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When I think of the characters of the bible, I can't help but think about the awesome men & women of God that have come down through the history: David, Solomon, Sampson, Ruth, Esther, Peter, Mary and many, many others. These biblical titans are great examples of living the life of constant dependence upon God. Their stories are so great and so well known that it's hard to not deify these mighty men and women of the bible. Yet the bible itself tells us that they aren't nearly as perfect as we once thought they were.
Sitting in Bible Study Methods class today, a gentleman (whose name I can't remember for the life of me) gave a devotional about how a boat had started to sink and the people were looking around for the captain and crew to figure out what to do. People looked in the captains room, the bridge of the ship; they looked everywhere, but the captain and crew couldn't be found. Someone eventually looked out to sea and saw two life boats in the water, heading towards shore. One boat held the captain and the crew and the other boat held all of their luggage. What a shock that must have been to the people on the ship; to see the person in charge of the whole ship, being concerned with himself and his crew and none of his passengers. What a shock it must have been to see the captain fail the expectations of the people on board that ship.
When those we expect to be heroic and powerful, fail to meet that expectation, what does that do to a person? How do you handle that? Does your world come completely crashing down like so many people in the world? Did your world stop when Michael Jackson died like so many others in the world? How hard it has on the people we idolize to be a gods to us.
The thing I really like about the bible is that it doesn't pull any punches; it tells the story how it happened. Take for example King David: He is called "…a man after God's own heart," yet David had multiple wives, had an affair with Bathsheba, had Bathsheba's husband killed, and then took Bathsheba as his own wife. Does that sound like the King David we normally hear about at church?
How great is our God that He could use someone who had as screwed up a life as David? How great is our God that He could use someone with sins like mine? It's a very humbling thought to know that I screw up a lot and yet God is still willing to use me anyways.


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Hoorah! My nail stickers finally arrived! Now I have a full supply of 9 designs! So I thought I would combine two of my current favourite colours and try out the triangle design. So there isn't really much relevance to My Little Pony as the post title suggests, except that the colours I chose really remind me of that classic 80's children's TV show.
- Seche Clear
- Barry M - 318 Peach Melba
- Rimmel London Pro - 500 Peppermint
- Seche Vite
- Nail stickers
It was my first time using the Seche Clear as a base coat and it seemed to work well, but the proof will really be when I take it off. Seche Vite is now my new favourite top coat. I bought it to try out as everyone seemed to be talking about it, and I have to say, the hype is well deserved. It dries super quickly! I'm really looking forward to trying out all the other sticker styles :)
Laura x X x

subset: commoncrawl


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Superb Astrology Software
For beginner students to advanced practitioners and professional astrologers… our easy to use software brings you the stars!
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Kepler 8 is for people with any level of experience, from novice to professional.
Developed over 25 years, Kepler is firmly established as the the market #1 for features, support and accuracy.
Pegasus is an excellent introductory program for beginners who has very low budget but want to use a very accurate, easy to use, and affordable program.
Add-on Reports
Over 75 detailed Interpretive Reports – focusing on particular areas or issues.
These report writers can be added to Kepler, Sirius, or Pegasus.
Unlimited professional reports that can be shared with friends or offered commercially.
- We have over 70 Interpretive Report options (add-on's that require Kepler, Sirius, or Pegasus to run)
- They provide you and your clients with options for more thorough analysis of the chart and also offer interpretations that focus on particular areas or issues that are not in the report included in Kepler or Sirius
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- Art Wheel Report option (unique to Kepler) are customised to individuals or special occasion…always the perfect gift!
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Our Astrology Software provides a comprehensive set of Astrological tools that have been developed over 25years. You will find countless tools for analysis, forecasting, reporting, learning and research that are used by the worlds leading Astrologers. Friends and associates will delight in exploring with you the unique range of items that you can produce with Kepler
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Kepler 8Novice to professional
- Provides a comprehensive set of tools that is useful for a wide range of interests. Whether your interest is learning astrology, research, advanced techniques, beautiful graphics, or having attractive chart wheels and accurate interpretations, Kepler can deliver what you need.
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PegasusGetting Started
- Pegasus is an excellent introductory program for beginners who has very low budget but want to use a very accurate, easy to use, and affordable program.
Click here to learn more
Cosmic Patterns, and it's many authors, continue to diversify and improve the quality of astrological interpretive reports, and we can be very grateful to all of them for their fine efforts. The programs reviewed here have added new dimensions to what computer reports can do, and have done a superb job of it.
Cosmic Patterns, the software company behind Kepler, is especially user-friendly to astrologers who want to design their own interpretive reports.
Cosmic Patterns Softwares, are the most frequently updated astrology software packages you'll find in our reviews.
Beginners in astrology to those who are advanced practitioners will find Kepler worth every cent.
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You are free to produce and share unlimited reports and chart wheels (and other data) generated by our softwares.
You are also encouraged to write your own interpretive reports that can be run within the softwares.
Detailed instructions can be found in the help menus for modifying reports or creating original ones.
Can I customise wheels and reports to my business?
YES, all our softwares allow for adding your unique identity to all reports and charts that you share.
Can I get customer support if needed?
YES…we will always work with you to resolve issues related to our software… we do not charge for customer support!
We will work with you via phone or email if you have any issues getting the software up and running.
As soon as you are up and running you will find extensive support inside the 'HELP' menu within our software.
Many instructional videos are available for you to explore and better understand the many powerful features of each program.
If you should still need further help or support we will either resolve an issue via email or we will have a direct customer support response within 24 hours via phone.
Rest assured we will always support our customers either directly or via technical customer support at Cosmic Patterns head offices in Florida.
Can I upgrade later?
All of our software packages can be updated to the current versions and often these upgrades are free.
Kepler can be upgraded to Sirius and Pegasus to both Sirius and Kepler 8.
There will always be the opportunity to continue with your astrological journey with fuller featured software upgrades.
Or, you will enjoy the benefits of new features via software version updates.
At each step you will still enjoy the use of any report ad-ons that you have purchased.
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Yes but these will be manually created by yourself and then sent to the customer.
If you prefer to use our online chart services Kepler and Sirius have a feature for you.
We can produce reports and wheels for you using the additional report writers that you have purchased.
We charge a fee for this service and then make payment to you.
Full details of this are included in your software package.


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It was the audience crowd that was up dancing, and they had a lot of fun. The band always has a good time, and for this gig, we had a surprise extra player, Greg, who came on board that day (he was visiting Ian, our bass player). Turns out he is a fantastic piano player, and was a very welcome addition to the already stellar line-up of musicians:
Paul Chilco, guitar
Greg Dechert, piano
Jake Fowell, sax
Paul Greco, drums
Ian Pay, bass
Here are a few pictures:
|Ian, sideways (I did correct this on my computer...)
|Myself (same story with the side view, as below, with me and also Paul G.
|tout le band
|Paul G
|Greg, Paul G. Ian, Zoe, Jake, Paul C.


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After a barrage of action-packed episodes, "Dr. Linus" was a much needed return to the character driven episodes that filled Seasons 1-3. Don't get me wrong, I love a smoke-filled mass killing episode as much as the next guy, but LOST was a show built on character development ,so I was happy to see it return to its roots. This episode was written to perfection. It had a great character-centric arc, all while finding time to develop a non-centric character (Jack I'm looking at you). in addition, we got confirmations about Richard's history, big answers about Jacob's touching (that's what she said) and a Nikki & Paolo throwback compliments of everyone's favorite grave digger, Miles. If all that wasn't enough, Alex looked so smokin that Flocke should have jumped timelines and asked HER to take his place instead of her surrogate dad.
I'll get straight to the point, I loved that Ben was redeemed in both timelines. After complaining that Ben never displays human motives or emotions, he became a character this week. I think Mile's insight into Jacob's last thoughts cut Ben pretty deep and I really believed that Ben was both sorry for killing Jacob and grief-stricken over his daughter's death. In the flash sideways we get a glimpse of what kind of person Ben could be if there was no island and no pool of resurrection (more on this later). Have I mentioned that everyone but Kate is happier in Timeline X?? Damn you Jacob!!
Lastly, I think it's ironic that the episode hyped to be the demise of Benjamin Linus, turned out to be the episode that saved his character. As my watching-buddy noted, no one was going to be that heartbroken over a Ben Linus death at this point in the season because he was already character-assassinated by poor writing. Now, however, he is a redeemed character. Welcome back to the land of the living Dr. Linus, unfortunately for you, the LOST writers tend to kill characters after making them likable (see Charlie & Shannon).
Now the quick hits:
- THE GIFTS!! So Jacob can give someone a gift/power if he touches you. He gave Richard the power of agelessness and I'm assuming he gave Walt & Miles their abilities as well. Remember when Miles was thrown into a truck and Jacob's body guards told him they could explain where his power comes from? They must have known he was J-touched
- Did Jacob give Locke the power to self-heal?? He shouldn't have survived that fall. Did Jacob give Jack the power to heal people?? Clearly Sawyer got perfect-man-scruff power and Kate got a great rack for a woman so petite (mmm)
- I find it very interesting that Jacob was hoping that Ben didn't kill him. Jacob knew about the plot but didn't want to die. Hmmm. And yes we all noticed Ben was J-touched
- Smokey offered Ben his place as the island's "defense system". If Smokey was telling the truth then maybe my theory that says Smokey is trapped on the island by Jacob isn't so bad. Hold that thought…
- We never found out how Ben got off the island dammit! What's even more interesting is that it appears that Ben & his father left before the incident occurred. I don't know the nuke going off could have changed things previous to the incident going off. My brain hurts thinking about the implications…
- During the re-showing of "Sundown" there was a pop-up that said Charles Widmore told Locke that "a war was coming to the island and if he (Locke) isn't on the island, then the wrong side will win". That made me think that Widmore was on the sub. Stupid pop-up foreshadowing/spoilers
- If Widmore has been working with Smokey, how have they communicated?? Maybe Widmore & Eloise have been working together to get the O6 (Jacob's candidate's) back on the island so they can replace Jacob
- Why did Smokey leave the Losties on the beach alive? Even if he has to spare the candidates, why not kill Miles and Jurassic Pork (Ilana, thanks Franny)?
- Move aside John Locke, Jack is the new Man of Faith. The dynamite scene was kinda bad-ass and the coolest thing Jack's done since getting Sawyer to admit he banged lots of prostitutes in front of Kate
Finally, make sure your seat back and tray tables are in their full upright position because it's PREDICTION TIME!!
I think that Smokey AND Jacob have to be replaced before Smokey can leave the island. That's why I think Smokey can't kill the candidates, he needs to keep the potential replacements alive! I think Smokey killed Jacob because Jacob was being too picky about his replacements. After waiting more than a thousand years for Jacob to take his sweet ass time, a pissed off and island-fever induced Smokey decided to kill Jacob to speed up the replacement process. Jacob said, "It only ends once, the rest is just progress." I think he is talking about finding a replacement. Maybe Smokey thinks Jacob's replacement criteria is too tough to fill because fighting get's a candidate removed from the cave/lighthouse list. Clearly these two are in desperate need of Monster.com
And yes, I believe Jacob wants Jack to be his replacement while Sawyer is Smokey's number one stunna (along with many women). Interestingly enough Sawyer has been on a island a long time and I think he's more attached to it than he knows.


