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April 30, 2009
The dreaded update post…
I do believe that I'm the world's most inconsistent blogger. As much as I love to write, it seems like it should be no big deal for me to write a few words every day about what's going on in my life. And I mean to do this – I just forget. When I remember, my inner perfectionist pipes up with "hey, if you're not gonna do it right, why bother?" (My inner slacker LOVES this.) And then I hear the long-suffering mommy voice reminding me – you're going to regret this when you start forgetting the little things…
So here we go. It's been a month and a half, and I've surely already forgotten some of the things I would otherwise have written here.
Rachael is much the same – she changes so slowly now that they're nearly imperceptible. Although I know she's getting taller (she outgrows her clothes as quickly as I can buy them) and her hair is getting longer (nearly to her waist now, and in need of a trim), there's no more of the sudden "hey, that's something new!" that there is with a toddler. We're wrapping up our "school year" and I just think I might pass her on to first grade next year. 😉 We've been much more lax about school this year then I meant to be – so much so that I think I'm even going to chalk her kinder year up to being "unschooled" just to say we've done that! We've very much followed her interests this year, but it's served her well – I downloaded the Virginia Standards of Learning for kindergarten and was able to check off (and very quickly) most of the list – more than half of it being absolutely absurd for her. Predicting the next shape in a pattern? Please. That is so three years ago for her. It's so sad that there are parents who work so little with their children that they might not otherwise figure that out until kindergarten…
She's joined Girl Scouts in the last month – I'm the proud mommy of a Daisy! We even got in on the tail end of the cookie sale – she sold a dozen boxes in two days, which earns her the cookie patch for her new blue uniform. She'll be going to a day camp with her troop at the end of May, and a weekend camp in July – I'm thinking that'll be a long weekend, as she's such a big helper to me…but we'll manage! She's beginning to work on her music patch now, which means ten hours of instruction on a musical instrument. Thank goodness for Grandma, who will be starting piano lessons in the next week or so. Rachael's first choice was the saxophone, but she's just not quite big enough yet. We did go to see a local high school jazz band play yesterday, which was pretty awesome and reinforced her instrument of choice for her. And I got to sit and relive it all for a while, as I was the soloist in my own high school's jazz band, once upon a time… Rachael was appropriately horrified at the preschool groups that were bussed in for the concert – at the teachers barking at them to get in line and stay in line and hurry up and sit down and be quiet. She was not at all impressed, and commented several times how glad she was that she wasn't one of them…
Milly has definitely had more noticeable changes. She's also growing like a little weed, although she's getting taller more so than heavier at the moment, which makes her look more like a little girl than a baby, and I just hate that. Still not much hair, though, and I'm grateful for that. It's getting longish in the back, and even curls up a little, but she won't have to worry about bangs for some time yet! She is a fearless climber (the couch is no problem for her now) and runs and plays with the big kids. She has eight teeth now, and is working on a couple more. And she talks…oh how she talks, and I love it. In addition to the usual hi, bye, mama and dada of last month, she says:
sissy – no more "giggy" for her 😦
achewl – Rachael
bed – bed or breat
ni-night – good night
nack – snack
I uh you – I love you
got choo (sometimes I got choo) – got you / I got you (said to people as well as food)
tash – trash
shoo – anything dirty or otherwise offensive to her little person, not to be confused with…
shoes – her favorite thing in the world
cheez – a favorite food, as well as what she says every time the camera comes out
poopul, lellow, red, boo, peek, ahnge, geen – colors!
A, B, C, D – she'll get the rest eventually
gasses – glasses
cub kak – cupcake
Ahka – Annika, her best friend (that's my theory, anyway)
I poop! – self explanatory
dipee – what comes just after "I poop!"
There are certainly more I'm forgetting right now…she'll attempt to say most anything, so long as she's in the mood for it. That's kind of the story of her life, so far – she can do anything, if she's in the mood. And if she's not in the mood – woe unto everyone around her until she is in the mood again!
Her favorite pasttime continues to be emptying my utensil drawer all over the kitchen and into the living room. I haven't had the heart to put a lock on it, she loves it so much. Yes, it's a pain in the rear stepping over things that she's dislodging while I'm cooking, and sometimes I do have to inquire of other family members as to whether they've seen the spaghetti spoon or potato masher…but whatever. She'll outgrow this all too soon, just like everything else.
She's also discovered the joys of outside, and wants to be outside all the time, and then some. She's not a big fan of grass, though, so she mostly wanders around the driveway. She also doesn't like to swing – and I thought all kids loved to swing! She does love balls and bubbles and flowers, and I have a feeling we'll be outdoors more than in this summer. Probably a good thing for our family all around, even though I'm not at all a fan of the HOT and would much prefer to be anywhere air-conditioned.
She'll be 17 months old soon – we're still breastfeeding and co-sleeping and I still love every minute of it. In fact, I get a little panicky when I think that it'll soon be time to move her into the twin bed that's waiting for her in her sister's room. Rachael moved into her own room at 18 months…but once again, she seemed so much older somehow, than Milly does now! So we'll see about that. For now, I'm enjoying the snuggles. And trying not to be too sad that there will likely be no more babies to snuggle with down the road. Trying to keep reminding myself how nice it'll be to pull the covers up over my arms and under my chin again. And that there just may be two crawling in with me when Daddy leaves for work in the morning, instead of just one.
Speaking of Daddy, I seldom update on him…his being a big boy and able to fend for himself and whatnot. But I'm pretty proud of him at the moment too. After years of "I should", he is finally going back to school! He applied and took his placement test and met with a counselor, and plans to go and register for his summer classes tomorrow. It may take a while since he can only attend at night, but he'll be majoring in Industrial Electronics – which is basically reinforcing and expanding upon what he already knows. Naturally, we're praying that this will lead to a much better job for him down the road. The sawmill has definitely played itself out for all of us, and the sketchy work hours of late are killing the budget as well. Things have never been this tight for us financially, and it's very obviously wearing on us both…but we'll muddle through. Things always work themselves out…and really, what's the alternative? Life doesn't stop because there won't be a big vacation or many luxuries this year. Maybe next year will be better.
He is also considering (as if he doesn't have enough on his plate already) volunteering with our local fire department. This comes following a brush fire that took about about five acres of our woods last weekend, and got too close for comfort to our storage shed. You could tell just by watching him that he was itching to get down there with the firemen and do something to help. It took him several days to broach the topic with me, but I can't say I was terribly surprised. Rachael and I baked several dozen brownies for the firemen (we love to say "thank you" with food) and I picked up an application for him while we were there. I went to school with the fire chief, a super nice guy, and he assured me that they'd keep him safe…and looking at the department's stats online also helped, as the vast majority of their calls are responding to either vehicle accidents or smoke alarms (not necesserily fires.) Structure fires were the least common of their calls, and those are the ones that terrify me…the mental image of him rushing headlong into a burning building, which is probably based more on movies than on real life. I know he'd be well trained, I know he'd be cautious…but I'd still worry. And probably be irritated at how little we got to see him. But on the other hand, I'd be awfully proud of him at the same time – and who wouldn't like to look at her husband through a "hero" filter? But we'll see what happens – nothing is definite just yet.
And now, it's nearly time for him to be home…time for a quick sweep of the downstairs, to make the house look a little less disastrous when he walks through the door – not that it ever stays that way. Not that it matters at all. I've pretty much given up on housework anyway – you just have to redo it all the next day anyway. 😉
December 5, 2008
A post inspired by song lyrics.
I just walked down the street to the coffee shop –
Had to take a break, I'd been by her side for eighteen hours straight.
I saw a flower growing in the middle of the sidewalk,
Pushing up through the concrete like it was planted right there for me to see.
The flashin' lights, the honkin' horns all seemed to fade away;
In the shadow of that hospital at 5:08, I saw God today.
Atheism is a difficult concept for me to wrap my mind around. I understand why some people turn their backs on God – this isn't an easy world to live in. There's so much evil, so much loss, so much sadness, so much hurt. Even if you're reasonably privileged, even if you're a really good person – no one is exempt from the hard knocks that this life has to offer. There have certainly been instances in my own life when I've questioned God, when I've been angry with Him, when I've told him that something was horribly unfair. I've had to remind myself that He is in control, that He won't give me anything that I can't handle. That despite the hurts, I have been incredibly blessed.
But for someone to believe – really, truly believe, that there is no God, that just boggles my mind. To believe that this entire planet is the result of a freak explosion, a random occurrence, a mishap – entirely unintentional, just happenstance. To view a breathtaking landscape and think that no one had a hand in it. To gaze into the heavens and not know that you are just a tiny piece of something greater.
I saw a couple walking by, they were holding hands –
Man, she had that glow –
Yeah, I couldn't help but notice she was starting to show.
I stood there for a minute takin' in the sky, lost in that sunset
A splash of amber melted into shades of red…
It especially baffles me when it's a mother who doesn't believe in God. The very physics of pregnancy is amazing…one day, you're just you – the next, you're you plus a living, growing human hidden deep inside. You watch your body grow and change, you see this child on the ultrasound screen, eventually you even watch him or her moving around beneath your skin. And then one day, given the chance, your body does exactly what it's supposed to do, and you're holding a brand new person that wasn't there before…
I got my face pressed up against the nursery glass –
She's sleeping like a rock,
My name on her wrist, wearing tiny pink socks.
She's got my nose, she's got her mama's eyes,
My brand new baby girl –
She's a miracle…
I saw God today.
This part of the song chokes me up every time. Twice in my lifetime, I have been fortunate enough to carry a pregnancy to term, to dream and hope and wonder about the little person growing inside me. Twice I've held tiny, pink newborn baby girls, damp and sticky and perfect, and marveled at their little faces, fists, feet. Twice I've looked at brand new people, full of all of the possibility this life has to offer, and known a love that I have never, ever known before. And twice I've known that I was allowed to take part in a miracle. A cell from my body and a cell from his may have been used in the mechanics of it all, but I could no more create a beautiful new life of my own doing than I could jump up and grab a piece of moon.
How could any mother – especially a new mother, holding her brand new baby – not look into that child's eyes and not know that she was looking at the face of God?
I've been to church, I've read the book,
I know He's here but I don't look
Near as often as I should –
Yeah, I know I should.
His fingerprints are everywhere,
I'd just slowed down to stop and stare –
Opened my eyes and man, I swear,
I saw God today.


