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How to provision a Windows SQL Server virtual machine in the Azure portal
This guide provides details on the different options available when you create a Windows SQL Server virtual machine in the Azure portal. This article covers more configuration options than the SQL Server VM quickstart, which goes more through one possible provisioning task.
Use this guide to create your own SQL Server VM. Or, use it as a reference for the available options in the Azure portal.
If you have questions about SQL Server virtual machines, see the Frequently Asked Questions.
If you don't have an Azure subscription, create a free account before you begin.
SQL Server virtual machine gallery images
When you create a SQL Server virtual machine, you can select one of several pre-configured images from the virtual machine gallery. The following steps demonstrate how to select one of the SQL Server 2017 images.
Select Azure SQL in the left-hand menu of the Azure portal. If Azure SQL is not in the list, select All services, then type Azure SQL in the search box. (Optional) Select the star next to Azure SQL to favorite it and add it as an item in the left-hand navigation.
Select + Add to open the Select SQL deployment option page. You can view additional information by selecting Show details.
2017in the SQL Server image search box on the SQL virtual machines tile, and then select Free SQL Server License: SQL Server 2017 Developer on Windows Server 2016 from the drop-down.
The Developer edition is used in this walkthrough because it is a full-featured, free edition of SQL Server for development testing. You pay only for the cost of running the VM. However, you are free to choose any of the images to use in this walkthrough. For a description of available images, see the SQL Server Windows Virtual Machines overview.
Licensing costs for SQL Server are incorporated into the per-second pricing of the VM you create and varies by edition and cores. However, SQL Server Developer edition is free for development/testing (not production), and SQL Express is free for lightweight workloads (less than 1 GB of memory, less than 10 GB of storage). You can also bring-your-own-license (BYOL) and pay only for the VM. Those image names are prefixed with {BYOL}.
For more information on these options, see Pricing guidance for SQL Server Azure VMs.
Select Create.
1. Configure basic settings
On the Basics tab, provide the following information:
Under Project Details, make sure the correct subscription is selected.
In the Resource group section, either select an existing resource group from the list or choose Create new to create a new resource group. A resource group is a collection of related resources in Azure (virtual machines, storage accounts, virtual networks, etc.).
Using a new resource group is helpful if you are just testing or learning about SQL Server deployments in Azure. After you finish with your test, delete the resource group to automatically delete the VM and all resources associated with that resource group. For more information about resource groups, see Azure Resource Manager Overview.
Under Instance details:
- Enter a unique Virtual machine name.
- Choose a location for your Region.
- For the purpose of this guide, leave Availability options set to No infrastructure redundancy required. To find out more information about availability options, see Availability.
- In the Image list, select Free SQL Server License: SQL Server 2017 Developer on Windows Server 2016.
- Choose to Change size for the Size of the virtual machine and select the A2 Basic offering. Be sure to clean up your resources once you're done with them to prevent any unexpected charges. For production workloads, see the recommended machine sizes and configuration in Performance best practices for SQL Server in Azure Virtual Machines.
The estimated monthly cost displayed on the Choose a size window does not include SQL Server licensing costs. This estimate is the cost of the VM alone. For the Express and Developer editions of SQL Server, this estimate is the total estimated cost. For other editions, see the Windows Virtual Machines pricing page and select your target edition of SQL Server. Also see the Pricing guidance for SQL Server Azure VMs and Sizes for virtual machines.
Under Administrator account, provide a username and a password. The password must be at least 12 characters long and meet the defined complexity requirements.
Under Inbound port rules, choose Allow selected ports and then select RDP (3389) from the drop-down.
2. Configure optional features
On the Disks tab, configure your disk options.
Under OS disk type, select the type of disk you want for your OS from the drop-down. Premium is recommended for production systems but is not available for a Basic VM. To utilize Premium SSD, change the virtual machine size.
Under Advanced, select Yes under use Managed Disks.
Microsoft recommends Managed Disks for SQL Server. Managed Disks handles storage behind the scenes. In addition, when virtual machines with Managed Disks are in the same availability set, Azure distributes the storage resources to provide appropriate redundancy. For more information, see Azure Managed Disks Overview. For specifics about managed disks in an availability set, see Use managed disks for VMs in availability set.
On the Networking tab, configure your networking options.
Create a new virtual network, or use an existing vNet for your SQL Server VM. Designate a Subnet as well.
Under NIC network security group, select either a basic security group, or the advanced security group. Choosing the basic option allows you to select inbound ports for the SQL Server VM (the same values that were configured on the Basic tab). Selecting the advanced option allows you to choose an existing network security group, or create a new one.
You can make other changes to network settings, or keep the default values.
On the Monitoring tab, configure monitoring and autoshutdown.
- Azure enables Boot diagnostics by default with the same storage account designated for the VM. You can change these settings here, as well as enabling OS guest diagnostics.
- You can enable System assigned managed identity and autoshutdown on this tab as well.
3. Configure SQL Server settings
On the SQL Server settings tab, configure specific settings and optimizations for SQL Server. The settings that you can configure for SQL Server include the following:
|Azure Key Vault Integration
|Storage configuration
|Automated Patching
|Automated Backup
|Machine Learning Services
Under SQL connectivity, specify the type of access you want to the SQL Server instance on this VM. For the purposes of this walkthrough, select Public (internet) to allow connections to SQL Server from machines or services on the internet. With this option selected, Azure automatically configures the firewall and the network security group to allow traffic on the port selected.
By default, SQL Server listens on a well-known port, 1433. For increased security, change the port in the previous dialog to listen on a non-default port, such as 1401. If you change the port, you must connect using that port from any client tools, such as SSMS.
To connect to SQL Server via the internet, you also must enable SQL Server Authentication, which is described in the next section.
If you would prefer to not enable connections to the Database Engine via the internet, choose one of the following options:
- Local (inside VM only) to allow connections to SQL Server only from within the VM.
- Private (within Virtual Network) to allow connections to SQL Server from machines or services in the same virtual network.
In general, improve security by choosing the most restrictive connectivity that your scenario allows. But all the options are securable through Network Security Group rules and SQL/Windows Authentication. You can edit Network Security Group after the VM is created. For more information, see Security Considerations for SQL Server in Azure Virtual Machines.
If you require SQL Server Authentication, click Enable under SQL authentication on the SQL Server settings tab.
If you plan to access SQL Server over the internet (the Public connectivity option), you must enable SQL authentication here. Public access to the SQL Server requires the use of SQL Authentication.
If you enable SQL Server Authentication, specify a Login name and Password. This login name is configured as a SQL Server Authentication login and member of the sysadmin fixed server role. For more information about Authentication Modes, see Choose an Authentication Mode.
If you do not enable SQL Server Authentication, then you can use the local Administrator account on the VM to connect to the SQL Server instance.
Azure Key Vault integration
To store security secrets in Azure for encryption, select SQL Server settings, and scroll down to Azure key vault integration. Select Enable and fill in the requested information.
The following table lists the parameters required to configure Azure Key Vault Integration.
|Key Vault URL
|The location of the key vault.
|Principal name
|Azure Active Directory service principal name. This name is also referred to as the Client ID.
|Principal secret
|Azure Active Directory service principal secret. This secret is also referred to as the Client Secret.
|Credential name
|Credential name: AKV Integration creates a credential within SQL Server, allowing the VM to have access to the key vault. Choose a name for this credential.
For more information, see Configure Azure Key Vault Integration for SQL Server on Azure VMs.
Storage configuration
On the SQL Server settings tab, under Storage configuration, select Change configuration to open the Performance Optimized Storage Configuration page and specify the storage requirements.
Under Storage optimized for, select one of the following options:
- General is the default setting and supports most workloads.
- Transactional processing optimizes the storage for traditional database OLTP workloads.
- Data warehousing optimizes the storage for analytic and reporting workloads.
You can choose to leave the values at default, or you can manually change the storage topology to suit your IOPS needs. For more information, see storage configuration.
SQL Server License
If you're a Software Assurance customer, you can utilize the Azure Hybrid Benefit to bring your own SQL Server license and save on resources.
Automated patching
Automated patching is enabled by default. Automated patching allows Azure to automatically patch SQL Server and the operating system. Specify a day of the week, time, and duration for a maintenance window. Azure performs patching in this maintenance window. The maintenance window schedule uses the VM locale for time. If you do not want Azure to automatically patch SQL Server and the operating system, click Disable.
For more information, see Automated Patching for SQL Server in Azure Virtual Machines.
Automated backup
Enable automatic database backups for all databases under Automated backup. Automated backup is disabled by default.
When you enable SQL automated backup, you can configure the following settings:
- Retention period (days) for backups
- Storage account to use for backups
- Encryption option and password for backups
- Backup system databases
- Configure backup schedule
To encrypt the backup, click Enable. Then specify the Password. Azure creates a certificate to encrypt the backups and uses the specified password to protect that certificate. By default the schedule is set automatically, but you can create a manual schedule by selecting Manual.
For more information, see Automated Backup for SQL Server in Azure Virtual Machines.
Machine Learning Services
You have the option to enable Machine Learning Services. This option enables you to use machine learning with Python and R in SQL Server 2017. Select Enable on the SQL Server Settings window.
4. Review + create
On the Review + create tab, review the summary, and select Create to create SQL Server, resource group, and resources specified for this VM.
You can monitor the deployment from the Azure portal. The Notifications button at the top of the screen shows basic status of the deployment.
To provide you with an idea on deployment times, I deployed a SQL VM to the East US region with default settings. This test deployment took approximately 12 minutes to complete. But you might experience a faster or slower deployment time based on your region and selected settings.
Open the VM with Remote Desktop
Use the following steps to connect to the SQL Server virtual machine with Remote Desktop:
After the Azure virtual machine is created and running, click the Virtual Machines icon in the Azure portal to view your VMs.
Click the ellipsis, ..., for your new VM.
Click Connect.
Open the RDP file that your browser downloads for the VM.
The Remote Desktop Connection notifies you that the publisher of this remote connection cannot be identified. Click Connect to continue.
In the Windows Security dialog, click Use a different account. You might have to click More choices to see this. Specify the user name and password that you configured when you created the VM. You must add a backslash before the user name.
Click OK to connect.
After you connect to the SQL Server virtual machine, you can launch SQL Server Management Studio and connect with Windows Authentication using your local administrator credentials. If you enabled SQL Server Authentication, you can also connect with SQL Authentication using the SQL login and password you configured during provisioning.
Access to the machine enables you to directly change machine and SQL Server settings based on your requirements. For example, you could configure the firewall settings or change SQL Server configuration settings.
Connect to SQL Server remotely
In this walkthrough, you selected Public access for the virtual machine and SQL Server Authentication. These settings automatically configured the virtual machine to allow SQL Server connections from any client over the internet (assuming they have the correct SQL login).
If you did not select Public during provisioning, then you can change your SQL connectivity settings through the portal after provisioning. For more information, see Change your SQL connectivity settings.
The following sections show how to connect over the internet to your SQL Server VM instance.
Configure a DNS Label for the public IP address
To connect to the SQL Server Database Engine from the Internet, consider creating a DNS Label for your public IP address. You can connect by IP address, but the DNS Label creates an A Record that is easier to identify and abstracts the underlying public IP address.
DNS Labels are not required if you plan to only connect to the SQL Server instance within the same Virtual Network or only locally.
To create a DNS Label, first select Virtual machines in the portal. Select your SQL Server VM to bring up its properties.
In the virtual machine overview, select your Public IP address.
In the properties for your Public IP address, expand Configuration.
Enter a DNS Label name. This name is an A Record that can be used to connect to your SQL Server VM by name instead of by IP Address directly.
Click the Save button.
Connect to the Database Engine from another computer
On a computer connected to the internet, open SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS). If you do not have SQL Server Management Studio, you can download it here.
In the Connect to Server or Connect to Database Engine dialog box, edit the Server name value. Enter the IP address or full DNS name of the virtual machine (determined in the previous task). You can also add a comma and provide SQL Server's TCP port. For example,
In the Authentication box, select SQL Server Authentication.
In the Login box, type the name of a valid SQL login.
In the Password box, type the password of the login.
Click Connect.
This example uses the common port 1433. However, this value will need to be modified if a different port (such as 1401) was specified during the deployment of the SQL Server VM.
Next steps
For other information about using SQL Server in Azure, see SQL Server on Azure Virtual Machines and the Frequently Asked Questions.


