text:
|Saint Colomba's Bay, Iona, Scotland
|The Planet Uranus, photographed by the Voyager spacecraft
|You'll have to read the Pantheon.org link to understand what is happening here
|Seattle at night across the water
|A wreath of boughs around the central altar
|The entry path turning in to the 7th circuit
|Rainy day visitors
|Swallows on the Prayer Wheel
|The first Swallow flying around the 7th circuit
The next morning I moved the forms again and set the stone up to the southern cardinal point, where I left a gap so that I can add the loops to the 6th circuit that will happen here. Then I returned to the beach again to collect pink and red and purple stones for the Summer to Autumn arc. Red stones are really getting rare on the beach I usually collect from. I went all the way down to the end today where the landslide took out the road. The repair is terrible to look at, and the beach has been compromised by the construction. This is near the point where a Creosote factory was located, the largest in the region at one time for making treated wood for railroad ties and power poles. The polluted floor of the harbor is listed as the Wykoff-Eagle Harbor superfund site due to the severity of the contamination the plant left behind. Cleanup is still in the research and planning phase even though the site was listed in 1987. Superfund sites are usually impossible to clean.
|Slope stabilization to rebuild Rockaway Beach Road after a landslide
The tide was coming in and the steep stone steps leading down to the beach from the home I am accessing this section of the Rockaway Beach from is partially covered during high tide. The ferries come in to Eagle Harbor close to the shore here and the wake from the boats caught me against the bulkhead wall and soaked my pants, so I had to go home and change out of my wet clothes and shoes.
|Add caption
The next morning another pallet of mortar and 200 feet of rebar had been delivered. My body moaned in anguish, but it gives me the goal to use up this material before I quit for the winter. There are 50-80 pound bags of mortar on a pallet, weighing in total two tons. I think this is my 5th pallet so I will have mixed 20,000 pounds of mortar this fall! No wonder I'm so sore. Some people brought me a galvanized bucket of stones to use in the Community circuit, which I went through and picked out the ones I could use.
|A donation of stones for the Community circuit
I made the second loop in the west and proceeded on through brown stones in to orange. Another trip to the beach was needed to gather orange and black stones to carry on. The lousy weather makes for fewer visitors and I have been listening to music to get me through the drearier times. Still the weather hasn't been too bad overall compared to what it could be.
|Loops in the path between the 8th and 7th circuits in the west
|Blakely Harbor
|Can you find the Swallows?
|The Terry's, my cousins, and their friends
The next day was Sunday and I had several visitors. The first couple, the Piraino's, were particularly fun to meet. We laughed a lot, which helped lift me from my delirium as I didn't sleep much again last night. We talked about Sicily and the town which is their namesake, and the famous Capuchin Catacombs where the bodily remains of departed souls lie in a grisly display of our mortal impermanence. Its an incredible thing to see first hand. I told them the story of how Ouranos' overly fertile wife Gaia had one of her many offspring castrate her husband after tiring from bearing so many hideous children, one of which was the Cyclops. When his testicles were flung in to the sea, there was a foaming from which Aphrodite, the Goddess of Love was formed. Such an interesting way to manifest love, out of pain. We had a good laugh when I commented on how much more fun Greek mythology was than Christianity. I made them a pair of Swallows after they left. In fact I ended up making a flock of swallows as more and more people came by.
|The Pirainos
|Rich and Amy
|Shelly points to the Swallow dedicated to her son
|Wendy, Veronique, and Tiffany pointing to their Swallows
May a flight around the 7th circuit be filled with the brilliance of a heavenly sky, lofty with muscular clouds, or a clear day sparkling on the water, or a star filled night hung with the the porch swing of crescent moon, encompassing all the aspects of the magnificent realm of the God Ouranos.
Next I will begin the 6th circuit, dedicated to the Planet Saturn and its namesake God, who represents the concept of Time. A woman asked today what would go in the open center where the inner circuits have not yet revealed themselves. At first I was baffled by the question, but later while standing on the high boulder where I take the panoramic portraits of the Labyrinth each day, I envisioned a giant globe filling the rock strewn center, surrounded by the rings of Saturn. And that made me smile.
Thanks for reading always, Jeffrey


text:
Tim Peake's Soyuz Spacecraft
All ages
The Science Museum
Exhibition Road, South Kensington, London
Readers Rating
Permanent display, free.
Wellcome Wing
The science museum have made the best impulse buy ever! On display for the first time today see the slightly singed 2m-high, bell shaped spacecraft that delivered the nation's favourite astronaut safely back to earth.
The capsule has been totally refurbished so children can peer in and get a real feel of what the re-entry must have felt like - look out for Tim's seat on the right hand side by the window.
What better inspiration for budding little space travellers. Especially in the week that we hear Tim will be returning into space for a second flight sometime between 2019-2024.
Get down there now.....
Click here for more details.
Permanent display, free.
Wellcome Wing
Exhibition Road, South Kensington, London
Venue phone:
0870 870 4771

subset: commoncrawl


text:
[VIDEO] Old White Man explains pimping rules for J.Cole & Trey Songz
"Trey Songz I Respect That Dog, but J.cole fuck you you a pussy"
I don't know where This guy "Hard White" or his mullet came from but he has some very choice words for J.Cole! Sounds like he pulls out the Pimping rule book on J.Cole for letting Trey Songz steal his shine in his video. This has got to be the funniest video I have seen since "Getting White Boy Wasted With Baker"


text:
CBB Cuts Back
Cost, enrollment issues doom study-abroad program
Edited by H. Jay Burns and Doug Hubley
After a five-year run, a Colby-Bates-Bowdoin study-abroad program winds up this fall.
With centers in London, Quito, and CapeTown, the CBB Off-Campus Study Program was an academic success but a financial failure,primarily due to unpredictable enrollments.(Bates operated the consortium's Quitocenter, the subject of a 2003 magazine storyposted online at www.bates.edu/x31076.xml.)
The three schools still offer bountiful study-abroad opportunities through non-CBB programs as well as school-specific programs.Bates, for example, sponsors its Fall Semester Abroad Program in various countries.
"Programs like FSA give us the flexibility to connect costs to enrollment and connect faculty expertise to a location," says Bates Dean of the Faculty Jill Reich.
And there is a happy legacy of the defunct program: increasingly easy CBB collaboration, Reich says.
Joint CBB efforts include a thriving libraryconsortium; a grant-supported inquiryinto teaching and learning; a language technology project; a Bates-hosted conference on entrepreneurship and the liberal arts; andrecent diversity conferences. Plus, the CBB deans (and presidents) meet periodically by videoconference.


text:
|Rediff India Abroad Home | All the sections
Leaders claim situation peaceful, but Nandigram still uneasy
November 15, 2007 19:45 IST
Last Updated: November 15, 2007 19:47 IST
An eerie silence prevailed on Thursday over Nandigram, 'recaptured' by the Communist Party of India-Marxist, with many houses in the former Bhumi Ucched Pratirodh Committee strongholds remaining deserted.
Driving through Reyapara, Hanschara and interior areas of Nandigram, this correspondent found many houses deserted, while at interior places where the CRPF were not on rounds, CPI-M men flying the party flag went around on motorcyles.
Many shops were also closed in the market areas.
CRPF officers visited relief camps at Nandigram bazar and talked to the around 1,500 refugees who have taken shelter there.
When the women complained of not being able to enter their villages without security, the officers assured them of doing everything possible for their safety.
"We are taking a little time to settle down, we will do everything for your safety. We will catch all trouble-makers," they told the refugees.
Azanur Islam, a BUPC supporter, said, "Things are peaceful now and shops are opening. I was a neighbour of CPI-M local leader Ashok Guria, but had to flee to Haldia for a few days during the recent violence."
He said the CPI-M was now in total control of Nandigram Bazar areas, which was the last BUPC stronghold to fall after the CPI-M 'recaptured' Nandigram.
Pijush Kanti Dasadhikary, who is staying at a relief camp since the last eight days with his family, accused the state administration of acting in a partisan manner.
"If the state administration acts in such a partisan manner and we are beaten up, and women molested, how can we go back home?" he asked.
Dasadhikary added that though he owned ten bighas of land, he had no idea about what had happened to his crops.
Basanti Das of Adhikaripara, a local woman, also asked whether there was any administration and claimed that the police were not helping at all. "Does any government do this?" she asked.
"Jyoti Basu was chief minister for so many years. Did anything like this happen then?" Basanti asked.
The local CPI-M leader, Himanshu Dey, said that according to his estimates, around 400 to 500 BUPC supporters were still staying in relief camps.
"We are assuring them that our men will not trouble them. We have told our people not to hold out enmity to anyone. Those now in camps were forced to follow the dictates of BUPC leaders and are misled," he said.
"Now everywhere there is peace," claimed Dey.
The leader was irked at Nandigram being visited by political leaders and social workers.
"These people don't know Nandigram, what will they do?" he asked.
While Dasadhikary claimed that his house was burnt on November 10 when the CPI-M were 'recapturing' Nandigram, Rabindranath Pramanik alleged that he was severely beaten up by supporters of the Marxist party.
Pramanik, who was at the Nandigram Block Hospital, said that he had been told by the CPI-M to return home as it was now safe.
"But when I tried to return to my home village of Sat Number Jalpai, I was accosted by CPI-M men who asked me where the BUPC had hidden arms. When I told them that I did not know, I was beaten up mercilessly," he said.
Ashit Pradhan of Gangra village, whose right hand was broken after CPI-M cadres attacked a BUPC procession on November 10, said he was worried about his crops.
"If we cannot harvest our crops we will not have anything to eat. On the other hand, if we return, we might me harassed by the CPI-M," Pradhan said.
At the relief camp, little children were seen begging for money. Asked if they were not being fed, a boy said, "We will be given food only in the afternoon. We have had nothing to eat since morning. We are hungry."


