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The design for this galaxy has been made by Astroluma.
Star 1: "The Gateway Crisis"
Star 2: "Sub-Space Doomships"
Star 3: Undefined
The Gateway Crisis
Mario begins this stage the same way he did last time, on the saucer planet with Yoshi's house on top, and the white picket fence spanning the equator. A yellow Luma greets him as he lands. "Our power stars!" he says, "that gigantic monster stole them! And on top of that, Lubba's gone missing! He was last seen a few days ago, and I'm starting to get worried…"
And with that, Mario must venture to the brown side of the planet, and talk to the other Luma waiting there. "The comet observatory's up ahead!' he says, transforming into a launch star, "I wonder what its doing here?" Mario then hops in, and blasts off not only toward the next segment, but also towards a new cosmic adventure.
The next segment takes place on the comet observatory. Our hero touches down near the holographic map, and a fuming Gearmo is there to great him. "The shields are down!" he says, glowering at Mario, "and enemies seem to think they can just waltz right on in! Worse still, that darn Bowser stole all of out Power Stars! Without them, the Grand Star Drive won't come back online, and we're sitting ducks to anything that wants to attack us! I can't believe this!" after the angry robot has had his say, Polari Speaks up. "We just got word from some of Lubba's Lumas, and they think he might have been kidnapped by Pee Wee piranha! To reach him, you're going to need a launch star, so see if you can find any star chips!" following his advice, Mario sets off to locate the star chips. However, the Gearmo wasn't lying about the enemies.
While on his hunt, Mario must avoid Goombas, Piranha Plants, Mini Goombas, a few sentry beams, and Octoombas.
Star Chip Locations:
1: over by the red luma, were the crystallized red star used to be.
2: close to the kitchen, near the entryway.
3. Near the entryway to the engine room, one cloud-assisted
Back flip off of the ground.
4. Near the gate, over by were the hungry Luma used to be.
5. On the very top of the observatory. To reach it, Mario must navigate through a series of cloud platforms, while avoiding a few Paragoombas.
"The teleprocess are malfunctioning, but the raised pressure on the observatory's inner mechanics has caused the engine to release massive amounts of water moisture!" a yellow Luma floating next to the red Luma says, "maybe you could walk on it using the cloud flower to get to the out-of-reach star chips!" Mario finds that this is not only possible, but also necessary to reach the higher levels, as the teleported are indeed offline. However, that's not the only thing that's broken. The protective barrier that prevents Mario from falling off the edge of the observatory is also malfunctioning, so if he slips up, he's a goner.
After this long task is completed, a launch star appears near the place were Mario first touched down. After Mario makes his way back across the observatory grounds and hops in, he is rocketed towards some sky ships floating nearby to the observatory. He lands on the first ship, were he finds a caged Luma and a checkpoint. "Those Jerks threw me in here and took the key!" the captive creature says, gesturing toward one of the many Goombas on moving about on the network of sky-ships. "Let me out of here!"
The objective of this segment is pretty clear. To locate the right Goomba and stop it flat, while avoiding other enemies such as one banzai bill, a few Octoombas, and one more sentry beam. Wooden bridges connect the ships, and Mario must rush across them in order to reach the next craft.
The Goomba holding the key can be found near the mast of the last ship, and squashing him releases the prize. Putting it to good use, Mario unlocks the cage, and sets the Luma free, allowing him to transform into a much-needed launch star. "Thanks!' the Luma says, "it was starting to get a little stuffy in there."
This next segment is the second to last. It takes place on a chain of four duplicates of the gateway galaxy planet with the meteors peppering the surface. The objective here is to simply get to the end, were another launch star waits. Enemies on these planets only include a few Goombas, but the constant stream of meteors is what makes this section difficult. Get hit once, and Mario has a good chance of being flung into one of the black holes resting in each planets center.
A shop Luma can be found near the launch star, offering a choice of useful power-ups in exchange for a few of the starbits strewn about the level. Once Mario has picked a mushroom and stepped into the launch star, he is blasted towards the final segment, the gateway to the starry skies.
As he is flying towards this nostalgic planet, Mario can already notice some significant differences. One, the egg of Pee Wee Piranha rests right in his path, and two, Lubba is trapped in trapped inside a force field!
In order to free his friend, Mario must defeat Pee Wee Piranha for a second time. This is not hard, and before long, the force field holding the round Luma disintegrates, and Lubba and the power star next to him are set free.
Sub-Space Doomships
Mario begins this rather bizarre stage the same way he did last time, on the planet with Yoshi's house on the grassy side. However, as soon as Mario lands, a rather unhappy Gearmo greets him. "Hello, Mario." The robot says, "I must say, I'm thankful for what you did back there, but honestly, we've got everything under control here, and Rosalina doesn't need your help right now. So, go back to your starship, and we'll contact you if we ever need you in the future. And don't even think about using that launch star on the bottom of the planet, the trajectory coordinates are all off, so you'll probably end up getting yourself killed." After the text message has been triggered, if Mario goes up to the robot another time, an auto-text box appears, saying "why are you still here?"
So, disobeying the Gearmo's not-so-kind advice, Mario ventures to the dirt side of the disk-like planet, and is greeted by a yellow luma, and two red topmen spawned from wormholes. "I wouldn't use this if I were you." He says, gesturing towards the malfunctioning launch star, "it doesn't go anywhere, so you'll just get blasted off into space." Mario follows the launch star's path with his eyes, and finds that the luma is right. The translucent blue beam just ends in mid-air far away, next to a lone sky-ship. However, if Mario's going to get his hands on the galaxy's third power star, he's going to have to take risks, so, with a determined expression on his face, he hops into the launch star and blasts off into open space. Mattermouths are the only enemies that can be found on the top die of the disk-like planet, the portals popping up in their wake leading to an unforgiving black hole.
As Mario blasts off, while he's flying down the launch star's doomed path, another auto-text bubble appears above the Gearmo's head in the distance, just big enough for the player to see, saying "you idiot!"
As Mario flies through the air, right before it appears as if he really is going to die, just missing the lone sky-ship by a few feet, a portal opens up, and an Airship originally featured in Bowser Jr.'s Fearsome Fleet flies through, right in Mario's path. Thankful for this fluke of luck, our hero touches down on the strange ships surface, right on top of the purple grille. Three Octoombas are the only enemies here, and Mario dispatches them with a quick spin. An encaged yellow luma is there as well, and speaks to Mario when he lands. "Whoa, where am I?" he asks, "Last thing i remember I was hiding in an dormant airship spying on Bowser Jr. as he went over blue-prints for a weird robot he called Mega Hammer! And the next thing I know, I'm in this cage! Let me out!"
After the two Octoombas have been either spun or stomped, the caged vanishes and the luma breathes a sigh of freedom. "Thanks!" he says, "here, you look like you need a sling star, so I'll just transform!" with that, the luma shape-shifts into a much-needed sling star, leading towards the nearby sky ship next to the one the flew forth from the portal.
Once there, Mario finds two Mattermouths chomping through the ship's deck in a circle, another black hole waiting at the other end of the portals popping up behind them. Luckily, these hazards are easily avoided, and before long, the circle of portals behind him, he comes across a familiar sight, a cannon. However, it looks as though, similar to the launch star, this cannon leads nowhere. But, Mario figures that this is just another risk he is going to have to take, and hops in.
To his surprise, six more ships fly out of portals, creating the next segment. Aiming his targeting symbol at the closest ship, he discovers a metal pole topped with a pull star, reminiscent of Bowser Jr.'s airship armada, and with a tap of the A button, Mario goes flying towards it.
Grabbing the blue gimmick to prevent him from rocketing out into empty space for the second time today, Mario drops down on the top of the pole, and is immediately charged at by a Goomba. Stomping this pest flat as he hops off of the pole, our hero touches down on the flying boat's purple grille, Cosmic clones immediately springing up behind him, and finds a flip switch, the goal of this segment then becoming clear. Mario must locate the red Ground-pound switch, give the button a good stomp, collect the cloud flower that appears on the ships deck near the front, and then run over the flip-switch, turning the blue panel yellow. He must then use the cloud-flower to hop across the large gap between wormhole ships, locate the flip switch on each one, and turn it yellow, while avoiding Mattermouths, red Topmen spawned from wormholes, Goombas, and the clones giving chase.
There are seven ships total, a deactivated flip-switch, and a cloud flower on each one.
After all seven gimmicks have been turned on, the annoying cosmic clones on Mario's tail disappear, and a launch star appears on top of a pole near the back of the last ship. Avoiding the two Mattermouths chomping in a circle, Mario hops on the pole, climbs to the top, and flips into the launch star, rocketing off towards the next segment, the grassy disk planet with the tilted cubes strewn above its upper hemisphere found in SMG1 right before Mario faces King Kaliente. Chomps roll forth from the large hole in the camouflage painted machine, and are smashed to bits by an iron pillar jutting out of the bottom side of the planet. Bullet bills are also fired, and they fly forth from the small holes near the top of the steel structure. Several large silver UFO planets fly high above the grassy side, but since the planets have no gravity, they are just for looks and are impossible to reach.
Mario touches down on the steel side of the planet, and is greeted by a luma. "Those stupid Bullet Bills smashed up my launch star, so if you see any star chips, grab em'!" he says, "and watch out for those creepy Dinosaur Skulls!" following the Luma's instructions, Mario immediately spies the first star chip. This is the only one found on the industrial steel side, and to secure the other four, he must venture to the populated gassy side, avoiding the Mattermouths the luma mentioned that circle the equator, leaving a string of deadly gateways in their path. The strange UFO planets floating above this planets elliptical surface pose no threat to our hero, and they must simply be ignored.
As soon as he arrives on the verdant side, he is presented with a familiar sight, the starshroom! The small red spaceship floats far away in the distance, and one of its passengers, a blue toad with glasses standing next to a tilted yellow cube speaks to Mario. "Mario? What are you doing here?" he says, "we've already checked, and there's no power star in this area, so we're just gonna head back."
Star Chip Locations:
1: near the luma, on the bottom side.
2: close by to the base of the metal tower. Bullet bills are very common here, so Mario must watch his back when hunting for this chip.
3: on top of the tower, in the center the flat roof encaged inside a glass dome. To reach this chip, Mario must get one of the many bullet bills found here to follow him and shatter the cage.
4: on top of one of the large tilted yellow blocks scattered around the grassy side, guarded by a Mattermouth and an Octoomba.
5. On top of another yellow block, near the tower. This chip is unguarded, and it is the easy to obtain.
After all five pieces of the Lumas damaged launch star have been collected, the gimmick appears on the bottom side, near were Mario originally touched down, leading to the second-to-last segment, a duplicate of the last planet in the "Storming the sky fleet" stage. At first glance the planet appears rather empty. But, as soon as he lands, three red topmen pop out of wormholes, and rush at him! Running from these pests, Mario also notices that the planets banzai bill launchers are still working, and he must avoid these as well.
The goal here is relatively the same as last time. Mario must travel towards the end of the planet with the spiny piranha plant, although this time, the overgrown weed is gone, and in its place, a ground-pound witch rests, circled by two angry Mattermouths eager to see Mario fall through one of their deadly portals. After the witch had been stomped, a launch star appears were the power star in the cage used to be.
"Well, there's no power star here." Another toad standing by the new launch star says, "and I wouldn't use this thing if I were you, it just leads out into open air." Well, throughout this level Mario has learned that things are not always as they seem, so, ignoring the toad, he hops into the launch star and blasts off into space.
Thankfully, sure enough, a sky ship flies out of a portal right in front of his path a few seconds before Mario falls to his death. Landing once again on the ship's purple grill, Mario enters the last segment.
To his delight, it appears as though the toads were wrong. There is a power star to be found here, and it's resting in a cage right next to where he lands! But unfortunately, there are no enemies on the ship, and no keys in sight, so how is Mario going to open the cage and get the power star? Well, it might have something to do with the currently dormant yellow moving platform found next to the side of the ship.
Upon stepping on said platform, the gimmick comes to live with a lurch, pulling Mario slowly into the final segment, and small rectangular floating maze made out of horizontally placed enlarged wooden block things that block your progress originally featured in Cloudy Court Galaxy.
The wooden platforms are too high for Mario to jump over, but also do not hinder the yellow platform's movement, so if Mario isn't careful, the metal floor will fly right out from under him. While running quickly through the maze, Mario must avoid the occasional bullet bill blasted at him from one of the few floating bullet bill launchers placed high above the maze. No other enemies can be found here.
The Gateway Crisis Visual Model- Photobrick Studios and Cosmological
First planet-with Yoshi's House:
Luma at beginning says:"Our power stars, that gigantic monster stole them! And on top of that, Lubba's gone missing! He was last seen a few days ago, and I'm starting to get worried…"
Luma on top of house says: Whoa you found me! Take this gift! (gives 1-up) But get back to saving the power stars!
Bottom of Planet:
Luma Says: The comet observatory's up ahead! I wonder what its doing here?
Luma transforms into a launch star and shoots mario towards the observatory.
Item block contains coins.
Big crystal still remains.
Comet observatory is the same: but here it is again,
The whole thing
Gearmo (not shown) says:
The shields are down, and enemies seem to think they can just waltz right on in! Worse still, that darn Bowser stole all of out Power Stars! Without them, the Grand Star Drive won't come back online, and we're sitting ducks to anything that wants to attack us! I can't believe this!"
Polari says:
"We just got word from some of Lubba's Lumas, and they think he might have been kidnapped by Pee Wee piranha! To reach him, you're going to need a launch star, so see if you can find any star chips!" [added by Cosmological: Also out protective barrier is gone so don't fall off. If you can't find a star chip check in familiar places]
Star chip 1:
1-up circled in green
Enemies in red
Star chip in gold
Item box contains star bits
Star chip 2:
[edit by Cosmological from next to kitchen to behind kitchen]
Coins show you the way
Star chip 3:
Located on top of the bedroom.
Lumas next to the cloud flower say:
Left Luma: Our teleporters aren't working use this cloud flower to get higher up. I think I saw a star chip up there.
Right Luma: Shake the wii remote to make a cloud to jump on.
(pay no attention to the glitch in the cloud at the top it was a weird copy.)
(same key)
Star chip 4:
Near the Engine Room
Luma says: Look I found the star chip. I saw one further up though, use this cloud flower to get up, but beware of paragoombas.
(same key)
Star chip 5:
On top of the observatory
Avoid the paragoombas and then the launch star appears where you landed.
The Gate:
Just wanted to show you what it has on it.
It's essentially this image except:
There is another ship connected by a bridge with a banzai bill going across the bridge.
On the other ship a goomba holds the key to the luma's cage.
Luma says: Those Jerks threw me in here and took the key!Let me out of here!
After Freeing him: Thanks! It was starting to get a little stuffy in there.
The Luma turns into a launch star and you blast off to the next segments.
Essentially this image:
Mario must navigate these planets to get to the launch star at the end while avoiding meteors.
Pee-Wee Piranha Battle:
Happens in this planet:
At the bottom stone structure lies Pee-Wee Piranha's Egg and at the top (where you meet Rosalina) is Lubba trapped in a force field. Defeat Pee-Wee Piranha to get your star and save Lubba.