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Students of medicine start training early when it comes to the fascination of the eye. The textbook classic "The diagnostic View" ('Der diagnostische Blick', German textbook) provides among other things a view into the eye. Specialists for internal medicine actually benefit from a look in the eye of the patients thus getting diagnostic clues. And in individual cases this look might be even path-breaking. Everybody knows about that yellow discoloration in the sclera is the sign for a liver functional disorder. In addition the cornea and/or iris can supply indications for a whole line of metabolic disorders: The Kayser-Fleischer Ring in the cornea stroma is considered typical for Morbus Wilson. Just like the superfluous iron during hemochromatosis might create a visible sediment in the eye.
So colourful – but also special?
But it's not only these path gnomonic changes making the eye so attractive for alternative medicine. What's creating its own discipline within complementary medicine today – iris diagnostics – rather is a closed system, developed in the middle of the 19th century. In iris diagnostics it is assumed that all organs of a person have a kind of an image in the iris. Accordingly diseases of these organs reflect visibly in the pigmentation of the iris. Since this is not really an obvious thesis it requires an explanatory model. Basis of this system are supposed to be neurone pathways allegedly connecting the body's periphery respectively the inner organs with the iris via the thalamus. It was repeatedly mentioned that within a nerve system working with a central star (brain) there are such connections running from everywhere to everywhere. But this fact is not really considered disturbing among followers of this procedure. On the contrary, the system was repeatedly refined. In the meantime we even avail over software programs supposedly enabling iris diagnostics with support of the computer. The fact that not a single one of the 37 entries found under the key word "iridology" in the research database PubMed is devoted to basic research stands in stark contrast to this differentiation of that professional field. In that regard, Anglo-American authors thus continuously talk about iris diagnostics as "pseudoscience".
Study about colon cancer: Iris diagnostic not any better than rolling the dice
Nonetheless, the Cologne anesthesiologist Dr. Stephan Herber wanted to give the procedure a chance. In his thesis a few years ago he addressed the question whether iris diagnosticians could identify patients suffering from colon cancer by means of the iris. This physician, today head of a medical practice for traditional Chinese medicine, has selected colon cancer carefully: "Colorectal carcinomas develop over a long period. We are talking about a process taking years, sometimes decades. That's why we considered this disease very suitable for a study", explains Herber in a meeting with DocCheck News. Thought and done. The physicians made digital photos of both eyes of 29 patients with histologically confirmed CRC. The control group consisted of 29 healthy test persons suiting to the intervention group by age and sex. All images were submitted to two experts in the field of iris diagnostics. The task was to identify the cancer patients by those pictures. It failed: The two iris diagnostic experts were right in 51.7 percent respectively 53.4 percent. "That's just as good as a random selection. This result was so clearly negative – there was nothing left to discuss", resumes Herber. The reactions of those two iridologists were different. While the study was already going on, one of them stated that the iris does not change in the course of life anyways. "The other one was at least a bit more astonished", says Herber.
Correlations found, but: What does that mean?
Wreckage for the iris? A few life boats are still left. And the little available in research about the topic is found right around those. Mainly a Korean working group emphasizes the "constitutional" character of the iris and thus is looking for correlations with constitutional diseases. In 2004 these scientists described a correlation between a so-called neurogenic iris constitution and the appearance of an arterial hypertension. They also set of on a quest to a genetic level and found a statistic correlation between iris constitution and those polymorphisms of the apolipo-protein E predisposing hypertension.
Four years later they achieved similar results for the polymorphisms of the angiotensin gene also related to hypertension. But knowledge of this nature does not really bring you forward. If you have family with increased hypertension problems you might want to take on the idea yourself to do a bit more sports and eat healthier without a look at the iris. It's also clear: Even if there were correlations between iris pigmentation and disposition for hypertension it would not mean at all that the entire theory building of iris diagnostics is right. Here only real basic research could help. And that is not available yet just as for the older and as generally known failed phrenology.


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Using Depth of Field in Firefly
ibr_remote last edited by
Where exactly is the centre of the depth of field in my scene, when I render in Firefly with the option selected? It seems the entire scene is rendered as a blurred image. Meaning, no real "depth". Please help me understand better how I can get maybe like a DSL type of sharp foreground with blurred background type of image. Thanks.
phdubrov last edited by
@ibr_remote Display-Guides-Focus distance guides - where exactly.
ibr_remote last edited by
@phdubrov Ah I see ! I did not have the guides on. Thanks !


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FLINT, Mich., Dec. 7, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Diplomat Pharmacy, Inc. (NYSE: DPLO) has launched Diplomat Specialty Infusion Group, a new brand uniting five subsidiaries—American Homecare Federation, At-Home IV Infusion Professional, BioRx, MedPro Rx, and XAS Infusion Suites.
To learn more about Diplomat's specialty infusion services, visit diplomat.is/specialty-infusion.
"As we continue to build on the work we have done, we are excited to move forward with the launch of our new Diplomat Specialty Infusion Group brand," said Diplomat CEO and Chairman Phil Hagerman. "Together, our combined resources allow us to continue to build upon our expertise and services for patients with specialized needs."
Diplomat Specialty Infusion Group companies will continue their focused services within their key areas of excellence, including:
"This brand opens a new door for us," said Phil Rielly, Diplomat vice president and president of Diplomat Specialty Infusion Group. "Our patients are our driving force. They are our motivation to continue pushing for better therapies and educating on the industry. We are determined to keep working and advocating under the new brand on their behalf—to be the voice our patients don't always have."
To learn more about Diplomat, visit diplomat.is.
Forward-Looking Statements
This press release contains forward-looking statements made pursuant to the safe harbor provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Forward-looking statements give current expectations or forecasts of future events or our future financial or operating performance. The forward-looking statements contained in this press release are based on management's good-faith belief and reasonable judgment based on current information. These statements are qualified by important risks and uncertainties, many of which are beyond our control, that could cause our actual results to differ materially from those forecasted or indicated by such forward-looking statements. For a discussion of such risks and uncertainties, you should review Diplomat's filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including "Risk Factors" in Diplomat's Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2015 and in subsequent reports filed with or furnished to the Securities and Exchange Commission. Except as may be required by any applicable laws, Diplomat assumes no obligation to publicly update such forward-looking statements, which are made as of the date hereof or the earlier date specified herein, whether as a result of new information, future developments or otherwise.
About Diplomat
Diplomat (NYSE: DPLO) serves patients and physicians in all 50 states. Headquartered in Flint, Michigan, the company focuses on medication management programs for people with complex chronic diseases, including oncology, immunology, hepatitis, multiple sclerosis, specialized infusion therapy and many other serious or long-term conditions. Diplomat opened its doors in 1975 as a neighborhood pharmacy with one essential tenet: "Take good care of patients and the rest falls into place." Today, that tradition continues—always focused on improving patient care and clinical adherence. For more information visit diplomat.is.
Kali Lucas, Public Relations Specialist
810.768.9580 | firstname.lastname@example.com
John Louis, Director, Category Management,
Specialty Infusion Group
610.924.5128 | email@example.com
Logo - http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20140928/148820
To view the original version on PR Newswire, visit:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/diplomat-unites-companies-under-specialty-infusion-group-brand-300374475.html
|SOURCE Diplomat Pharmacy, Inc.
Copyright©2016 PR Newswire.
All rights reserved


