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escape velocity ch8
Tohan was incredibly focused on his job. That was admirable and even desired since it meant that he was doing what he was being paid a ridiculous amount of money to do. However, it also meant that he was slowly driving me crazy with just how focused he was when he was working. I could pour an incredible amount of attention into my job, but Tohan made me look like I was slacking off and barely doing the minimum.
Once he plunked his ass in front of the computer and started working, he was gone. I was more personal care-giver than bodyguard at that point. I'd put food beside him and tell him it was there, and when he only grunted a reply, I thought that he'd smell the food and eat it. He may have smelled it, but there wasn't even the barest flicker of interest from him. I left him alone and started on the file combing he'd asked me to do figuring that he'd eat once he was hungry enough.
Hours later, the internal alarm I'd set to notify me of the next meal time went off. The plate beside Tohan was empty, so I picked it up and went to make us both something to eat. We hadn't made the hydroponics run yet because Tohan wanted to get some of the other security things squared tightly away before we left the computer room. I thought that was a solid plan and agreed that the fresh food run could easily wait another day or even several days if necessary. We certainly weren't even close to being in desperate need of the food in the hydroponics bay seeing as it was only our second day at the prison.
I put a new plate of food beside Tohan and nudged his arm. He barely glanced at the plate and mumbled thanks without really turning his attention from the screen. I watched him for a few minutes, but he was obviously right back into his work—if his attention had ever really been taken from it. I went back to my data search, my plate beside me. I slowly ate as I went through the data looking for what Tohan asked. It was a long, very boring process, but given the fact that we seemed to be fairly secure in the computer room, it wasn't like I had a lot of other things to occupy my time.
The first time I'd put a full plate beside Tohan, I thought he'd eventually eaten what I'd given him. I'd have thought the same thing the second time if I hadn't caught Effie in the act of eating what I'd served Tohan. Tohan didn't seem to notice what Effie was doing, and Effie looked guilty as fuck when he realized he'd been caught.
Effie's reaction was actually pretty funny. He'd frozen with the food halfway to his mouth, his eyes locked with mine. He slowly moved his foreleg holding the food to his mouth as if waiting to see how far he'd get before the shouting started. I'd yelled his name when he had the food close to his mouth and said he was bad like I'd heard Tohan tell him. Effie lurched into sudden motion, jammed the food into his mouth, made a half-assed attempt to grab more food off the plate, and ran faster than I thought he could to the change room where, I assumed, he scurried into his nest. He left a trail of food bits behind him.
Tohan didn't so much as flinch at the mad scramble Effie made off the desk even through there was all kinds of noise and movement literally within inches of him.
I'd called Tohan's name and got no response. Not even a mumbled excuse that he'd eat in a minute as he'd said once before when I tried to remind him to eat the first meal. It was as if I wasn't even saying anything or he'd suddenly gone deaf. He said fondling him would immediately drag his attention away from what he was doing, but I was loath to do that when I had no intention of doing anything sexual with him at the moment. I didn't want him to think I was a tease or was playing some sort of game with his arousal. In general, sexually teasing someone without intending to follow through with sex very shortly after was seen as very bad form among the Awh'anise unless there was some sort of prearranged agreement for the teasing. Not that I didn't want to have sex with Tohan. I most certainly did. I simply thought there should be some sort of work versus off-hour times for that sort of thing. I had a certain degree of professionalism to maintain regardless of how happy I knew Tohan would be to nail my ass any time I even hinted at wanting that.
By the time the next meal hour rolled around, I was fairly certain I was going to need to grope Tohan to drag him away from the computer. In the four hours since I'd put the previous plate beside him the only thing that I was sure he moved were his hands to either type something or to move the pointer. Even his tail was still, a sign of extreme concentration among the Awh'anise.
Missing a meal or two generally wasn't that big of a deal for people. Missing multiple meals would, however, decrease Tohan's productivity and quite possibly muddle his thinking. I placed the meal next to him and called his name several times just in case I was wrong about that having no effect on getting Tohan's attention. There was no response. Not even so much as a twitch of his tail tip to say he'd heard me. I sighed and hoped I wasn't about to offend Tohan with what I was going to do next. Sex could certainly come after the meal if he wanted, but he was going to eat in the next ten minutes.
Tohan was still nude, which I appreciated a lot and made what I was about to do so much easier. Not that typical Awh'anise clothes did anything to impede access to bare flesh. I reached down and stroked my fingers over his nipples. A little smile appeared on my lips when they immediately stiffened at my touch. Tohan made a soft sound of approval in his throat but continued typing and scrolling through the code on the screen. I played with his nipples a little more, tugging and pinching them, but he was still utterly focused on what he was doing. The reaction of his body to my touch didn't seem to be reaching his brain. I hadn't thought that would be an issue. Laser focus to the exclusion of everything else indeed.
Tohan was apparently insanely focused on work if he could more or less ignore somebody gently tweaking his nipples. I'd never be able to ignore something like that. Granted, I had a bit of a kink for nipple play, but still. Most people would at least look at the person fondling them and pause in what they were doing. Tohan wasn't fooling around either to get me to touch him more. He, honest to gods, was that intent on his work.
Perhaps when he'd said to fondle him, he meant touch his dick. He hadn't specified what sort of fondling worked best to yank him out of his work fugue. I could most certainly do that. Matter of fact, it would be my distinct pleasure to take hold of Tohan's dick.
I slid my hand down his chest and wrapped my fingers around his cock, giving him a gentle stroke. His cock immediately firmed in my hand going from soft to hard so quickly I was a little awed. The sound of typing immediately stopped, and I heard the very low rumble of his purr start up. He tilted his head back to look at me, a wicked grin on his lips and arousal in his eyes.
"What's up, Warrick? Aside from me, of course."
I snorted a laugh. "Food time. You've missed two meals already. You need to eat. Now."
"Really? Two meals? Huh. That would explain why my stomach is now growling."
I let go of his dick only to have him grab my wrist and keep my hand where it was. I wasn't protesting that too strenuously because I liked the feel of his dick in my hand. But he really did need to eat, and I couldn't see my fondling him as anything other than supremely distracting as he was trying to eat. At least I'd find it very distracting to have someone stroking me off as I ate.
"Food can wait," Tohan said with a leer.
"No, it can't," I replied.
"It's rehydrated whatever. Letting it sit a little won't hurt."
Tohan's hand squeezed mine, making me grip his cock tighter. His purr got a touch louder for a few seconds before dropping down into the barely audible range for me. He definitely liked the feel of my hand on his dick.
"It won't change the nutritional quality, no, but it will make the texture vastly unappealing. These meals do not benefit from going cold either. Yes, they're still perfectly safe to eat, but you really won't want to. Trust me on this. I also don't want to give Effie the chance to steal your food again. He ate the first meal I put next to you and about half of the second one before I caught him."
"I've eaten Tyh's cooking and lived. Rehydrated something-or-other, regardless of when it was prepared, could never approach that level of bad," Tohan said with a shrug and a smile. "I love my brother, but I swear he can burn water. He lives in the Shal-hazal House not only because he's one of the Wills but because there's a huge, full-service dining room for the people who live in the House. I know for a fact that Dak is supremely grateful that he doesn't need to eat anything Tyh throws together. I actually think Tyh's cooking is some sort of level-three bio-hazard."
I laughed at that. I could prepare a gourmet meal fit to be served to heads of state with little more than mystery meat caught in a sewer, three spices, two vegetables, and some greens for garnish. Programming and access to a vast recipe database could make anybody proficient. I still couldn't do a lot to make the rehydrated food taste significantly better. Nutritionally adequate did not mean flavourful or even just okay tasting.
"That may be the case for you. I, however, would prefer not to have to eat this food once its congealed into some sort of formless lump with all the flavour of an under-seasoned mud patty. I hope you realize that I'm only doing what you told me too, Tohan. You said to make sure you ate and slept and that if I needed to drag you away from the computer to do those things, fondling you was the fastest way to get your attention. I understand that sexually teasing someone is not viewed well in your culture, and it wasn't my intent to tease you. I need you to eat. Now."
Tohan sighed and pushed back from the computer, letting go of my hand that he'd kept on his cock as well. He stood and stretched, some of his joints making a popping sound when he did so. He was still hard and seeing him stretch, his muscles shifting and bunching in a very attractive and arousing way, suddenly made me question if I remembered correctly just how awful the rehydrated food tasted when it was cold and congealed. Even if the food was horrible, it might be worth it just this once. Tohan smiled at me, and his tail swished lazily behind him.
"Rethinking that bit about the food being inedible if it goes cold? Or maybe thinking that it would be worth it anyway?" Humour and arousal was in Tohan's voice. "I can smell the beginnings of arousal from you, and it's getting stronger with every breath that I take. I'm pretty sure you know I'm all for that. I mean, if the rock hard boner I've got pointing at you wasn't enough of a clue that I'd totally be on board with both of us getting frisky in the next thirty seconds. And I knew you weren't being a cock-tease when you grabbed my dick. I told you to do it to yank me out of my programming fugue."
"I have noticed how happy you are from me getting handsy with you and assumed the continued erection was because of and for me," I chuckled.
"Only if you want it. It'll keep, more or less, if you really are set on eating right now. Hell, even if it goes down, you'll just need to touch me again, and we'll be back in business in like three seconds flat. You can make me hard just from breathing. No lie. Stand next to me and breathe softly near my ear, and I guaran-fucking-tee I'll pop a boner."
My cheeks heated a touch at his words, the sincerity of them and his utter belief in what he said. Tohan was a wonderful boost to my sexual confidence. I almost hated to do it, but the sexual fun would need to come after I'd fulfilled my duty to keeping him feed and rested so he could do his job at peak performance.
"Food first. My memory is excellent and rehydrated food gone cold is a rather disgusting memory I'd rather not repeat if it can be helped at all. While we eat, you can finally tell me why my tatts freaked you out when you saw them the first time."
"Sure. It's not really much to tell," Tohan said as he grabbed the plate from the desk and gestured to the lumpy couch with it.
I picked up my plate from where I'd put it near my workstation and joined Tohan on the couch. Tohan was already making serious headway into the food on his plate. He wasn't gulping it down, but it was a close thing. I ate at a slower pace. I thought that it might be an idea to give him seconds since he'd missed two meals earlier. He slowed when most of the food was gone, his initial hunger likely eased, and began to speak.