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made back in november.
instead of setting five-point-seven million resolutions this year,
i have decided to just focus on the three things she profoundly listed in her sweet comment.
*be faithful
*lay up in store
*unencumber my life
at the beginning of each month, i plan to set a goal within each category.
throughout january, i shall be working on readin' my scrips daily, creating a much needed 30-day meal plan, & replacing some [not all] wasteful DVR time with more important/productive angie-b'ness.
2009 is my year to finally chill out,
prepare for the future,
and above all: really {enjoy} my days.

subset: commoncrawl


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AMSOIL Dealer alaska » Archive
Turbochargers Create Conditions Best Suited for Synthetic Motor Oil
The industry trend toward smaller engines that deliver increased power and fuel efficiency has been well documented. In short, they're brutal on oil. It's one of the reasons more automakers are installing synthetics at the factory. Fuel dilution can be a problem To summarize, GDI technology locates the fuel injectors directly in the cylinder (hence the name), as opposed to the manifold. This arrangement allows for greater control over injection, allowing engineers to fine-tune engines for greater efficiency … Read entire article »
Filed under: Amsoil motor oils, Amsoil News, Amsoil Product Recommendation, Amsoil Products, Amsoil testing


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Stick Figure blazes at Billboard's summit
It has been more than one year since an album debuted on the Billboard Reggae Albums Chart with 10,000 or more in sales. This week, northern California reggae/dub band Stick Figure enters at number one with sales of 10,283 copies of World on Fire, its seventh studio album.
This is the group's third chart-topper.
The last album to sell 10,000 copies or more in opening week was 44/876, the Grammy-winning effort by Sting and Shaggy. In April 2018, it debuted with 10,227 copies.
World on Fire was released August 30 by Ruffwood Records, an independent label owned by Stick Figure founder and lead vocalist, producer and guitarist Steve Woodruff. It contains 15 songs.
44/876 was released by Interscope Records, a major label.
Last week's number one, Royal Soldier, by Jah Cure slips to number two. To date, it has sold 618 copies.
Hybrid by Collie Buddz rises from number 18 to number three with an additional 210 copies sold, compared to 28 sold the previous week. To date, it has registered 3,502 copies.
Beleaf by Indubious is firm at number four with 131 copies, while Ways of The World by The Movement is number five with total sales of 3,122 copies.
Tropical House Cruises to Jamaica Reloaded by The DJ Grid leaps from number 16 to six after selling an additional 96 copies in its third week. Released August 5 by Contractor Music/Amada Records, the set features songs from Black Uhuru, Ffurious, Richie Stephens, and Sizzla.
Slipping to number seven is Undercover by Kash'd Out, while Rapture (EP) by Koffee is number eight for a third week.
Free Rein by Rebelution is down from number six to nine. Everyday Life, Everyday People by Slightly Stoopid moves from number 14 to 10 with sales of 17,104 copies.
Picture Perfect, the third studio album by Bugle, debuted three weeks ago with 46 copies. Last week, it fell to 35 after selling another 13 copies; this week, Picture Perfect improves to number 20 with an additional 25 copies sold, bringing its tally to 94.
Konshens earns his second Billboard entry, as Bad Man vs Nice Guy enters at number 16, selling 38 copies. It was released August 30 by Subkonshus Music and features collaborations with Khxos and Bakersteez.
Now you can read the Jamaica Observer ePaper anytime, anywhere. The Jamaica Observer ePaper is available to you at home or at work, and is the same edition as the printed copy available at http://bit.ly/epaperlive
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I had a yoga teacher once say, the most important part of your body to open up everyday is your mind, and the second most important to open up is your spine. We hopefully do that every time time when we practice yoga, and by implementing the use of essential oils into your practice, you achieve both especially via the Raindrop Technique!
This is a fantastic essential oils treatment that we recommend to all yogis who feel like they need to support their immune system and want to open up more in their spines. By using a sequence of special genuine essential oils and applying them to the spine and the spinal reflexes of the feet, we have to opportunity to have more flexibility and movement of the spine, while also boosting the immune system and reducing fatigue.
Though it's wonderful to receive the Raindrop Technique, one can give themselves a mini-raindrop treatment on their feet, or any area of the body that needs support.
By looking at the Foot Reflex Chart, you can see the spine reflex runs from the base of the inside of the bottom of the foot, all way up to the big toe. By applying the oils of oregano, thyme, basil, cypress, wintergreen, marjoram, peppermint and the blend Valor to that area, you can feel the benefits this protocol has to offer.
You must be logged in to post a comment.