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Outside the rain is pouring on my roof and on the sheets I forgot to bring in from the clothesline, but the sun is shining so brightly as to require sunglasses. My mother always said that situation predicted rain for the next day also. Granted my mother was not the most accurate of the weather prognosticators, but sometimes I think her methods were about as accurate as the ones in use today. One day just last week I was driving in the rain to the grocery store as the radio announcer gave the weather forecast.
Part of God's masterplan
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Download Zombie Shooter: Pandemic Survivor Part 2 (by JOYNOWSTUDIO) for Android
Zombie Shooter: Pandemic Survivor is a FREE zombie shooting game, featured with action and strategy gameplay.
In YEAR 2037, a pandemic of plague virus infection wiped out most of world animals and citizens. The world turns into an anarchy DEAD ZONE by plague virus pandemic and survivors' lives threated with anarchy apocalypse! The places you liked to hang out are now full of undead walking zombies and persons you known mostly disappear. Blood and green deadly venom. Dangers and threats lie everywhere. How will you survive in this Zombie game?
★DOUBTS and ANSWERS
Where do those persons and animals go? Think about where do these walking dead zombies come from? Is there a possibility that zombies used to be dead persons? Maybe that is the reason why zombies keep emerging from world corners and looks never ends. One hint: keep searching and find other survivors in this pandemic Zombie game!
★KNOWLEDEG about WALKING DEAD ZOMBIES
– Walking dead zombies and undead animals have no feelings
– Walking dead zombies have sharp teeth and undead animals have deadly claw
– Walking dead zombies and undead animals both eat flesh and brain of living people
– Walking dead zombies prefers different organs tastes: some zombies are fund of hearts, some likes brains, some zombies are desperate for lungs, but all drink flesh blood
– Undead zombies differs in all ways: movement, damage, defense and attack types
Imagine this: some zombies walk slowly, some zombies run fast and some zombies can just crawl and part of zombies can even climb up and down trees. They are hungry and thirsty! They are all desperate for your organs and walking towards you slowly…
Keep you defense up and improve your strength by using multiple specialized weapons and arm yourself with various armors! Unlock powerful guns when you rank up! Always upgrade your weapons and equipment! A precise headshot can save you at the right time at the pandemic zombie games.
– WEAPONS include shotguns, sniper rifles, grenade, rocket launchers, flamethrowers
– Different guns have different models: DESSERT EAGLE, AK47, P90, M134, SMAW-D83mm and etc, – Guns' attributes differs in damage, defense, healthy point, fire rate and clip size.
– ARMORS include shoes, pants, helmets, armors, gloves and so on.
– Kill and shoot walking dead zombies and rescue citizens
– Unkilled walking dead zombies cover world corners.
– Maps specifically covers different locations: Misty Frost, Highway, Lab, Secret Garden, Power Station and so on.
– Survivor, you also need to explore hidden places and shoot zombies there
– Complete quests and win generous rewards
– Kill the most zombies with guns and survive the zombie games
– Shoot, fight and kill zombies and prevent from assaults of zombies
– Quests requires zombie shooting skills, shoot zombies with you gun
– Connect to Facebook and play with you friends in the zombie shooting games
– Compete with world players and be the top zombie shooter
– Customized sound and music effects for zombie games
– Shoot dead zombies and kill zombies
– Story Mode and Survival Mode is alive, PVP Mode is coming soon
– Stay calm and practice shooting zombies more
– Claim daily rewards and win mission rewards
– Use powerful weapons to shoot zombies
Shoot zombies and protect yourself from zombies pandemic! To live, to kill! Can you survive the pandemic zombie games? Show zombies your shooting talents! Download now to start shooting in this zombie game.


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I have always been a 'fufu and chicken wings light soup' kind of person.I could eat that everyday and night 🙂 but recently, I made a new discovery that made fufu my second favourite food.
The soft riped plantain,hard boiled eggs,the smoked fish and nkontonmire really got to me.I kept asking for more.I am not sure about the name of this food but for now,I call it 'village food.'
The best part-You can make this nutritious and delicious food in only 20 minutes.
Boil the paintain(ripe/unriped).Put some salted fish and onions in hot palm oil and stir for a while.Cook the nkontomire for about 10 mins.You can use garden eggs or nkontomire.Grind it in 'asanka' and add the palm oil.
Add your boiled eggs and fish and that is it..I promise you will be thinking about me and smiling after your first bite 🙂


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Christine Ebersole and Patti LuPone. Photo Courtesy of Joan Marcus.
"There are no ugly women, only lazy ones."
Helena Rubinstein, cosmetics entrepreneur and rival of Elizabeth Arden, repeated that over the course of her career. Beauty was revolutionized by Rubinstein and Arden, but more importantly, they were powerful entrepreneurs in a male-dominated workforce. War Paint, a new musical at the Nederlander Theatre, gives us a glimpse of the day-to-day of the lives of these women and their rivalry.
The set design was beautiful, the costumes were magnificent, and, of course, the two-time Tony Award-winners Patti LuPone (Helena Rubinstein) and Christine Ebersole (Elizabeth Arden) were fantastic, as expected. The musical progresses from the advertised topic, the rivalry of these two beauty entrepreneurs, to a broader reflection on their internal struggles as powerful women. By the end of the musical, drugstore cosmetics lines have devalued the image of timeless beauty, and the two women are forced to reflect on the value and impact of their lives' work.
While a compelling and moving narrative put to incredible music, the flow of the lyrics was sometimes stilted. Elizabeth Arden, despite her humble upbringing and incredible corporate empire, was portrayed as a brainless blonde in contrast to Helena Rubinstein. She was 'obsessed' with her packaging, as opposed to obsessed with how good her porcelain containers were for business. In wartime, the outfits of her sales representatives were exaggerated by 'military women' in short skirts, contrasted sharply by Rubenstein's clinical containers and women in military-inspired uniforms. The rivalry between the two women was written with a strong hand and exaggerated dialogue, while their hesitant coming together seemed much more natural. And at the end of the performance, a question about the unresolved impact of cosmetics on women's freedom seemed to be misplaced. The narrative of two successful women strong enough to create a lasting industry was diluted by the question of their lasting impact, not on professional women but on beauty standards.
Overall, War Paint brought this narrative into the 21st century with grace and respect for the immense task that both Rubinstein and Arden faced in building companies named after and run by women.


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In a SaaS company, providing great support is the key to your growth and success.
The role of customer support is to accompany customers during their journey and respond to all of their needs. Support in a SaaS company starts with prospects and continues with current users. It is therefore about more than just understanding the functionality of the product, solving the bugs, and handling technical issues.
Helping prospects
When SaaS prospects visit your website, they generally start out on the self-service path. They check out the website and videos, but then they will start to have questions. Many will go to the FAQ page to find the answer to basic questions, and if you've done a good job they will be satisfied.
But what if prospects don't find an answer to their question? That's when live service becomes a necessity.
To make sure that prospects have access to instant contact, it is useful to have live chat, phone, and visual engagement options available. Human-to-human contact reduces customer frustration and enables your business to deliver a good customer experience.
Moreover, live engagement helps you learn more about your prospects, including discovering their business needs and problems. The more you know about your prospects, the easier it becomes to develop a demo that meets their specific needs. Just yesterday, for example, a Saleswings client had questions about how our lead scoring system works. Thanks to our live engagement options, we were able to interact with the client, resolve his doubts and suggest scheduling a demo. This led to him to test out our free trial.
Improving onboarding
Once a prospect is ready to move from a trial to a buying phase, you need to be prepared to offer live support as well – even if you are a SaaS company. During the on-boarding process, you will need to be there for your customers, often walking them through all the steps from signup to activation to training, in order to decrease the drop off rate.
Glance visual engagement solutions can help in supporting clients through cobrowse, screen sharing, and agent video. With Glance solutions, SaaS customer support employees can see exactly where customers are and what they are doing. Guiding customers through on-boarding processes provides an opportunity to enable customers learn how to handle processes for themselves from the get-go, reducing future support calls and increasing customer empowerment.
Read: Supercharge Customer Experience With Cobrowse
Providing excellent customer service
The work for SaaS customer service employees doesn't end with onboarding. Churn rate is a constant threat.
The first step in assuring your customers will remain with you is to monitor what your users are doing and learn where they are failing and succeeding in the application. Software such as Kissmetrics can be used to help with behavioral analysis. The knowledge you can gain from this type of software gives SaaS companies the opportunity to find out about key problems without waiting for the customer to complain or get frustrated.
Regardless of your proactive improvements, however, situations in which customers need live assistance will inevitably arise. Here are four areas which companies can take advantage of in order to take SaaS customer support from average to outstanding.
1. SaaS customer support – assistance
First, there are three main reasons for a client to contact a SaaS customer support team member with an issue:
- Bugs
- Missing features
- Confusing features
These three points represent more of an opportunity than a problem for the company. For instance, there is the opportunity to discover a glitch. There is also the opportunity to impress the client by solving the issue.
Take, for instance, the example of a bug. Every bug found gives your IT team the opportunity to solve the issue and ensure that no other customers experiences that problem.
In the example of a missing feature, depending on how many people request the feature, you can get new ideas for how the product can be developed. Ultimately, this will result in more than one happy customer.
Regarding confusing features, hearing from customers provides you with the opportunity to improve communication and make product expectations clear.
2. SaaS customer support – usage
Second, it is important to check if a customer is using the software. Indeed, a 2012 study by Totango found a "near-perfect correlation between non-use and cancelations: cancelations of software subscriptions were almost always preceded by a period of non-use." For this reason, it is fundamental to discover why the customer is not using the product.
SaaS customer support should contact customers that are not using the product. Find out why usage is dropping off.
When you talk with customers that appear to be breaking away, make them an offer that encourages them to give you a second chance. This will give you the opportunity to understand the source problem and to find a solution.
3. SaaS customer support – education
Third, SaaS customer support teams should be available to educate customers. Educate them about new features, how to use the current solution to its maximum potential, and how to grow usage of the solution within their company.
You can supplement live contact with blog posts, emails, webinars, and/or YouTube videos. All of these combined will help your customers to get the most out of the product.
4. SaaS customer support – centralization
Lastly, regardless of the size of your company, it is important that customers understand that their questions will be handled by your customer support team, regardless of the means of contact.
In other words, SaaS companies have social networks, websites with live engagement options, use emails, and more. Ideally, you should centralize all communications from customers so that your SaaS customer support team can answer questions in the shortest possible time to a customer via the customer's preferred channel. Tools such as Intercom allow you to concentrate communication in one place.
Great customer service is the key
In conclusion, outstanding SaaS customer support is key to running a successful business. While companies choose solutions partially based around features, studies have shown that many will pay more to have great customer service. Great customer support will increase revenue, customer loyalty, and your business reputation, making it vital to any SaaS company.
About Sara Sayegh-Moccand
Sara Sayegh-Moccand is a digital marketing specialist at Saleswings, a website tracking and lead scoring add-on. The software identifies your most sales ready leads based on their website activity. It analyses past and future visits of your leads and will score their level of engagement/interest.
About Glance Networks
Glance helps enterprise organizations create the ultimate customer experience with smart, omni-channel visual engagement solutions based around integrated cobrowse, screen share, and one-way agent video. We are one of the world's simplest, most reliable and secure platforms that enable companies to see, show and share anything online, creating a frictionless path to great experiences in sales, support and customer service. The result is improved customer satisfaction and loyalty, increased revenue growth and operational savings. From financial services and healthcare to retail and travel and leisure, even the most advanced technology and SaaS organizations – we transform the customer experience for today's business.


