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Myths are stories that are based on tradition. Some may have factual origins, while others are completely fictional. But myths are more than mere stories and they serve a more profound purpose in ancient and modern cultures. Myths are sacred tales that explain the world and man's experience. Myths are as relevant to us today as they were to the ancients. Myths answer timeless questions and serve as a compass to each generation. The myths of lost paradise, for example, give people hope that by living a virtuous life, they can earn a better life in the hereafter. The myths of a golden age give people hope that there are great leaders who will improve their lives. The hero's quest is a model for young men and women to follow, as they accept adult responsibilities. Some myths simply reassure, such as myths that explain natural phenomena as the actions of gods, rather than arbitrary events of nature.
The subjects of myths reflect the universal concerns of mankind throughout history: birth, death, the afterlife, the origin of man and the world, good and evil and the nature of man himself. A myth taps into a universal cultural narrative, the collective wisdom of man. An excellent illustration of the universality of these themes is that so many peoples who have had no contact with each other create myths that are remarkably similar. So, for example, cultures worldwide, from the Middle East to the distant mountains of South America have myths about great floods, virgin births, and the afterlife (more examples of these archetypal themes are in the Myths & Archetypes section of the website).
Unlike fairy tales, myths are not always optimistic. True to the nature of life, the essence of myths is such that they are as often warnings as promises; as often laments as celebrations. Many myths are instructive and act as a guide to social norms, taking on cultural taboos such as incest, fratricide, and greed.
Myths are also pervasive in the arts and advertising, for a very simple reason. From film to cars to perfume, advertising uses visual metaphors to speak to us. While artists of every generation reinterpret myths, the same basic patterns have shown up in mythology for thousands of years. A name, phrase, or image based on a familiar myth can speak volumes to those who have been absorbing these mythic tales since birth. When we hear the expression, "Beware of Greeks bearing gifts" or when we see a television commercial featuring a wooden horse full of soldiers, we recognize the reference to Odysseus, who tricked the Trojans into admitting an army into their city this way.
When Jacqueline Kennedy referred to her husband's tenure as a new Camelot, we understand that she meant it was a golden age, like that of King Arthur. When the Greek government dubbed a campaign to rescue ethnic Greeks from behind the walls of the Iron Curtain "Operation Golden Fleece," we understood that they were invoking an ancient name to communicate that these people belonged to them. Each generation of storytellers adds another layer of fact and fiction to the myths, such that the themes and characters of myths are timeless, and endlessly relevant, as they are reinvented and reapplied to the lives of each new generation.
© http://www.pbs.org/mythsandheroes/myths_what.html (retrieved August 24, 2014)
Shangri-La is a fictional place described in the 1933 novel Lost Horizon by British author James Hilton. Hilton describes Shangri-La as a mystical, harmonious valley, gently guided from a lamasery, enclosed in the western end of the Kunlun Mountains. Shangri-La has become synonymous with any earthly paradise, and particularly a mythical Himalayan utopia — a permanently happy land, isolated from the outside world. In the novel Lost Horizon, the people who live at Shangri-La are almost immortal, living years beyond the normal lifespan and only very slowly aging in appearance. The word also evokes the imagery of exoticism of the Orient. In the ancient Tibetan scriptures, existence of seven such places is mentioned as Nghe-Beyul Khembalung.[1] Khembalung is one of several beyuls ("hidden lands" similar to Shangri-La) believed to have been created by Padmasambhava in the 8th century as idyllic, sacred places of refuge for Buddhists during times of strife (Reinhard 1978).
Some scholars believe that the Shangri-La story owes a literary debt to Shambhala, a mythical kingdom in Tibetan Buddhist tradition, which was sought by Eastern and Western explorers.[2]
The phrase "Shangri-La" most probably comes from the Tibetan ཞང་,"Shang" - a district of Ü-Tsang, north of Tashilhunpo[3]" + རི, pronounced "ri", "Mountain" = "Shang Mountain" + ལ, Mountain Pass, which suggests that the area is accessed to, or is named by, "Shang Mountain Pass".
A popularly believed physical inspiration for Hilton's Shangri-La is the Hunza Valley in northern Pakistan, close to the Chinese border, which Hilton visited a few years before Lost Horizon was published.[5] Being an isolated green valley surrounded by mountains, enclosed on the western end of the Himalayas, it closely matches the physical description in the novel. The Hunza Valley, however, lacks Tibetan culture and the Buddhist religion, so could not have been Hilton's cultural inspiration for Lost Horizon.
The cultural representation of Shangri-La is most often cited to be northwestern Yunnan Province, China, where National Geographic explorer Joseph Rock lived and traveled during the 1920s and early 1930s and wrote several articles in National Geographic magazine that are richly illustrated with superb photography. This coincides with the time when James Hilton would have been writing Lost Horizon, but there is no direct evidence to support this claim. The evidence points to another set of explorers. In a New York Times interview in 1936, Hilton states that he used "Tibetan material" from the British Museum, particularly the travelogue of two French priests, Evariste Regis Huc and Joseph Gabet, to provide the Tibetan cultural and Buddhist spiritual inspiration for Shangri-La.[6][7] Huc and Gabet travelled a roundtrip between Beijing and Lhasa in 1844–46 on a route more than 250 kilometres (160 mi) north of Yunnan. Their famous travelogue, first published in French in 1850,[8] went through many editions in many languages.[9] A popular "condensed translation" was published in England in 1928,[10] at the time that Hilton would have been getting inspired for — or even writing — Lost Horizon.
Today, various places claim the title, such as parts of southern Kham in northwestern Yunnan province, including the tourist destinations of Lijiang and Zhongdian. Places like Sichuan and Tibet also claim the real Shangri-La was in their territory. In 2001, Tibet Autonomous Region put forward a proposal that the three regions optimise all Shangri-La tourism resources and promote them as one. After failed attempts to establish a China Shangri-la Ecological Tourism Zone in 2002 and 2003, government representatives of Sichuan and Yunnan provinces and Tibet Autonomous Region signed a declaration of cooperation in 2004. Also in 2001, Zhongdian County in northwestern Yunnan officially renamed itself Shangri-La County.
Television presenter and historian Michael Wood, in the "Shangri-La" episode of the BBC documentary series In Search of Myths and Heroes, suggests that the legendary Shangri-La is the abandoned city of Tsaparang in upper Satluj valley, and that its two great temples were once home to the kings of Guge in modern Tibet. It is speculated that Sang-la, Chitkul in Sangla valley near Indo-Tibet Border is Shangri-la. La in spiti/Kinnauri like in Tibetan Language is word for Mountain pass. Kamru Village in Sangla was the ancient capital of Bushahr which was a Buddhist state until conquered by Gurkhas.
American explorers Ted Vaill and Peter Klika visited the Muli area of southern Sichuan Province in 1999, and claimed that the Muli monastery in this remote region was the model for James Hilton's Shangri-La, which they thought Hilton learned about from articles on this area in several National Geographic magazine articles in the late 1920s and early 1930s written by Austrian-American explorer Joseph Rock.[11] Michael McRae unearthed an obscure James Hilton interview from a New York Times gossip column where he reveals his cultural inspiration for Shangri-La and, if it is any place, it is more than 250 km north of Muli on the route travelled by Huc and Gabet.[6][7] Vaill completed a film based on their research, "Finding Shangri-La", which debuted at the Cannes Film Festival in 2007.
On December 2, 2010, OPB televised one of Martin Yan's Hidden China episodes "Life in Shangri-La", in which Yan said that "Shangri-La" is the actual name of a real town in the hilly and mountainous region in northwestern Yunnan Province, frequented by both Han and Tibetan locals. Martin Yan visited arts and craft shops, local farmers as they harvest crops, and sampled their cuisine.
Various states, geographically and politically isolated from the West, have been termed Shangri-Las. These include Bhutan, the Han Dynasty outpost DunhuangMongolia, Tibet, Nepal, Sikkim, the Tocharian Tushara Kingdom of the Mahābhārata, and Tuva.
1. Shrestha, Dr. Tirtha Bahadur; Joshi, Rabindra Man and Sangam, Khagendra (July 2009). The Makalu-Barun National Park & Buffer Zone Brochure. Makalu-Barun National Park.
2. LePage, Victoria (1996). Shambhala: The Fascinating Truth Behind The Myth Of Shangri-La.
3. Chandra Das - Tibetan English Dictionary
4. Yutang, Lin (translator). "The Peach Colony by Tao Yuanming". Retrieved 2011-11-19.
5. "Shangri-la Valley". Adventure Tours Pakistan. June 20, 2006. Archived from the original on 2006-06-15. Retrieved 2006-07-29.
6. Michael McRae. 2002. The Siege of Shangri-La: The Quest for Tibet's Sacred Hidden Paradise. New York: Broadway Books.
7. B.R. Crisler. 1936. Film gossip of the week. The New York Times, July 26, section 9, page 3.
8. Evariste Regis Huc. 1850. Souvenirs d'un voyage dans la Tartarie, le Thibet et la Chine pendant les annees 1844, 1845, et 1846. Paris.
9. Beatrice Mille. 1953. A selective survey of literature on Tibet. American Political Science Review 47(4): 1135–1151.
10. Evariste Regis Huc and Joseph Gabet. 1928. Travels in Tartary, Thibet and China, 1844–46. Edited and translated by William Hazlitt. London: Routledge.
11. "Could This Be the Way to Shangri-La?" by Timothy Carroll, Electronic Telegraph, London, July 29, 2002.
12. "Planetary Names: Albedo Feature: Shangri-La on Titan". Gazetteer of Planetary Nomenclature. Retrieved 2012-01-27.
13. "About LCM, Orange, Texas". Little Cypress - Mauriceville CISD. Retrieved 2011-11-19.
14. "Shangri La Botanical Gardens & Nature Centre, Orange Texas". Retrieved 2011-11-19.
15. "Beauty, Peace and Enlightenment at Shangri La Gardens in Orange, Texas (Part 1)". Blue Eyes and Bluebonnets. 15 April 2009. Retrieved 2011-11-19.
16. "MESA /Jeffrey Carbo Landscape Architects, Joint Venture Announce Opening of Shangri La" (PDF). MESA Design Group. 15 April 2009. Retrieved 2011-11-19.
17. McCracken, Donal P. McCracken & McCracken, Eileen M. (1988). The Way to Kirstenbosch National Botanic Gardens: Cape Town. p. 108.
18. "Marooned". uchicago.edu. April 23, 2002.
19. "Glastonbury Festivals - Areas - Shangri-La". Glastonbury Festival. 2013. Retrieved 2013-07-01.
20. Doherty, Peter (2014). Antonia, Nina, ed. From Albion to Shangri-La: Journals and Tour Diaries 2008 - 2013. London: Thin Man Press. ISBN 978-0-9562473-9-1.
21. "Black Leather Pages". Dead or Alive.
© http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shangri-La (retrieved August 24, 2014)
Origins of Shangri-La
The tale of an earthly paradise is among the most enduring myths in the world. From Sumerian epic to the 'islands of the blest' in Celtic literature, it has been a recurring theme through many bodies of literature and for thousands of years. Not surprisingly, then, modern people have also been drawn to the dream of a lost paradise where the ravages of time and history have been held back, where human beings live in harmony with nature, and where the wisdom of the planet is saved for future generations. In other words, to a Shangri-La.