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Download FoxTrick for Chrome
FoxTrick is the Google Chrome extension for the Hattrick online football manager game. It enchances the user experience on Hattrick by providing a lot of extra information, many shortcuts, tweaks for the presentational layout of the webpages, analyses of matches, links to utilities on external sites, and provide browser-side alerts and notifications. Hattrick is the fun online game that lets you have your own football team and manage it as a professional coach. You can also play against other famous football teams and have the opportunity to win. Take a rest and start playing this nice game while you are browsing. Download it free from this site.


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Across the Top of Canada
Many often dream of experiencing Canada's North, yet few have ventured far enough to discover the beauty and way of living that is strikingly different from the rest of the country. This is your opportunity to explore this part of Canada in its raw and wild form. Expect the unexpected, and prepare to be immersed in a landscape and culture which is largely unknown.
Edible Canada's founder and President, Eric Pateman, will once again be hosting a small number of guests in a private jet trip to experience and taste northern ingredients and flavours in a series of signature tasting events throughout the trip. These iconic signature dinners truly showcase the best of each region by working directly with local chefs, producers, and communities.


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This blog is no longer active and will be closed shortly.
Please visit my new address at idris.heroku.com
Change of AddressIn Uncategorized on April 13, 2012 at 5:42 am
This blog is no longer active and will be closed shortly.
5+1 Quick BlurbsIn Uncategorized on April 19, 2011 at 5:51 am
Big data: Global good or zero-sum arms race?
Will the ability to do massive amounts of data analysis on relatively cheap commodity hardware cause further income inequality, with the inflows moving towards those able to harness this power and away from those who can't, or will big data be a rising tide that lifts all boats?
Right now I think the former is true, but as big data starts to move away from social media and web ad optimizations and more towards agriculture, smart water, and smart energy, I hope the latter will prevail.
What Lucky People Do Different?
Be open to new experiences, embrace uncertainty, and if all else fails just show up. You make your own luck
Data hand tools: grep, awk, sed, rinse repeat
You've mastered SQL and use Excel with your eyes closed. But do you know the super-fast, ultra-powerful basics? Being on a Windows machine is no excuse, configure Cygwin and start to feel the power of tools built 30 years ago that you want in your toolbox: grep, awk, sed (and regex).
This is what cheap electronics look like.
My sister recently told me that my five year old nephew loves coming home and going straight to his math workbook to do his 'work.' So I thought I'd get him something to really stoke his love of math – a calculator. I know we're at a pivot point for super-cheap computation, but this image brought that point home like nothing else I've seen.
NPR Puzzle: Finding Synonyms with Python and WordNetIn github, hacking, NPR, python, word_puzzle on February 1, 2011 at 8:45 am
This week's puzzle asks:
From Alan Meyer of Newberg, Ore.: Think of a common word that's six letters long and includes a Q. Change the Q to an N, and rearrange the result to form a new word that's a synonym of the first one. What are the words?
This puzzle is a good opportunity to play with some very cool computational language tools available through the Natural Langauge Toolik (NLTK). NLTK is a group of libraries and functions that contain powerful tools for symbolic and statistical natural language processing (NLP). Check out the free NLTK book and go through the first chapter and the examples and tutorials will blow your mind. Be forewarned and/or foredelighted that the book contains heavy amounts of linguistic jargon, stats, and programming.
Before we get to using the NLTK, let's break down this puzzle into multiple steps.
1. Think of a common word that's six letters long and includes a Q.
2. Change the Q to an N, and rearrange the result to form a new word
3. that's a synonym of the first one
1. This is straight forward. We simply go through the English dictionary and grab any words with a 'q' that are 6 letters long.
2. This is also straight forward. We swap the 'q' with an 'n', then create all possible anagrams and check if any of those anagrams are in the English dictionary.
3. This step is the fun one. It requires the computer to understand the meaning of the words from step 1 and 2 and see if they are synonyms. How can a computer possibly do this? Here is when to use the NLTK. Included as part of the NLTK is WordNet, a lexical database, that among many other things, groups synonyms into groups called synsets. But it isn't just a dumb list of words with similar meanings, because the same word can be used to mean very different things, and two synonyms of a word might not be synonyms for each other.
This is best demonstrated through example and the use of one our language's most versatile words – shit.
idris@idris-laptop:~$ python Python 2.6.5 (r265:79063, Apr 16 2010, 13:09:56) [GCC 4.4.3] on linux2 Type "help", "copyright", "credits" or "license" for more information. >>> from nltk.corpus import wordnet as wn >>> syn_sets = wn.synsets('shit') >>> for syn_set in syn_sets: ... print '%s synonyms:\t%s' % (syn_set, syn_set.lemma_names) Synset('crap.n.01') synonyms:['crap', 'dirt', 'shit', 'shite', 'poop', 'turd'] Synset('bullshit.n.01') synonym:['bullshit', 'bull', 'Irish_bull', 'horseshit', 'shit', 'crap', 'dogshit'] Synset('jack.n.01') synonyms:['jack', 'doodly-squat', 'diddly-squat', 'diddlysquat', 'diddly-shit', 'diddlyshit', 'diddly', 'diddley', 'squat', 'shit'] Synset('shit.n.04') synonyms:['shit', 'dump'] Synset('asshole.n.01') synonyms:['asshole', 'bastard', 'cocksucker', 'dickhead', 'shit', 'mother_fucker', 'motherfucker', 'prick', 'whoreson', 'son_of_a_bitch', 'SOB'] Synset('damn.n.01') synonyms:['damn', 'darn', 'hoot', 'red_cent', 'shit', 'shucks', "tinker's_damn", "tinker's_dam"] Synset('denounce.v.04') synonyms:['denounce', 'tell_on', 'betray', 'give_away', 'rat', 'grass', 'shit', 'shop', 'snitch', 'stag'] Synset('stool.v.04') synonyms:['stool', 'defecate', 'shit', 'take_a_shit', 'take_a_crap', 'ca-ca', 'crap', 'make']
So what I've done here is started Python in the terminal, and then installed the wordnet module from nltk.corpus. To show off WordNet, I use it to show all synonym sets which has 'shit' as a member. The member words of a particular synonym set are all synonyms of each other. For example, the synset named 'stool.v.04' contains all the words that are synonyms of the word stool in one of its verb forms, including stool, defecate, shit, take a shit, take a crap, ca ca, crap and make. Similarly, we see that shit is a member of synset 'jack.n.01', as in you aint got shit. Notice how the words in these two synsets are not synonyms of each other, for example, defecate from 'stool.v.04' is not equivalent in meaning to diddlysquat in 'jack.n.01'. But those words are both synonyms for at least one meaning of shit.
Back to the puzzle at hand, we need to see if any of the words from step 1 and step 2 are synonyms. I wrote the simple Python function check_synonym to take two words and see if the two are in any synonym sets together.
def check_synonym(word, word2): """checks to see if word and word2 are synonyms""" l_syns = list() synsets = wn.synsets(word) for synset in synsets: if word2 in synset.lemma_names: l_syns.append( (word, word2) ) return l_syns
Going through all the word pairs generated in step 1 and 2, I find there is only one pair of words that satisfy all constraints – uneasy and queasy. Below are the synonym sets that contain queasy:
>>> syn_sets = wn.synsets('queasy') >>> for syn_set in syn_sets: ... print '%s synonyms:\t%s' % (syn_set, syn_set.lemma_names) Synset('nauseating.s.01') synonyms: ['nauseating', 'nauseous', 'noisome', 'queasy', 'loathsome', 'offensive', 'sickening', 'vile'] Synset('nauseated.s.01') synonyms: ['nauseated', 'nauseous', 'queasy', 'sick', 'sickish'] Synset('anxious.s.02') synonyms: ['anxious', 'nervous', 'queasy', 'uneasy', 'unquiet']
As we can see, queasy and uneasy are both members of the 'anxious.s.02' synonym set. This is just the tip of the iceberg of what NLTK and WordNet can do. Both are used for cutting edge research and applications that use computers to read and understand text data. IBM's Watson is one bleeding edge example of what is possible with computers and natural language processing. Cool, huh?
Full code available here at github here.


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Here are some more popular lies we tell ourselves:
- I can't do/say/try/wear that.
- I can't stop smoking/drinking/overeating no matter how hard I try.
- I can't get started on my business for some reason.
- I can't stick to an exercise regimen to save my life.
- I can't find a decent guy to date, the good ones are all married or gay.
But is it not as true or truer to say this instead?
- I am not willing to do/say/try/wear that.
- I don't want to stop smoking/drinking/overeating.
- I am not willing to get started on my business.
- I don't want to stick to an exercise regimen.
- I will not do what it takes to find a decent guy to date.
Barring an actual physical or mental limitation, there is no "can't."
There is: "I don't want to" or "I'm not willing to" or "I will not do what it takes to make it happen."
But there is no "can't."
And it is so freeing to be able to own that truth in your life.
What is the truth for you?


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I had severe post partum depression after my first two children. I was one of the lucky ones because I found help. For women who do not get support, post partum depression can effect the first TEN years of their children's lives and their own. You can help them obtain the understanding and grace they deserve by reading and educating yourself on the topic.
There are very real, very debilitating effects of Post Partum Depression. Below is a link and list of criteria. It is written in simple, graceful, laymen terms for mamma's tired brains who do not have time to make sense of medical jargon.
For those mammas who do not believe they have this or are beyond their child bearing years... I still believe this is an article worth reading so you can learn to recognize this in friends. Many women are silently struggling. If not helped this can affect the future of the family, community and beyond. To be kind to those around you, READ, READ, READ. Understand and in turn you can be part of the healing process:
A phrase my therapist gave me during post partum depression; "K, if you are going to worry about it - play the movie out until the end. If you are worried about the issues with the kids- play their story out. Do you see them at twenty healthy and happy? Did this issue really play that much into their storyline? Do the mistakes along the way create an even better storyboard? Play out your movie." This helped me rephrase issues in a way that was manageable to me.
I have a LONG story about PPD. I used to be a huge advocate of it, but am currently in such a different stage...I was also a huge advocate (and still believe in these issues...) of natural birth, doulaship and organics, but again, my life has naturally incorporated all of this and is now on different paths of advocacy. However, I am a passionate believer in ALL advocacy and these issues were a large part of my story. I may have had moments of sharing and changing the world regarding the topic of PPD, but reading a comment recently on another blog, I realized maybe I should re- post a few of my long ago thoughts on PPD, because that blog was closed a long time ago...
This is part one of two- I will write part two in the new year as it is a tough part of my life to re live.


