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Today, instead of a Sampling, I will be posting my novella "Genuine" for your delicate perusal. On this piece, it is more important than ever that you talk to me and tell me what you think.
Because "Genuine" brought back Rejection Letter #2, and I may be a little sulky on that still.
Still, this story needs a chance to see the light of day. So here goes nothing.
This note was buried in some of the information I collected when I wrote this piece. I thought it interesting:
"Genuine" is a labor of love on my part. Even if they don't end up selecting it, I needed to write after some bad news I received… and I needed to keep my mind off things that were developing as I was writing. So this piece is my personal screw-you to the carpel tunnel syndrome in my wrists and to life itself, as it endeavors to steal my escapisms from me.
Prompt: It is never too late to find love.
Perspective: First Person
Genres: Slice of Life, Drama
Length: 5270 words
-Large age gap
-Inventive courting methods
-Nosey best friend
-Professor/Student relationship?
Let the games begin.
For the first hour or so of my office hours, my office had been flooded with eager students with simple questions that made me want to rethink my career. Then I hadn't seen a single student for the following hour. Honestly, I'd been about ready to gather my papers and head out, even with half an hour remaining of my scheduled office hours, but for that hesitant knock at my door.
The slow way the student opened my office door seemed to echo the timidity of the knocking.
"Professor Etheridge… I know I'm kind of late…" the boy began, absently running his fingers through his red-brown bangs.
"You're just fine on time: my office hours last until four."
His shy smile was fast and bright and endearing. "Thank you."
I couldn't keep myself from smiling back at him. "Tell me, what are you struggling with…?"
"Devlin," he volunteered. "Devlin Lovelace. I'm in your 8am Calculus course. Um, I'm having a little trouble with these derivative functions." A sheepish look graced his face as he continued, drawing my attention to the equations he was struggling with and carefully explaining the steps he took before he got stuck.
If only all of my students could be this thorough in their clarification!
Explaining the equations to him again, I found an exercise I hadn't assigned to the class and led him through it slowly, taking time to explain each step as he followed along. I could almost see the light of understanding flicker to life in his eyes as a smile began to stretch across his lips.
It had taken him a bit of time, but he could follow and complete the assignment on his own now. As I watched him leave my office at 4:15, I smiled to myself and thought, I wouldn't mind seeing that boy again.
Though he kept to himself, his attentive nature made me think he took meticulous notes. As I taught, I had frequently noticed that the girl to his right would allow her gaze to drift to his notes when she seemed to be getting lost, and it made me decide I was probably right. His homework was always handed in on time on neat sheets of notebook paper that carefully documented his work. More often than not, his answers were accurate and I rarely marked those sheets with more than "Excellent work" across the top margin.
I didn't see him at my office hours again until the next unit began. Again, he arrived during the last half hour. Again, I was smiling to myself as he left my office late and marveling over the bright young man. It seemed that he had found a foothold in my thoughts that he had no wish to relinquish.
"You look brighter –maybe even lighter. Have you found someone?" Antoine del Vera inquired one afternoon over lunch. Antoine taught the business math course, and we had become fast friends over conversations about the applications of calculus in the business world.
I snorted at his question. "I happen to be much too old for a boyfriend, Antoine. A partner would be nice, but I'm not holding out much hope on that front, either."
"Hey, it could happen, Talon. Who says that the 40s aren't the prime of life?" The dark haired man shrugged.
"Hm. Spoken like a 39 year old in the last stages of grief for his fleeing youth," I tossed back rather tartly.
Laughing, Antoine shook his head. "Seriously, Talon: what's lifted your spirits like this? You actually smile and you keep humming Sinatra and swing music when nothing else occupies your attention. To me, it seems that for the first time in a while, you're genuinely happy."
A simultaneous ache and warmth surrounded my heart in a tight grip. Antoine was a dear friend and he knew me so well that the signs of happiness I generally disregarded stood out against my life. Yet as he deduced my happiness, he also had to note it's chronic absence. Truly, he was the sort of friend that was once in a lifetime –but on deeper levels, it hurt to know that he recognized my hurt.
"It's… well, just a bright student in one of my lectures, I guess," I admitted finally. "He's a shy little thing, as far as I can tell, but he has this contagious smile…" My gaze met Antoine's slowly. "It's not much, but it's genuine."
His answering smile was tender. "Love –great, true, lasting love– has simple beginnings. You could take a chance…"
"I'm not made for love, Antoine. All I understand are numbers and equations and graphs."
"Your head is rational, yes, but you have the old soul of a romantic, Talon. You just need to be able to let go, sometimes." His dark eyes seemed to plead with me to let go of my control just this once.
But I couldn't let it go. I remembered too well the hurt and the pain that had followed letting go, that had inspired my need to control, and I had no wish to relive things well passed. My emotions had once mastered me, after all, and I had no wish to be as manipulated as I had been. "No, Antoine. Letting go… it hurts too much."
"Then you choose to be alone," he returned simply, though his heart and his hurt seemed to haunt his eyes.
Still, there had been a reason I had chosen the numbers and equations: they had logical, correct answers and they did not shift in nature at the slightest turn or bump. That much could not be said for people and love, in my experiences.
I'd just made up my mind to head home when who should walk in the door but Devlin Lovelace, surrounded by a handful of loud happy men his age. They cheered when the bartender carded Devlin and forced him to hand over his ID. Resigned to my need to watch this interesting scene play out, I signaled for another drink. The bartender slid his card back to him and I wondered if today could possibly be his birthday.
The small group of men settled at the bar –Devlin seated on a stool at the bar and surrounded by the others, some seated while others stood. The first beers were bought and passed around, and it was no hardship to guess they'd already had a few. Though the center of attention, he seemed more sober than the others. He took long slow sips from a long-necked bottle, his eyes darting about the room as though the amount of attention he was receiving was frankly embarrassing to him.
One of the boys –a blond one, fairly cute– noticed Devlin's wondering attention and set about setting it back to the task at hand, which was apparently getting so drunk they wouldn't be hung-over for their classes tomorrow because they'd still be drunk. He laughed and whispered things in Devlin's ear and something twisted in my stomach when he turned Devlin's head to plant a sloppy wet kiss on his lips. Devlin's blush could have lit the entire bar but he laughed good-naturedly, giving the less than steady blond a light shove.
Feeling more than a little like a voyeur and not liking the churning in my stomach, I lifted my glass to drain what remained only to find myself snagged in that pale green gaze. Slowly, I met his eyes and raised my glass toward him. Seconds ticked by, but they felt like years until he responded. Cheeks flushed prettily, he echoed the motion with his bottle. Slamming back the rest of my drink, it still burned in my throat as I settled my tab and took my leave from the bar.
Walking back to my apartment in the cool night air, I wondered why I had been so affected by what had occurred before my very eyes. Probably too much heavy conversation, contemplation, and alcohol, I decided, though there was no stagger to my step or ghosts lingering in my mind.
It started out pretty simply with the appearance of a golden apple on my desk before I arrived to my 8 am lecture. That golden apples were my favorite was a little known fact, but I brushed it off, anyway, figuring it was a student's attempt to curry favor. So I let that little mystery go and taught my class, though I did take the apple with me.
The following Tuesday, however, a hot cup of coffee appeared with a yellow sticky note that read "Strong and black, the way you like it". The handwriting was crisp and clear and even, and I had to admit my curiosity was stirred. My mood frequently improved when I was well-caffeinated, but there was no reason for any of my students to know how I liked my coffee. I gave the darkly fragrant brew a cautionary sip and thought I'd found nirvana for a moment. The blend was bold yet smooth and it matched my taste so well it was as though I'd selected it myself. I sipped from the cup as I taught that hour and I left my own note behind: "Thank you".
Two days later, two red pens awaited me –and they matched the one that had died tragically only a few nights before as I graded trigonometry homework.
"Someone in my morning calculus class is leaving me gifts," I told Antoine later that day over lunch.
He arched a brow at that. "What sort of gifts?"
I thought it over for a moment."Thoughtful ones, I guess? A perfectly ripe golden apple, a cup of coffee just the way I like it… and then today, pens to replace the one that gave it's life grading papers. It's sort of… sweet and disconcerting, all at once."
"Maybe you have an admirer," Antoine spoke the words slowly.
Try as I might, I could not contain my scoff. "I'm at least twice the age of my students, Antoine. This isn't a romance novel."
"Hey, there's something to be said for experience, Talon. Besides, think about how many of your students long after Johnny Depp. The age difference is pretty well the same."
"But it's not the same. I'm their teacher, the one who is tasked with dragging them through whatever required math course kicking and screaming. He's an actor, an untouchable ideal for them to aspire to."
He sighed. "Students have crushes on their teachers all of the time, with no regard to the subject they teach. Can't you just enjoy it?"
"Right now, it's a puzzle to solve, Antoine. Whoever is leaving these gifts knows more of me than they should."
"How so?"
"You know me well, but that's to be expected from my best friend. But these are things they shouldn't know. It wasn't just an apple, it was my favorite kind of apple. It wasn't just a cup of coffee: it was just the way I take it, and a good blend to boot. And those pens were my favorite brand and you know how I am about my pens." I sighed. "Why should any of these things matter to anyone but me? Why put so much effort into this?"
"Maybe it's a courting ritual, Talon. Hell, I don't know! But maybe you should stop over-thinking these things: they could be well-intentioned whims or bids for your attention or God knows what else. Just… let it go and let it happen, okay?"
"I'm not good at that," I confessed softly. "When I let go, things fall apart…"
His hand reached for mine and covered it. "Then sometimes, things need to fall apart."
I was most of the way through the stack of calculus homework that had been handed in this morning before I snagged on that familiar handwriting. It was clearly printed, only as large as the writer felt was needed –just like the note that had been left on the cup of coffee. My eyes shot over to the top margin of the page –the right side– to discover the owner of such distinctive handwriting and who my mysterious admirer or whatever was.
Devlin Lovelace.
I shook my head to clear it, all but certain I'd read it incorrectly, but when I looked back to the page, the name remained the same.
Devlin Lovelace.
That short auburn hair and those overgrown bangs that fell into those intelligent pale green eyes. The slender lithe form that sat up so straight in a class that most slept through. The ovular glasses that perched on his nose and made his eyes seem to dominate his face… Devlin Lovelace, my fascination since the first few weeks of the semester. The one who need only smile at me to leave me smiling and singing Sinatra under my breath for the rest of the day.
The boy who was probably less than half my age.
Scoffing at myself, I shook my head. Yes, the boy fascinated me endlessly. Yes, I found something refreshing and enticing about him. Yes, his mere smile could leave me smiling for the rest of the day. But not one of those things added up to any real sort of relationship –not friendship nor mentorship or even a love affair.
Yet it seemed that neither one of us had noticed that the other noticed us, which seemed all but laughable to me. One part of me was glad I was able to keep my notice under the radar. Another part of me lectured me on the fact that I should have noticed, what with all the surreptitious glances I'd sent his way. The last part wondered if any of it really mattered. After all, I was not only his professor: I was also old enough to be his father.
And despite Antoine's protests on the matter, I rather felt too old to date a college boy.
Yet I suppose I couldn't help but wonder how much he was spending on these simple little gestures of his?
Having been an undergraduate –and then a graduate– student myself, I had first-hand knowledge of the non-existent shoe string budget a lot of students lived one. I had, in fact, been one of them. Luckily, I'd been able to get a job and a very understanding boss when I worked my way through college, but it had still been very difficult and I ate a lot of ramen dinners.
While none of the gifts he left me cost too much on their own, all together they could total up quite nicely –especially since the gifts were a biweekly occurrence. It sort of warmed me as I thought of it, that I was important enough for him to budget out a portion of his limited funds to leave me these things.
They continued clear through the semester, up to the session before the final exam would be administrated. It would have seemed odd to not have received a gift that day but for the one that was left for me after the study session: a pale pink thorn-less rose with a note that read "Will you meet with me?"
So as the class filed out, I made sure my reply was waiting in him in the familiar place reserved for each gift I received.
"After finals. Study hard and do well" was all it said, but I knew he would understand. After all, he seemed to understand me better than most.
"This person," I hedge, having not yet revealed the one I knew to be responsible, "seems to know so very much about me, yet I know so little of them."
A grin flashed across his face. "Is that interest I hear?"
"…Sort of…?" 'Interest' was much too mild a word for what I felt for Devlin, yet too strong a word for an anonymous gift giver.
"Well, surely they would be willing to share about themselves if you asked. Still, favorite things tend to be rather abstract and they don't really tell you much about a person as a whole, Talon."
"Yet they still know so much. It makes me feel as though I have been watched –though I'm not sure if I should feel paranoid or flattered by the attention."
A pained expression slipped slowly across his face but he didn't speak for a few moments. "I told him," he finally admitted in a soft voice, as though waiting for my reprimand.
"It's Devlin, isn't it. The only thing I couldn't really figure out was why you seemed so surprised when I first told you about the gifts."
He seemed a bit taken aback by my words. "So you did figure out who it was. Well, he asked me about some of your favorite things and I thought 'What's the harm in it?' you know? I really didn't know what he planned to do with it, so I was as surprised as you were when the gifts began appearing." He was silent for a few moments, pensive, as though thinking through how to put his thoughts into words. "I didn't mean any harm with it, Talon. It just strikes me that sometimes, you are the largest impediment on your own happiness. It's like you don't believe you deserve to be happy for some reason, so you just won't let it happen. But Devlin… he's got one more semester left before he graduates with his accounting degree and he's not looking for temporary. I think you two could be quite happy together if you could stop going on about his age and think about how such a soul might bring you a little balance, levity, and light."
"I'll think about it, Antoine." But inside, I was already counting the moments until I'd actually meet Devlin Lovelace as something other than one of my students.
So the bulk of my class filed into the lecture, all prepared for a difficult final they were all probably afraid of failing. The apprehension that laced the air was so thick that it laid heavy on my tongue. Yet I still refused to take pity on them until I passed out all of the five-page exams and returned to the front of the room.
"What you have before you is a rather short final. Being that the skills we built up over the semester are necessary to the last unit, our final over covers that unit."
A wave of exhilarated sighs and cheers crossed the body of students at a surprising volume and velocity. I held up my hands and smiled as the noise quieted slowly. "Very well, then. You have the entire exam period to complete it, though I doubt any of you will need that much time. Once you are finished, bring it up to my desk. Then you're free to leave."
The noise seemed to settle itself out of existence. Then all that could be heard was the sounds of pens and pencils scratching at paper and the occasional soft swear word that followed said pen or pencil hitting the floor. Shaking my head and smiling, I settled behind the desk and tried to ease myself into the task of grading finals from my other classes as I presided over this exam.
Thirty minutes slowly dripped past and only ten of the finals were graded. Defeated, I finally just set down my pen and decided to wait it out, since concentration seemed beyond my grasp at the moment. I did my best to wait in silence, scribbling down little doodles and thoughts about Devlin as they occurred to me.
He seemed to fill my mind in a way I hadn't thought possible after Grif's rejections. Only he had ever filled my mind beyond the point of concentration, but Devlin seemed to fill my mind to the point of distraction. It should have been disconcerting or maybe a little worrying, especially after the way my relationship with Grif had worked out, but his dominion seemed to crowd out even those thoughts.
Forty-five minutes into the exam period, he rose from his seat and placed his final on my desk. Over his name rested a familiar yellow sticky note, which I retrieved as he hastened to gather his things.
"Meet me at the angel in the courtyard as soon as the last final is handed in, please."
The other students would never finish their finals fast enough to suit me.
It was a few blocks from the Richard Leverd Building, but I didn't mind the brisk air or the snowflakes that seemed to dance to some sweet slow music as they drifted down. The weather seemed to summon a calmness to my mind that had been quite absent for me today. My strides ate at the distance slowly and my thoughts drifted like the snow on the wind, peaceful yet varied as they drifted over my understanding and faded into nothing.
When it came down to it, Antoine was right. I often found myself undeserving of happiness because I had caused Grif so much unhappiness. I blamed myself for his suicide, because I knew he was scared to come out to his family, but after our last fight, I hadn't thought he wanted me by his side. Without my strength to urge him on, he didn't come out at all: instead, he killed himself to 'spare them the shame'.
But as much as I blamed myself for things that happened half a lifetime ago, perhaps it was time for me to stop punishing myself for my anger and hurt and youthful missteps. Perhaps it was time to let myself be happy and have a look at what my future might be.
The snowy courtyard was beautiful, even with snow heaped up on the bronzed wings of the angel statue Devlin had named as out meeting place. Devlin, now drapped in a charcoal wool coat and a sanguine scarf, seemed lost in the snowfall as it dusted upon his hair and his coat. He looked up as my footsteps cruched in the layer of snow already lingering on the ground.
"Good afternoon, professor," he greeted.
It took me a moment to find the nerve to reply. "Given some of the things that have passed between us, perhaps you should call me 'Talon'," I instructed softly, smiling gently at him.
"Talon," he repeated, as though tasting and weighing the way it felt upon his tongue.
I fought back a shiver as the way he seemed to savor the gift, the intimacy, of my first name. "Where shall we go?"
"I know a place," he returned, his smile warm as he reached for my hand.
"What can I get for you, Dev?" the waiter inquired.
"Oh, two cups of my usual, Benji. Talon takes his coffee the same way I do," he commented softly, his eyes meeting mine shyly.
Benji rolled his eyes at that. "I suppose the way you seek to torment yourself with your coffee is no concern of mine," he added, trying to hold back his smile.
"Nope. You just have to serve it," Devlin shot back, his smile sweet.
Benji didn't seem to have a comeback for that one: he simply departed to get what was ordered.
Devlin's attention shifted back to me fully. "I'm sorry about Benji. He's usually nicer when I bring people with me."
I smiled in spite of myself, thinking about what Antoine might say if I brought Devlin with me to one of our lunches. "He seems like a good friend."
"He is. At least he is most of the time, when he's not trying to fix me."
I laughed. "The same could be said for Antoine del Vera."
Devlin did have the good grace to blush at that. "I… I'm sorry about that, Talon."
"It's not something you need to apologize for. Honestly, I think I'm rather happy that he decided to tell you a few things about me. It gave me a chance to meet you, as something other than my student." I gave him a soft smile that couldn't possibly show how I felt. "Should we start over?"
A half-smile on his lips, he extended his hand. "I'm Devlin Lovelace. I'm an accounting major."
I took that hand in mine. "I'm Talon Etheridge. I'm a professor of mathematics." I gave his hand a smooth shake. "It's nice to meet you, Devlin."
I almost felt the chill that raced up his arm. "Though I must admit, I probably wouldn't have noticed you if you weren't in my class. You stood out."
His blush was delectable. "Y-you noticed me?"
"How could I not? You were so alert and genuine and eager to learn, while so many of my other students were literally sleeping in their texts." I lifted his hand to my lips and pressed a kiss to his hand just to watch his eyes flutter shut, only to open wide.
He blinked, withdrawing slowly from the touch of my lips.
"You fascinated me, Devlin. There's no other word for it. You fascinated me in a way I didn't think was still possible." I shook my head. "Hell, I thought 43 was too old to feel this way, but you showed me differently."
Just then, Benji dropped our coffee off at the table and pinched Devlin's blushing cheek. "Oh, keep on making him blush, sir. He knows I'll never let him live it down."
I couldn't help but laugh as Devlin's blush deepened. Benji departed after that, laughing as he retreated for the kitchen.
"I liked you, too, from the very first day of class. I had slipped in late and you looked up when the door opened. You didn't make a big deal of it: you just nodded to me and kept going, but you made sure I had a copy of the syllabus before I left. And I just… became more and more interested in you each day," he confessed softly.
I reached for his hand again, not even remotely shy about holding it across the table.
"I don't think I've ever felt this way about someone before, Talon."
Squeezing his hand was all the reply I could manage for a few moments. "I usually can't just let go and let things happen, but you made it possible. What I feel for you… it's not going to pass, Devlin."
"If what I felt for you was going to pass, don't you think it would have happened before the final exam?" he inquired tartly. "It's not a crush but not quite a relationship. Where does that leave us?"
"Just starting out, together. As we should be." The beginning. So strange to see something begin so late in my life, and yet, it was right. I didn't want to race into anything –not because I was scared it wouldn't last, but because I didn't want to miss a step along the way. For some reason, after all of my past lovers and experiences, this one felt too genuine to miss out on.
He squeezed my hand, as well. "You know, you're right. Just where we should be."
Please write me a comment and let me know. Up until now, my eyes have been much the only set to have gazed upon this piece, so I need a little feed-back. Doesn't take long; just drop me a line.
Ever yours,


