 - Present
About: The Enter Shikari subreddit was in need of an overhaul in both web design and coding. I headed this project and became an admin of the page in the process. For me I wanted a subreddit that was simple and easy to navigate for users and didn't look like the same theme that a majority of reddit pages use. This is an ongoing project, where the look and feel will be updated whenever the band comes out with new imagery.
You can view the website at reddit.com/r/entershikari


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Sweet femininity
Fresh flowers and a gentle fragrance
You can show off all the glamour, maximise beauty and keep fresh during the day, too. For her, the woman who follows her dreams and can make them come true, we've created this gift with an eau de toilette that matches all these qualities, 212 by Carolina Herrera, and a gorgeous bouquet of pink flowers.
Gift details:
212 by Carolina Herrera is a fruity fragrance, with touches of orange, cactus, bergamot and mandarin. At its heart, there are also notes of white camellia, madonna lily, jasmine, rose and lily of the valley, with sandalwood and musk deep down. It's a fresh and attractive fragrance.
Alongside this treasure, she will receive a bouquet of very aromatic and suggestive pink lilies and roses, that will make her smile and will remind her that you think she's the best.


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An old couple prepares to go to sleep. The man gets in bed, but the woman lies down on the floor.
The old man asks, "Why are you on the floor?"
The old woman replies, "Because I want to feel something hard for a change."
© 2019 Comedy Partners. All Rights Reserved. Comedy Central and all related titles, logos and characters are trademarks of comedy partners.


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This Ruby Lane seller is wrong in stating, "These decorations were made in Germany beginning in 1920s and 1930s and again distributed at the end of the cold war in 1990." In fact, this devil head container is one of the best known fakes or fantasy pieces that began polluting our hobby in about 1995. There are no vintage counterparts. This has purely decorative value - nowhere near what this seller is offering this POS for. Fair market value on a very good day is about $15. By the way, this seller's handle on Ebay is brendasawa, or something very similar.
Mark B. Ledenbach's vintage Halloween collectibles blog.


text: The Netskope for Web launch kicks off the Netskope World Tour. Watch this video to hear from Netskope executives on the Netskope for Web launch and how the Netskope Cloud Security platform now safely enables web, beyond SaaS and IaaS. Attend one of the stops of our World Tour to learn more from Netskope leadership and customers on how to safely enable employees access cloud and web services. For more information visit https://netskope.com/world-tour


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Chapin Corner
Various Ways We Can All Stay Connected
Are all of you familiar with a round robin or swap box? the first person fills the box with lightweight goodies. She
sends it to the first person on the list. that person takes what she wants, adds more items, and sends it on to the next person
on the list. That person does the same and so on until the person who started it gets the box. If any of you are interested,
please let me know. If would like to start it by the end of February.


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Please click anywhere to continue browsing our site.
One Stop Auto Repair & Tire is a locally owned and operated automotive service center founded in 2013. We strive to deliver quality products to our customers. For auto repairs, or new tires and wheels, come see us in person or request a quote online.
We proudly sponsor youth basketball in Scurry, TX.
At One Stop Auto Repair & Tire, you can expect:
Browse Our Tire Catalog Browse Our Service Catalog
Our mechanics have been repairing vehicles at One Stop Auto Repair & Tire since 2013. We treat our customers' vehicles as if they were our own. Visit us today, contact online, or phone us to schedule an appointment today.
One Stop Auto Repair & Tire is a pillar of the community. One Stop Auto Repair & Tire is a leader in offering name brand tires, wheels, and auto repair services for customers in Scurry, TX, Dallas, TX, Kaufman, TX, and surrounding areas. Our goal is to focus on customer service. It is the foundation of our business. One Stop Auto Repair & Tire employs a well-trained staff specializing in the sale and installation of passenger car, performance, light truck, or SUV tires. Take this opportunity to browse our website or call us for personalized service.


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Rolls-Royce recognise that employee health is essential for a healthy business, and are putting their health and wellbeing strategy at the heart of a High Performance Culture. We worked with them to develop a look and feel for 'Healthy High Performance', developing this from the framework we initially developed for communicating their approach to Resilience. We developed messaging for five themes: movement, nutrition, sleep, rest, and mindset. We then applied these to supporting materials including infographics, banners, and information cards. This was initially rolled out at their annual Leadership Conference to support leaders in improving their own health and wellbeing, as well as understanding how to improve the health and wellbeing of their teams.
Healthy high performance branding


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The Princess Who Liked To Be Popular has a new cover and a new font and some new information pages at the back about how to change the world, that make this colourful, glittery fairy tale even better!
For those who don't know, let me remind you –
Princess Primrose loves to be loved so she always does her best to please everyone. Her father, the king, is worried that her need for popularity will get her into trouble but when he tries to explain that to her she disregards his advice. Consequently, when she is left in charge of the kingdom while her parents are away, she has to learn the hard way that it's not always a good idea to give the people what they want.
The Princess Who Liked To Be Popular (which you can read for free at Violet's Vegan Comics on the Fairy Tales page) is a colourfully illustrated fairy tale with the vegan message of causing no harm, of respecting nature, and of doing the right thing regardless of how unpopular it may make us; an old fashioned story with modern relevance. For reading to or with young children, or for children aged 8 and up to read alone.
Author/Illustrator: Violet Plum (Violet's Vegan Comics)
Genre: Juvenile Fiction/fairy tales
Recommended for reading to young children and for children aged 8 and up to read alone.
First Published: 23 December 2014
Format: Paperback (84 pages)
Dimensions: 17.8 x 0.5 x 25.4 cm
Price: £7.80
Click here to buy from Amazon UK
Also available from Amazon in Europe, USA, Canada, Japan and Australia. If you're somewhere where you can't buy from Amazon, contact us to arrange mail order 😀
NB: for those in the UK who don't like to shop online, contact us to mail order and pay by cheque.
vegan children's book, fairy tale, children's stories, vegan fairy tale, vegan children, vegetarian, organic, fair trade, environment


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The first half of the first season of Caprica just ended, and I was thrilled to see that the show, despite my high expectations, was able to meet and exceed my hopes. Over the course of the first nine episodes of the first season, Caprica managed to surprise and delight me throughout at the concept and world-building that had been put into place - the show is proving to be a viable addition to the Battlestar Galactica universe, and hopefully, will continue to do so.
Set half a century prior to the events of Battlestar Galactica, Caprica fills the role of prequel, an already daunting task for any established and successful television show, setting up two major families, the Adams (Adamas) and the Graystones. A train bombing on Caprica kills daughters of both of the houses, setting the two families into one another, and putting together a series of events that sets a chain of events into motion, which will no doubt have its own trail to Battlestar Galactica.
Battlestar Galactica largely succeeded because it was a breath of fresh air in the Science Fiction world, breaking a number of the conventions when it came to a show set in space, with combat, military operations and complicated characters. What surprised me the most was that Caprica essentially threw a lot of that out the window, and began anew, focusing on entirely different themes, thus taking the show in different directions than I had expected. Where Battlestar Galactica focused on the military, politics and humanity under pressure, Caprica has gone a completely different direction, opting to look at a digital lifestyle and religious conflict in society, and in doing so, help to flesh out a lot about the 12 colonies that were really only hinted at in Battlestar Galactica.
I like what I see, and the show has grown, in story and in its tone/feel, from that first pilot, and it has revealed a world that is really well thought out, with a number of conflicts playing into other storylines. As with Battlestar, this series remains fairly relevant to today's society, which is a major point for Science Fiction: To be relevant, in a fantastic setting. As the digital revolution kicked off in the mid-90s, society has changed a lot as a result: computers have connected us together in ways un-thought of, and brings out the best and worst in society: while major disasters bring about hundreds of millions of dollars in donations, viruses and pornography lurks in the shadows. So to, on Caprica, this sort of world and environment has prevailed, with youths looking to enact their fantasies in places where there are no consequences. An interesting quote popped up one of the later episodes, where a character wondered that even though people could act as if there was no consequence, should they? The internet is certainly a liberating tool for people, for good and bad.
Like any major change, there are reactions in society. Like terrorism has sprouted up, pushed along by fundamentalist forces here on Earth, the same too has happened here, where people have begun to strap bombs to them in order to effect some sort of political and societal change. The results are the same: innocents are killed, and people continue onwards. Caprica does a lot here to demonstrate that it is a very different show than Battlestar Galactica, and the terrorism aspect is a major point that is seen in both shows - here, there is killing on the part of political entities, to raise awareness to their causes and beliefs, while in Battlestar, there were suicide bombings as a matter of survival. In both instances, it demonstrates that there's a convoluted and chain of events, with different intentions all around. What I appreciated about the first show was the ability to cause audiences to think beyond the screen and talk and reflect on what they were seeing. Thus far, Caprica has begun to do that, although it's not quite there yet.
To be fair, the show has its flaws - some of the characters grate a bit (although one seems to be gone at this point), and the show really isn't about what I liked in Battlestar: military science fiction, with action and firefights, some of the best that I've ever seen on television, or on any screen, for that matter. I'm hoping that at some point, they'll begin to work on that sort of thing, or work it into the third major show. As much as I loved the plot and story in Battlestar, the space combat proved to be a fantastic bit of entertainment, and allowed for some of the best visuals in the genre, even out of combat.
Hopefully, Caprica will be given the chance to survive beyond its first year - there is plenty of potential for the show as a whole, and there's still a lot to talk about.