text:
163. Tony Bennett: The Best Is Yet to Come
(Cy Coleman-Carolyn Leigh) 1962
164. Jo Stafford: I've Got the World on a String
(Harold Arlen-Ted Koehler) 1960
165. Frankie Laine: I Let Her Go
(Hal Blair-Don Robertson) 1963
166. Rosemary Clooney and the Nelson Riddle Orchestra: I Get Along Without You Very Well
(Hoagy Carmichael) 1961
167. Peggy Lee: Fever
(Eddie Cooley-John Davenport-Peggy Lee) 1958
168. Keely Smith with Nelson Riddle and his Orchestra: What Is This Thing Called Love?
(Cole Porter) 1959
169. Louis Prima (Featuring Keely Smith with Sam Butera and the Witnesses): Jump, Jive an' Wail
(Louis Prima) 1956
170. Dinah Washington with Quincy Jones and his Orchestra: Is You Is Or Is You Ain't My Baby?
(Louis Jordan-Billy Austin) 1956
171. Bobby Darin: Mack the Knife
(Kurt Weill-Bertolt Brecht-Marc Blitzstein) 1959
172. Annie Ross: Twisted
(Wardell Gray-Annie Ross) 1952
173. Lambert, Hendricks and Ross: Cloudburst
(Leroy Kirkland-Jimmy Harris) 1960
174. Bob Dorough: Baltimore Oriole
(Hoagy Carmichael-Paul Francis Webster) 1957
175. Chet Baker: My Funny Valentine
(Richard Rodgers-Lorenz Hart) 1956
176. Sarah Vaughan: Stormy Weather
(Harold Arlen-Ted Koehler) 1960
177. Betty Carter: Open the Door
(Betty Carter) 1964
178. Henry Mancini: Moon River
(Henry Mancini-Johnny Mercer) 1961
179. Neal Hefti: Mr. Freeze
(Neal Hefti) 1966
180. The Exotic Sounds of Martin Denny: Quiet Village [single version]
(Les Baxter) 1959
181. The Exotic Sounds of Arthur Lyman: Taboo
(Margarita Lecuona-Bob Russell) 1958
182. The Three Suns: Moritat
(Kurt Weill-Bertolt Brecht) 1960
183. Esquivel: Sentimental Journey
(Les Brown-Ben Homer-Bud Green) 1961
184. Enoch Light and the Light Brigade featuring Doc Severinsen: Night and Day
(Cole Porter) 1964
185. Andy Williams: Can't Get Used to Losing You
(Doc Pomus-Mort Shuman) 1963
186. Dean Martin: Ain't That A Kick In the Head
(Jimmy Van Heusen-Sammy Cahn) 1960
187. Sammy Davis, Jr.: That Old Black Magic
(Harold Arlen-Johnny Mercer) 1955
188. The Swingle Singers and the Modern Jazz Quartet: Fugue #2 in C Minor
(Johann Sebastian Bach) 1967
189. Tom Lehrer: Masochism Tango [Orchestrated Version]
(Tom Lehrer) 1960
"These are the fifties, you know. The disgusting, posturing fifties."
-- Hannah Arendt.
The game show What's My Line? (which ran, in its original incarnation, from 1950 to 1967) provides a fascinating time capsule of the American entertainment scene in the mid-twentieth century. For those unfamiliar with the show, four panelists in evening dress, men in tuxedos, women in evening gowns, attempted, with the guidance of moderator John Charles Daly, to guess the occupations of contestants with unusual or interesting vocations (a woman who paints dots on dice or a man who makes hammocks, for instance). The three regular panelists, who were joined by a rotating cast of male celebrities, were, for most of the show's run, Broadway columnist/investigative journalist Dorothy Kilgallen, actress-talk show host Arlene Francis, and publisher Bennett Cerf, who had published the first American edition of Joyce's Ulysses. In addition to the unusually-employed contestants, each edition of the show also features a Mystery Guest, – most often someone from what we now call "The Entertainment Industry", but which the celebrity panel invariably refers to as "The Lively Arts." What is most interesting to contemporary eyes, apart from the formality and occasional casual sexism and other political incorrectness of the panelists is the treatment of mystery guests from the music world. Inevitably, one of the probing questions asked by the blindfolded panelists to someone they've identified as a singer is, "Are you popular on jukeboxes?" or, phrased differently, "Are you listened to by teenyboppers?" Although few, if any, genuine rock and roll singers appeared on What's My Line?, there is a great distinction made between those that the panelists refer to as "supper club singers" – Tony Bennett, Peggy Lee, Frankie Laine – and mere popular singers of the rock and roll, rhythm and blues, or, heaven forbid, country persuasions. The implied disdain for these forms is readily apparent; indeed, Kilgallen famously provoked country diva Patsy Cline's ire by referring in print to the denizens of the Grand Ole Opry as "hillbillies." The message, to observers of popular culture and, especially, popular music, is clear: rock and roll, country, rhythm and blues, were music for children, for the uncultured, for the non-intellectual, not fit for the "society page meets the lively arts" world represented by What's My Line?
While rock and roll was dominating the newly-instituted top forty radio format and sales of singles, and modern jazz was reaching a high water mark for musical complexity within an ostensibly popular form, "adult" listeners (mostly white suburban-dwellers) were the key audience for more accessible and superficially more sophisticated forms of music. These forms, which, like bop, were musical descendants of swing, are now generally subsumed under the somewhat misleading moniker "lounge."
Lounge is a catch-all term that, as with doo-wop, wasn't applied during the music's first era of relevance. In the late-eighties, scavenging record collectors found the wealth of old jazz, r&b, and rock records drying up, and turned instead to the music that had been termed most disreputable by the architects of "serious" rock criticism – the adult pop of the fifties and early sixties – which they dubbed "lounge". Early rock critics, in establishing their territory as chroniclers of a serious art form, created their own, as Harold Bloom would have it, "map of misreading" for all popular, non-rock (or roots-influenced), non-modern jazz popular music. While discarding a good deal of genuinely soulless non-rock (Lawrence Welk, the Ray Charles Singers), these critics also tended to write off many substantial interpreters of pre-rock American popular song (Frank Sinatra, Rosemary Clooney) as fixed points within the very Establishment against which rock and roll was rebelling: Leave It to Beaver, the Red Scare, a perceived mindless conformity. The singers that the What's My Line? panelists had praised for their nightclub appearances had become, regardless of soulfulness or ability, by virtue of their popularity as the music of the Baby Boom rock journalists' parents, the enemy.
Further, in attempting to cement rock as a true art form, rock journalists sought distance from the frivolity (and kitsch) associated with "Space Age Bachelor Pad Music" and Exotica, minimizing the debt to jazz held by the era's best singers and arrangers. Thus, under the umbrella term "lounge," we find popular singers with roots in swing or jazz, jazz singers who played in nightclubs, instrumental arrangements of standards, both clever and not, and muzak, music intended to exist purely as background: the beginning of the continuing genre of "music for people who don't like music."
In order to understand the development of the, shall we say, lounge-related, genres, and how they came to be grouped together, it is necessary to consider several important factors. Although muzak, the generic term derived from the trademarked subscription service (for businesses, stores, and restaurants) is frequently grouped with lounge, its artists derive little influence from jazz. Mantovani, Percy Faith, 101 Strings, and similar artists usually classified as muzak may well be deserving of the derision of rock and jazz writers; they are really more closely aligned with what was once, charitably, called "light classical music" – symphonic renderings, occasionally with stiff, white-bread, "boy-girl choruses" (the technical term used by purveyors of muzak) that are purposely un-emotional: designated background music. Most often, this genre is now referred to as "easy listening," a term often and unfortunately confused with lounge itself. A small, but illustrative digression on easy listening concerns a choral director named Ray Charles, famous for his work in the early fifties on the Perry Como television variety series whose Ray Charles Singers recorded the ubiquitous jingle "Letters, We Get Letters." An oft-told fifties musician joke goes roughly like this:
First musician: "I've got a session next week with Ray Charles."
Second musician: "Which one? The one who's blind or the one who's deaf?"
Following the ascent to stardom of the Genius of Soul, the "deaf" Ray Charles spent his career billing himself as "The Other Ray Charles." Generations of thrift store buyers of albums by the Ray Charles Singers have been mystified by their curious lack of soul.
One characteristic of lounge that is shared with easy listening is the primacy of sound quality. Rock and roll and roots-related genres were still, in the nineteen fifties, singles-oriented; their listeners were generally young or poor or both, and singles were usually recorded quickly, often in less-than-adequate studios, and mixed to sound good on small, cheap AM radios, turntables, or jukeboxes. Meanwhile, with the economic boom of the post-war era, high fidelity stereo equipment [stereo albums were widely introduced in 1958] became a fast growing hobby / fetish among suburbanites. Much of what we consider lounge consists of material recorded either to take advantage of the greater playing time of albums or to show off expensive stereo equipment. The former can be applied to the series of concept albums, albums devoted to a single theme or similar songs, pioneered by Frank Sinatra, and mastered in Ella Fitzgerald's series of recordings of the great songs of the Great American Songbook: the works of Cole Porter, the Gershwins, Duke Ellington. Stereo albums enabled these interpretive singers to create longer works than 45 or 78 rpm singles had, creating and sustaining deeper and more complex moods. Once Sinatra and Fitzgerald had established that there was a market for sophisticated jazz vocal interpretations of standards, a great number of jazz-oriented singers who had been forced down the primrose path of light-pop by Mitch Miller followed their example. Frankie Laine, who had apprenticed imitating Louis Armstrong and Hoagy Carmichael (and even recorded, as one of his first records, Armstrong's "Black and Blue") alternated small combo jazz albums with more commercial albums of Western songs in an often-bizarre amalgams of big band and folk song. Laine became so identifiable with Wild West Songs that Mel Brooks eventually enlisted him to perform the theme to Blazing Saddles. Rosemary Clooney developed into an interpretative singer worthy as well of comparison to her mentor, Billie Holiday, while Tony Bennett, Jo Stafford, and Peggy Lee developed as night club singers, equally comfortable fronting big bands and small combos. Their work set the template for what eventually became the larger, less-nuanced, Las Vegas style lounge acts of Dean Martin, Sammy Davis, Jr., Louis Prima, and Keely Smith.
As well as spurring performers who genuinely performed in lounges, Sinatra's and Fitzgerald's examples provided for the great era of interpretive jazz singers: pioneers of vocalese (roughly, fitting lyrics to bop solos) Lambert, Hendricks, and Ross, Bob Dorough (who went on to sing and compose "I'm Just a Bill" and other Schoolhouse Rock songs), Sarah Vaughan, Chet Baker, and Betty Carter – vocalists whose style really was jazz, masquerading as adult pop.
This leads us to the importance of arranging within the genre; swing was a music that depended, for much of its success, not only on the musical talents of its musicians, and a high quality repertoire, but on the work of arrangers who usually gave each band, through variations in timbre, its unique flavor. Roots-derived musics - rock and roll, rhythm and blues, country – and post-swing jazz didn't require the services of professional arrangers in the way that swing had, but there were still countless talented arrangers (Nelson Riddle, Quincy Jones, Henry Mancini, Neal Hefti) who had worked with big bands, who found themselves, in the late fifties migrating to work supporting singers (Riddle, with Sinatra, Fitzgerald, Rosemary Clooney, Keely Smith; Jones, with Dinah Washington) or composing and arranging soundtracks (Riddle and Jones, as well as Mancini and Hefti). Swing had not died when big bands were replaced on the charts by singers; it merely morphed into lounge.
In this sense, indeed, it is possible to see the logic in grouping all of these seemingly disparate genres together: when swing ceased to be the predominant style in jazz, it didn't simply evolve into bop, as many jazz histories have it. Rather, it split in two: the more adventurous musicians (Charlie Parker, Miles Davis et al) developed bop (and its descendants), but the vast majority of swing musicians, singers, and arrangers (and swing was a huge nationwide business, with hundreds, if not thousands, of working big bands) did not have the inclination to follow Bird and Diz into the often-poverty-filled areas of modern jazz. The criticisms most often levied at the lounge genres are their commerciality and their soullessness. Certainly, these genres share a surface commerciality, but their arrangements (which often include humming, whistling, odd-combinations of instruments and percussion, and Spike Jones-like onomatopoeic moments), often coupled with a "singer-as-actor" in the mode drawn from Frank Sinatra or Billie Holiday evince a supreme self-awareness which is neither empty-headed nor necessarily unsoulful.
From this vantage point, it is necessary to see lounge as the forgotten sibling of bop, post-bop, and free jazz. And, arguably, with its self-reflexivity and humor, it is possible to see the work of Enoch Light or the Three Suns (whose organ-accordion-guitar line-up manages not only to produce actual music, but actually clever, soulful music) as swing's postmodern period. This postmodernist slant is also heard in the satirical songs of Tom Lehrer (who is not classed as "lounge" per se), but shares many of its sensibilities, and in the "bop meets Bach" fusions of the Swingle Singers. The Exotica of Martin Denny or Arthur Lyman, whose Pacific-influenced songs (better classed as "soundscapes") include bird calls made by band members and a variety of percussion instruments unheard in any Western pop music until the "World Music" explosion of the nineteen nineties; these records hearken back to the pre-Swing jubilant silliness of Dixieland and suggest anything but conformity. Certainly, nineties lounge revivalists Pizzicato Five and Combustible Edison recognized that much of this music was in its own way, subversive of the black and white, McCarthy hearings, Leave It to Beaver world of the nineteen fifties, and really was an alternate vision of the future of jazz, one that historians most unfortunately tend to forget.