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Watch American Goalkeeper Tim Howard Score an Epic Goal
Special Guest post by Esteban L. Hernandez
American goalkeeper and New Jersey native Tim Howard did the unthinkable on Wednesday during a match between his side, Everton, and Bolton of the English Premier League: he scored an epic goal.
Howard cleared the ball across nearly the entirety of the pitch before it bounced near the 18-yard line and chipped itself inside Bolton goalkeeper Adam Bogdan's net.
Howard played it cool after the goal; he stood still seconds after the goal before being energetically embraced by teammates.
His goal marks only the fourth time in the history of the EPL that a goalkeeper scored during . Howard, who is also the starting goalkeeper for the United State's men's national team, remarkably is the second American keeper to score a goal in the EPL. Brad Friedel scored while playing for Blackburn.
While his goal was incredible and gave Bolton a temporary lead, Howard side lost the game 2-1.
Watch the goal here (replay starts at :33):
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subset: commoncrawl


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Though Chippendale was the primary of the nice Georgian Cabinetmakers, he was shortly adopted by other famous figures, amongst whom are the brothers Robert and James Adam. Styling modifications include a more wagonlike profile featuring sharper-trying particulars, a barely sloped roof, and an imposing angular grille. The Terms are effective until and until terminated by either you or Endlessly 21. Chances are you'll terminate the Phrases at any time.
To call or title; designate: George VI styled his brother Duke of Windsor. 2: Use a styling product Styling creams and oils—especially these specifically made for blow-drying—can battle frizz, defend in opposition to heat damage, and tame flyaways. The phrases fashionista and trend sufferer refer to somebody who slavishly follows current fashions.
We might use this Personal Info to manage your access to a Web site, confirm your identity, and supply our products or services to you. The Private Information that we collect from you might be transferred to, and stored at, a destination outside the European Economic Area ("EEA") in reliance on quite a lot of compliance mechanisms.
We have now made each effort to show, as accurately as potential, the colours of our merchandise that seem on the Website. We reserve the proper to switch and/or promote other data, including combination or de-identified information derived from Private Data, for lawful functions in our discretion.
Neither you nor Endlessly 21 will take part in a class motion or class-extensive arbitration for any claims coated by this agreement. Through the use of this website, you agree to the Terms of Use and Privateness Policy Wikipedia® is a registered trademark of the Wikimedia Basis, Inc.


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To @Linkandzelda thank you for making a wonderful ROM hack, even though it is not complete, it provided me with a lots of fun hours back in my youth, I am now in my early-twenties, and have my own fam...
He guys when was the last update. I havent been around for a while
Hey guys I haven't checked in a while is there any new updates?
* typhlosion *
i don't think so...
- January 26, 2014
- ·
- Like
Hey Laz I was curious and i am sure someone else has asked this but is it possible to have pikachu following behind you like in Pk Yellow?
its pretty hard, one of the hardest things to accomplish. And even if it was possible, I wouldn't do it in LC.
- January 5, 2014
- ·
- Like
+1 it would be pretty
- January 20, 2014
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- Like
don't diss patrice, he's down with the younguns
Hey LaZ my raquaza is not leveling up at all he is stuck at 70
Ok so can Blazikin use fly in the new update? Lol
I havent played in a while is there anything that has been added to the game
Does anyone remember before Pkm Sapphire and Ruby came out how there where cards for the GBA's eScanner where you could play the game before it was release?....... AAAAH, GOOD TIMES!!
GSA2011 shared...
So what exactly happens once its selected?
LaZ i agree your games is way better than GAMEFREAKS
So when is the next update for LC?
sO FOR 4 MONTHS NOW I HAVE BEEN SEARCHING FOR RAIKOU, I NEVER FOUND HIM. SO I HAD TO CHEAT... , BUT AS SOON AS I CHEAT AND CAUGHT HIM. i AM PLAYING FAR :D. HO-OH HERE I COME!!!! SORRY ABOUT THE CAPS D...
Finall, I just a new battery for my PSP now i will be able to play Pokemon LC again :D
So is PokemonLC back on again?
Yes the 3rd island is in the works right now, the next map is being created which will bring more story. Can't say exactly when that will be added yet.
So LaZ is Pokemon LC alive again? I mean are you working on it again to continue the story?
It's been 2 months I cant take it :'(
Izumi Sagiri
can't take what? :S
- May 2, 2013
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Actually, it's been a month and two days.
Haven't you found other games to play? I've been enjoying Heart Gold myself, give that a try if you haven't already haha
Haven't you found other games to play? I've been enjoying Heart Gold myself, give that a try if you haven't already haha
I have a question what happened to all the other comments and questions and things? they all disappeared. Bettter said they got erased
Good question, I wonder that too!
Hey guys i am trying to find raYquaza but can not remember where he is located. Any clues?
Pkmn Trainer Niker
The heck O.o?? the legend of zelda theme on Pokemon...
- June 9, 2013
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- Like
Pkmn Trainer Niker
I noticed that some bushes have a certain sound...i wonder which is the right order...
- June 9, 2013
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- Like


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Small groups seek to develop deeper relationships between each other and with God through fellowship, prayer, growth, worship, and outreach. So, the two fold purpose of small groups is to:
1) Experience community, and
2) Expand community
The local church should be a church of small groups, not simply a church with small groups.
"The small group, then, must be both supplemental and normative – supplemental in that it does not replace corporate worship; normative in the sense of being basic church structure, equally important with corporate worship." - Howard Snyder, author and professor of the history and theology of mission at Asbury Theological Seminary