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Ryker, a Boys name, is from origin. The meaning of Ryker:
Baby Name Trends for Ryker
Below are the recent trends for Ryker, over the last 10 years:
Ryker Baby Name Rankings:
2016: 142 (estimated)
2015: 143
2014: 151
2013: 164
2012: 219
2011: 267
2010: 311
Related Baby Names for Ryker
Here are some baby names related to Ryker as well as recent trends in popularity over the last 10 years: Ryder, Asher, Liam, Gavin, Parker, Holden, Landon
Looking for Sibling Names Related to Ryker?
,« Back to All Baby Names


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How to Be...A Screamer
I love yoga. I love it so much that I got my 200 hour yoga teacher certification while I was nearly certifiable during my grad school time in Hawaii. I love it so much that I taught for two years before realizing that I like the performance opportunity teaching affords me more than I actually enjoy teaching. I love yoga but up until a month ago have not practiced in a class format in over a year because really, I like practicing in studios that are cleaned between classes. That have $193 Nest candles littered around the room and afford each yogi a minimum of six inches between the next practitioner. If I'm being really real, that's not the yoga class that is currently within my budgetary constraints. Consequently I've been relegated to a home practice this last year and if I'm being real, really-really, real—that home practice is a singular downward dog before my goddamn dog interrupts by walking repeatedly back and forth underneath me in an effort to pet herself.
However, I've realized over the last few weeks, that if I don't get back on my mat in a community format I may hurt someone and no one wants that. So I returned to a community that I abandoned a year ago because I didn't really feel like practicing yoga with my butt in someone's face in a studio where the goal is to pack so many people in that it actually becomes impossible to do anything but breathe in people's farts and sometimes even that is challenging.
The yoga studio I returned to is a "chain" with a number of locations in NYC. Late last year I found the one for me: heated vinyasa, cheaper than a Johnny Walker Black neat and a fifteen minute train ride from home. In midtown Manhattan, two flights above a nail salon, I walked five flights up and then hunched along the stairwell waiting for the previous classes students to tromp down the stairs spraying me with their sweat before I entered the studio where 2 of the 5 windows were taped together to prevent shards of glass from falling on yogis. I placed my mat at the front of the room because I liked looking out of the non-broken windows onto the street. I never used the dressing room (a converted broom closet) and chose instead to leave sopping wet (7 train riders be damned!) because I wasn't really interested in having my face in someone's thonged butt while I tried to force dry clothes onto my sweaty body. I freaking love this studio.
Now, one thing you need to know is that this particular Thursday at this particular time, my PMS was making me feel like there was a dance party in my uterus and my hormones were so all over the place that I think earlier that day I'd both cried and laughed in the span of three minutes. I'd spent my entire workday looking longingly at my mat and waiting for the moment when I could get my angry ass to class. I hunkered down into child's pose and tried to tune the world out.
To my right there was an awful lot of commotion and I was a little worried that something or someone was going to end up on my head so I peeked to the right and there a very lithe, very tan, very athletic woman was jamming her body into various stretches and doing a lot of sex-style breathing. I shook my head and said, "Stay on your mat, Lindsay!" and went back to doing some deep thinking and deep breathing in my child's pose.
To my left there was also suddenly a lot of very loud breathing and some stomping. I peeked. A very tatted, very buff man with mala beads encircling every wrist and ankle was doing a vinyasa "jump back" very, very loudly. A "jump back" is done when flowing from standing forward fold to a plank position in one fell swoop. The goal of this move is to be as light as possible, producing as little noise as possible. He was neither light nor quiet. I shook my head and said, "Stay on your mat, Lindsay!" and went back to focusing on not judging or hurting anyone.
Class began. The sequencing of classes at this studio is often very similar but the one thing that's always consistent is the audile breathing cues the teachers give. This is very different than the style I was trained in, where we were taught closed-mouth breathing. This is the breath I practice until the end of my class, when I'll open mouth exhale to release the heat, with an audible, but NOT VOCAL breath. This particular studio, however cues audible exhalations—with either a HAAAA or HMMMM sound. It's typically only done a handful of times during class and while I'm happy to do this the four or five times the teacher cues it, on this particular Thursday I apparently missed the sign on the door that read, "5:30PM BREATHING COMPETITION, $7 ENTRY FEE.
We were twenty minutes in and each time I closed my eyes (something I often do in a big class) I would take a deep breath and my neighbor to the right would exhale out an exercise orgasm while my neighbor to the left would crossfit the shit out of whatever yoga pose we were in, practically pooping in the process. I swear to you, super tan yogi and super crossfit were so loud that at one point, when we were resting in child's pose they exhaled so loudly that out slipped a very vocal, "JESUS CHRIST!" from my mouth and really all I wanted was Him to do was make them breathe with their mouths shut.
Imagine Steven Tyler yell-breathing HAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA in downward dog and then imagine Freddie Mercury Queen-breathing HMMMMMMMMMMMMM in child's pose for the duration of a sixty minute class and tell me how relaxed you might be by the end of it. I crafted angry monologues in my head while standing in warrior-two, sending daggers into crossfit-mala man's neck and silently willed tanned Jane Fonda to fall over in side plank just to see if they'd stop with the sex-halations for a red-hot minute. But these two, these two were in it for the long haul and after my little PMS-y Jesus Christ slip-up one or both of them ramped up the volume on the scream breathing to a decibel that only Ozzy Osbourne reaches after Sharon's pissed him off and so now I'm really, real-real, really pissed off.
At the end of class, I laid in my sweaty, PMS infused savasana and tried to calm the fuck down. I took a few deep breaths of my own, with an audible but respectful exhalation and willed my damn body to relax into the dirty floor and absorb my practice. I lay there for five minutes hoping that the class had emptied and wondered if I was out of line in my anger over the breathing. I thought about it a minute and then thought about it another. Cued, voiced breath was one thing, scream-breathing during practice felt self-important and disrespectful. Everyone practices their own way and breathes their own way, but to propel yourself so far off that mat that you end up on someone else's be it literally or through breath is not cool.
I slowly rolled to a seated position and opened my eyes. To my right, my sex-haling neighbor was battling her way through bicycle twists in an angry, violent way that made me sure she was gonna either pop a hammy or accidentally kick me in the vagina. To my left, my crossfit-yogi neighbor was propelling his body up into a handstand and that vein bulging from his neck looked like it could use a good HMMMMMMMMM.
I took a deep breath in and finished my practice, rolled up my mat and walked out of the studio. I was still dripping sweat, my face was bright red, in I'm sure, a combination of heat from the class and anger and I was not sure I was any less angry than when I walked in 60 minutes earlier.
I clomped down the stairs and out onto the street. As I walked down the steps to my train home, someone coming up the stairs accidentally brushed past me and got a nice dose of my DNA on their way. "Gross!" I heard her yell through my earbuds and I stopped, ready to turn around and meet this head on. Instead, I took a deep breath and then, against my better judgement, scream-exhaled "HMMMMMMMMMMMM" as loudly as I could and headed home. I stood on the train, still dripping sweat and still a little angry and thought, I love yoga, but sometimes I fucking HAAAAAAAAAAAAAATE it.


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Chaz Bojorquez believes that true self-expression comes from the soul. At an early age, in the 1950's he experienced the graffiti tradition of the East Los Angeles Mexican-Americans. Los Angeles 'Cholo' style graffiti was dictated by an honored code of writing. Allegiance to that code of traditional writing brought you respect. In 1968, out of high school with a liberal arts/mathematics diploma, and one year of state college, Chaz enrolled into Chouinard art school (known today as Cal Arts). He also studied Asian calligraphy from Master Yun Chung Chiang (Master Chiang studied under Pu Ju, brother of the last Emperor of China). From all of these experiences, in 1969 he combined the tradition and honor from Cholo gang graffiti and the educational knowledge from art school, and with the spiritual skills of Asian calligraphy. Chaz was one of the first graffiti writers from Los Angeles, with his own style. After more than a decade of tagging in the streets in the 1970's and early 1980's, came a deeper need to understand, why do we do graffiti? In 1975 Italian photographer Gusmano Cesaretti interviewed Chaz for Street Writers, a transcribed audio tour of East Los Angeles graffiti in the early 1970's. A pioneer book in the Chicano and Graffiti culture.
In 1979 he embarked on a three year round-the-world experience, visiting and living in 35 countries, studying how graphics and letters describes culture and national pride. The graffiti art that Chaz Bojorquez paints today, ask even deeper questions of himself. Does graffiti have intent, purpose, cultural identity, history and create unity? Who owns the public space and who has the right to speak and be heard? These universal questions have answers in all of us.