text:
Tuesday, 13 April 2010
Murphy's Law for EFL teachers
1. If you have prepared a really cool warmer, everybody will be late for class.
2. If you have planned an important pairwork activity, an odd number of students will show up.
3. If you give your instructions so clearly that nobody can misunderstand, somebody will.
4. The student who misunderstood the instructions will explain them to everybody in his/her team.
5. Photocopiers always break when you have an important test.
6. The enthusiasm the students show for a worksheet you created is inversely proportional to the effort and creativity you invested into the worksheet.
7. No technology will work properly inside the bounds of a classroom.
8. The vocabulary the students memorise is inversely proportional to its frequency and usefulness.
9. When you are being observed, all good students stay at home.
10. The students will remember the exceptions, but not the rule.
11. When explaining grammar, you will only be able to remember cliche examples from your old secondary school books (such as If you hurry up, you will catch the train, or Look at the clouds. It is going to rain.)
12. Words misspell themselves when you write them on the whiteboard.
13. Whenever you spill coffee at home, it will land on a student's homework.
14. If you slip and fall in class, all your students will be present.
15. If you slip and fall in the street, at least one of your students will be present.
Well, I got as far as number 15. It is your turn now. Your suggestions are welcome.
20 comments:
- Luke Meddings said...
A very nice post, Natasa. Those cliched grammar examples do not fit the UK either. For example, we have no need to hurry up to catch a train, as trains here are always late. And while it is true that if you look at the clouds, you know it is going to rain - it is also true that if the sky is blue and sun is shining, you know it is going to rain. Anyway I enjoyed this!
- 16 April 2010 at 22:51
- Natasa said...
Hello Luke and welcome to my blog. You say that in Britain "it is also true that if the sky is blue and sun is shining, you know it is going to rain". That's how I remember Britain. I once went to a shop which was five minutes away from where I lived. The weather was beautiful so I didn't take an umbrella with me. It was pouring by the time I got home.
As for the trains, they are late over here as well.
- 17 April 2010 at 03:48
- Barbara Sakamoto said...
These are great, Natasa! Even though our trains are almost never late, I can relate to most of these examples. Much funnier in hindsight.
Thanks for giving me my smile today!
- 17 April 2010 at 11:17
- sasorigal said...
Hello, Natasa! I found your blog via Barabara's twitter and loved this post! I can relate to many of them from experience as well and although at the time, they were not funny, I can certainly laugh at everything now! Thanks for sharing.
- 17 April 2010 at 12:06
- Unknown said...
Hello Natasa!
I've found this blog through Marisa Constadinides on fb. Lovely post and only too true!!!
Here's my small contribution:
When there's a transport strike and you barely manage to get to class in time, only your most obnoxious or noisy students will show up!!!
- 17 April 2010 at 15:14
- amond said...
Found your blog via @joedale's new Twitter newspaper.
Number 15 really happened to me years and years ago, but the two students who saw me fall and hurt myself in the street helped me so much I was really glad they were there.
The whole list nade me smile, thanks Natasa!!
- 17 April 2010 at 15:36
- Natasa said...
Hello everyone and welcome.
Barbara, first of all, thank you for the wonderful comment on Twitter. It really made my day. Yes, I am sure trains are never late in Japan:)
Sasorigal, I agree. These were not funny when they really happened.
And Alexandra, thank you for your contribution. It really made me laugh. It is so true. In my case this often happens in winter when it snows and the traffic is bad. You can always be sure that there will be one student waiting and that it will be the obnoxious one. Or the one who never comes except when it snows and everybody else stays at home.
Amond, number 15 is the only one which didn't happen to me personally. I knew it had to happen to someone:)
- 19 April 2010 at 02:54
- Transitions Through Time said...
Share your personal experiences and listen to theres and atleast one student will remember you for there entire life. No matter how old they were when you were there teacher.
- 19 April 2010 at 23:27
Your grammar examples made me smile! I studied abroad in Brazil and someone had made a song about them. It went, "The book is on the table. The book, the book, is on the table!" People who didn't know a word of English would tell me over and over that the book was on the table! :0D
- 29 April 2010 at 06:28
- Corinne said...
Hi Natasa. Your post made me smile. I teach language arts and science to 8th graders, and it's only my first year, but many of those things have come true already!
- 30 April 2010 at 02:59
- Natasa said...
Welcome, everyone. Sorry for not answering earlier, I was out of town.
Transitions Through Time, you are right. We do make a difference in this job.
Anonymous, I know what you are talking about. I still remember my first English lessons word for word. My secondary school teacher was allergic to the expression "from times immemorial" which appeared regularly in the students' essays. It was, of course, something from their primary school textbooks.
Corinne, when I first decided to write this post, all I had to do is look back at the 20 years I spent in the classroom:)
- 4 May 2010 at 02:14
- Harnett-Hargrove said...
Just popped in. You have an interesting blog. -J
- 11 May 2010 at 22:04
- Natasa said...
Thanks Jayne. I have just looked at your blog and I love it. I have always admired people who can express themselves through visual arts (the talent I definitely lack).
- 12 May 2010 at 03:01
Hi Natasa. I found your blog via @gsellart. Really nice post. Totally made me smile! Here is my contribution: That cd, tape, mp3 that you checked and worked will not work once the class has started.
- 24 May 2010 at 08:18
- shaz said...
Hi Natasa! Found you through a DELTA facebook page and it was so refressing to read something funny and at last, a blog I can actually relate to! You are so accurate with all your observations, and I think all 15 apply to me! Especially, the whiteboard spelling...I have often wondered why this happens?
Thanks for your thoughts,and making us all feel human!
- 7 June 2010 at 22:41
- Natasa said...
Hi Sharon. I am glad you can relate to this post. I agree - from time to time we, the teachers, need to remind ourselves that we are only human. We make mistakes and our classes often lack the perfection that we are trying to reach. I have been thinking about whiteboard writing since you asked the question. Here is what I think: facing the whiteboard makes us feel like we are no longer teachers but primary school pupils. It reminds us of all the times our teachers asked us to spell something on the board or do a maths equation. And our mind goes blank. Just a theory...
- 10 June 2010 at 03:34
- Natasa said...
Hi Shawna and welcome. You people have contributed so much here that I believe there is enough material for Murphy's Law Part 2:)
I hate the way I sometimes have to spend a lot of time trying to get the CD or the DVD to work and then, sooner or later, one of the students comes and tries to fix things for me. I always feel so stupid when that happens.
- 13 June 2010 at 21:21
I just had to explore your blog further after reading your first post in the Kick Start Your Blog Challenge. Fabulous post that adds interest, livens up the blog and makes your readers laugh. We don't have trains where we live. All the students catch a bus home.
I can relate to the technology issues as we have so many in our small prep to year 12 rural school and as for that photocopier!!!!
- 13 January 2011 at 11:30
- Natasa said...
Anne, it is good to see you again here. As for technology issues, I hate the moment when I try to switch something on and it doesn't work and I end up standing helplessly as one of my (usually male) students fumbles with the device to see what's wrong. Luckily, I teach adults and there's bound to be at least one student who likes fixing things. As for that photocopier...
- 14 January 2011 at 23:47
- Ali Zaidi said...
Has homework taken over your family's life? Is it making your children grumpy, you grumpy, and everyone fed up? Learn why it's gotten so bad, and see what you can do to still make your family evenings fun! law homework
- 31 July 2019 at 00:06