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Tail More Than One File at a Time
Download the authoritative guide: Data Center Guide: Optimizing Your Data Center Strategy
Download the authoritative guide: Cloud Computing: Using the Cloud for Competitive Advantage
MultiTail is an improvement on the well-known program tail, which allows you to view multiple files at the same time in the same window. It colorizes them, making viewing much easier. MultiTail is available as a package for most distros, and you can also install it from source.Tip of the Trade: MultiTail makes it possible to watch two files simultaneously in real-time.
By default MultiTail does the same thing as tail -f, i.e. watches files in real time. To watch two files at once, the basic usage is:
multitail /var/log/messages /var/log/auth.log
To scroll through the files, press 'b' and pick the file you want from the list. You'll then get the last 100 lines of that file to scroll through using the cursor keys. You can also use 'gg'/'G' to go to the top/bottom of the scroll window. If you want more lines, exit the scroll window with 'q', hit 'm', and enter a new value for the number of lines to store.
Even better, instead of viewing the files in separate windows, you can merge them:
multitail -I /var/log/apache2/access.log /var/log/apache2/error.log
This makes it much easier to spot what's going on just before and after an error occurs.
Another use of multitail is to view the output of commands, using -l. This works best with commands that you want to run repeatedly. For example, the manual suggests this for monitoring TCP connections:
multitail -R 3 -l "netstat -p tcp"
-R 3 sets the command to be rerun every three seconds, and displays only the difference between each run and the previous run (-r just reruns every 3 seconds, so you'll just get the new output tacked onto the end of the screen every time).
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The Concert by Johannes Vermeer was stolen from the Isabella Stuart Gardner Museum (Boston) in 1990. The painting was well-documented and there exist many scholarly studies on Vermeer, his methods, and his time. Information from various sources was collected as a means to inform the re-creation and the team at Factum Arte used both traditional methods and the latest digital technologies in their approach.
Silvia Alvarez studies the technique used by Vermeer in different works.
Painting 'The Concert'
The first step in the process to recreate The Concert used the best image available of the lost painting as a guide for Factum's artists. The image was enlarged to real-size and digitally printed on canvas prepped with gesso. It is thought that Vermeer's underpaintings were commonly done in grisaille – grey monochrome – to which he later added colour. By printing the guide image in greyscale and sepia, it functioned as a true underpainting may have done, and gave better results in the attempt to capture Vermeer's tones as closely as possible.
Three artists worked on their own re-creations of the painting, which would later be combined using digital methods. The physical re-creations were invaluable to the process, giving the final printed object the feel and semblance of a real painting.
Experts believe that Vermeer may have used a camera obscura, a pinhole camera that projects a reversed image of a scene onto a surface, to assist in the creation of his paintings. At Factum, a camera obscura was constructed to better understand how this technique may have worked and its influence on the painter. Research was also carried out in order to recreate Vermeer's limited palette as faithfully as possible, looking at pigment analyses and studies on the materials bought by his studio.
Silvia Alvarez prepares one of the various versions of this work.
Moreover, so as to better re-create the poor conservation state of the original in 1990, the colours were chosen in order to better represent the slightly yellowed, muted tones. In the versions used for the final re-construction, Factum employed only the highest-quality oils, including now-rare and expensive pigments such as lapis lazuli.
The artists working on the re-creations each brought something different to the painting, but all agree that Vermeer's most important qualities lie in the way he represents light and in his ordered scenes. By focussing on these aspects of the painting and trying to mimic the light as closely as possible, they achieved an important degree of fidelity to the original.
Apart from photographs of the original painting, Factum's team were also able to study high-resolution 3D and colour data from a Vermeer painting belonging to the Royal Collection. Alongside advice from the Vermeer expert Jonathan Jason, this proved useful when thinking about Vermeer's general style and technique.
Combining different versions with digital reconstruction
Digital reconstruction was used to fuse the different painted versions and to achieve a level of detail impossible in the physical world. Each version of The Concert painted at Factum was photographed at high-resolution. In Photoshop, the best sections from each painting were combined to create a final version. The most delicate areas, including the faces and hands of the figures standing around the instrument, were taken from a photograph of the original.
The surface of the original painting would have been textured with a delicate paint craquelure. In order to achieve this effect in our re-creation, the craquelure from the Royal Collection Vermeer was used to texture the Photoshop image of The Concert. Other details, such as the character of the floor, where each of the marble slabs is intricately lined and coloured, were also digitally reproduced based on other Vermeer paintings.
Completing 'The Concert'
The 3D data from the Vermeer at the Royal Collection was modified; the scale was also reduced. The 3D model was printed using OCE's elevated printing technology and a silicon mould taken from this print. The mould was cast in gesso. The cast was transferred onto a linen canvas to provide a textured surface for colour printing. The colour was printed using Factum's modified flatbed printers, which allow a very exact registration of the print and the canvas. The final step in the re-creation of The Concert was applying a coat of varnish to this textured print.
The final reconstruction of Vermeer's masterpiece.
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World-wide famous animation studios Pixar and Laika are guests at this year's edition of the Anim'est International Animation Festival, taking place in Bucharest until October 11th. The two studios will introduce the Bucharest audiences to their high-level animation practices.
The festival is celebrating its ten-year anniversary this October and the jubilee edition is bringing a stronger focus on the educational component of the festival, with a series of workshops, master classes, presentations and special screenings.
Five of the most iconic films in the history of animation will be screened at the festival this year: from Alan Parker's Pink Floyd: the Wall (1982) to the more recent Sita Sings the Blues (2008) directed by Nina Paley and awarded the Best Film award at Annecy, going through the now classic films like American Pop (1981) and Heavy Metal (1981) and ending with The Point or Oblio, as it is better known to the local audience, directed in 1971 by Fred Wolf and narrated by Ringo Starr.
A highlight of this year's festival is the performance of Rodion G.A., who has been creating music ever since the 70s. He will accompany the screening of Delta Space Mission in the official closing of the festival on October 10th at Cinema Elvire Popesco. This is the first science-fiction feature film made in Romania, a continuation of the series created by Victor Antonescu and his team.
Creepy Animation Night, the night of bizarre and horror animation that will take place October 9th at Cinema Patria. The event will bring an unusual performance of the Dirty Granny Tales, a band with an innovative, dark theatrical music.
Anim'est takes place at Cinema Studio, Cinema Elvira Popescu, Re: Animation Hub and Journey Pub. The festival's program is available here. A ticket for one screening costs RON 13. The audience can enjoy the concerts at Journey Pub free of charge.
Photo source: Anim'est Facebook page


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What does it take to be a great leader?
What is a great leader? This is a difficult question to answer because great leaders have a difficult time giving themselves credit. Their underlying theme for success is always directed to their players if they are coaches, to their personnel if...Read More


text:
Net Present Value
Terminal Value
Value Added
The Decisions
Discount Rate
Hurdle Rate
Weighted Average Cost of Capital
The Math
Estimate Terminal
Annuity Method
Market Value/Sales
Compare Methods
DCF Key Questions
Combine Action Plans
Key Points
When you have all the actions plans done, including alternative approaches,
combine their NPV and PVs to calculate the total value added for each
alternative. The Flash (play using VCR buttons) provides an example.
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text:
With the high tourist season just around the corner, English Heritage has its hands full.
As the charity tasked with managing 400 of England's most iconic historic sites — from medieval castles to sprawling country estates to enigmatic prehistoric monuments with a few dozen priories, abbeys, follies, turrets, forts, manors, chapels, walls, bridges, windmills, tombs, gatehouses and high-traffic crumbling ruins in between — the weeks leading up to Easter and beyond that, summer, are busy ones for English Heritage.
And as is customary during these maintenance- and housekeeping-focused days, English Heritage's curators and conservationist scientists are focusing much of their attention on carpets. Yes, carpets. And upholstered furniture, drapery, bedding, wall hangings and stuffed storks — anything that dreaded moth larvae might be tempted to nibble on if they haven't so already.
You see, the prevention and eradication of fabric-destroying webbing clothes moths is routine for English Heritage staffers around this time of year, particularly at historic castles and country houses filled to the brim with priceless artifacts that are vulnerable to the indiscriminately munching mouths of Tineola bisselliella. It's part of the job.
But as the Telegraph reports, this year there's a new urgency to the "perennial headache" of keeping English Heritage properties moth-free. Earlier this month, the charity announced that the presence of the destructive pests has grown twofold over the past five years, with increasingly warmer temperatures identified as a primary culprit. Count the destruction of England's most valuable silk tapestries and woolen throw rugs as being yet another unlikely ill-effect of a gradually warming planet …
There's a hungry new moth in town
Forget mold, mildew and misplaced chewing gum: the common clothes moth is enemy number one at many properties managed by English Heritage. (Photo: Wikimedia Commons)
"Many people already know the exasperation of finding a much-loved jumper or coat destroyed by clothes moths. They can eat through centuries-old carpets, tapestries and clothes in a matter of months," Amber Xavier-Rowe, English Heritage's head of Collections Conservation, tells the Telegraph. "The warmer weather has not helped and in the last five years the number of clothes moths we've captured on our traps has doubled."
What's more, a new species of clothes moth, the pale-backed clothes moth (Monopis crocicapitella), has been found at English Heritage properties for the very first time, prompting staffers to launch a new initiative aimed to measure — and ideally limit — the spread of this new species and previously identified ones across the country.
As part of the initiative, visitors to numerous English Heritage sites are encouraged to take home with them free moth traps in addition to run-of-the-mill souvenirs and commemorative keepsakes. Because really, how better to remember a lovely afternoon spent strolling the grounds of Brodsworth Hall, a fabled Victorian country house in South Yorkshire, than picking up a glue and cardboard insect trap that's been "impregnated with the female sex pheromone of the clothes moth?"
Xavier-Rowe, who calls clothes moths a "conservator's worst nightmare," elaborates on the ultimate purpose of the moth trap giveaway scheme to the BBC:
"We want to know why numbers are rising so that we can continue to keep them under control. We need the public's help to get a better picture of the clothes moth threat. Come to our sites, pick up a free trap, take it home and leave it for a couple of months, and then share your findings with us on our website."
Operation Clothes Moth
English Heritage hopes that by engaging the public and inviting site visitors to participate in Operation Clothes Moth, it will gain a better understanding of how and why clothes moths are spreading and where, in turn, to ramp up conservation efforts.
Not surprisingly, English Heritage employees a dedicated moth-busting team of conservation scientists who inspect for and eradicate the insects at 40 different historic properties with the formidable goal of protecting roughly a half-million artifacts. In fact, the charity has been keeping tabs on the spread of clothes since 1997 — long before crowdsourcing came into the picture. (The BBC notes that only a small handful of the 2,400 moth species found in the U.K. are noted fabric destroyers.)
And while English Heritage employs a variety of techniques to eradicate adult moths, their eggs and the ravenous larvae responsible for most of the damage, the charity recommends that the general public steer clear of mothballs and heavy-duty insecticides when treating infestations in their own homes and instead use strategically placed lavender satchels and other safe but effective nontoxic methods. As far as preventive measures go, relentless inspecting coupled with regular vacuuming, as tedious as it may be, is the way to go.