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Posts Tagged 'trucks'
A big congrats to Cheri, the newest Featured Stamper (FS463)! She has such colorful, vibrant gallery & I chose THIS to case. I kept the snowy winter scene & most of the layout, but I used different images, different colors and used a window instead of the snowflake border. This also uses the Sketch Challenge (SC571).
I used a large image for my card, but I split it in two & put the top part inside the window & the truck below. Everything was colored with Copics & I had to do a little out of the box to keep from cutting off some of the branches & the front of the truck. The greeting circle was stamped, die cut & added on the upper right.
Here's the inside & the Copics I used.
Congrats again, Cheri! Thanks so much for stopping by!
|Stamps: Stampendous –Truck of Gifts, Merriest Wish (inside), Greeting (old clear set)
|Paper: X-Press It white, textured pine green
|Ink: Memento tuxedo black, Versafine onyx (to over stamp after coloring)
|Accessories: Spellbinders A2 matting basics A & B dies, Copic markers, Misti
Today we are taking another look at the North Coast Creations December Release! Such fun images for big & little boys!
On my first card, I used the Dump Truck Birthday set. After coloring and die cutting, I added some of the ODBD Patriotic paper and an ODBD Pennant across the top. The die cut banner was stamped w/ letters from the ODBD Pennant Alphabet. The finished card is 4.25 x 5.50 and these are the Copics I used.
|Stamps: North Coast Creations –Dump Truck Birthday, ODBD Pennant Alphabet
|Paper: white, dp (ODBD Patriotic collection)
|Ink: Memento tuxedo black
|Accessories: ODBD Pennant Row, Spellbinders A2 matting basics A & B, Copic markers
For my second card, I used the fun I Dig You set. I brown embossed the image on a tan piece of designer paper and fussy cut it. On the brown patterned paper, I used the small stars die (from the Sparkling Stars dies) a number of times across the lower right corner then placed another piece of patterned paper behind it.
|Stamps: North Coast Creations –I Dig You
|Paper: dp (Basic Grey – Life of the Party)
|Ink: Colorbox frost white pigment, dark brown chalk inks
|Accessories: ODBD Sparkling Stars dies, Spellbinders A2 matting basics A & B, white embossing powder, brown embossing powder
Please be sure to visit all of the DT for more inspiration using these fun sets!
Julie * Lisa * Dawn * Sandee * Lori *
Thanks so much for stopping by!
SaveSavePin It
Welcome to the North Coast Creations December Release! We have some really fun images for you this month! Perfect for that birthday boy (young or old) on your list.
On my first card, I used the fun Dump Truck Birthday set. After coloring and die cutting the truck, I added a green border with a marker. The Caution strip was stamped in green on the yellow dp across the bottom and an extra piece was cut out to "tape" across the truck panel. The other piece of dp was cut w/ a curved die and bordered w/ a narrow strip of dk green. The finished card is 5.50 x 4.25 and these are the Copics I used.
|Stamps: North Coast Creations –Dump Truck Birthday
|Paper: white, dk green, dp (Basic Grey – Wander)
|Ink: Memento tuxedo black, cottage ivy
|Accessories: Spellbinders A2 matting basics A & B, curved border dies, Copic markers
On my second card, I used the super cute I Dig You set. Again, I stamped, colored & die cut the image. I added a couple of mats behind it then a larger background of chocolate & white polka dot paper.
I used the large frame die from the ODBD Flourished Star Pattern dies to emboss the front of my white card before I added the other layers & image. The greeting tag was die cut with one of the ODBD Mini Tag dies and tied w/ some baker's twine. The finished card is 5.50 x 4.25 and these are the Copics I used.
|Stamps: North Coast Creations –I Dig You
|Paper: white, map dp (Paper Studio -Uncharted), chocolate/white polka dot (Pebbles -Welcome Christmas)
|Ink: Memento tuxedo black, rich cocoa
|Accessories: ODBD Flourished Star Pattern & Mini Tag dies, Spellbinders A2 matting basics A & B, Copic markers, Candi dot, baker's twine
Please be sure to visit & comment on all the DT blogs to make sure you're entered to win!
Lori * Julie * Lisa * Dawn * Amber * Sandee * Angie
Thanks so much for stopping by!