The story of Shangri-La itself is a modern one, told by the English novelist James Hilton in his novel Lost Horizon (1933). Set in the troubled years before World War Two, the book tells of a community in a lamasery (a monastery for Tibetan lamas), in the lost Tibetan valley of Shangri-La, cut off from the world and from time. All the wisdom of the human race is contained in this place, in the cultural treasures stored, and in the minds of the people who have gathered here in the face of an imminent catastrophe.
Hilton's tale struck a chord. The book enjoyed great popularity, and even the retreat of the US president at Camp David was called Shangri-La, after the paradise described in it. And when the novel was turned into a Hollywood movie by Frank Capra, it was an instant success. These days, the name is part of the language, used everywhere from Nepali airlines and Chinese hotel chains to holiday cottages in Florida and Torquay.
Lost Horizon was a tale for its times. In the increasingly pessimistic 1930s, when Western civilisation seemed bent on a path to self-destruction - and when, as Carl Jung put it, 'the smell of burning was in the air' - the story of a kind of earthly paradise had an irresistible appeal. And Tibet in the 1930s was still a land of mystery, one of the last unmapped places, a forbidden and insular country. Nowadays, of course, the choice of the location of the tale seems all the more poignant, given what happened in Tibet some years after the book was published, with the Chinese invasion of 1949, and the Cultural Revolution of the 1960s.
Tale of 'Lost Horizon'
Mt Kailash, the most sacred mountain in Tibet--travellers must pass it to reach the ancient Gu-ge Kingdom. In the novel, a group of Westerners is rescued by plane from war and chaos in Central Asia, only to crash-land in a remote valley surrounded by the highest mountains in the world. The location of the fictional lost valley is never precisely pinpointed, but on its last fateful flight the plane appears to be heading northeast from Afghanistan across the Karakorum mountains, part of the Himalayan range, and Hilton clearly imagined that it landed somewhere in the then unexplored far west of Tibet. It was a repository of all the cultural treasures of the planet, and its inhabitants were opposed to all violence and materialism.
He tells us that in the valley there was a lamasery, headed by a 200-year-old Capuchin lama. It was a repository of all the cultural treasures of the planet, and its inhabitants were opposed to all violence and materialism. This lamasery stood in the shadow of a magnificent white mountain, 'the loveliest mountain on earth ... an almost perfect cone of snow, a dazzling pyramid so radiant, so serenely poised that it scarcely seemed to be real'.
But on what older tale was this exotic story based? Did Hilton have an actual place in mind? Was there indeed a real Shangri-La? And why does the myth of an earthly paradise seem to have such a hold on the human imagination?
Andrade's tale
The tale of a lost kingdom in the region of the Tibetan mountains first came to Western attention nearly four centuries ago. And like many a tale of hidden treasure, it starts with a mysterious map - this one lost, then rediscovered a hundred years ago in Calcutta. It was part of a remarkable manuscript that contained the autobiography of a 16th-century Western missionary at the court of the Moghul emperor Akbar.
At Akbar's time India still reigned glorious at the centre of the civilised world, but the winds were changing and the great power of Asian lands was just beginning to reduce, under pressure from the modernity of Europe. In partial response to this shifting world, Akbar gathered scholars of all races around him, hoping to find the common basis of all religions, in order to remove the sources of religious conflict for the good of humankind. As he put it:
It now becomes clear ... that it cannot be right to assert the truth of one faith above any other ... In this way we may perhaps again open the door whose key has been lost.
Thus in his court congregated Hindus, Yogis and Sadhus from all corners of his empire, as well as visiting Christian monks and pilgrims from western lands. This was the moment when Westerners first heard accounts of what lay beyond the Himalayan mountains, the very first time that Tibet entered the consciousness of Europeans.
One visiting Jesuit priest summarised the strange stories he heard at the court of Akbar in an essay, and sketched an accompanying map. On his map the area of Tibet is depicted as a great white blank, except for one place, labelled 'Manasarovar lacus' (Lake Manasarovar), with next to it a tantalising scribbled note saying, 'Here it is said Christians live'.
The priest who penned the map was old, and incapable of undertaking a dangerous mission across high mountain passes in search of an obscure community of Christians. But his successor, a Portuguese Jesuit missionary named Antonio Andrade, was galvanised by the tale, and determined to go in search of these people.
Andrade set out from Akbar's court, armed with the map, and at first followed yogis and wandering pilgrims on the road across the mountains. The terrain soon became hostile, but Andrade did eventually find an impressive and wealthy kingdom - although no Christians lived there - and his account of his adventurous journey was rediscovered in Calcutta in the 19th century. It was republished in 1926 under the title Discovery of Tibet, and Hilton's Lost Horizon obviously owes much to this work.
This idea of a lost kingdom somewhere in the Himalayas has also circulated in Tibetan Buddhist teaching for centuries, and may well itself have been told at the court of Akbar. The name Shambala first appears in a text known as the Kalachakra tantra - or Wheel of Time teaching. The Kalachakra doctrine belongs to the highest level of Buddhist Mahayana teaching, and those who follow it can reach enlightenment in just a number of years rather than a whole lifetime.
In this doctrine, the place named Shambala appears as a mystical conception, a spiritual rather than a geographical goal. (Curiously, although the tale is known now as a Tibetan myth, it seems that it was first recorded in AD 966 in India.) The Buddhist Kalachakra tale tells of a land behind the Himalayas, ruled by a gracious King Sucandra, who was the first to learn the Kalachakra doctrine from Buddha Sakyamuni himself.
In Shambala, the people lived in peace and harmony, faithful to the principles of Buddhism, and the concepts of war and sorrow were unknown. Shambala is a magic land, unlike any place on earth, and rests in the shadow of a magnificent white mountain. As one commentator on the Kalachakra tantra puts it:
The land of Shambala lies in a valley. It is only approachable through a ring of snow peaks like the petals of a lotus ... At the centre is a nine-storey crystal mountain which stands over a sacred lake, and a palace adorned with lapis, coral, gems and pearls. Shambala is a kingdom where humanity's wisdom is spared from the destructions and corruptions of time and history, ready to save the world in its hour of need.
The prophecy of Shambala states that each of its 32 kings will rule for 100 years. As their reigns pass, conditions in the outside world will deteriorate. Men will become obsessed with war and pursue power for its own sake and materialism will triumph over all spiritual life. Eventually an evil tyrant will emerge to oppress the earth in a despotic reign of terror. But just when the world seems on the brink of total downfall and destruction, the mists will lift to reveal the icy mountains of Shambala. Then the 32nd king of Shambala, Rudra Cakrin, will lead a mighty army against the tyrant and his supporters and in a last great battle, they will be destroyed and peace restored.
Shangri-La today
As we have seen, the tale of Shangri-La is a modern tale, with a powerful appeal for today's world - but its roots lie deep in much older times. We live in a period when global problems threaten to overwhelm us, and instil us with fear. The appeal of the tales of Shambala and Shangri-La lies in their connection with this fear - both recognising it and alleviating it - and this appeal is universal. The stories reflect our desire that something of our world will survive, and that our connection with our past will not be entirely erased, even as we move faster and faster into an uncertain future. These are tales that we still need to believe in today.
Lost Horizons by James Hilton
Early Jesuit Travellers in Central Asia 1603-1721 by C Wessels (Book Faith India, 2002)
Tibet Handbook by Gyurme Dorje (Footprint Books, 1999)
The Way of the White Clouds by Lama Govinda (Hutchinson, 1966)
Tibet in Pictures by Li Gotami Govinda (Dharma Publishing, 1979)
A Mountain in Tibet by Charles Allen (Abacus, 1982)
The Search for Shangri-La, 1999 by Charles Allen (Abacus, 1999)
The Way to Shambala by Edwin Bernbaum (Anchor Books,1980)
In Search of Shangri-La by Elaine Brook (Jonathan Cape, 1996)
The Tibet Guide by S Batchelor (Wisdom Publications, 1987)
© http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/ancient/cultures/shangri_la_01.shtml (retrieved August 24, 2014)
In an attempt to unravel a mystery, a team of internationally renowned climbers and explorers join forces with archaeologists, anthropologists and art historians to climb into unexplored cave complexes that humans had not entered for hundreds if not thousands of years. What they find inside will rock the Himalayan world and re-write the history of this remote and mystical region.
The story takes place in the legendary Kingdom of Mustang, a hidden corner of the Himalayas previously off-limits to outsiders. Hundreds of caves punctuate the sacred landscape and little is known about why they were carved out, how they have been used, and what lies inside the mysterious caves. Just a year earlier, during their scout, the team discovered a rare library of ancient Tibetan texts, thousands of hand-inked folios in dust-laden piles inside the caves. Their aim now is to return to the caves and rescue the texts from the crumbling landscape and retrieve them before looters get to them. The texts are adorned with beautiful "illuminations," small paintings worth tens of thousands of dollars on the international art market. As they prepare to climb up into the caves, a group of youth from a nearby village try to stop them. What ensues is an intriguing set of events that involve the King of Mustang, the highest lama of the land, and indeed the divinities that reside in the nearby cliffs.
The texts are from the pre-Buddhist religion known as Bon. This little-understood faith is the indigenous faith of Tibet, upon which Tibetan Buddhist culture is founded. Yet the religion has suffered persecution over the years and has been nearly wiped out. To find an ancient treasure-trove of both Buddhist and Bon texts, some completely unknown, is of high value to the remaining Bon practitioners and anthropologists like Charles Ramble from Oxford University's Oriental Institute: "These caves are probably the most reliable indicator of the continuous history of this area because they've always been used. The kinds of things we find in there, from the archaeological record, to perhaps the richest literary repository we've found means that these really are the places on which we need to focus if we want to establish as full as possible a picture of the history and culture of the Himalaya."
As they explore further caves, the researchers uncover priceless wall paintings from the 13th and 14th centuries that have been hidden from view for hundreds of years due to the inaccessibility of the caves. The paintings are relics from the past that are as valuable as uncovering an unknown Rembrandt, yet adorning the walls of crumbling caves. The question of whether this mystical land could be Shangri-La is answered both by the experts and the locals in this cinematically stunning film.
On their final days of exploration, the team uncovers the holy grail of archaeology in this region: ancient human remains. Inside secret caves, skulls, vertebrae, and pelvises, confirm the team's hypothesis that the extensive human-carved cave systems of Upper Mustang were carved some 2700 years ago for funerary purposes. "We do strange things when it comes to venerating our dead," remarks Dr. Mark Aldenderfer, archaeologist from the University of Arizona. "Look at the Pyramids of Egypt and the practices of the Maya."