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Yes, that's dirt on the tip of Baxter's nose. He likes to "help" in the garden.
Let's be honest…shoveling dirt is a lot of work. A lot. A. Lot. I know from experience, although I'd rather not.
After getting our raised beds built, I realized I actually needed to put something in them. We've got a decent amount of compost in the works but it's not ready and it's nowhere close to being enough to fill all seven of our beds. So, I had eight yards of compost delivered from a local landscape materials company.
As you can see from the photo below…eight yards of compost is nothing to shake a stick at. Or a shovel. But a shovel is precisely what I needed to get that junk in to the beds.
So it began. I made around 50 trips with the wheelbarrow from the pile to the beds and finally got it all finished yesterday. Relief.
Last year we made our first foray into raised bed gardening. Our attempts directly in the ground had always failed (most likely because of the awful soil we have). But last year was a big success, so we're sold on using raised beds.
I wasn't very happy with the beds we built last year (1″ cedar just isn't strong enough to hold in dirt without warping) and we wanted a much bigger garden this year anyways, so we pulled out the old beds and significantly expanded our growing space by building some new beds!
This past week I went to Home Depot and picked up the materials to build seven new raised beds using pressure-treated 2×8′s. I'm aware of the "pressure treated" controversy, but decided based on the research I've read, that it's just not an issue.
At any rate, here's the materials we used:
- 17 – 16 foot 2×8″ pressure treated pine
- 4 – 6 foot 4×4″ pressure treated pine
- Box of 3.5″ screws
Each box was made of…
- 2 – 15′ lengths of 2×8
- 2 – 3′ lengths of 2×8
- 4 – 10″ lengths of 4×4
I made the 4×4′s a couple of inches taller than the main boards to give me some room to work with our painfully un-level yard (which turns out was a GREAT idea on my part…high five, me!).
Then you just put the 4×4′s in the corners, put 3 screws on each side of each corner and BOOM! Raised bed. That weighs a metric ton (pressure treated wood is stupid heavy).
Then, we hauled the beds out in to the yard and got them leveled.
Using the skid-steer definitely saved us a ton of time and energy, but I still had to pickaxe for a couple of hours to get the beds how I wanted them.
Next up, we'll truck in a few yards of top soil to fill in some dips in the yard, then it'll be compost time! Whoohoo!
We now have about 315 sq/ft of planting space, compared to the 144 sq/ft we had last year.
How about you? Do you use raised beds?
This past Friday, I finally fulfilled one of my dreams: to run a heavy piece of machinery.
We had an old tiered garden area built in to the side of a hill that needed to be regraded, and I wanted to smooth out our new larger gardening area as much as possible. Given the ground around here is all clay and rocks, doing it by shovel was a sure-fire way to make me gouge my eyes out. So, skid-steer to the rescue!
I'm starting what I hope becomes a weekly featured called Photos From The Farmstead. It'll largely be a gallery of photos from the past week.
So, here's the first installment. Enjoy!
FarmedHere, a company out of Chicago, is working hard to perfect the process of indoor farming…without a single grain of dirt. They're using a process called aquaponics.
The seeds of basil, arugula, and other leafy greens are placed in small baskets made of coconut shavings, called coconut cores. The seeds germinate under artificial (compact-fluorescent) light. Once the plants are about two to three inches tall, they are transferred to a vertical grow system, made up of five to six stacked beds. Each basket is placed in a foam float so that the roots of the plants are submerged in the water.
The water comes from four 800-gallon tanks containing around 800 tilapia. The water, rich with fish waste, is filtered and clarified before it's fed to the plants. The water then goes back to the fish tanks in a closed-loop system. This enables the facility to conserve 97 percent of fresh water per farm acre compared to regular agriculture, according to Hardej. (Once the fish are full-grown they are also sold at market).

subset: commoncrawl


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OLYMPIADS IN INFORMATICS, 2008, Vol. 2, 131-148
© Institute of Mathematics and Informatics,
Competitive Learning in Informatics: The UVa Online Judge Experience
Miguel A. REVILLAa, Shahriar MANZOORb, Rujia LIUc
aApplied Mathematics Department, University of Valladolid Prado de la Magdalena s/n, 47011-Valladolid, Spain E-mail: firstname.lastname@example.com
bComputer Science and Engineering Department, Southeast University 24, Kemal Ataturk Avenue, Dhaka, Bangladesh E-mail: email@example.com
cDepartment of Computer Science and Technology, Tsinghua University Qinghua Yuan, Haidian District, 100084 Beijing, China E-mail: firstname.lastname@example.com
The UVa Online Judge is probably the oldest and one of the most recognized programming contest training sites for ICPC format contests. It is an automatic judging system where anyone from around the world (regardless of being a contestant or not) can submit his solution to the archived problems to check its correctness and improve his programming skill in the process. Although the judge was initially developed to be used as a trainer site for potential competitors in the international programming contests (mainly ACM ICPC), we have observed that it is a very good tool for self-study. In the present paper some facts from the history of the site are given. Then the paper focus to the nature of self-competitive learning by analyzing the more frequent response sequences to the users from the judge along these 10 years. And by doing so we identify the main differences between the behaviors of the users when they are just training and when they are competing.
competitive learning, programming contests, online judge, informatics
To preview full article text in PDF format click here
You could obtain free Acrobat Reader from Adobe
Copyright © Olympiads in Informatics, Vilnius University Institute of Mathematics and Informatics, 2008


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Author: Kana Suppaiah RN, MN, PMHNP, BCIA --Published Oct. 2006 AMHA-OR Newsletter
According to a recent article in Clinical Psychiatry, over 70 million Americans suffer from insomnia, the inability to fall asleep and/or remain asleep for a reasonable period. There are significant consequences of insomnia, for the sufferer and for society at large. Insufficient sleep causes increased risks of fatal accidents, decreased productivity and reduced quality of life. Insomnia affects a person's performance by reducing their concentration and has a negative effect on memory, and mood. Sleep deprivation costs society billions of dollars due to the loss of productivity and for the treatment of insomnia. Some literatures states and insomnia is often treated, as an illness of the brain.
The Ability to Sleep
Sleep is natural phenomena; to treat sleep problems we need to understand what is going on when it is interrupted. There are three processes that contribute to the regulation of sleep/wake cycles: circadian and ultradian rhythm processes and the homeostatic process. The homeostatic process builds from the time a person wakes up and dissipates as bedtime approaches. Circadian and ultradian rhythms coincide with homeostatic process by bedtime in normal patterns of sleep. In addition, there are neurotransmitters and neurohormones that play a crucial role in sleep/wake regulation.
There are a variety of factors that can affect a person's ability to sleep, including activity levels, diet, sleep patterns and overall physical and mental health. There are numerous clinical situations that can cause sleep disorders. Mental health issues including anxiety disorders, depression, bipolar affective disorder and schizophrenia all can cause insomnia. Insomnia is a common complaint of people suffering from mental illness. Some physical ailments commonly linked to insomnia are chronic pain, fibromyalgia, hypertension, and head injuries.
Traditional Methods for Treating Insomnia
Normally when a person suffers from insomnia, the main treatment is through pharmaceuticals, ranging from sedatives, most commonly used, to antidepressants and anti-anxiety drugs. One type of sedative, benzodiazepines, target the GABA receptors which play an important role in inducing and maintaining sleep. But these drugs can have some adverse effects on memory and balance. Other sedatives include Ambien, Tamazepam, Triazolam, Sonata and Lunesta, which have range of side effects. Some doctors prescribe antidepressants such as Elavil and Trazadone, and they do have sedative effects which can help insomnia and depression. Also used are antihistamines such as diphenhydramine, whose side effects include dry mouth, constipation, and urinary retention.
Less common, but often effective, are behavioral and cognitive approaches to insomnia including sleep hygiene, relaxation exercises, meditation, stimulus control environment, daily exercises, and the elimination of caffeine, alcohol, and smoking. Despite the fact that research has shown these methodologies to be superior to pharmaceutical intervention, public awareness is limited, and there is a shortage of therapists available to do this kind of intervention.
Our Approach to Treating Insomnia
At the Advanced Neurofeedback Clinic (ANC), we approach insomnia a little bit differently. When a person chronically cannot fall asleep, they become nervous, anxious, and are often thinking and consequently worrying too much. It has been proven that, when we think about something, our brain sends messages to wake our muscles, to ready them for action. It is important to realize that, to the body, thinking is like acting and can cause muscles tighten up when we want them to relax. At the ANC, we train the mind and the body to fall asleep – naturally by enabling the homeostatic process and the circadian rhythms can be restored to normal to initiate normal sleep patterns.
As a person with insomnia becomes more desperate to fall asleep, their brain perceives this as an emergency situation and it becomes watchful and defensive, greatly reducing the body's ability to relax. This seems to be the reason sleep disorders tend to worsen over time. Therefore we at the ANC, use innovative techniques to develop a feedback loop from the muscles to the brain so that the brain will change its defense mode, and become aware of the tight muscles and relax them. Through a unique set of exercises, we build up the feedback loop which allows the body to become less defensive and more relaxed which enables the mind and body to integrate more quickly.
In addition to conscious learning through exercise, we also provide a form of unconscious learning through neurofeedback, whereby the brain learns by association. In treating insomnia through neurofeedback we teach the brain, through operant conditioning, to produce more low alpha waves which our brain produces when we fall asleep naturally. Neurofeedback effectively teaches the brain to learn by association. Greatly simplified, the process is like training a puppy to sit. The puppy that has learned the "sit" command has no understanding or insight, but it associates command with the reward. This is called the operant conditioning and involves the electrophysiology of the brain.
When this learning process is repeated many times, then the brain is effectively trained to produce more low alpha waves on its own. In the presence of low alpha waves a person may relax without any conscious effort. Furthermore, higher alpha waves can induce hormonal changes as well, which enhance the body's ability to restore its own normal sleep patterns. When a person's body and mind are in a relaxed state, the natural processes of circadian and ultradian rhythms can resume, and their synchronization with the homeostatic process will enable them to fall asleep naturally and stay asleep as long the body needs.
Insomnia is a serious condition which affects more than seventy million people a year and is often thought to be an illness of the brain. In addition to looking at the traditional treatment with pharmacology, meditation and relaxation exercises we have looked at two novel approaches successfully employed by the ANC: neurofeedback and specially designed exercises to develop the feedback loop from the muscles to the brain. Radically different from the traditional methods of dealing with insomnia with medications, the ANC methodology incorporates mind-body feedback which allows the mind and body to work in sync to allow the natural patterns of sleep to resume. Normalized sleep patterns and the relaxed integration of the mind and body dramatically increase quality of life, productivity and overall health.
Kana Suppiah, RN, MN, PMHNP, BCIA/