subset: commoncrawl


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Thursday, December 16, 2004
Drochel to Print
The drawings I posted the other day of the drochel lace, have now been made into a Riso screenhttp://nehoc.com.au and I have printed a trial run on some hand dyed fabric with gold textile ink.So now to the silk! Will go and do the market at Apollo Bay on Saturday and hope to sell some things. The fabric is all dyed and fish and seahorses made, and even some of my bags have come back from a little Gallery in Melbourne which has unfortunately shut down- so one less outlet!Hope to get my Australian lace piece made today as well, so that will be the two central pieces of my exhibition done- the other pieces will have to fit around these pieces and tell their own story.
Posted by Dijanne Cevaal at 10:42 AM
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Yesterday I talked about odds, what they mean and the role they play in online casino gambling and then I moved on to discuss how they come into place in one of our favorite casino games: video poker. I also stated that, for strategy means, any online casino player should stick to games that offer them higher chances of winning.
In video poker it is important to keep an eye on the odds but it is also important to focus on the game rules as there are several variations of video poker games that offer different rules for the bonuses and jackpots and tell you the hands you need in order to win.
If you are playing Jacks or Better video poker then the average return you can expect is 99.52 percent, however the best video poker odds are on full pay Deuces Wild video poker but this are a little bit harder to find because they offer a return of 100.71 percent with simple strategy and if you have perfect strategy your returns are increased to 100.77 percent.
With that being said, today we are going to look into specific odds in video poker and how to increase your chances of winning. In video poker you need to focus on the hands that you can actually get. For example, you would normally have a ratio of 42 percent on pairs. However, this is on any pair, not the specific pair that you need to win but this means that you still have the odds on your side when trying to get the cards you need.
Some strategy to keep in mind while playing video poker is that when you have a pair of two's for example, you should keep that pair and try to go for a three of a kind or other type of hand. Even though the chances of winning with a non-winning pair are very low, this is better than just throwing away the entire hand, in my opinion.
I will try to talk about more specific video poker strategy in the next couple of weeks so that you can get the highest returns on your gaming.