"Okay, you already know about Moswen's chaos effect because I've told you about it, and you were able to confirm some of the details I told you. I'm not sure if you entirely believe me about how whack-a-doodle some of the stuff that's happened has been, but the important thing that colours what I'm going to say next is that I believe in his chaos effect. Not just that it is a thing, but that it... changes things in ways you can't really imagine, and sometimes you need to go way, way back to find that moment, that pebble dropped into a lake, that touches and affects everything from one shore to the other."
"The butterfly effect. I've heard of it," I said with a little nod as I finished my meal and set the plate aside.
"The what?" Tohan asked with a frown. "What's a butterfly?"
"Rune, the woman who somehow convinced me to get the tattoo on my chest, called it the butterfly effect. A butterfly is a small, delicate insect with beautiful, brightly coloured, paper-thin wings native to Earth, her home world. They're very pretty and harmless. The butterfly effect is when a butterfly flaps its wings and a day later, on the other side of the world, a typhoon happens. It is a phrase her people use to describe small, seemingly inconsequential actions that drastically alter the outcome of events."
"Yeah, that's pretty much what Moswen's chaos effect is," Tohan said with a grin. "Kinda cool that it goes by other names on other worlds although having more than one person causing that sort of crap out in the universe is a bit on the scary side. From what Moswen says, the Fire Snakes have shit-fits over his chaos effect because it screws up even their ability to see the future around him. I think Moswen makes them nervous because they're sort of flying blind when it comes to him, those closest to him, and the things that get set into motion. The Fire Snakes sound like they're massive control freaks from what I know, and Moswen unintentionally fucks with that control, big time.
"A Shal-hazal is damn near a god in the Dream World. The Fire Snakes are pretty much the real deal to hear any Shal-hazal talk about them. Every Awh'anise knows about the Fire Snakes, but they only visit the Shal-hazal and, generally, only in dreams. Very rarely do they appear in the real world. The Fire Snakes are the ones responsible for kicking us, as a species, several rungs up the evolutionary ladder. We apparently went through about fifty thousand years of evolution in roughly three thousand years because of what they did to us. That's insanely fast as I understand it."
My eyes widened in surprise. The amount of power and knowledge necessary to do something like that to an entire species was staggering. It also made me wonder why the Awh'anise had been bumped that far up the evolutionary chain. There had to be a very compelling reason for doing that. The alien assisted, super-sonic speed of the Awh'anise development hadn't been in the data Moswen gave me. I didn't think it was a deliberate withholding of information though. There was a side note in the information that said the Awh'anise were not far removed from their animal ancestors and that it was believed that developmental closeness to their more primitive selves accounted for the majority of their behaviours and culture, which often seemed primal and savage to other species. If the Awh'anise had changed that quickly, it certainly did explain a great deal about them and why they behaved as they did.
"Fire Snakes are responsible for your evolutionary leap? You're sure about that? Why would they do something like that?" I asked.
"Absolutely. They weren't shy about taking credit for doing it. They wanted us to know, and they wanted us to know that they weren't gods, just a very advanced species. Apparently, they did it as part of some millennia long war with another insanely powerful species, the Ruks. We were or are to be something to help turn the tide against the Ruks. No idea how that's worked out for them or if what they did to us is still in the work-in-progress phase. I don't think we've done anything as a species to help in any great galactic battle, but they're not really forthcoming with their battle plans or with info about how the war is going. Honestly, we wouldn't even know there was a war raging on if we hadn't been told that by both the Fire Snakes and Ruks, so take away whatever you want on the subject."
Interesting. Wars happened all the time all over the universe, but I'd never heard of this one. Not that it necessarily meant anything that I hadn't. I couldn't possibly know of every war going on everywhere. However, if the war was being fought for thousands of years and was still ongoing and possibly spanned galaxies, it stood to reason that there would be at least rumours of it somewhere.
"I've heard of Fire Snakes before, but I'm not sure they're the same creatures. I've never heard of the Ruks, but that means little," I said as I quickly went through my archived data looking for the exact conversation. "It could be simply a situation where the same name is used for completely different beings. That's definitely not out of the realm of possibility."
"In what context did you hear of them? It could be something different from what my people know as Fire Snakes. Coincidences do happen. I just don't trust random happenstance to actually be random happenstance. So many times it's not, so I tend to assume everything is somehow related to some grander picture that I can't see yet. You hearing of Fire Snakes before we met when they play such a huge role in Awh'anise life stinks of way more than just a funny coincidence to me. This could totally be part of the giant clusterfuck that's about to drop on our heads thanks to Moswen's chaos effect. I'm leaning heavily to ginormous clusterfuck, just so you know, because seemingly tiny, unrelated things always have a way of blowing up huge in my life. The more minor the initial event, the more far-reaching the outcome. Why, yes, I am paranoid. Thank you for noticing," Tohan said with a soft snort.
A tiny shiver moved down my spine when I found the conversation and replayed it. I did a little more digging through my archived memories for a few more details that had seemed unimportant at the time but now had greater significance given the conversation we were having. I inhaled sharply. This could not be a coincidence. It was too astounding to be simple coincidence. I hadn't put a lot of stock in Tohan's claim of Moswen's massive chaos effect five minutes ago. Now, I think I was about to become a true believer.
"Rune and Sinn, her husband, mentioned Fire Snakes during the briefing of the mission that I did with them. She said they had a Fire Snake as an "ace-in-the-hole", meaning she had a secret advantage that when revealed, would guarantee victory. Rune has a laser tattoo of a snake-like creature on her leg from ankle to hip and it looks like a living creature due to the nature of the tattoo. I have a picture of that if you want to see it to compare to what one of your Fire Snakes looks like.
"She said the tattoo is a real Fire Snake called Yanaba and that Sinn can call it forth at will because he is the Fire Lord, although it was never explained to me just what that was. I never saw that happen, but others confirmed it was true. She said a friend, Zivon, dreamed of her having the tattoo and insisted that she get it. To the point that he nagged her for weeks about it. I never met Zivon, but I did see him in a group photo that Rune had. I think you need to see both the picture of Rune's tattoo and the group shot."
Tohan gave me a sceptical look. "A Fire Snake is huge—like freakingly massive huge. They're usually over a hundred feet long. Dak said he could probably stand in the mouth of one when said mouth was closed, and Dak is six and a half feet tall. Unless this Rune chick is a giant of a giant, I can't see how a tattoo on her leg could become a Fire Snake like what I'm familiar with."
"Just the fact that a tattoo becomes a thing that has a solid form should tell you that you're not really able to apply logic in this situation," I said with a little chuckle. "You need to see these pictures. I can download a copy to your wristcom if you let me."
"Okay. I'm curious enough. Are you going to need a wired connection of some kind, or can you do it wireless if I give you the password?"
"I'd prefer wireless. It's easier and less intrusive to me. It doesn't hurt to physically jack in to something but does give me a vague sense of vulnerability, especially if it's not something I know is secure like the servers on base where I live. I have very good protection, but I'm still plugging my brain directly into whatever, and that's a little nerve-wracking."
Tohan looked thoughtful for a moment before he nodded. "I totally could see that. Hold on, and I'll give you access to throw the pics my way. I coded the security on this bad boy myself because I'm a paranoid fuck, so it's probably safer than any server you've ever plugged into. Made a nice profit selling the security program to the Awh'anise military later on," Tohan said with a grin.
Tohan flicked through a few screens, the wristcom projecting an enlarged holo version of what he was looking at a little above his wrist. Some of the code I could make out as it was written in Awh'anise and Common. Other parts of it, I had no clue, as it appeared to be multiple languages. Very interesting and creative way of layering security.
"Okay, good to go. Your password is hotmetalass. You can only download stuff though—not that I'm restricting your access because I don't trust you. I actually do. I just don't want somebody somehow getting access and uploading bad shit to target you specifically. Yeah, I know the chances of that are like smaller than small, but better safe than sorry. And paranoid as fuck right here."
I snorted a laugh at the password. At least it would be easy to remember. I gained access and sent the pictures to his wristcom. The device chimed softly when they were received, and Tohan immediately called up the picture of the Fire Snake, the image enlarged as a holo floating a few inches above the device. He was silent as he stared at the image for several long seconds.
"Yeah, that's a Fire Snake. I've never heard of one being all glitterific-rainbow white, but that doesn't mean there aren't any. It's not like I'm anything close to an expert on the creatures. Overall though, that's dead on how one looks according to everything I've heard, read and seen. Like right down to the jewel-like scales and beard flowing from its chin to the I-know-everything-and-you-know-nothing look in its eyes. I mean, there could be a ton of other cultures that have something similar either for real or in stories, but given everything else, I'm gonna say this is a Fire Snake. Which leads me to wonder who this Zivon guy is, why he dreamed of Rune having the tattoo, and why he insisted on her getting it. This other picture is gonna blow my freaking mind, isn't it?"
"Check the group photo," I said as that shiver crawled down my spine again at having Tohan confirm that the Fire Snake on Rune's leg was the same sort of creature that he said had played such a massive role in his species development.
Tohan flicked to the other photo I'd sent to his device. He stared at it for a few seconds before he snapped his gaze to me, obviously seeing what I'd realized just a few minutes ago.
"Are you fucking with me? How did you get this? What the fuck is he doing in this photo?" he demanded, his tone and body language shifting into aggression so fast it was startling.
I had no idea what was behind his sudden attitude change. Yes, it was a bit unsettling to see Zivon in the photo when put into context of what we'd been discussing, but I didn't think it was worthy of the increasing possibility of physical violence that was building in Tohan.
"I recorded it automatically when it was shown to me by Rune. It was apparently taken the night that she got her tattoo. The tall, winged man with his arm around her is Sinn, her husband. The even taller winged man is Liron, a former royal guard to Sinn. The man leaning on the staff is Zivon, which I'm fairly certain you've already guessed. I thought it was interesting that he is Awh'anise and the one who insisted on Rune getting the tattoo given your people's relationship with the Fire Snakes. It certainly lends a great deal more credibility, in my mind, to the chaos effect you say Moswen has and to the idea that her tattoo is of a Fire Snake like your people are familiar with. The only question I've got now is just what tail twitch of Moswen's is responsible for all this," I said with a gesture to encompass us and our current situation.