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Terming the entire controversy kicked up the Pakistan Interior Minister Rehman Malik on Shahrukh Khan "feeling insecure in India" as "nonsense", and asserts that nowhere in the magazine article did he say directly or indirectly that he feels unsafe, troubled or disturbed in India.
"To address this whole issue, with regards to my article, that has taken an unwarranted twist. I do not even understand the basis of this controversy. This is what can only be called 'nonsense'. It is Deja Vu all over again," Shahrukh told reporters.
In an Outlook-New York Times limited edition issue, the actor had mentioned that he had sometimes "become the inadvertent object of political leaders who choose to make me a symbol of all that they think is wrong and unpatriotic about Muslims in India." Further, he wrote: "I named my son and daughter with names that could pass of as generic: Aryan and Suhana. The Khan is borrowed from me so that can't really escape it… I imagine this will prevent my offspring from receiving unwarranted eviction orders and random fatwas in the future."
Speaking about the article the dejected Khan said: "The article I wrote was actually meant to reiterate that on some occasions my being an Indian Muslim film star is misused by bigots and narrow minded people who have misplaced religious ideologies for small gains. And ironically, the same has happened through this article, once again."
"It does not even vaguely say that I am ungrateful for the love that I have received in a career spanning 20 years. On the contrary the article only says that in spite of bigoted thoughts of some of the people that surround us, I am untouched by scepticism because of the love I have received by my countrymen and women," he added.
Pakistan's Interior Minister Rehman Malik on Monday said that "the Indian government should provide security to actor Shah Rukh Khan". This, as a result, kicked up a controversy in India.
Shah Rukh also critized those who offered him "unsolicited advice", saying: "We, in India, are extremely safe and happy. We have an amazing democratic, free and secular way of life."
"In the environs that we live here in my country India, we have no safety issues regarding life or material. As a matter of fact it is irksome for me to clarify this non-existent issue," he said.
When SRK's kids ask him about their religion, Shahrukh says, "Sometimes, they ask me what religion they belong to and, like a good Hindi movie hero, I roll my eyes up to the sky and declare philosophically, 'You are an Indian first and your religion is Humanity', or sing them an old Hindi film ditty, 'Tu Hindu Banega na Musalmaan Banega – Insaan ki Aulaad Hai Insaan Banega' set to Gangnam style," he said.


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Peer pressure
It's normal to want to be part of a group, to feel like we belong. Peer pressure can happen when we're influenced to do something we usually wouldn't do.
It can also happen when we're stopped from doing something we'd like to do.
This happens because we want to be accepted by our peers (anyone you look up to or think is equal in age or ability), whether that's friends, people in our community or even people on TV.
We feel peer pressure when we try to live up to the expectations of our friends or classmates, or follow a particular fashion or trend.
How does peer pressure affect us?
Peer pressure can be a positive influence, helping us to challenge ourselves or motivating us to do our best.
But, it can also lead to us doing stuff that doesn't suit us, or doesn't fit in with our sense of right and wrong.
Peer pressure may influence us in a number of ways, including our:
- fashion choices
- alcohol and other drug use
- decision to have a boyfriend/girlfriend
- choice of who our friends are
- academic performance.
Where does it come from?
Peer pressure can happen in the workplace, at school or in the general community.
It can affect people of all ages and backgrounds and in different ways.
Some of the ways it may affect you include:
- Directly – when someone tells you what you should be doing. Talk to someone you trust – a family member, teacher, youth worker or counsellor – if you feel threatened, are being hurt or pressured into something you don't want to do. See face-to-face help for more.
- Indirectly – it's not always so obvious. It's not unusual for a group of friends to have particular activities they do together. For example, you might smoke more with certain friends and study more with others, meaning you've been indirectly affected by your peer group's choices.
- Individual – sometimes pressure comes from within. Feeling different from the group can be hard and to avoid this, we sometimes just want to feel the same. Moving to a new area or starting a new school means having to make new friends. When we feel unsure about ourselves we're more likely to feel the effects of peer pressure.
What can we do?
Being an individual means making decisions based on what's best for us. Growing up we need to learn to take responsibility for what we do and how we think.
We can still be a valued part of a group, even while keeping our individuality.
Tips to help you manage peer pressure:
- Value common interests – hanging out with people who like doing similar things is one way of avoiding feeling pressured into stuff. Hanging out in the "cool crowd" may not be as much fun as it looks.
- Say no – having the strength to say no can be hard. However, it can also feel good to stick with what you believe in. Calmly explaining why you don't want to be part of something can earn you respect from others.
- Try not to judge others – try not to place judgments on other people's choices. Respecting someone else's choices can help them respect yours. Remember, you don't have to agree with their actions. Focusing on the reasons why you don't feel happy with the choice can help you not to judge them.
- Take action – sometimes you're able to tackle peer pressure because you're older or feel more comfortable in your environment. Standing up for someone younger or more vulnerable is a way of getting a positive vibe out of peer pressure.
Building your self-esteem will help you gain the strength to resist negative peer pressure.
Read managing peer pressure to drink for more information on different types of peer pressure and bullying if you're getting a hard time from someone.
This article was last reviewed on 03 May 2017
What can I do now?
- Learn what to do if you feel you are being bullied
- Read some ways you can improve your self-esteem
- Find out about how your friends and family can help


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Coach Fall/Winter 2016-2017 RTW – NYFW
Stuart Vevers sends us back to school with the juvenile, yet sophisticated, Coach fall/Winter 2016-17 ready-to-wear collection, unveiled a few hours ago at New York Fashion Week. Bohemian at heart, Vevers has been rejuvenating Coach since his appointment as the label's creative director in 2014, quickly treating us to some already must-have accessories and timeless looks.
Besides experimenting with boho-chic looks, Vevers enjoys adding cinematographic references to his collection, following the same path many of his fellow colleagues often undertake, namely that of merging fashion with other forms of art. For this particular collection he drew inspiration from Jodie Foster in Taxi Driver, Rob Lowe in Youngblood, and even Velma Dinkley in Scooby-Doo. Coach's lineup is a mixture of noir elements, such as those spotted in Scorsese's Taxi Driver, sportive elements like the ones seen in Youngblood, and even more cheerful and carefree aspects that are intrinsically characteristic of Scooby-Doo's main protagonists.
Like Dean Youngblood (starring Rob Lowe) quickly learns that his athletic ability is not the only ability he needs to be successful in his hockey league, Vevers knows that his tailoring skills are not enough when it comes to ready-to-wear, as he needs to intertwine them with his creativity and attention to details. We could specifically see that in the Iris (Jodie Forster's character in Taxi Driver) and Velma-inspired proposals, which include extremely well-tailored butterfly-collar dresses adorned with different patterns, such as patchwork and paisley (not for nothing Vevers usually likes to remain true to his main passion, namely utilizing retro-inspired patterns).
To enhance the whole Taxi Driver-inspired mysterious allure, Vevers had fun spicing up the leather jackets, waistcoats and A-line skirts with studded motifs, balancing their inevitable ruggedness with fur and plaid materials. This overall roughness includes an intriguing sharpness in the lines and cuts the pieces feature, the latter of which make a good contrast with the collection's colorful hues and retro-inspired patterns. Besides the aforementioned paisley dresses, the Coach FW 2016-17 rtw collection features striped and geometrical patterns too, which help link Taxi Driver's noir allure with Scooby-Doo's solid-colored patterns and Youngbood's nostalgic college-like attire options.
As soon as the first models walked down the runway, everybody knew Vevers' varsity jackets were destined to become the collection's most talked-about pieces, as they got skillfully combined with pure boho-chic frocks, cowgirl-like boots and retro mini luggage handbags. The cowgirl motif is another recurring theme in Vevers' latest collection, as brown-toned leather jackets, skirts and, of course, boots often make their appearance within the lineup.
Like most of the recent collections unveiled at NYFW, Vevers' Coach FW 2016-17 RTW line-up is another 'love it or hate it' kind of collection, which however undeniably proves Vevers' terrific artisanal skills.
Photos courtesy of Vogue