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In what could be termed as a marvelous invention, Scientists have successfully produced an aircraft wings which can repair its damaged wings on its own, using the self-healing technology. With the technology being a success on the aircraft wings, it is soon expected to be a common place in other devices such as mobile phone screens.
The research, which is going to be tabled at the Royal Society meeting in London, next week, may bring revolution with new form of technology which could produce a self-healing nail polish and a cure for cracked or damaged mobile phone displays. The technology has been developed by a team at the University of Briston.
The Leader of the team Prof. Duncas Wass, expected products using self-healing technology to hit the markets in the near future. His research team has specialized in modifying the carbon fibre composite materials configuration. Carbon is widely used in the manufacture of various devices ranging from aircraft wings to mobile screens.
The team developed a technology which adds tiny, hollow 'microspheres' on the carbon surface, which on breaking releases a chemical liquid healing agent. The chemical agent, reacts with a catalyst and triggers a rapid chemical reaction which hardens the damage, The independent reports.
Professor Wass said " we have just drawn our inspiration from the Humans. Our Skin though it is as thick as the Rhinoceros's, it bleeds. The bleeding stops after the wound has been acted up on by the essential enzymes. The same thing we want it to happen here. We have worked on a fix so that a device can repair on itself."

subset: commoncrawl


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Englische Originalausgabe
160 Seiten mit 200 farbigen und
s/w Fotos und 30 Faksimile-Beilagen
zum Herausnehmen + DVD
Fester Einband in Geschenkbox
Original English Edition
160 pp. with 200 colour
and b/w illustrations and
30 removable facsimile items and DVD
HB box set Hardcover
The Ultimate Collection documents the incredible journey of four talented rockers on the path to musical glory, and reveals the stories behind all of their recordings. It adds up to the essential re-telling of the greatest story of sex, drugs and rock n roll ever … This weighty box set takes you closer than ever before to the heady days of the 1970s, with removable memorabilia, giant posters and stunning art prints. There are tickets to the biggest concerts, invites to some of the after-parties, beautiful posters, superbly-designed contemporary flyers and even The Object from the cover of Presence.
Arguably the greatest rock act of all time, Led Zeppelin have sold over 300 million albums worldwide and created a unique sound that in the ranks of hard rock has never been equalled and will never be bettered. This is the ultimate tribute to the ultimate rock band. This exclusive box set contains a deluxe illustrated book that tells the story of Led Zeppelin, 30 items of removable memorabilia, including three giant posters, five rare rock art prints and a DVD featuring never-before published footage of the band in Berlin in 1970.
Written by Led Zeppelin authority Chris Welch, Led Zeppelin: The Ultimate Tribute explores every release and is illustrated throughout with iconic rock photography and on-the-page memorabilia. Led Zeppelin continue to be cited as a massive influence on rock bands all over the world and influential music publication Rolling Stone magazine have described them as The heaviest band of all time. 2015 marks the 40th anniversary of Physical Graffiti, Led Zeppelins fifth studio album (16xplatinum). It contains the legendary tracks Kashmir and Houses of the Holy.


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text: I am glad to have found this site. Just register and got the VIP status with the donation. I know site like this cannot survive without donation. I am pretty new into the internet and will probably be looking forward for your help. Glad to be part of this community. I am leaving 7 months per year in Canada and 5 months in USA.


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Think about it, how do you make your decisions to purchase something or go somewhere new or even do something new? If you're like me, it's because you've heard some level of buzz about it and that right there is an endorsement, plus it might even sound exciting. In fact, people tend to listen to other consumers over any form of traditional advertisement from the business itself.
Your wheels are turning, right? What can you do to create buzz? Well, think about what your competitors are doing and do something different, something radical, something your network can relate to, a movement, yet maintain your core business values. Get people talking by giving a free bite, something useful. Also, give them tools to easily spread the word with simple messaging, social media options and whatever else fits for your campaign, basically a new spin on traditional advertisement. Just remember the cardinal rule… send them to a central place for specific information, like a branded Web page with everything the consumer needs to know/have.
This is just my soapbox version of what makes word of mouth marketing (WOMM) work, but for more info, here are some great books a WOMM expert/friend of mine suggested:
Tribes: We Need You To Lead Us by Seth Godin
Creating Customer Evangelists: How Loyal Customers become a Volunteer Sales Force by Ben McConnell, Jackie Huba, and Guy Kawaski
Citizen Marketers: When People are the Message by Ben McConnell and Jackie Huba
Word of Mouth Marketing: How Smart Companies Get People Talking by Andy Sernovitz, Seth Godin and Guy Kawaski
Unleashing the Ideavirus by Seth Godin and Malcolm Gladwell
Purple Cow: Transform Your Business by Being Remarkable by Seth Godin
The Tipping Point: How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference by Malcolm Gladwell
The Hottest Ideas in Word of Mouth Advertising: What Works, What Doesen't, What's Fake, and Why by Godfrey Harris
The Anatomy of Buzz: How to Create Word of Mouth Marketing by Emanuel Rosen
The Secrets of Word of Mouth Marketing: How to Trigger Exponential Salses Through Runaway Word of Mouth by George Silverman
How to Generate Word of Mouth Advertising: 101 Easy and Inexpensive Ways to Promote Your Busienss by Godfrey Harris adn Gregery J. Harris


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First things first.
* Spoiler Alert!
We close one eye that this movie is based on an overused plot about technology/super computer/machines gone haywire….(just like Terminator, The Matrix, iRobot, Enemy of the State…hmmn last two starred Will Smith)
Then the rest of the ride is fantastic.
Just like a roller coaster which never lets up on the pace, and gives kick-ass excitement with car chase scenes, never ending running, explosions and the works.
This is one hell of an action-packed thriller!
Go watch it.


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On the Horizon
From concerts to rodeos to other crowd-pleasing shows, there's plenty of live entertainment coming up at the Stockyards: Guitar strumming. Bull riding. Trick roping. And beyond.
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06/29/2019 - 8:00pm Every Friday & Saturday at 8:00pm starting June 14th through August 17th!! Stockyards Pro Rodeo Summer Series
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Brexit deadlock: No deal as DUP scupper progress
PUBLISHED: 16:47 04 December 2017 | UPDATED: 16:47 04 December 2017
PA Wire/PA Images
The DUP have slammed the brakes on Brexit leaving Theresa May red-faced during crunch talks in Brussels.
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Almost four years after its creation The New European goes from strength to strength across print and online, offering a pro-European perspective on Brexit and reporting on the political response to the coronavirus outbreak, climate change and international politics. But we can only continue to grow with your support.
It had appeared London and the European Union were about to strike a deal that would have allowed discussions to move on to trade.
But suggestions the pact might involve Northern Ireland remaining in the customs union and single market prompted a furious response from the Democratic Unionist Party who prop up the Conservatives' minority Government.
It is believed May left discussions with Juncker and spoke to DUP leader Arlene Foster before returning and calling time on the talks.
One Tory source sarcastically told The New European: "The DUP appear to be running Brexit negotiations now – great."
However after the talks collapsed European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker did extend his deadline saying there would be further negotiations before the summit of the European Council on December 14. He added he was "confident" further progress could still be made.
Sources had claimed a deal could see both Ireland and Northern Ireland following the same rules governing trade, to ensure that goods can continue to move freely across a "soft" border with no checks.
But Foster said the DUP would oppose the deal if it meant the effective drawing of a new border in the Irish Sea between Northern Ireland and the rest of the UK if the Westminster Government decides it wants to diverge from EU rules.
Speaking at Stormont, she said: "We note the speculation emanating from the European Union exit talks regarding the Republic of Ireland and United Kingdom border.
"We have been very clear. Northern Ireland must leave the EU on the same terms as the rest of the United Kingdom.
"We will not accept any form of regulatory divergence which separates Northern Ireland economically or politically from the rest of the United Kingdom.
"The economic and constitutional integrity of the United Kingdom will not be compromised in any way.
"Her Majesty's Government understands the DUP position."
Suggestions rules could be different for Northern Ireland drew anger from other areas of the UK that voted Remain, significantly London and Scotland.
Scottish National Party leader Nicola Sturgeon said on Twitter: "If one part of UK can retain regulatory alignment with EU and effectively stay in the single market (which is the right solution for Northern Ireland) there is surely no good practical reason why others can't."
And London mayor Sadiq Khan said: "Huge ramifications for London if Theresa May has conceded that it's possible for part of the UK to remain within the single market & customs union after Brexit. Londoners overwhelmingly voted to remain in the EU and a similar deal here could protect tens of thousands of jobs."
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Almost four years after its creation The New European goes from strength to strength across print and online, offering a pro-European perspective on Brexit and reporting on the political response to the coronavirus outbreak, climate change and international politics. But we can only rebalance the right wing extremes of much of the UK national press with your support. If you value what we are doing, you can help us by making a contribution to the cost of our journalism.Become a supporter