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Name: Grease Warden
Age: 62
Father: Greygro Warden
Mother: Yoga Warden
Brother(s): Farlic McGee Warden, Vedric Warden, Joshrog Warden
Sisters(s): Marylu Warden, Bogra Warden, Angelara Warden
Occupation: Jedi Civilian Personnel/mess hall cook for the Jedi Order on Coruscant
NOTE: This is a non-playable character and/or NPC
Created By: FierceOmen
Table of Contents
—"I never cared much for politics… All I ever cared about was food, and it hasn't let me down in 50 years!" - Grease to Maxun during his daily session at the Mess Hall —
Unlike most derivatives of his race, Grease Warden was born on Mon Calmari 268ABY during a vacation his parents had taken. Inconspicuously enough, the two were avid travelers, forgoing the typical Besalisk nature of staying on their homeland in turn for sight seeing Republic oriented systems. It was this, along with his natural fondness for eating, that would soon make him a valuable chef, and an even more socially prominent individual. Having served many of the restaurant lines during his adolescence on Mon Calamari, he had a natural hand in serving up the most extravagant, albeit, uncanny platters on the planet itself. Having played a key role in a number of mainstream restaurants successes. Needless to say, Grease loved his food as much as he loved cooking it, and made it a journey to travel across the galaxy, much like his parents had, with the ultimate goal of tasting the culturally diverse delicacies among the stars. Much of his life had been adventurous, disappointing, dangerous, but nevertheless inspiring. Having made his name known among many individuals as a devout and legendary cook. It was toward the end of his prime that he settled down among Coruscant, opening up a line of his own restaurants before finally settling down at the mess hall at the Jedi Order to serve those who had worked so hard to maintain peace within the Galaxy he had come to love. He is an invaluable friend to Maxun Izak Orion and Darvus Pasvel, and often cooks up their platters for discount prices (as he does most of the personnel within the Temple).]
Personality and Traits
Grease is a loud and hearty soul. Everything that comes out of his mouth is rarely ever said without good-intentions. He seeks out friendship with any one he may come across, however, his stout demeanor and boisterous tone often may be mistaken for intimidating, nonetheless his stout fellowship and social prowess are bound to make one realize his good nature.
Powers and Abilities
can be simply described as: "A damn fine cook"
|Physical Description
|"6' 8""
|Hair Color
|Eye Color
|Skin Color
|"Mix of dark green and grays"
|Historical Information
|"Affiliated with the Jedi Order/Mess Hall Cook"


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Posted on March 11, 2019
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Posted on February 18, 2019
The Growing Popularity of Hemp Cosmetics
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Posted on January 23, 2019
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Despite being such a common problem in menopause, it's still extremely distressing for us. Suddenly, we lose our waist, we lose our figure. This can affect our self-worth and affect the way we feel about ourselves and the world around us. It can cause depression and also interfere with our relationships with our partners. That's because a lot of women feel they're no longer attractive once they've lost their shape.
It's a very difficult problem to put right as well because the usual dieting methods don't often work. So why does it happen, and why is it so hard to lose the weight? The main thing here is to understand what exactly goes on behind the scenes. And once you understand that, it's actually a lot easier to try and deal with it.
How your nervous system impacts your weight?
Now, I'll try to explain, but it might be a little bit long-winded. You've all no doubt heard of the fight-or-flight response. Hundreds of thousands of years ago when humans were evolving, our nervous systems evolved to cope with very sudden shock, disaster or emergency, and this is where fight-or-flight comes in.
Imagine you're living in a cave and you go out one morning looking for something nice to eat, but when you turn a corner, there's a huge sabre-toothed tiger eyeing you up for its breakfast. Your nervous system is geared to react in an instant to help to save your life.
What happens is your blood will be diverted from your digestive system and directed toward your muscles. You'll start breathing really heavily and quickly and your brain will get extra sharp because in that second, you've got to decide what to do. Do you climb up that tree? Do you pick up that big stick and fight the tiger or do you jump in the river and swim to the other side?
And that one second could make the difference between you having breakfast or you being breakfast. So you think very quickly, jump in the river, swim to the other side and clamber up (hopefully without the sabre-toothed tiger on your heels), you sit on the bank and go, "Phew," and that's it.
Your emergency is over, and it might be days and days until something actually happens again. That's great because you were helped by how quickly your nervous system responded to the disaster. But today, it's completely different for us. Our nervous systems haven't really caught up with the 21st century.
So when we're in menopause, there are two main issues. One is that the minute your hormones start to change, it's going to stress your nervous system. So even if you have an easy ride through menopause, your nervous system will be stressed to some extent.
If you then add on all the day-to-day stress that we have as women, then our nervous system is continually triggered. And because our nervous system is stressed regularly, it becomes much more sensitive and overreacts to absolutely everything.
So your alarm goes off and you wake up with a start. Already your nervous system is in that flight-or-fight mode. You're rushing around getting ready to go to work. You've got to think of your breakfast. You can't find your car keys. You're worried you're going to be late. You end up in a traffic jam. The boss is yelling at you at work. You come home. You've got piles of ironing to do and everybody's asking you to do things.
As a result, your nervous system is basically firing constantly throughout the day. It doesn't get a break even for a second, let alone a few days. And this continues day after day, week after week, month after month and year after year, and this is where we get the problem with weight around the middle.
Going back to the day when we crossed the river and saved ourselves from the sabre-toothed tiger, our bodies were very clever. They went, "Whoa, it took an awful lot of energy to run and swim across the river. I need to make up that energy because if this happens again, I've got to make sure that I'm fast enough and can think quickly enough."
The role of cortisol
The body releases a chemical called cortisol. It does a whole load of things, and some of them can interfere with menopause as well. But one of the things that cortisol does in this instance is make us hungry and crave sweets.
Now, in the sabre-toothed tiger example, that's very sensible because we have to very quickly make up the energy that we've lost through the experience. But when we craved sweets in those days, we would go for things like berries and fruit, and we'd try and find as much food as we could over the next couple of days in order to replenish that energy.
If you fast-forward to today, since our nervous system doesn't get a break, cortisol is produced practically all the time. So we're always in a state of hunger. We're always craving sweets, and since food is plentiful nowadays, we've got it on hand practically 24 hours a day. So we tend to eat a lot more sweets, and it's not fruits and berries. It tends to be cookies and cakes and anything with sugar in it. And that's one way the weight will start to creep on.
The other thing that happens is that the body goes, "These emergencies are happening all the time, so I need to have a store of energy that I can get to and break down really quickly." The one place that's the easiest to do it is around the middle. So the body will start to put down a layer of fat inside the abdominal wall, and this is how the spare tire starts to grow.
Why dieting doesn't work
The problem is that the normal methods of dieting, such as cutting calories and exercising, just don't work because you're in this state of emergency. If you cut your calorie intake, the body goes, "I'm not getting any food. Help, this is another emergency." If you are then going to the gym and exercising like mad, the body goes, "Whoa, I'm using up an awful lot of energy."
Not only is the body not getting enough calories, it's using up too much energy, so the body will think, "This is another emergency. I'm going to slow down the metabolism," and that is what happens. So you end up putting on more weight even though you're cutting calories and exercising.
I actually had one woman contact me who was down to 800 calories a day and spending an hour at the gym five days a week. She was still putting on weight, and that's why normal methods just don't work. So hopefully you've understood the explanation, but what can you do to actually help with this situation?
How to deal with that stubborn belly fat
We've got to be crafty. We've got to learn to fool the body in certain ways. First of all, the most important thing is to deal with stress. We need to support our nervous system so that it's not getting over-fired and actually gets a break.
Take a magnesium supplement and eat magnesium-rich foods
So especially for those of you who tuned in last week, the number one priority is lots of magnesium. Take magnesium supplements or incorporate lots of magnesium-rich foods into your diet. You can take a vitamin B supplement as well.
De-stress your nervous system
Look for calming herbs. We've got something called Avenaforce, which is a nice, very gentle stress remedy. You can look at passion flower. If you're feeling a little bit down and not on any other medication, then you could try St. John's Wort. It's a nice herb for gently lifting your mood.
Remember the foods that can trigger your nervous system—things like coffee, fizzy drinks, alcohol and salty or sugary foods. These will all switch on your nervous system very quickly, compounding the problem, so try and cut those out. The other most important thing for your nervous system is to remember your daily relaxation. Give your nervous system the break it needs.
Try just shutting yourself off for 30 minutes. No phone, no television, no talking—just relax and listen to some nice music. It could make all the difference. Studies have shown that doing 30 minutes of proper relaxation can reduce cortisol considerably, so this is a really important one to get into your daily regimen.
Eat well without cutting calories
Secondly, you need to eat well. Don't cut calories; that won't help at all. We need to fool the body into thinking that there's plenty of food available. Try a really good high protein diet, and cut down on carbs because they tend to rev everything up. Eat lots of vegetables and a little bit of fruit, nuts and seeds – in other words, have a really good, healthy diet.
Remember to snack because, again, you want your body to think there's plenty of food around. Go for healthy snacks: nuts and seeds, a little bit of dried fruit, fresh fruit like a pear or an apple or some yoghurt. So eat well, but eat enough calories every single day and have snacks because they're really important for keeping your nervous system nice and balanced.
Exercise the right way
It's really important during menopause to exercise well. You've got to keep your joints mobile and your muscles strong. But doing a whole lot of intense exercise for hours at a time is not going to work if you've got a spare tire.
One of the best things to do is keep active every single day. Walk, run up stairs, do short bursts of exercise. One form of exercise that is really coming to the fore now is high-intensity interval training There's a huge amount of research on it, and it seems to work very well for just about everybody. The trick is to exercise strenuously, really throw yourself into it, but only for a few minutes at a time.
If you exercise like that, then you don't give the body time to go, "I'm doing too much exercise." So high-intensity interval training can work really well. There are a lot of DVDs available on the market; I've got a couple of really good ones. Just do 20 minutes first thing in the morning. It's over and done with, and that's your exercise for the day. You can get on with the rest of your day and actually have time to relax at night instead of running on a treadmill at the gym.
A few things you need to be aware of
Hopefully this has given you a little bit of an idea of how you can deal with fat around the middle. A couple of things you need to be aware of: If you try this regimen and find that it doesn't help, then I would advise that you check with your doctor.
Get the doctor to check your blood sugar levels. Pre-diabetes and diabetes can actually appear in menopause even if you're looking after yourself properly and eating a really good diet.
Putting on weight around the middle can be an indication that your blood sugar balance is not quite right. The other thing is that if you seem to have put on weight overnight, then get it checked out by a doctor because it may mean that your thyroid is losing function, which is another major issue during menopause.