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JANET PASSEHL | Rapt
May 4 - June 8, 2018
In the Project Space, Janet Passehl will present "Rapt", featuring three ironed cloth works from 2010 and three pencil drawings from 2007. For Passehl, drawing is a sculptural act, wherein mark-making embodies a three dimensional movement through space, be it the surface of paper or across a pressed piece of cloth. Using an iron as a drawing implement on fabric, Passehl discovered a means of making an invisible, or "silent" mark, a form of drawing that leaves behind no actual mark but rather the history of an action having taken place. These cloth works embody a rich tactility and sense of the familiar, invoking an immediate and empathetic response in the viewer. Likewise a very human element is contained in Passehl's drawings on paper, where one's intuitive need for order and consistency is met with the inevitability of chaos and imperfection.
Janet Passehl's work has been featured in numerous group & two-person exhibitions including: Galerie Gisela Clement (Bonn, Germany), Ian Potter Museum of Art (University of Melbourne, Australia), Mass MoCA (North Adams, MA), The Drawing Center (New York), Real Art Ways (Hartford, CT), Thomas Rehbein Gallery (Cologne, Germany) and the Francis Young Tang Teaching Museum and Art Gallery (Saratoga Springs, NY). Her work is held in several prominent collections such as the Allen Memorial Art Museum at Oberlin College; The Blanton Museum of Art, Austin, TX; Colorado Springs Fine Art Center Museum; and The LeWitt Collection, Chester, CT. Passehl's poetry has appeared in Court Green, Arsenic Lobster, Caliban Online, and in a 2015 full-length collection titled Clutching Lambs, published by Negative Capability Press, Mobile, AL.


text: 1 bedroom w/balcony in a brand new luxury mid rise building. Kitchen with modern cabinets, stone countertops and stainless steel appliances. Elevator building, laundry room, gym, game room, bicycle storage, package room. Enjoy the spectacular view of Manhattan from our huge furnished roof deck with grill. Ideal place to get together with your friends and neighbors!! Neighborhood is flooded with great restaurants. Nice location for NYU, SVA and Cooper Union students!!


text:
Beyond Design
Beyond the design studio
By embracing both Strategy + Design, we've been able to dive into worlds that usually don't fall under the heading of design studio.
We launched a startup to reinvent the news, we've built online magazines and stores, produced wine and jazz festivals, and designed & staged a live action game for 300 conference guests. We created a hip 325-seat seafood restaurant. Our latest adventure is creating augmented reality experiences.
We've become expert at discovering solutions and seeing bigger pictures. We can help you define your new startup, product, or project.
So here's the problem: in the digital age, how do you gather and distribute the news; ensure accuracy; and make sure journalists get paid each and every time their work is consumed?
CrowdNews is [re]making the news by connecting the audience directly to the journalists they support: no middleman of The New York Times, FOX News, or CNN. Just a direct connection between audience and journalist.
ROLE Concept, design, business models, development, launch. The Whole Enchilada: CrowdNews is a WDG startup.
Play Games
Our brief for a trade conference in Toronto, Canada;
Reinforce the information from a three-day digital media conference, get 300 disparate attendees talking to each other, and have a party!
Our Solution: A participatory game called Trailblazing the Digital Jungle. We took over the ballroom in the Westin Hotel, brought in 350 tropical trees, pumped in music from countries around the equator, created a trivial pursuit game from the conference sessions, carved out a sponsor's mini-tradeshow, and had a huge party.
Yeah, it worked...Lions & tigers & beers...oh my.
ROLE Concept, design, production, staging.
As an equity partner, we opened FINZ oh-so-hip-seafood in Boston's North Shore. FINZ was a pioneer in the area, bringing an urban-inspired 325-seat seafood restaurant with an oyster bar and live jazz to the suburbs.ROLE Restaurant concept, creative direction, food & wine consulting, naming/branding/design, launch.
The Boston Wine Expo was just getting too big so we decided to create, produce, and stage a wine expo in Boston's North Shore. The Salem Jazz & Wine Series combined a wine expo followed by a live jazz concert.
After two successful seasons, the world renowned Peabody Essex Museum asked to partner with us and to add the Series to their own cultural offerings. We were honored to move the Salem Jazz & Wine Series to the Peabody Essex Museum.
ROLE Concept, design, production, staging.


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Tuesday, November 10, 2009
Brotherly Love
This is one of the sweetest pictures I have ever seen! These are two grand-nephews of mine, Owen and Logan. They were at a baseball game and their mom captured this shot. So special, so heartwarming.
I used Stardust paper for this layout. Along with it I added CTMH On Target Dimensional Elements. I just brayered over them in Honey ink to give them color. Other elements used are Making Memories transparency, Stardust My Stickease (stars, round button bases, and arrow), CTMH White Craft Buttons, Sunflower Brads, and an EK Success sticker.
We are so blessed to have days of warm sunshine right now, so I was able to snap this outside.
I love that my nieces put pictures on Facebook for me to copy! I've got loads sitting on my desk just ready to scrap. I can't wait to get them done and show you!
7 comments:
- Kim said...
I agree, this is the most precious photo. Oh, how we love our boys! This is an incredible layout Brenda! I love this pp and there are so many ways to use it! Your layout is just fabby and I really like the honey added to it! Hoping you're having a great day! Hugs...
Kim xXx
- November 10, 2009 at 4:25 PM
So cute!
- November 10, 2009 at 6:01 PM
- Karen said...
This photo is one in a million. I love what you did with the page. The papers are fun and boyish but subtle enough that the photo takes center stage...as it should!
- November 10, 2009 at 6:31 PM
- Dawn said...
What a priceless picture, and a fabulous job on the layout.This paper pack is such a great choice for the boys. Hugz
- November 10, 2009 at 9:36 PM
- Laurel said...
The layout is great, but I love that priceless picture!
- November 11, 2009 at 8:31 AM
- Jamie Harder said...
That is a fabulous photo and wow, what an amazing layout to compliment it:-) You rock...that's why I left you an award on my blog!
- November 11, 2009 at 8:38 PM
- Bastelfrosch said...
This LO is wonderful!!!
- November 13, 2009 at 5:22 AM


text:
hello everybody!
I want start contribute to Ubuntu, but I am following the page [1] and when I try to login using my Ubuntu One account, the get me a error:
Sorry, something just went wrong in Launchpad.
We've recorded what happened, and we'll fix it as soon as possible. Apologies for the inconvenience.
(Error ID: OOPS-602199cab58023af975b0a1e73b97966)
What is my problem?
Hello Everyone
You could carefully go through all the stuff in your faulty account (from the account you can access). It will take ages to find the faulty configuration file. You could start by getting rid of your .profile. My guess is that it would be easier to rescue any data you need from your old account and delete it.
thannyou, kissanime
Hi! thanks for your response!
Ready, I have new account and this is working!


text:
PASSAU, Germany, Feb 14 (Reuters) - Bavarian Finance Minister Markus Soeder on Wednesday rejected any expansion of the eurozone to include countries like Bulgaria and Romania, and said his conservative party also opposed euro bonds and creation of a European finance minister post.
Soeder, slated to become premier of the prosperous German state, won applause from some 4,000 people at a political Ash Wednesday rally with his comments, noting that his CSU party had also warned years ago against bringing Greece into the eurozone.
"We don't want another debate and more trickery. We don't want an expansion of the eurozone to include countries like Bulgaria and Romania," Soeder said. "We are against euro bonds and against a European finance minister." (Reporting by Andrea Shalal; Editing by Madeline Chambers)