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In this card, I used a strip of DSP from Typeset Specialty Designer Paper which is really lightweight and a good deal since you get 24 sheets of paper in the pack for $13! The card is Crumb Cake and I used the Gorgeous Grunge to spatter ink on the background. The butterflies from Butterfly Basics were stamped with Blackberry Bliss, Mellow Moss and Night of Navy. I punched a flower from the Itty BittyAccents Punch Pack and adhered a rhinestone in the center. A very easy card to make.
Here are a few cards from convention that used these dies also:
|This was one of the display boards - the sympathy card at the top right uses the framelit.
Sonny and I went out on the boat yesterday morning until shortly after lunch time. It was miserably HOT and humid. I think the humidity was the worse. This has been the worse summer we have had since we moved back here for the heat and humidity. Even getting in the lake was not enough to cool you off. When we got home, I headed straight for a cold shower!
We got an email from Ashley yesterday as she is on her way to the Phillipines. She said they have been doing a lot of busy work on the ship but the seas have not been too rough this time. She has been teaching some of the medical staff the Helping Babies Breathe program so they can hopefully teach it on future missions. They should be arriving in the Phillipines Sunday or Monday. Hopefully, she will have access to a phone there and will be able to call. I am really missing our daily chats and am ready for her to come home!!


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Inter-market Technical Analysis using algorithmic pattern detection
The big surprise thus far in European trading on Tuesday morning has been the release of better than expected Q3 GDP statistics from the UK. With expectations set modestly at 0.4% for the quarter (i.e. 1.6% annualized), it was a rather low bar to exceed, and the actual figure of 0.8% has sent sterling rocketing.
However not all is so rosy for the rainy isles as the yield on 10 yr gilts moved up about 20 basis points.
As I commented earlier the number is actually rather awkward for the bulls who have become accustomed to the idea that the B of E will always be there to buy UK Treasury issue and help to "support" financial assets. Unlike the sweet spot in the Goldilocks story, it is not the requirement that the number should neither be too hot nor too cold. For QE addicts - on both sides of the Atlantic at present - the numbers for GDP need to remain distinctly cold.
The hourly chart for the S&P 500 futures have shown some erosion since the UK statistic was released, and perhaps reminded traders that the extent of further asset purchases by the monetary authorities may not be sufficiently generous for the Herculean task of propping up both bonds and equities.
Reviewing the chart it can be seen that the 1165 area on the S&P 500 futures remains quite a critical area of support.
EUR/JPY met the target recommended in yesterday's commentary during Asian trading on Tuesday morning.
EUR/USD has broken twice below significant uptrend lines and may need to re-test the $1.38 level as it has been unable to retain a footing above $1.40.


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WIC To Open New Office
Posted: January 3, 2011
What: Oneida County Executive Anthony Picente, Jr., and Health Director Dr. Gayle Jones will be announcing the completion of the relocation of the Utica Woman, Infant, and Children (WIC) offices. A tour of the new location will follow.
When: Tuesday, January 4,2011 at 9:30 a.m.
Where: 617 South Street, Utica


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Wikipedia is a great way to learn something new every day 7 Ways To Learn Something New Every Day With Wikipedia Wikipedia is packed full of content. At the time of writing there are over 4 million articles contained within the English language version, with more being added all the time. All of these pages are... Read More , and its mobile website is exceptional. If you haven't tried it yet, go ahead and do so now: It almost feels like an app. But if almost doesn't cut it for you, you're going to be interested in WikiExplorer [No Longer Available]. This is a slick and modern Wikipedia client that feels thoroughly at home on recent-model Android devices. It's ad-supported, but you can pay to get rid of them.
Reading an Article
While you can't pinch-to-zoom, WikiExplorer offers a selection of font sizes, ranging from tiny to huge:
Above you can see the default (which looked quite sensible on my full-HD 5″ phone), as well as the tiny font setting, which was still readable but bordered on the masochistic (for people who really enjoy squinting). But showing plaintext is easy – the tricky parts are the "rich" areas of Wikipedia entries, such as the sidebars many entries have:
Above you can see WikiExplorer's floating lightbox display for two types of sidebar: One is for an incredibly popular tech blog, and the other is for a highly intelligent mammal. They're formatted according to different templates, but WikiExplorer makes them both look good.
Inline images are shown, but WikiExplorer knows they may be too tiny for you to enjoy. Tapping an image floats it on your screen, and you can pinch to zoom as close as you want. The original article remains open in the background, so there's no delay when you want to get back to the text.
Wikipedia As a Travel Guide: Nearby Articles
This is one of the coolest features WikiExplorer offers:
A map showing nearby entries. Yes, a similar feature is available on Wikipedia's mobile website as well, but there's are several key differences: The website shows results as a sorted list rather than a map, and it forces you to use your current location.
With WikiExplorer, not only do you get a map, but you can pan around and long-press any spot in the world to get a view of all of the related entries:
Tapping an entry pops up a related image, and allows you to either navigate to it or read about it. The fact you don't actually have to be nearby means you can suddenly use Wikipedia as a travel guide: Flying away later this week? Bring up a map of your destination and check out some of the attractions.
App Settings and Page Options
The App Settings show several other ways WikiExplorer differentiates itself from the website:
For one thing, you can use the volume buttons to scroll text, if you're into that sort of thing. That's not a feature the mobile website is likely to offer in the foreseeable future. Page options lets you switch to distraction-free full-screen mode, as well as browse the table of contents. I do wish there was a quick way to switch to a dark color scheme, though.
The Glitches
No app is perfect:
The left screenshot shows how deeply-indented lists are displayed. It's a mess. The right screenshot shows… well, nothing, really. It looks like it was supposed to be an interstitial banner (one of those annoying full-screen ads), but it never loaded on my device – something that happened more than once, despite having a stable Wi-Fi connection. Actual pages did not fail to load, though.
Not a Must-Have, But a Solid App
WikiExplorer is up against some tough competition. Not only is the Wikipedia website one of the best mobile websites around, but there are other Wikipedia clients for Android such as the previously-reviewed LoboWiki and the excellent Wapedia How I Use Wapedia For Reference And Wikipedia Search When I Am Stuck [Android 1.5+] Google is the ultimate search engine and it is supposed to answer everything like the Grand Oracle. But what if you just don't have the question with you? Or a smidgen of a clue about... Read More . But the intense competition seems to have bred a capable, stable, and modern app — one that is well worth a try, especially for free.
Explore more about: Education Technology, Wikipedia.


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15th Annual Remembering the Sights & Sounds of Euclid Beach ParkSunday, Sept. 29, 2019 - Weber's will be there!
Weber's will proudly be part of the 15th Annual Remembering the Sights and Sounds of Euclid Beach Park, always held on the last Sunday in September. The last Sunday in September is significant as it was on the last day of September of 1969 that Euclid Beach Park closed.
Weber's is proud to be part of this event, as it shares a very special history with the park. Weber's will be scooping several vintage and modern ice creams flavors from 1pm – 5pm!!
The event takes place at the Euclid Creek Reservation, Euclid Beach Park, 16301 Lake Shore Blvd., Cleveland, OH 44110