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Posts Tagged Mobile apps
In App Advertisements
Posted by teaminfobase in On Technologies on July 18, 2011
With mobile apps becoming popular, mobile in-app ads are causing rage.
Mobile marketers are turning more attention toward in-app advertising. As of now, in-app ads account for around 5% of mobile ad spending, and that number is only expected to rise in coming years.
Lots of the free applications on app stores get sponsored by advertising that gets displayed when the user is in the application itself, either as a banner or in between.
The major reasons in-app ads are making waves is their effectiveness. Though majority of 18-34-year-olds actively dislike mobile in-app ads ( I am sure you also must not be linking them), but it is believed that the many will also be able to recall those ads at a higher rate than the ads they see while browsing the mobile web.
A recent report by Appssavvy, found that in-app ads perform 11.4 times better than standard banner ads, which means they are almost as effective as search.
For all app developers, these ads are a good money too. According to Angry Birds publisher Rovio, by the end of 2011, it'll be making $1 million each month from in-app ads on the Android platform alone.
– Komal Arora
Manager – Technologies


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Corporate Governing Body
Network bylaws provide that the corporate governing body (CGB) will be composed of 3-15 individuals from both clinical and non-clinical backgrounds. Each member may serve two staggering terms of tenure such that a fraction (1/3rd) of the total number of CGB members is reappointed/elected each year. Terms begin on July 1, and appointments are typically made at the last quarterly meeting prior to June 30. A CGB member may serve a maximum of two consecutive terms and then may not serve, be nominated or considered to serve again until he or she has been absent for three years from the CGB.
|CGB Members
|Term expiration
|A. Randle White, MD, Chairman
|June 30, 2021
|Ralph Atkinson, III, MD
|June 30, 2022
|Renay Camp, RN, CNN, Secretary/Treasurer
|June 30, 2020
|Gary Davis, MD
|June 30, 2023
|EW Jackson III
|June 30, 2021
|William V. Morris, III, MBA
|June 30, 2020
|Grace Reeve, LMSW
|June 30, 2022
|Kennedy Taylor, Patient Representative
|June 30, 2022
|Charles Thomas, MD
|June 30, 2021
- Executive Director - NaTasha Avery, DrPH, LMSW, CHES
- Quality Improvement Director - Sheila McMaster, MSN, RN, CNN, CPHQ
- Quality Improvement Coordinator - Kristi Durham, RHIA
- Quality Improvement Contract Coordinator - Katie Wilcher
- Outreach Coordinator - Casey Magee
- Patient Services Director - Katy Chappelear, LCSW
- Patient Services Coordinator - Tausha Rawls, BSW
- IS Director/Data Manager - Robert Bain
- Provider Data Support Specialist - Mary Jane Dearman
- Data Monitoring and Review Specialist - Shirley Smith
Due to HIPAA Email encryption and authentication standards, Network 8 is not permitted to send or receive patient-specific data via Email. Please do not send patient-specific data to Network 8 via Email. As always, use phone, fax or regular mail. Thank you for your understanding and cooperation.
Page last updated on 8/3/2018


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This, my friends, is an endless, uphill battle. It's also a terrifyingly fine line to walk.
You can only blast your social media circles with BUY MY book posts so many times before people start hiding (or worse, unfollowing) you, right? I mean, we've all done it. We all know at least ONE of those people who uses social media for absolutely NOTHING but pushing sales.
This post will, in the long run, be one of those.
For now, let's talk about HOW you should be promoting.
Instead of scheduling posts with buy links to go live every hour on the hour and then walking away from your page, you should probably try to be a little more engaging. There are MILLIONS of books for your readers to choose from. If they were only in it for the book, nobody would ever be able to make a decision. Successful authors are the ones who remember who pays the bills. TALK TO YOUR FANS, DAMMIT!
It's insane how often I see fledgling indie authors who don't do this. People aren't going to buy your book just because you tell them to. People are going to buy your book PRIMARILY because they like YOU. My fans are fans of ME first and my work second. Why is that? Well, because I talk to them. If someone can take the time to comment on my status, the LEAST I can do is like said comment. USUALLY, I end up having quite a back and forth with them. Our conversations, on a normal day, range from about 5 replies to 20 replies. 10 to 40 seconds of my day was given to that person and chances are pretty good that that alone will land me future sales.
Pretty good investment if you ask me.
Interacting with your fan base is THE most important aspect of being a successful ANYTHING.
Followed shortly by generating word-of-mouth. This is where the actual quality of your work comes into play. Now that you have your die hard 1-clickers, you need to give them something that they can talk about with their friends and family. If one of my friends says to me, "OMG! You NEED to read this book!" I'm MUCH more likely to actually pick it up VS the author of the book telling me, "OMG! You NEED to read this book!" I mean… Of COURSE the author is going to say that, right? Another relatively simple way to get some buzz going is to reach out to book bloggers.
These people LOVE to read and they LOVE to talk about reading. 99.9% of the time all you have to do is go to their Facebook page, read their "About" section to see if they do promo stuff for authors, make sure they cover your genre, see if they have special submission guidelines (EXTRA IMPORTANT!!!), etc… More often than not, the admins names will be in there as well. If you can send them a message that starts with their name, it shows that you actually took the time to go out of your way and get familiar with their blog. That goes a LONG way in beginning a positive, beneficial relationship. Trust me: These people are the people who will make or break you. You WANT them to love you.
Kiss. Their. Asses. It's worth it. Believe me.
Not to mention most of them are actually REALLY awesome people!
And that leads us into blog tours. You will want to start setting these up MONTHS in advance. Try to get promo posts set up with your participating blogs leading up to release day. Ask them if they do author interviews (these are my FAVORITE things in the whole wide world), character interviews, takeover events, guests posts, etc… ANYTHING that will get some hype going pre-release.
You're also going to want to get your ARCs (Advance Reader Copies) out to them AT LEAST a month in advance. I don't recommend going much further out than that, but a solid four weeks gives them enough time with your manuscript to read through it, write a well-structured review, and if they loved it, they'll be talking about it while they wait for release day. This is what you want. Remember, these people are SUPER busy and they do all of this for FREE. Don't pester them about it. Don't freak out if they haven't sent you an email the day before release day. Most of them won't. Just watch your POS (point of sale) site on release day and wait for the reviews to roll in.
Most bloggers put a considerable amount of time into their reviews (we're talking PARAGRAPHS, folks) and they LOVE when you share that hard work for them. It's WAY better than a "thank you" note. Share the review and tag them where you can. That increases traffic to their page and keeps all of us in business.
I'll even recommend a few of my favorites to get you started:
Books, Chocolate and Wine
Glass Paper Ink Bookblog
FMR Book Grind
Wicked Reads
2 Girls Who Love Books
Hopelessly Devoted 2 Books
These are just a few of the MANY blogs that have supported me throughout my career and they're honestly an absolute joy to work with. I could go on for DAYS, but these ones came to mind most readily.
I'm not going to blow sunshine up your ass and tell you this stuff is simple. It's not. It requires a LOT of work and a calendar on your phone that will send you notifications to remember that you have things to do. What I WILL tell you is that it's worth the time you have to put into it. I WILL tell you that it's going to take away from your writing time and your family time and your "real job" time. I WILL tell you that even if you do ALL of these things, there's no guarantee that your book will hit Bestseller (none of mine have yet, but I've come VERY close this last time around). And I will also tell you that if you DON'T do these things, your career as an indie author will be very short lived.
Oh, by the way, you NEED to read this book!
You can read it for FREE if you have KU or Prime!
US: http://amzn.com/B00YDVCK50
UK: http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B00YDVCK50
CA: http://www.amazon.ca/dp/B00YDVCK50
AU: http://www.amazon.com.au/gp/product/B00YDVCK50?*Version*=1&*entries*=0
I also do interviews, guest posts, takeovers, and happily let you cry on my shoulder if you're having a bad day. Feel free to email me at firstname.lastname@example.com or hit me up in the comments below!
You can also follow me on Facebook and Twitter!
As always, Happy Writing!