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Category Archives: manga
Astro Boy
Astro Boy ~ I guess I should have known better with this 2009 updating of the 1960s black and white cartoon beloved from my youth. And it's a long way past the evolution of the animation too. The story seems wrong. The origin of Astro Boy is fairly intact, but it has the feel and the stench of both A.I.: Artificial Intelligence and Wall-E when neither is really appropriate. It even has stronger ties to Pinocchio. Astro Boy is Astro Boy, let it be what it is, ya know?
The voice of Nicholas Cage as Dr. Tenma screams first and foremost as wrong. Wrong not just because it's obvious that it's him and his voice is inappropriate for the part, but because he displays little emotion in a role fraught with tragedy. It's like he is reading words, not filling an image with his live personality. His 'performance' is a travesty.
The film also suffers from what most superhero movies of the past four decades do – the mandatory origin. Why can't we just accept that this character exists, and then tell a good story? Did Indiana Jones have an origin? Did Jack Ryan? And even though I looove the recent film, did the crew of the Starship Enterprise? The movie is always half over, sometimes more, by the time we see our hero in his final hero form. It annoys me.
And speaking of hero form – why does Astro Boy have to be so politically correct and wear a shirt? Sorry, folks, but product recognition, in this case, character recognition, dictates that the product is recognizable to its fans. Astro Boy is topless. Deal with it. What's next? A leisure suit for Tarzan? A mask and cape for Jason Bourne? Again, let Astro Boy be Astro Boy.
I waited for the DVD, even though I was very excited when I first heard they were making this. The first preview I saw had Nicholas Cage's toneless deadpan voice, the shirted Astro Boy and a tender moment with a teenage girl, and it just turned me off. Now don't get me wrong. This movie is not bad, it's really quite good, great for the kids, and recommended so – but what it isn't is a satisfying version of Astro Boy. Rent the DVDs of the original series – even higher recommendation.
Marvel Anime
Marvel Comics is expanding their characters to Japanese animation in 2010. Madhouse will be producing four animated features next year with Iron Man, Wolverine, Spider-Man and the Hulk.
Honestly I'm surprised this hasn't been done before. Wolverine's origins and best stories have always involved Japan – and Iron Man, come on, Iron Man just screams anime with all that tech. He's practically a mecha. Looks good, can't wait.
8 Man
I'm giving away my age with this one. What the hell, I'll come right out with it, I'll be 45 next week. Yeah, I'm effing old. Anyway, when I was barely old enough to walk or read I also started watching television, thus beginning a destructive habit that lasts to this day.
There were certain cartoons that I vaguely remember, but recall as being good, but never saw again until decades later. There were "Gigantor," "Kimba" and "Astro Boy," both of which I had little memory of but when I saw them again decades later I found my initial reaction was fairly dead on. These were excellent anime that still hold up and are as entertaining to me now as they were then.
There was also another Japanese cartoon among them that I vaguely recalled, but never saw again. This was called "Tobor the Eighth Man," but my foggy young brain remembered it as "8 Man," which ironically was the actual Japanese name for the hero and the show. Legend (and fact) has it that the reason we've never seen this again in the States is that 8 Man gets his powers from smoking cigarettes. I'm unsure whose idea this was for a children's TV show, even in 1963, but come on, really? And furthermore, why would a robot smoke?
I finally got to see a few episodes on a DVD called Cartoon Crazys: Comic Book Heroes, thank you, NetFlix. Sadly, it does not hold up as well as the others I mentioned. The tale of a police detective murdered by criminals whose mind is put into the body of a robot is intriguing yet done with the simplistic overtones of a standard American cartoon, rather than a Japanese anime.
Frequently 8 Man is referred to as the precursor to Robocop, and an original concept in itself. This is not necessarily true. It should be noted that in 1942 DC Comics published the adventures of Robotman, a robotic crimefighter with a human brain, created by Jerry Siegel of Superman fame. Either way, it's still fun. Ralph Bakshi worked on these translations and his sly hand can be heard in lines like "Why is this sign in Japanese?" commenting on the kanji characters throughout the cartoon. Like I said, fun.
"Tobor, the Eighth Man" is worth a look, if for nothing other than nostalgic reasons. And remember, kids, don't smoke!
Ponyo ~ The first thing that strikes me about Ponyo (also known as Gake no ue no Ponyo) is how terrific it is now that in America, not only are Hiyao Miyazaki's films distributed mainstream by Disney, but that Hiyao Miyazaki films are now an event. This is just how it should be. He's a genius, and it's about time he's treated this way.
I think a lot of that may be due to TCM. A year or so back they did an entire week of Miyazaki films that brought his work into the mainstream consciousness. I knew about him but then again I have a comics and anime background. I know this was when my wife's eyes were opened to his brilliance, a probably many others as well.
Ponyo is a simple yet bizarre tale of a goldfish who falls in love with a little boy and then wants to become human. From there it gets complicated. And the complications are what I love about Miyazaki. He always follows the game plan of the Hero's Journey, yet he takes the roundabout way, the twisted mountain road, so that he is never predictable – and that's refreshing. When was the last time you could not guess the ending or even the next scene of a film?
This is an enjoyable flick for both adults and children, and highly recommended. I really enjoyed it. And if you like what you see, check out the rest of Miyazaki's films. You'll be glad you did.
Astro Boy Trailer
Astro Boy, or Mighty Atom as he was known in his native Japan, ushered in the anime age for many here in America.
In the early 1960s the classic Tetsuwan Atomu manga by the genius Osamu Tezuka was brought to animation in Japan and quickly sold to NBC in the US. The series' success quickly paved the way for "Gigantor," "Kimba" and "Speed Racer," and changing animation forever.
There have been more than a few manga and anime series of Astro Boy, and even a rare and very hard-to-find live-action movie, and now Imagi Animation Studios, a Japanese-American collaboration, is readying a new CGI Astro Boy film for theatres. Here's the trailer:
Interesting. Is it me, or is it just not Astro Boy unless he's barechested? Either way, it looks great, and has a rather impressive voice cast. I'm looking forward to it.
Astro Boy hits the big screen in October 2009.