Tohan stared at me for several long seconds before he blew out a breath and raked his hands through his hair. The level of his aggression dropped away, and he stared at the photo again shaking his head a little.
"I've seen him before. Kushaiah was almost kitnapped by a delusional psycho early in his relationship with Makis and Mered. The sick bastard used a family member that was a Shal-hazal of a different House than the one my family runs to help him track Kushaiah down. The psycho firmly believes that Kushaiah and him are in love and want to be together even though Kushaiah has straight up told him that he hates him and wants to kill him. The Shal-hazal, Gytha, that helped the crazy freak got into huge trouble for doing that, and one of the Shal-hazal Warriors who came to escort Gytha back to her House was this guy. I didn't know his name then."
Tohan looked back at the photo, frowned, and enlarged the photo. His frown deepened as he stared at the photo and zoomed in even more before looking at me with a little confusion.
"When was this photo taken?"
"I don't know. I didn't ask. I saw it a little over four years ago. I can call up an exact date of when I saw the photo if you want, but unfortunately that won't help you date the photo itself."
Tohan shook his head. He set aside his nearly empty plate, rose from the couch, and retrieved a slim data pad from one of the transport boxes. He turned it on and looked directly at me.
"I know I'm not supposed to have anything that is able to communicate beyond the prison or on channels not approved just in case it fell into the hands of the prisoners. But I wasn't about to walk my sweet ass into this situation without some kind of back-up in the event that things went sour fast. This data pad wouldn't do the prisoners any good as it's got my special project encryption on it, and unless you know what to enter, you don't get past the power on screen. You get three wrong guesses, and then it fries itself. Open the casing without doing it in the correct sequence, and it fries itself. Been working on this for the military to provide an ultra secure data channel. Still has some glitches to fix, but I haven't had one spontaneously burst into flames in a couple of months. Even so, I'd appreciate it if you pretend you never saw this. Aside from being top secret Awh'anise military hardware, I don't want to pay any penalties for bringing restricted items into the facility when said item literally wouldn't be of any use to anyone but me right now."
"I see a reader unit brought along to relieve boredom when the work for the day is done," I said with a small smile.
"You're all kinds of awesome, Warrick," Tohan said with a grin.
He tapped quickly on the data pad. His tail tip flicked up and down as he waited for whatever response the data pad was going to give him. I couldn't see the screen, but Tohan stared at it intently, scrolling through whatever it was before he suddenly burst out laughing. He clutched the data pad to his chest and laughed so hard I saw tears leak from his eyes. I had no idea what was going on and waited for Tohan to wind down and tell me. I never doubted he would, but it took longer than I thought for his laughter to die down.
"Okay, the guy in the pic you showed me is Zivon, and the guy I saw was his identical twin, Zesiro. I checked the Shal-hazal database because Zivon has some serious scars that Zesiro doesn't, and if you saw that photo four years ago, there's no way the guy I saw at roughly the same time could be the same as the one in the picture. The scars on Zivon are old and fully healed in the photo. Zesiro didn't have any scars that I could see when I saw him, and it's not like it's easy to hide scars like Zivon has on his face.
"Zivon is a Spirit, and Zesiro is a Warrior Shal-hazal. From all accounts, Zivon is a nice guy and apparently works on a semi-regular contract basis for Mayhem Inc. when they need to extract people from delicate situations. I actually know of the company as they hired me to do some... creative computer consulting for them once. Never met anyone personally as it was all done electronically. Good, prompt payment. Pleasantly professional. I wouldn't turn them down if they approached me for more work."
That cold shiver down my spine was back stronger than ever at Tohan's words. It was a freakishly huge coincidence that he not only recognized Zivon, more or less, but that he'd also done some work for Mayhem Inc. in the past.
"The only reason I know about Zesiro, and mistook him for Zivon, was because I was at the House to drop off a data pad I'd fixed for my sho and happened to be walking through the main lobby to leave when Zesiro made a comment, within hearing range of Tyh, about how hot Dak looked and how he'd like to fuck him hard and make him scream with pleasure. It's dangerous to make those sorts of comments about a Lor'fei partner where the other half of the pairing can hear it. It's suicidal to make that sort of comment about a Litch Will's Lor'fei partner where said Litch Will can hear it.
"Tyh viciously beat Zesiro unconscious before Moswen got Tyh off Zesiro. I don't think I've ever seen my brother so furious, and I'm almost positive Tyh was trying to kill Zesiro. He wasn't even listening to Dak's demands to stop, and Tyh always listens to Dak. Tyh got some really nasty shots on Moswen, too, and the only way Moswen stopped Tyh was to Dream-Step him away for a minute or two for him to calm the fuck down. I don't think Zesiro realized what Dak is to Tyh when he made the comment as he'd apparently been off-world causing shit elsewhere in the galaxy when all the stuff went down with Tyh and Dak. Or maybe Zesiro did know and just wanted to see what would happen if he said what he did. Apparently, Zesiro is known as a mega shit-disturber of truly epic proportions in his House."
Zesiro would need to take shit-disturbing to monumental levels if he was crazy enough to pull the tail of a Litch Will with a Lor'fei about said Lor'fei. I only had the data that Moswen had given me, and from that alone, I knew better than to go poking at that testy beast with a sharp stick like Zesiro had. If Tohan hadn't said Zesiro was a Warrior Shal-hazal, I'd have wondered how far along his insanity as a Litch was to make him provoke someone he really should've known better than to provoke.
"I was laughing so damn hard because a few months after that incident with Tyh, Zesiro found his Lor'fei, and for months after finding him, Zesiro thought his Lor'fei was an actual animal. Like fur, walking on all fours, can't speak, real deal animal. He had no clue that the frankly terrifying creature that was his Lor'fei was actually a guy whose species can change their form into that of an animal. AshEri is a Ruislipian, and Zesiro rescued him from a slaver ship while he was in his animal form. Apparently, the slavers hadn't known he was actually a man either since they'd captured him when he was an animal. AshEri was being super cautious about revealing himself just in case he was trading one very bad situation for another. It was like all the nasty karma that Zesiro racked up from his shit-disturber lifestyle came due all at once when he found his Lor'fei and thought that he was tied for life to an animal. I'm also going to throw it out there that it was his interaction, brief as it was, with Moswen that got that particular crazy ball rolling."
I could definitely see why Tohan had laughed to the point of tears over Zesiro's situation. It was damn funny to think of someone used to causing all manner of shit suddenly getting what seemed like a big, steaming pile of it dumped on his head. Karma was certainly a bitch.
"I can see the connection between you and Zesiro and through him, Zivon, which leads back to Rune with her tattoo and eventually me telling you about it, bringing us back to this point in a rather complex loop of events. However, the flaw in your logic, such as it is, about this all being Moswen's chaos effect is that the incident with Moswen interacting with Zesiro, however brief, was after Zivon convinced Rune to get the tattoo since you said that you saw Zesiro at around the same time I saw the picture of the night Rune got the tattoo. The timeline doesn't work out. I think you're trying to look for connected things in this instance, Tohan."
"Maybe. I already told you that the Fire Snakes can see the future. That's one hundred percent truth. They also nudge things along in the present to make that future happen if it suits their plans. They've told us this themselves. They saw this," Tohan waved his hand in a vague gesture at us, "and while some of it was likely clouded by Moswen's chaos effect, they can still see events that unfold around Moswen. When Moswen is involved, they can't spot the pebble dropping into the water, but they sure as shit can watch the ripples move away from that point of impact."
"So they told Zivon to force Rune into getting a tattoo so that years later when I was on a mission with her, she'd convince me to get a tattoo that would hold meaning for you? That's what you're thinking, right? Why? What's my having a tattoo that means something to you have to do with... well... anything?"
"Not a fucking clue. Honest. I'm not a Shal-hazal, I've never seen a Fire Snake in person or in dreams, and I've never had any contact whatsoever with a Ruks to the absolute best of my knowledge. There's a plan going on for us. We're part of something the Fire Snakes have in the works. I just don't have any fucking idea what that is. But, I'm betting us being here plays a role somehow. There is something else going on here outside of the prisoners trying to haul ass off this asteroid, and the Fire Snakes have poked their busy-body snouts into it for some reason."
"I can't say there isn't something going on here other than the attempted hacking because we both believe that there is. I'm not a paranoid person who sees conspiracies behind every closed door, but there seems to be a bunch of small inconsistencies that are adding up to more than what things appear to be on the surface. I'm going to hold my opinion in reserve about whether or not the Fire Snakes have their proverbial fingers in this mess and are pushing events and people in certain directions. I do agree though that the level of coincidence for, well, everything is much, much too high to be just coincidence. Somebody somewhere is pulling some strings. Whether that's the Fire Snakes or the criminals imprisoned here or somebody else entirely, I guess we'll see as we dig into things here."
Tohan nodded in agreement. "Good enough for now. Eventually, you'll see I'm right. Hey, not to besmirch your culinary abilities or anything, but what do you think about doing that hydroponics run tomorrow? While not quite a Tyh-level biohazard, that whatever-the-hell-it-was we had for supper was about as tasty as wet sawdust, and I'm really not a picky eater. It was filling, but definitely toying with how-bad-does-it-need-to-taste-before-I-won't-eat-it territory."
I laughed at that. "Tomorrow sounds like a plan. I'll give you a list of things you'll need to tell the bots to harvest, and we can plan out the most efficient route to take to get in, get the stuff, and get out again without giving the inmates a chance to try to capture us again."
"I'm good with the no capture thing. Unless it's you capturing me. I'd totally be on board with that playtime scenario," Tohan said with a leer.
"We could do that," I said with a little nod and a curl of anticipation winding through me. "But you might want to check on Effie first. I yelled at him and scared him away from your plate of food earlier. He scuttled away into the locker room and has been hiding there ever since."
Tohan sighed. "I highly doubt you scared him or that he's hiding. He's probably plotting something because you chased him away from what he was eating. I'll go make nice with him for a bit. Then, I'll come back, and you can hold me hostage to the depraved whims of your lecherous desires. I'm easy. Super easy. Embarrassingly easy really."
I laughed and watched Tohan head for the locker room to do whatever he needed to for Effie. I had the feeling that the mission was getting more and more complicated with every hour that passed. But, at the same time, it was exciting. And that didn't even take into account the utterly fantastic sex I'd so far been treated to and was about to be shown again. This mission was going to be the sort of thing that involved epic songs being sung of the events. I could feel that with utter certainty. Outstanding.
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ID Locke
January 2019