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Contains Bruce Banner #3 Genetics!
Original Bruce Banner has risen to fame as one of the most highly sought-after, and elusive, cut-only strains to ever come out of Colorado due to its immense power and yield. Now, you can get those genetics combined with King Louie XIII & Joseph OG for a new twist on this couchlocking favourite. Trust us - these regular seeds have only been improved with fresh genetics. King's Banner will knock you out in an instant, just like BB#3!
- King's Banner Flowering Time = 9 Weeks
- Heavy Couchlocker - Mostly Indica
- Literally Glows with Resin
- Very Potent - Not for Casual Tokers
Mostly Indica, King's Banner Regular Seeds finish after a 9-week flowering period with very high yields & an amazing THC level. Described as the perfect mix of kushiness and potency, Dark Horse Genetics grades this strain with an A+ for both couchlock and medicinal use. If you need either physical pain relief or help with insomnia, King's Banner is just the thing. Plus, you can't beat this amount of resin if you're into oils or extracts. Enjoy!
Grab Your King's Banner Seeds Today - Get'em While They're Hot!
NB: If the King's Banner Strain doesn't sound like your thing, why not try Original Bruce Banner or Strawberry Shortcake Seeds, all by Dark Horse Genetics? This is one of America's most respected breeders - don't miss out!
- Indoor?
- Outdoor?
- Cannabis Genetics?
- King Louie XIII X Joseph OG X Bruce Banner #3
- Flowering Time?
- 9 weeks
- Medical?
- V.Strong
- Yield?
- Good
- Medical Cannabis Info?
- Pain & Sleep
- Mainly Indica?
- Greenhouse?
If you've been dreaming about authentic Bruce Banner genetics, give King's Banner Cannabis Seeds a try! These unadulterated, non-feminized seeds are the real deal, created by crossing Bruce Banner #3 with King Louis XIII & Joseph OG. Dark Horse Genetics is the Original Bruce Banner breeder so you know you're getting the real thing! This is a 9-week Indica with skull-crushing stones that'll lock you to the couch for hours on end. Order your King's Banner Seeds today!
No longer want the cannabis seeds you ordered? No problem!
Simply return them in their sealed breeder pack in the same condition you received it within 7 days, and we will issue you a refund lickety-split. Just follow these easy instructions:
- Do not crack that pack! Gorilla Seeds cheerfully accepts returns as long as the seeds are still in their original, unopened breeder pack.
- Login to your Gorilla Seeds account & cancel your order within 7 days of receiving your order. Please let us know the reason for the return in the space provided.
- Pack them up. Place your unwanted cannabis seeds, your contact information & your RA number in a padded mailer.
- Seal the mailer. really well so the cannabis seeds can't escape en route. The Gorilla can't do anything with an empty envelope.
- Put your return address on the outside of the mailer just in case it decides to go rogue along the way. That increases the chances of getting your seeds back if they don't make it to Gorilla Seeds - we don't issue refunds for returns that don't make it to our address.
- Ship them back. Mail your package to Gorilla Seeds at the following address. Please use trackable mail and pay for enough postage - we're not responsible for any returns that get lost in transit, and we don't pay for insufficient postage when we pick up our mail. Sorry guys - that's just the way it works.
We will make every effort to process your return in a timely manner once it arrives at Gorilla Seeds, usually within 3 to 4 days. During busy times of the year, it might take slightly longer.
Gorilla Returns
PO Box 456
Weston Super Mare
NB: Don't forget that Gorilla Seeds sells all cannabis seeds as collectible items to comply with UK law. Read the disclaimer for more info on the law. That means we can not & will not discuss anything illegal including germination, cultivation, growing, sprouting, harvesting, curing and using cannabis. Any communication, including return requests, that mention anything of a criminal nature will be immediately deleted without any response whatsoever. Just saying.
Can't wait to get your hands on your new cannabis seeds?
The Gorilla feels you! That's why we specialize in fast international delivery to make sure you're never left twiddling your thumbs and staring at the door.
99% of all orders ship out using trackable Royal Post mail within 48 business hours after payment is received, but your actual delivery timeframe depends on your location. Here's what you can expect once your order is dispatched:
- UK Orders Arrive in 1 to 2 Business Days
- European Orders Arrive Within 14 Business Days
- The Rest of the World Take 25 Days or Less to Get There
Unfortunately, Gorilla Seeds has no pull when it comes to how long it takes for packages to pass through customs in each country. Those blokes play by their own rules. To find out where your weed seeds are at any point in time, enter your order number and email address on our order tracking page.


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Archive for tag: Social Lite application
Social Lite: Free desktop client for social networksSocial Networking, Twitter Tools and Apps
Social Lite is a desktop client to manage your accounts on Facebook, Twitter, Gmail, and Google comfortably and without having to resort to the browser. The application allows you to access your messages, pictures, walls, and others on Facebook, Google+ and Twitter as well as view your emails in the Gmail service. On the other […]Read More »


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- This event has passed.
Harmony In The Park
July 10, 2019 @ 6:30 pm - 8:30 pm
An event every week that begins at 6:30 pm on Wednesday, repeating until August 7, 2019
What could be better than fresh air, community gathering, and good music? Cultivated over the years, Lindstrom offers an eclectic mix of music every Wednesday evening. Bring your lawn chair, family, friends and come enjoy a musical evening in the park.
June 5th – White Sidewalls
June 12th – World According to Garth
June 19th – Buddy Holly & the Winter Dance Party
June 26th – Darlene & the Boys
July 3rd – Lindley Creek
July 10th – The Dweebs
July 17th – Monroe Crossing
July 24th – Ponzi Scheme Band
July 31st – Remembering the King
August 7th – Rockin' Hollywoods


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Did You Hear the One About the Man Who Killed the World's Tallest Tree?
This morning I walk with my dog along the river. It has just rained. Things are moving fast. Plastic bottles, sticks, something purple. A man who looks like my father lies among the reeds and trash. He glances at me from his oily sleeping bag, both of us wondering if we need to fear the other. I have my father's teeth. His penchant for whiskey. Instinct for story over truth. What if we are the roots of someone to come and he was the roots of me? What if I never want children? Will you be able to reconcile how I'd rupture the careful future you pictured? You keep strays until you become a stray yourself, I learned this by watching my father. I was sleeping in. I was outside the lines. You say, nightrot. I say, fistful of lust. I find an article: "50 Questions to Fall Back in Love with Your Person." Even though we recently met, I read some aloud to you. #20: What unanswerable question bothers you the most? Do humans matter? you say. What does it mean if evil does not exist? I say. The man who killed the tree did it on accident. Decades later, he ran from a journalist who asked him about it. Life is like a cartoon or, better yet, a children's book. My father read my sisters and me The Giving Tree over and over. Who is the boy in this metaphor? Who is the tree? Am I the stump? You say you like the sound of my voice. I want to say, yes, but you're missing what I'm actually saying. #39: What do you think the afterlife consists of? My father is dead. Your father is alive and quiet. When I bite off the skin around my fingernails, you say your mother does the same thing when she's nervous. Eventually, they found an older tree. You say, The afterlife might just be what we manifest.


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Native American Authors
Royal Roger Eubanks
, 1879-?
Eubanks was born in Tahlequah, the capital of the Cherokee Nation, in 1879. He was both a teacher and superintendent at the Cherokee Male Seminary. Besides teaching, he also was a commercial artist, illustrating short stories and producing political cartoons for the Cherokee Nation newspaper.
Return to Native American Authors Home


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Release date
: Angelfall
: Penryn and The End of Days #1
: Susan Ee
: Amazon Publishing
: 282
: August 28th 2012 (paperback edition)
: purchased on periplus.com
It's been six weeks since angels of the apocalypse descended to demolish the modern world. Street gangs rule the day while fear and superstition rule the night. When warrior angels fly away with a helpless little girl, her seventeen-year-old sister Penryn will do anything to get her back.
Anything, including making a deal with an enemy angel.
Raffe is a warrior who lies broken and wingless on the street. After eons of fighting his own battles, he finds himself being rescued from a desperate situation by a half-starved teenage girl.
Traveling through a dark and twisted Northern California, they have only each other to rely on for survival. Together, they journey toward the angels' stronghold in San Francisco where she'll risk everything to rescue her sister and he'll put himself at the mercy of his greatest enemies for the chance to be made whole again.
Asleep, he looks like a bleeding Prince Charming chained in the dungeon.
When I was little, I always thought I'd be Cinderella, but I guess this makes me the wicked witch.
But then again, Cinderella didn't live in a post-apocalyptic world invaded by avenging angels
- Penryn -
Don't let less-than-300-pages make you think this book is a short book. The fact that it has one space paragraph and a little smaller font that usual, actually this is a solid book. There are always something happen through the book, non-stop thrilling scenes and actions that made me couldn't stop reading it. Angelfall kept me sleeping at 2 am for 2 days.
The angels are violent, not like what's in the Bible (God, does this make me wrong to love this book?). There is conflict among the angels, there is destruction in the Earth. In 6 weeks, world is in massive chaos, people fight for food and shelter. It's pretty scary a post apocalypstic world Susan Ee creates. I like that the destruction was happened 6 weeks ago, it's still new that people still try to adapt, there is also Resistance force that was just enstablished, new system that people just created.
I like Penryn, her loyalty and braveness are stunning. She was trained to combat, which makes her more badass. She takes care of her family, she will do anything to save her sister. She has complicated relationship with her mother, who is pretty insane that parts of this book that made me cringe were mostly because of her. I love that there's this familial relationship in the book.
The romance is not overwhelmed. There is a small amount of romantic scenes, Penryn is also not all the thinking about Raffe, the wingless angel, because guys, family first! But they both are compatible and their dialogues are funny!
I love every piece of this book, even the ending is a good start for a first book of series :)


text: That's OK. We hear that a lot. The good news is, you've recognized you need some help and you've come to a thoughtful, creative group who can help you identify what that is. Tell us a bit of your story here, or let's get together and we'll explore it in person.


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The David A. Klein Orchidarium at Vizcaya
I've previously featured Vizcaya but have still barely scratched the surface. Like all the other surprises that await at every turn here, the David A. Klein Orchidarium greets visitors where they least expect it. It unassumingly awaits at the left of the main house.
Being from a four seasoned climate in the Mid-Atlantic, it seems amazing to me that one could just hang their orchids outdoors throughout the year. Being able to grow many exotic blooms is certainly one of the great things about Miami, Florida. The weather is a year round treat. This is one of the aspects of Florida that brought the builder of this magnificant estate to the area. And he made sure the architecture here would indeed, whimsically fit the weather! But that is whole story to itself and reason #896 to visit the Museum and Gardens here!
Derring used his sizable wealth from being a major maker of agricultural equipment to join the ranks of grand estate builders in America during the early industrialist age. Fortunately for us he used much of it in the Garden!
The David A. Klein Orchidarium boasts a wonderful variety of orchids as well as bromeliads. The space honors James Derring's desire to grow orchids on the property.
The orchids come is many shapes and sizes.
The allure of the space however is directed by the color of blooms! They simply pull you through the trellises. And they are at the perfect height for any of you flower photographer's out there!
The sent, as one walks through, is heavenly!
Placing the florals up in the trellises is a wonderfully surprising use of the European styled columns. It really has me thinking of what a hanging garden could become at ones home.
As with the rest of the property, one can always find great statuary. Here it punctuates the European feel of the central courtyard. I have a whole post on it!
But this garden is just a small part of an even bigger magical landscape.
Vizcaya is one of my top garden destination places in the country. When you come to see this luxurious land yourself, don't forget to wander over to the David A. Klein Orchidarium. It's a wonderfully peaceful and even understated garden spot in a crazily cool property. For more information go straight to the source! http://www.vizcayamuseum.org
'Til Tomorrow…
Britt : )


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A New Relationship
I started a new relationship today.
Don't worry, Koni and I are still happily married. My new relationship is a journalistic one.
I will be appearing on the Des Moines Register site, and perhaps occasionally in print, as a guest political blogger. The Register has expanded its political blog section, and my mission is to provide "strong opinions" "from the left." Several of Iowa's bloggers of the left, right and middle will also be there.
Long-time Deeth Blog readers will notice some subtle changes here. Some of my writing will be exclusive to the Register. My first is already there. In general, I plan to post more of my state and national level commentary there. The Deeth Blog will still host my local stuff along with all the music, Smallest Farm, and Linux Monday posts you've learned to love.
So thanks again for reading, now please read me both places. And as you see from my Official Register Portrait, I get to keep the beret.