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Writing outside of the box in the exam(?)
erika__ replied to 45'er's topic in Exam DiscussionMy chemistry teacher told us that anything not written in the box or on the separate booklets will not be counted, and our test moderator (I forget the official word for it) continuously told us beforehand to write all answers inside the box. So, unfortunately, I wouldn't count on getting the marks for writing outside the boxes.
Spanish HL as a non-native speaker
erika__ replied to erika__'s topic in Languages A2, B and Ab InitioThank you all! I do have a generally good understanding of the language, I just struggle with preterite/imperfect and other grammar specifics. I always write my Paper 2s in present tense unless I absolutely have to switch to past, and it works fine because I usually get a good grade on them. I really don't have a clue what kinds of IB grades I get on the practice papers we do, since the teacher doesn't tell us the markschemes and also for some reason he takes the square root of the decimal of whatever grade we get, so it looks like we're doing much better than we are (which is fine for my GPA). He claims it's the French way, but I wish he'd tell me the IB way. Slovaceck - though I absolutely love the idea of having class entirely in Spanish, and we did it for Spanish 3 at a different school and it worked great, I really don't think my teacher would allow it. Let's just say he gets... easily distracted (by YouTube and his own political opinions), and would much rather be teaching German. But I will definitely look into Duolingo and Quizlet, thank you! I have a friend doing Spanish B HL with me, so maybe we'll work on speaking Spanish together, and I'm hoping to get in contact with my old Spanish teacher.
Spanish HL as a non-native speaker
erika__ replied to erika__'s topic in Languages A2, B and Ab InitioThanks! I'm nowhere near fully fluent but with the IB standards I do fine and can understand what's going on. Do you know of any online resources for IB Spanish B HL? My teacher is, let's just say, easily distracted when it comes to actually teaching.
Spanish HL as a non-native speaker
erika__ posted a topic in Languages A2, B and Ab InitioThe title is probably a bit confusing, but basically I'm wondering if it's possible to succeed in Spanish HL without being a native speaker or speaking the language at home? My teacher said all his past HL students spoke Spanish at home. I'm not so good at grammar, but I can generally understand what's going on in a sentence without getting every single word of it, and at the SL level I do very well on my practice paper 1s and 2s (we haven't done a lot of oral practice yet). Is it possible for me to succeed with study at home, or should I ask now to switch back down?
Zero free periods?
erika__ replied to dbryce712's topic in General IB DiscussionSome teachers choose to allow us to use their class time as a free period depending on the due dates of other assignments, especially for the three weeks of school after exams, but it isn't a dependable thing.
Does any body write IB style multiple choice exam questions?
erika__ replied to Ikito999's topic in General IB DiscussionFor Chem SL, I did a lot of practice on Kognity, which helped a lot, but I'm not sure if your school has to sign up for that.
Sl Chemistry Exam- thoughts?
erika__ replied to orangetardish's topic in Exam DiscussionI'm gonna avoid talking about Paper 3 for now because the 24 hour rule confuses me based on time zones, but I found paper 1 and 2 easier than I thought they would be. Obviously not easy, I had to just throw random guesses down for questions on both of them, but based on how my classmates reacted it seemed easier for me than for many of them. Then again, half of my class took a nap half an hour into paper 2 because they just had no idea what to write, so I guess that's not too good of a comparison. Oh, and Kognity was a godsend for studying in the days leading up to the exam. My teacher had been telling us that Kognity wasn't useful, but I noticed that a few of the questions were regarding information that I definitely wouldn't have known if I hadn't studied Kognity and done the strength tests on there. The only really negative thing I have to say is that it annoyed me that the periodic table was attached to the inside of Paper 1 rather than given as a separate sheet of paper, because I had to spend time flipping back and forth in the test to look at the periodic table. Usually when I'm given reference materials attached to tests in class, I tear them off, but I figured that wasn't appropriate for an IB exam.
I have a related question... how do I know which class I'm taking? It sounds more like Lang + Lit, but my school has a tiny IB program and only one English A option is offered, which every IB student takes. I know that it's HL and that we do a lot of commentaries about poems and passages and that my teacher is always telling us to memorize our literary techniques (which I can't do to save my life).
Which option are you studying? (2016-onwards)I'm taking Option C, but we've studied it for about a week in class... we had some curriculum time planning issues this year because it's the first year my school has offered IB Chem. I have absolutely no clue what I'm saying when I answer any of the practice things we've done in class.
Chemistry exam tipsAre you talking about molar ratios? Like an equation with coefficients in front of the different molecules? Also, some advice - skip questions while taking the exam. I forget how much time we have for Paper 1 (I'm taking the exam this year too), but we've been doing Paper 1s in class with about 50 minutes for all 30 or so questions. So figure out how much time that is per question, and if you feel like a question is taking you too long, skip over to the next one. It sounds like perhaps you're getting stuck on a single question and insisting on being confident in your answer before you go to the next one, which may be causing you to not be able to answer all of the questions you know the answers to.
Mass Spectrometry?I believe it is, I'm taking chemistry SL this year and my teacher made sure we learned it - it's also been on several practice exams I took and I believe it was on the 2016 exam paper 2. Do you have access to Kognity? It's a specific online textbook for IB students, and I find it extremely helpful when I'm confused about a topic. But otherwise, maybe try this?
How do you stay active through the day?
erika__ replied to RomanLV's topic in General DiscussionIf you can, do as much physical activity as you can tolerate - I started running track and cross country this year (though I suppose school sports are more of an American thing?) and practice is every day after school. The great thing about it is that not only do I get that physical activity in, I get a break from everything IB. No exams, no homework, no IAs, none of it exists for the hour and a half or so that I'm at practice. Also, eat healthy stuff rather than junk food, stretch a lot, and get up and do something else when you're experiencing that mental fatigue.
How much money do you spend in your IB?
erika__ replied to Jade KM's topic in General DiscussionI go to a public high school where all I had to do was walk in and say "I want to be in the IB program." We pay about half of our exam fees, so it's $55/exam (USD) and the school board covers the rest. However, if we choose not to do an IA for a class or somehow don't show up on the day of the exam, we have to pay the school board back for the exam we didn't take. (I've never done that, but it's our policy). We have a pretty small IB program, about 40ish students per grade, because a lot of US universities don't do a lot of credit for IB classes and AP exams are cheaper ($45/exam).
Options for Computer Science SL?
erika__ posted a topic in General DiscussionSo I took the Paper 1 of the May 2017 computer science SL exam today, and I heard a lot of chatter after the exam about our option for Monday morning (May 8). My teacher said we're going to be doing the Java option (I think it's Option D), but a lot of kids in my class want to switch to Option B (the mathematical modelling and simulations). So I have a few questions: 1) Can my class even switch at this point? How is the option determined? 2) What the heck is mathematical modelling and simulations? My teacher has never had any IB training except for a weeklong session ten years ago, and has never met any other IB computer science teachers or spoken to any (online or in person), so he's almost as confused as we are if not more so. This is the first year he's had more than two or three IB computer science students at a time, and also we spent four months working on the IA in class and did about a week's worth of panicked learning about the rest of the stuff for the exam.
Computer Science SL IA help
erika__ replied to Le Brongu's topic in Other SubjectsI did a Java program for my IA, but my teacher showed us a ton of different kinds of IAs before we started ours, so here is a flowchart example I found for a Java game design.


text: Given the increasing importance of marketing concept, market-oriented is one of the basic classifications in research at strategic marketing. Market orientation is some activities that an organization does to monitor, analyze of changes in market, such as customer preferences, rapid technological development and competitive intensity and respond them appropriately. In this study, the effect of market orientation activity on performance of manufacturing companies export and exporters by using Slater and Narver scale is discussed. According to this scale, the central market includes three components: customer orientation, competitor orientation and inter-sectorial coordination. The method of research is descriptive – survey. Manufacturing companies exporting from the customs Bushehr considered as a population study and data, which are randomly distributed between 91 companies, is obtained. The reliability of questionnaire was approved based on internal consistency (Cronbach's alpha) with relatively high safety factors. Although the standard scales have been used, but to further evaluate the validity of questionnaire by experts has been used. The test of research hypotheses is evaluated based on inferential statistics and Pearson correlation coefficients statistics and simple regression analysis and multi-variable. The results imply endorsement impact of market-based activities on performance. Also positive impact of customer orientation, competitor orientation and inter-sectorial coordination on export performance was confirmed.


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I can't even tell you how easy this recipe is. It was an impromptu dinner on Sunday night when I couldn't decided what I wanted to eat for dinner (typical). All you need is some cheese, pasta, marinara sauce and any veggie(s). Honestly, the recipe says "about" and "approximately" because I estimated everything and it's practically impossible to screw up. Just make sure you have enough cheese– since it's the binding agent– and you bake it for long enough. It's seriously delicious and looks and tastes way more fancy + complicated than it is. So if you're looking for a dish to take to a potluck or something hearty for these chilly days, this will surely do the trick!
Baked Parmesan & Mozzarella Rotini
Makes about 4 servings
8oz rigatoni (I used tri color)
About 1 cup mozzarella, cubed or grated
About 3/4 cup grated fresh parmesan
About 1/2 small onion, diced
Small handful of mushrooms, chopped
Approximately 8oz marinara sauce
Cook pasta according to package directions. Set aside. Sauté mushrooms and onions and stir into pasta.
Transfer pasta/mushrooms/onions into greased 9×9 inch oven-proof dish. Fold sauce into pasta until pasta is thoroughly covered. Mix in cheese — be liberal here, since this is what keeps the pasta together. Top with leftover cheese.
Sprinkle with oregano, cover with foil, and bake at 375°F for about 17 minutes. Pasta is done when cheese and sauce are bubbly.
Photos by Monica Dutia for Cake & Lilies.