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Also TOKEN OF THE COVENANT, volume three of my new Biblical fiction series The Generations. It's planned for release in July, 2015 and tells the story of Noah's family on the ark and those early years after the waters subsided. It follows volume one A LITTLE LOWER THAN THE ANGELS, with Adam and Eve and their children to Seth, and volume two THEN THE DELUGE COMES (March 2015) featuring Jared, Enoch, Methuselah, Lamech, Noah and his three sons Japheth, Ham, and Shem.
Thank you, Caryl, for sharing this new book with us.
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by Stella-Maria Thomas and Lynne Waite - Motorsport.com 48th Macau Grand Prix November 15th/18th 2001 Leg One Weather: Hot, sunny. If we thought we had seen chaos on Thursday, it was amazing how much worse it was about to get. The sizeable ...
by Stella-Maria Thomas and Lynne Waite - Motorsport.com
48th Macau Grand Prix
November 15th/18th 2001
Leg One
Weather: Hot, sunny.
If we thought we had seen chaos on Thursday, it was amazing how much worse it was about to get. The sizeable grid lined up in fairly good order for the warm up lap, and things started to go wrong almost immediately when Kosuke Matsuura (Prema Powerteam) was unable to pull away. The Japanese limped into the pits and would start from there. It may have been the safest place to be, given what happened next. As the lights turned to green Takuma Sato (Carlin Motorsport) made a good start, though not as good as he sometimes does. This was despite the encouragement of around 100 members of his fan club, over from Japan on a trip organised by his father - their fanaticism was great fun to watch, especially as one of them had a replica of Takuma's helmet and insisted on wearing it while watching the race! Bjorn Wirdheim (Prema Powerteam), the pole man, was in hot pursuit and the two of them battled it out all the way through the first few corners, only for both to lose out to a superbly opportunistic move on the part of Jonathan Cochet (Signature Competition), as the Frenchman saw a gap and went for it, snatching the lead from under the noses of the battling duo. Wirdheim slotted in behind him and Sato fell back to 3rd. However, it would turn out to be completely academic because in the middle of the field all hell had broken loose with two separate accidents on the entrance and exit of Lisboa. Opinions would differ later as to who was to blame. There were two camps, one containing Derek Hayes (Manor Motorsport), and the other just about everyone who was behind him... Hayes insisted someone pushed him off, while the other school of thought held that Hayes had tried to go up the inside of the corner, taking the left-hand line, while everyone else, conscious of needing to survive for the second leg of this event, went up the right and that no one hit Hayes until after he had hit the barriers and most of the guys immediately behind had piled in to him. Bruce Jouanny (Promatecme UK) was certainly less than impressed at being involved in another impromptu flying lesson with Hayes after Thruxton. He was among the gaggle of cars that were all tangled up at Lisboa. Badly unsettled by all of this, various others crashed at Sao Francisco, Sakon Yamamoto being the first off, and causing Raffaele Giammaria (Team Kolles Racing) to go off in avoidance, the likeable Italian hitting the Armco a very hefty blow.
The result was an instant red flag and a restart, which saw some serious gaps on the grid as 11 of the original 29 drivers were stranded in the pits one way or another. Hayes, of course, would not take the restart, nor would Giammaria. Further casualties were Joao Paulo de Oliveira (Swiss Racing Team), who had quite a bit to say about Hayes, Pierre Kaffer (Team Kolles Racing), Toshihiro Kaneishi (Opel Team BSR), Peter Sundberg (Three Bond), the only Chinese driver in the race in the shape of Marchy Lee (Saulnier Racing) and Sakon Yamamoto (Tom's). In addition, Bruce Jouanny (Promatecme UK) and Tristan Gommendy (ASM-Elf) would not start along with the rest of the pack but would eventually rejoin to complete some of the race distance after repairs were hastily effected in the pits. Maybe the new start would be calmer - it was to be hoped that common sense would prevail, as there was still a long way to go. However, it was not to be. At the front things were pretty normal. This time Sato made no mistake, muscling past Wirdheim and into the lead by the time the front of the field reached the Lisboa corner. And Cochet could do nothing about it this time as he was embroiled in a three-way fight with Paulo Montin (Tom's) and Benoit Treluyer (Mugen X Dome Project). This left Wirdheim free to concentrate on staying with Sato if he could, while Cochet fell victim to both the drivers behind him and suddenly fell down the order to sixth place. Another driver in some trouble at this point was Andy Priaulx (Promatecme UK), who managed to pick up a puncture driving over some debris left behind by the catastrophe that was the first start. He dived into the pits to get fresh rubber and spent the rest of the morning trying to play catch up.
While Sato was busy opening up a gap of over a second, Tiago Monteiro (ASM-Elf) and Enrico Toccacelo (Opel Team BSR) managed to get entangled, Toccacelo going out there and then, while Monteiro was able to continue though he would limp back to the pits to get a new wing fitted. The race was beginning to look more than a little bizarre at this stage, with Hayes's team-mate Mark Taylor (who had somehow sailed through the middle of the entire contretemps at the start without anything at all touching him) was now up in 8th, having started 19th. Heikki Kovalainen (Fortec Motorsport) was another one who had made rapid progress, moving from 23rd on the grid to 10th by the end of lap 3.
At the front, the battle for 3rd was still raging with Treluyer and Montin still slogging it out for the place, and although Montin managed to get in front, he couldn't shake the Frenchman off, no matter what he tried. For that matter, Sato couldn't quite rid himself of Wirdheim, the Swede now setting the fastest race lap as he clung to the gearbox of the Carlin car, the gap reducing noticeably. And then it all started to go wrong again. Ryo Fukuda (Saulnier Racing) and Cochet got embroiled and crashed heavily. The Japanese was badly concussed (though he would fortunately turn out to be otherwise undamaged) and the Safety Car was scrambled while he could be rescued and taken away in an ambulance. So the whole field bunched up behind the Safety Car, and stayed behind it for three laps. Judging by what happened at the restart, it seemed that no one had warned the drivers that there would be a rolling start and no sooner was the Safety Car in the pit lane than it had to go straight back out after Mark Taylor thoroughly embarrassed himself. Pushing too hard as they crossed the line to start racing again, his tyres cold, he managed to lose control and ended up in the wall. Peter Hackett (Carlin Motorsport), coming through behind him, found an unattached wheel in his way but managed to stay on track despite clipping the errant object. It was all a bit silly really and Taylor had the grace to look very sheepish when questioned later about what had happened. He admitted to a nasty case of brain fade and went back to hiding in the back of the Manor garage before anyone else could ask about it. On lap 9, the Safety Car finally pulled off and we were back to racing, or at least to a struggle to survive to race again in the afternoon. After all, by the start of lap 10 we had seen a stunning total of 4 racing laps. And these guys are meant to be professionals...
With 5 laps left to run it was really just a sprint to the finish, and the order at the end of lap 10 was Sato, Wirdheim, Montin, Treluyer, Matsuura, Bobbi and a somewhat surprised Kovalainen in 7th. The only real excitement now was watching Treluyer setting about Montin, who was now the fastest driver on the track. Eventually they settled down too, discretion seemingly the better part of valour for the Frenchman. He would settle for 4th and live to fight another day. At the very front Sato was now holding Wirdheim off and making it look very easy, while Kovalainen was attempting to stay out of trouble and would come home 8th, after Yuji Ide (Signature Competition) squeezed him out for 7th. The Finn was having a baptism of fire all right - there can't be many drivers who have made their F3 debut at Macau, and that at the end of their first ever single seater racing season; it was a mature performance in which he managed to stay out of trouble while others completely lost their heads. There are those who say this youngster is a champion in the making - we definitely count ourselves amongst them.
<pre> Leg 1 - Classification: 1st - No. 6 - Takuma Sato, J, Carlin Motorsport, Dallara F301 Honda-Mugen, 44:48.559, 15 laps 2nd - No. 27 - Bjorn Wirdheim, S, Prema Powerteam, Dallara F301 Opel-Spiess, Gap: 1.490 3rd - No. 12 - Paulo Montin, I, Tom's, Dallara F301 Toyota Toms, Gap: 2.369 4th - No. 3 - Benoit Treluyer, F, Mugen X Dome Project, Dallara F301 Honda-Mugen, Gap: 10.576 5th - No. 28 - Kosuke Matsuura, J, Prema Powerteam, Dallara F301 Opel-Spiess, Gap: 11.191 6th - No. 36 - Matteo Bobbi, I, Target Racing, Dallara F301 Opel-Spiess, Gap: 27.953 7th - No. 26 - Yuji Ide, J, Signature Competition, Dallara F399 Renault-Sodemo, Gap: 28.257 8th - No. 23 - Heikki Kovalainen, SF, Fortec Motorsport, Dallara F301 Renault-Sodemo, Gap: 33.534 9th - No. 32 - Michael Ho, MAC, Cram Competition, Dallara F301 Opel-Spiess, Gap: 42.669 10th - No. 7 - Peter Hackett, AUS, Carlin Motorsport, Dallara F300 Honda-Mugen, Gap: 50.799 11th - No. 22 - Lei Kit Meng, MAC, Fortec Motorsport, Dallara F301 Renault-Sodemo, Gap: 54.272 12th - No. 29 - Jo Merszei, MAC, Cram Competition, Dallara F301 Opel-Spiess, Gap: 1:21.482 13th - No. 18 - Tiago Monteiro, P, ASM-Elf, Dallara F399 Renault-Sodemo, Gap: 2 laps 14th - No. 17 - Tristan Gommendy, F, ASM-Elf, Dallara F399 Renault-Sodemo, Gap: 2 laps
Not Classified: No. 20 - Haruki Kurosawa, J, Swiss Racing Team, Dallara F399 Opel-Spiess, Lap 13 No. 30 - Andy Priaulx, GB, Promatecme, Dallara F301 Honda-Mugen, Lap 12 No. 16 - Mark Taylor, GB, Manor Motorsport, Dallara F300 Honda-Mugen, Lap 8 No. 31 - Bruce Jouanny, F, Promatecme, Dallara F301 Honda-Mugen, Lap 7 No. 25 - Jonathan Cochet, F, Signature Competition, Dallara F399 Renault-Sodemo, Lap 4 No. 8 - Ryo Fukuda, J, Saulnier Racing, Dallara F399 Renault-Sodemo, Lap 4 No. 2 - Enrico Toccacelo, I, Opel Team BSR, Dallara F300 Opel-Spiess, Lap 2
Did Not Start: No. 19 - Joao Paulo de Oliveira, BR, Swiss Racing Team, Dallara F399 Opel-Spiess No. 10 - Pierre Kaffer, D, Team Kolles Racing, Dallara F300 Honda-Mugen No. 1 - Toshihiro Kaneishi, J, Opel Team BSR, Dallara F300 Opel-Spiess No. 15 - Derek Hayes, GB, Manor Motorsport, Dallara F300 Honda-Mugen No. 21 - Peter Sundberg, S, Three Bond, Dallara F301 Nissan-Tomei No. 33 - Raffaele Giammaria, I, Team Kolles Racing, Dallara F300 Honda-Mugen No. 9 - Marchy Lee, C, Saulnier Racing, Dallara F399 Renault-Sodemo No. 11 - Sakon Yamamoto, J, Tom's, Dallara F301 Toyota-Toms
Fastest Lap: No. 12 - Paulo Montin, I, Tom's, Dallara F301 Toyota Toms, Lap 14, 2:13.263, 102.73mph/165.32kph
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About this article
|Takuma Sato , Jonathan Cochet , Derek Hayes , Bruce Jouanny , Andy Priaulx , Mark Taylor , Ryo Fukuda , Matteo Bobbi , Tiago Monteiro , Benoit Tréluyer , Heikki Kovalainen , Toshihiro Kaneishi , Haruki Kurosawa , Kosuke Matsuura , Bjorn Wirdheim , Yuji Ide , Raffaele Giammaria , Tristan Gommendy , Peter Hackett , Lei Kit Meng , Michael Ho , Paulo Montin , Pierre Kaffer , Sakon Yamamoto , Peter Sundberg , Joao Paulo de Oliveira , Marchy Lee
|Manor Racing , Kolles Racing , Carlin