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This release contains: 1 Related Document With their advanced unibody engineering, the greatest use of high-strength steel in model history, and a wide array of advanced passive-safety features, like the rest of the 2017 Civic model range, the new Si Coupe and Si Sedan were designed to achieve a superb level of active and passive safety performance.
Tag: brake-assist
May 15
Honda Automobiles: 2018 Honda Odyssey Press Kit – Chassis
Sep 23
Honda Automobiles: 2017 Honda Civic Hatchback Press Kit – Chassis
This release contains: 1 Related Document Based on the 10 th generation Civic platform, the 2017 Civic Hatchback's chassis is specially tuned and adapted for its role as a nimble, versatile and, most importantly, fun-to-drive compact car. The sophisticated front MacPherson strut and rear multi-link suspension utilize specially tuned low-friction dampers, while the front stabilizer bar is upgraded from the Sedan's unit. The result is crisper turn-in and flatter cornering for the Civic Hatchback


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This event has passed.
Movement of Ideas: Session 1
October 9, 2017 @ 2:00 pm – 3:30 pm
How do communities construct ideas of African American experience in the ways they record moments of celebration, conflict, and everyday life? How can we trace these ideas through text and time?
Using digital archives of local black newspapers and the campus newspaper, The Diamondback, we explore how texts contribute to the communal memory of black experience. We will learn to create and publish digital primary texts with annotation and commentary using the Text Encoding Initiative standard and build skills in computational text analysis using the Python programming language.


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Well, we are aiming to be "Digital India". Many people are enthusiastic about being a part of this hype.
I want to ask you all, do you even think a home maker can contribute to this country's growth with her bright ideas.?
How many productive hours of bright women are being wasted everyday as they do not have the right platform to showcase their talent.? Can someone calculate this?
What about those who are willing to work towards a career with responsibility of kids, but see no opportunities around?
If all this time is directed towards individual growth of ambitious home makers, it will surely accelerate the country's growth.. I am sure that many homemakers echo my thoughts.
I understand that we have evolved into a land of opportunities in these 5 years.Yes, half a decade when I forgot what is to be working like. The numerous nights I was with my child nursing him, playing with him, showering him with kisses, taking care when he was unwell.
A lot had changed meanwhile. I realize my 20s are gone. I am now 30 year old.
He became a Pre-Primary kid who is more interested in gadgets, playing and studying, than in me.
Also it strikes me hard that I have always been a dreamer. Wanting to travel the world over, get the most beautiful clothes for myself, and make a name for myself wherever I work.
What happened to all these?
It was my choice to look after my baby all day. That is the decision made according to my wish. I did not want to miss a single moment of his smiling, walking, talking, playing or crawling. I enjoyed it so much! His childhood will never come back and I am glad to have made that choice.
Now everything boiled down to me. What about me now? Will I let my dreams die?
I want to study further for a major plunge in career and enjoy life. It needs some investment.
Though hubby dearest is all the more willing to take my burdens gladly, I think it is unfair on my part to put all responsibility on him.
So my hunt started. Even as the baby was younger, I was trying my best to start earning from home. All I got was content writing jobs where the employer gave my content to a third party, I was unpaid, my content still is used by others. Some jobs asked for a hefty investment.
We need genuine jobs which do not require any investment. Use our intellect, ideas, skills and pay us. That is what we homemakers can do.
It 's a great feeling to use my Smartphone to EARN than spend on useless shopping Apps.
Now I am preparing for my exams in the early morning hours, working from home in the noon with Spini App, and shopping in the weekends with MY money. I am motivated by the earnings and support from Team Spini and putting my best efforts.
Also, I am not compromising on my kid's childhood or health for my own dreams.
Guilt-free and happy me!
I am now a Community Manager with Spini and very happy to be a part of this country's first earning App spreading it's wings to different cities.
It is not just a source of income. It could be a full-fledged career too.
Please share your thoughts with us and visit www.getspini.com for opportunities.
Reference :
Earn Money through Social Networking


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By Joyce Poole - We spent October studying the elephants of Gorongosa. The research combines building up baseline data on the population that was ravaged by the civil conflict that ended in 1992 and studying their behavior. Protecting the biodiversity of Gorongosa is dependent on revenue from tourism and, therefore, ensuring that elephants are habituated to approach by vehicles is of fundamental importance. Our work aims to combine the study of elephant behavior with practical input for conservation management and local capacity building.
This year a film team from PBS/National Geographic International followed our work as part of a six episode series on Gorongosa, which will air in 2015. So, in addition to our own data collection and still photographs, we had the benefit of three cameramen (well, one was a woman) to help us document the complex signals between elephants - and we had two vehicles to negotiate "Ambush Alley" and to navigate "Gauntlet Gully". There were some adrenaline pumping moments, but we do feel that the elephants we observe regularly are becoming calmer.
Here are some of our updates from the field:
One afternoon we met three males and stayed with them for a long time. This 35 year old male looked like he had been through the wars! His ears were tattered and his right tusk was bent backwards. We met him again yesterday, this time with a family group. We enjoy every minute learning more about the wonderful and exciting Gorongosa elephants.
It was a treat to spend the afternoon in the Acacia albida (or Faidherbia albida) forest in the drizzle and mists with Provocadora, her family of 38 and 10 young males. The entire family was there including Valente, Mwana Nzo and "Pointy-Tusks" and generations of their offspring. We were cold and wet, but that didn't detract from the magic of the time in their company. Humble rumbles from Joyce & Petter in Gorongosa.
When elephants threaten in play or for real, they may Kick-Dust, Throw-Debris and Bush-Bash. This tuskless female ended her demonstration with several minutes of "Displacement Dusting", and then stood in the shade of an Acacia with a pile of debris on her head. Her teenage son stood by her side and balanced a branch on his head. We thought they look rather comical standing side by side thus adorned:-) Members of the elephant population of Gorongosa National Park continue to show fascinating behavior!
On 13 October we posted a photo of a one-tusked female with a big V-tear in her left ear and asked for suggestions for her name. You responded with such great ideas - it was very hard to choose between them! After a few days of contemplations we have chosen Vigilante suggested by Bárbara Matadinho - who argued that she was there to watch and keep her family safe. Vigilante was, indeed! While the others were doing their thing, she was busy Periscope-Sniffing and keeping an eye on us. Congratulations, Bárbara! We will be asking for more names soon, so you will have other opportunities to name the Gorongosa elephants! A warm Thank You to all those contributing ideas - we appreciate your interest in the Gorongosa National Park elephants!
We meet groups of Gorongosa elephants every day - and enjoy immensely learning more about these amazingly clever and highly co-ordinated individuals. In the picture Mwana Nzo, Valente and their offspring have just discovered our tyre tracks in the grass. We have reason to believe that they are beginning to know us as individuals, too, they are becoming calmer by the day. Stay tuned to follow our work
Joyce Poole and Marc Stalmans, Director of Scientific Services, out looking for elephants in Gorongosa National Park. It is a pleasure to work as a team, with close collaboration between research and park management.
The Mabenzi family of 38 elephants - including Provocadora, Valente, Mwana Nzo and Pointy-Tusks - raise their trunks with interest when they hear the sound of a felled palm tree. Trees crashing to the ground translate into treats to eat! Males are happy to share these goodies with family groups, but not with other males. It is likely that they sometimes knock over trees to curry favor with the ladies... What do you think about that:-)?
Four young males Periscope-Sniffing in the Acacia albida "fantasy" forest in Gorongosa National Park. The picture was taken a few hours ago. Do you see anything wrong in this picture? What is it? Let us know.
We have been working with Gorongosa Guide, Jose Montinho, teaching him how to identify elephants, collect data on elephant groups and how to recognize their different postures and gestures. Montinho is learning fast and is a pleasure to work with.
Provocadora's daughter walks over to greet her mother and their Little-Greeting-Rumble set off a chain reaction with Valente and gf0014 joining in. We enjoyed this afternoon with Provocadora's family immensely! It is difficult not to fall in love with the elephants of Gorongosa here in Mozambique - they are such characters!