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- Description
DetailsPurifying Room Blend: Add 1 drop each of tea tree oil and grapefruit oil, along with 10 drops of lemon oil to a diffuser and enjoy. Suggested Use: For aromatherapy use. For all other uses, carefully dilute with a carrier oil such as jojoba, grapeseed, olive, or almond oil prior to use. Please consult an essential oil book or other professional reference source for suggested dilution ratios. Natural essential oils are highly concentrated and should be used with care.
- Reviews


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BOSTON (CBS) – The way things go for Terry Francona these days is simple.
Come to the park, figure out who can play, meet with media and give them medical updates, manage the game.
From Ellsbury to Youkilis to Ortiz to Jenks to Buchholz……we are certainly going through the "dog days of August" with this Red Sox team.
Yet, they continue to respond like good teams do.
Meanwhile, as we sit on the 30-plus mark of games to go in the regular season there are lots of possibilities as far as how things are going to play out come October.
So, don't dismiss a guy like JD Drew, who begins a rehab assignment on Friday and should be back around September 1st. This is a guy who has had a nightmarish final season in Boston hitting just .219 with a .622 OPS in 77 games. However, this is also a player who can rise to the occasion in the postseason as we witnessed first hand in 2007 with some huge hits.
We also don't know about a guy like Bobby Jenks, who has battled injuries all year but had 4 saves in the 2005 play-offs as the White Sox won the World Series.
Read: Dan Roche's Sports Blog
Or, how about Carl Crawford. It's been a tough start to his Red Sox career as he entered the week hitting just .251….42 point below his career average. The $142-million man is hitting 7th in a banged up line-up. Most people thought he'd hit anywhere from 2nd to 5th this season. Nope. However, he's the type of kid that could carry and ignite a team come postseason time.
It's amazing how tough it is to stay healthy and consistent over the course of a big league season.
But the beauty of the game lies in the fact that all the Sox need to do is secure a postseason spot. Yes, I would like to see home field advantage secured, but if they get one of 4 spots secured in the American League, I'll take my chances. Give me Lester, Beckett, Bedard, and Lackey with the Sox offense and I'll take my chances.
And, don't forget there's a long way to go so that we have no idea which players will rise to the occasion come October.


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Lemon Crabcat Sticker
$ 5.00
Watch out! This super-sour Lemon Crabcat is on the prowl, and could pinch at any time.
Sticker measures 2.75 inches/6.9cm at its largest point.
These UV-coated matte vinyl stickers will stand up to wind, rain, sun and snow. So go ahead! Stick 'em on your car, your laptop, your phone--anywhere that needs an extra bit of quirky cuteness.


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Heavenletters™, bringing Earth closer to Heaven.
God said:
I am with you before, after, and between time on Earth. You are the embrace in My heart that never ends. You are the embrace and the call of My heart. Our hearts resound. Our hearts sing and dance. I lift you up to the Highest Heavens, and you are light in My arms. I know no weight. I know only light and lightness. You are beyond the threshold of My heart. You are over the door-sill. You are My companion for all-time.
You are My delight. There is room always for My delight. You are One Child I carry as if cradled in My heart. I carry you everywhere, and I swing along with you. How We love. We know naught else. There is no effort to our love, no weight to it. We bounce along in love. We come across more love on the way, and We add more love as We strew more love along the way.
Our love is like seeds We strew, leaving nothing but love in the wake. There is nothing but love to leave and nothing but love to see ahead. There is nothing but love on the loose. Love looks for where love can be planted and grow, and this is all-around everywhere.
We draw a picture of love, as if starting with a dot and then swirling and swirling into an ever-widening circle. There is no end to it. Love reaches itself and is enchanted. Love leaves no place for anything else.
The whole world is rising in love. Soon there will nothing to see but love, evidence of love, and I am Love, and you are love, and all there is is love running around, bumping into love and more love, love bursting, spilling, eddying, sweeping everything within sight.
Hail to love, the whole content and purpose of the Universe, the holding and beholding of the Universe, love free for all.
Where does love come from? Everywhere. Where does love go? Everywhere. What is love? Everything. When did love begin? Love never was not. Where is my love, you may ask. You have never been without it. In the darkest moments, love was. You grabbed onto distractions along the way. Go further now. Go deeper now.
You have always been found. You were never alone. I AM with you, surrounding you, claiming you, and you are surrounded and claimed with love, crowned with love in every direction and directionless at the same time.
Love sits on the hearth and in every heart. Love knows no bounds. Love can be overlooked, yet never not unheralded. I bid you love. I bid you a good day. I bid you light. I give you a map that leads simply and clearly to the center of you who art My love. If I say you are My love, you can be sure of it.
My love is not a string I dangle. My love is forthright and strong, and you are My love wherever you may find yourself to be. There is only one place for you to be, and that is in My heart. You are My heart of hearts. We are One Heart together. We are all the love in the world wrapped up in One.
What did you get for Christmas? Why, you got Me. I am a long-lasting gift. I give you Myself, and We walk into Infinity where We belong and always have been. We hold hands. We hop and skip into Eternity holding hands. What else is there to do? Where else can We be but together in Eternity?
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The Obama administration's moratorium on offshore drilling is depriving governments of billions of dollars in royalties, lease bids, and taxes — and the lost revenue will grow significantly if no new drilling leases in the Gulf of Mexico are sold this year.
In the wake of the April 20, 2010 explosion of the Deepwater Horizon rig, the administration issued the moratorium on May 6. It suspended work on 33 wells in various stages of construction, halted new lease sales, and suspended permitting for leases already offered.
As a result, the U.S. Energy Information Administration projects a decline of 240,000 barrels a day in oil production in the Gulf this year. "That represents billions of dollars in potential revenue that could help close the federal deficit," according to Rob Bluey, director of the Center for Media and Public Policy at the Heritage Foundation.
The moratorium was lifted on Oct. 12, but since then oil companies have complained of a "permitorium" — a deliberate slowing of the permitting process. This year could be the first since 1965 in which the federal government did not sell leases in the Gulf.
Oil companies pay the federal government an 18.75 percent royalty on the oil produced. In 2008, the offshore industry paid $8.3 billion in royalties, and another $9.4 billion for bids on new leases. Last year those bids brought in just $979 million.
In 2009, royalties, lease bids and rent payments totaled more than
$6 billion, according to the forecasting firm IHS Global Insight.
"Federal, state and local taxes related to the offshore oil and gas operations in the Gulf totaled $13 billion," Bluey notes. "That $19 billion pot of money could go a long way toward deficit reduction."
In addition, opening areas now closed to exploration and production, including the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge and the eastern Gulf of Mexico, would bring in an estimated $150 billion by 2025.
"At a time when voters are calling on the federal government to balance its budget, revenue from oil companies would be one way of helping out [and] the oil produced would reduce the price of gas at the pump," Bluey concludes. "The Obama administration should immediately begin to issue new permits for the Gulf of Mexico and explore other untapped domestic resources."


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Last week I turned 28 years old and like many people, my birthday was met with a lot of reflection and evaluation about life.
I was talking with my cousin who called to wish me a happy birthday and during our conversation, he helped me put things into perspective.
Out of the blue he says, "well, it doesn't look like you're going to reach your goal anytime soon does it?"
I had no idea what he was talking about. He continued… "Wasn't it always your goal to become a millionaire by 30?"
I was amazed that he remembered. I sat speechless; thinking about what he said as old emotions came flooding back. Somewhat embarrassed and thrown off, I laughed and said "You're right, that was the goal and no, it doesn't look like it at this point…"
Since I was a sophomore in college I've had one primary goal in life: To become a millionaire by the age of 30. I know it sounds like an outlandish aim, but honestly it's all I wanted.
I thought that money was the ticket to happiness.
Once this goal was set, I had given up playing collegiate basketball, surrounded myself with pro-active students and changed my major from Liberal Arts to a double major in Finance and Economics.
By my senior year, I started a new organization on campus called the Entrepreneur's Club, I was trading stocks and stock options on a weekly basis, bartending three nights a week, co-running the off-campus bookstore and writing a 250-page senior thesis on the strategic management of the casino industry. It kicked my ass but I convinced myself I was "training for success."
As I became more and more infatuated with my goal, I discounted my friends, neglected a girlfriend and sacrificed my social life . I believed these were necessary steps to become successful and in turn, to become happy.
I thought I could make it up to those I neglected once the money came.
After graduation the goal seemed more like an in-due-time reality than a far-fetched dream. I took the position of marketing director with the textbook start-up I'd been working with since my sophomore year and the potential seemed unlimited. There were Seven of us with an "us vs. the world" attitude and we worked tirelessly to build the business.
Over the next 3 years we established 11 bookstore locations across Upstate New York, Utah and California and our online presence grew to become the third largest textbook marketplace (behind Amazon and Half). Everything was moving fast and the goal continued to drive me.
In the process, I was traveling across the States, visiting new cities, meeting new people and living a life few 24 year olds have the opportunity to experience. The only problem was, I was a prisoner of the pursuit. I didn't have the ability to step back and appreciate my surroundings. My life had no balance.
I thought I could only enjoy life after I reached a certain level of success.
As we grew and the pie got bigger, I began to notice how the relationship between money and happiness wasn't as co-dependent as I thought. I could see how having more on the table influenced both the team and myself. We were so consumed by our own equity that happiness became impossible. Not the sun, sand or surf surrounding our new offices in San Diego could change my frame of mind.
We all gathered for a meeting one night on the beach to discuss the future of the company. It was written across everyone's face that we were drained and uninspired. In that moment, I realized that I could only go so far with money as my only motivation. It finally hit me, I had lost touch with what was important to me and it was time to move on.
Fast-forward two and a half years later to the birthday conversation with my cousin.
"Is that still your goal?" He asked, pressing the issue.
I collected all these thoughts and emotions and with a reaffirmed sense of direction, I responded confidently,
If the opportunity presents itself, there's no doubt I'll go for it. However, that goal has a lot more stipulations now.
I want to be a part of something I believe in. I want to be a part of something that truly makes me happy.
I was wrong about needing great wealth to enjoy life. I've learned how money and happiness aren't directly correlated.
I understand now that happiness comes from within and that friends and family are the ones who make you successful. This isn't to say that I'm slowing down by any means. I trust that my ambition will never allow me to be content with anything I do. However, I now have a mindset that allows me to be happy while I'm doing it.
At this moment, I'm experiencing all of the things I thought I could only do once I reached my goal. I'm exploring foreign places, meeting interesting people and devouring new adventures. I am able do all this without lacking a thing, financially or otherwise. My life is in balance and I'm in the pursuit of happiness.
I haven't stopped chasing my dreams, but now I'm enjoying every minute along the way.
My cousin paused for a minute and responded, "That's cool, so how are the women down there?"