text:
80072 - UPG 4 Output 24VAC CCTV Power Supply, 4 Amp
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text: Are you an up and coming wedding photographer, wedding designer, or planner looking to have your work published? Belle Memorie is currently seeking direct real wedding submissions to our Real Deal section. Belle Memorie's aesthetic and readership is all about vintage, DIY, handmade, rustic, alternative, and uniquely authentic weddings. Submissions should be sent to email@example.com. Please submit no more than 15 photos that illustrate the overall look and feel of the wedding in a non-high resolution format (high res photos will be requested upon approval). Don't forget to include photos of decorative details. I look forward to your submissions!


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The latest edition of the Carnival of Cities is up. It includes a post written by me. You can find it at:
Great job, Sheila.
The latest edition of the Carnival of Cities is up. It includes a post written by me. You can find it at:
Great job, Sheila.
Early yesterday morning an arsonist made a mess of torching a taco restaurant and blew up several businesses, badly burning himself in the process. Half a dozen stores were damaged on West Broadway, just past Cambie. Two were destroyed. An office above them was also damaged. Across the street, the windows of the London Drugs that supplied just about every thing I use in my apartment were blown in. Most of the block is now boarded up.
I heard about it on the early evening news, just before I headed out to a seminar at Biz Books, a book store for the entertainment industry. I'd spent the morning teaching online then reading and responding to all the comments on this blog and the de-conversion blog I posted on.
The number of readers I get has soared this week. I wasn't quite ready for it. I almost doubled my previous best day. Then I almost tripled it. Then I did triple it, and today was quadruple. I'm a hit! This week's total is already more than last month, my first month, and I thought I wasn't doing too badly before.
There's a downside to the new attention, however. It takes up a lot of time and energy, and many of the commenters on the de-conversion site are rather logically challenged Christian zealots who ramble all over the place and change the subject in desperate attempts to prove the bible is THE TRUTH, and the only truth. I wasted my time responding to people who seemed so naive I wondered if they were children. Maybe they are, or maybe they're seminary students practising on me. Hey! I get paid for that and these guys are using me for free! They should pay me to read and reply to their poorly formed arguments.
What I really wanted, and needed, was to sleep. I'd taught late the previous night, too, and did some other stuff afterwards I probably shouldn't have. The end result is that when the alarm blasted in my ear at 5:30, I'd had two and a half hours sleep. I'd still had two and a half hours sleep when I was listening to the soft spoken producer in the cozy environs of the book store, resting my eyes occasionally.
They said on the news that the explosion was so powerful it could be felt two kilometres away. I live about two kilometres away. But, I didn't feel or hear a thing. I was deep in the midst of the only two and a half hours sleep I would get.
How do you seduce a Vancouver woman? Whisper sweet mortgages in her ear. Every woman in the lower mainland of BC seems to want in on the property game and sees a man as a way to do it.
I met a woman in The Cascade a while ago. Within a minute she was talking property. She'd just returned to Vancouver from Ontario and was staying with her parents while she looked for a place to buy. Then she asked me where I live. When I told her she said something like, "That's come up in the world lately, hasn't it?" She was starting to look on me as a potential real estate partner, which is all she really wants.
Sadly, this seems to be the primary purpose of the modern relationship here. Feelings are secondary, at best. With real estate prices going up and up, it takes two incomes to even dream of owning a home. Even with two incomes, I wonder how some couples can afford to buy. I guess they have to keep flipping them. That reminds me, I hope the couple down the hall finishes their reno soon. The noise is getting to me.
Vancouver has been the most expensive city in Canada to live in for most of the seven and a half years I've lived here and, based on what I've read, most of the last twenty to thirty years. Unfortunately, we don't have nearly the highest wages. Employers aren't exactly famous for their largesse. So, women were in it for the money as it is. Even a grocery store cashier who I always made laugh had to bring up the subject of money when I suggested we laugh somewhere else. Sorry, not good enough. Come to think of it, why can't we turn the tables? Where do you find rich women? Where do they go for happy hour?
If this hasn't happened in your city yet, get ready. Vancouver is at the vanguard. It brought you fusion cooking and mixed race couples. Real estate partner relationships and marriages are next.
So, if you want to make her weak in the knees, lean in and whisper, "25 year variable rate closed…" If you really want to show her you're in it for the long haul, softly say, "40 year fixed rate closed". She'll be yours and you'll be in debt together until you're old and wrinkly.
This post appears in the March 30, 2008 edition of the Carnival of Observations on Life.
A few nights ago I was walking through the cold, wet streets in the area of downtown that straddles the shiny business district to the west and the grotty downtown eastside. This is the area around Cambie Street.
A guy started following me and called after me. I knew I didn't want to know. I kept walking. He kept calling and following. I kept walking. When he called for the fourth time, I finally turned and said, "What?" He asked if I wanted to buy any weed. "No!", I snapped.
He'd followed me for two blocks. Two blocks! What kind of asshole follows someone at night for two blocks trying to sell him drugs he hasn't expressed any interest in? Remember when grass used to be 'cool'? We've come a long way since Kerouac.
This is nothing compared to what you'll encounter just a few blocks to the east. After walking past people shooting up in the street, when you reach the corner the twenty or so humanoids standing there ask you in series if you want rock. You say, "No" to the first then the next one asks, despite being only three feet away. They couldn't have not heard you say "no". Then the next one, another two or three feet away, asks. All this happens in broad daylight, even in plain view of the police station.
Returning to the dealer over on Cambie, even if I had been looking, what should I think about his product if he has to chase me through the streets to push it? Be cool, crusty, be cool. I know it's a lot to ask…
The area attracts a certain type due to the presence of various organizations and businesses promoting the legality and use of marijuana. One of them is the aptly named Amsterdam Cafe, just around the corner from where Crusty McDusty finally realized I wasn't shopping; an oasis of indulgence where customers smoke joints and pipes despite a smoking ban in public places. Cigarette smokers in bars have to step outside, but an aromatic cloud hovers over Amsterdam.
Is there a connection between the intrepid bush pusher and the 'cool' people at the cafe? He didn't seem smart enough to be in business for himself. Then again, how smart do you have to be to figure out that if the crack and scag dealers can get away with selling under the cops' noses, a grass mover is probably safe enough?
Meanwhile, the gangsters fighting over the BC bud industry are shooting each other in restaurants, cars, and homes. Innocent people have been killed in the crossfire. Connect the dots.
There is a gangland style killing for every wallet. It doesn't matter where you eat or socialize, you may be a witness to – or victim of – the latest episode in the gang wars that have broken out in greater Vancouver. These killings could have been lifted straight out of the movies or the Sopranos finale.
A few months ago, just four blocks from my home, gunmen walked into a Chinese restaurant on East Broadway, approached a table, and opened up. Two people were killed and others were wounded, including young girls. I assume they were the girlfriends.
I can't count the number of times I've passed that restaurant. I used to be a regular customer at a bakery directly opposite it, before it closed, and have used the bus stop outside the former bakery many times. The bullet hole in the window of the restaurant is enough to make you think about the possibility of innocent victims of stray bullets.
A few weeks later, gunmen fired shots through the window of a more upmarket restaurant on West 4th. It has a reputation as one of the more romantic restaurants in town, I believe, but love wasn't in the air that night. A known gangster was killed. It was only by luck that no one was killed by stray bullets, again.
A few weeks ago, a man with a past was gunned down outside a well known downtown steak house that's so expensive I had to win a contest to eat there the one time I did. It happened in full view of other diners inside, including the rest of his party who were waiting for him.
It doesn't seem to matter where you go or how much you can afford to spend, there's no guarantee you can escape it. You're not safe anywhere.
What are restaurants supposed to do – screen customers to keep out the targets? How? Should they ask customers, "Are you now, or have you ever been, involved with a criminal gang?" I don't think they'll volunteer that information.
There is talk of the police working with restaurants as they did with nightclubs. They visited the clubs, identified known criminals, and made it clear they were not wanted there. I don't know how they'll adapt that to restaurants. There are a lot more restaurants than nightclubs. Maybe they'll just distribute names and pictures of criminals so the restaurants can refuse entry. That would take a pretty brave Maitre d'.
Whatever they do, I hope it works.
The snow is finally starting to melt. I can see the deck and roof outside again. The familiar Vancouver puddle is returning, and not a minute too soon.
I'm not a winter person, as you've probably figured. The fact that California and Arizona are on the wrong side of the border is nothing short of a travesty of international justice. I'm still waiting for our government to take action at The Hague.
Sure, winter snow is great for the skiers and boarders, but I'm not one of them. Besides, there's still plenty of snow on the mountains over on the north shore. At least, I assume there is behind that low cloud cover obscuring the view of the top half of the mountains.
The season has its benefits, of course. I love hockey enough to endure the kind of abuse I took from some idiot on the Skytrain yesterday for wearing my Canucks toque after they lost again, continuing their current bad stretch. But, if I'd wanted a 'Canadian' winter I'd have moved to the prairies. Prairie people know what I'm talking about because half of them are here. Every other person you meet in Vancouver is a climate refugee from Alberta, Saskatchewan, or, occasionally, Manitoba.
It's only the end of January, and we've already had more snow on the ground down here near sea level than we usually get in an entire winter. Several days of snow cover and freezing temperatures is just not natural here. I know we have it easy compared to everywhere else in the country – except Victoria, maybe – but I still expect the worst precipitation induced obstacle I encounter to be a puddle. Damn you, El Nino! Or is it Nina?
Normally, I say I could do without the rain and puddles but, after the cold spell of the past week or so, they now seem pretty palatable.
So, the world is in crisis. A global market meltdown has stocks tumbling on exchanges all around the world, like dominoes. Obscene amounts of money have simply evaporated. There is talk of recession in the U.S. So what?