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Christian Peacemaker Teams (CPT) has presented the Coalition Provisional Authority (CPA) in Iraq with a dossier of statistical data compiled from seventy-two case studies of the treatment of Iraqi detainees, including torture.
CPT has maintained a almost continuous presence in Iraq from October 25, 2002. Since July 2003, CPT has been following the cases of numerous Iraqis detained by US forces. Often these detentions have involved acts of violence, including the following:
?house raids using excessive force against unarmed civilians;
?theft and destruction of personal property;
?lack of legal representation or clear judicial process for detainees;
?mistreatment, including torture of detainees during interrogation and in prison camps
?withholding of information about detainees' whereabouts and well-being from the detainees' families and/or Iraqi and international human rights organizations.
These actions, say CPT, are violations of Iraqis' human rights according to international law and fuel violent responses which endanger the lives of the Coalition soldiers who occupy Iraq.
As part of its work CPT Iraq accompanies families of detainees in search of information about, and justice for, their loved ones.
CPT Iraq is now working in partnership with Iraqi community leaders and human rights organisations to publicise the stories of Iraqi detainees and their families. In addition, CPT Iraq workers have met with US officials in the Coalition Provisional Authority (CPA) to ask for changes in these detention policies.
The dossier that has been presented to the Coalition Provisional Authority includes examples of:
1. Violent house raids: House raids terrify Iraqi children and heap shame on Iraqi women who are pulled from their beds wearing only nightclothes. In a Muslim culture, this is particularly offensive, and Iraqi men and boys are incensed by this treatment.
2. Lack of family visits with prisoners which is causing frustration and anger. In addition, many families trying to visit prisoners receive misleading directions. CPT is now urging the CPA to make it easier for families to visit detainees and obtain information about them.
3. Health Concerns: Families have no way to inquire about the health and well-being of prisoners. This is particularly distressing when families know that their detained loved ones were injured at the time of their arrest. Family members often report that detained relatives have chronic health problems such as diabetes, heart disease, or high blood pressure. CPT urges the CPA to allow family members access to all information pertaining to the health of detainees.
4. Mistreatment of Detainees: All released detainees to whom CPT spoke reported that they were housed in overcrowded tents without proper clothes or toilet facilities, particularly in the initial detention centres to which they were taken. CPT volunteers saw handcuffed prisoners being led around with black plastic bags over their heads at an army base near Balad on December 24th, 2003.
5. Theft of Property: CPT has heard many stories about Coalition forces confiscating money and property during house raids. Team members have not heard of any instances in which Coalition forces gave the owners receipts for confiscated property. CPT urges Coalition forces to cease unnecessary confiscation of property, to issue receipts when confiscation is necessary, and to return all property that has been unjustly confiscated.
6. Ineffective Application Process for Confiscated Property: Many people who have applied for compensation for damaged and confiscated property have not received any written proof of their application. CPT urges the CPA to document and follow through on all requests for compensation, and to give families copies of all documents relating to compensation.
7. Lack of Security: Iraqis say that the criminals arrested every day by Iraqi police are then freed within a few days by Coalition authorities. Meanwhile, innocent detainees are held for months.
CPT are now calling for the development of a process for handling detainee issues that is transparent, efficient, and that upholds basic legal rights. A more open approach that attends to the concerns of families and more freely shares information will, in the long run, provide better security for both Iraqi civilians and Coalition soldiers and personnel.
Christian Peacemaker Teams is an initiative of the historic peace churches (Mennonites, Church of the Brethren, and Quakers) with support and membership from a range of Catholic and Protestant denominations.
CPT has maintained a almost continuous presence in Iraq from October 25, 2002. Their presence was briefly interrupted for two weeks in April 2003 when stricter limits on their work by Iraqi authorities led CPT to leave Baghdad.
Christian Peacemaker Teams (CPT) offer an organised, non-violent alternative to war and other forms of lethal inter-group conflict. CPT provides organisational support to persons committed to faith-based non-violent alternatives in situations where lethal conflict is an immediate reality or is supported by public policy.
CPT seeks to enlist the response of the whole church in conscientious objection to war, and the development of non-violent institutions, skills and training for intervention in conflict situations.


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Scandinavian Urban Transport conference
We have been invited to attend the Scandinavian Urban Transport conference that will take place in Stockholm on the 30th of November – 1st of December.
As you know, the governments in the Northern European region are increasingly urging passengers to use public transport. This means that a truly viable, fully integrated transport network is needed. At Scandinavian Urban Transport your colleagues from Keolis Sweden, Helsinki City Transport, Bybanen, Helsinki, Copenhagen, Stockholm Metro, as well as a lot of other transport operators will discuss this integration and debate what is being done to provide the cities in the area with an efficient and user friendly service. Please, have a look at the programme for the event.
We have been offered a 20% discount so your entry pass will cost you £959 instead of £1199.
You can read more and register here>>


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Fun & Easy Science for Kids
Buffalo Bill
The real name of Buffalo Bill was William Frederick Cody. He was an American buffalo hunter, pony express rider, U.S. army scout, actor and impresario. He was born on February 26, 1846 in Scott County, Iowa. He was raised on a farm. His family were Quakers and opposed slavery. When he was a...
Posted in Biographies | Tags : Buffalo Bill Facts, All about Buffalo Bill, Facts about Buffalo Bill, Facts for Kids Buffalo Bill
Sponsored Links :
Copyright © 2020 All Rights Reserved EasyScienceforKids.com | Easy Science For Kids - Cool Facts


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Friday, May 11, 2012
With My Mom
Locals, the sale is 9-7 Friday and Saturday and 10-5 Sunday at the Shoppes at College Hills under a big red-and-white striped tent!
Dad got some vegetables for the garden, plus mulch. Mom found some impatiens for her shady areas. And I got a variety of lovely little plants for my hanging pots: asparagus fern, a purple lobelia, delicate white euphorbia, and yellow and white lantana (which I hear grows like a weed in Australia). The idea of the pots is that 1) the rabbits won't eat these delicacies as they hang from the eaves 2) the squirrels, likewise, can't dig in the pots, burying their treasure and kicking up the plants.
Planning to get together with my mom on Sunday, too, to talk poetry!!
Labels: Poetry Someday, Random Coinciday
3 comments:
- Collagemama said...
Those squirrels will keep trying! Have a nice Mother's Day.
- May 12, 2012 at 6:52 AM
- Kathleen said...
Yes, they will. I rigged up a little fence of scrap wood posts around the rim of a couple pots with seedlings, and they just tossed them out. "We don't need no stinking fence posts."
- May 12, 2012 at 8:50 AM
- The Beans said...
If I didn't know better, I would have thought the leaves for the flower were mint. Perhaps I need to visit the eye doctor soon.
-Barb the French Bean
- May 14, 2012 at 9:50 PM
Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)


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Linked product
The purpose of this lesson is to encourage students to think about how using tools helps them gather information about the world around them. This is especially important at the nanoscale, where the objects are too small to be seen and the information we gather depends on the tools that we use. Having elementary students learn about tools and their purpose will allow them to build on these skills as they become middle and secondary students.
Product category
Download link
Right Tool for the Job_TG.pdf370.59 KB
SW#1Tool.pdf367.39 KB
SW#2Tool-Word Match.pdf220.77 KB
SW#3Tool_Fix_measure_see.pdf220.92 KB
Optional tool matching sheet 3-5.pdf313.09 KB
tools_measuing center_directions.pdf274.58 KB
Tool-Word Match for Center.pdf324.95 KB
tools_seeing center_directions.pdf170.19 KB
Tool-Word Match for Center.pdf324.95 KB
Tool Cards.pdf233.27 KB
Nano Content Map
Nanometer-sized things are very small, and often behave differently than larger things do.
Scientists and engineers have formed the interdisciplinary field of nanotechnology by investigating properties and manipulating matter at the nanoscale.
National Nanotechnology Infrastructure Network (NNIN) funded by the National Science Foundation
Owning institution
National Nanotechnology Infrastructure Network (NNIN); © 2012 Georgia Institute of Technology


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Archive for category Zzzz…
Yay! Announcements! :D
Posted by Minnie-chin in Zzzz... on January 28, 2012
Downloads page is fixed!! \:D/
Check it out HERE
Hihihi..till next time :3
UPDATE ii [05.23.2011]
Posted by Minnie-chin in Zzzz... on May 23, 2011
ARASHI (Click right HERE)
- 32 single – Love Rainbow
- 33 single – Dear Snow
- 34 single – Hatenai Sora
- 35 single – Lotus
2PM (Click right HERE)
- 1st japanese single – Take Off
BEAST (Click right HERE)
- Volume 1 – Fiction and Fact
F.T ISLAND (Click right HERE)
- Volume 1 – Five treasure island
MBLAQ (Click right HERE)
- 1st Japanese single – Your Luv
UPDATE i [05.13.2011]
Posted by Minnie-chin in Zzzz... on May 13, 2011
Here are updates as of 10: 36pm (Philippines time) of May 13, 2011
I guess Friday the 13th isn't unlucky today 🙂
4Minute (Click HERE)
- 2nd Japanese single – I My Me Mine
- 3rd Japanese single – First/Dreams Come True
- Japanese Volume 1 – Diamond
- 4th Japanese single – Why
- 3rd Korean Mini-album – Heart to Heart
BEAST (Click HERE)
- 4th Mini-album – Lights Go On Again
- 5th Mini-album – My Story
Big Bang (Click HERE)
- GD & TOP Vol.1
- Seungri 1st Mini-album – VVIP
- 4th Korean Mini-album – Tonight
- Japanese Album – BIGBANG2
C.N Blue (Click HERE)
- Volume 1 Korean – First Step
- First Step + 1: Thank You
F.T. Island (Click HERE)
- 6th Japanese single – So Today
- 7th Japanese single – Satisfaction
F(x) (Click HERE)
- Volume 1 Korean – First Step
- First Step + 1: Thank You
G.NA (Click HERE)
- Volume 1 – Black & White
Jay Park (Click HERE)
- Bestie
- 1st Mini-album – Take A Deeper Look
MBLAQ (Click HERE)
- Volume 1 – BLAQ Style
Posted by Minnie-chin in Zzzz... on April 3, 2011
Oh my gawd. It's been so long since I checked this blog out. Been really really busy and then when I checked it out (after ages) just now…I got OVER A MILLION views! wow! Well, it took 2 years to achieve that amout of views but for me that's something. This is unexpected :):):)
Thank you! Forever love kpop and jpop :Dd
Nothing else is better than to celebrate 1st anniversary!
Posted by Minnie-chin in Zzzz... on March 29, 2010
woot! this site is celebrating it's first birthday T-O-D-A-Y!!
it's been a heck of fun maintaining this site!
to th 547,500 who has been a part of this one year…thank you very much!! 🙂
Love lots guys!
Minniechun always here – by you and for you –
Always sorry for not being able to update lately. been so busy being tortured at school ^^
4shared account update; 2 songs reported as abuse :(
Posted by Minnie-chin in Zzzz... on February 1, 2010
that is as of February 1, 2010
Now, why am i suddenly sharingmy 4shared stats? it's just that an email arrived this evening (of feb.1) that caught my attention. i decided to share it and put in also the stat (pic above).
Service abuse
…Mon, February 1, 2010 7:08:56 PM
From: 4shared Support <email@example.com>
To: "****@yahoo.com" <****@yahoo.com> // <![CDATA[// Hello,
We received a complaint that some files in your account are breaking our
terms of use and contain illegal or abusive information. These files were
moved to the 'Abuse' folder and access to them was disabled.
You can remove those files so they will not consume your storage space.
Thank you!
Best regards,
4shared Support Team
I hope this doesn't continue 😦
I checked my account and discovered two songs were reported as abuse. Crazy Moon by Arashi 1,214 downloads and another Arashi song which only had 4 download counts :p but still…uploading takes a lot of time and then just to be reported easily and get disabled…*sad*
Vacation Over. See you Guys Later.
Posted by Minnie-chin in Zzzz... on January 4, 2010
[blech!] vacation's over for me and i have to attend classes later (3hours from now.sucks to hell). Again, I'll have to pause from this site and understanding is much appreciated.
I'm currently working on F.T. Island then Wilber Pan. I guess it will take longer than expected.
I discovered imma have summer classes as wel. So my summer vacation would be cut down to a month instead of 2 (1st two weeks of April and last 2 weeks of May) then comes 2nd year of College days -_____-
Love vacations. Why do they have to end? T.T
Listening to Slapshock (a Filipino rock/metalcore band) *thumbs up*
Happy new year to ya'll! See you guys later. Watch out and I'll be back in no time 😉
Always by you and for you, Minniechun
Happy holidays!
Posted by Minnie-chin in Zzzz... on December 25, 2009
Happy Birthday Jesus Christ!
Merry Christmas guys!
Enjoy the Holidays and always keep safe. ^^
Give love on Christmas day (and every day)
always by you and for you