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Several Maricopa County, Ariz., deputies are seeking protection from the courts after threatening to take children away from their parents because the homeschooling family was unwilling to allow social workers inside their home for an inspection based on an unsubstantiated anonymous rumor.
Ok, they didn't threaten the family ... they just provided the color of law.
Most thinking folks believe that zero tolerance in the schools is wrong. Why should we let police officers do the same thing?


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Tabar Women's Leadership Program
This program is devoted to the needs and concerns of refugee women. The program features job skills training, financial literacy workshops, English literacy classes, career support, support meetings devoted to the challenges facing mothers in the United States, and a mentor network linking Burlington community professionals with aspiring women. The program is overseen by the Women's Committee and provided for and by women in an effort to create a safe and comfortable environment for growth and development.


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Mon 20-02-2017 22:58 PM
ABU DHABI, 20th February, 2017 (WAM) -- ABU DHABI, 20th February, 2017 (WAM)--Mohammed bin Ahmed Al Bowardi, Minister of State for Defence, decorated on Monday Lt. General Michael Jarrett, Commander of U.S. Army Central Command with Emirates Military Order of First Class.
Earlier, Al Bowardi received in his office at IDEX Lt. General Garrett and the accompanying delegation. They are currently visiting the country to attend IDEX 2017.
The UAE official welcomed Lt. General Garrett and discussed with him friendship and cooperation between the UAE and U.S. and ways to strengthen them, especially the cooperation and coordination between the two countries in areas of military and defence to serve the common interests of the two friendly countries.
The two parties also exchanged views on the latest regional developments and a number of issues of common concern.


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VTech Hires Mandiant to Shore Up Security for Kids
Dec 4, 2015 1:50 PM PT
VTech on Thursday revealed it has hired FireEye's Mandiant to help improve security after reaction from parents around the world over news that its servers were hacked.
It also is cooperating with law enforcement agencies worldwide to investigate the incident and has temporarily shut down several websites, its Learning Lodge app store, and its Kids Connect service, which is similar to WhatsApp.
Mandiant will lead the forensic investigation into the breach, review all aspects of how VTech handles customer information, and define how VTech can better secure user data using its Incident Response Services.
Encryption Errors
VTech has taken heat for being lackadaisical about security.
"There have been multiple industry breaches that could have served as a warning to evaluate their defenses," asserted Kymberlee Price, senior director of researcher operations at Bugcrowd, pointing to Risk Based Security's quarterly Data Breach Intelligence report, which said there were more than 3,000 data breaches worldwide in the first three quarters of 2015.
VTech repeatedly has pointed out that it uses AES-128 encryption for some data, including photos.
AES-128 is "a reasonable security defense approved by the United States government in use up to the Secret level of classification, [but] VTech's problem is that it appears they did not properly implement encryption, using constant values in the MD5 hashes employed," Price told the E-Commerce Times.
MD5 has been "widely denounced as a known weak password hash algorithm since 2010," she pointed out, and SHA-2 is now recommended instead.
Why Did VTech Stumble?
To be fair, VTech is suffering from a systemic problem plaguing the consumer electronics industry.
This industry "has been slow to invest in security," Price said. "Presumably they underestimate security risks because they aren't dealing with financial transactions or business intelligence, [so] they believe they aren't an attractive target for hackers."
There is hope, however -- the Sony PlayStation Network hacks between 2011 and 2014 have spurred the gaming industry to improve security, and public reports of the security threat posed by the Internet of Things has led IoT vendors to look more closely at security, she noted. The VTech breach and news that Mattel's Barbie can be hacked may spur change in the kids' electronic products sector.
What Else Should VTech Do?
VTech "should have been encrypting all user data both in transit and at rest, not just some of the content," Price said. "The problem isn't the consumer using technology insecurely, but the vendor's inadequate protection of the data."
The hacker who breached VTech got the idea from a thread on hacking the VTech Innotab, and other websites carrying similar content probably exist, so VTech should conduct ongoing monitoring of potential threats to their customers, Price suggested.
VTech did not respond to our request to provide more details.
How to Keep Kids Safer
Parents "must now make conscious decisions about what data on their children to trust companies such as VTech with," Péter Gyöngyösi, product manager at Balabit, told the E-Commerce Times.
Read vendors' privacy policies, Price urged, and find out how data is transmitted and stored before making a purchase.
Parents should consider setting up an anonymous email account to use for account registration that doesn't identify either them or their kids, disable location services in the application, and refrain from linking third-party apps to social media or accounts affiliated with their personal information.
Buy American
Electronic toys from non-U.S. companies pose a greater threat to kids than those made in this country.
"There is zero legislation to address non-U.S. companies gathering information on kids," said Ted Collins, CTO of Playrific.
"The FTC has no jurisdiction over anything outside the 56 states and territories of the U.S.," he told the E-Commerce Times. "We don't even have an appropriate agency tasked with protecting kids."


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We're sick to the gills of paying taxes, it seems every month there is another tax being introduced. Many people are starting to wonder when the government will start taxing our right to breath air. There are many articles on water saving circulating the world wide web, but rumour has it, these water saving tips will be released from The Dáil later today...
Hand Washing Is A Luxury Irish People Can Do Without
If It's Yellow, Let It Mellow
Forget Water, Keep Hydrated With An Ice Cold Beer (As A Nation We Can Drink Sensibly)
Bring Your Laundry Home To Your Mammy
The Rain Is As Good A Shower As Any (If it was good enough for Gene Kelly...)
Time To Kill The Indoor Plants, You're Not Living In The Secret Garden
If you have any other water saving tips to add, please let us know in the comments below.


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admit, arrest, Episode 18, follow, hide, mayor, Peeping Mom, plank, Season 26, sick, sign, sneak, The Simpsons
The Simpsons Season 26 Episode 18 Peeping Mom
Marge found that Bart is captured by chief for drive the bulldozer and destroy few building. Chief decided to put Bart in Marge custody.
She try to find out why he is doing it, but he won't say. She thinks that he lies, she tells him that she will keep an eye on him.
Next day Marge goes with Bart to school to watch him, she following him everywhere. Bart try to escapes from her, he goes to hide with Miller. But Marge still coming at him, he is sicks about it.
At night he sneaks out from house, but she still keeps coming at him. But finally she also tried of it, she tells him to go back home himself.
Ned's new dog, Baz seems to like to be with Homer than him, he decided to give it to him. But Home found him sad, so he return him back.
Bart and Miller plan to plank on the mayor, Marge tells him when he try to hide his plan that she doesn't care anymore.
Bart is going to execute his plank, but he reminds of Marge. He adapts his prank, she doesn't mad at this time. He then confess about previous prank he did, they hug.