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Today I turn 41 and I was reminded that you get to Choose Your Own Adventure!
Really. You totally get to do that. You do that every day, whether on purpose or not. And the 'verse has a lot more options than those skinny little books you used to get at the Scholastic book fair in third grade.
Choose. Your. Own. Adventure.
Mine will include cake, today.

subset: commoncrawl


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At Westside Elementary School, our goal is to get every student prepared for the challenges of high school, college, and their career beyond. We believe that every student deserves an excellent education and we work hard to meet the needs of each and every child that walks through our doors!
Copyright © 2019 Westside Elementary School


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A little bit of Hollywood is coming to Knoxville.
Scott Myers, Hollywood film screenwriter, producer and a professor at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, will be speaking on Friday about characters in classic Hollywood cinema.
Titled "Archetypes: Character Structure, Film Analysis, and Screenwriting Theory," Myers' presentation will focus on the narrative aspect of film and analyze different characters and their roles in a film, such as the protagonist, antagonist and attractors of any story in a movie.
Dr. Charles Maland, chair of the cinema studies program and professor of English, said his visit should be interesting to anyone who enjoys a good story and not just students interested in film analysis and screenwriting.
"I think it will be interesting to aspiring filmmakers, but also people who watch movies," Maland said. "I think what he's trying to do is develop a talk that will be interesting to not just cinema study minors or people who are in journalism and electronic media or want to be filmmakers, but anyone who is interested in movies and stories and what makes those stories go."
Myers has written the screenplays for "K-9," a 1989 action/comedy film starring James Belushi, and "Trojan War," a 1997 comedy film starring Jennifer Love Hewitt. More recently, Myers has been the executive producer of the television series "It's Easy Being Green" and "Time Makeover," both done in 2008.
"My understanding is that this script for 'K-9,' he just submitted the script, and there are thousands of scripts submitted a year, so the fact that he was able to shape it in such a way that they got interested in it and bought it and made it," Maland said. "Sometimes in Hollywood they will buy a lot of screenplays, but they never get made because they don't get the right actors or get hooked up with a project and so on. So someone who has been through that is fun to talk to, especially to some of our students who are interested in screenwriting themselves."
Myers writes a screenwriting blog titled, "Go into the Story," (www.gointothestory.com) which is updated daily and is a place where he informally elaborates on cinema and writing, aspects of Hollywood and everyday happenings in the film industry.
Ryan Woldruff, teaching associate in English who introduced Myers to Maland and initiated Myers' visit to UT, said that he came across the blog after researching screenwriting on Google.
"I was really interested in researching the process of getting a script in the hands of an agent or a producer. I was doing some basic Google research on screenwriting in general and I came across a couple of blogs and his was one of them," Woldruff said. "It was such a professional, well done blog that's updated on a regular basis that it basically became one of my bookmarks to look at every day. He has daily dialogue, so there's always something different every day, and he also has weekly themes, like this week its boy meets girl, so how does that happen in movies? And what are some good example and bad examples and then there's also just the business of screenwriting also which is helpful too. That's kind of where I started."
Having won the UCLA Outstanding Instructor Award, Myers now teaches screenwriting at the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill. Maland said his experience teaching will contribute to his presentation.
"He has had this experience teaching screenwriting and being a teacher, so hopefully he will be a good dynamic speaker," Maland said. "I think most of us are interested in stories, even if we're not English majors or film majors, we read stories, we read novels we see movies and so on. To me that whole question of what are the kinds of things in the development of characters and plots that really grip us as moviegoers or as readers of novels, just what is it about that and that is one thing he's interested in and will talk about."
Over the summer, Woldruff took a week long, intensive screenwriting course online with Myers as his professor. The course covered the main core of screenwriting, and Woldruff said it was very helpful.
"I thought he'd be a really nice speaker to come and talk about screenwriting because I know we've had screenwriting discussions in the past and sometimes a good discussion about something on screenwriting will be really helpful not only for film people but creative writing, students involved in creative writing and professors, it crosses a lot of boundaries I think in terms of story structure," Woldruff said.
Having received higher education in humanities and divinity, Maland said that Myers has an interesting background that wouldn't normally lead to a career in Hollywood screenwriting.
"You would expect someone who's interested in going to divinity school to be interested in questions about human morality and the place of man in the universe, and a lot of times we don't think about Hollywood films in quite those same terms, and I'm quite curious about how his earlier interest might have gone into Hollywood," Maland said.
Myers recently held an online contest called "The Quest," where anybody could submit a set of loglines and he would pick a few out of around 4,000 submissions to develop more thoroughly.
"He's in Hollywood and trying to create a more open entrance into Hollywood and he picked those and helped them develop their idea into a script, and would help them find connections in Hollywood after they've written it," Woldruff said. "His kind of one-on-one commitment to helping up and coming writers was really admirable as well. He's been there; he's lived in the Hollywood atmosphere for a long time."
Back in the 50s, it was uncommon to see screenwriters writing for both television and film, such as Myers. Today, Maland said, the industry works a different way, adding to Myers' personal appeal.
"The way the movies are done these days are pretty much one shot deals. You get hired onto a film, make the film and then the group all disperse and you hope to catch on to another project," Maland said. "I like people who have these dual interests, people who are teachers but also have experience seeing what the realities are of trying to selling a script and how hard that is and those who have succeeded in being able to manage careers in both film and television, I'd like our students to get a chance to talk to people like that because some of our students are interested in pursuing that career path."
A reception will follow Myers' formal presentation in Hodges Library. Drinks will be served in the Mary Greer Room on the 2nd floor of Hodges where Myers will be available to answer any additional questions and speak to attendees personally.
"He has a whole bunch of knowledge about Hollywood that is definitely fun to listen to," Woldruff said. "I'm really interested in just sitting down and having a conversation and listening to the students ask questions and his answers. I think the lecture is also going to be really interesting to a lot of different people."
The informal discussion on screenwriting will be held from noon to 1 p.m. in McClung Tower Room 1210-11, and a formal presentation at 3 p.m. in the Lindsey Young Auditorium in Hodges Library on Friday.
For more information about the event, contact Dr. Maland at email@example.com