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Sometimes I spend way too much time thinking about the next best thing. That can be either good or bad. Sometimes it does keep your mind on the lookout for ideas though. And just sometimes, it pays off.
I have been agonizing over ways to make healthy food options just a little bit more appealing to the younger set in the family. Even though I'm down to only just one little person who needs direction in this department, she needs it the most. I stumbled across Primal Kitchen where they do a wonderful job of blogging about the paleo/primal/whole foods approach they take to kids lunches. There are some great ideas there. And the most inspiring I think is the fact that they are using bento boxes to package up the offerings and make them unnumerably more interesting to little diners.
Further research led me to find Laptop Lunch's Bento Buddies which are very cool modular, lidded bento boxes. As well I tracked down Lunch Bots stainless bento lunch containers. Without a budget to stick to, I'd take either one of those for H-Bob in a heart beat. But until I make such a purchase, I decided to do the next best thing and use some silicone cupcake liners that I had which fit perfectly into a lidded container. This doesn't make a very packable option as nothing is lidded, but it did provide a low cost introduction to breakfast and lunch presented in a more fun manner.
Just for fun I decided to see what the library had to offer in this realm and found The Just Bento Cookbook - Everyday Lunches To Go by Makiko Itoh who also blogs at Just Bento which provided a lot of visual inspiration as to what I could adapt to our whole foods/primal food approach. And as usual, another great source for bento lunch ideas I found was on Pinterest. More visuals there to delight the eye and inspire for sure.
Perhaps packing a lunch for a stay-at-home child would become just as bothersome as doing the same for my high schooler who has chosen to take lunches in order to have enough healthy foods to fuel his athletic needs. But on the other hand, I could set aside portions for her just as easily while tackling his lunch demands.
So my final take is that I plan on keeping my eyes open when school lunch boxes start to show up on the retail shelves this summer to look for something that might work, and most importantly, is BPA free. I tend to worry about some of the cheap, imported plastics that find our way into the food supply. Until then, we will experiment with my make-do bento box and see where that takes us. Based on today's enthusiastic response to breakfast that we needed to take on the go, we just might be on the right track.
Do you have healthy, whole food lunch dilemmas for either children at home or on the go? What's your favorite and most successful way to deal with them?
Wednesday, May 16, 2012
Betting on Bento Boxes
Sometimes I spend way too much time thinking about the next best thing. That can be either good or bad. Sometimes it does keep your mind on the lookout for ideas though. And just sometimes, it pays off.
Monday, May 14, 2012
Fortunately, It Was Mother's Day. Unfortunately...
Today broke bright and shiny. Unusual for a Northwest spring morning.
Fortunately...it was Mother's Day. Nothing like some sun to put a spring in your step.
Unfortunately...that meant needing to remember to water my little seedlings in the greenhouse after opening it. A little too toasty for them.
Fortunately...I decided to wear my contacts so that I could bring along my sunglasses for the drive into town.
Unfortunately...one of our daughters decided to ride to church a little later with her older sister, but never managed to pry herself out of bed to let said older sister know, and therefore got left at home.
Fortunately...Big Country's girlfriend brought me lilies for Mother's Day. How sweet is that.
Unfortunately...I still ended up cooking dinner for the family and my mom. But that's okay, because...
Fortunately...there's nothing like having your beef brisket slow-cooked on the Traeger the day before to make dinner a breeze.
Unfortunately...while I was visiting with my mom, H-Bob thought my remaining piece of fabric for Goat Princess' Snow White evil queen costume collar, was a scrap...and turned it into a hand sewing project.
Fortunately...the fabric store still had the same material on hand to replace it with.
Unfortunately...while attending to all that, the horses stayed out in the very green, lush bottom field for a little longer than they should have. They had some pretty full bellies.
Fortunately...it was Mother's Day after all, and I garnered a few little gifts from DH...a Teavana mug AND one from Starbucks. I'm set for drinks now.
Unfortunately...we ran out of ice to make a great iced coffee to use one of those new mugs for.
Fortunately....I could enjoy another gift. H-Bob had convinced DH to make her/me a wonderful, rolling chicken coop for a few of her pullets that she wants to keep tame.
It came complete with an ingenious little sign, designed by H-Bob herself.
Unfortunately...those same wonderful hens generate flies which made their way into the house in great numbers while DH was putting some finishing touches on the new door he replaced our broken sliding door with.
Fortunately...the house cools down at night, and those buggers are sitting ducks.
Unfortunately...I didn't remember to open enough windows to really cool it down.
Fortunately...Big Country gave me the most heart-felt card ever. He rather poured his heart out in this one. A real keeper.
Unfortunately...we had such a full day that the planned early bedtime for everyone really did not happen.
Fortunately...it was a great day to spend with family and friends. And it's those moments that make everything worth it!
Hoping you all had a blessed time with your friends or family this Mother's Day.
Thursday, May 10, 2012
J - O - Y Prayer Journal
Several months back I was thoroughly inspired by a link I discovered that featured a tutorial on how to put together a personal prayer journal. It spoke to my heart as this is something that I had wanted to put together for myself. So I bookmarked it.
But unfortunately there it sat. Enter a book I picked up at the library recently entitled Eat That Frog! which I had originally reserved for some ideas on dealing with procrastination in my children. But at this point the most value came for myself. Did I have any goals set? Were those goals able to direct my day-to-day activities and priorities? Well, no, to be honest. So there I came full circle again to my desire to have a more structured prayer life.
So back I went to my bookmark and some searching through Pinterest. And yes, I came up with something even more inspiring for me. A simple composition notebook, decked out in scrapbooking papers and personalized tabs. So off I went to pick up these simple supplies. I decided that this would also be a great opportunity to introduce this concept to my ten-year-old, so she selected her themed papers as well. The original post does a fantastic job of outlining the steps to put together this personalized journal...hers was a Christmas planner...but here are the basic steps that I followed:
basic supplies...composition notebook, scrapbook paper, ribbon to tie journal with, glue, and scissors
although hard to see here, ribbon is glued to outside of book so that it will wrap around it and be able to tie. front and backs are covered with a piece of patterned paper cut to fit.
more embellishments are added to the front and back covers to conceal the remaining surfaces.
The journal was finished up by glueing another sheet to the inside and back covers to conceal the printed information. And lastly, I doubled over small scraps of patterned paper and glued them to the outside edge of individual sheets to divide the book into roughly thirds in order to have some tabbed dividers. I know, hard to visualize but the link to the original post is very clear if you check it out.
So the big question...how to use this beautiful little journal? And then it came to me. The Sunday School song "J - O - Y" whose chorus lyrics are:
Jesus first,
Yourself last,
And Others in between.
How perfect.
The tabs would be labeled J - Jesus...a place for praise and thankfulness for what Jesus has done.
The second tab would be O - Others...listing of ongoing prayer requests.
And the last tab would be Y - Yourself...how would you like Jesus to work in your own personal life.
So simple that even a child could understand which is exactly what I wanted for H-Bob. We decided to start a new page for each time the month changed and then review her entries weekly and add happy faces or hearts to those items that were answered prayers. Best idea in a long time.
If you've wanted something structured for yourself that you can use to track answered prayers and to keep others' requests in the forefront of your thoughts, this just might work for you. Plus it's a chance to be just a tiny bit crafty and creative even if you think you aren't. Have you put together anything similar? Has it helped? Would love to hear your thoughts.
Monday, May 7, 2012
Of Diet and Dyslexia - Part Six
So where have we come since October of 2011 in our diet and dyslexia adventure? An extremely long way since January of that same year upon diagnosing her vision difficulties, and an amazing journey since going gluten-free in August and finding the key to her joint pains, attention issues, processing skills, and reading ability. H-Bob will be coming up on almost nine months of eating gluten-free here soon. So here's where we are...
May 2012
Wednesday, May 2, 2012
Of Diet and Dyslexia - Part Five
Cliche as it is, it's hard to believe that this is the fifth post in this series. But bear with me as I try to lay out the results of our diet change with H-Bob in our attempt to clean up her diet and experience positive changes in her learning abilities. You can catch up by reading parts one, two, three, and four.
September 2011
By the time school rolled around, H-Bob was eating a gluten-free diet with very little amounts of sugar and dairy. Interestingly enough, once she lost her carb-craving associated with the gluten, she no longer felt the need to guzzle glass after glass of milk, and that empty space in her stomach could be filled with the fresh vegetables and fruit that had been missing from her diet. She was talking a multi-vitamin, an omega 3 supplement with DHA and EPA along with a probiotic. The last piece of the puzzle that I threw in was a supplement provided by Jarrow called Neuro Optimizer. This provided extra amino acids to support healthy brain function in an attempt to help her fill up any void that might exist nutritionally. But poor H-Bob. She had a cupful of pills every morning to deal with. We had our share of struggles over this, but when you can see such improvement, it sure helps to keep up your resolve.
During August when we saw that her ability to 'see' correctly had drastically improved, we started to think about finding a intervention reading program to help her get from her kindergarten reading level to something closer to her grade level which would be fourth grade this school year. We settled on Saxon Phonics Intervention Program as it skipped a lot of the fluff that you would expose a younger beginning reader to. It just hammered in the basics with lots of repetition and practice across all the different learning styles in a manner that would not be demeaning to an older student. Wanting to achieve success, I followed it to the last letter not skimming or skipping anything. Information I had read indicated that dyslexics benefit from intense phonics instruction to completely reinforce the application of phonics. It was amazing to see that by the end of September, H-Bob's reading was phenomenally better. You have no idea how encouraging this was. H-Bob's charter school classes were beginning the end of September, and I was a bit nervous about her entering Orchestra I with her violin as she had the ability to play well but could not for the life of anything read music. Her great musical ear had bolstered her along all through last year. But to my surprise, there was vast improvement over last year. All of this was definitely paying off.
October 2011
By this time, H-Bob had settled into a pretty predictable routine of eating clean, whole foods without gluten. But if she were exposed to gluten accidentally, it was so obvious She would experience her leg pains again, but even more intense as it took only a little exposure now to affect her. Her attitude would flip a switch and she would become very emotional...whether angry or sad..and it would be intense. Her attention would wander and there would be zero focus. There's nothing like a glimpse back into the past to remind you that whole-food nutrition without gluten will be paramount to her life...and permanent.