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We are used to Manchester City being linked to players left right and center yet missing out on them is not what we expect. Sky Sports report that summer target Matias Rodriguez has decided to move to Serie A and not the Etihad Stadium.
Of course Roberto Mancini is always on the look out for players and lets face it, money is no object for the side and City will surely be disappointed that the Argentinean midfielder has snubbed them in favour of a move to Sampdoria.
The player was impressive last season for Universidad de Chile and after the performances he put in during his time in South America, Europe started to take notice. Rodriguez claimed: "On Thursday I was told about the interest of Sampdoria and it's an opportunity that comes only once in your life. I immediately had a meeting with the officials and the coach Dario Franci and they said to me that I had to take advantage of this chance."
He is now in Italy for a medical and to finalise the deal that will see him become a player in one of Europe's elite leagues for the first time and is fully aware that Sampdoria could be used as a stepping stone to an even bigger club. The Italian side can of course virtually guarantee him first team football whereas given the talent and strength in depth at the Etihad, it may have proven one step too far for the player at this time in his career.
City fans. Are you disappointed to have missed out on Rodriguez? Let us know your thoughts below.
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DIY Printable Tangled Inspired Food Labels
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from The Century Dictionary.
- noun In ornithology, the aftershaft or hyporachis of a feather; the whole of the supplementary plume which springs from the stem of the main feather at the junction of calamus and rachis.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- noun (Zoöl.) An accessory plume arising from the posterior side of the stem of the contour feathers of many birds; -- called also
aftershaft. See Illust.of feather.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- noun ornithology An
Sorry, no etymologies found.
Sorry, no example sentences found.


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Last month, a Facebook status from a friend, asking for ideas as to how to shop more ethically this Christmas, confirmed the desire I'd had for several weeks to blog on this issue. It's clearly something people want to talk about!
Of course, 'ethical' is a sliding scale. We can be 'more' or 'less' ethical in our lifestyles – but, as a result of sin, we will never be able to live our lives with a zero carbon (or any other) footprint. And it seems that just as we're trying to be 'more' ethical, we hear of yet another company whose ethics are questionable. Earlier this year, even Fair Trade food companies came under fire. I find it helpful to consider how I would justify my decisions before God – He knows of my situation, my limited finances, my knowledge of injustice, as well as my lack of knowledge. So, please, rather than feeling guilty at the word 'ethical', instead be encouraged by Paul's words in Ephesians 2:8-10:
For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— not by works, so that no one can boast. For we are God's handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.
Now, our family lives on a fairly limited budget for most of the year – but Christmas, giving gifts to others, is an excuse to spend some money, to invest in the economy! But there's a choice here: do I invest in the large companies, the high street shops and supermarkets? Do I contribute to lining the pockets of Amazon directors? Or do I want my money to be invested in businesses where people come first? My pound can do an awful lot of damage – or an awful lot of good. Let's be encouraged that God has prepared 'good works' in advance for us to do, rather than focus on things we aren't able to be so ethical about. We can actually do some good!
There is no right or wrong approach, I merely offer some ideas from my own experience. I would love to hear yours (please do comment!). And apologies for non-York residents, when I mention local shops; I've tried to offer general, nationwide ideas too.
* Firstly, I start with the Fair Trade companies. They have limited gift ranges, so I prioritise their catalogues to maximise the money spent with them. I use the fantastic Fairer World shop here in York, but elsewhere Fair Trade shops can often be found in cathedrals and large churches, or there are one-off fair trade markets and stalls. Shared Earth shops can be found in Liverpool and York (and you can buy online). If you can't get to a shop, why not look up the Created and Traidcraft catalogues online. Both companies also sell beautiful Christmas decorations which I love.
* Next, I look for other local social enterprises to support. In York, these include the fantastic Bike Rescue Project (which employs and trains ex-offenders and others struggling to get employment and experience), York Disabled Workers Cooperative (beautiful woodwork) and, my personal favourite, Mermaid and Miller – frustratingly not open at the moment, due to change in premises, but still hoping to open later this month 🙂 Mermaid and Miller employ adults with learning disabilities, and train them in a variety of crafts. What they sell is beautiful – and much of it is old second-hand pieces lovingly upcycled into something quirky and different. Very reasonable prices too. Go check them out!
* Then I widen the net to other local, independent businesses. And boy are we blessed with those in York! (Non-Yorkies, feel free to ignore the following paragraph – you'll have your own local places to support!) I love Shine, Snow Home, Love Cheese, Look What Mum's Made, Blossom & Walker, Collection Box and York Cocoa House to name but a few. OK, so I don't know the working conditions of those making the products, or whether the raw materials came from sweatshops overseas (although chances are that most of these products are made in the UK, many even made locally). I do know, however, that the presence of these shops in our towns and cities makes life better. I want to support them. I want the people who make these lovely, unique items to be able to make a living from being creative. And they're just much nicer gifts! With lots of family and friends living far away, a gift which has 'York' on the label, or which simply wouldn't be found anywhere else in the country, is pretty special in my opinion.
* Finally, when I need to use large retail outlets or websites, I choose carefully. In my family, there are lots of Christmas Lists. Some of the items – specific books, games, DVDs or toys – are impossible to buy from independent businesses. So – what to do? I try to avoid Amazon at all cost. Not always possible, but I try. I like using play.com. Who knows if they're any better? Again, we do what we can given our circumstances, and trust God's grace for the rest. For a book I bought recently for a birthday present, I used Waterstone's online. If I can't make it into town, at least I can invest some money in a high street retailer by using their website – which I think is preferable to an exclusively online shop. And of course there are companies like John Lewis, known for their ethical values.
Quite often, the ethical choice is pricier than its alternative, something which often drives us to the supermarkets, with its heavily-laden aisles of cheap gifts. But, as someone who's on a budget (yes, even for Christmas), I want to reassure you that the ethical alternative can and does work. I spend the same as I would have done – but buy less. (Who needs more rubbish at Christmas?) It's better quality, though, and will probably last longer. There's more value, I think, in the uniqueness of the present – a gift, after all, should say something about the giver, and the relationship between giver and recipient. This Christmas, let's make our pounds do some good.


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May issue of S.I. is here, packed with wholesome content for your whole family! 3 steps to perfect beauty, the lazy way to stay in love, crossword, cat eyes, coffee house, news for your soul, revisiting the classics, multicolor inspirational photo plates & more!


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One of the surest signs of hope for the world is that academics are beginning to notice monsters. A trickle began some time ago and it's probably best to call it a trickle still, nevertheless, the quality of the trickle is improving. Some serious publishers are now counted among the mix of those who pay attention to the lovable unlovable. Greg Garrett's Living with the Living Dead: The Wisdom of the Zombie Apocalypse is one of the more recent approaches to the undead that looks for religious themes among them. They've been there from the beginning with zombies, of course, but few with tenured positions bothered to look. It's an open question how long the current fascination with the undead might last, but Garrett's treatment finds them useful sources of theological thought.
Perhaps the aspect of my own fascination that I feel most often compelled to explain is why fear has such an appeal. Garrett makes the point that fear often causes people to make bad choices, and I would have to agree. It is, however, the fear of fear that takes a greater toll. You see, fear is a survival instinct. Without fight or flight we're all zombie food. Some of us learn this harsh lesson early in life, and if we manage to survive long enough we might even become nostalgic for it. It's not that I like be afraid, but I do know that if we fear fear—if we avoid looking at what scares us—we put ourselves in danger that the flight response might well prevent.
Garrett's treatment is helpful in demonstrating that there is a reason for such stories. In fact, according to his analysis zombies can leave you with a profound sense of hope. He uses the living dead as a means of thinking about community, ethics, and apocalypse. Not all end of the world scenarios are that bad. How we treat the living dead may tell us quite a bit about our own rectitude or lack thereof. In other words, zombies are more than their puerile thrills might suggest. There's something of substance here. I don't agree with all of Garrett's conclusions, but he offers a stimulating tour of the current media frenzy around the living challenged and is surely correct that there is more going on with monsters than many of our parents would like to have a religion expert admit. Those childhood years might not have been wasted on monsters after all.