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An empty street, a lonely house
A bundle of adventure and a fearless tiger.
Here she was, exploring through the dark empty halls.
image source: Google
As silent as it was, she could hear her heartbeat.
A presence felt, more than once
And everytime, the stray dog barked.
Burning inside her with the intensity of the biggest star
The thunderstorms and the wild showers,
Failed to extinguish the raging fire.
Locked inside a room, was once a poor soul, with the hope of gold
Looking at her, he felt a pain
Still wandering through the doors, wishing his heart would beat again.
Curiosity in her eyes, she could feel his presence
The lightening struck and the old house shivered.
On the floor she lay, as cold as ice.
Image source: Google
Two souls were now united
Lifeless hearts, yet they beat for each other.
Click here to read the next post : A Little Adventure is all you need…


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New England Style Clam Chowder is definitely one of my favorite wintertime soups and after having experienced the fabulous clam chowder at Splash Cafe in SLO earlier in the year, I was definitely on the lookout for a Socal version.
Before I go on, let me preface that I've never been to New England, which means I've never tried authentic New England Clam Chowder, so I can't attest to how "authentic" is the clam chowder at OFC. All I can tell you about is how my taste buds reacted.
I can say for sure that my tastebuds were completely happy. Although not as good as the one I had at Splash Cafe, this version came pretty close. This version of the New England Clam Chowder was thick, creamy, buttery with a good amount of clams and was the kind of soup that will warm you up and stick to your ribs. Delicious!
I almost wish that I just had a large bowl as my entire meal instead of just a cup. The filet mignon and shrimp skewer that I ordered for my entree was less than stellar.
By the way, since Manhattan Clam Chowder was also on the menu, I ordered a cup of that as well to check it out. I think the overall flavor was good and had a nice little kick to it, but it seemed oversalted to me so I only had 2 or 3 spoonfuls and that was enough for me.
Overall, my soup experience was very positive and with the Original Fish Company only 35 minutes away, I'd be willing to make the return trek just to savor their New England Style Clam Chowder again. :)
To see pics, go to:
The Original Fish Company
11061 Los Alamitos Blvd.
Los Alamitos, CA 90720
(562) 594-4553
Tuesday, December 19, 2006
"Soup's On!" - Clam Chowder at Original Fish Company
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[Miami says it hasn't lost its fight]
[Five things we learned from Miami's loss]
[Talking politics: Kaaya unsure of his vote]
[Small details hurting Hurricanes]
Even though Brad Kaaya has to, in his words, "take some on the chin sometimes," he believes in the five men in front of him.
"Those are the guys I've been with the last three years," he said after Tuesday's practice. "Nothing's changing. I still trust them every time I drop back. They're banged up. I think we're all banged up. Just still have to keep trusting them and know that things are going to get better."
That faith will be tested again Saturday, when the most productive defensive end in the country comes to town. Pittsburgh's Ejuan Price is all but guaranteed to add to Miami's woes in pass protection.
The Hurricanes are having one of their toughest stretches up front — ever. UM ranks 88th nationally in sacks allowed (20), but 18 of those have come in the last five games. Only eight of 128 FBS programs have allowed more in the last month.
If that pace continues, UM could approach its worst single-season sack total since 2009, when it gave up 35. The program record – note that the NCAA began keeping official sack totals in 2000 – is 36, set in 12 games in 2005. Miami's records show one other instance of 30: in 1989.
The record for fewest? Four, surrendered by the Hurricanes' 2001 title team.
Even Bryant McKinnie and Joaquin Gonzalez might have trouble with Price coming off the edge.
Of the 32 tackles Price has made this year, half were behind the line of scrimmage. No player in the country has more sacks (nine). Only one player, Temple's Haason Reddick, has more tackles for loss (16.5, to Price's 16.0). No player has created more lost yardage (91 yards) than Price.
Miami coach Mark Richt called Price, who is small for a defensive end at 6-feet and 255 pounds, a "game-wrecker" and a "jet" when the ball is snapped. He often flies low, which is "problematic" for taller linemen.
"If you have just one guy on him, it's almost not fair, quite frankly," Richt said. "If you just say, 'Hey tackle, you block him all day,' and drop back to throw, I don't know if anybody in America will hold up very well against that."
Left guard Kc McDermott, who will be called on to help left tackle Trevor Darling, pledged to play "harder" and "nastier" to keep Kaaya upright. Richt said Kaaya needs to keep his focus downfield, and throw the ball away when his protection breaks down — or take a sack.
"There's nothing Brad can do," McDermott said. "It's all on us. … We know that if we give him a little bit more time he can complete some amazing balls and win some games.
"We've had our struggles, but at the same we've also done some really good stuff. If we do it on a more consistent basis, I have no doubt we'll win."
Kaaya, who was knocked around so hard in one game (Oct. 8 against Florida State) he lost a molar and injured his shoulder, said he's trying to keep them upbeat.
"We lose together, we win together, we have success together, we fall together," he said. "There's no sense in pointing fingers."
Two comebacks: Price, who finished third in the ACC in 2015 in both sacks (11.5) and tackles for loss (19.5), almost didn't play this year. In February, he was granted a sixth year of eligibility by the NCAA. He lost 2012 to a pectoral injury, the final seven games of 2013 to a back injury and all of 2014 with a chest injury.
Then there's Panthers running back James Conner, who authored one of the most inspiring comeback stories in recent memory. The 2014 ACC player of the year, Conner was rehabbing a season-ending torn MCL last December when a test revealed Hodgkin's lymphoma. He was declared cancer-free in May and now ranks fourth in the ACC in rushing yards (672) and third in touchdowns (10).
"It's incredible what he's done this year. He's a tough dude," Miami defensive end Trent Harris said. "We have a lot of respect for him and we know we're going to have to get him on the ground."
On the run: As the Hurricanes' offensive line has sagged in this four-game losing streak, so has its ability to run the ball. Only three FBS teams were worse in the last month than Miami, which averaged 75 rushing yards per game. Only UCLA was worse in yards per carry (2.22, to Miami's 2:42).
Running backs coach and offensive coordinator Thomas Brown acknowledged the struggles of the offensive line, but said he needs more from his backs. "I think at times we get too flustered and too frustrated and try to force plays to happen," he said. "Take what the defense gives you and stick to your keys."
He's sticking with Mark Walton (who saw his yards per carry numbers plummet from 8.35 in September to 3.02 last month) and Joe Yearby (7.31 to 5.41) as his lead backs. But Brown said he wants to find more opportunities for Gus Edwards, who was supposed to be part of the plan last week. He carried three times for minus-1 yard. As for freshman Travis Homer, who has been excelling on special teams, Brown said this:
"Is Travis good enough to play? There's no doubt about it. He is. But trying to figure out how to put four guys on the field is rough."
Another noteworthy comment from Brown after Tuesday's practice:
"Any great team I've been around is player driven. … In my opinion we lack some leadership on offense some times. There's some guys who are lead-by-example guys, but there's no commanding voice consistently. I think we need more of that."


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What Our Clients Say:
Astute worked with us throughout the discovery process, listened to our ideas, and helped us refine the message we wanted to communicate. Throughout the entire process, Astute was a dream to work with. We would not have achieved our objectives if it weren't for the collaborative spirit of their entire team!
- Sara Waggoner
- Director of Marketing & Client Relations
- T.W. Frierson
One of the first moves I made when I was brought in as CMO was to bring in Astute Communications to get our online branding and positioning in order. They more than delivered!
- Jamie Vance
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Thank you for moving Vintage into the 21st Century online and in print. We love our new look! We appreciate you and your team!
- Margaret Dunn
- Owner
- Vintage Millworks


text:
Your shopping basket is empty. To add an item, click the "Buy" button
Piko Continental Model Railways
Click here to view RECENT PIKO RELEASES
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Piko have been around since 1949. Starting out as a state owned toy manufacturer based in Sonneberg, Piko first found success with a range of toy cars before moving over to model railway production with locomotives, rolling stock and building kits for HO scale and buildings for N Gauge and G Scale.
After German reunification in 1992, Piko became a private enterprise, and shortly afterwards began producing G scale kits for garden railway enthusiasts. These kits are outstandingly popular, particularly in the U.S.
CLICK HERE to view a review of a G scale starter set.
CLICK HERE read an article about getting started in G Scale.
CLICK HERE to view an article on how to build a Piko G Scale Building.
CLICK HERE to view an article on how to add sound and smoke to a Piko G Scale Loco.
CLICK HERE to view the 2017 New Items.
In 2007 an excellent Track System was added to the G Scale range, including individual rail and sleeper sections for making flexible lengths.
The current HO scale range is amongst the most exquisitely detailed available, and they are one of the few manufacturers to offer full scale length coaches at 1:87 scale length, not the more common 1:100 scale.
Piko also offer some unusual prototypes, with rolling stock from countries including Poland and the Czech Republic making a nice change from the multitude of German stock available.
In 2002 the 'Hobby' range was introduced, a range of lower priced locomotives and rolling stock featuring the usual European refinement of all wheel drive and pickup, giving superb running qualities for a lower price.
A range of AC ~ Märklin-Motorola Digital locomotives are also available in this range at extraordinarily reasonable prices. Shortly afterwards the Hobby range was expanded to include a selection of building kits.
The 2006 Nurnberg Toy Fair saw the unveiling of Piko's first G Scale locomotive, the fantastic Taurus Electric Locomotive.
Piko also do a small range of TT Scale (1:120) Hobby locomotives at very attractive prices. Click here for the selection.
CLICK HERE to view the Piko Autumn 2015 New Items PDF
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Organisers of tonight's free community fireworks display in Fleetwood insist the event is still happening and has not been cancelled.
Rumours have spread in the port that the event has been pulled because of the wet conditions.
But those claims have been scotched by the team behind the event, which takes place in the Marine Gardens.
Malcolm Lewis, a Fleetwood Rotarian member, said this afternoon: "The rumours are not true, it is still happening.
"It is quite wet but that will not affect the event."
The spectacle will still start at 6pm and gates will open from 5.30pm and will include music from bands Belvedere, The Jepps and other entertainers, with the firework display starting at 7.30pm.
Last year's event attracted around 10,000 and was deemed a huge success
The annual event has been organised by a team with representatives from Fleetwood Town Council, Lancashire Fire and Rescue Service, Fleetwood Police, Wyre Borough Council, Regenda Group and the Rotary Club.
Richard Newson, another organising member, said: "This event is going from strength to strength."