text:
Hardback Publication Date: 01/04/2018
- 9781742992518
- 9781742992518
- Category:
- Picture books
- Format:
- Hardback
- Publication Date:
- 01-04-2018
- Publisher:
- Scholastic Australia
- Country of origin:
- Australia
- Pages:
- 24
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text: Hey all, I just checked in code to make the Pdpedia link in the Help menu try to find the object name if you are looking at a help patch. If the help patch is the topmost window, it'll use that object name when it opens the pdpedia and take you directly to that page. Should be in tomorrow's builds. This got me thinking that there should be a Pdpedia link in the popup menu that currently has Help, Properties, and Open in it... .hc ------------------------------------------------------------------------ ---- "[W]e have invented the technology to eliminate scarcity, but we are deliberately throwing it away to benefit those who profit from scarcity." -John Gilmore


text:
Declining production and tightening supply in the zinc market provides a unique opportunity to add value to zinc-lead projects.
Pursuit Minerals has identified projects which may allow investors to participate in potential value creation as base metal project valuations are re-rated during the next base metal price cycle.
While other metals have suffering on the back of a slowdown in Chinese demand for metals, zinc has been the best performed base metal, making zinc-lead projects an attractive proposition in the current market.
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text:
Blog: It's been a while...
The beginning of this blog post, after not having written one in nearly 3 years, has temporarily stumped me! I need to get words flowing from my dormant brain onto the screen, so here it goes...
What I want to tell you, dear reader, is that I have been way too busy being successful to write anything, to catch you up on all the fabulous happenings at Passionate Life Consulting, and of course, to inspire you to live fully with the lives you have. But that would be a grossly false representation of what really happened during my time away from this blog.
I won't go into a huge explanation (unless you'd like me to), but suffice it to say, my body and brain were held captive by a particularly virulent bacterial infection, that has, after 3 surgeries, much pain, and copious amounts of antibiotics, been all but eradicated. This infection began when I broke my leg, see January 2013 for the story there, and it's taken me until now to get things sorted.
It's not until we leave the woods and venture out into the bright sunshine that we realise how dark and lonely our journey has been. I have been metaphorically walking the past 5 years through a very dark and lonely forest, peppered only with patches of incredible sunshine. However, as I write to you now, I can feel the warmth of the sun on my face, the breeze in my hair and the promise of new life just up ahead on the path. I can feel the synapses in my brain beginning to connect and spark. I can feel the sinew of my body course with new blood.
And, let me write this now, I am so incredibly elated to have the motivation, inspiration and desire to share this with you today, at the beginning of a new year. I don't exactly know yet what 2018 holds for me regarding my passion for death-positive conversations but what I do know is that there are seeds of new life forming every minute of every day and that's exciting!
Stay tuned and watch this page...or website...or Facebook...or life...and definitely death.
Blog: Just how committed are you?
As I write this, I am currently engaged in studying my Masters in Counselling. The requirement to meet deadlines is an accepted part of the process in academia at whatever level one is at. Throughout my academic life I have learned that I prefer to get my assignments done well and on time. This is the biggest commitment I maintain whilst studying. Whatever happens in between the beginning and the end of an assignment, semester or degree is less important.
Self-care is also part of ensuring that my assignments are done well and on time. It takes getting enough sleep, eating well and having some fun along the way for me to do well and meet deadlines. I am mindful of my limitations and strengths, of how best I can study and still get everything else done in my personal life.
During my undergraduate studies, where I completed degrees in Counselling and Behavioural Science, I tried to become the student I had always wanted to be. You know, the kind who stays up late, drinks copious amounts of coffee and still manages to work and party!? Umm...that lasted for about a week. As a mature-aged student, my hopes for immortality were crushed. At the same time, I learned that I could still enjoy and in fact, love being a student, but perhaps without the body-destroying lifestyle that in my mind was the epitome of student life.
I do know that I am committed to my goals when it comes to living my life fully before I die! The suggestions in the next section have helped me along the path, especially when it comes to staying in the present moment, meeting my daily goals, and maintaining joy in what I do.
I leave you with an excerpt taken from the Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) website on acting mindfully...and being committed to your life...how committed are you?
Excerpt taken from ACT Mindfully website.
For another day I am passionately yours,
I know that I want to be completely used up when I die. That is, to feel that my purpose has been fulfilled, my life made meaning of, and that I have contributed all that I could during my lifetime. I feel that this is part of what will make my journey to death a positive experience.
Conversations about death and dying has made me see my life in its entirety...in a split second. The only thing I really want at the end of my life is to have loved and felt love. That is what death boils down to, who we love and who loves us. It's so simple. Really.
When I sit with people who are at the end of their lives that's mostly what they share. They show me photos of family members. They have family members visit them. It's all about the feelings.
A palliative care worker, Bronnie Ware, has written of her years sitting with people who are dying. She has written a book with the same title as the infograph below, The Top 5 Regrets of the Dying. This image has spread like wildfire throughout social media since first emerging onto the scene in 2012. You can find more about Bronnie on her Facebook page or website.
I would like to offer a slightly different perspective, amounting to the same outcome, but with a positive spin on wordplay. I am very persnickety about how what words we say creates our universe. In the title of Bronnie's infograph a word struck me as negative and then I thought about how I could turn it around. When I read the word 'regret' I think of sadness but the take away message in her words is nothing but positive!
So I am endeavoring to use these words instead...5 Reasons to Embrace your Death. What do you think? How do those words make you feel? Do you see death as a negative? I don't. I see death as the best catalyst to live life fully right now...to avoid regrets!
My 5 Reasons to Embrace your Death are:
1. Meaning
2. Purpose
3. Legacy
4. Contribution
5. Transformation
I enjoyed writing about this so much that I've dedicated a whole webpage to them! You can find out what each of these 5 points are about in detail by clicking on this link! Here you will find a positive approach to death, dying, life and living. You will see that death is not only sad, fearful and grief-laden. It can also be positive, useful and an opportunity for growth! I hope you enjoy!
For another day, I am passionately yours,
I love facilitating conversations about death and dying...It's my passion!
So, how lucky was I to be able to share my passion with friends and family!
In many ways the conversation flowed as it always does, and the sharing seemed as intimate as it always is when I facilitate Death Cafe's for the public. These conversations appear to transcend family and friends, to a human level. It doesn't matter if you're my immediate family, a dear friend or a complete stranger, the intimacy and sense of community goes deeper than even these connections.
I am fascinated by this particular interaction. And I am fascinated by talk of life and living that arises out of talk of death and dying.
This is the first time I have held a Death Cafe in someone's home as opposed to a public space like a cafe. It was just right for the participants involved because, with the exception of a couple of people, most knew each other.
As a personal preference, I like running the Death Cafe in a public place to aid in normalising the conversation. I believe talking about death and dying is as normal and everyday as talking about birth and living, so for it to be hidden away behind closed doors just keeps it in a place of fear and taboo.
This evening was different. It felt completely acceptable to be in this person's home where we sat around her coffee table in warm surroundings. It felt comfortable. It felt like a place I'd want to have a deep heart-to-heart chat with a dear friend. Kudos to my friend who provided just such a space!
I would run a Death Cafe like this again, in this way again, with anyone. This is not an experience reserved for friends and family alone, for aren't we all brethren, kindred spirits, and family on a whole other level?
For more on this event or future Death Cafe's in your area, click here.
Again, I love what I do! Stay tuned for the next Death Cafe in Fremantle by clicking here!
Did you know I've got a Facebook page for this Death Cafe? It's called Death Cafe - Fremantle, WA. You can find out more here and give it a LIKE!
And, for yet another day, I am passionately yours,
As some of you may know, I have been visiting with my family and friends back home for the last 8 weeks. I have just under a week left before heading back to my home of the last 13 years. As I reflect on my time here I realise that I have had an agenda. Really? Whoops!
Yes, really...
Since my last visit I have qualified as a Counsellor, a Behavioural Scientist, and started my own consulting business where I facilitate conversations about death and dying through workshops and events. It's been a busy 4 years!
The main reason I facilitate conversations about death and dying is to help people with their unfinished business, the clearing up of old wounds and letting go when needed, so that people are freer to live fully before they die, whenever that day may be.
So, back to my agenda...my unfinished business. You guessed it! I have spent the last 20 years or so living in such a way that I minimise the business that needs finishing with the people in my life. And for the most part, this trip has been a clean one. Because on an emotional level I was complete, I knew that I wanted only one thing from my mum on this visit and that was to give and receive a hug. After four years of Skyping, I felt somehow incomplete until I shared that physical connection with her. But the first hug wasn't the hug that made me feel satisfied, it was a deeper hug that came somewhere in the second or third week that felt like a true heart to heart hug.
From the final closure of a long time unhealthy friendship, to seeing how each of my siblings have grieved the death of our dad, to my newly teenage son's reluctance to visit down memory lane with me, I am reminded that we each process our world differently...and we tie up loose ends in much the same way, our own unique way.
As I head to my favourite cafes, my old neighborhood haunts, or where I first learnt to ride a tricycle, I am reminded that these could be my last memories. The reality is I may die before I get back here again, my mum may die before I get back here to hug her again, many things or people may come to an end before I come back. This time, I have visited in a new way with new eyes and a new perspective that I didn't have four years ago. For that I am grateful. I feel that because I live so far away and don't get here often, each visit is precious. Each conversation I have with someone in person feels special and has a quality about it that may not be the same had I lived here all this time.
I love both of the places I call and have called home. Vancouver is a beautiful city...when it's sunny! I am one of those people who loves summer anywhere in the world. The rain and grey makes me want to dig a whole and hide there until the sun comes back. I feel pretty lucky that I get to visit Vancouver in her prime and live in sunny Perth/Fremantle, Australia the rest of the time.
I don't know when I'll get back to summer in Vancouver next, but I can appreciate more fully my time spent here this time more than any other. These memories will stretch far and wide...
And for that I am grateful, and passionately yours for another day,
It's funny, in that ironic-slightly-sarcastic-way, that someone who's business philosophy and name are all about finding the very thing that disappeared the same breath it began, has lost it. Not so funny when the very thing you want for people to find has picked up and left! What's a girl to do ?
Well, for a long time I didn't do anything! I am cautious before I take a dive into the deep end. I pause and take a deep breath but usually leap into the unknown anyway. That's what I did with my business. I'm all about passion, living passionately and hopefully, ideally, inspiring others to do the same with their lives as well. I usually do this with death as my vehicle! And it usually works really really well.
For many reasons, some based in the physical world of reality and some based in the fear space in my head, the wind stopped pushing the sails of excitement toward the shore of my work...and it wasn't smooth sailing. I knew this was happening. I knew that the boat set sail and at that time, all I could do was watch it disappear into the distance.
Why am I sharing this with you? Why would I reveal something that risks my professional standing, leaving me vulnerable and exposed?
Because you're the same as me, you're human and we all go through life with ups and downs.
It's in the revealing of a passionless moment in time where people who are also at their own private valley can relate. We connect through relating to each other, whether it be a time of joy or sadness.
I have been in this state for some time now but feel that my sail finally has some wind behind it and the horizon is looming in the distance. New business contracts when I come back home combined with a much needed holiday back to my family and friends in Vancouver have definitely paved the way! But mostly I needed to take a step back, to let that boat sail, not knowing whether the shore would be five days, five months or five years from now, and to trust that a shore would appear when it was time.
I've still got until the end of August to nourish this wind that is beginning to build again. I've taken a break from the winter of Western Australia and am enjoying long summer days filled with family, friends, beach and sun. I am catching up on writing and reading. I am filling my sails with a deeply energizing wind to carry me to the shore of September.
I hope you will join me, with your wind and your boat. Let's sail on for new adventure. Let's sail on for deepening what already is.
For another day I am passionately yours,