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As an institution located in San Francisco's urban arts and tech district, we take safety and security seriously. Our closed campus configuration allows access only to students, faculty, staff, and guests throughout normal operating hours. In your first days at SFCM, you'll be given an access badge that must be shown to Conservatory security each time you enter the building. Your badge also gives you access to practice rooms and other areas at SFCM. All guests must sign in and note the nature of their visit. It's important we know who is coming and going so that we can provide the safest environment for learning. The campus is closed overnight.
SFCM's housing facility, the Panoramic, follows a similar procedure. A keypad outside the building allows access only to residents, and guests must sign in at the front desk. Be sure to let the building's security know you're expecting friends when you host a get-together. The Panoramic is less than a 10-minute walk from campus, so getting to and from the Conservatory is a breeze.
The Annual Campus Safety and Security Report contains information about specific crime activity that may occur on campus and on public property immediately adjacent to campus. The report uses data gathered annually by our Campus Security and the San Francisco Police Department and is updated on or before October 1 of each year.
Annual Campus Safety and Security Report and Annual Fire Safety Report for 2018
Emergency Planning
The Injury and Illness Prevention Plan, a work-in-progress that is reviewed by our Safety Committee, contains information regarding safety programs at the Conservatory. This document is intended to provide guidance for identifying, reporting, and responding to hazards, potential emergencies, and other situations that can interfere with our work environment.
Injury and Illness Prevention Plan (IIPP)
The Emergency Action Plan provides instructions for responding to emergency situations that may occur, such as a fire, earthquake, or threat of violence. Every student, faculty, and staff member should familiarize themselves with protocols such as our earthquake and evacuation response procedures.
SFCM Alerts
SFCM Alerts is a mass notification system that allows for dissemination of critical information via voice, text, and email to students, faculty, and staff at the Conservatory. SFCM has partnered with Everbridge to provide this service.
All Collegiate students, faculty, and staff are automatically enrolled with their e-mail addresses assigned by the Conservatory. All participants will receive a registration email to the aforementioned email address, and use that registration email to input additional contact information into the Everbridge system.
All Pre-College and Adult Extension students have the option to opt-in to receive alerts.
Please contact the Office of Student Affairs if you have any questions.
AlertSF is a text-based notification system for San Francisco's residents and visitors. AlertSF will send alerts regarding emergencies disrupting vehicular/pedestrian traffic, watches and warnings for tsunamis, flooding, and citywide post-disaster information to your registered wireless devices and email accounts. Registrants can also sign up to receive English-language automated information feeds and/or alerts targeted to specific areas of the city.
Registration for AlertSF is free. Text message charges may apply depending on your wireless carrier and plan.


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Jewish Calendars Have Arrived 5781 (2020-2021) >>
Frog Napkin Rings- Set of Four, by Quest. Add a touch of class and whimsy with these gold and silver pewter napking rings that have Swarovski Crystals. The ring has a hammered ring and the frog is just adorable! Measures 1.5"H.
Shipping: This item qualifies for one time Flat Rate of $9.99 (within USA)
Shahrokh and Julie Ghodsi started this unique store in Orange County in 1991, with the desire to bring beautiful Judaica a modern, contemporary feel. With over 20 years experience, offering quality products and great customer service is the driving force behind Golden Dreidle's success.
The Golden Dreidle
725 El Camino Real
Tustin CA 92780
Monday-Thursday 10-6
Friday 10-3
Sunday 11-4
Copyright © 2020 The Golden Dreidle. Website by JT Website Design
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Tenba DNA 11 Messenger Bag
$209.99 $179.99
You save: $30.00
DescriptionReviewsAdditional Info
Tenba DNA 11 Graphite Messenger Bag
The Messenger DNA is the first major addition to the iconic Tenba Messenger collection in over seven years.
It was designed to provide the kind of year-round, all-weather, rugged performance demanded by New York City bike messengers, but with an interior that's tuned to protect delicate cameras, lenses and computer gear.
Key Features:
- Fidlock® patented magnetic clips allow blind, drop-on attachment and a fast slide release. This is the quickest clip in the world. It can be both secured and opened with one hand, even when wearing gloves, or when the bag is behind you.
- Adjustable security strap connects to D-rings on the back of bag, anchoring it in position behind you and preventing the bag from sliding forward while riding a bicycle or scooter.
- Quick Access™ zipper lets you securely swap out cameras and lenses without opening the front flap and exposing an entire camera system to prying eyes in unfamiliar or dangerous locations.
- Tapered front flap with a sewn hinge ensures easy closure and excellent weatherproof coverage at the corners.
- Included WeatherWrap rain cover is removable and reversible, with silver on one side to reflect the heat, and black on the other side for a bit more stealth and subtlety at night.


text: The battleship USS Pennsylvania was at Pearl Harbor on Dec. 7, 1941, and was one of the first ships to return fire during the attack. She was repaired and made war-ready following the attack and took part in every amphibious operation in the Pacific during World War II. The bell from the Pennsylvania is presently on display outside Wagner Building on Penn State's University Park campus.


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a few days ago, just as the sky began to get light, we were awakened by a crash. my first thought was that a kereru/native woodpigeon had flown into one of the windows of the next room. if it were a bird, it would almost certainly be injured, given the force with which it had hit the glass (we felt the impact as well as heard it). so i padded downstairs to see whether anyone was lying stunned (or worse) on the ground. in the grey early light, it was difficult to see, but eventually i did make out an unusual shape sprawled among the pale green leaves of the juicy succulent that is slowly claiming the ground outside our guest-room window. when i folded the wings back in and turned the bird over, this is what i found.
this is a ruru or morepork (Ninox novaeseelandiae), new zealand's only remaining owl (the laughing owl, along with about half of our other native bird species, became extinct between human colonization of the islands and the end of the 20th century). i had seen them before (and we hear them reasonably often–they make over 20 different vocalisations) but never in the wild, and never this close. his mottled rust-brown and cream feathers were smooth and silky on the wings, incredibly soft on the belly, and almost spiderweb-fine down the legs, to the surprisingly yellow feet. when i picked him up, his head lolled and his eyes were closed, but one foot grasped a fallen cabbage tree leaf, he was breathing, and to my great relief, the remaining tension in his neck showed that it wasn't broken.
i gathered him in to hold in one hand, pinning the wings to the body. i've studied wild birds in the past but the usual hold, with the head supported between first and second fingers, would clearly not work for a bird longer than my forearm. even a small owl has wicked talons and an effective beak, so i hoped i wouldn't have to explain a slashed wrist to our local emergency facilities (although, good story!). he seemed far from a vicious panic attack, though, so i took my chances. i carried him up to our small deck and sat to examine him more closely. as we walked through the door from the house back outside, his wide yellow eyes popped open and looked around, and he turned his head a bit to get a better look at his surroundings—and me.
owl eyes are unlike most other birds' eyes; they are proportionally very large, forward-facing and set in flat facial discs and supported by the bony rings common to all raptors. up close, their size and vivid color make for an intense, piercing stare; the bright yellow-orange irises and extraordinary large black pupils of this morepork seemed to convey a much higher awareness than the eyes of most smaller birds. this is probably why owls have their reputation for wisdom across many cultures; in the traditional facial moko/tattoos of the maori, women wear a stylized ruru on their chins for wisdom. i was glad to see that the pupils, although remaining large, expanded and constricted together. the owl's clear gaze continued to hold mine as i debated whether to test his ability to stand, or check him for injuries.
in the end, his improving head control (i only rotated him a little—for science) and the foot continuing to grasp the cabbage tree frond convinced me to let him try perching. i positioned him behind a bamboo gardening hoop on the deck and touched the perch to the top of his feet; he flailed a little and then grasped, crouching a little lopsidedly and continuing to peer around. while his coordination showed he was not yet fully recovered, nothing seemed obviously broken, although he did slowly tip forward until he hung bat-like from the underside of the perch. i re-collected him into a tea towel so i could isolate each limb and sat down to examine him more closely. i felt along his legs and feet; tension was good, i couldn't feel any broken bones and he didn't flinch at my prodding. his ribs, sternum and skull all seemed fine, so although his eyes had closed again, i thought he had a good chance of recovering after some peace and quiet.
i carried him inside with me (to the cats' consternation—as indoor dwellers they don't get to see birds on their side of the windows very often), procured a wooden beer crate and brought it back out to the deck with some fat sticks to make perches. i set the box with the open side facing out, positioned the sticks, and gently inserted the owl behind a one, planning to retry the perching prompt. he grasped one of the sticks with a foot, but fluttered his wings and made an awkward hop that brought him out of the box. once in the open, he looked at me, sprang into the air, and made a smooth, swooping, perfect flight over the deck rail, around the corner of the house, and off into the trees. so he was clearly… owl right!