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Tupac is Alive
"Tupac's hologram appearance at the Coachella music festival on Sunday night still has minds reeling. The West Coast hip-hop legend was just about the only thing that could've topped an already hefty set from Dr. Dre and Snoop Dogg with special guests Eminem, 50 Cent, Kendrick Lamar, Warren G and Wiz Khalifa. And according to the company responsible for the hologram, it was all Dr. Dre's idea." – more
Snoop and Tupac Re-Unite


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I had plenty of trouble getting HA to work with KIS 2018... Long story...….. but I gave up and tried the following on my test PC
1. Uninstalled KIS 2018 and HA worked 100%.
2. Installed kasperky FREE and HA worked 100% then uninstalled Kaspersky FREE
3. HA still worked 100%
4 .Installed KIS 2019 with default settings and HA worked 100%
Something in KIS 2018 prevented HA from letting browsers get through.
HA showed the delay in ms etc but that was it nothing more
I have been using Kaspersky products for a long time
Thank you firetrust for this ripper of a vpn… good stuff
Kaspersky Internet security and HA 18 november 2018
2 posts • Page 1 of 1
- g6radio
- Student Sheep
- nick.bolton
- The Big Cheese
Re: Kaspersky Internet security and HA 18 november 2018
Thanks for the report! We seem to have a history of problems with Kaspersky preventing Hideaway from working. We recently uploaded HideAway to Kaspersky's whitelisting service so hopefully that did something.
2 posts • Page 1 of 1


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Turn product registration into revenue creation with enhanced owner on-boarding
See How
Owners that register new products are twice as likely to become top 10% buyers of a brand's products. In fact, the ROI from improved registration rates is typically several times that of traditional media campaigns. Our QuickReg platform enables you to maximize product registrations and build revenue by creating high-value customer relationships.


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Asset management and remote diagnostics.
Geolocation and Fleet Management.
Full monitoring and control for fleets of drones.
Unified hub and dashboards for CAR, HEALTH and HOME ecosystems providing solutions for multiples industries.
Cloud Service for driving coach.
Monitoring and control for energy production plants and smart lighting.
Multi-purpose hub for data collection and control.
Supporting companies with our GlobalSign security solutions.
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Need more help? Save time by starting your support request online.
Help us help you better! Feel free to leave us any additional feedback.


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In this video, you'll get to meet Lily House Gach from the Acu-Na Wellness Center's team of Acupuncture experts. You can call us at 828-974-7058.
Video Transcription
How long have you been working here?
About a year and a half, coming up on two years, and I love it here. I have found a wonderful place to practice the medicine that I love, and I also love the team. I work with Mary, another acupuncturist, and Sadhvi, a massage therapist. We all just have so much to offer, and it's great to share that with you guys.
Tell us a little bit about your specialty.
I'm an acupuncturist, and as an acupuncturist, we kind of specialize in everything. We can treat pretty much anything, but the things that I love to treat … I'm really good at treating pain, so a lot of people come in with shoulder pain, back pain, neck pain … And that's fun because it's pretty easy to work with. But I also like the more challenging cases: working with digestive complaints; I also like working with cardiac health, stroke rehabilitation after someone has an incident, or prevention of heart attacks and getting the blood pressure down.
How can we reach you?
You can call us at Acu-Na Wellness Center, at 828-974-7058. You can also schedule appointments online. You should check out our website at AcuNa.com.


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On this week's Geek Confidential podcast Luke Kerr and Craig Peters dive into the latest Star Wars: Rogue One trailer. Will Ghostbusters get a sequel? Suicide Squad slips at the Box Office. Will they be checking out Sausage Party?
Craig enthuses about Netflix's Stranger Things. Luke thinks something's off with the second season of Killjoys. They duo reacts to the Supergirl/The Flash musical episode news.
The two share their weekly recommendations.
All this and much more on this week's Geek Confidential podcast.


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How can you gain more entries?
- First off, continue reading this post and check out the posts that interest you - you only have to click on the pictures, they'll take you straight to the reviews.
- Start up the commenting, but keep in mind which posts you've commented on!
- Come back to this post, go to the end of it and find the Rafflecopter. Now, you only have to open the windows of the reviews/special posts you've commented on and give us the name you used for commenting. You can gain two entries for each comment, even if you left them weeks ago.
The Vanishing Game had me hooked from page one. I couldn't predict a single thing about it, the mystery was so mysterious! My wanting to know what exactly was going on had me rushing through the book, and the chills that went down my spine time to time helped a lot too!
Made For You is a very unique Young Adult novel for more than one reasons, but the most important one has to be that we got the chance to read the killer's point of view. (...) This is a novel you have to pick up if you enjoy Mysteries and/or Thrillers, especially if you like a little paranormality added to these.


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Afford Ability Fund
Utilities / Electric Companies
Call 855 494 3863Directions
Get directions to thisWebsite
location on Google Maps.
location on Google Maps.
Open websiteShare
in new tab.
in new tab.
Share this business
on social media.
on social media.
If the cost of energy-saving upgrades is out of reach, Ontario's new AffordAbility Fund is here for you. Your local electric utility and community services are working together to help you improve your home's energy efficiency with free energy-saving upgrades, which can lower your home's energy use and your electricity bill.


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Lets get started on your dream
this is what I provide
Recent Projects
Steel Group is a Wordpress website establishing a presence for the groups's services and business profile. Read More
Jacqui Denton Kinesiology is a Wordpress website establishing a presence for Jacqui's healing services business. Read More
The Sound Temple features a calendar of events for workshops and sound sessions with an interface to Trybooking for payment and registration. Read More
Crystal Yidaki is an eCommerce site featuring the amazing crystal didjeridu developed by Julian Silburn. The site includes optional features for each product. Read More
Sound Alchemy is a WordPress website created for beautiful sound healer, Julian Silburn to advertise his events and workshops. Read More
A Labour of Love is an e-Commerce and online booking site linked to Mindbody Business Management software hosting workshop events. Read More
Planning your new website
Once you have made the decision that you need a website as part of your online profile, what are the next steps you need to do to get started?
At your first meeting to discuss your new website, it is useful to have thought about what you are wanting to create and why.
To create a website you need a unique address on the Internet, this is referred to as a Domain Name.
Hosting Services for your website
As well as a Domain Name to provide an address for your site on the Internet you will also need a location to setup the website so that your site can be accessed on the Internet.
Contact Me
I would love to work with you to bring forth your dream.
Leave me a message or give me a call to arrange a consulting session.
Contact Information
Location: Perth Hills
Mob: +61 413 303 835
Business Hours
Monday-Thursday: 9am – 5pm


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The Political Advertising Resource Center (PARC) is a program of the Rosenker Center for Political Communication and Civic Leadership at the University of Maryland. PARC is a nonpartisan informational Web site that analyzes the television advertisements used in local, state, and national political campaigns. Both candidate-based and issue ads are analyzed.
PARC is specifically geared to the needs of high school and university educators and students, the news media, civic associations, voter education organizations, political organizations and political watch-dog groups.
This Web site includes:
- (1) a historical overview of the role of political advertising in U.S. politics;
- (2) summaries of recent trends in political advertising;
- (3) review of campaign finance laws;
- (4) information on candidates and issues discussed in the ads; and
- (5) current samples of political ads analyzed by political communication professors and graduate students;
PARC reflects the mission of the Rosenker Center for Political Communication and Civic Leadership, which unites research, education, and public engagement in order to foster democratic communication by a diverse people. The Center sponsors a series of other programs for the University of Maryland community, including Recovering Democracy Forums to bring candidates for office to campus, and the 1970s Project that seeks greater understanding of this pivotal decade in U.S. history.
For more information about the Center, please visit www.comm.center.umd.edu or contact Dr. Shawn J. Parry-Giles, Director of CPCCL, at (301) 405-6527 or firstname.lastname@example.com.