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If you have kids in elementary school, you have most likely succumbed to the nightly homework battle! Your child refuses to do his/her homework or struggles to stay focused during homework time. You try your best to remain calm but after repeated reminders to stay on task, you loose it and start to yell. Every parent has been there and no, this does not make you a bad parent, it makes you human! Here's a few tips to help you stay calm and to put an end to the nightly homework battles:
1. Plan ahead and stick to a daily routine! Create a homework station in your home where you child feels most comfortable to sit down and complete their homework. Some kids enjoy working in their rooms, others prefer to sit at the kitchen table or island. Stock the homework station with a caddy/organizer filled with sharpened pencils, colored pencils, crayons, markers, scissors, tape and a glue stick. Make homework time a consistent daily routine. For example, in our house, when we come home from school or an after-school activity, our daughters take off their shoes, wash their hands and sit down at the kitchen island for a quick snack and to do their homework. We have one elementary school aged daughter who is assigned homework Monday-Thursday and a preschooler who does not have any homework. Our younger daughter has been asking for homework of her own (she loves to do whatever her big sister is doing) so I bought a "Draw and Write" journal from Lakeshore Learning Store. I "assign" her daily homework by asking her to draw a picture of the letter of the week she's learning about in school or to draw a picture or to write a few letters (with help from me) about any topic she's interested in.
2. Set a timer. I've found that setting a timer for 15-20 minutes (for students in kindergarten, first or second grades) is highly motivating! Young kids have a hard time sitting still for long periods of time, especially after they've sat for a long time during the school day. If homework takes longer than 15-20 minutes to complete, break it up with a snack or a short walk outside. Then, set the timer for another 5-15 minutes (or however long you think your child will need to complete the assignment).
3. Be encouraging! Kids respond well to positive praise and comments like, "I like the way you are coloring your picture" or "I can tell you are really focusing on your math problems. Great job!"
4. Stay calm! This is the hardest part. We all know that kids do not respond well to stress and when we resort to yelling at our kids to "do your homework NOW!" we end up feeling badly and our kids feel pressured and anxious. If you sense that you are getting frustrated that your child is either not focusing or is simply struggling to understand a concept, give yourself a time out and take a minute (or five minutes!) away. Walk into another room, take a deep breath, drink a glass of water or make yourself a cup of tea. This is actually a teachable moment for our kids in how we handle feelings of frustration. You can even narrate how you are feeling by saying something like, "I'm feeling really frustrated right now, so I'm going to take a few deep breaths, calm myself down and figure out how to best deal with this situation. I'll be back in a minute." Not only will you calm down by walking away from a heated situation, but you are teaching your child how to calm him/herself down when they feel frustrated, overwhelmed or angry.
5. Get creative! If you have a long commute home from school, consider allowing your child to do so of their assigned reading in the car. Our older daughter tends to get her 20 minutes of daily reading done easily between the ride to and from school and to after-school activities. Then, at bedtime, we can relax and unwind with bedtime stories together. I often ask our older daughter to read one page and I'll read the next and I'l have our preschooler point out simple sight words like "I" or "me" and/or letters of the alphabet she can identify. If your child needs more daily math practice, have him/her do math flashcards in the car ride to or from school to work on basic addition and subtraction math facts.


text: As part of Securing The Human's commitment to the community, every month we post a new security awareness video. For February, we just released our newest awareness video "Advanced Persistent Threat". This five minute video explains in simple terms what APT is, walks your through how they operate, and what you can do to protect yourself against them. With all the recent news about targeted attacks (The New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Washington Post) we felt APT was the perfect topic for February.


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Flicka is about Katie and her horse. Katie lives on a ranch with her caring family. She finds a black mustang and names her Flicka. Katie's father doesn't let her go near the wild beast because he is protective of her. Katie rebels against her father's rule and does the opposite. Every night she tames and trains Flicka. Katie feels free when she is near her horse. Katie's father doesn't understand that she needs Flicka like humans need air or fish need water. When he understands...they have peace and run the farm together. I like this movie because when I watch it I also feel free. I recommend this movie because it teaches wonderful lessons. Katie follows her dreams and learns that a father's protection is special and important. Katie's father learns to trust in his daughter and her dreams.
Feb 26, 2007
Flicka, The Film
Labels: Bible, film, Home-Education, worldview
Praise Dance
Swirling around with my colorful, twinkling tutu.
Leaping in air when my feet touch the heavens of God.
Skipping with my knees doing hopscotch moves.
Reaching with my hands to the Savior.
Stretching with my legs in the sky.
Praising the Lord with my dancing.
My brown, long, streaked hair twisting in the mirror.
Labels: Bible, Home-Education, worldview
Feb 21, 2007
2 Chronicles 16:9
"For the eyes of the Lord run to and fro throughout the whole earth, to show Himself strong on behalf of those whose heart is loyal to Him."
The Gift of Family
How blessed...joyful...pleased...honored.... I am to have a dad who picks up the boys after lunch to play a game of tennis...or who runs around in cammies on many a Saturday....... getting shot up by paint balls with them and their friends... or jam packs the car tight with snacks and supplies for overnight hunting trips. It's so special that my mom watches Zion on Mondays so that the older kids and I can go to classes...without three year old distractions. Not only does this support me and minister to me...but my baby gets to be with her grandmother...as the big girls so often do. They look forward to their lunches out...shopping trips... and sleep overs. How about our dear friends...offering guitar lessons to Bria without charge...because there's just no way exchanging money with family feels right? And my girlfriends...they give themselves to my children so tirelessly week in and week out. I am so blessed! What a supportive family and extended family we have been given! Thank you, Lord...for meeting our needs in such loving ways.
Feb 15, 2007
Fathers, Sons, and Brothers
Lord, may their hearts be turned towards one another. Please strengthen their bonds and place a hedge of protection around their relationships.
Home-Educating Mothers
Thoughts taken from an encouraging blog.
1. Educating children at home is a full-time job. Don't get irritated if she consistently allows the answering machine to do its job. If she were a teacher in an institutional classroom, you probably wouldn't think of calling her during school hours, so try to realize that while still at home, she is keeping regular school hours, too.
2. Unlike homes in which the children are gone for eight straight hours, her home is in a constant state of activity. The children are not only home, they are home making messes. All day long. Their mother doesn't even have the opportunity to go into their rooms while they are at school and weed out the junk. And if she is like me, you might find odd homeschooly things lying around- like the month we had a dead turtle in the garage fridge.
3. Housekeeping and homeschooling are mutually exclusive. If she is doing her job educating her children academically, then her house is not being cleaned. If she takes the day to clean the house, then school wil not be accomplished.
4. Place realistic expectations on her- she cannot simultaneously teach school, make three square meals, keep a house that looks like it has sprung out of the pages of Architectural Digest, have her nails done, drive children to extracurricular activities, and have all the clothing laundered and pressed. Something's gotta give, and in my experience, it is usually her personal care. So don't expect her to don the latest styles, have her roots meticulously dyed at just the right moment, and her aforementioned nails filed and polished to perfection. And while most of us aren't slovenly, we just tend to put some superfluous aspects of personal care at the bottom of the to-do list.
5. For many of us, homeschooling isn't an option. Many believe it is not only the best way for their family, it is the only way. Many see homeschooling as a Scriptural directive. When sharing a particular struggle unique to homeschooling, comments like, "Well, why don't you consider putting them in school? Maybe homeschooling just isn't your thing" aren't helpful. Instead, offer a listening ear and your fervent prayers on her behalf.
6. If you are truly concerned about the state of her emotions, home, children, or marriage, offer practical help to ease her burden. Personal time is at a premium for her, so consider offering to take her kids for the day so she can recuperate. If you like to do laundry, offer to come over and get the loads going, fold, and/or iron. If you like to cook, consider putting together some meals that she can store in the freezer for days when time is at a premium. If she teaches a broad spectrum of ages and grades, consider offering to come in once a week or more to teach preschool to the little ones. One grandma I know created "Nana U" for her preschool grandson (number five of seven) and not only did it ease her homeshooling daughter's burden, it created a special bond between grandma and the child.
But there's a caveat here: ASK her what would be most helpful to her. Don't presume to know what would help her. Taking the oldest children for the day might be fun for you, but it's quite possibly not at all helpful to her. The living room might need to be vacuumed, but it's not helpful if she's trying to take a nap. Someone once told me, "If it's not wanted, it's not helpful."
7. Think about what a financial burden homeschooling may be placing on the family. The loss of her possible income can be a real struggle nowadays, and you might be able to buoy her for another year by offering to purchase little things like simple school supplies. Gifts for the children like books on subjects of interest to the child, field trip fees, museum memberships, and the money to pay for music lessons or other extracurricular activities are the best thing you could give a homeschooling family. Not only does a homeschooling mom not need one more thing to manage or pick up, she would be thrilled to see you take an interest in the many academic items on her wish list.
8. Simple questions like, "How can I pray for you?" and "Is there any way I can help you?" are like a cool breeze in her life. Don't assume you know her needs- ask. You could just be the vessel God uses to carry her on through this very demanding and ultimately rewarding season of her life.
Feb 13, 2007
Ugly Thoughts
If only the thoughts floating through my brain were lovely...but they are not. Not tonight. I'm sickened by sin this week and it's only Tuesday. I have all sorts of evil, gross things maneuvering around my brain. Things I don't want to know...things I don't want to see...hear...dwell on. I'm sick to my stomach. This state we walk around in...this state of pre-glory living...it is so marred...so bruised and scarred. Left to ourselves...we do no good. Lord, protect us from ourselves. Help us to desire to submit to your will for our lives no matter the cost. We know this desire can only come from You. And, Lord, please let us not be deceived by our own wayward hearts. Lord, turn your sinning church back...Lord, bring discipline upon your children. And by it...let us testify to your correction, protection, and undying love.
Feb 10, 2007
Gospel Colors
Black= Our Sin
Red= His Blood
White= Purity
Blue= Holy Spirit
Green= Growth In Christ
Gold= Streets Of Heaven
Feb 5, 2007
Grow Where You Are Planted
New York City is where we were married. I have an affinity towards a Coney Island Nathan's hotdog, 0rangeade and potato knishes smeared with deli mustard. Chestnuts don't seem quite right unless they are served piping hot out of a brown paper bag from some guy standing on a corner and the Atlantic seems to fit me somehow. I have fond memories of seeing Lady Liberty from my backseat window everyday as we commuted over the Verazanno and of knowing that the Twin Towers would always mark the skyline. Later on, when we moved further away...out of the boroughs...across state lines...it was normal to pass by a doe and her fawn drinking from a pond...or to read the barely readable names of Revolutionary War-time families on backyard, moss covered tombstones. The mile long country road which started at my bus stop...was lined with centuries old, grown over, hand stacked, stone walls on either side... and led to my Connecticut Yankee home situated on a secluded cul de sac where not a city light shone...and the moon was hardly visible due to a canopy of lush foilage.
L.A. is where we owned our first home...a 1928 remodel with an art deco fireplace right off of Crenshaw... and had our first baby. Bradley feels peace at the beach. It's where he, his brother and his mom would spend their week-ends after the divorce. It's where we got to know eachother better... one Saturday morning...early in our relationship...on the sand...talking for hours...under the cliffs of Malibu. The scent of salt water...the thick, morning haze which burns off in the afternoons, the Santa Monica Pier...to him, the Pacific seems right...like a fit. Much like the San Fernando Valley does...with houses built in the seventies...a bit run down now...and maybe smaller than remembered...but still filled with families and their dreams. In L.A., it was a Carney's hotdog and chili-cheese fries...eaten at 2 a.m. on your way home from some club on the Sunset Strip...or climbing the Hollywood sign on the week-ends to spray paint your name above the City of Angels...or so you could just say you did it while high-fiving your friends. It was where you and they were the characters in "Valley Girl", "Less Than Zero", and "The Breakfast Club" without even realizing it.
Russia...the land of onion dome churches and age segregated rooms in run down places. The location where dogs growled and snow covered the ground. Where things are now foggy and far off...like Kazakhstan...distant memories of yearly national costumes...dances and music...of playgrounds covered in broken glass...discarded needles and orthodox nannies with orthodox orphans...Muslim nannies with Muslim orphans...hurriedly passing each other in the dark, stinking hallways while smiling in their different languages. Both places introduced two girls to their parents..Bradley and I.
Arizona is where we live life now...us and our five kids......amongst mountains, blooming cacti, coyotes howling over jackrabbit feasts...javelinas on the driveway...double rainbows and summer monsoons that take our breath away. There are hikes and snake holes...bob cats creeping along the backyard fence and tarantulas caught between the screen and its door.... jogs through the saguaros...rattlesnakes on the front doorstep...scorpions in the closet and wild mustangs at sunset...but no beaches.
Does where we spend our time affect our leanings and affinities? Of course it does. Does He have a purpose in placing us where He does when He does? Of course He does. Is it an accident that I love learning about history, Ellis Island, our wars and all things nostalgic? That I am thrilled and mesmerized with black and white images of days long ago? That I see the world as a melting pot of stories? No, I don't believe so. My placement has contributed to His purposes for my life.
Is it an accident that Bradley breaths a deep sigh of recognition whenever he merges onto the 1O and heads west? Of course not. That place represents what could have been for Bradley. What might have been for his broken family. What might have been for his dreams. It represents all his happy memories too. It is the home of film...a strong passion of his... born and nurtured in the place where he came from.
If I had been born and raised on Kauai...would my passions be different? If He had placed me on an island in the middle of the ocean ...might I love the sea and all its creatures? Might I have a heart for surfers and a longing to share with them? Possibly. If Bradley grew up in Sudan, might he have a desire to fight back, stay and rebuild and... preach in the surrounding refugee camps? Possibly. The thing is...the Lord places people all over His creation so that they might live out His will for their lives.
How will He use Arizona in our lives and the lives of our children? I do not know. But I know He will. He is an intentional, strategic and purposeful Father who sees the larger picture and wants to fit us into it. May He use our histories and current circumstances to glorify Himself any way He sees fit. May we grow where we are planted and be willing to let Him uproot us any time He sees fit.
Labels: A Day In The Life, adoption, Bible, Home-Education, worldview
Feb 3, 2007
The Barn
Not to us....but to Your Name..... be the glory.
Lord, please direct our talents, passions and abilities in a way that pleases you. Lord, please direct us and make a way for us...according to your will.
"And let the beauty of the Lord our God be upon us,
And establish the work of our hands for us; Yes, establish the work of our hands."
Psalm 90:17
Proverbs 14:1
Oh Lord...please give us wisdom as we travel the road of motherhood. Thank you for the blessing of stewarding these precious hearts you've entrusted into our care. Remind us daily that our role is indeed a blessing. Lord, I ask for endurance for each mother I know...to walk in the light of your truth.
Lord, when we are overwhelmed or underwhelmed by life's ins and outs, when we're fearful of what the future holds, or prideful in the moment,...stir us to bow our hearts and knees to you...Abba Father.
Lord, thank you for walking with us. Thank you for carrying us when we feel as if we can go no further. You teach us how to be loving mothers by being such a loving Father.
"The wise woman builds her house, But the foolish pulls it down with her hands." Proverbs 14: 1
A Friend = One Who Loves
For Cate:
There are many ways in which the Lord shows His love for me. One way................He gave me a sister. She gently guides me back when I wander.
"But there is a friend who sticks closer than a brother." Proverbs 18:24
Labels: A Day In The Life, Bible, worldview