I am grieving for a time that has yet to come, the time when my mum is no longer living. It feels strange on one hand because, although she's had some physical challenges in her lifetime and she's coming up to 80 at the beginning of next year, she's still very much alive! She could easily live for another 20 years! I could die before her, such is the randomness of living and dying!
But I still grieve for the day I get the phone call or watch her take her last breath.
I did this with my dad when I moved across the planet in 2001. I moved from Canada to Australia with my then husband and our 2 month old baby boy. It was a daring adventure that has had its challenges but nothing I regret. Not even missing my dad's death and funeral by two weeks. I have written about his death in a previous blog and you can read more about that here. I began to prepare for my dad's death when, each time I saw him on a visit back home, I noticed his aging and slow decline into diabetic ill health. He had been treating it but I guess it wasn't enough to keep him going. He went for a nap one day, fell into a diabetic coma and died in his sleep. But because I had emotionally prepared for his death in many ways and many years before, I found it much easier to let him go. I felt complete with him. I had no unfinished business to grieve about.
I keep his memories alive in my heart and take him wherever I go. I know I will do this with each of my family members as and when they die.
It's been nearly 4 years since my last visit back home to Vancouver. I have missed many milestones and birthdays, many celebrations and losses, as well as a few upsets with ill health.
I really feel the fragility of the lives of everyone in my family and with my friends too. I feel the preciousness of life all too keenly, perhaps more so because I'm not just a stone's throw away.
After many precarious starts and stops with people, planning and finances, I'll be escaping some of our Australian Winter, as tough as it is (wink, wink) and heading home to see my family and friends. Visiting has never felt so happy and and felt so hard earned. Yet, there seems to be a tinge of bittersweet to it as well. It's not anything I've ever felt before, not this keenly anyway.
The work I do with death and dying has made me appreciate the people in my life all that much more. These are the relationships that will really count at the end of my life, or theirs if death comes to them first. Life is not about money, or status, or fancy cars and houses. It all boils down to who you've loved and who's loved you and how you've loved each other.
I cried with my mum (thank goodness for Skype) when it looked like I wasn't going to be able to visit. I was gutted! My mum and I cried together when she said she'd help me out. Neither of us wanted to go any longer without hugging each other! Four years is a mighty long time to go without getting a hug from your mum!!!
Anticipating the eventual end of my mum's life has just brought home to me how much she means to me. Just like my dad, I will carry my mum in my heart and memories for as long as I live. I will find peace in that.
Live now, love now and always be prepared to let go. This is something I've been saying for a while now. Preparing to let go, for me, is happening now with my mum.
It all comes down to love and the relationships we have with each other. I love all of my family and can't wait to give them all huge squishy hugs!!!
For another day I am passionately yours,
I recently asked someone I'd had a fairly big crush on to be my Valentine. I was met with his 'I'm flattered but let's just be friends' reply. I won't get into the details of who, why, or what...but I will talk about my reaction.
It's unlike any other I've had before and I pin it down to death.
In my work around the subject of death and dying, I teach and counsel people about living in the now, loving in the now, and always being prepared to let go. Little did I know that this would translate into a metaphorical death of a romance that wasn't going to happen in the first place!
It occurred to me that when I got the answer no one ever really wants to hear, NO, I was okay with it, disappointed, but okay. I wasn't devastated and I didn't feel hopeless. I was okay...
And then I got happy! Really happy!
Part of what I do with death is use it as a catalyst to inspire people to live fully with the lives they have and the time they have left, whether that's for 40 seconds or 40 years.
The fact that I am going to die one day means to me that spending even one ounce of time grieving over what could have been, but was now lost, was not 'walking my talk' and in that instant it made me happy...kind of giddy really.
Another part of what I do is teach that in ways of death and dying there is no right or wrong way to be with it. Each person has their own unique relationship to death, just as we do with life. Keeping the idea that each person comes from their own perspective is an easy way to not take anything personally. This man, my unrequited Valentine, was coming from his own perspective, his own life and how he wanted to live it before he dies. He may not have the relationship with his mortality that I do on a conscious level, but no doubt his instincts kicked in and he responded accordingly.
This experience, my relationship with my mortality, and how people view their world has taught me that death is more than an ending. It's more than just dying. Death can be an opening up to freedom as well. Death can be the ultimate detachment right here and now, while we are fully living our lives.
Letting go is another form of dying. Dying to an ideal. Dying to only one way of thinking. Dying to living in any other way than right here and now.
Have a look at your life and your living right now. Where can you see that death can open you up to freedom?
Live now. Love now. And always be prepared to let go...
For yet another beautiful day I am passionately yours,
Just over one year ago I wrote about revolutions as opposed to resolutions. I won't go into great detail here about how I feel about resolutions because you can click on the image to your left to read about that.
I will share with you how writing that post has impacted the last year of my life and how you might find inspiration for your own coming days of 2014!
As I reflect on 2013 I can see that despite my leg being broken from being hit by a fast running dog, having surgery to fix it and all of the time spent recuperating, I haven't been stopped in creating a passionate life and business!
While it is important to list achievements and blow my own horn once in a while, I won't do that here and now. I feel that 2013 was an absolutely amazing year filled with growing events/workshops, news articles, radio interviews, TV news stories and more! Some of it was because of the intention I set out at the beginning and others were due to right place, right time happenings.
I prefer using the word revolution when thinking about what I would like to achieve each year, or over my entire life for that matter! I love a good revolution. I love transformation and of course you may know that I love to be passionate about life and living fully now.
I'm not caught up in the finite details of how events will pan out, rather, I prefer to manifest then be open to how it shows up. I certainly didn't manifest a broken leg (at least not consciously), but what came out of my experience could not have happened in any other way, and for that I am grateful. You can read more about that here.
This year I continue to revolutionise conversations about death and dying. There is much to transform where Western society and death are concerned. I am very excited to make this happen in my corner of the world!
In 2014 I aim to create two e-books about death and dying, more details will follow as time allows for.
I will also continue to run the Death Cafe, A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to Death and Painted Stories. For dates and times of these events and workshops, click here.
It has been quite some time since my last blog! If I'm going to have any kind of resolution/revolution intention this year, it will be to write more regularly, be more consistent and follow through with new contacts!
May your 2014 be amazing, inspiring, and fill with purpose and meaning!
For another day I am...
Passionately Yours,
As you may know by now, most of my blogs are about death and/or life in some form or another. I love sharing my passion about death with you but for today I'm going to veer off and then, in a round about way turn it back to living, and dying...in the end...hmm...
Today's longish blog is about blame because it seems to be at the fore of many conversations here in Australia of late. And without further ado...
Earlier this evening, I piped in on a friend's Facebook post about a topic of heated debate in this lucky country that I currently live in. I won't get into the details of what the topic was, but suffice it to say politics, power and the welfare of people from other countries had something to do with it!
What bothered me the most about the conversation, after I surreptitiously hijacked my friends post, was how easily it was for people to slip into blaming. Blaming the other person, blaming this country, blaming that country, blaming the government, or blaming just about anything unfit for the accepted 'normal' paradigms.
As Thich Nhat Hanh quotes above, we don't go around blaming lettuce for not growing well, do we? No! Because, well, that would be silly!
Just because the heads of humans are supposedly superior to the heads of lettuce, doesn't mean some people have a monopoly over others on what is the 'right' or best way to live.
And, because the dictionary is always right (smirk), I'll refer to the socially constructed definition of blame and break it down for you, my friendly reader...here we go...This is from Dictionary.com just in case you felt the need to check!
blame [bleym]
verb, blamed, blam·ing, noun verb (used with object)
1. to hold responsible; find fault with; censure: I don't blame you for leaving him.
2. to place the responsibility for (a fault, error, etc.) (usually followed by on ): I blame the accident on her.
3. Informal. blast; damn (used as a mild curse): Blame the rotten luck.
4. an act of attributing fault; censure; reproof: The judge said he found nothing to justify blame in the accident.
5. responsibility for anything deserving of censure: We must all share the blame for this deplorable condition.
6. to blame, at fault; censurable: I am to blame for his lateness.
1150–1200; (v.) Middle English blamen < Anglo-French, Old French blasmer < Vulgar Latin *blastēmāre, for Late Latin blasphēmāre to blaspheme; (noun) Middle English < Anglo-French, Old French bla ( s ) me, derivative of the v.
Blaming is always about the other person, place, thing, dog, cat, fence, tomato-but-never-the-lettuce, me, you, her, him, them...you get my idea...
What blaming does is stop a person from taking responsibility for their harmful/hurtful actions toward another. We don't go around blaming someone for loving us, right? And we can't blame someone for being brutally KIND to us either, right?
Blame is always about perceived injustices quickly followed by no account taken for responsibility on the part of the persecutor, or the victim for that matter. No one ever wants to be at fault for anything!
But, this type of behaviour leads to victim mentality and a way of getting out of being fully responsible for how we treat each other.
For some people, it's easier to blame someone for doing them wrong than to try to understand the deeper reasons behind their actions. And that even goes for murderers and rapists! Yes, I know, stay with me on this one! No one is born to kill, hate, cheat, steal, rape or lie. These are learned behaviours and where do we learn them from? The environment to which we are born and raised into, our family of origin, our culture, our country, our society with all their expectations placed upon us before we even have a chance to decide for ourselves who and how we want to be. But wait...there's more...
Back to my friends Facebook post...
I am a seeker of justice for all, even for the person who murders, for at some point in their lives something atrocious happened to them, too. All it takes, though, is one person to change the paradigm, for better or for worse. Rather than take personal responsibility for understanding their persecutors in some small way, they turned around to become one themselves. In some people's lives 'kill or be killed' is all they know.
Quite often a third party will step in and start blaming something or someone higher up, let's say a politician or group of politicians known as 'the government'!
Psst...government is only a group made up of people, some do good, some not so good, but it's not a singular entity and shouldn't be treated as such!
Or perhaps we could go even higher than people in governments and blame God, but I won't get into my feelings about religion or God here because that's playing with fire and I'm not quite ready for that pot of hot water!
Nonetheless, it all boils down to a lack of responsibility for how our actions affect other people. Taking personal responsibility, owning up to mistakes, saying sorry, making amends, paying back, paying forward, and the myriad ways there are to stop the blame game, count for something.
They count for the people at the other end of that pointing finger.
And you don't know their story.
You don't know, but if you ask with genuine care and curiosity, you might just find out that the person who can't live in the country where they were born may have watched as their whole lives shattered into a million pieces from a bomb delivered by another country supposedly there to protect them.
You might find out that they murdered their parents because they were brutally beaten as children and they'd finally had enough. This doesn't excuse them because they still need to take responsibility for their actions, but at least you may find some compassion or understanding for them without that pointy finger.
You may find out that the beautiful clothing they have on their bodies when you see them are the only ones they could bring with them and they wash them everyday to avoid shame and judgement from you and your pointy finger.
And in the end I am left with nothing else to offer but hope, that as you read this, you find compassion and not judgement, in my words and my actions. My intent is to inspire you to think twice before pulling out your pointy finger. Although, it would be misguided of me to tell you to do anything with what I have written here, for that would lead me to judging you for being or thinking differently. Kind of defeats my purpose and my blog, right?!
"The best day of your life is the one on which you decide your life is your own. No apologies or excuses. No one to lean on, rely on, or blame. The gift is yours - it is an amazing journey - and you alone are responsible for the quality of it. This is the day your life really begins."
And now, we are at the end and at the beginning! Where I leave you to take responsibility for your life and the impact you have on those around you...this is your emotional legacy. In the next blog I will be writing about your emotional legacy so stay tuned!
But in the meantime...and...
For another day, I am passionately yours,
Here you will find the musings of me...
January 2018
quotes Ava likes
"Life is pleasant. Death is peaceful. It's the transition that's troublesome."— Isaac Asimov
What participants have to say