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Jeff Moyer received a telephone call in 1994 from Katherine Ott, Curator at the Smithsonian's National Museum of American History. Katherine was developing a special exhibit on disability history, including the 504 Demonstration of 1977 at the Federal Building in San Francisco, California. Ms. Ott asked if Jeff would donate the guitar he played during the demonstration to the Smithsonian as an important artifact of the historic occupation.
Sadly, Jeff had traded that 1967 Martin 008 model guitar for a better instrument years before. However, Moyer and Ott established a professional relationship which included the following: Jeff gave the NAMH collection a broadcast-quality copy of a television magazine called Instant Recall from 1991. He also gave them his recording of the oratory of Justin Dart Jr., one of the leaders of the Disability Rights movement and a powerful public speaker. Justin Dart Jr. was the only unifying voice in the Disability Rights community and it was Dart and his wife Yoshiko who were truly responsible for the development and ultimate passage of thee Americans With Disabilities Act. His oratory, like that of the Rev. Martin Luther King, was moving, skilled and spellbinding.


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patterns > Sassy Socks and 1 more...
> Seeded Cable Socks
Seeded Cable Socks
Cables, seed stitch, and a little bit of lace adorn these cuff-down socks. Available in two sizes.
Note: Stitch pattern is charted only
Skills Required
Knit and purl in the round
Picking up stitches
Reading a chart
Kitchener stitch
Small (Large) with finished foot circumference of 8 (9) inches (20 (23) cm) slightly stretched
Yarn Requirements
400 yards (366 meters) fingering weight sock yarn
Sample knit using Hazel Knits Entice; 70% superwash merino wool, 20% cashmere, 10% nylon; 400 yards (384m) in 100g; Color Conch
Needle Size
Size US1.5 (2.5mm) needles for small circumference knitting in the round
32 sts and 42 rounds in stockinette on size US1.5 (2.5mm) needles is 4" (10cm) (worked in the round).
Other Materials
Stitch holder or waste yarn
Cable needle
2 Stitch markers
Tapestry needle
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- Page created: June 26, 2015
- Last updated: May 31, 2017 …
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Montreal's plan to achieve accessibility will not see the system fully accessible within our lifetime or that of our children, if ever.
Opinion: Public-transit accessibility should be a priority in Montreal
Much of Montreal's public transit system is inaccessible. This state of affairs is not acceptable and fixing it should be a priority.
One in six commuter rail lines in the Montreal region has fully accessible stations. Only 11 out of 68 métro stations have elevators. Given that 70 per cent of annual trips using the Société de transport de Montreal (STM) system involve the métro, overall, public transit in Montreal is still out of reach for many people.
According to the Canadian Survey on Disability, almost 14 per cent of our population has a disability. Quebec's aging demographic means that these numbers will likely increase.
Not until 2024 will all Montreal bus routes be fully wheelchair accessible. Based on the STM's own figures, it will take 187 years for elevators to be installed in all métro stations.
Lack of accessibility affects people in wheelchairs, but it also affects others. Inaccessible transit is an obstacle for many seniors, and people with injuries, cardiovascular problems, or severe arthritis. A lack of elevators or escalators can be dangerous for parents trying to negotiate stairs while trying to balance strollers, toddlers and shopping bags.
In its defence, the STM pleads history, finances and technical difficulties. It also argues that poor quality service in its paratransit service is not discriminatory. Quebec's human rights commission apparently agrees, at least according to its response to several complaints filed against the STM in 2011.
Sure, the métro was designed and built before elevators and other accessibility features were standard. But Toronto's system is 10 years older than ours and half of its 69 stations already have elevators. Toronto will have step-free stations by 2025. All of Montreal's stations will only have elevators in 2203, based on the number of elevators needed and the current rate of installation.
In the United Kingdom, London's underground system is a century older than Montreal's, and yet a quarter of its stations are accessible. Its entire bus fleet is already wheelchair accessible.
The STM has an annual budget of about $1.3 billion. In its arguments before Quebec's rights commission, the STM offered little insight into how financial priorities are set, beyond simple assertions of insufficient funds. Barring an independent audit, we have no real way of knowing. By contrast, Toronto and London have somehow managed to provide more integrated services to more people, despite older rolling stock and infrastructure.
Not only does Quebec law guarantee equality to people on the grounds of disability, age, and family status, among others, but the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities says states must ensure people with disabilities can access transportation on a basis equal with others.
Montreal's plan to achieve accessibility ensures that the system will not be fully accessible within our lifetime or that of our children, if ever.
How can the STM's plans and investments be considered acceptable when they operate to deny full access to public transit? Transit authorities bear responsibility for these inadequate systems and plans. The city of Montreal and other municipal authorities share that responsibility.
The STM has argued — and the Quebec rights commission has agreed — that poor quality service does not amount to discrimination. Sometimes that is true, but in this case shoddy service serves as evidence of discrimination. Its effect is to create disadvantages for people with disabilities and older people, among others. A store owner or educator would never get away with giving poor service to minorities. Why should the STM or the city?
Disability activists have now been forced to take to the courts, hoping for a better result. The Regroupement des activists pour l'inclusion au Québec (RAPLIQ) is seeking permission from Quebec's Superior Court to file a class action against the STM, the city and the Agence métropolitain de transport.
All Montrealers would benefit from barrier-free public transit.
Pearl Eliadis is a human rights lawyer and a member of McGill's Centre for Human Rights and Legal Pluralism.


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Why Vulnerability is the Key to Building Relationships on Twitter
By Touran |
By Brandon Fong
I used to think I was cool. That was, until I realized that nobody else thought I was cool. When I first started building my personal brand on Twitter, I did everything wrong. I thought that the best way to do things would be to show people how professional and accomplished I was -- people like that, right?
Nobody relates to people who try to act perfect all the time. This is true in real life, so why wouldn't it be true on Twitter?
Along my Twitter journey thus far, I've made many mistakes, followed bad advice, and probably took much longer to get where I am today than if I had done it correctly.
My new (and dramatically more effective) approach to building a successful Twitter account is all about providing value to people. If you can provide value, make people feel good, and build a relationship with them, you can then start to build a following and loyal trust with your audience.


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Teddy bear lovers from Billericay are being invited to sign up this month (May, 2014) to help with an attempt to have the most teddies picnicking on the same day nationwide.
The potential world record event looks set to take place on Wednesday, July 9 all over the country and has been organised by the national charity bibic.
[quote width="auto" align="none" border="#0066cc" color="#0066cc" title="Geoff Cummins, bibic's Chief Executive"]We're asking teddy bear fans young and old to take part in a picnic on July 9. The event is part of a week of bear related fundraisers we have planned nationwide. The picnic can take place on the day and we're hoping nurseries, mum and toddler groups, primary schools, families, individuals and even businesses will host an event. All we ask is people donate £1 each to bibic to take part and that the organisers send us the money collected as a cheque after the event. Anyone interested in being involved can contact us via telephone, email or social media to register and we will email them a free fundraising pack full of the 'bear' essentials on hosting an event including a template for creating your own teddy bear ears, pictures to colour in, posters and flyers to print off and ideas for games.[/quote]
bibic is a national charity offering practical help to families caring for children with conditions like autism, aspergers, cerebral palsy, Down's syndrome, developmental delay, brain injury, and specific learning difficulties like ADHD, dyslexia and dyspraxia.
It receives no government funding and relies on support and donations to provide the life-changing help needed by many children and their families.
[quote width="auto" align="none" border="#0066cc" color="#0066cc" title="Geoff Cummins, bibic's Chief Executive"]We're not aware from our research of a similar event being held so we may well be setting a record for the most number of teddies all over the UK picnicking at the same time. But we understand the record for the largest teddy bears picnic in one place, which was attended by 33,573 bears with their owners, was at Dublin Zoo in 1995. While we appreciate that might be a bit ambitious for us this year, we are planning on making this an annual fundraiser for us and it would be great to beat the record at some time in the future at our flagship event venue. It's something to aim for![/quote]
The charity has a national assessment centre in Langport. Its therapists work closely with families nationwide to create a therapy programme, which provides them with the skills and strategies to support their child or children.
Geoff added: "We specialise in understanding the causes of challenging behaviour and can even offer support if your child has not been diagnosed with a condition."
The bibic teddy bears picnic is part of a week of furry-themed fundraisers the charity is hosting.
They include a bear share for people who would like to pass their bears on to children that might need toys or for them to be sold in aid of bibic and a social media campaign for celebrities and members of the public to tweet about their bear friends.
People who aren't able to host a picnic on July 9 can have one on any other day during the weekend as well.
If you would like to support bibic's work and can't take part in this fundraiser but wish to make a £5 donation to the charity, please text KIDS02 £5 to 70070 or for a £10 donation text KIDS02 £10 to 70070.
For more information, please call bibic on 01458 253344, visit www.bibic.org.uk, follow the charity on Twitter at www.twitter.com/bibic_charity or log on to ttp://on.fb.me/18Cg8j2.