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Degrees and Certifications:
Mrs. Bridge
I received my Bachelor's degree in Elementary Education from NIU in Dekalb, Illinois. I have middle school endorsements in language arts, social studies, and science.
I joined the Plank team in 2014. I am a proud Pirate and am a part of the AVID team here at Plank.
In the left hand collumn, you will find access to information about 6th and 7th grade science


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Town History
In the early 1870's two American businessmen were tipped off by their friend James J. Hill, the great railroad entrepreneur, about an area in Manitoba which possessed an extraordinary potential for developing into the principal economic center for the region. With eager optimism, Thomas Carney and William Fairbanks led a colonization party in the spring of 1874 to settle the prairie on the east side of the Red River at the Canada-U.S. border.
The fledgling community lived in the hope that their village would become the thriving junction for not only the north to south railway line, but the intended east to west cross Canada route, the arterial channel to the new Canadian West. Expressing high aspirations for the settlement, Fairbanks named the town after a philosophical champion of man's individual nature, the American poet Ralph Waldo Emerson.
In mid-July, 1875, a Red River steamer, either the S.S. International or the Dakota, docked at Fort Dufferin on the west bank of the Red River just north of Emerson/West Lynne. Hundreds of men, women and children arrived from South Russia to settle in Manitoba's Pembina Reserve (later called West Reserve).
From 1880 to 1882 Emerson was booming. In 1880 Emerson had an annual assessment of $476,000; by 1882 this figure had risen to over a million dollars.
Disaster struck in 1882, when Emerson, at the peak of its prosperity, experienced its first flood. Three feet six inches covered the town. The following year, 1883, brought another flood with a depth of two feet ten inches. This wasn't the last flood Emerson was to experience. Emerson flooded again in 1893, 1897, 1916, and 1950. The most recent flood, 1997, Emerson was surrounded by water but managed to keep dry, thanks to the community ring dike, which surrounds the town. The year of 1999 brought the March West. The trek began May 8th, 1999 at Fort Dufferin in Emerson, Manitoba and continued west, ending in Edmonton, Alberta July 24th, 1999.
The March West closely followed the route traveled by the North West Mounted Police in 1874 by the first Canadian police force. Today Emerson is a charming, friendly town with an average population of about 700. Emerson Port of Entry is a major border crossing, accommodating nearly a million travelers per year. The twinning of Highway #75 has greatly enhanced travel for visitors from the U.S.A. as well as Canadians going south.
- Emerson Franklin History
- Town History
- Railway History
- Court House
- Customs History
- Wounded Warrior Site
- The Swinging Cable Bridge
- The Sturgeon
- Local Maps
- Photo Gallery
- Recreation & Wellness
- Things To Do/See
- Places To Go
- Places To Stay
- Local Restaurants and Stores
- Emerson Golf Course
- Kyle Memorial Golf Course
- Roseau River Water Adventure
- Crow Wing Trail
- Sunrise Corner
- Stories/Your Pictures
- Community Halls