text:
Northern New England wood pantries help needy residents stock stoves, not shelves
CONCORD, N.H. (AP) � You've heard of food banks and blood banks, but in northern New England, many communities also help needy residents get through cold winters with wood banks.
Run by church groups, social service agencies and towns, some of the firewood banks make home deliveries, while others are self-serve. All rely on volunteers to cut, split and pile up the wood, and make sure it gets to those who need it.
The community wood banks or pantries are aimed at those who don't qualify for federal fuel assistance or find themselves in a mid-winter emergency and don't have time for the application process. Nearly 18 percent of Vermont homes are heated with wood, compared with just under 14 percent in Maine, 8.5 percent in New Hampshire and 2 percent nationwide.


text:
SARS-CoV-2 research
Reduce barcode crosstalk in your multiplexed NGS experiments
Quality requirements for synthetic oligos used in
next generation
sequencing (NGS), such as indexed adapters and barcoded fusion primers, have reached unprecedented high levels. Traditional purification methods (e.g., HPLC) can effectively increase the amount of full-length
oligo, but are incapable of reducing cross-contamination that can occur in co-synthesized oligos. In contrast to less sensitive applications where such oligo-to-oligo crosstalk can go unnoticed, the use of indexed adapters containing even low
levels of cross-contamination can lead to barcode misalignment and sample misidentification, which may confound experiments requiring detection of rare variants.
TruGrade oligos are manufactured by proprietary methods that are proven to reduce index cross-talk and increase
success of multiplex NGS experiments. With TruGrade oligos, you can:
Bartram J, Mountjoy E, et al.
J Mol Diagn,
494–506. (2016)
With the rapid increased throughput of sequencing platforms, sample multiplexing has become a common method for making economical use of sequencing capacities. However, pooling indexed samples into one sequencing run comes with the risk of sample misidentification. While this can be attributed to many experimental factors, crosstalk during oligo synthesis is a major contributor. TruGrade DNA oligos are manufactured by an exclusive production process that reduces the risk of oligonucleotide crosstalk and, therefore, minimize the risk of barcode misalignment during multiplexing NGS applications.
The TruGrade synthesis and processing service is available on HPLC-purified DNA oligos and Ultramer® DNA oligos. They are available in plates and tubes, and can be formulated to your specifications. TruGrade DNA oligos can be used in a variety of applications including, but not limited to:
1 Typical cross-contamination levels were determined using in-house proprietary QC techniques and information
from our customers.
2 Production time depends on the number of oligos ordered. Please inquire for an estimated ship date specific
to your order.
Identify oligonucleotide properties, including melting temperature, hairpins, dimers and mismatches
Perform secondary structure analysis
Find the volume needed to dilute your oligo stock to a lower concentration
Find the volume needed to resuspend a dry oligo to a desired concentration
Read about IDT products used in research, get expert application advice, and find answers to common research questions.
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Christmas sing-a-long
On Sunday I went to the Royal Albert Hall for a traditional Christmas concert. This featured some well known carols which the audience, of groups and families, were very much encouraged to sing-a-long to by the enthusiastic conductor and soloists.
I wore my Christmas jumper and was pleased that other people had also dressed for the occasion in Christmassy clothing. Click the image to see some photos in the gallery.
I was seated on a raise platform for wheelchairs, to the left of the stage, and had a good view of the orchestra and performers, as well as having a view over the audience. Once we were in our seats the hall filled up quite quickly, and by the start of the performance all the seats right up to the roof were taken and there were also lots of people standing in the gallery.
There was a range of traditional and modern songs, amongst which the theme from Disney's Frozen was included, to the delight of the younger audience members.


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We bet you could use a balaclava to keep warm. Be the first on your block to sport a Rhizome balaclava by artist Cat Mazza, made in an edition of 5. Hand knit and emblazoned with Rhizome's killer logo on it, this number will go with just about anything. (Also doubles as an ingenious secret disguise for all your clandestine activities.) Become a Rhizome member at the Stolon level and get your balaclava today!
ALERT! Rhizome is only $6,000 away from meeting our goal of $30,000 by December 31st, 2008. Keep all of our programs, including commissions, Artbase, editorial, events, and much much more alive through your contribution.