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The teaser trailer has been around a while – a camera pans over the Vatican and, hovering over St Peter's Square, focuses on a statue of an angel. Suddenly the angel turns its big stone head and TA-DAH! – it's actually a demon.
But someone, somewhere, must have thought that first trailer far too clearcut. So now there's a much, MUCH more complicated two-and-a-half-minute, dialogue-packed extravaganza that says so much and yet does little more than prompt a trailer addict's impassioned response of: "Sorry, what?"
Angels and Demons is, of course, a book in the same series as The Da Vinci Code by Dan Brown. Although it's actually a prequel to the Da Vinci book, it's here presented as a sequel – which is only fair since eleventy-billion people read it after enjoying the other one. And yes, found it to be not quite as catchy or readable, but that's not the point here.
The problem with the Da Vinci film, director Ron Howard has said, was that they tried to stick too closely to a familiar and extremely popular book, and it ended up being too wordy and staged. So this time, we can assume, they're doing a loose adaptation of a less familiar and less popular work instead. So that should work out brilliantly.
"Thousands are gathered in St Peter's Square. The new Pope is yet to be selected," says a voiceover, news presenter-style. This is good, classic, trailer activity. Sets the scene perfectly in time, location, and situation.
A girl screams. And then there's a dead body: a dead priest, no less.
Voices are heard, under random images.
"We are under attack from an old enemy."
"Find Professor Langdon!"
Excellent. That should tell you that it's related to The Da Vinci Code, if you didn't know already. If only the name was more recognisable and rolled off the tongue more easily, though. Like Indiana Jones – now there's a recognisable name. Professor Langdon? Not so much.
"He exposed one of the greatest coverups in human history, " [footage from The Da Vinci Code here, in case you haven't got the idea yet], "but what terrifying discovery could make the Vatican turn to him?"
Gosh, I don't know. Perhaps they need help with a crossword clue?
"It's Illuminati!"
Yes, that'll be it. Which is weird, because it's one of the easiest words to guess at in a crossword. All those Is.
"The Illuminati were a secret society dedicated to scientific truth. The Catholic church ordered a brutal massacre to silence them forever. They've come for their revenge."
Ah right. So not only is Professor Langdon providing them with the solution, he's also patronising them by poking holes in Catholicism. Excellent.
Yet, in the context of the trailer, all of that makes sense. And that's marvellous. But then it goes a little non-linear.
"There's a hidden trail through Rome itself. I need access to the Vatican archives!"
"Access to the archives is only by written decree by the holy father!"
"Fellas, you called me!"
A hidden trail, you say? Just like The Da Vinci Code! And then there's Tom Hanks, just like in The Da Vinci Code!
"This is the first sign!" says Hanks, referring to nothing anyone can identify. A statue, basically. What it's the first sign of, or why, anyone who hasn't read the book hasn't a chance of knowing.
"What koind of soign?" says Ewan McGregor (who clearly hasn't managed to get past the first three pages of Angels and Demons, like so many others). Best thing though, is that he says it in his very best "let's get on with this and hand over the cheque so I can finance my next world trip please" cod Irish. Bless you McGregor, you're getting to be so predictable.
"Earth, Air, Fire, Water," says the voice of Hanks over each usefully illustrated sign, "and the fifth sign," which is just unbearably vague.
The fifth sign. You know, that one we're not allowed to know about yet.
Perhaps it's just something unmentionable in the context of a general-rated trailer. Earth, Air, Fire, Water and … Hair gel! No? Swamp-gas? Wait, it's eggnog! I don't know!
"May God forgive you for what you've done."
"Father, if God has issues, they won't be with what we've done. They'll be with what we're about to do."
What? This comes out of nowhere, and is meaningless except for the suggestion that at some point, someone in the movie is going to do or plan to do something that might not be very nice.
"Our church is at war."
With all laws of sense, apparently.
"This is the first marker! The path is alive!"
This is the first mention I've heard of markers. Or paths. Because I've never managed to read the entirety of this book. And isn't that the point? Because increasingly, this trailer might as well scrub all hope of a plot accessible to a non-Brownophile and just print the words "If you liked Angels and Demons as well as The Da Vinci Code, why not watch this on a plane sometime because you'll probably be able to follow it. And look! It has Tom Hanks in it and everyone loves Tom Hanks, right?" in big white letters on the screen.
"You're talking about THE moment of creation!"
Are you? Who is? What? When? That comes from nowhere. Seriously, I wouldn't have transcribed every line from the trailer if they'd made cohesive sense when put together. By now, they're just chucking in buzzwords.
"Open the doors and tell the world the truth."
"It has to be here!"
"This is it. This is the truth!"
To which we can only possibly rise up and say: "It's what? Where? What? Does it? Arrgghhh!!"


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As part of his campaign tour, Chakwera told the crowd that gathered at Nkhotakota L.E.A school ground that once voted into power come 21st May, he will provide good markets to all farmers in the district.
He said farmers do a lot of work to harvest their crops such as rice, maize, cassava, sugarcane, as such they need to be paid back by providing them with good markets at the Admarc.
In his speech, Chakwera also said that he will modernise Nkhotakota Game Reserve so that it should attract more tourists. He said this will promote the tourism sector and Malawi's economy at large.
On youth empowerment, Chakwera said it is his plan to provide national youth services where youth will be able to learn technical vocational skills. He said he is aware that some immoral behaviours by the youth are because they have a lot of unproductive hours.
Chakwera as well promised on national youth fund to allow youth get loans and start small scale businesses.
The MCP leader has therefore called upon people in the district to give him votes and see a better Malawi. The rally was being spiced up by traditional dances like makanja among others.


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Zumba - PED 110 at Reynolds Community College
Offering institutions
- PED 110 - Zumba
- Focuses on Latin rhythms, dance moves and techniques in Zumba. Utilizes physical activity, cardiovascular endurance, balance, coordination and flexibility as related to dance.Lecture 0-1 hours. Laboratory 1-2 hours. 2-3 hours per week.
1-2 credits
Schedule at Reynolds Community College
Not scheduled at this time