I'll never forget the morning H-Bob yelled from her bed upon waking that morning. "Mom, mom! You'll never believe it! I actually had a dream last night! And there was this music. I could hear all of it. All of the parts. And there was color everywhere!" I suppose that shouldn't sound like too unusual of a dream, but for her it was. Due to her monotone diet and resulting lack of nutrition, it had appeared that there were neural connections that weren't being made just simply because she did not have the raw materials to support her neurological system. This tended to be expressed as her inability to envision things on an internal blackboard so to speak, difficulty recalling things, plus her various learning disabilities...all things that were frustrating for her. She was ecstatic over what her mind was now able to do. It's hard to explain how significant this felt. All of those nagging questions whether things were not quite right with her processing skills were now ironing themselves out. It was all becoming too clear that the typical SAD diet we had been eating, although healthy by many means, still did not provide her picky palate with what she needed. That combined with her supplements to support catching up her deficiencies seemed to help complete the whole pictures. The saying, you are what you eat, was really hitting home.
Her vision therapist had explained that now she had the physical ability to take in printed material, she needed to achieve proficiency in the seven visual processing skills needed to process information. Because she had lacked those many, many years of taking in and processing information, she was simply behind in those skills. The physical ability formed the base of a pyramid and the various skills would build upon the top of them. She was so great at coming up with exercises that kept H-Bob's motivation up when they could have been very repetitious. She built activities around her interest in art and animals, and it seemed that once those activities were introduced, she flew through the exercises and made huge leaps and bounds of progress. These activities helped all across the board with her reading that was progressing nicely as well as her handwriting skills, her focus, her mathematical abilities, and her reasoning. Pretty much everything in her life was positively affected. Here, finally, was the positive and ambitious girl that we knew existed.
I think I will be able to wrap things up with my final post as we move into where we are today. Stay tuned!
Monday, April 30, 2012
Of Diet and Dyslexia - Part Four
Thanks for joining me on my series of posts about our daughter, H-Bob, and our discovery of her dyslexia and the effects of her diet. If you'd like, here are links to parts one, two, and three. Read along and find out how we took the first steps to evaluate and tackle major changes to our diet.
August 2011
Well...we bit the bullet. H-Bob and I were going to attempt to eliminate gluten, dairy and sugar from our diets. Just to see what might happen. Although most professionals...and remember, I'm not one--just a investigative type of mom...recommend at least a six week period of avoiding these foods, I was just hopeful to pull it off for two weeks. How could one exist without these food? What would you eat? The whole concept was very intimidating and daunting to me. That shows you just how entrenched we were in our standard American diet (SAD). The clincher that gave me the determination to see this through was that as I flipped back through her food journal, I could see the relationship of what she was eating to her outward actions.
Nevertheless, just the thought of eliminating these foods from our diet made ME panic. Why was I so worried? I could go back to eating the same old way anytime, right? The next week was the WORST of our lives. I can truthfully say that the two of us went through withdrawals that must be equal to anyone dealing with an addiction. I did not go through the cupboards and throw out the offending foods as there were four other family members who absolutely did not want to be involved in this experiment. But, oh, I wish I could have. To walk by the bread and butter. To not have milk in my coffee. No pasta. Not even any steel cut oats. Processed foods were out of the question as they usually had sugar. I thought I was going to die. And H-Bob basically did. There were tears and crying and yelling and screaming. But by the end of the week, something remarkable happened.
Our intense obsession over these foods was over. The storm of sorts was gone. And we did survive. Not only survived, but H-Bob was feeling good. Those unpredictable, daily multiple meltdowns were oh-so drastically reduced. I will admit though, it did not have a perfect ending. I couldn't keep H-Bob on that strict diet any longer than about ten days. I caved. Perhaps if I wasn't trying to support her and eliminate the same foods from my diet at the same time, I could have kept up my resolve. But it didn't happen. So I allowed her to choose…gluten or dairy to add back in. She chose dairy, thankfully, and we marched on for a second week without gluten.
Then I began to start noticing other things. H-Bob's several times a week ankle joint pains were a thing of the past. Her tic was gone. She smiled a lot more...was more aware of things around her...and seemed to have a veil or fog lifted from her being. She flew through her vision exercises. The roller-coaster emotions disappeared. All those things that made her life stressful were falling away. Maybe all those glowing reports by other parents whose children were on a gluten-free diet were accurate after all. Now let me say here again before I forget...I am not a doctor or a researcher or a professional of any kind. I'm not making a suggestion that you or anyone else you know can follow in our footsteps and experience the same results. But just the same, I want to
It really did work for H-Bob. Now after that required announcement, back to the diet thing. I was becoming a believer in gluten intolerance. Dairy did not seem to produce any undesirable effects. Sugar, on the other hand, seemed to exacerbate things but not on the level it was.
Another aspect that I was delving in to was that of fatty acid supplementation. Although limited, there is research to support that many kids on the spectrum scale are found to be deficient in omega 3 EPA/DHA. Effects from this supplementation do not appear as quickly as a diet change and sometimes take up to a month before any positive results are seen. But I was still looking for a missing component and this could be it. H-Bob's GF diet had eliminated many of the mood and attention issues but there were still the issues of the way her brain seemed to have difficulties in processing information. We noticed that short term memory was pretty non-existant. ADHD anyone? She seemed completely inable to visualize anything internally. Part of these issues her vision therapist commented would be addressed after her vision abilities stabilized to where they should be. So we added an omega 3 supplement that had roughly equal parts EPA and DHA in it.
We were seeing such great improvement in other areas that I became a firm believer in everything else that naturopaths and other doctors of functional medicine had been using to help autistic, ADHD, and dyslexic children. So there were a couple of other things we did during this time. I began H-Bob on a probiotic as I became aware of the leaky gut syndrome that can cause autoimmune reactions to gluten in the form of her leg pains. We also added in a complete children's vitamin. I have never felt totally secure in the fact that those gummy-type children's vitamins actually are very potent, and due to her nutritional deficiencies (caused by her limited diet and malabsorption by her leaky gut) I tracked down a powdered vitamin recommended by Dr. Mark Hyman, author of The UltraMind Solution, whose nutritional advice was invaluable in helping to understand the dietary changes we needed to make.
We were probably four to five weeks into these supplements and noticing that none of the other negative symptoms were returning. Besides that, there started to appear additional unexpected benefits. One day while working on her eye therapy practice work, H-Bob startled me by exclaiming that something 'switched on'. She was so excited she could hardly explain it to me, but while working on her divergence and convergence exercise she said that her ability to cross and uncross suddenly 'turned on'. Something she had struggled to overcome since the beginning of her eye therapy. From that point on, she was 100% able to complete those exercises. Her therapist could hardly believe the improvement she made that week. We noticed that she could grasp the meaning of numbers while working on math. Her thinking skills were improving as well. Everything was moving along on an inclining scale upwards.
But then, life took over. DH had a fishing trip scheduled with a buddy and his kids. They were to spend an extended weekend camping. Cooking their guy food. Buying treats. All the bad stuff. I tried my best to convince DH that gluten was out of the question but knew that he didn't really see the day-to-day effects that her new food choices were having on her. The day they came home, H-Bob bounded into the house with a red licorice rope in one hand and a soda in the other. Oh my. It wasn't long until it was all too clear that there was a diet connection here. After a miserable couple of days getting her back onto track, we were once again back to gluten free.
This was definitely a turning point in H-Bob's life. From here on we experienced positive gains. But our journey was far from over. School was about to start. Would any of these changes be evident once structured learning took over again? That will be the topic of Part Five.
Thursday, April 26, 2012
Of Diet and Dyslexia - Part Three
Thanks for joining me on my series of posts about our daughter, H-Bob, and our discovery of her dyslexia and the effects of her diet. If you'd like, here are links to parts one and two. Today we delve into the issue of diet which kept surfacing everywhere I turned while researching learning disabilities and attention issues.
July 2011Since the concept of diet being more than just what one puts..or doesn't put...into their mouth kept haunting me, I started to maintain a food journal, just for kicks, recording what H-Bob ate and what moods, attention span, cognitive abilities she expressed. Simultaneously I began to read everything I could about diet and ADHD. At this point I had already come to terms that all of our children had exhibited ADHD symptoms and had different learning patterns that enabled them to learn better in a homeschooling situation. But H-Bob combined all of the other three children's most difficult traits into one bundled-up child. Not only did she maintain a short attention span when it came to reading-type work (even though we had a partial explanation for that with her vision difficulties), she also had intense phobias that would change from time to time along with other conditions that would fall under the label of compulsive disorders. At time she would have tics involving various parts of her body (the current one was blinking her eyes which was getting quite intense). There were violent mood swings with extreme bouts of crying over melancholy music or recalling sad memories. She really was the poster-child of a difficult child to raise.
So as I began to actually record these items, we began to realize how intensely they controlled her life. There were many many books and on-line sites that I gleaned information from. The evidence was overwhelming. Children experiencing these conditions seemed to be directly affected by their diet. These issues would drastically improve once they eliminated foods that they could not tolerate, cleaned up their systems of toxins, and began supplementation with DHA and EPA Omega 3 fatty acids. But how could this be true and not once have had it cross my information path? I'm a pretty well-read person and this had been completely under the radar to me. Even the fact that her pediatrition never threw out this information floors me.
Here is a list of some of the most compelling books I read through that summer while standing in the gardening watering and simultaneously trying to read a book in the other hand.
The Kid-Friendly ADHD and Autism Cookbook - best concise explanation of how dairy, gluten, and sugar can affect your child.