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A downtown Asheville church's plans to tear down two buildings it owns in the city's historically African-American business district received the final approval Friday morning.
The Asheville Downtown Commission voted 7-3 in favor of the Mount Zion Missionary Baptist Church's plans to demolish a 10,000-square-foot building built in 1915 at 40 S. Spruce St. and a 15,000-square-foot building built in 1920 at 51. S. Market St. The three-story brick structures housed the operations of Asheville Supply & Foundry until about 1950. The area, which includes Eagle Street and the landmark YMI Cultural Center, is known as The Block.
The area has been the target of redevelopment efforts for 20 years. But while downtown development has boomed over the past two decades, there's been little development progress on The Block. The church's efforts to redevelop the buildings have also never come to fruition. Roy Harris, chairman of the church's trustees, said the buildings have become a financial drain. Homeless people have moved in and trashed the interior, Harris said, and the expense of maintenance and property taxes on the empty buildings has grown too large for the church to bear.
The church's demolitions plans came as a surprise to the downtown advisory board, which put off making a decision in the hope of finding a way to save the buildings, which have some historical value and remain in good shape. City officials offered to help the church seek tax relief, and offered to lease space from the church for parking. The city said the church pays $13,386 in annual property taxes, and said the church would earn $13,200 a year by leasing 22 parking spaces at $50 per space per month.
Mount Zion's pastor and president, the Rev. John Grant, wrote to city planner Judy Daniel in a July 9 letter that the church was interested in renting 22 existing parking spaces to the city, and was interested in discussing options on how to save a third church-owned building in the old foundry complex at 35 Eagle St. But Grant, without further explanation, wrote that he wasn't interested in further negotiations regarding the Spruce and Market streets properties.
Jan Davis, a commission member and Asheville City Council member, said, "I think we as a body have done everything we can do," and made the motion to allow the demolition.
Commission member Harry Weiss said he understood the church's reasons for demolition, but opposed the plan.
"I understand why it's occurring, but I can't support it," Weiss said. "I want to go on record as saying this is a bad option. It's lousy all the way around."
After the meeting, Harris said demolition may not start for several weeks. The church has to complete a vacation bible school and be sure its timetable fits with the schedule of the demolition crew it plans to hire.
— Jason Sandford, multimedia editor


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The Kennel Club is looking for Accredited Trainers in rally following the growth of the discipline over the last 12 months.
The Kennel Club adopted rally as a new activity at the end of 2012 and is now inviting applications from those interested who would like to be considered for the position of Rally Accredited Trainer for the judges' training programme for activity disciplines.
The judges' training programme has been developed over a long period of time and follows the requirements already in place for those involved in judging other canine activities. It underlines the Kennel Club's commitment to maintaining and improving the standard of judges and judging at official Kennel Club licensed events, and in so doing will ensure the quality of dogs and the value of awards they receive.
As part of the training programme, the Kennel Club has a number of Accredited Trainers for each activity responsible for delivering each seminar and conducting the examination.
All of the activity disciplines' Accredited Trainers are established judges of long standing and have attended training and assessment sessions prior to their appointment, in order to prove their own knowledge and competence in delivering the seminar syllabus.
Anyone interested in applying must meet the following criteria:
Those interested should send their application, including details of their canine experience with specific reference to rally, to Debbie Deuchar, Manager Working Dog Activities Team, The Kennel Club, 1-5 Clarges Street, Piccadilly, London W1J 8AB or by email firstname.lastname@example.com by 31st October 2013.
Potential trainers will be invited to deliver a 10 - 15 min presentation on a given rally subject at the Kennel Club office in London on Friday 29thNovember.


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- Adam Suzor
IBM Customer Engagement Specialist Professional Certificate
There are a growing number of exciting, well-paying jobs in today's tech industry that do not require a traditional college degree. And one of the hottest areas with high demand is in IT customer service and support. It's a perfect entry point to start your career in IT with a multitude of job openings ranging from onsite or remote help desk work to customer care or client support. We can help you get there with the IBM Customer Engagement Specialist Certificate Program.
We will help you to build the knowledge and develop the skills needed to be a successful Customer engagement specialist :
• Communication Skills which focus on clear concise communication and listening.
• Appropriate empathetic behavior such as such as patience, curiosity and willingness to help.
• Problem solving to research an issue and help determine an appropriate resolution.
• Process adherence to ensure the proper flow and Service Level Agreements are met.
The course is divided into 4 modules and you will be assessed and awarded badges along the way! Earn the IBM Soft Skills badge after completing the Communication Skills and Personality modules and the IBM Call Management badge after completing the Problem Solving and Process Control modules. The course also includes interactive training including labs to reinforce all of the components above.
At the conclusion of the course, it is recommended to take the final certificate exam which is required in order to receive the official IBM Customer Engagement Specialist Certificate. The final exam is available for remote proctoring via Pearson VUE and details will be shared with you at the conclusion of the course.
View the class here: https://www.coursera.org/learn/ibm-customer-engagement-specialist


text: (^_^) there is only one of you who will get that (well, maybe two or three) and you know who you are. (^_^) also in the "hypothetical" category at the moment is a new website design. i've got the images all set to go, and i've been changing a few of my pages around, (as anyone who's tried to click the contact link above has already discovered. i promise, i'll take care of that soon.) but i haven't got anything coded yet. i was going to do it this weekend, but then i (apparently) decided that being out of school means taking on eight hundred projects, so i spent the weekend adding another one to the list that i outlined last time. (^^;) on the other hand, i did take pictures of, edited pictures for, and data entried in prep for listing of some 19 or 20 books. the shocking part is actually the photographing of. i hate taking pictures of my books. it's kind of lame, and the pictures never come out as good as i'd like them to, despite my having read basically every tutorial on the internet. i guess the pictures aren't hideous, but still. what i'd really like to do is go around and just have people fondle my books. everyone who holds one is like, "wow, nice!" so i feel like, if i could just get people to put their grubby mits on my books, and then convince them that books are just really cool things, just like iPods or tvs, but more user-friendly, then everybody'd want one! so, yeah. i'll get right on that. (^^;) actually, i do have a few teaser shots for those of you who are interested in what i've been spending my day photographing: this is one that's i've had most of done for a long while. i was waiting till i could find some crystals or rhinestones or something to put in the fish's tail and crown. i ended up having to order some fancy shmancy swarovsky rhinestones online. when they got here, they were so small (1.9 mm small!) that i had to bust out the tweezers just to put them in place. i've still got one of these fishes left in my Box of Fancy Things, so i may do something similar in the future, but for now, this one's cool enough. (^_^) this is one that i did while i was in florida! i bought the paper a rather long time ago, and i always knew exactly what i would do with it, but this really turned out great. the paper is kind of sparkly and shiny, and the way that the spine fits so perfectly in the trip from white to black! ah! faint~ yeah. actually, there are a couple of books that i'm even more enamoured of. the one on the left appeared mysteriously out of the wild blue yonder one day. it's super hefty, too. 300 pages of hefty! the black bookcloth on the spine was the very last of that i had, so i guess if i want to make any more of these (for instance, for my personal use~) i'll have to go buy some more. alas, woe is… um. yeah. the one on the right is one that i've also had the paper for kicking around for a long while. i found the wheat paper at my local fancy paper store randomly one afternoon, and i had 100% no idea what i was going to do with it. (^_^) but after i made another book in this same binding style yesterday (it's called belgian eyelet binding, despite the absence of eyelets in the versions i make) i knew what i had to do! i kind of don't want to list this one, either. it's more practical for me than the giant yellow one, i guess, but it doesn't match my favorite car! .


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Probably not but that's ok.
I was hoping to use that domain to direct my blogger blog to instead but that would be too easy so I have now purchased another domain.
Probably not but that's ok.
Categories: Uncategorized
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Thanks Y! I like the blog so far but I get bored after a while and feel like I need to change things up. Thanks Ki 🙂 Your FB comment the other day got me thinking that I need to get my act together and make the move.
Thanks Kayliegh. It's my nickname too. I'm actually surprised at how many people have the nickname bug 🙂


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Diabetes: Risk Reduction of Mortality 1
"Our prospective study provides evidence for the beneficial effects of fish and omega-3 fatty acid consumption on the risk of CHD and total mortality among diabetic women." *
Hu, F.B. Cardiology Review 2003;21:32-35.
B Vitamins
"…plasma homocysteine can be reliably lowered 25 to 30 percent with a daily dose of at least 500 micrograms of folic acid in combination with vitamin B12 and [B6]…" **
Schnyder, G., et al. N Engl J Med 2001;345:1593-1600.
Adapted from Hu, F.B., et al. Circulation 2003; 107: 1852-1857, Tables 2 & 3.
Peer Reviewed Studies
- Columbia University Medical Researchers Find Diabetes May Be Linked with Cognitive Impairment 2007
Fish and Long-Chain Omega-3 Fatty Acid Intake and Risk of Coronary Heart Disease and Total Mortality in Diabetic Women (580 downloads)
Decreased Rate of Coronary Restenosis after Lowering of Plasma Homocysteine Levels (805 downloads)
*FDA "Qualified Health Claims" Omega-3 Fatty Acids & Coronary Heart Disease. Consumption of omega-3 fatty acids may reduce the risk of coronary heart disease. FDA evaluated the above claim and determined that, although there is scientific evidence supporting the claim, the evidence is not conclusive. Docket No. 9IN-0103.
** FDA "Qualified Health Claims" B vitamins & Vascular Disease. As part of a well-balanced diet that is low in saturated fat and cholesterol, Folic Acid, Vitamin B6 and Vitamin B12 may reduce the risk of vascular disease. FDA evaluated the above claim and found that, while it is known that diets low in saturated fat and cholesterol reduce the risk of heart disease and other vascular diseases, the evidence in support of the above claim is inconclusive. Docket No. 99P-3029.


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The destination point of our past vacation was Carpathian and the Yaremche town.
The one of the landmarks of this place is its waterfall. The waterfall's name is Probiy (that is The Breakdown in translation from Ukrainian). This waterfall is the cascade waterfall located on the Prut river and is the most full-flowing waterfall of the Ukrainian Carpathian Mountains. This waterfall is good seen from the bridge over it.