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By Richard Gwynallen
John Lewis
1594 – 1657
Relationship to Fawn: 10th great grandfather
Major John Lewis
1639 – 1726
Relationship to Fawn: 9th great grandfather
Isabella Miller
1640 – 1703
Relationship to Fawn: 9th great grandmother
Jane Lewis
1666 – 1720
Relationship to Fawn: 8th great grandmother
[Note: Amendments were made to this essay on 31 October 2016 and on 13 August 2017. All my work is a work in progress. When new information changes what I previously wrote I will add a new essay, or, as in this case, make a note of changes to the essay. In this particular case, I am indebted to Arthur Price, who has taken a very deep dive into the Lewis family and is a man of diverse talents, and to Chris Lewis, another accomplished Lewis family researcher who maintains a Facebook page called Legend of Lewis. It's one of the beauties of the internet that we are permitted to learn from each other when geography may have prevented us from ever even meeting. ~ RG]
John Lewis, or John ap Lewis, was our elder immigrant Lewis ancestor. Using certain assumptions from particular genealogists, I thought he appeared to have to have been the son of Lewis ap Richard (or Ricketts) and Catherine Morgan, born near Abergavenny in what was Monmouthshire in the southeast of Wales in 1594.
He appeared to have been baptized at St Telio's Church on 22 February 1591 or 1592 in Llandeilo Bertholau, or Llantilio Pertholey in the English.
However, Mr. Price noted to me that the Lantillio Pertholey parish register records John Lewis Ricketts as having been buried there in 3 January 1668.
See the third name from the bottom in this excerpt from the parish register.
This throws any issue of parentage and marriages in Wales in a very doubtful light. So, while we may not yet know his parentage, Mr. Price also believes that it is probably correct to attach the immigrant John Lewis to that (Llangattock/Breconshire) ancestral line, in the light of the evidence of the two coats of arms on the Virginia tomb-stones referenced later in this essay. So, perhaps the right Monmouthshire family but not the right connections within that family yet.
In a comment to me on 10 May 2017, Mr. Price offers a conjecture which he is still in the process of researching:
"I have found a John Lewis from a minor but well off family, who featured in local wills etc. He has a wife and two children (names unknown). The Lewis family of Llangattock, Breconshire, had land connections with the parish they came from in Monmouthshire. This John Lewis is in a Parliamentry government c.1650 list of those not to be pardoned for their Royalist activity during the civil war. Near where he lived and in the same parish is a large wood called Bertholey." Perhaps the wood called Bertholey became confused in other research with Llandeilo Bertholau (Lantillio Pertholey in English) parish.
Chris Lewis offers the following possible lineage on the website Legend of Lewis.
Read on with the above in mind. I kept most of what I wrote about John Lewis Ricketts because someone might find it useful, and the parts that lend a better understanding to Monmouthshire are still useful in understanding the land where our Lewis family is from. However, John Lewis Ricketts is from a separate family unrelated to John Lewis the emigrant with which we are concerned. Mr. Price makes clear that our John Lewis was not connected to the parish of Llandeilo Bertholau. Then the rest of this essay swings back around to the John Lewis who landed in the colonies and from whom one of or family lines descends.
John ye son of Lewis Ryketts
Though it is not the immigrant John Lewis we are in search of, it appears that the "John ye son of Lewis Ryketts baptised Feb 22 1591" married Johanne ferch Richard (a cousin most likely) on 3 February 1610. Johanne's great-grandfather, Lewis ap Ieuan (John) was the vicar of both Abergavenny and Llantilio Pertholey. There is a Lewis Chapel in the church of Abergavenny in his honor. The coat of arms of their family are on the east window of the church of Llanddewi Rhydderch.
Johanne's father Richard, was Curate and Vicar of St Teilo's Church, where John was baptized and their three children were also baptized. It is most likely that John and Johanne met and grew up together in St Teilio's church since it was the home church of both of their families.
Their three children baptized at Church of St Teilio were:
1) Gwenllian, 5 February 1611 (same name as John's maternal grandmother)
2) Lettus (Lettyce) 1 March 1615
3) Watkin, 1 January 1621 (same name as John's maternal grandfather)
Johanne is believed to have died sometime after Watkin was born and before 1633. However, there is no record in the church of her burial.
John appears to have married again, though there is no documentation of the marriage. I found it occasionally asserted that her name was Catherine Phillip. Others assert that it was the Lydia Lewis who later emigrated with him. They even offer a date for the marriage as 21 November 1630. In any case. John Lewis had two sons, John and Edward, presumably after Johanne's death. His son John, was baptized at the Church of St Teilo on 15 December 1633, but the church record does not name his mother. That was unusual, and another interesting aspect of that 1633 record is that it does not use the traditional Welsh patronymic naming system. The father, John, is listed in the church register as John Lewis and not John ap Lewis ap Richard, or even John Lewis Prichard, as was the case in 1621 and earlier. The baptism of his youngest son, Edward, is not in the church register, and records are incomplete starting in 1641.
From 1550 to 1650 there was a concerted effort by the London government to enforce English as the dominant language in Wales. Consequently, what we see as the manner of listing names might be the practice of the Anglicized legal system, but not necessarily reflective of the Lewis practice at home or in the community. We simply do not know.
The History of Monmouthshire (Vol. I, Part II, p. 153) presents the "Charter of King Charles I to the Town of Abergavenny," issued on 9 November 9, 1638. The document names John Lewis as Senior Burgess.
In other documents of those years, John is sometimes referred to as a Merchant, sometimes a Mercer; sometimes a Burgess. He was also referred to as a Gentleman (used to denote "arms bearing"). A Mercer was a cloth seller, so it probably indicates the mainstay of his business and what propelled him to be a Burgess. A "Gentleman" was a courtesy title referencing the lowest level of English gentry, just below an esquire and just above a yeoman. It usually implied a respected man, probably with property or a commercial business, possibly bearing a coat of arms. So, John Lewis was a successful cloth seller and respected businessman in Abergavenny.
John's business was a logical one for the area. Abergavenny was a center for the production of Welsh flannel. As a side note, the town was also known for the manufacture of goats' hair wigs.
The town of Abergavenny (commonly referred to as Y Fenni in Welsh), is a market town, with its origins in the 13th century when the town was granted the right to hold two weekly markets and three yearly fairs.
The name Abergavenny derives from the Brythonic Celtic word Gobannia meaning "river of the blacksmiths." It relates to the area's pre-Roman importance in iron smelting. The name is related to the modern Welsh word gof meaning blacksmith, and the Welsh smith of folklore, Gofannon. The river later became, in Welsh, Gafenni, and the town's name became Abergafenni or, Anglicized, Abergavenny, meaning "mouth of the Gavenny/Gafenni.
The charter granted in 1638 was annulled when the burgesses refused to take the oath of allegiance to William III in 1688, after which the town declined economically.
Our Lewis ancestors lived through the English Civil Wars and were royalists. The Civil War listed from 1642 – 1651, and was a struggle between the Royalists, supporters of Charles I and II, and Parliamentarians. The monarchy was replaced by the Commonwealth (1649 – 1653) followed by the Protectorate under Oliver Cromwell (1653 – 1659). The series of conflicts collected under the title The English Civil Wars have also been called the English Revolution and The Great Rebellion. The limited form of democracy being advanced against the monarchy was paralleled in struggles to change church structures, and, politically, established the precedent that the monarchy could not rule with consent of Parliament, thus giving some power to middle classes, such as merchants and tradesmen, below the landed aristocracy. During the social upheaval caused but the wars, other popular movements,, such as guilds, found room to gain ground.
If John Lewis was still a burgess during the war he would have been involved in the defense of the county. A Lewis commanded the defense of Chepstow Castle, which fell to Cromwell's forces on 25 May 1648, but Mr. Price and Mr. Lewis make clear that is not our John Lewis. Chris Lewis demonstrated that an 1881 book by John Rowland, The Kemeys of Cefn Mably, lists Nicholas Kemish (sic) and Thomas Lewis as taken into custody,but no John Lewis. After the fall of Chepstow, a John Lewis, Major William Lewis and Ensign Lewis were taken prisoner and later exiled to Barbados for two years. However, Chris Lewis notes that there is no documentation to prove that this is our John Lewis.
Land sale records in Wales dated 6 May 1652, show John Lewis was selling property. It was customary to list a wife in the sale. Since John is listed alone, it is possible his second wife had died by that time. Something led him to sell his land and journey to Virginia at what was for that time an advanced age. Perhaps it was simply his royalist background that was making life untenable for him in Wales.
John sailed to Virginia in 1653 with a Major William Lewis, sons John and Edward, and a Lida or Lydia Lewis. Some speculate Lydia was his wife, but it is also likely she was a daughter or related in some other way. Some speculate that she was the wife of Major William Lewis, but she does not appear on the land records for land he would later purchase in Virginia. The family most likely sailed from Bristol, England, but that cannot be confirmed because embarkation records only started being kept in Bristol in 1654.
We find evidence of his residence in Virginia when on 1 July 1653 he received a land grant of 250 acres on Poropotank Creek. The grand was based upon 50 acres for each head imported to Virginia under his name. These were listed on the patent as John Lewis, Lydia Lewis, William Lewis, Edward Lewis, and John Lewis, Jr.
His life in Virginia is a bit of a mystery. Indeed, debate over the paternity of his children continued well into the 20th century. Dr Malcolm Harris discovered the graves of John Lewis and his daughter-in-law, Isabella Miller, in 1948.
John died only three years after arriving in Virginia and was buried in a family burial ground on the Poropotank land.
John's tombstone reads "Here lieth interred the body of John Lewis (borne in Munmoth shire) died the 21st of August 1657 aged 63 years. The anagram of his name I shew no ill".
As an interesting side note, gravestones were apparently uncommon in tidewater Virginia in that era. Indeed, this tombstone is the oldest known tombstone in King and Queen County, Virginia. The Tidewater area of Virginia has sandy soil, and no local stone suitable for tombstones. They had to be ordered from England, a process which took about two years and was very expensive. I've seen it noted that the inclusion of the coat of arms indicates that the survivors of John Lewis wanted to make a permanent record of his Welsh family bloodline.
John's nephew, Major William Lewis, who emigrated with John, acquired significant lands of his own, more than 10,000 acres within five years of arrival. Land records show that he bought a 2,600 farm, Chimahocans, which he referred to as "Port Holy" from Colonel John West in 1658. Major William Lewis was from the Parish of Llantilio Pertholey in Wales, from which he took the name Port Holy for his residence in Virginia. It is assumed he arrived on the American Colonies with wealth, making it is possible that he is the one who ordered the tombstone.
The coat of arms on the stones was the key to unlocking Lewis family history. The following analysis of the coat of arms of John Lewis is a commonly accepted one found in various genealogies.
First (top left) Quarter – LEWIS ARMS (coat of Rhys Goch)
Second (top right) Quarter – HOWELL Family, Prince of Caerlleon
"Gules, three towers triple-towered Argent" The son of Rhys Goch, Gemilling (Genillin, Kynyllin, Cynhyllyn) married Jenet, daughter of Sir Howel of Caerlleon. A Grant of Arms was given to him in the eleventh century to use this arms.
Third Quartering – "Argent three Chevronels Gules". Coat of the de Turberville family of Crickhowell in Brecon.
Fourth Quartering
"Azure three plates". Fourth position is for the wife, so this was the shield of Johanna Lewis of the family Lewis of Llanddewi Rhydderch. They were acquired by intermarriage with an heiress of the de Trevely family of that parish. These Arms were borne by Sir Walter de Trevely, a Breton knight who came into Wales with the Normans.
The top quarter, the Lewis Quarter, was the "Rhys Goch" line of Brecon, Wales. Rhys Goch was born about 1070. The three other quarterings indicate three heiresses had married into the Rhys Goch Line – heiresses of such prominence that their Coat-of-Arms warranted being included on the shield of that family.
Lewis Motto – "Omne Solum Forti Patria Est" – "Every Land is Home to a Brave Man". This motto does not appear rooted in family records in Wales, and may have originated in Virginia.
We are descended from John Lewis, Jr. and isabella Miller, who married in 1665. John, Sr's land purchase was modest by the standards of the time, though his nephew purchased large tracts of land. John Sr. must have prospered on his land because he added 600 acres granted by patent on 23 November 23 1663. We know this because John Jr. patented 2600 acres in New Kent and Gloucester on both sides of the Poropotank Creek, "next below the plantation of said John Lewis", 600 acres of which was the land granted to his father in 1663. He then patented 100 acres in New Kent County, Virginia on the northeast side of Cainhow's Swamp on 22 April 1668. Further land came to John, Jr. from his cousin. Major William Lewis, John Sr.'s nephew who emigrated with him died by 1667 and left his estate of Chimahocans or "Port Holy to John, Jr.
The General Court Record of New Kent County showed John, Jr.'s residence in 1676 as being near Major Thomas Pate's property, where Bacon encamped. Bacon's Rebellion in 1676 swirled around the territory of the Lewis family, who supported the Governor's side against Bacon, and John, Jr. is said to have suffered severely from the depredations of Bacon's troops. He is referenced in two documents:
"Persons who Suffered by Bacon's Rebellion": 15 Oct. 1677 "Col. John West, a person greatly impaired in his stock and goods by the Rebells, and a most constant Loyall Gentleman during the late Rebellion, and was for some time after Bacon's death Inprisoned by the Rebell Partie. . . .Major John Lewis a sufferer in the same kind as the former."
Virginia Magazine of History and Biography (Vol. 5, p. 67): "At Middlesex Court in Feb 1677 one Matyhew Bentley was summoned to answer the charge that during the late rebellion, when in command of forty or fifty men-in-arms at Major Lewis' plantation in New Kent county, he killed three hogs and four sheep, used a great deal of corn, and took meal for the whole rebel army at Major Pate's." The Pate residence was just south of Chimahocans.
The failed rebellion led by Nathaniel Bacon is a confusing aspect of Virginia's colonial history. Historians have altered their views on the conflict over the years, moving from the perception that it represented an early flaring up of a spirit of independence, to viewing it as a power struggle between two leading figures in the colony fueled by the economic problems besetting the colony at the time. Bacon's forces scapegoated local Native American tribes for many of the colonies problems and attacked many of their villages, sometimes for as little as unfounded accusations of stealing corn. The action that ignited it all seems to have been a raid in July 1675 by the Doeg Indians on the plantation of Thomas Mathews over the nonpayment of some items Mathews had apparently obtained from the tribe. Some colonists retaliated, but attacked the wrong tribe, thus kicking off a series of large scale Indian raids.
The government, represented by Governor Berkeley, responded with outstanding incompetence, managing to make matters worse in the perspective of both Indians and Bacon's rebels. The best that could be said is that Berkeley attempted to keep a peace that would protect the Indian villages and frustrated Bacon's goal of assuming command of the militia, which would then be used to support his campaign against Native tribes.
In 1680, John Jr. was a Captain of horse in the militia of New Kent County, and one of its justices. At that time, New Kent County included King and Queen county as far down as Poropotank Creek. In 1675 he was a Major in the infantry or foot troops.
These large holdings were later divided among many family members into much smaller holdings.
We are descended from Jane Lewis, who may have been the step-daughter of John Lewis, Jr. and Isabella Miller, raised by them from an early age after the death of her mother, Sarah Lewis, a cousin of John Lewis, Jr. Others maintain that she was the actual daughter of John Lewis, Jr. and Isabella Miller, or at least of John Lewis, Jr. Suffice it to say, she lived with the large Chimahocans Lewis family and was raised as a daughter of that family.
Jane would marry Francis Willis. Their daughter, Diana Willis, married Samuel Hicks.