Digestive Wellness - a more in-depth read detailing how digestive issues can have a far-reaching affect on all body systems.
Healing the New Childhood Epidemics - very detailed information on special diets, intolerances, nutritional deficiencies, and toxicity and the role they play in ADHD, autism, Aspergers, and dyslexia.
The Ultra Mind Solution - another very detailed book on nutrition that applies mainly to adults and the concept that diet is a contributing factor to any and all conditions detrimental to one's health and overall well-being.
The LCP Solution - this provided more support for the role of Omega 3 in the diet and the effects of its deficiency.
Brain Allergies - an older book that first opened my eyes as to how food sensitiveness can provoke psychological responses.
Changing the Course of Autism - this book is specifically targeted at those on the autistic spectrum, but the diet, nutritional deficiencies, and toxicity issues are still applicable to dyslexics.
So much information crammed into so many different books all to be inhaled and interpreted into what I began to feel was a very short window in order to begin to consider drastic changes in our diet. I must say that various encounters with friends whom I learned were making dietary changes for various reasons gave me the hope to travel down this path and that just perhaps we weren't alone.
Next up...the results of our food journaling...and what we discovered.
Wednesday, April 25, 2012
Of Diet and Dyslexia - Part Two
Thanks for joining me on my series of posts about our daughter, H-Bob, and our discovery of her dyslexia and the effects of her diet. You can catch part one here.
June 2011
It all started with a Tweet. Someone who mentioned that she had just purchased a copy of How to Raise Your Strong Willed Child. It sounded like a good title to investigate. We used to tweet back and forth how H-Bob and some of her children exhibited over-the-top, strong-willed-child attributes. I tracked down a copy at our local library and started reading. It confirmed that I indeed have a strong-willed child. As an infant she cried continually...was sensitive to light, touch, all sounds, and motion. As a toddler, she was still whiny, a picky eater, always in motion. These all fell under the different personality traits outlined by the book. Fascinating and affirming that H-Bob was not the only such child on the planet.
Not so much a personality trait, but we noticed as a preschooler she had no interest in the printed letter although she loved to be read to and became skilled at drawing. Beginning reading lessons were met with resistance. Being able to distinguish sounds seemed difficult. It seemed as if she could not understand the concept of rhyming words. What we learned one day was forgotten the next. And forget anything that had to do with math. But back to the book. Sprinkled through the book were those disclaimer comments…if your child exhibits this or that, you might want to consider the possibility of a learning disability. Those little things that pricked at my insides and said, "What are you going to do with that information, now?"
There were references to several different other titles and online information to consider as follow-up materials to the book. I promptly checked out stacks of titles from our local library (just check my Shelfari shelf on the left-hand side of the blog) and entered the world of dyslexia. It didn't take much more than that to clinch the fact that this was what we were dealing with. School was out for the summer, so we proceeded with what we had on our own. I brought it up with her wonderful vision therapist who told me her son was dyslexic and had eye abnormalities similar to H-Bob when he was young. She had already suspected that H-Bob was dyslexic but didn't mention anything. H-Bob's eyes needed to 'see' effectively before anything else remedial could be introduced. Interesting that she did not consider dyslexia a liability at this point. I would learn in time that dyslexia is a gift and not something to be feared.
As I mentioned in my much briefer posts here and here at the time, I'm not one to take things lying down. There simply had to be a reason for her dyslexia. Current information seems to point towards a hereditary link. To my knowledge that did not exist in our family. What else could there be? Here began my search. I first scoured the web to find more information that I knew where to start with. Luck had it that the first book I picked up at the library was Disconnected Kids. If I thought that Raising Your Strong Willed Child was an eye opener. This was a life-changer. Dr. Melilo outlines his take that dyslexia and anyone on the austism/Asperberger spectrum are dealing with conditions on just one front, with individuals with dyslexia being extreme right-brained and autism/Asperbergers on the left-brain scale. Due to various conditions, the two halves of the brain can become disconnected and either of those conditions can occur. One section of his book outlines how to test at home for those conditions, and the dyslexia became very clear. These situations can be reversed according to his protocol with retraining the brain to communicate to the other side through occupational therapy activities and by a diet change. We promptly started with activities that started communication between right and left brain and could see that anything left-brained oriented was so difficult for her. She lined up true to the symptoms of someone who has limited use of the left hemisphere...not too coincidentally, the language processing side of the brain concerned with reading.
There is way too much information to condense here…I'm already feeling like I'm rambling even there is so much to say…but getting to the diet part. That seemed like a bunch of crock. How could eliminating gluten, dairy, and sugar change the way one felt or thought? That's all H-Bob lived on as she was such a picky eater.
That was the key, although we didn't yet realize to what extent it would change her life.
Next up...food journaling and a new side to nutrition that we had never been exposed to.
Monday, April 23, 2012
Of Diet and Dyslexia - Part One
As I sat with my mother at her optometrist appointment a few weeks ago, we started talking about an article on gluten sensitivity that was published in our local newspaper, The Oregonian, that I had brought along to read...a full-page spread in their Living Section on gluten sensitivity issues. My mother has always been interested in nutrition and has tried to follow my train of thought on our discovery of gluten intolerance with H-Bob after her dyslexia diagnosis. It seems so foreign to her that wheat…the substance of America's breadbasket…could be so offending. It was then that I realized that was my exact sentiment nearly a year ago, and it would seem that I should share our story. I wouldn't have believed where we are today from the viewpoint of a year ago. Not one tiny shred...even to the point I would have bet my bottom dollar on it.
As I previously blogged in Overcoming Dyslexia and It's Dyslexia...So Now What?, H-Bob's learning difficulties seemed to stem from a dyslexic situation that I finally allowed myself to follow down that particular rabbit hole. After all, who wants to admit their child has a learning disability. But the evidence was there, and I had been choosing to ignore it.
But it never happened. So hang on. Here's our wild ride.She'll grow out of it.
Just a delayed learner.
She'll catch up next year.
January 2011
I had scheduled a vision screening at H-Bob's charter school for her realizing that part of her reading difficulties could be based on her visual tracking. We had a similar experience with Camo Queen back when she was in sixth grade that was easily resolved with vision therapy. At the end of the screening, it was apparent that we were on to something. H-Bob's tracking was off as was her ability to cross and uncross her eyes. And quite a bit at that. Her initial appointment with the optometrist revealed that her visual processing speed was at that of a kindergartener. He was amazed that she was reading at all. In her world, the words would be overlapping, dancing on the page, and coming in and out of focus. No wonder our attempts at reading were stuck at the beginning Bob Book levels. At this time H-Bob was nearing the end of third grade...at the age where the effectiveness of reading intervention hangs in the balance scales. After several months of therapy, H-Bob had been working hard at the different exercises that were prescribed. They were hard, strained her eyes, forcing them to behave in the way they needed to. But there was progress. Things were going to work out.
Well, things have a way of working out, but perhaps just not the way you envision.
Next up...fast forward to June 2011 and an encounter with another life-changing book.
Friday, March 16, 2012
Things to do at Abernathy Creek Farm
Busy, busy, busy with our outdoor chores. Hop over to our Abernathy Creek Farm blog to get a peek at what needed to be done, Spring Chores on the Farm.
Tuesday, February 28, 2012
Waiting for Spring
I'm dusting off the farm blog again. Here's the link to today's post...Waiting for Spring. Enjoy!
Monday, February 20, 2012
Razor clamming on the Washington coast
Five layers. Hood up. Rubber boots on. Outside in the wind. Sloshing through surf. Whatever would voluntarily drive someone to those extremes? In our family, it was the call of trying out something new…razor clam digging on the Washington coast during the last day of its season at the advice of a friend. Notice I didn't mention anything about rain. And it's a good thing it held off because eventually I was soaked from the knee down and dragging around forty-degree sea water in my boots, all because I got a little preoccupied watching my nine-year old harvest her very first razor clam by herself. That surf has a way of sneaking up on you and catching you off guard. Never turn your back on the ocean or look down for an extended period of time, I tell you.
Anyway, we had a blast. Between the five family members and two friends that we took along we had purchased only four tags but had a haul of over fifty clams...fifteen-clam limit per tag holder. And these guys are big…about six inches long and several inches wide. Not bad for only having two clamming guns. Hopefully the photos will give you a little better idea what's involved...scanning the wet, receding surf for signs of a clam digging in deep, popping the clamming gun over the top, getting it wiggled down through the sand, and then sealing the air hole while pulling it up with the clam hopefully trapped inside.
Cleaning them was an adventure for my husband about midnight last night, but I left him with the suggestion of checking YouTube for a tutorial while I took home a friend. Good thing, since the video's advice was a little more specific than that he had been casually told. A pile of shells and innards later, there was a nice bag of clams waiting for the refrigerator.
Now I'm anxiously waiting returning from the girls charter school to start a fire and sit in front of it for an extended period of time to get warm down to my bones. And tackle the sandy, wet laundry and the dishes heaving out of the kitchen sink...but that's beside the point. I haven't been able to really get warm since yesterday. Then it will be off to try my hand at throwing together some sort of gluten-free breaded and fried razor clams for dinner. Here's hoping those guys will be delicious!
For those of you who might have noticed, this blog posting might be considered a bit of a celebration at least on my part. I have truly missed the chronicling of our hectic life. I just can't seem to fit it in. Partly because my perfectionistic procrastination takes over…WANTING perfect photos...WANTING witty renditions of our family's adventures…when all I really NEED is the recording of little fleeting memories to hold on to in some tangible form other than in photos and our aging memories. Our little day-trip has only been one of a million activities that has kept me away from my blog. It and a radical diet change for the entire family…supporting our catch-up learning of our little right-brained, creative learner who had been struggling with dyslexia…getting our senior son on track for deciding a college and applying for athletic and academic scholarships…being an active member with my husband in our fifteen-year-old's musical theater program involving building sets and sewing costumes…keeping our livestock happy through the winter…all while trying to keep our focus real and on those matters that really count.
So…look for a blog post…once a week…once a month…whenever I can steal a few moments. I certainly will be relishing the opportunity.