The sun was out in Vancouver in the middle of winter, yesterday. In this, the week including what is supposedly the most depressing day of the year, it shone gloriously and gregariously on us, permeating everything, penetrating even the most sullen eyes in an orgy of retinal stimulation. It had to be enjoyed.
Coming out of a seminar, I had a couple of hours to kill. Under a cloudless sky, I walked through downtown. I decided to walk past the construction site of the new tallest building in the city, to take a look. Did I need to? Had I never seen a highrise under construction? Of course not. Vancouver is a forest of construction cranes.
Then I decided to look for a coffee and wandered a bit, before remembering I had no cash. That required a detour to the bank and it's cash machine. A direction to go in for a while. Sights and sounds. Girl in extremely short skirt and high boots. Those legs must be cold.
Cashed up, I casually meandered in the direction of a coffee shop, looking in some shop windows and bars along the way. When I reached the coffee shop, I looked in the window and found all the comfortable chairs were taken. An excuse to keep walking.
At the corner of Granville and Drake, facing the open space over the bridge, the sun was blinding. I had to avert my eyes, it was so good. Crossing Granville Bridge, I could see Mount Baker, in Washington state. Another country! Miles and miles away! Visibility was fantastic. I looked down at the boats below, over at Bowen Island and the mountains on the far side of Howe Sound. A decadent feast for the eyes.
Cold? What cold? I didn't want to be anywhere but outside, in the sun. The crisis would either solve itself or still be there tomorrow.
Tomorrow's here, now, and there's frost on the roof outside. The puddle off to the right is frozen. Cold, by local standards, but there's not a cloud in the sky over the north shore mountains. I might just take another walk today. The crisis will still be there tomorrow.
Another wind storm tore through the city yesterday and into the night. They seem to be happening more often than usual. I don't recall the weather being as windy as it has been lately, in general, let alone the kinds of storms we've experienced over the past year or two.
It was about a year ago that the wind devastated Stanley Park, blowing down thousands of trees and causing a landslide that closed the seawall. Then, in September, just after the seawall finally reopened, there was another one that closed it again. I wonder what the damage is this time…
Downtown, Georgia Street was actually closed at rush hour because a window pane was flapping around in the wind on an office tower. A couple sheets of plywood were blown off a highrise under constructon and landed on cars below – one of them occupied. People trying to get home to the north shore had serious problems, since Georgia Street leads to the causeway through Stanley Park that leads to Lions Gate Bridge.
My own inconvenience was limited to the incessant flapping of the plastic sheet that was tied down over my bicycle where it's locked to the railing on the deck outside my window. This was my ingenious design to allow me to store the bike outside the apartment this winter, rather than inside like last winter. A great space saver. I guess a couple of the strings broke. I try to help the environment with pedal power and what does it give me in return? It's a good thing the whole thing didn't break free or who knows where it could have gone or what kind of damage might have resulted. Can you imagine a big sheet of plastic landing on your windshield while you're driving?
Something like that happened to me once years ago in London – on my MOTORCYCLE. But it wasn't even clear plastic. There I was just riding along and, suddenly, THWAP! Where is everything? Where did this plastic bag come from? Fortunately I managed to pull it off before anything else happened.
Oh, there was another noise that I heard last night. I heard something falling on the deck. That's not unusual – things fall off the balcony above me every once in a while. I went outside this morning to see what it was. This one was a little unusual. It was a table leg. I wonder where the rest of it ended up…
As convenient as online banking is, there is still the odd occasion when you have to go to the actual bricks-and-mortar bank and deal with an actual person. One such occasion occurred the other day. I set out, cheque in pocket.
Walking along Broadway, I heard a car horn and shouting. I looked up the street and saw a drunk, stoned, or maybe just crazy guy in the middle of the road, in front of a stationary pickup or SUV that was blocking the intersection. As I approached, I got a better look at the guy in the road. He was wearing an old light blue parka style coat. As I passed them, I got a better look at him than I wanted. The moon was out early that afternoon… Beneath the coat, his pants were hanging below his ass. Apparently, he doesn't dress in layers for the winter. A siren blasted and an unmarked police car appeared out of nowhere. I guess that's why they're unmarked, no?
Continuing along Broadway, I heard another siren blast. I turned to see two women getting out of the unmarked police car and another unmarked car pulling up from the opposite direction, followed by a police cruiser. A pretty impressive display of force for a guy whose pants were falling down. I felt safer already.
After doing a good deed at the bank that caused me to wait far longer than necessary and, therefore, to begin to regret my own niceness, I headed back the same way. One of those square police vans for prisoners – a modern version of the old paddy wagon, I guess – had joined the other three vehicles. The guy was surrounded by cops. I thought they were searching or cuffing him but, as I passed, I saw they were trying to keep his pants up. One of the women grinned good humouredly as she put some kind of belt on him and told him that should hold them up. She must have thought, "This isn't what I signed up for", before the pants were up. I wonder who drew the short straw.
And not a taser in sight.
They say a new year is a new beginning and this one has me thinking of my first beginning. On New Years Eve I met a woman from the Scottish town where I was born, who happened to be standing next to another woman from the Canadian city I grew up in.
I was in the Cascade, a fairly new pub-eatery with a friendly enough vibe on Main Street here in Vancouver, where I exist. She was asking about Absinthe. Do they have it? Is it the real stuff, like she'd had in Budapest, or the imitation? I pointed out the two bottles behind the bar and that one looked like the stuff I'd had in Prague, which was unavailable in the west at the time. I asked her what part of Scotland she was from, cleverly deducing that she was by her accent, and she said "Cumbernauld". Well, what a coincidence – that's where I was born. Apparently, Craig Kilborn, of Late Late Show fame, was too. Or his mother was – I can't remember, there was alcohol involved.
We talked some more and, as it turned out, she'd not only lived not far from the house I was born in, she had also lived in the Maryhill district of Glasgow, where relatives of mine lived. Pleasantries aside, she then told me how lucky I was not to have grown up in Scotland in general, and Cumbernauld in particular. If I'd grown up in Scotland, I would probably be an alcoholic, drinking whiskey for lunch, she said. I recalled stories of visiting relatives for her, in which I was hospitably fed whiskey like it was beer.
She would later say something that reminded me of another unpleasant aspect of life in Scotland. She asked about my religious origins, making an assumption on my name. Apparently, in Scotland, people can, and do, guess your religion based on your given name and treat you accordingly. This is just one aspect of the religious divide there, particularly in Glasgow, where soccer violence has been fuelled by religious affiliation. The two rival teams – Celtic and Rangers – deliberately encouraged this to build fan support, thus profiting from religious hatred and violence. I let her know that I rejected all religion as nonsense.
But Cumbernauld, she said, was a bad place within a bad environment. In fact, it was a bad idea. A great place to get raped, I think is how she put it. With pedestrian underpasses replacing crosswalks, it seemed designed for crime. All part of the 'new concept' design of the time. The lack of foresight is astounding. Even a child would instinctively know they were a bad idea. My sister may be the proof. I'm told her claim to fame is that she was the first person to be hit by a car in Cumbernauld, a town designed to prevent people getting hit by cars. Probably thinking, "That tunnel looks scary", the little girl crossed the road instead. The driver of the car, probably not expecting a child to be crossing the road because he would have been led to believe there wouldn't be any, hit her. So, this 'people friendly' design actually seems to have been more car friendly, as it kept traffic moving, and put people at greater risk by creating a criminal friendly environment. Maybe the drugs really were stronger in the old days.
Curiosity led me to visit Cumbernauld, once. During a visit to Glasgow, where I drank much whiskey, I decided to go see the place of my birth. For anyone who has never heard of it, Cumbernauld is one of five new towns built in Britain after the second world war. Others include Eastkilbride, also in Scotland and home of postpunk pop band The Jesus and Mary Chain, and Milton Keynes, in England, which has a reputation for being rather dull. Anyway, after waiting at least an hour for my connecting bus, I finally got there. The driver, who had clearly been in no mood to explain the delay earlier, dropped me off at what I initially assumed must have been the wrong place.
Most cities and towns are established and grow in a location for a reason – there's a good harbour, a river, or a useful resource or good farm land nearby. Cumbernauld doesn't appear to have any of these. It sits in the middle of central Scotland, roughly at the centre of the triangle created by Glasgow, Edinburgh, and Stirling, but not close enough to any of them to be considered a suburb. I could be wrong, but there doesn't appear to be any water nearby. If the land surrounding it is arable, it seemed it wasn't being farmed. I know this because the place I was dropped off by the side of the road was also beside open land, empty except for a power pylon near a hill. On the other side of the road were buildings. So there it was, in the middle of nowhere with no apparent purpose.
I looked at a map and found I was not only not in the wrong place, I was actually near the street I was born on. It was just on the other side of the road which, as it turned out, was the main road. To create the people friendly town that wasn't actually very people friendly, it seems to have been designed with the main road going around the town rather than through it. Now there's a way to create a vibrant, people friendly atmosphere. I left the emptiness of the main artery and walked into town. One street in I turned into Lennox Road, walked a short distance and found it. The house I was born in was a little pebble covered townhouse, identical to all the others around it. A bit dreary, really, and hardly worth the pilgrimage. Be careful what you look for, you might find it. I came, I saw, I left.
This trip planted an idea in my mind that was confirmed on New Years Eve by the woman I met. I am the product of a failed, terribly misguided social experiment. This explains a lot. But, on the bright side, look what it did for Craig Kilborn. Alchemy?
As for the other woman, we agreed that Windsor is a place people come from. More about that fabulous metropolis will no doubt come. In case you're really wondering, one is married and the other has a boyfriend so, no, I didn't get my tongue down either throat. However, it may come as no surprise that the Scottish woman is the one who stood on the bench against the wall and counted down the new year for everyone.