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By Debra BenAvram, A.S.P.E.N.'s CEO
"Research is formalized curiosity. It is poking and prying with a purpose."
-Zora Neale Hurston
Nearly 20 years ago, A.S.P.E.N. planted the seeds for the A.S.P.E.N. Rhoads Research Foundation to provide remarkable early-career researchers with funding for projects related to nutrition support therapy. Since that time, we have given out more than $1 million in grant funding, thanks to the leadership of our corporate grant supporters and generous donors from among the A.S.P.E.N. membership. Support of emerging investigators remains the primary goal of the Foundation, and has resulted in grant recipients going on to complete NIH-funded projects, attain faculty appointments, and secure prestigious leadership positions in a variety of settings. For one 2013 recipient, Emma Tillman, the impact provided by The Foundation is apparent. "The A.S.P.E.N. Rhoads Research Foundation Grant has provided me with financial support to gain preliminary data that will help me to refine my hypothesis and provide the basis for a National Institute of Health proposal," she says. Tillman's research on omega-3 long-chain polyunsaturated fatty acids in parenteral nutrition-associated liver disease makes an important contribution to the field of clinical nutrition.
Encouragement and support of research is at the forefront of A.S.P.E.N.'s mission of improving patient care by advancing the science and practice of clinical nutrition and metabolism. Grant recipients will pave the way for new developments to achieve improved patient care. They follow in the large footsteps of Jonathan Rhoads, MD (1907-2002), a researcher and professor of medicine who is well known for his seminal contributions to the field of clinical nutrition. In 1966, Drs. Rhoads and Dudrick first documented the use of parenteral nutrition to provide the sole nutritional support for growth, development and metabolic support in Beagle puppies. The science has leapt forward since that time, and is now carried out through the Foundation grants. The online grant application site is now open for 2014 awards. The deadline of September 9 is just 6 weeks away. Seven grants ranging from $5,000 to $25,000 are available this year.
Applications are reviewed by a research committee that identifies top proposals. Grant recipients are announced at Clinical Nutrition Week during the Rhoads Research Lecture and Awards Ceremony. Grant recipients report outcomes of their work as abstracts during CNW, and are later expected to submit their research as a manuscript for consideration in JPEN, so they can more broadly share their research results.
For more information about the A.S.P.E.N. Rhoads Research Foundation, including links to the various grants, awards, and other programs, as well as information about how to make a contribution to the A.S.P.E.N. Rhoads Research Foundation, please visit http://www.nutritioncare.org/Research_Programs/A_S_P_E_N__Rhoads_Research_Foundation/.
I urge you to contribute to research on nutrition support therapy either by conducting research or supporting the Foundation. Our efforts to improve patient care hinge on your involvement.


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What should I do if I have been sexually assaulted or raped?
Step 1: If possible, get yourself to a safe place and, if it would help, inform someone you trust (eg a friend, warden, lecturer or head of department).
Step 2: Do not wash yourself.
If you think you need a forensic examination, do not clean yourself in any way until after the examination. This includes douching, showering, bathing, rinsing your mouth, wiping away stains or changing your clothing. If you go to the toilet, keep the toilet paper. Evidence on your body, clothes and toilet paper can be used to convict your attacker. Put clothes and toilet paper (if used) in a paper bag or a clean pillow case, and take it with you to Victoria Hospital Forensic Unit.
Step 3: Visit Victoria Hospital Forensic Unit within 72 hours of the incident for medical help and support.
You can do this by contacting:
- The Discrimination and Harassment Office (DISCHO) on 021 650 3530 or 072 393 7824 to accompany you to Victoria Hospital Forensic Unit
- Campus Protection Services on 021 650 2222 for help with transport to Victoria Hospital Forensic Unit
- Victoria Hospital Forensic Unit on 021 799 1235 and get yourself to the hospital independently.
At Victoria Hospital Forensic Unit, you will receive medical help, an optional forensic examination, trauma counselling, follow-up care and legal support.
Step 4: Call the South African Police Service (SAPS) on 082 522 1078 to report the case. Reporting the case does not mean you are laying a charge.
- Rape is a crime and should ideally be reported to the police. You can call the South African Police Service 24-hour emergency crime reporting centre on 10111.
- Alternatively, you can call your nearest police station.
Step 5: Follow up on the legal process
- Contact DISCHO on 021 650 3530 (office hrs) for advice on No-Contact Orders, UCT disciplinary options and advice on opening a criminal case.
- Contact your nearest police station to lay a charge.
- Alternatively, call Claremont Family Violence, Child Protection and Sexual Offences Unit on 082 522 1078 for assistance in laying a charge.
Step 6: Consider counselling.
- Contact Student Wellness Service for psychological support on 021 650 1017 (office hours).
- Call the Rape Crisis Cape Town Trust 24-hour helpline on 021 447 9762.
Step 7: Contact the UCT Sexual Assault Response Team on email@example.com, at any stage of the process for any advice, complaints, concerns or extra support.
Useful Contacts
|The Discrimination and Harassment Office (DISCHO)
|021 650 3530 (office hrs)
072 393 7824 (after hrs)
|Campus Protection Services
|021 650 2222
|Victoria Hospital Forensic Unit
|021 799 1235
|Student Wellness (psychologist)
|021 650 1017 (office hrs)
|Rape Crisis Cape Town Trust
|021 447 9762
|South African Police Service (SAPS)
|SAPS 10111 Centre
|For emergency assistance
|Your nearest police station
|Claremont Family Violence, Child Protection and Sexual Offences Unit (SAPS)
|082 522 1078
|Sexual Assault Response Team at UCT


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Twój koszykBrak produktów w koszyku
Tsubasa 8: Into the Mouth of the Beast!
Princess Sakura's memories are scattered across multiple dimensions–and now she and Syaoran are part of an unlikely group of friends traveling from world to world to find them. Unfortunately the memories have been transformed into immensely powerful magical feathers, and those who possess them are seldom willing to give them up without a fight. The quest takes Syaoran's odd bunch to a jungle world where helpless creatures are being terrorized by a sacrifice-demanding beast. When Syaoran, Mokona, and Sakura are separated from Fai and Kurogane, each group finds themselves on opposing sides of a conflict that threatens to destroy the future of a troupe of young women performers... and possibly the entire world!
- Autor
- Clamp
- Ilość stron
- 208
- Okładka
- miękka


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The capital of Spain, situated in the centre of the peninsula and right in the middle of the Castillian plain, about six hundred fifty meters above sea level, has more than three million inhabitants. This cosmopolitan town is a business hub; headquarters for the Public Administration, Government, Spanish Parliament and the Spanish Royal Family resides here. Madrid is also a very important hub in the banking and industrial branches and it's also characterized by an amazing cultural and artistic tradition and a vigorous nightlife. If you are looking for an ultimate holiday experience, booking cheap Madrid flights are a great choice.
The vast metropolis of Madrid can trace its origins to the times of Arab Emir Mohamed I (852-886). He was responsible for building a fortress on the left bank of the Manzanares river. Later it became the subject of a conflict between the Christians and Arabs until Alonso VI conquered it in the eleventh century. At the end of the seventeenth century, a retaining wall was constructed for the defence of the new outlying districts, tracing the streets of Segovia, Toledo and Valencia. The famous main streets of the city, the Paseo del Prado and Paseo las Acacias, were built during the eighteenth century, under the reign of Carlos III. Madrid is a city that's full of culture and by booking cheap Madrid flights from Ireland, you can indulge in the amazing museums and architecture. If you can't get enough of experiences like this, we can also suggest our cheap flights to Rome or great Dubrovnik flight deals, where other fantastic museums await discovery.
For cheap flights to Madrid from Ireland with cheap Madrid flight deals from Dublin, Cork or Shannon, book with Club Travel.
Watch Flamenco
Madrid is a stage for some of the best flamenco dancers on earth. Visit a flamenco restaurant for the ideal night-out, once your cheap Madrid flights are booked and you've arrived in this fabulous city.
Visit some Musems
For art enthusiasts our cheap Madrid flights are highly recommended, as the Prado is one of Europe's foremost art museums. Another great experience is The Reina Sofia, where you get the chance to admire Picasso's 'Woman in Blue'. If you are into art, you might be also interested in our cheap flights to New York or our Paris flights from Dublin, where other mind-blowing art exhibitions await discovery.
Take an Open-Topped Bus Tour
See the most important attractions and monuments in less than two hours; you can always go back and re-visit your favourite ones later on.
Watch Real Madrid Play
The Santiago Bernabeu Stadium is home to one of the best football teams of the planet and particularly for fans it's almost a must to visit this stadium, so don't waste time and book our flights to Madrid at the best price available.
Take a ride on Madrid's cable car
The Teleférico gives tourists breathtaking views of most of the city's prime sights and attractions.
Try some Tapas
Once your cheap flights to Madrid are booked and you've arrived there make sure to sample some authentic Spanish food. If delicious culinary delights are important to your holidays, we can also recommend cheap Beijing flights where the famous Chinese cuisine will amaze you, or our great Mexican flight deals where you can take in tasty Mexican food.
Club Travel Destinations


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School Mass Schedule
Saint Agnes School fosters the sacramental life and offers frequent opportunities to participate in the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass and the celebration of the Sacrament of Penance. The rich and diverse devotional life at Saint Agnes includes use of Latin in the liturgy, as well as participation in the Rosary, the Stations of the Cross, the Divine Mercy Chaplet, enrollment in the Scapular, and Adoration and Benediction of the Blessed Sacrament. (The Educational Philosophy of Saint Agnes School, 2016, p. 2).
Join our school in prayer for Mass at the Church of Saint Agnes! View our 2019-2020 School Mass Schedule for more information.
During a typical week, there will be a K-6 Mass on Wednesdays at 8:45 AM. Mass for Grades 7-12 will be held on Thursdays at 8:45 AM, except when a K-12 Mass occurs in the same week. All-School Masses for K-12 will also begin at 8:45 AM.
Daily Mass at the Church of Saint Agnes is also offered each weekday morning at 6:30 AM, Friday evenings at 5:15 PM, and (the long-standing Ordinary Form Latin Sung Mass) on Saturday mornings at 8:00 AM.
Saint Agnes families and friends are always most welcome to join us in prayer for school Masses throughout the school year! Please contact Mrs. Blair Saiz if you have any questions about our school Masses.