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Now, I'm not a huge fan of Beyonce; yes, she's a great entertainer, artist and any other musical connotation you want to throw in the mix, but I appreciate her gift from a distance. I think I only have one CD of hers from when she was part of Destiny's Child…say no more.
Yesterday I watched Beyonce's new video 'Pretty Hurts' for the first time. I must admit as I watched I felt very uncomfortable, sad and quite emotional. Why? Because the struggle is very real, what she portrayed in her video is a reality for so many women (I'm sure men too), including myself. This is what I took away from her video:
There is no room for imperfections. If you aren't pretty then basically you have no place in this world. The Student Becomes the Teach wrote about this saying: "Too often, our culture over emphasizes external beauty which is commonly subjective over internal richness of character." I totally agree! I personally know a number of aesthetically pretty girls/women but their character is on a whole other level (there is grace, we can't have it all or can we?) In her song Beyonce's sings: "perfection is a disease of a nation…it's the soul that needs a surgery." This is truth! A friend of mine said that she has a problem with accepting how she looks. Now this woman, in my opinion, is both aesthetically beautiful and has such a beautiful spirit. For her to say that she is struggling in this area, makes me realize that there is something much deeper in our society that is not being addressed. The souls of men and women really do need a surgery.
Being 'pretty' isn't enough. If your character is jacked up and you are not happy being pretty means absolutely nothing. Too many people, women and men, rely on their looks to get them ahead in life and granted for some that has worked. But, they have no aspirations except to be pretty and hopefully marry a rich man so they don't have any worries…shoot, make your own money! Let's get something straight, being 'pretty' or having lots of money does not equate to a happy life or that you are better than anyone else because you have either or both of these. If you believe that lie, you will be very disappointed…don't believe the hype. I have a problem when people think that these things are more important than being a good person; I'd rather have five "ugly" (no such thing in my opinion) friends who don't pick and choose if they like me from one day to the next (based on what I look like) and that love and accept me, over 100 "pretty" friends any day.
Over the past month or so I have deliberately done things to address my own issues of feeling inferior or simply, not enough. For example, I don't wear makeup everyday or I'll only wear mascara. I realized that I was wearing full on makeup to cover up acne scars that I felt made me look not so pretty. Now, I am not against anyone wearing makeup, if it makes you feel more comfortable and confident go ahead, there is nothing wrong with that at all. I love makeup. For me I was using it because I didn't want people to see the Au natural Leancia in all her glory because I didn't think the Au natural Leancia was pretty. So, I faced this issue head on and decided to start wearing little or no makeup at all. Was I worried about how people would react and treat me, sure I was but more importantly I needed to be convince myself of the truth, that who I am is more significant than how I look. I wanted to intentionally go against the status quo of what is deemed as popular in our culture in order to embrace my imperfections and not be afraid to let the world see the real me. The thing is if I don't accept my own flaws and imperfections a) I give power to someone else to use against me, b) I become critical and judgmental of other people's flaws. As a culture and as women we are so quick to point out or notice external imperfections in other people instead of looking at who people are and accepting them flaws and all. When we realize and I mean really live in the truth that none of us are perfect, we will be a lot more benevolent to others.
I was so happy to read that Lupita N'Yongo was nominated as the most beautiful woman in the world by People magazine. Seriously, seeing this woman own who she is and not change herself is truly inspiring to me as a dark skinned black woman. Previous winners included; Gweneth Paltrow, Julia Roberts, Angelina Jolie, Halle Berry and Nicole Kidman. You can read what she thought about this tribute and what her mother would say to her growing up, here. This leads into my final point. Parents, don't focus ONLY (note I didn't say, don't reaffirm or tell them they are not beautiful), on your child's external beauty so much so that they feel like that is all that's important or all they have to offer the world. The culture we live in already does that without your help and added pressure whether consciously or unconsciously. I know that when I have a child (particularly a girl) I will not only reaffirm their external beauty but I will also inform them that it's okay to be something other than a reality TV star, a WAG or a model. That working hard, valuing people and making a positive contribution to the world, not only makes the world a better place but will also have an even greater impact on their own soul.
So, I've decided that the real me is the pretty and beautiful me, that I refuse to hide whether people accept, approve or validate. It would be great if more of us did the same.
Leancia 🙂 x


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Today, I turned off the television, and the DS and the Xbox and the Kindles, the iPhone and the computer. (Not all day, let's not get crazy). But I noticed these had become the preferred choice of leisure, even on a day with trees blossoming and sixty-eight degrees. After turning off machines only to find them turned back on again by a different child, I declared the next day to be screen-free (during home hours not including homework). There were the predicable bargains, groans and complaints.
Then everyone went outside.
At first, there was a listless "I'm bored, there's nothing to do…" complaints, followed by the obligatory let's take everything out of the garage, skates, kites, bikes, balls, bats, skateboards, jump ropes, bubbles, waterguns, Frisbees, scooters, wagons, hula hoops and then declare, "We've done it all."
I brought out ice cream in cups. They sat together atop the plastic play house eating ice cream, doing nothing. By the time they'd finished their treat, someone proposed tag and all the toys lay abandoned, as sure enough, the 11, 9, 8, 6, 4 and 13 year old played for a good hour before Mom required they stow the gear and come in for homework.
Being unable to be distracted, my children rediscovered the joy of each other's company to the point of not being concerned with time, only the ongoing of the game and each other's presence.
So my small success this week,was to get the idea to turn off the machines. We'll see if I can remember to do it again next week. Have a great week full of small successes!
Copyright 2015 Sherry Antonetti


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MILLERSPORT – The Millersport Lions Club and the Buckeye Lake Youth Association are sponsoring a roaring good breakfast Saturday, March 15, 8 a.m. to noon, at the Millersport Lions Clubhouse. Proceeds from the waffle breakfast will go toward replacing kitchen equipment destroyed from the Buckeye Lake Youth Association's unique Waffle House stand at the Sweet Corn Festival fairgrounds in Millersport. Arsonists set fire to the Waffle House stand Dec. 26, destroying the stand and its equipment. The Millersport Lions Club will donate a new Waffle House structure, which will be built on the site of the old stand.
The Easter Bunny is the guest of honor at the March 15 breakfast, which is $5 for adults and children over 10 years old, $2 for children two to 10 years old, and children under two years old are free. A photo with the Easter Bunny is $2 per photo, with an additional $1 for each child in the photo.
For those who are unable to attend the breakfast but would still like to help, donations are accepted by mailing a check to Sweet Corn Festival, PO Box 337, Millersport, Ohio 43046. Please make the check payable to the Sweet Corn Festival and please write "Buckeye Lake Youth Waffle Booth" on the memo line. For more information, please contact Millersport Lion Rondia Sexton at (740) 405-9871, or BLYA Booth Chair Marge Schulze at (740) 928-2750.