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To modify or delete an ad die:
Display the list of ad dies (see How to Display the List of Ad Dies).
Select the ad die and press [OK].
The Ad die setting menu
is displayed.
To change the name of the ad die:
Select Edit.
Change the ad die name using the keypad and press [OK].
The system updates the ad die list.
To delete the ad die:
Select Delete.
The system asks for a confirmation.
Press [Delete] to confirm deletion.


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No background images - Background images in divs and table cells are gone, meaning Mark's image replacement technique is out the window. Poor background color support - Give a div or table cell a background color, add some text to it and the background color displays fine. Nest another table or div inside though and the background color vanishes. No support for float or position - Completely breaking any CSS based layouts right from the word go. Tables only. Shocking box model support - Very poor support for padding and margin, and you thought IE5 was bad!
Copyright © 2007 Genii Software Ltd.


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Portfolio Asset Management's guiding principle is to provide collection and accounts receivable support to your organization by working with your customers to resolve their obligations. PAM will recover the maximum amount of revenue in the shortest period of time, while representing your organization in an ethical and professional manner.
Our goal is to increase your bottom line while maintaining the integrity of your organization.


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Dear travelers,
Welcome to our newly created Community Realm! You may feel a bit lost, but you are about to join the Zodiac: Orcanon Odyssey...
My name is Ulan and I will make sure to keep you safe on this journey! Beware, enemies are just round the bend and they will be vicious when they find you!
Enjoy your stay, the adventure begins NOW!


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Breakout Speaker: Ann Dolence
The combination of Qigong and massage release tension to energize the body and mind. Learn about 24 main points of energy throughout your body and practice head and shoulder acupressure points to release tension, relax and energize the body and mind.
Spring Forest Qi~ssage
Ann Dolence, Spring Forest Qigong Level 1 Master Healer, Certified Qi~ssage Practice
Ann Dolence, has spent 15 years as a certified recreation therapist working in the area of psychiatric treatment. She has owned her own professional speaking and training business, The Leisure Connection, for the past 20 years. Ann is a Certified Tiny Habits Coach and was recently named to the Tiny Habits National and International Training Faculty. She has facilitated Worksite and School Wellness programs for Lakes Country Service Cooperative for the past 13 years and teaches as an adjunct instructor at the University of North Dakota Recreation and Tourism Department. Ann is also the co-owner and co- developer of Wellday at Work: healthy online breaks for your workday.
Ann promotes nationally and regionally that creativity, playfulness, laughter, and celebrations of life are nature's way of re-energizing and re-vitalizing ourselves. Once we remove the obstacles that conflict and negative attitudes produce, we are sure to obtain our goals. Simple techniques implemented daily can make these positive life qualities of success available to everyone.
Learn more during the Women's Health Conference in Bismarck on Monday, September 28.
Leave a Reply.
September 2018


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I thoroughly enjoy teaching and am currently doing so in two different places, Goethe University Frankfurt and RheinMain University of Applied Sciences, and in two different subject areas, theoretical physics and mathematics for engineers.
I am currently teaching a course on quantum probability, quantum information, and quantum computation at Goethe University Frankfurt. Previously, I taught the better part of the core theoretical physics curriculum at Ulm University, including courses in classical mechanics, electrodynamics, thermodynamics and statistical mechanics.
Students can access the lecture notes and problem sets of my current course online (password required).
Engineering students at RheinMain University of Applied Sciences receive a thorough initial training in mathematics which covers all requisite tools from calculus, analysis, linear algebra, and stochastics. For the past 4+ years I have taught these introductory courses to students of mechanical engineering who enter the university with prior work experience, a particularly mature and motivated group of students with diverse backgrounds. These are intensive courses with many practice sessions and lots of interaction between students and teacher.
Students can access the lecture notes and problem sets of my current course online (password required).


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WEO is the host and responsible for the overall planning and implementation of the congress.The World Endoscopy Organization is a non-profit umbrella organization covering 3 geographical zones Asia-Pacific (A-PSDE), Europe/Mediterranean (ESGE) and the Americas (SIED). For more than 50 years,WEO has led the promotion of high quality and safe endoscopy worldwide, through training, education and research. WEO was established in 1962 during the World Congress of Gastroenterology in Munich, Germany. Up until 2010 the society was known as "Organisation Mondiale d'Endoscopie Digestive" (OMED), when the name was changed to the "World Endoscopy Organization" (WEO).
Asian Healthcare Foundation (AHF) is the co-host of ENDO 2017. AHF, the research wing of Asian Institute of Gastroenterology, is also a charitable foundation with the purpose of running medical workshops and training activities amongst other educational endeavors. The Institute of Basic and Translational Research under Asian Healthcare Foundation (AHF) is dedicated to translate research findings to clinical practice in Gastroenterology.
MCI is an independent, global association, communications and event management company. Their combined expertise enables them to offer strategy, creativity and execution in the field of association management (AMC), Congress and Exhibition (PCO), live communication, meetings, events and incentives and performance improvement programmes.