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We spent September, October and November 2015 digging a pond, making a terrace, and re-landscaping the garden around the house…. The rest of the garden is going to remain as the semi-wild naturalized space it always has been.
The Pond is the biggest venture so far. I've never water gardened, I have no idea about the plants or the maintenance, and, I have tried to design it so that we can use it as a natural swimming pool (it is really only suitable for a dip)….
What I have learnt so far is that the plants can be brute: so you need to chose your varieties carefully and manage their growth by ruthless yearly pruning. I've learnt that in order to keep the pond clean you have to balance three things; the oxygen level, the nitrogen level and the ammonia level…. This is done primarily with the planting, with pumps and UV filters stopping fluctuations in vegetation and seasons becoming imbalances…
I always wanted a body of water in this part of the garden…. What I never imagined was how much the water would "lift" the garden… This spot was a dark shaded place that divided us from the landscape beyond…. The pond completely reversed this: light is reflected back into the garden and draws the landscape beyond within.
I'm hoping that the pond will add to the wildlife… All the machinery work and the dogs (all landscapers have dogs!!) have put them off… Please come back and let me give you a home.
When we first came the animals were bold. Owls hooted at us when we arrived back from the pub at 10 o'clock and talked too loudly as we opened the door. A badger interrupted a game of hockey with my 3-year-old son as it chased another boar off its patch. And every morning at 6 o'clock on the dot a barn owl would float across the cow meadow below us, skimming the top of the sunlit long grass in a stunning silence.
Now, 6 months after the pond's construction and with the planting in, the creatures are just starting to come back. Almost straight away there were tiny larvae and water fleas. Then, in May, there were tadpoles…. We hadn't even noticed the frogspawn… then suddenly there were literally hundreds of black fishtailed dots bombing about the pond.
Then in June we couldn't mow the lawn for froglets.
Then the invertebrates started to show up: water boatmen; diving beetles; damselfly; dragonfly; and pondskaters. With the invertebrates came the birds: pied wagtails; yellow and grey wagtails; and the swallows, who have taken to using the pond as a 'dipping' pond. They circle and scream at each other, and then in a seemingly-impossible flying formation, take it in turns to "dip".


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Ask them for feed back and ideas.
Anytime you have the opportunity to do so, get them involved in decision making and project design.
Every single person you work with has a massive creative resource.
In so many organizations this creative power is locked in and suppressed.
Because many bosses tend to compete with their team rather than collaborating with it.
This is simply a negative managerial pattern.
It's a controlling attitude that turns against the positive creative flow of your organization.
Here is how you ask for feed back:
"I am focusing on this project and wonder what your ideas are on that one… What do you feel would work best?"
You ask for opinions, ideas or feed back.


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Be informed
Mining cryptocurrency bitcoins: for me, an exercise in satisfying curiosity. You cannot make any real bitcoin money any more using spare CPU cycles on your home computers manipulating blockchains.
If you are serious about mining bitcoins, invest in a modern ASIC based miner.
Otherwise, if you are like me, play around a bit with bitcoin mining and then go back to your boinc daemons for SETI@HOME and LHC@HOME and contribute your CPU cycles to where it matters more for advancing the human species.
Installing cpuminer-multi (Linux - CentOS and Ubuntu)
cpuminer-multi should be run from a user account (never as root).
Install the necessary packages
CentOS 7
$ sudo bash
# yum groupinstall "Development Tools"
# yum install curl-devel openssl-devel git screen
# exit
$ cd
Ubuntu 17
$ sudo apt-get install build-essential autotools-dev autoconf libcurl3 libcurl4-gnutls-dev git screen libssl-dev
Clone and build cpuminer-multi
CentOS 7 and Ubuntu 17
CentOS 7 and Ubuntu 17
$ git clone https://github.com/tpruvot/cpuminer-multi.git
$ cd cpuminer-multi
$ ./autogen.sh
$ ./configure CFLAGS="-march=native" --with-crypto --with-curl
$ ./build.sh
$ cd
Join a pool
Sign up with slushpool and get worker details for your computer. You can have different workers for different computers if you so wish. Basically you need a "miner login" (not the same as your slushpool account login) for your worker. This is of the form "yourusername.Worker1" and can be obtained by adding a worker.
Launch cpuminer in a dedicated screen
Use a shell script in your home directory to launch cpuminer with your slushpool worker. Nice it down if your server is doing other more important stuff; cpuminer will happily take up all of your available processing power.
The "password" does not matter here; it is not used.
Change it for your worker unless you want to mine for me.
# Run niced down cpuminer in screen
screen -S cpuminer -m -d nice ~/cpuminer-multi/cpuminer -a sha256d -o stratum+tcp://us-east.stratum.slushpool.com:3333 -O tuklu_san.MyPublicMiner:password
screen -ls
Make the script executable:
$ chmod +x cpuminer_in_screen.sh
and launch it:
$ ./cpuminer_in_screen.sh
Attach to the screen "cpuminer":
$ screen -r cpuminer
You should see something like this:
** cpuminer-multi 1.3.3 by tpruvot@github **
BTC donation address: 1FhDPLPpw18X4srecguG3MxJYe4a1JsZnd (tpruvot)
[2017-12-14 13:18:46] Starting Stratum on stratum+tcp://us-east.stratum.slushpool.com:3333
[2017-12-14 13:18:46] 2 miner threads started, using 'sha256d' algorithm.
[2017-12-14 13:18:46] Stratum difficulty set to 2048
[2017-12-14 13:18:46] sha256d block 499253, diff 1590896927258.079
[2017-12-14 13:18:48] CPU #0: 1207 kH/s
[2017-12-14 13:18:48] CPU #1: 1197 kH/s
Detach from the screen using Ctrl-a, d. Watch your slushpool account for progress.
You will need to set a bitcoin wallet number in your slushpool account to receive payouts if you ever get to that point. I already had a coinbase account with a bitcoin wallet number that I used for this purpose.
You will need to set a bitcoin wallet number in your slushpool account to receive payouts if you ever get to that point. I already had a coinbase account with a bitcoin wallet number that I used for this purpose.
It is just an experiment
I do not expect anything to really happen in terms of payouts. My slushpool dashboard says I will complete mining one-tenth of a bitcoin in another 79 years and some months.
I do not expect anything to really happen in terms of payouts. My slushpool dashboard says I will complete mining one-tenth of a bitcoin in another 79 years and some months.
Once again, if you are serious, invest in a modern ASIC based miner. Be aware, though, of the fact that the vendors of these ASIC bitcoin miner hardware are making more money selling them than folks actually making money off bitcoin mining. Also, as you will see if you research a bit, the amount of money you will pay your electric utility company will be more than you make mining bitcoins.
Have fun!


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Owing to Sony's efforts to offer the most developer-friendly devices ever, owners of the Sony Xperia Z, Xperia ZL, Xperia T, Xperia TX, and Xperia V can now download and enjoy official CyanogenMod 10.1 nightly builds for their handsets. The nightlies first became available yesterday — the very first one being the Xperia ZL nightly — and are all present online now through the CyanogenMod Downloads web site.
What these nightly builds equate to is a chance to load and run the stock Android experience on the above-mentioned Sony Xperia smartphones. All a user needs to do in order to take advantage of the appropriate build is to download it, flash his or her device, and finish installing the custom ROM. And that's it. CyanogenMod 10.1 is based on the latest version of Android, which is currently at 4.2.2 Jelly Bean.
If you plan on getting one or more of the nightly builds for yourself, then just follow the links posted below. And remember that you will need an unlocked bootloader in order to get started.
– Sony Xperia Z
– Sony Xperia ZL
– Sony Xperia T
– Sony Xperia TX
– Sony Xperia V


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Just like the inns of old, we provide a relaxed home-from-home for locals and visitors alike and if you're staying with us, you can be assured of all the comforts and luxuries you'd expect from the best modern accommodation.
At heart we're a friendly local pub, boasting fantastic cask ales and the best in British food.
Above all, we offer friendly, personal and unpretentious service, whether you're just in for a quiet pint, planning an intimate dinner, a stop-over for a business trip or staying for a leisurely weekend.
You'll enjoy the charm and characters of the Plough Inn experience, but you also encounter a level of hospitality beyond your expectations.
Our goal as innkeepers is to make every moment of your visit a memorable experience. Soak up the ambience of our quaint village while enjoying as relaxing breakfast.