text: Hi On Fri, Jul 28, 2006 at 03:13:52PM +0200, ffmpeg wrote: > Hello, > > I would like to submit for review (and maybe integration) the following > patch, > This is my 2nd try, now based on 5829 (trying to follow last version) > > Purpose: Fix some non conformance to 3GP format (3GP TS 26.244 v 6.5.0 > 2006/06) > Applies: libavcodec/movenc.c {SVN 5720}, (test within trunk SVN 5829) > Testing: - Regression test OK; > - 3GP file check with some commercial 3gp analysis tools > - play on QuickTime > - play on HP OCMP Video 1.0 > Authors: Francois Draperi > Discussion: > Some fields (like in 'samr' atom) are not set to 0; "3GP TS 26.244" > enforces those values to be null. > The patch simply put 0 in the needed audio and video atom fields, for > 3GP files (and only them), and for AMR_NB mode (and only this codec). > Maybe someone may also ask to restrict those changes to the '-strict > very' mode, but is it useful ? > ToDo: > As suggested by Baptiste C., should also applies to mp4v, mp4a, and > potentially avc1. I do not know enough those, so I let someone else do > the change. patch looks ok, assuming regression tests pass, and whoever applies it should also fix the indention in a second, seperate commit [...] -- Michael GnuPG fingerprint: 9FF2128B147EF6730BADF133611EC787040B0FAB In the past you could go to a library and read, borrow or copy any book Today you'd get arrested for mere telling someone where the library is


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Criminal matters may be heard in the Magistrates, District or Supreme Courts.
It is possible for a matter heard in the Magistrates Court to be decided without the defendant being present. Where someone is convicted in these circumstances, it is called an 'ex parte conviction'. An application can be made to set aside an ex parte conviction. The application is heard in the Magistrates Court. For more information, see Application to set aside an ex parte conviction.
Appeals in criminal matters can be against a conviction itself and/or about the severity of the sentence (penalty).
An appeal is not a re-hearing to see if someone else will come to a different decision. It is not usually possible to re-argue questions of fact on appeal (unless special permission is granted). In most cases, the appeal must be based on some question of law. As an appeal therefore often means the arguing of legal principles, it is difficult for appellants who do not have some legal training to conduct their own appeals. A person who wants to appeal against a magistrate's decision should seek legal advice as quickly as possible.
Where a defendant attends a Magistrates Court hearing and:
- is found guilty and sentenced of and for a summary or minor indictable offence, an appeal against conviction or sentence can be made to a single judge of the Supreme Court [see Magistrates Court Act 1991 (SA) s 42(2)(b)];
- pleads guilty to a major indictable offence (or a group of offences including a makor indictable offence) and is sentenced, an appeal against that sentence can be made to Full Court of the Supreme Court, with the permission of the Full Court [see s 42(2)(ab)].
Note that appeals relating to offences that are categorised as industrial offences must be made to the Industrial Court [see s 42(2)(a)].
Appeals against a conviction or sentence handed down by the District or Supreme Court (these are called 'Superior Courts') are heard by the Court of Criminal Appeal, that is, the Full Court of the Supreme Court (being three judges sitting together, or if three judges are not available (or where the Chief Justice directs), two judges) [see Criminal Procedure Act 1921 (SA) ss 157 and 165].
The content of the Law Handbook is made available as a public service for information purposes only and should not be relied upon as a substitute for legal advice. See Disclaimer for details. For free and confidential legal advice in South Australia call 1300 366 424.


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Flooded Inboxes: 84% of All E-mail is Spam
The ratio of spam mails being sent is at an all time high. Statistics show 84% of all e-mail is spam, leaving only 16% of all processed e-mails as legitimate.
"We have seen the ratio of spam mail to legitimate e-mails steadily increasing over the past 2 years, and it has now reached an all time high. It is unacceptable the amount of spam mails being sent" stated co-owner, and co-founder of SPAMfighter, Martin Thorborg.
Spam is any unsolicited e-mail sent to a users account. With such a large number of spam mails compared to regular e-mail, users spend hours sorting through spam and legitimate e-mails. Spam mails are not merely a nuisance.
The newest kind of spam, animated spam, is especially a burden to servers and inboxes because they contain multiple gif images, which are very large and take up a lot of memory space. This type of spam absorbs bandwidth on servers causing e-mail servers to run slower. It also takes up more storage space in inboxes, causing many to reach their capacity very quickly, having the user miss out on legitimate e-mails which cannot be delivered due to the lack of memory space.
Spam can also be dangerous. The number of phishing e-mails being sent has also reached an all time high. Phishing e-mails are scam mails where the author poses as an actual firm, such as a bank, by creating a very credible looking e-mail and directing the recipient to an exact replica of the bank website. Phishers attempt to get the reader to go to their website and give out personal information, such as bank account numbers, and passwords. http://www.spamfighter.com/phishing.asp [Read more about phishing here]
The high ratio of spam is increasing, and e-mail users worldwide are being affected by these unwanted and unsolicited e-mails. These statistics were produced by SPAMfighter ApS. SPAMfighter draws its power against spammers from a community of over 1.7 million users located in 213 countries around the world.
» SPAMfighter - 19-10-2006
Dear Reader
We are happy to see you are reading our IT Security News.
We do believe, that the foundation for a good work environment starts with fast, secure and high performing computers. If you agree, then you should take a look at our Business Solutions to Spam Filter & Antivirus for even the latest version of Exchange Servers - your colleagues will appreciate it!


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The educational objective for the Graduate Aesthetics Training Program, is to prepare the student to perform comprehensive facial treatment services in addition to all aspects of professional makeup artistry.
This program offered by Divine Indulgence Aesthetics Institute is revolutionizing the wellness industry. Our oncology aesthetics foundation training will help you and your clinic or spa, safely modify your treatments and modalities, understand the different cancer treatments, medication and their effects on the skin


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Whether you're moonlighting as a consultant a few weekends a month or working 80-hour weeks for yourself, you'll eventually come to the question of how to organize your business for legal purposes. It's an important one to consider. The legal structure you choose for your business can affect a lot of important business variables, including…
We'll discuss the basics in this chapter, but keep in mind that every business is different and there's a lot more complexity to these structures than we'll cover here. While it makes a lot of sense to start working as a sole proprietor, it's also a good idea to meet with a business attorney at some point to discuss which structure makes the most sense for your short- and long-term goals.
Galia Aharoni , an attorney with HG Business Law, LLP , highlights a few important considerations for tech business owners thinking about legal structure:
To get a better idea of how the various business structures compare to each other, take a look at this table.
Next: Sole Proprietorships: The Structure of the 21st Century
Download eBook [PDF]


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How do you prevent a "sprinkle blizzard" in your kitchen? First, it's helpful to know what it is...ha, ha! If you have ever purchased a large container of sprinkles, you may know what I mean. Most smaller containers of sprinkles, have shaker holes in the top. However, the larger containers are open-topped and have the potential to create a huge mess.
There is no need to remove the plastic covering entirely. Simply cut a small hole in the plastic. You could cut a small hole in the lid, however, the sprinkles will remain exposed. They may go bad, be subject to critters, or get dumped out while stored. If you don't have an alternative shaker-type container to transfer the sprinkles into, this solution is easy, quick, and free.
Thanks for following Practips!
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Tank liquid level and inventory monitoring using KING-GAGE® systems provide you with reliability, consistency and accountability. Here you will find cost-effective solutions for beverage, food, dairy and chemical plants in liquid level measurement or inventory tank gauging encompassing new installations, upgrades and retrofit applications.
This product catalog (pdf) provides a selection of level measurement and inventory tank gauging systems. Liquid level sensors, transmitters, indicators and multiple tank displays.
KING ENGINEERING8019 Ohio River BlvdPO Box 305Newell WV 26050 USAPhone304-387-1200Fax304-387-4417
© 2017 ATC King Engineering Division
Part of the Marsh BelloframGroup of Companies


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Elizabeth Stevens is an associate in the firm's Real Estate Group.
Ms. Stevens received a J.D. from New York Law School summa cum laude in 2016, where she served as an Executive Editor of the New York Law School Law Review. She received a B.B.A. from the University of Notre Dame in 2009.
Unsolicited e-mails and information sent to Morrison & Foerster will not be considered confidential, may be disclosed to others pursuant to our Privacy Policy, may not receive a response, and do not create an attorney-client relationship with Morrison & Foerster. If you are not already a client of Morrison & Foerster, do not include any confidential information in this message. Also, please note that our attorneys do not seek to practice law in any jurisdiction in which they are not properly authorized to do so.
©1996-2019 Morrison & Foerster LLP. All rights reserved.