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When someone looks back on their past financial success or mistakes one thing always comes to mind, and that is: how did it happen? They think, "was it my doing, my fault, someone else's advice or fault, or just what set things in motion to bring on a "successful financial memory", or a destructive one.
It's important for the sake of learning and growing in our understanding of financial matters that we take a look at where we are at today in light of our financial goals and where we were say, 5 or 10 years ago. This "look-back" can be a major self-guide in setting a course for better financial decision making in the future. For example, if you lost a bunch of money in the stock market in the mini-crash of 1987 or in the later years after 2000 the thought of ever buying a stock again could make you more likely to walk on a bed of hot coals than try the market again, right?
The better move is to understand how the markets work in light of your financial situation and risk tolerance levels and obtain an Asset Allocation Model that's right for you. Memories are good in that we use them to teach us things that are constructive. Regrets can hurt us if we let them rip our self esteem. One thing is for sure, getting a money coach and guide is critical. A good coach has the right compass, one that points to "due-north" …towards reaching our financial goals.


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On Funk Flex's Youtube Page, we have a new playlist that's here to show just some of the historical BARS Flex has been involved in!
On Funk Flex's Youtube Page, we have a new playlist that's here to show just some of the historical BARS Flex has been involved in!
It has been declared that Britain has left the European Union, which has many British celebrities reacting to the recent news ranging from support to outrage for their country.
Oh man…Chance has been making major noise in the industry with his "Coloring Book" mixtape. He just made chart history by having his project become the first project ever to chart on the Billboard album charts off of just streams. It's likely he's going to crack the top 10 as well. Folks are putting him in the grammy nomination talk now!
Future does it again…but this time he's making history and set a record that hasn't been mentioned in about 50 years! Hit the jump for the full story!
The time for change is upon us. After much uproar which shouldn't have even been necessary in the first place, The Academy is switching up their policies to avoid any racial issues again with new voting rules. History is in the making as we read. Hit the jump.
Youtube sensation Kid President spits a rap he titled 'History Of Awesome Girls' where he educates listeners on all of the awesome women in history, and even includes the women making history today. Get your pen and paper ready and watch the video after the jump!
If you think the things you post on social media can't come back to bite you, think again. Recently one of Donald Trump's staffers was fired from his position because of the content of his Facebook dating back to 2007. Sam Nunberg's page was filled with numerous racist posts. Hit the jump for more details.
Obama-fever has swept through Kenya over the weekend. So much so that several babies born during his visit have been named after the American commander-in-chef. One of the newborns was named after the presidential plane, 'AirForceOne. Click the jump for more.
Congratulations are in order for Viola Davis and Taraji P. Henson. Both stars were nominated for 'Outstanding Lead Actress In a Drama Series' for How To Get Away With Murder and Empire. The news of their nominations comes with great feeling of excitement and joy, not only for the women, but for the fact that this will be the first time that two black women have earned an Emmy nomination in the same year in this category. About time ! Read more below.


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The TV world sometimes seems to have 10 reality competitions for every specialty, whether it's cooking, singing or designing clothing. But "America's Got Talent" is the rare show that is looking for almost any kind of talent. Contestants can audition with whatever they're good at, whether it's singing or something more unusual, like magic tricks. The show returns Tuesday with a new season of talented hopefuls, with judges Heidi Klum, Howard Stern, Mel Band Howie Mandel weighing in on their skills, with some help from host Nick Cannon. We got the skinny from Klum on tips for people auditioning, and what skill she'd audition with.
Do you find you prefer certain types of acts over others?
I love being surprised! Anyone who comes on stage and can really shock me with a new and interesting talent that I've never seen before always gets my vote. I do also love the kids that come on our stage. They put their little hearts and souls into their performance and I'm always wowed by what they are capable of.
What advice do you have for people considering an audition?
Always be true to yourself. Do what makes you happy. Don't come audition with some talent that you think will get the most laughs or claps. Do what you love and stick to it. Master that. The audience loves to see people who love what they're doing. Maybe also ask a really honest, close friend for feedback before you come on.
Do you find yourself getting caught up in the stories of the performers?
You definitely listen to some of the stories and feel for what the contestants have been through but ultimately, it's a talent competition show. They have to show us what they can do and why they deserve to be a million dollar act in Vegas.
As a judge, what kind of feedback do you think is important to pass on to people?
A lot of people come on stage and forget to connect with the audience. Performing is all about forming that connection. The viewers at home are voting. You want to show them your special sauce.
What performance has most surprised you?
We had a guy on the show who called himself The Regurgitator. I don't want to spoil too much but I think the name really speaks for itself. I was amazed. There are almost no words to describe it because I have never seen anything like it before and neither have you!
If you were going to audition for the show with any skill, what would you want to do?
People always ask me to yodel. I don't think I would necessarily audition as a yodeler but we did have a yodeling granny this season and I gave her a run for her money.


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Trial began on Monday for more than two dozen police involved in the infamous 1992 massacre at Sao Paulo's Carandiru prison, which left 111 inmates dead.
Twenty-six Brazilian military police officers, some of them still on active duty, are facing murder charges in the deaths of 15 inmates. The Sao Paulo court's proceedings are expected to last as long as two weeks, with trials of other groups of officers to follow in the coming months.
In total, 79 officers are to be tried in connection with the massacre, which took place on Oct. 2, 1992, following hours of rioting at the overcrowded facility.
Many critics see what is known as the "Carandiru massacre" as a symbol of police brutality and impunity in Brazil. Many of the officers involved in the killings, which saw survivors forced to help pile the bodies of their fellow inmates, were promoted, and more than two decades on, only a single officer had been tried in connection with the massacre.
In 2001, Col. Ubiratan Guimaraes, was sentenced to 632 years in prison for using excessive force when he ordered police to quell the rebellion. But a Sao Paulo state appeals court overturned the conviction in February 2006 based on arguments that Guimaraes was only following orders.
Guimaraes was found dead in his Sao Paulo apartment seven months later with a gunshot wound to the chest. His girlfriend was tried on homicide charges last year and acquitted.
The riot began after a brawl between rival groups of inmates and devolved into an uprising that quickly spread through the penitentiary, which was built to hold fewer than 4,000 inmates but was housing nearly 8,000. The riot raged for around three hours before more than 300 officers invaded the facility, gunning down more than 100 inmates in the space of around 30 minutes. Autopsies showed the dead were riddled with an average of five bullets. No police officers were killed in the incident.
The massacre was the basis for the hit 2003 movie "Carandiru," by Brazilian director Hector Babenco.
The prison was torn down 10 years after the massacre and transformed into a park.


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Anthony Trollope
Barsetshire Chronicles, Book 1
I'm reading a public domain version downloaded from Amazon.
The only wardens I know are in charge of prisons — so, boy, I had a lot to learn once I picked up this first novel in Trollope's Barsetshire Chronicles. Since I must get cracking on the Guardian challenge and I have an OCD aversion to reading books in series out of order I realized I can't get to my other two Trollopes on the Guardian list without first reading The Warden. Because I loved The Way We Live Now I dug right into The Warden — another book I probably would never have read except for the Challenge.
From what I'm learning about Anthony Trollope, this guy was prolific! He could crank out the stuff — and The Warden was one of the first books that brought him commercial notice. Trollope got the idea for the story after a visit to Salisbury Cathedral:
The story: Septimus Harding is the elderly, gentle and music loving "warden" (director) of a "hospital" (almshouse) — a Victorian version of a nursing home, located adjacent to Barchester Cathedral (aka Salisbury Cathedral). Reading this book got me in touch with reams of Victorian English Church vocabulary, which isn't exactly useful in my life right now, but hey, you never know. As Warden, he receives a nice salary from the bequest that set up the hospital, and pays for the maintenance and upkeep of its "bedesmen" (inmates) — about a dozen elderly working men. Warden Harding takes loving care of his old guys and also takes care of music duties at the Cathedral. His life is serene and focused on his duties, music, and devotion to his younger daughter Eleanor, who lives with him.
But this is not to last. A young reformer, John Bold (who also has an eye for Eleanor), digs up the fact that the bequest that set up the hospital didn't really parse out the Warden's salary in such a generous proportion. Additionally, it seems that the old men in the hospital are due some money. Warden Harding becomes immediately concerned and wonders how to rectify the situation. The bequest that established the hospital is ancient — dating from the middle ages and there was probably some misinterpretation in its terms at some point. The old guys in the hospital become restive when they learn about the prospect of more cash. To complicate matters — Mr. Harding's son-in-law, the strident and know-it-all Archdeacon of the Cathedral, becomes involved and is dead-set on a big time fight with John Bold over the power of the Church. Lawyers get called and trips get made back and forth to London. Stories get published in the newspaper. In general, its a mess.
In the middle of this turmoil is the Warden, a gentle but strong soul. This story is about questioning the whole premise of your life — was it right or wrong? Was everything you believed correct? If it was not, would you have the courage to change almost everything in your life and start over? Even if you are bullied, ridiculed, and despised for your actions? I don't know if I could or not.
I loved this book — another terrific surprise thanks to the Guardian Challenge! On to Barchester Towers, Book 2!


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First post for a while, exam season is fast approaching so I haven't had much time for photography, and even less for processing!
Over the Easter holidays I was in Suffolk for 4 days, and was very pleased to get some water level images of Bitterns!
I also got this image of one in flight over the reedbeds.
Thanks for reading