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Ok…it's been wayyyyy too long! I haven't blogged in awhile. I decided to try to catch up on all the things at the store!
Where do I start? I guess I'll start with what happened this week. First of all, I just got a new gypsy! I received it Wednesday, and I've been playing with it all week. My Verdict: I love it!
If you don't know what a gypsy is, it is an accessory that goes with the cricut. What does it do? Gosh. It does a whole lot! I would start by saying it stores all your cartridges in one place! You can take it with you without having to bring all your cartridges and the bulky boxes. The little device connects to your Cricut and you use your cartridges in ways you never thought you could! It's really like a mini computer. The beauty of it is….it weld's your letters and images together! You can mix images from one cartridge and letters from another…weld it all together and cut! It is really pretty amazing!
I wouldn't recommend it for everyone. If you hate fooling with computers, don't even think about getting it. It will sit in the box for a long time. It is kinda tedious getting started, but once you have all the uploads and updates and cartridges loaded, It's not too bad. I have alot to do before the show, but at the end of July I would like to get a class together and teach people how to use it.
*** If you do have one, we do make the gypsy styluses to attach to your stylus. It's a must. I put one on my stylus and still had trouble keeping track of it all week.
New Kitz Girlz Disney Kitz!
Ok…wendy and I are so excited! The response to our Disney Kitz kind of took us by surprise! I'm so excited so many people are ordering our Kitz! The cost is only $40….for all 4 layouts!!!! Check them out:
***Note: For the Buzz Lightyear layout, you have a choice of the Buzz Jolee's or the Toy Story Jolees
If you would like to reserve one of these kitz, reserve your kitz here: http://trmemories.com/kitz-2-go.html
Classes for the Rayne Forest:
If you are attending the Event, we have some awesome classes for the Rayne Forest! You can sign up for them right now!!!!
Capella Bella
Designed and Taught by Connie Girard
Frogs Just Wanna Have Fun
Designed and Taught by the Kitz Girlz
Designed and Taught by Wendy Reaux
There are limited spaces available, so sign up early!!! http://www.trmemories.com/rayne-forest-classes.html
The Acadiana Cropper Event
The event is right around the corner!! I can't wait to see everyone! We have an awesome make and take prepared….and we will be custom making Trinkets (Scissor Charms and Gypsy Charms)! This is the perfect gift for all those "Secret Pals"!
***I'm also teaching a "New Orleans rendezvous" Class. Tabitha, the director of the crop told me that my class was pretty full. I can take 4 more students. If you haven't sign up for the class, make sure you do so when you get to the event. I'm going to also try and make about 8 more kits to sell. The class is going to be Friday Evening. I will have 20 students. If you are taking the class, please come to our booth Thursday evening or some time Friday, and I can take everyone personally aside and help them do their spectrum. This way I can have individual attention with each student to teach them this technique. You'll also be able to go to class and have the hardest part complete!!! You are going to love this technique!!!!


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There Is More Than One Kind of Fernet In the World
This piece originally appeared on Liquor.com.
A long-time favorite of bartenders, Fernet Branca has made a huge leap in popularity in the cocktail world during the past decade or so. A go-to in much of Argentina (where it's mixed with Coca-Cola), San Francisco and, of course, Italy, where it was invented in 1845, fernet's reach—and the drinking public's familiarity with it—has exploded.
Though the powerful liqueur has been described as "brooding" and "aftershave-like," (are we allowed to quote ourselves?) and has been compared to things like "Robitussin," many a bartending professional enjoys the minty amaro as a shot. That brave approach isn't for everyone. Those who aren't willing to down the digestif in one quick go might instead prefer it in a fine cocktail, like the Hanky Panky or the Fernando. But sometimes Fernet Branca's distinctiveness doesn't quite pop in certain recipes. That's where other brands of fernet come in.
The popularity of the spiced amaro, which can be made with a combination of anything from cardamom and myrrh to chamomile and saffron, has inspired distilleries large and small to experiment. While almost all kinds have a relatively high alcohol content for amaro (most hover around 40 percent ABV) and an aftertaste that lingers perhaps a bit longer than you sometimes like, each distillery that bottles fernet creates a unique liqueur.
Take Fernet Leopold Highland Amaro ($33), for instance. Made in Denver, Colorado since 2012 by Leopold Bros distillery, Fernet Leopold's flavor is heavy on spice notes, particularly cloves. It's infused with gentian root, lavender, ginger and sarsaparilla, then aged in Chardonnay barrels, giving this fernet an all-around different flavor than most fernets on the market. It's also quite easy to drink over ice, with a twist.
Certain fernet bottlings have heavy menthol, almost piney flavors, like Luxardo Fernet ($26). As with Fernet Branca, it's made in the motherland. The herbal aftertaste doesn't linger too long in the Luxardo Fernet, but the same can't be said for Tempus Fugit Spirits Fernet del frate Angelico ($60), which sits on the tip of the tongue long after taking a sip. The Swiss amaro was released in 2013, but is based on an old Italian recipe, one that likely dates from the 1800s.
Another old-recipe fernet that's new-to-the-States is Fernet-Vallet ($25). Made in Mexico for about 150 years, it's a common addition to Highballs. It's only been available in the States since 2013. This bottling is incredibly balanced, with notes of rhubarb, cloves, cardamom and, not surprisingly, menthol.
An even newer option showing up in liquor stores across the country since July 2014 is Chicago's Letherbee Fernet ($39). It may look a little intimidating in the bottle—and that's because it is. The extremely viscous and slightly minty fernet tingles something fierce—perhaps that's the eucalyptus talking?—and would certainly stand up in cocktails.
These five bottlings span the fernet flavor spectrum from mint-forward to spice-heavy to downright mind-boggling, but they're just a sampling of what is currently available. Go ahead. Start a fernet exploration.


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Universal Life Insurance
Universal life insurance policies are a new option and an alternative to the older term life insurance polices that have a fixed period of life cover typically for no longer than 30 years and as the applicants age increases, the amount of the maximum term reduces to 20 or even as little as a maximum of 10 years. Universal life insurance differs from the fixed term in that as it will provide cover until the policy holder dies; it is guaranteed that payouts on the policy will be made regardless of the policy holder's age, given that the insurance payments are continuously made by the policy holder.
As the insurer is not in the business of losing money, a scheme that on one hand offers value for the policy holder, must on the other hand allows the insurer to invest the premiums paid in a way to earn attractive interest. In the case of fixed term insurance policies, the payout on death is not guaranteed during the life of the policy. In addition, the value of the life insurance fund can vary as a policy for someone who is in their middle age at the peak of their income earning capacity will be needed to fund different requirements from a policy holder whose outgoings and financial commitments will be reduced when they reach pensionable age.
Your life insurance advisor may recommend a combination of policies which can include a whole life and term combination or alternatively a universal life policy. In any case, the premiums to be paid for universal life insurance policy payable up until the age of 120 and with coverage until the age of 120 will be approximately double that for a term insurance policy. Recently, insurance companies have released and promoted fixed rate policies, the rates are guaranteed to be fixed and invariable for the duration of the policy, assuming that inflation will continue at even at modest rates, this is certainly a highly attractive option.
This highly attractive option is different from previous years where the policy holder's policy plan was valued on its own and its value stayed in force based on its earning and its own guarantees. The difference has been achieved by the application of a new scheme where the death benefits are reinsured by companies called reinsurance companies. They charge and guarantee the payout to the frontline insurance companies using insurance premiums for bulk investments in various financial markets in order to get the maximum returns.
One of the key advantages over whole life insurance is that universal life insurance offers premium flexibility and adjustable life benefits if this option is selected or fixed rate lifetime premiums if this is preferred. There is one key risk that certain universal life policies will lapse if the cash values of the policy can no longer cover the insurance policy administration expenses. The majority of universal life insurance policies have a sliding scale of payout that is as the policy holder gets older, the amount of the payout reduces year on year until it reaches zero. In order to raise the attraction of a universal life policy, a new package has been introduced which is known as a guaranteed universal life policy that for a slightly higher payment of the premium, it offers in return greater payouts on death and higher surrender values if the policy is surrendered.
There are a number of good reasons you could be attracted to universal life insurance. If you are concerned that upon your death, your medical bills or funeral and burial expenses may not be covered, the use of a universal life insurance policy can be a guarantee of peace of mind. If your family and dependents continue to rely on you to support their income, the use of a universal life insurance policy can allow you to continue to provide for them even after your death.
With the explosion of credit and mortgage facilities in the past years, you may have commitments that legally can be passed from the debtors to their descendents. By using universal life insurance, it can cover these debts to avoid financial problems for them to add to their sadness at your passing away.


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The Prime Minster will enter the campaign for the parliamentary seat of Eastleigh today when he travels to the constituency for the first time since Chris Huhne stood down.
David Cameron's party is attempting to overturn a Liberal Democrat majority of just under 4,000 votes.
A win would help to calm those on his backbenches who worry he is not the right man to lead them to an outright victory at the general election in 2015.
If he can win here, all the concerns among traditional Conservatives over Europe, gay marriage and the faltering economic recovery will be put aside - for a time at least.
Lose to the Lib Dems and that resentment will continue to grow.
The majority (3,864) is not insurmountable - but this is an election in which one side of the unpopular coalition is fighting the other. How to be united nationally and yet picks fights locally?
Nick Clegg has been here already. His party has held this seat since another by-election, under controversial circumstances, in 1994.
And given their association with the Tories in government, the Lib Dems are keeping this fight local.
You hear them talk about council tax and housing, not the national deficit and spending cuts.
The truth is, the Lib Dems are very strong in this corner of Hampshire. In the bit of the local council which mirrors the constituency, the party has 36 out of 36 councillors.
It is why the Lib Dems are the bookies' favourite to succeed here. Just.
Read: Eastleigh candidates announced
Ed Miliband has not been here yet. But he is coming.
This former railway town should have a strong Labour base but the constituency takes in some pretty yachting villages along the River Hamble and some large housing developments on the outskirts of neighbouring Southampton.
As for UKIP? I maintain party leader Nigel Farage would have shaken up this campaign had he decided to stand. His party is likely to get a much better result than in 2010 but I don't yet see any signs that this by-election is going to yield UKIP its first MP.
Read: UKIP's Nigel Farage rules out running for Huhne's seat
So in the constituency in which the Spitfire took its maiden flight before the Second World War, the Battle of Eastleigh is now under way. This will be a Cameron vs. Clegg contest and one of them will have to deal with the consequences of losing.
Both their parties expect.