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Last Day of the Summer 2017 Horse Camp.
This week long in August 2017 horse camp has been so fun with these kids that we are so sad for tomorrow to be the last day ❤. Proud of you girls!! 👏🏼 – Shauntelle Harding
REVIEW from Randall McCallum, Chamber Answers
The Joy of Summer: Harding Heights Ranch Horse Camp 2017
Harding Heights Ranch is an inspirational success story to the local Trail Rossland Castlegar area and exemplifies the qualities that have made it a successful family run establishment. Today is the final day of the Summer Horse Camp August 2017, and smiles, and excitement is everywhere and contagious. You can trust in their natural chemistry when the family gets together to offer a horse camp for children, as the abilities of Shauntelle Irene Harding and her mother Irene Harding show what it is like to productively work together and interact as a team shine through. This makes you take notice when you visit the ranch, as you know your child will effectively become part of the family. As you can imagine, it's important for family-owned business owners to have individuals who mesh perfectly with their approach to making every visitor feel special. And SPECIAL CARE is what every child and adult receive at Harding Heights Ranch.
When you visit, you will find the Harding family to be hands on and more personable. You will soon begin to feel like extended family each time you visit, and this is part of the magic they offer to develop a strong bond with each and every child and their parents.
You can depend on the speed and accuracy of their service. They are a proud family-run operation, and Shauntelle and Irene have built impeccable personal reputations that are on the line when they make commitments to their customers. Often, this ensures expedient joyous results. "After all, the family is a natural team," and you can be assured of their high values. Everyone wants to find local businesses that they can trust. However, it can often be difficult to differentiate between the trustworthy and the non-trustworthy businesses out there. The Harding family are "real people", and they have legs up on the competition in that regard because the names of their wonder filled Ranch is directly associated with their family legacies of TRUST and LOVE. The horses and each and every living creature on the ranch is family too. That's a smile builder.
What people are saying about Harding Heights Ranch experience:
"Have always heard such positive feedback about the wonderful events for young and old alike." – Jo Renee Frost – Coordinator at Sweet Home Care
"IT'S AWESOME." Raymond Palmer
Follow us on Facebook at hardingheightsranch


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Official Opening For New Facilities At Radipole Lake
Published by The Wessex FM News Team at 9:01am 14th May 2012.
New facilities at Radipole Lake Natures Reserve in Weymouth are being officially opened this morning. (Monday 14th May) South Dorset MP Richard Drax and Mayor Graham Winter will do the honours at what the RSPB are calling their state of the art Wild Weymouth Discovery Centre.
New facilities at Radipole Lake Natures Reserve in Weymouth are being officially opened this morning.
South Dorset MP Richard Drax and Mayor Graham Winter will do the honours at what the RSPB are calling their state of the art Wild Weymouth Discovery Centre.
The centre has undergone major refurbishment which includes screens showing video and live footage of the reserve's wildlife, information boards and large reserve maps; full length blackboards detailing forthcoming events as well as reserve sightings and impromptu art work; a coffee shop with indoor and patio seating; a customer toilet with baby changing facilities, and improved access for disabled people. There will also be free Wi-Fi access so visitors can surf the web whilst enjoying a locally-sourced cake.
Out on the reserve, new boardwalks have been installed. Along with the upgraded footpaths, these are all wheelchair and pushchair accessible, leading to raised viewing platforms and giving bird's eye views into otherwise hidden areas of the reedbeds, ditches and open water. There is also a new storytelling and picnic area with wonderfully carved wildlife-themed wooden seating.
RSPB Wild Weymouth Discovery Centre manager Michelle Williams said: "We believe the new facilities and family trail will give our visitors the best possible experience they can have of our beautiful Weymouth Wetlands.
"The place is much more interactive and people will be able to get involved in all sorts of ways, whether it's drawing their own pictures of the wildlife they've seen up on the blackboards, watching the nest cams and other footage, doing a spot of pond-dipping and finding out about 'what lurks beneath', or holding their own community events at the picnic area."
Luke Phillips, Weymouth Wetlands information officer added: "And of course people will still be able to just go for a stroll, and get much better views of wildlife such as warblers and wildfowl and some of our iconic birds including bearded tits, marsh harriers, kingfishers and hopefully even bitterns.
"We'll also be holding more in-depth events including educational sessions for schools and community groups, where people can learn about the ecology of the reserves and about habitats and wildlife in other parts of Weymouth and Portland."
The new RSPB Wild Weymouth Discovery Centre and family trail has been completed with generous funding from EU INTERREG IV A2 Seas Programme; Natural England's Access to Nature initiative through the Big Lottery Fund's Changing Spaces programme and Defra/European Agricultural Fund for Rural Development.
The work follows a two-year restoration project completed last winter, creating a mosaic of habitats and revitalising Radipole Lake from roadside café to five-star hotel and restaurant for wildlife.
You can get more information by visiting the RSPB Weymouth Wetlands website or their blog by CLICKING HERE or by phoning 01305 778313.


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2 Hudson Valley Retailers' Credit Card Data Breached
Two luxury retailers with Hudson Valley locations recently had their credit card data information breached.
Lord & Taylor and Saks OFF 5TH, owned by Hudson's Bay Co, were recent victims of a cybersecurity breach, according to Reuters. While the article does not mention the nature of the breach, it sounds like the data was hacked into. The kind of data that was compromised was not mentioned either, but the article says that it was "data on payment cards."
This means it could be credit card numbers, credit card account information or purchases made. According to the article, this is the largest credit card data breach in the past year. Potentially millions of credit cards and credit card holders could be affected.
Lord & Taylor published a message on their website saying the situation is still being investigated, but it is believed to be contained. Parent company Hudson's Bay Co did not publish a press release on their website. The message also said that once the investigation is concluded, cardholders will be notified if their information was leaked.
There are two Lord & Taylor locations in the Hudson Valley: Palisades Center and White Plains. There is one Saks OFF 5TH location in the area, at the Woodbury Commons Premium Outlets.


text: Whether in a classroom or at home, young people in China are in desperate need of "The Talk." From startling increases in HIV and unplanned pregnancies to unreported sexual abuse, a dangerous ignorance about the birds and the bees and how to do "it" safely is putting the nation's youth at risk. While China has made extraordinary progress in bringing down HIV infection rates to some of the lowest in the world, there has been an alarming increase in new HIV cases among 15 to 24 year olds. During the first nine months of 2016, 2,321 students were diagnosed with HIV – a 410 percent increase over the same period in 2010.


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If you have the "Charlie Brown Christmas" music handy, turn it on now and select "Skating." The Vince Guaraldi Trio's light, joyful tune evokes emotions of how outdoor winter fun is supposed to be ... glide, spin and do it again.
And while you perhaps reminisce, resolve to talk with children in your life about ice safety.
Ice thickness varies greatly on lakes, ponds and rivers throughout Minnesota and Wisconsin. Some bodies of water have no ice, others have a thin glaze, and "up north" the ice may appear firmly solid - but ice is never 100 percent safe.
Here are some guidelines that can help minimize the risks:
• Wear a life jacket on the ice (except when in a vehicle).
• Supervise children around ice.
• Caution children to stay off ponds, streams, and other bodies of water.
• Remember that a coating of ice on a pond or lake does not mean it can support even a child's light weight.
• Before heading out, inquire about conditions and known hazards with local experts.
• Check ice thickness at regular intervals - conditions can change quickly.
• Avoid channels and rivers.
The minimum ice thickness guidelines for new, clear ice are:
• 4 inches for ice fishing or other activities on foot.
• 5-7 inches for a snowmobile or all-terrain vehicle.
• 8-12 inches for a car or small pickup.
• 12-15 inches for a medium truck.
• Double these minimums for white or ice covered with heavy snow.
For more information, visit mndnr.gov/icesafety and https://dnr.wi.gov/topic/outdoorrecreation/activities/icesafety.html
We wince and laugh at when Lucy cracks the whip and the skating mishap ends with a tree dumping snow on the hapless Charlie Brown, but breaking through the ice is no laughing matter. Practicing basic ice precautions, teach children when they're young and they, too, will enjoy creating lasting and heart-warming memories.