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SetUnknownRegions: This command declares the regions which are not known to civilized nations (ie uncharted / Terra incognita). All the rest wil be known when this command is called.
eg SetUnknownRegions = $NorthPole|$SouthPole
Will make these 2 uncharted and the rest of the world explored.
SetKnownRegions work a bit in reverse, ie it allows to add one (or several) regions to the explored list.
Uncharted regions appears with a generic texture and without any information about them. Only leaders with Explorer ability can penetrate them (with some men).
note: This only work for VGN (ie if RuleExploration is Simple or above).
note2: with RuleExploration Advanced, each faction maintains a list of known regions (no game use that for now).


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When the weather heats up, nothing matters more than staying as cool as possible. If you have overhead ceiling fans, this will definitely help to move the air around and to create cool breezes throughout the home. However you need a powerful air conditioner system to really make a difference in the indoor temperature. When you are ready to pick out an air conditioner system, it helps to know just what to look for.
Quiet noise output
One of the major complaints that consumers have when it comes to choosing an air conditioner system is how noisy it is. When your air conditioner system is constantly whirring and making noise, this can detract greatly from your quality of life. An alternative solution is to replace your noisy and outdated system with a much quieter and more silent air conditioner system. The quieter system won't interrupt your daily activities and disrupt your sense of peace inside your home.
Energy efficient operation
Another point of consideration when purchasing a new air conditioner system is getting one that is energy efficient. If you have an energy efficient system, it operates well without requiring too much of an energy output. This ultimately reduces your overall energy bill and allows your home to be cooled more effectively. If you aren't sure which AC to choose, your local AC contractor can assist you with selecting the most energy efficient air conditioner system for your needs.
Choose the best SEER Rating
When selecting an air conditioner system, it is important to keep the SEER rating in mind as well. The SEER rating describes the seasonal energy efficiency rating. This is the cooling output divided by the electrical energy that is needed to run the unit.
By keeping these different elements in mind, you will be well on your way to selecting the best air conditioner system for your home.
Temperature Pro uses the latest technology to provide the best air conditioner system for your home. You can connect with them on Google+ for more updates!


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On 05 December 1916, the polls opened at 8:00am, but the town's women behaved as if it were any other day. Instead of rushing to the polls, the town's female residents tidied their homes, ran their businesses, supervised their children. With the morning's chores taken care of, the women hit the polls around 2:00pm—and it was obvious they had a plan.
Electoral participation in Oregon has a long, colorful history of citizen engagement. From the passage of Measure 60 in 1998, which established vote-by-mail as our standard voting mechanism, to this year's adoption of the Motor Voter Act, which turns an opt-in process into an opt-out process through automatic registration through the DMV, voters in Oregon don't mess around when it comes to exercising their constitutional rights.
The Petticoat Rebellion of 1916 in Umatilla might take the cake for 'not messing around' with the voting process. Shortly after women gained the right to vote in Oregon, a council of women in the small town of Umatilla exercised their newfound right and took over not only the mayoral post, but the city council and several city government posts in a single, well planned clean sweep.
They didn't stop there. Over the course of the Council's four years in charge, they changed the direction of Umatilla city management.
Want to learn more? Read about the Rebellion here at Damn Interesting, or another take on the incident over here and over here.


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Summer-Short 2018 Alumna Eline Suverkropp Shares Her KCP Experience
Studying at KCP is a life-changing experience. A term in Japan not only gives you opportunities to learn another language but also insights on the culture and way of life of the Japanese people. It provides occasions to make lasting friendships with classmates, teachers, and other people you meet while on your sojourn in Japan.
Meet Eline Suverkropp (at left), KCP Summer Short-term 2018 alumna from the Netherlands, as she shares her KCP experience through pictures. Thanks for sharing, Eline!
Akihabara. One of the places that I love visiting! This part of Tokyo is always super fun and there are great shops there.
Asakusa. We took a tour of Asakusa and visited some of the amazing temples there. Tanaka-san's stories were really interesting!
Bus trip. In the first week we visited Saiko Iyashi no Sato, a traditional Japanese town. Despite the slightly rainy weather, it was still a sight to behold!
Erinji temple garden. On our bus trip to the Yamanashi-prefecture, we also went to Erinji temple where we participated in Zazen meditation. The complex was beautiful and I thought the garden looked so nice and calm.
Fireworks festival fish. On the 21st of July was the annual Adachi fireworks festival! We saw lots of amazing fireworks, but this little fish is my favourite.
Godzilla Shinjuku. When you are wandering in Shinjuku, you come across the big statue of Godzilla. Did you know that Godzilla is actually the official tourism ambassador of Shinjuku?
Sunset dorm Grace Estate.The view from my dorm! Not super special, but I still liked where I lived and think it is nice to also take pictures about the "normal" parts of the trip.


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Again the people turned from Ehyeh, the Good One, and His decrees, and became evil in their ways. Each person was a law unto himself. Chaos reigned. One small remnant, however, remained faithful, carrying Ehyeh's ways and words through the ages and to the world. They were Ehyeh's special people, the Select. Others grew envious of them and eventually, enslaved them. Even so, they remained faithful.
The Good One's heart was moved. From among those who had turned to Him, He sought people who would agree to protect the Select. He commissioned them the Oathtakers. Each chose to become a member of the group and to willingly undergo the rigorous training required. When Ehyeh called upon one to aid a member of the Select, the Oathtaker could choose to swear a voluntary life oath for the protection of that person. If he did, that Select became his charge.
When an Oathtaker completed his training, he was awarded an Oathtaker's blade, a weapon infused with magic that would exist for so long as he lived. Upon swearing an oath for the protection of one of the Select, Ehyeh granted the Oathtaker two additional weapons. The first was attendant magic—unique abilities that would assist the Oathtaker in his endeavors. Second, Ehyeh granted the Oathtaker continued youth for so long as his charge lived. A special rule applied to one whose charge was seventh-born: he would remain forever youthful.
Upon the death of his charge, an Oathtaker could begin his life anew, but in the meantime he could not bind himself to another. An Oathtaker could not have divided loyalties; he could not be unequally yoked.
With the assistance of their Oathtakers, the Select gained their freedom. Then together, they moved to the lands known as Oosa, where they built a strong, free and thriving nation.
But once again, the times have changed.
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Security Products
Founded in 1975, Digital Monitoring Products (DMP) has grown to become a recognized leader in network solutions for fast, cost-effective, centralized security monitoring in applications of all sizes. DMP helped launch the digital communications revolution in the security industry and continues to set standards for networked intrusion, fire and access control systems.
The company's reputation for excellence throughout its 30-year history can be traced to innovations in diagnostics, flash-memory uploads for ease of upgrading, and improved device supervision–including two-way wireless. From the beginning, we've maintain dealer-direct market channels to ensure the highest standards of customer service.
DMP research teams developed security applications for network communications early in the evolution of networking, giving DMP a depth and breadth of understanding that translates into the most advanced IP-ready solutions available today.
RMI Systems is a DMP dealer and employs factory trained technicians. For more information on DMP and their products, visit their website at dmp.com


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'History of Alcohol' stumbles through time, from ancient Greece to a trashy night in the North Loop
Everyone has an epic drinking story.
Brave New Workshop Downtown Stage
"The greatest drinking story ever told is your own," says Josh Carson. Carson, who is the creative mind behind the annual yuletide A Very Die Hard Christmas, is putting that theory to the test with a new show opening this weekend at Brave New Workshop's Experimental Thinking Centre.
The (Almost) Complete and (Mostly) Accurate History of Alcohol is a collection of sketches that tells a slightly exaggerated version of how alcohol has been the cause of, and solution to, all of life's problems.
"It's not just about alcohol, but how society reacts to alcohol," Carson explains. "We talk about ancient Greece, when young men were expected to hold their booze as kind of a sign of manhood. We go through the first drinking Olympics. Really just every drinking trope possible."
This isn't Carson's first entry into the world of -- as he calls them -- "hysterical historicals." Last summer, he and writing partner Andy Kraft (who is also his partner in the new production) produced a play about the Wright Brothers for the annual Fringe Festival, and have explored the perspective of John Wilkes Booth.
But when it came time to brainstorm this latest show, Carson says he and his co-stars kept coming back to a recurring theme. "Alcohol was the one thing we all had in common," he laughs. "Whether it's drinking Boone's Farm when you're 15 or whatever, we could all connect with each other's stories."
The rest of the cast is made of up Carson and Kraft's fellow Brave New Workshop alumni, making this a big-stage crew performing in the smaller, more intimate space of the Experimental Thinking Centre.
"[Brave New Workshop] have been looking for new shows to fill that space," he explains of their home for the next several weeks. "Minnesota Tonight and a few other shows have been really great, regular productions, so when they asked if we were interested we jumped at the chance."
Much like his annual Die Hard show, which follows the same story but is always getting updated based on current events and local flavor, Carson says that there's a good chance that anyone who attends opening night will be seeing a unique show compared to those who come for the final curtain.
"We're embracing the essence of sketch comedy, which is that you're writing right up until show time," he says.
Whether you're a wine-bar aficionado, a craft-beer snob, or you've got a mainline full of Fireball going through you veins, Carson says that the audience is likely to see a little of themselves in some of the characters.
"We do the legend of Bloody Mary, where if you turn off the lights and say her name three times she appears and kills you," he explains. "Except in our version it's just a woman who drinks unlimited Bloody Marys and loves brunch in the North Loop."
From belly laughs to liver failure, this is the only show this spring that's basically guaranteed to cause organ damage. But the fun kind!
The (Almost) Complete and (Mostly) Accurate History of Alcohol
Brave New Workshop
7:30 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays, April 6-28
Brave New Workshop Downtown Stage