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Lately it seems like bees just can't get a break. This is the tenth consecutive year of exceptional annual bee losses. And despite heightened attention to the plight of the nation's pollinators—which are essential to producing $15 billion worth of U.S. agricultural products a year—these losses continue to grow.
Beekeepers and scientists point to a suite of factors impacting bee health. But fundamentally, what's stressing bees most is our current approach to agriculture: extensive pesticide use, crop monocultures, and planting patterns that have eliminated many of the blooming plants important to bees. Recent science also shows that multiple pesticide exposures are weakening bee immune systems and making them more vulnerable to diseases and pests.
At the heart of this debate are neonicotinoids, now considered the world's most widely used type of pesticide. When the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) first approved neonicotinoids for use in the 1990s, many questions about their toxicity were left unanswered. But they were known to be toxic to bees at high levels of exposure. Now, in a just released draft assessment of imidacloprid—one of a handful of neonicotinoids in use and the first of four such assessments scheduled—the EPA says that any "residue level" above 25 parts per billion may harm "pollinator hives."
This is significant, especially considering the way neonicotinoids are most often used: in seed treatments as systemic pesticides. As systemics, they stay with the plant as it grows and are present in nectar, pollen, and leaf surface moisture—places where bees can be exposed repeatedly to just the types of levels EPA now says are harmful.
In the U.S., neonicotinoids are now used on most of the corn and soy we grow, as well as on crops like citrus, cotton, wheat, grapes, and nut orchards. An estimated 150 million-plus acres are planted with neonicotinoid-treated seeds across the U.S. They're also in many landscaping and garden products and are used to treat outdoor building materials. And their use has escalated rapidly. According to the U.S. Geological Survey, between 2004 and 2013, neonicotinoids used on corn went from less than half a million pounds to over 3 million pounds, and use on soy went from virtually none reported to over a million pounds.
Beekeepers Sue EPA Over Seed Treatments
"I'm out picking up dead hives right now," said beekeeper and past president of the American Beekeeping Federation, Tim Tucker, speaking with Civil Eats from his home in southeastern Kansas. Tucker estimates that he's lost about 50 percent of his hives so far this winter.
Commercial honeybees are expected die-off in winter, but over the past 10 years these losses have consistently been unacceptably high. And now beekeepers are also losing hives during the summer—sometimes in greater numbers than over the winter. The losses, said Tucker, "are way beyond what some of us who've been in the business 30 years" ever expected to see.
On January 6, the same day the EPA released its imidacloprid assessment, a group of beekeepers, farmers, and environmental groups filed suit against the EPA. The lawsuit contends that by failing to consider neonicotinoid seed treatments as pesticide use, the agency isn't properly regulating them.
As concern has grown over neonicotinoids' adverse impacts on bees, the EPA has taken steps to limit their use when plants are blooming and bees are present. But these measures don't apply to seed treatments. In fact, explained plaintiff and beekeeper Jeff Anderson, according to the EPA, neonicotinoid seeds are "not considered a pesticide application," and are thus being used without adequate precautions.
As Paul Towers, spokesperson for Pesticide Action Network, one of the plaintiffs, explained, "Use of these products has grown astronomically and the EPA is ignoring the extent of this use."
These seed treatments have "all the effects of a pesticide poisoning," says American Beekeeping Federation president Gene Brandi, who, like Tucker, is not a party to this lawsuit, but shares the plaintiffs' concerns.
Not only do these systemic pesticides end up throughout the crop plants and get transported back to hives, but when they're used on corn seeds, their neonicotinoid coating often flies off as dust when the seeds are planted mechanically, explains Anderson. This material, he says, contaminates vegetation on field borders and "you end up with a lot of queen [bee] mortality that ties directly to spring planting," he says.
The plaintiffs contend that the EPA is well aware of these problems and has not done enough to warn farmers. The agency has also said it won't require warnings or restrictions on these these pesticides until they are formally reevaluated—a process that can take years.
Neonicotinoid manufacturers Bayer and Syngenta say they stand by their products. "We urge EPA to vigorously defend its current policies, which are clearly applicable to treated seed," said Syngenta in a statement. According to Bayer, the EPA itself has found that "by and large imidacloprid did not pose risks to honey bee colonies, particularly on common agricultural crops like corn, potatoes, and tomatoes."
Anderson, Brandi, and Tucker all point to what they call the "prophylactic" use of pesticides as a big part of the problem. Using them preventatively is a "complete departure" from a sustainable approach to pest management, says Tucker. "The whole neonic thing was not done properly," he adds.
The EPA's imidacloprid assessment is now open for public comment until mid-March. Draft risk assessments for three other neonicotinoids: clothianidin, thiamethoxam, and dinotefuran are expected in December. In the meantime, business continues as usual. And in less than a month's time the country's biggest pollination event of the year will get underway: California's almond bloom.
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- Wednesday, January 20th, 2016Anyone who wants to place neonics front and center in the debate over bees needs to temper their reading with input from the likes of Randy Oliver at Scientific Beekeeping. Banning neonics, for example, may place us in a *worse* position in terms of pesticides and pollinator hives. We need to continue research and continue development of safer products alongside better enforcement and development of safe application.
A genuinely serious issue is nutrition. Agriculture practices are doing very great harm in this area.
Also baffling to me is an article discussing honeybee decline over decades without so much as a mention of primary causes like the varroa mite, or clear mention that colony losses over winter is not the same as overall loss of managed honeybee colonies.
- Sunday, July 23rd, 2017Remember there are no safer pesticides, as there are no safe bullets.
Any pesticide used will kill bees if they are exposed to it enough. It is not so much the initial lethal exposure but the acccumulative effect.
- Thursday, January 21st, 2016What research has been done in a comparison to highly successful crop rotatiion with use of hemp to weed and fertilize fields? None! Yet....... it works better then any chemical, so why not promote farming on this level?
- Sunday, January 24th, 2016Why aren't the EPA scientists acting to correct these problems? Isn't it their responsibilities?
- Sunday, January 31st, 201625 parts per BILLION? What is it going to take before we start protecting the bees? Imidacloprid kills bees effectively, yet we continue to allow it to be used as a seed treatment. The seed treatment has not shown ANY benefit to crops, so why is it still being practiced? Not only is it killing bees, it kills birds too.
- Sunday, July 23rd, 2017The chemical companies have deep pockets and lobbyist in their pockets, maybe the E.P.A. The powers to be the E.P.A. as it's name states is suppose to protect the environment . It's not rocket science that the bee species is highly vulnerable to pesticides it's synergist and also herbicides.


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Chris had been telling me his friend -- D. -- "can't do commas."
(I don't absolutely know Chris can do commas, by the way, though I think that, on the punctuation front, he's pretty much arrived. Will have to ask Ed, who's been advising Chris on history papers this year. Suffice it to say Chris knows enough about commas to be able to copy-edit D's papers.)
UPDATE 1/12/2014: Ed says Chris's punctuation is fine. It was basically fine by the time he graduated high school.
Anyway, I'd been mulling D's situation, and had decided I could probably fix all of D's comma problems in a couple of weeks, max.
The reason I was pretty sure all of D's comma problems could be remedied in a couple of weeks is that I've just about got sentence punctuation boiled down to the absolute, bare minimum of things you need to know in order to punctuate declarative sentences in college papers, and guess what?
There are only 8 basic sentence punctuation patterns.
That's not very many, eight.
To learn the 8 patterns, you need to know:
- Finite and nonfinite verbs
- Independent and dependent clauses
- Restrictive and nonrestrictive modifiers (how to tell them apart)
- Coordinators
- Subordinators (aka dependent marker words)
- Adverbial conjunctions (which I call "fancy FANBOYS" in class)
So I figured I could simply tell a smart kid like D. how to use commas in sentences, and he would know. His writing is good -- I've seen it -- it really is just the commas that are the problem.
So today Chris and D. did Hunter College's Exercise B, and I looked it over.
Turned out D. had never heard of "comma splices."
Or dependent clauses.
Never, in 13 years of public-school English class and 1 year of writing instruction at NYU (tuition $48k).
His only tactic for deploying commas was to listen for pauses as he wrote. Listening for pauses is a good idea as far as it goes, but, as D. pointed out, it's not going to fix comma splices. It's going to cause comma splices.
I suspect that listening for pauses may have caused both of the mistakes he was making:
- He was hearing the pause between sentences loud and clear, and was inserting naked commas* between sentences he wanted to join.
- He wasn't hearing the pause between opening dependent clauses and main clauses -- or, more likely, he was hearing the pause but was experiencing it, correctly, as softer than the pause between sentences. So he was failing to place commas after "introductory elements."
The instant I explained to D. that, generally speaking, in college prose you're not supposed to use commas to join sentences, he got it. He correctly punctuated the last four sentences on the page without further ado.
I'm pretty sure he instantly got introductory subordinate clauses as well. I told him that, with "introductory elements," you can just listen for the pause and use a comma or not, depending.
I'm pretty sure that observation is true (once someone tells you that introductory elements are usually followed by commas). At least, it seems to be true with my students, but take it with a grain of salt. Somehow, for native speakers, hearing introductory elements appears to be natural even for students who have never in their lives placed a comma after an introductory dependent clause. So it seems to me.
In any event, D. was having no trouble hearing the pause. He heard the non-pause that results when you move the dependent clause to the end of the sentence, too:
- When you get to the corner, turn right. [slight pause between clauses]
- Turn right when you get to the corner. [no pause between clauses]
D., by the way, is very smart. Had all 4s and 5s in multiple AP classes; wrote his friends' college admission essays. And didn't know what a comma splice is.
Someone should have just told him. It simply is not the case that smart people -- or good readers -- "pick up" punctuation by osmosis. We're not built that way. We're built to register the gist of a sentence, not the particulars.
Plus which …. there's nothing magical or even important about commas versus semicolons. Using semicolons instead of commas to join sentences is a convention; twenty years from now comma splices will probably be correct. So just tell students what the convention is and move on.
But somehow, telling is not possible.
Not even at the college level, not even in a full year of college-level writing instruction.
* "naked commas" meaning commas unaccompanied by a coordinator (and, but, or, so, nor, yet, for: the FANBOYS)


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