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Can you cure your hangover with an IV drip? With Dr Josh Berkowitz #121
- IV drips, do they work if you are healthy but in need of a boost?
- Can they get rid of your hangover? The big question!
- 30% discount if you want to try it out.
DISCLAIMER: This week's podcast was not recorded on a hangover 😂
It was recorded WHILE I had an intravenous drip pumping 25 grams of Vitamin C and 1.5 grams of Magnesium into my bloodstream.
Dr Josh Berkowitz's treatments are based on the direct intravenous introduction of fluids and vitamins into the body. IVs are the quickest way to deliver fluids into the bloodstream.
Check out the drip gently releasing Vit C into my arm while we chat on the website - pics there.
But how did I feel when I got one while talking to Dr. Josh? And could high-dose vitamins and minerals pumped into your body benefit you?
I love meeting world experts, chatting to them and rolling my sleeves up and trying new stuff at the same time. I hope you enjoy listening to it too.
Also very cool - if you want to try it out for yourself, you can quote Zestology when you contact them at ivboost.uk and get 30% off. A not too shabby discount.
Click below to stream this week's podcast now...
When you listen you'll hear
- What is Preventive Medicine? [8:50]
- The importance of Magnesium to our body [10:40]
- Athletes taking IV drip of Vitamin C [14:03]
- Dr. Josh and his practice of medicine [16:03]
- Traditional and alternative methods of medicine [20:38]
- Best result and massive improvement with IV Drips [28:27]
- Dr. Josh's tip to live with more energy, vitality, and motivation [33:01]
- Mindfulness and enjoying the present moment [36:18]
For more information
Listen and follow Zestology on iTunes Listen and follow Zestology on Spotify Stream by clicking below
Stay zesty.
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Cameras have really grown and upgraded over the years since they were first created. A UK-based photographer named Marco Marques own an impressive collection of about 50 vintage cameras that he displays in his office. He had a custom shelving unit made to display all of the amazing cameras on the wall. These photos, which we originally saw on PetaPixel, will show you this photographer's collection of vintage cameras which we find pretty amazing!
Marques told PetaPixel, "It was my mum who got me into collecting vintage cameras. She knew my love for photography and one Christmas she bought me my first vintage camera, and Agilux agiflash, and this is where it began."
Marques estimates that he has spend about £300 over the years in buying his cameras, mostly from car boot sales and garage sales.
Pretty amazing, huh? Interested in the different cameras of the past? Check out this blog post to see a great infographic on the history of the photographic camera.
Do you love cameras and taking amazing photos of anything and everything? Have you always dreamed of starting your own photography business? How To Start Your Photography Business would be perfect for you! For $149.99, you can get this 133 page guide of great advice on starting your very own business including how to get started, how to begin finding clients, how to do your own marketing, set your prices, and so much more!
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Eleanor Calder, the pretty brunette who dated Louis Tomlinson for four years before a sudden split that saw the One Direction hunk rebounding heartily from lover to lover and even impregnating one fling, as reported by Hollywood Life, has finally given an interview confirming that she has kept busy "in a good way" since her split with Louis Tomlinson.
Eleanor and business partner Max Hurd, who run the style blog The Trend Pear together, spoke to the Idle Man about their rollercoaster year and their thoughts about fashion directions for 2016.
The duo put a positive spin on the year, calling it "great" and explaining that their business has been growing and lots of exciting experiences and plans have kept Eleanor and Max happy.
"Our year so far has been great! Since launching our blog in July we have been very busy for all the right reasons. Since then it's been pretty non-stop but have been loving it!"
Asked about "what songs they have on their playlist," the Trend Pearers revealed that they are loving Justin Bieber's new album. This is a mirror image of the shade Selena Gomez gave when she cited One Direction's Made In The A.M. as her preference over ex Bieber's Purpose album, as reported by Sugarscape.
"We are currently obsessed with The Weekend's new album, especially Prisoner ft. Lana Del Ray. Justin Bieber's new album has definitely converted us into Beliebers!"
The two also revealed that they have exciting new projects in the works. It seems the Trend Pear's world is getting busier as the One Direction frenzy winds down.
"We are currently working on some secret exciting projects which will be revealed in the New Year. We are also both excited to ring in the new year from Max's house in France where the dress code is James Bond inspired, and so we are looking forward to bringing some of the most famous and iconic looks back for the night!"
In a post on their blog, Eleanor and Max even give a shout-out of sorts to new One Direction girlfriends Gigi Hadid and Kendall Jenner, who were part of the Balmain supermodel army hired to promote the Balmain x H&M chain store fashion line.
A shot showing Gigi and Kendall in the subway advertisement used for the Balmain x H&M campaign is featured, along with the following thoughts.
"This year has really seen the Parisian brand go from strength to strength. Olivier Rousteig proved himself to be a real 21st century designer, dominating the all important social media platforms as well as creating smash collection after smash collection. The brands collaboration with H&M was a huge commercial success as well as an incredibly marketing ploy, introducing the design house to a whole new Jenner/Kardashian audience."
It is big of Eleanor to include the snap of the partners of Zayn Malik and Harry Styles, who are now wrapped up in the One Direction whirlwind the way Eleanor herself once was, and to add that positive commentary. Balmain placed at ten on fashion-watcher Eleanor's list, though, so it barely made the cut, and is there just a hint of a shade in the elegant brunette's suggestion that "chain store" branding will appeal to a Kardashian/Jenner audience? Is she calling Kardashian fans, and perhaps Kendall herself, "basic" (to use a Kardashian term)?
Hopefully, this is not the case — Eleanor has no reason to dislike either girl, and it's not as if Louis Tomlinson new girl Danielle Campbell appeared in the Balmain ads.
The beautiful London model seems to have well and truly moved on and looks more gorgeous than ever. Eleanor should look out though: OK! Magazine is dropping unsubtle hints that they would love to score an interview with the brunette, and you can bet that if Eleanor were to speak to reporters at that publication, there would be no beating around the bush on the issue of One Direction and Eleanor's hunky ex, Louis Tomlinson.
2015: zayn leaving zaughty eleanor breakup louis is going to be a dad zayn and perrie break up rt if you stayed #Thanks1DForAnAmazing2015— Aye loves Niall ୨୧ (@93niallsderby) December 30, 2015
Was 2015 a crazy year for One Direction, Louis Tomlinson, and everyone involved?
[Photo by John Davisson/Invision/AP]