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Trinity Hall
Social & Political Sciences
offer made
United Kingdom
Comprehensive School
High acheiving state school.
yes (10 A*,1 A)
(A at AS (266 UMS))
(A at AS (241 UMS))
(A at AS (286 UMS); predicted A; gained NA at A2)
(A at AS (263 UMS); predicted A; gained NA at A2)
(A at AS (267 UMS); predicted A; gained NA at A2)
(A at AS (286 UMS); predicted A; gained NA at A2)
Details about the offer
AAA, 3 A's from 4 A2's, excluding General Studies
grades pending/unknown
Decisions about the application
I acheived highly at GCSE, and had the aspiration to study at the best institution i could – this is Cambridge.
SPS vs. PPE. I didn't want to study A Level Maths, and without this I feel I would have been disadvantaged at Oxford for PPE, plus SPS looked more interesting.
Diverse range of subjects, allowing you to try lots of different things. A current undergraduate told me its the subject everyone wishes they were doing, so I investigated it, and came to agree!
I chose Trinity Hall for the age and traditions, the central location etc. I liked the atmosphere when I looked around, and the way it seemed close to the city centre, river, departments etc… It just seemed "right"
Very slightly – we went to a free conference run by Oxford and Cambridge together, which was fairly informative – gives you a basic understanding. We also had a mock interview, but that was of no real benefit.
Talk to admissions tutots before hand, get an idea of what they want to see, be it at open days, the touring conference things, or by email. It may help you choose a college, see how they feel if you have slightly odd subject choices (maybe less traditional subjects like Sports Studies etc).
I know it's said a lot, but you need to read. For SPS, it'd be great if you read a few (not 100's, maybe 2/3) tradition texts like Machiavelli (the Prince has lots of talk about and is fairly short lol), Marx, Mills, something like that. a) it'll help you see if you actually like studying politics etc. b) In interview, they seem to love "what have you read recently"…
Also, for SPS, you need to keep up to date with current affairs, it will form a significant part of your application. As with everything, you don't need to be an expert, but if something big has happened, you need to know the outline – BBC is great for getting overviews, or real newspapers for more analysis. Have at least one story on the tip of your tounge – i froze when my interviewer asked me for one!
Finally, make sure you've studied the course details, so you can say what you think looks interesting. Also, ensure you know everything about yourself (i.e. about things you've wrote in your personal statement).
I had to write an essay (1000) on a book i had recently read that had a sociological, political or pyschological theme.
I chose to write about the world energy crisis. Personally, if they ask for a similar exercise again, remember you have a carte blanche – so pick an interesting and diverse topic (i was wary of choosing Iraq – too obvious). Then just make sure it throws up lots of questions you might like to try and answer.
An experience! Before hand, I was terrorified (while sitting in Cafe Nero, just round the corner, i felt awful). However, once i got there, i began to feel quite confident and relaxed. I must say, i REALLY enjoyed the whole experience.
I had 2 intereviews – one with the Director of Studies, one with a Law Fellow, who was on the admissions board. Both were really relaxed, and placed me at ease.
1st Interview – Director of Studies
We talked about such a diverse range of topics. Firstly, we talked about issues arising from my essay, so the first question was "how would you solve global warming" !! Then we talked about international relations between Russia and the West, energy security, the growth of China, touched on Iraq. We also talked about the current Bush administration, and their attitudes.
We then talked about the news – at the time it was the death of russian spy Alexander Litvinenko.
Then we talked about how you would study at Cambridge, and about books I'd read (traditional texts) – I talked about the Prince. We talked about his ideas, and how the relate to modern society. This lead to him asking about how you know if your interpretation is correct.
Finally, he asked about other aspects of SPS that interested me, and i said class, so we talked briefy about class in modern Britain.
2nd Interview – Admissions (general)
This was based from my personal statement. It was all centred around topics that led from my A Level subjects – as judged from my supplimentary application. We talked about transport and development economics, how my sutdy of economics and geography worked together, and any queries from my PS (what an activity i did was all about)
See Above
Suit tie etc… I wanted to make a profession and smart impression. You can't overdress for these things, and I would have hated to feel underdressed. However, i appreciate you CAN be more casual, and I don't think they'll be any less receptive to your ideas.
Overall, its something we all get very concerned about, but it doesnt really matter.
It felt historic and beautiful, yet welcoming. I liked the location and the people i met. All positive.
Interesting and welcoming. Relaxed, but ofcourse incredibly knowledgable.
They seemed like cool and amiable people. All the students there (although they all did different courses, and were in different years, they all seemed to get on together, which i liked)
Final stage
It seemed like an incredibly long wait! I was very apprehensive. I have another offer, from a unviersity i'd be more than happy to study at, but i really wanted Cambridge, more than the others.
I got the letter, and i could read through that I said "we hope you will accept this offer…" and then there was much celebration etc.
Looking back
Just to note my experiences above – read around the subject, maximise your UMS at AS, choose your subjects wisely (traditional subjects are best) – and just try to do what you can – its all a bit of a lottery in the end


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"Three decades after being devastated by the closing of steel mills, this gritty river valley is hoping its revival will come from cheap natural gas," The Wall Street Journal recently reported, referring to Beaver County, Pa.
Today, these Americans are standing in line to vote, many of them with energy on their mind. That's because areas once considered rusty relics of the industrial age could soon become homes to advanced manufacturing, thanks to new, affordable supplies of natural gas from the Marcellus Shale.
Voters agree energy is a top priority
In a national survey, 94 percent of American voters agreed that "a comprehensive energy policy is essential to building a strong economy, creating new jobs, and making America more competitive with other countries." 90 percent said they believe Congress is not "doing enough" to address the nation's energy needs.
That's why, in 2013, Congress and the president should continue to work to maximize the development of America's own energy sources, including natural gas from shale. This would help to revive regions that have been slammed by the recent recession.
$40 billion in chemical industry investments
In the news, there have been several announcements of U.S. chemicals investments, totaling approximately $40 billion, in new ethane cracking plants, production expansions and restarts. These investments have a strong, collective impact on industries that rely on chemistry and plastics – including auto manufacturing, construction, agriculture, health care, and technology.
The Wall Street Journal describes Beaver County, Pa. as just one place that could reap benefits from chemical industry investments, and noted that, earlier this year, Royal Dutch Shell said it was considering building a multi-billion dollar cracker plant in the area.
This plant would turn ethane gas to ethylene, a feedstock of the chemical industry, and ethylene into the base of many major plastic and household products. Shell would expect about 400 new, permanent jobs to be created, with many more temporary construction jobs, the WSJ reported.
ACC projects that a 25 percent boost in ethane supplies from investments like these could generate 400,000 U.S. jobs, $132 billion in U.S. economic output and $4.4 billion in local, state and federal tax revenue every year. These include direct chemical industry jobs and thousands more in our supplier industries and the sectors that support all those jobs.
"The low-cost industrialized country for energy"
Beaver County and Pennsylvania are not alone. Thanks to low prices, major chemical companies that once sent production overseas are now shifting their focus back on American soil.
According to the article:
[quote]Economists at Citigroup Inc. earlier this year estimated that increased domestic oil and gas production, and the activity that flows from it, would create up to 3.6 million new jobs by 2020 and boost annual economic output by between 2% and 3.3%.[/quote]
As Wall Street Journal reporter Ben Casselman says in a video report, "the surge in natural gas production has driven down prices in multiple industries."
The end result, according to energy expert Philip Verleger:
[quote]The U.S. is going to be the low-cost industrialized country for energy. This creates a base for stronger economic growth in the United States than the rest of the industrialized world.[/quote]
While homegrown natural gas is important, policymakers should also work to maximize energy efficiency's contribution to the nation's energy portfolio — for example, by updating building codes and supporting more combined heat and power at industrial facilities.
Decreasing energy consumption decreases operational costs for businesses, decreases costs for consumers, and helps us to remain the truly low-cost industrialized country for energy.


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In the over three decades he hosted the children's television show "Mister Rogers' Neighborhood," Fred Rogers conveyed virtue and kindness with his signature zippered cardigans and puppet friends.
Next month, the United States Postal Service will immortalize Mr. Rogers, who died of cancer in 2003, alongside cultural and political icons such as Elvis, Big Bird and former presidents, when it introduces a Forever postage stamp with his portrait.
He will be depicted wearing — no surprise here — a sweater, and cuddling up to a puppet, King Friday XIII.
Every year, the Postal Service receives about 40,000 suggestions for people or topics to feature on its stamps. The list is whittled down to about two dozen choices, and a citizens' committee makes the final selections.
The stamp featuring Mr. Rogers will have a print run of about 15 million. It will be unveiled on March 23 at WQED, the Pittsburgh studio where his show was filmed, the Postal Service announced.
William J. Gicker Jr., the manager of stamp development at the Postal Service, said the "warm and engaging" way Mr. Rogers communicated made him an appropriate choice.
"There are certain things you can't do electronically," he said in an interview. "If someone has done a kindness, a personal note is still far more valuable than shooting off an email or text. There is still a place for the written letter."
The postage stamp is the latest cultural emblem of the enduring appeal of Mr. Rogers and his show, which is marking the 50th anniversary of its American premiere. Last month, TriStar Pictures announced that Tom Hanks would play Mr. Rogers in the biopic "You Are My Friend," about his friendship with a journalist.
Mr. Rogers has inspired books and documentaries, been spoofed on "Saturday Night Live" and even inspired a category on "Jeopardy!"
His persona resonated off screen as well, such as when he testified before a Senate subcommittee to push for public broadcasting funds. In 1997, he moved an entire Emmy Awards audience full of celebrities to silence, and some to tears, when he instructed them to think of someone they owed gratitude.
"Ten seconds of silence," he said gently from the stage, flicking back his cuff. "I will watch the time."
Fans have even created a "Church of Rogers" forum on Reddit to share the love online.
"I am becoming the person Mr. Rogers would want me to be," one fan wrote.
"You aren't becoming the type of person Mr. Rogers wanted you to be," another replied. "You're becoming the type of person he knew you could be if you were just willing to try."
Joanne Rogers, Mr. Rogers's wife, said in an interview that her husband would have approved of his appearance on a postage stamp because of the personal outreach that a handwritten letter involves in an increasingly virtual world.
"I think he might have agreed with me that it is amazing," she said. "I think that people must need him. Just look at what goes on in the world. He always wanted to provide a haven and a comfortable lap for children, and I think that is what so many of us need right now."
Having Mr. Rogers's face on a stamp that enables slow, thoughtful communication is a fitting parallel of his approach to life.
Patience was one of the themes of his show, which aired its last new episode in 2001 but is still broadcast on PBS. Children were encouraged to embrace it, an undertaking they saw modeled in Mr. McFeely, who was the neighborhood's equivalent of a mailman.
Mr. McFeely, whose catchphrase was "Speedy Delivery," would arrive at Mr. Rogers's house in a battery-operated wagon, in a kayak or on a tricycle. He would often deliver films of himself doing chores, like raking leaves, at high speed, but over time he learned to slow down enough to exchange pleasantries with Mr. Rogers.
David A. Newell, who played the character for 33 years, said he was initially employed as a prop coordinator on the show and portrayed the delivery man on the side.
"I want you to be in a hurry," Mr. Newell said in an interview, quoting the directions Mr. Rogers gave him when he was hired. "It will give me the chance to be able to work on some themes. Children are always told, 'Hurry up, do this.' But I like to take my time."
"I think he would be honored," Mr. Newell said, when asked about Mr. Rogers's elevation to postage stamp fame. "Because Fred would write a thank-you note for everything."
Mr. Rogers, who was born in Latrobe, Pa., on March 20, 1928, started working in the television industry after he graduated from college. He also became a Presbyterian minister. "Mister Rogers' Neighborhood" began airing in Pittsburgh in 1966 and was broadcast nationally starting in 1968.
It came as close to a reality show as you could get for an audience of toddlers.
He visited a recycling center, explored how a restaurant operates, and took viewers with him on a trip to the doctor. He threw himself into moonwalking, and slipped around on the ice with Peggy Fleming. When he accidentally buttoned his sweater incorrectly, or a zipper got jammed, he turned it into a teaching moment.
Very few subjects were off-limits on the show — he addressed death, anger, violence and parental divorce.
Mr. Newell said Mr. Rogers followed at least one piece of advice closely. "You can do divorce," he said. "But don't forget the fun."