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August 30, 2013
BSHS senior Jordan Jackson runs out of bounds after taking off on a scramble during the Braves' Aug. 30 preseason scrimmage. BSHS will open its season against Turner at 7 p.m. on Sept. 6.
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A downloadable game for Windows and macOS
Investors are paying you to reach out for new crude oil fields. Pick up a car and take the route to reach the highly coveted black gold. The more fuel you waste, the happier your investors and supporters will be. Just leave enough propellant left in your tank in order to keep driving.
The prototype OilSpill is a student project for the "Retromorphosis" course of the University of the Arts (Zurich) - GameDesign.
Created by: Julian Schönbächler
Lecturers: Max Moswitzer, Livio Lunin
- Three different levels with slightly different mechanics
- Three different car types
- Fast arcade racing
- Explosions
- Even more explosions
Click download now to get access to the following files:
OilSpill_Mac.zip 26 MB
OilSpill_Windows.zip 23 MB
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The team, which plays in the Florida State League, is the Class A-Advanced affiliate of the Toronto Blue Jays major-league club.
When Major League Baseball owners considered locking out the regular players and using "scabs" instead for the 1995 season, Dunedin would have been used as the Toronto Blue Jays' home field due to Ontario laws concerning replacement workers. The MLB labor dispute was resolved before the plan was implemented, however.
The major league club does use the facility annually for spring training.
Team historyEdit
In 2006, the Blue Jays made it to the Florida State League Championship Series, losing to the St. Lucie Mets 3 games to 0.
In 2007, the Dunedin Blue Jays were nominated for the 2007 Corporate Support Award, which is awarded annually by the Florida Recreation & Park Association, to an organization that goes above and beyond to support and fund recreational programming.
Road to the ShowEdit
Dunedin Blue Jays players that have made it to Toronto:
- Jeremy Accardo
- Russ Adams
- Derek Bell
- Pat Borders
- Dave Bush
- Chris Carpenter
- Brett Cecil
- Gustavo Chacin
- Carlos Delgado
- Kelvim Escobar
- Shawn Green
- Gabe Gross
- Juan Guzman
- Roy Halladay
- Pat Hentgen
- Aaron Hill
- Orlando Hudson
- Casey Janssen
- Reed Johnson
- Jeff Kent
- Billy Koch
- Brandon League
- Adam Lind
- Jesse Litsch
- Shaun Marcum
- Dustin McGowan
- Lloyd Moseby
- Josh Phelps
- David Purcey
- Alex Rios
- Ricky Romero
- Travis Snider
- Ed Sprague
- Shannon Stewart
- Dave Stieb
- Mike Timlin
- Dave Weathers
- Vernon Wells
Current rosterEdit
Template:Dunedin Blue Jays roster


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As he prepares to step down after 16 years in the job, he tells
swissinfo.ch that part of the reason is the new liberal climate with its
emphasis on competition and where every person is encouraged to be out
for themselves.
The job of the commission is not to change people's beliefs, but
rather to ensure that they do not act in racially discriminating ways,
he says.
G.K.: The mood towards foreigners, towards "others", has definitely
worsened. The distinction between "me and them" or "us and them" has
become sharper. It is quite clear that denigrating others is a way of
making yourself feel more important.
G.K.: I'm very skeptical about all the explanations. People talk about globalization, an increase in immigration, uncertainty about the
future. But all these explanations bother me, because they all contain
What we really need to explain first of all is
why there has been such an upsurge in nationalism, because denigrating
people who are regarded, rightly or wrongly, as being "different" is
connected with an archaic tribalistic way of thinking that seems to be
coming back into vogue and which is a guiding principle even for much of
the conservative middle class.
G.K.: I won't say categorically that we have not done some things
wrong. But you can't use these figures to measure the achievements
either of authorities whose task is prevention, or of those whose task
is enforcement. We don't know how many cases there would have been if we
weren't there.
And don't forget that racism in the private
sphere is not covered. We simply don't know how many cases there are of
racial discrimination when it comes to applying for apprenticeships or
jobs for example, or in looking for an apartment.
G.K.: There are certainly connections. It's become more acceptable to
put the emphasis on what's "mine", and to behave brusquely towards other
people. These things are even seen as a virtue.
development is part of new liberal competition: the race goes to the
strong, no room for kid gloves. And all of this is combined with
so-called freedom of opinion.
What I am most worried about is
the pseudo-democratic opinion that is gaining ground which claims that
defining racism is just a question of interpretation. Of course there
are marginal areas where it's hard to draw clear lines, but to regard
the issue in general as simply something a person is free to judge as
they see fit, is cause for alarm.
It's not our job to work on
what people feel. Of course it would be desirable for people not to be
anti-Semitic, or not to regard travelers as inferior. But the main
thing is that they shouldn't show it openly.
G.K.: Of course it does, but that doesn't mean one should attach too
much responsibility to it. It is always individuals themselves who are
responsible. I can't use as an excuse the fact I was encouraged by the
People's Party posters, but it is clear that they do tend in general to
provide such encouragement, even if the posters themselves don't meet
the definition of racism.
G.K.: Sure, but what does that mean? I would be happy if people
concluded that we are not responsible for that. The commission must
point things out, must issue warnings, but in the last resort it's not
an education commission.
We don't pretend to be able to do
everything, we don't want to be responsible for everything. What we want
is for civil society to do more. We have enough non-governmental
organizations in this country who do good things with a minimal amount
of money. I would like to see more individuals supporting these
Gaby Ochsenbein in Basel, swissinfo.ch
(Translated from German by Julia Slater)
Please write: COMMENT in this box to verify that you are human


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This past weekend was absolutely wonderful. I went to go visit my parents and I must add that it is always a great time! My Mom and I went through every single box, every single plastic tote and weeded through goodies among goodies and I of course filled my totes up to the top. Uh yeah, there was no room for lids (lol). I mentioned to you in a previous post that my Mom was going to give me an old trunk that belonged to her parents and I received that this weekend. I love it and it holds so many wonderful things inside. I also received an old doll that belonged to my Grandpa's Mom and I am told that it is probably well over 200 years old. Here is a picture of the doll. My great great grandmother (the original owner of the doll) made the dress. She was also the doll dress maker for Lazarus until the factory started making the dresses. Pretty neat – huh? Gotta love the detail that was put into her dress. She certainly was talented.
Here are a few other things that I found in the trunk. Precious keepsakes that I will treasure forever!! Do any of you know how to make a keepsake box for a flag? That is my Grandpa in the picture below.
This is my Grandma…. isn't she beautiful?
This is a pretty neat story. Here are some very old marbles that belonged to my Grandpa. He actually won a marble championship competition back when he was 13 years old and these are the marbles that he won with. Pretty neat – huh? Like I said…… this trunk was full of lots of interesting and great memories!
Here are just a few old family photos that I thought I would post as well. Who doesn't love stuff like this? I know that I love it!! Thanks Mom for allowing me to have all of these wonderful treasures. I will forever treasure them and take care of them.
This picture was of my aunt on the left and my Mom in the stroller. Wasn't my Mom just the cutest baby?
This is a picture of my Grandpa (Jack), my Grandma (Clara), my aunt (Susie) and my Mom. Gotta love my Mom's little belly shirt.
The last picture that I share with you all today is a picture of my grandparents. I believe that this was their engagement picture. Aren't they a beautiful couple? A beautiful couple that created a beautiful daughter, mother and friend in my Mom. Thank you Lord for blessing me with such a wonderful family and sweet memories of my grandparents! Another neat thing that I am sharing with you today is that I found in some of the albums that today is actually the Wedding Anniversary for my grandparents. They were married on August 31, 1937. Pretty special.
I hope you enjoyed some of the wonderful treasures that I shared with you today. I know that I enjoyed them so I hope you did too. My next post which will probably be shared tomorrow will feature some prim goodies that I received from Mom. Oh ladies…. too bad you all don't live close to my Mom. She will be selling alot of prim goodness and other items in her garage sale. Thanks for looking today.
Until Next Time……


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Here's a few..
Hot yoga will detox your body via sweating (impossible, kidneys and liver work 24/7 removing toxins from our bodies, sweat is ineffective at doing this).
Certain yoga positions "massage internal organs" and improve organ function (impossible. Seriously, come on now!)
Yoga makes muscles long and slender (impossible, the length of a muscle between it's attachments does not change with stretching, nor will a muscle become more narrow.)
Yoga increases your fitness (very mild increase in fitness if you're unfit to begin with, about the same as from a walking pace. If you're already fit, yoga doesn't drive the cardiorespiratory system enough to make you more fit than you get from running, cycling, swimming, hockey, volleyball, or pretty much any vigorous activity).
And the big whopper, yoga is gentle and you won't get injured (many people get injured from yoga by pushing too hard, and trying to "go deeper" into senseless poses).
I'm not ultra flexible, but in reality, nobody needs to be. I stretch for about 10 minutes in total over a week. No, those are not yoga pants, those are my long-johns
Here's an article with a long laundry list of injuries and the reasons for them, that occur during yoga;
Yoga not always benign
ABC video on yoga injuries
The most offensive part of how most yoga classes are "taught" (more like preached, yoga is a religion, after all), is that yoga uses tried and true Machiavellian methods and cult indoctrination to convince people they should keep coming. It's the age-old promise of hope delivered with a well practiced smile, a deceiving smile.
Very, very few yoga studio's are not guilty as charged, in my observation.
Watch and see.. now that the initial honeymoon period of the recent yoga fad is waning and losing some of it's halo effect, we will see more and more real facts about yoga coming out. More about the injuries, more about the obviously mythical claims, and more about how misleading yoga really is. My only caveat is that there may be some genuine well intentioned yogis out there who don't lie about toxins etc, and won't try to push you into unrealistic poses. Good luck in finding them.
This moderate amount of flexibility does not require 30 to 90 minute classes 3-5 times per week. Just a few minutes every other day or so. BTW, it was easy for me to go out in my back yard in -12C weather and strike this pose. So much for the "need" for hot yoga
Here's an article I've done previously on yoga, which breaks down the most common phoney claims that are propagated by yoga.
Click on the link below to learn about phoney detox claims, how yoga isn't as "hard" as many think it is, and about research that shows it's fairly useless for fitness, has no advantage over simply stretching, and, say it ain't so, is NOT the be-all and end-all for stress management or a peaceful mind..
Is yoga the only exercise you need?