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Friday 23 November, 2018 - 11:51
Deloitte Consulting Overseas Projects LLC
Position: Transmission Maintenance Advisor
Contract Type: Independent Consultant
Recruitment Type: STTA
Project: Southern Africa Energy Program (SAEP)
Outcome: Outcome 3
Location: South Africa, Malawi and Mozambique
Delivery Range: Jan 2019 – June 2019
Estimated Level of Effort: 48 Days
Language Requirement: English
Opportunity Closing Date: 12 December 2018
Deloitte Consulting Overseas Projects LLC seeks individuals who have a passion for making a difference in the lives of people in the Southern African region and demonstrate leadership, versatility and integrity in their work. We are seeking exceptional candidates with work experience in either South Africa, Malawi and Mozambique for the USAID Southern Africa Energy Program.
The USAID Southern Africa Energy Program works to advance energy policy and regulatory reform, and accelerate investment to increase power generation and access to electricity throughout the region. According to World Bank data, less than 25% of the non-South African population living in the Southern African region have access to electric power. The limited reliable power affects the competitiveness of Southern African industry, agriculture, and the economic opportunity and health conditions for rural populations, women, and youth. Through strengthening the enabling environment and facilitating public and private transactions, SAEP leverages the momentum of private investment to help focus SAEP's resources in ways that best support the reform of national and regional energy ecosystems. At the same time, SAEP produces the tangible results needed to create a sustainable cycle of additional reforms, increased investment and continued political will.
Position Description and Objectives:
Deloitte Consulting LLP seeks a short-term Transmission Maintenance Advisor to support Outcome 3 of the USAID Southern Africa Energy Program (SAEP): improved regional harmonization and cross border electricity trade. Specifically, SAEP is working to improve planning, operational and trading capabilities of market participants and SAEP countries working within SAPP (Southern African Power Pool). This will improve the operations and increase the transmission capacity, reliability and redundancy of the SAPP interconnected transmission system. At the same time, it will optimize the Southern African power market and enhance the commercial viability of major regional infrastructure projects.
The Transmission Maintenance Advisor will assist the Electricity Supply Corporation of Malawi Limited (ESCOM) to maintain their interconnected system at 400 kV. The 132kV transmission lines are currently the highest voltage utilized in the ESCOM system. Under the Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC) program a 400kV Phombeya–Nkhoma Transmission Line is being constructed and being prepared for transmission interconnection to Mozambique. Feasibility studies are also underway for the extension of the 400kV network from Nkhoma Substation to Songwe in the northern part of Malawi, which is at the border with Tanzania, via Kasungu, Mzimba, Rumphi and Karonga Districts. These studies also include a 400kV line from Nkhoma to the border with Zambia and a 330/400 kV substation in the Mchinji District, to interconnect with Zambia.
Responsibilities, Outcomes and Deliverables:
The Consultant shall use his/her education, experience, knowledge of international best practices, and additional understanding gleaned from the background and objective specified in the project and assignment overview sections to accomplish the following:
Socialize ESCOM personal to SAPP utilities operating a 400 KV by doing the following:
- Conducting a Training Needs Assessment, with focused attention on 400kV operation
- Developing a training program, theory, practical and exposure to other SAPP utilities
- Conducting class room and on-site training for ESCOM personnel
- Engaging two SAPP members and negotiate the exposure of ESCOM staff to 400kV maintenance practices
- Accompany the ESCOM personnel on the training program
- Theoretical and practical evaluation of the personnel and report to ESCOM management
ESCOM will utilize an operations and maintenance contractor (O&M) contractor for at least a 12-month period as part of a skills transfer to ESCOM personnel. The Advisor will perform the following tasks, ahead of the appointment of the O&M contractor:
- Gaining a better understanding of the MCC work as far as it concerns the O&M of the 400kV system after the compact
- Engaging with ESCOM and develop O&M options for the 400kV system
- If needed, developing a TOR for an O&M contractor, including possible funding options
- Shift focus of ESCOM personnel to the live line maintenance of the ESCOM 400 kV system. This will include:
- Conducting theoretical training sessions with ESCOM personnel on live line maintenance best practices and issue a report
Minimum Skills, Education & Experience:
- Engineering qualification
- Registered as a Professional Engineer with a professional body
- Minimum 15 years of practical experience working with utilities and 5 years in a supervisory or management position
- Must have experience in developing country environments and experience in Southern Africa would be an advantage
- Experience in utility T&D operations, transmission expansion planning, performance improvement, loss reductions, and connections will be preferred
- Understanding of power system economics
Application Instructions:
Please send a cover letter and a CV (PDF or word format) that includes contact information and three references to email@example.com by 12 December 2018. Please include the title of the position you are applying for in the subject line of the email. No telephone inquiries. Only shortlisted candidates will be contacted.
Deloitte Consulting Overseas Project LLC is an equal opportunity employer and does not discriminate in its selection and employment practices. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, colour, religion, sex, national origin, political affiliation, sexual orientation, gender identity, marital status, disability, or protected veteran status, genetic information, age, membership in an employee organization, or other non-merit factors.


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Walking & Biking
These are popular activities on Clare Island and the reason will be obvious on arrival. The scenery is spectacular and the topography is varied, with options for all levels of fitness.
To hire bikes, contact Bridget O'Leary on 098 25640.
Click here for a printable walking map.
Bird watching
The spectacular cliffs to the north of the island are home to large numbers of nesting sea birds – paradise for the keen ornithologist!


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I have my custom HTML code below and it looks fine on screen when I am seeing, but then when I send a test email the image is way to large and messes everything up, Any idea why?
Go to Solution.
Magazines usually request images to be 300+ dpi
Newspapers request 100 - 150 dpi
Web 72 - 75 dpi
In html images can be controlled to some degree to fit in a space, they should be about 72 dpi which would also reduce their serving size.
So if your images are looking like they are to big, reduce their dpi to fit what you want them to look like.
View solution in original post


text:
I took my first trip to the baby store today – I went to toys'r'us.
Right away I realized I have never been to this store on a weekday afternoon – the store welcomed me with a newborn cry (only newborn cry so quietly) and a couple of VERY pregnant woman right in front of me.
I walked around like in a museum, rarely touching anything.
I read some labels, but most were more confusing than helping. They were listing all these functional things they offer which didn't tell me a thing. I am a first-time mom, I have no idea what half of these are and why should I care. Bad marketing, I say.
I folded and unfolded a couple of strollers. I tried to understand why everyone is saying wheel size is so important – all the wheels looked the same size to me.
I got amused by an orthodontic (!) pacifier.
Bathtubs looked really, really uncomfortable, all with these weird plastic shapes.
I left confused, clutching a catalogue. I came home and put a hold on that book everyone recommends in the library – the one with the reviews of all baby products.
But hey, I made my first trip to the baby store. And although I did feel like an impostor among all those very pregnant women, I feel good about taking this step forward 🙂


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The Orland Park Cultural Center will be filled with the rare sound of Viennese dance music on Sunday, March 21 when the Orland Park Arts Commission presents the Vienna Waltz Ensemble.
The trio performs rare 19th Century music from the Austro-Hungarian Empire. The traditional combination of two violins and bass was the "rock and roll" band of the 1800s.
"This is a beautiful event for a Sunday afternoon," said Village Trustee Kathy Fenton, who chairs the Special Events and Community Outreach Committee. "We're especially pleased that the village's Arts Commission is bringing such amazing talent to Orland Park," she added, noting that the commission will offer a second concert later in the year.
Arts Commissioner Gabrielle Wiede first saw the group perform at the Morton Arboretum in Lisle, having met Carl Johnston at Carl Sandburg High School where they both teach.
"Vienna Waltz Ensemble offers a nice mix of period music and instructional comments that help the audience understand and appreciate what they're listening to," Wiede explained.
The trio includes Carl Johnston and Clara Lindner playing violin and Greg Sarchet playing double bass. The group first performed together at the Chicago Cultural Center in July, 1998.
Explaining the ensemble's history, Lindner said, "Greg Sarchet was on a tour of the Czech Republic when he discovered that the music played in many of the cafes and restaurants was played by two violins and a double bass."
Sarchet received two Chicago Artists International Program Awards that enabled him to conduct in-depth research in the Czech Republic, Germany, Austria, Hungary and Great Britain.
Lindner added, "With the assistance of esteemed musicologists, Greg rescued rare musical manuscripts which became the repertoire of the Vienna Waltz Ensemble."
Sarchet explained, "We offer exquisite dances by composers such as Haydn, Rossini, Beethoven and Johann Strauss, both junior and senior. The music is charming and joyful and includes waltzes, polkas, minuets and German dances."
Vienna Waltz Ensemble will perform at the Orland Park Cultural Center, 14760 Park Lane, from 2:00 p.m. until 3:30 p.m. A reception with light refreshments will follow.
The group's performances are also educational as the three musicians research the historical background of the music, uncover anecdotes and share the entertaining commentary for which the trio is known.
Wiede added, "This event will bring classical music closer to those who might not have heard it before."
Individually, the musicians have performed with the Chicago Symphony, Lyric Opera Orchestra, Ravinia Festival Orchestra, Chicago Opera Theater, Grant Park Symphony, Chicago Chamber Orchestra, Joffrey Ballet Orchestra, the Three Tenors, on "Oprah" and for commercial recordings and television specials.
Greg Sarchet, who plays double bass, is a member of the Lyric Opera of Chicago. He has served on the faculties at Northwestern University, Northeastern Illinois University, Northern Illinois University and Roosevelt University's Chicago College of Performing Arts for more than fifteen years.
Violinist Carl Johnston has taught at DePaul University, American Conservatory and at the VanderCook College of Music, along with teaching at his private home studio. Violinist Clara Lindner has been on faculty at the University of Minnesota and Columbia College Chicago, as well as teaching at her private home studio.
Tickets are $20 per person and may be purchased at the cashier's office at the Frederick T. Owens Village Hall, 14700 South Ravinia Avenue. For more information, call 708/403-6140.