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Have you heard of meringue? This soft and sweet treat is a mixture of egg whites and granulated sugar whipped into a creamy-looking ivory paste that can be soft when fresh and stiff when dried in an oven. Because of its versatility, it can be used in a variety of ways in many different desserts.
The dessert was said to have first been invented in 1720 by Swiss pastry cook Gasparini. Others say that the true inventor of this saccharine staple of dessert was a chef who cooked for the Polish King Stanislas I Leszcyński. These treats were shaped by spoons until the 19th century when French pastry chef Antoine Carême first used a piping bag to dole out sugary cremes.
The dish is simply egg whites beaten continuously until the proteins are unfolded and combine with the air bubbles formed. Gradually, sugar is added to help the liquid hold its shape, helping it take shape and turn white. Depending on its purpose, you can add more sugar to the pipe and form stiffer shapes or withhold the sweet stuff to turn it into a soft topping for cakes or pies.
This saccharine sensation is often presented in many delightful desserts. It is well known in its stiff, "kisses-like" shape, piped out then dried into a convenient and crunchy treat. Other times, it can be topped with baked items like key lime pie or pavlova. The baked alaska is also a popular treat, consisting of a block of frozen ice cream topped on a sponge cake and then covered in meringue which will be baked in an oven.


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Empty Victorian properties in Morecambe's West End are to be transformed in a £5.5m scheme.
Developer PlaceFirst has secured planning permission for a multi-million pound scheme to create 51 apartments and houses in Chatsworth Gardens in Morecambe.
PlaceFirst's proposals won unanimous support from the planning committee of Lancaster City Council.
The empty Victorian properties were formerly used as guest houses and were the subject of a failed regeneration scheme that was approved in 2008 and would have involved demolition of the homes, but which was abandoned in 2010.
There will be a mixture of two-, three- and four-bed apartments and houses. Existing rear extensions and back yards will be demolished to create a communal garden.
The units will be offered to the private rental market and will be managed by a housing association on behalf of PlaceFirst.
Construction work is due to begin in May 2014 and the first homes are due to be available from June 2015.
PlaceFirst Ltd, was set up in 2009 and so far have been involved in a redevelopment project in Woodnook, Accrington.


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This project is a platform for Philadelphians who have been affected by gun violence to tell their stories on their terms, to help their healing through sharing their experiences with others.
The stories gathered here are stories of individuals and communities. They're also part of the story of Philadelphia: a part of the narrative that may not always be told. By sharing them, we hope to raise awareness and empathy surrounding the communities most affected by gun violence, throughout Philadelphia, and beyond.
Where's the Love? is a feeling that we have observed through hearing the stories of Philadelphians who have been affected by gun violence. While perhaps nobody could answer this question, we hope that these stories will make you think about what's being done, what still needs to be done, and, maybe, what you can do.


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Before Herbert J. Hapgood came to Mountain Lakes in 1910, the area was largely woodlands. Over the next dozen years, Mr. Hapgood built a planned community of hundreds of large, Arts-and-Crafts-style houses on lush grounds as summer homes for wealthy New Yorkers. After the Lackawanna Railroad built a station here in 1912, families began seeing Mountain Lakes as a permanent residence.
Mr. Hapgood and his successor put a stamp on the 2.6-square-mile borough, which is on both the National and New Jersey Registers of Historic Places, that remains strong today. Even the new houses, a significant number of which have been built in the last 20 years, tend toward historic reproduction. "Contemporaries just don't cut it here," said Julie Pinke, a broker with Re/Max Realty who has lived in Mountain Lakes for 25 years.
Still, the popularity of the boxy Hapgood houses has waxed and waned over the years. Allison Lubowitz grew up in one in Mountain Lakes, later lived in New York City and moved back to another Hapgood in Mountain Lakes with her husband and their 18-month-old twins in 1995. At that time, she said, "everybody wanted a Hapgood. Then at some point, people didn't want the older homes. They wanted something that was done and perfect." The Lubowitzes sold their Hapgood last year to build a new house that Ms. Lubowitz described as "Hapgood-y" on a two-acre lot.
Mary Menard, a broker at Keller Williams Realty, said even some people who don't love the old houses "just have to get their heads around it because they want to be in this school system." She also grew up in Mountain Lakes and sends her children to the same highly ranked public schools that she once attended.
Residents looking for modern amenities ushered in a period of aggressive renovation or demolition of the historic homes. Seeking to curtail the trend, the borough passed a historic preservation ordinance in 2012 allowing owners to expand the size and footprint of their historically designated houses by 20 to 25 percent without a variance, as long as they do not alter the front facade. Since then, there have been no demolitions, according to Tom Dagger, co-chairman of the Mountain Lakes Historic Preservation Committee.
In recent years, a growing number of foreigners have moved to this borough of 4,160 residents, Ms. Pinke said. Germans, South Africans and Chinese, among others, have discovered it partly because of the schools' reputation and partly through relocation companies' recommendations.
Cath and Joff Mitchell came to Mountain Lakes from New Zealand when Mr. Mitchell was relocated here in 1995. With four children, they found a five-bedroom Hapgood the perfect fit. After four years, they were sent back to New Zealand, but they missed Mountain Lakes so much that they moved back 18 months later, into a second Hapgood. Two years ago they moved again, into a 1933 lakefront house.
"We're like a B & B. They all come back here on weekends with their girlfriends," Cath Mitchell said, referring to her sons, now grown, who live in New York City and come to Mountain Lakes for what she calls "a resort getaway."
Not unlike Mr. Hapgood's original intent.
What You'll Find
Of the approximately 1,400 homes in Mountain Lakes, 487 are designated as historically significant, built either by Mr. Hapgood or the Belhall Company, which took over his operation after he fled to South America to avoid creditors. The historic houses are scattered throughout town, and are mostly on properties of less than a half-acre, with original lots having been divided and subdivided.
Some of the most desirable homes line the nine man-made lakes in Mountain Lakes, most of which offer fishing, boating and swimming opportunities. Another prestige area is referred to as "the Hills," where the roads slope upward and large homes back up to Tourne County Park.
Younger families find the school section of the borough desirable, with the elementary, middle and high schools close to one another and to several residential streets. This area is also near the Mountain Lakes train station, which houses a restaurant. A second restaurant, named Hapgoods, is in the small commercial area.
The Lake Arrowhead section and "the Village" are two areas where more modest houses were built after World War II, with a mix of ranches, Capes and cottages. The borough has two established townhouse condominium developments, Pine Edge and Spruce Edge, with a total of about 115 units, and a third, newer townhouse development called Legacy of Mountain Lakes, with 39 units.
What You'll Pay
As of June 23, there were 55 houses on the market in Mountain Lakes, the highest priced being a six-bedroom three-bath lakefront home built in 1930 on three-quarters of an acre, listed at $2.55 million, and the lowest a three-bedroom two-and-a-half-bath 1940 bungalow on 0.23 acres, listed at $439,000. The average price of the 27 homes sold through mid-June was $905,430, compared with an average price of $849,503 for the 69 houses sold here in 2013, according to the Garden State Multiple Listing Service.
Three-bedroom townhouses in the older developments are listed in the $600,000s, while the newer Legacy townhouses are listed with prices ranging from the high $500,000s to the $800,000s.
What to Do
This month, the Mountain Lakes swim team began its 59th season, practicing and competing in Birchwood Lake, where there is also a public beach for borough residents, with lifeguards and concessions. A second public beach is on Mountain Lake, as is the private Mountain Lakes Club. Dating to 1914, this club has dining, a pool, tennis courts, bowling and lake activities. A protected section of Mountain Lake known as "the cove" is where residents skate in the winter. The 545-acre Tourne County Park, which lies partly in Mountain Lakes, offers picnic areas, hiking and cross country trails.
One resident, Michelle Siddons, said the borough's emphasis on sports was a selling point when she and her husband were deciding whether to move to Mountain Lakes. "I said to my husband, 'Do you want our daughters to be shopping every day, or being athletic and outdoors? '" she said.
The Schools
There is one elementary, one middle and one high school in Mountain Lakes, each of which significantly outperforms other public schools statewide. Wildwood Elementary School served 473 students in kindergarten to Grade 5, while Briarcliff Middle School served 317 sixth- through eighth-graders last year. Mountain Lakes High School had 704 students from the borough and the neighboring Boonton Township in 2012-13. SAT scores that year averaged 567 in reading, 569 in math and 563 in writing, compared with state averages of 495, 521 and 496.
Also in town is the Lake Drive School, which serves about 100 hearing-impaired students from throughout the region. The Craig School is a private day school specializing in learning disabilities for second to 12th graders with the lower school in Mountain Lakes and the upper in Boonton.
The Commute
New Jersey Transit provides train service through Newark to New York's Penn Station, with rides taking about 80 to 90 minutes and costing $13 one way or $361 monthly; a direct line from neighboring Denville can trim a bit of the travel time from the trip and costs $14, or $400 monthly. Lakeland Bus lines provides bus service from the Boulevard in Mountain Lakes to the Port Authority terminal, taking about one hour and costing $11.25 one way.
The History
In the early- to mid-1940s, Bell Laboratories used Crystal Lake to test sonar devices for torpedo guidance and submarine detection, dredging one end of the lake to a depth of 14 feet, according to the website of the historic preservation committee. The borough's three upper lakes were once owned and operated by the Fox Lakes Ice Company, which built large ice houses on the lakes where workers cut and stored blocks of ice before transporting them away by railcars.


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Sedona Connections Youtube Channel Video Upload & Sponsors page
Sedona Connections Youtube Channel Video Upload & Sponsors page
For sponsors we will create a hyperlink connected to your web site with thumbnail logo on our sponsors page and one year with your video on our Sedona Connections Youtube channel. Video must be previewed first. We have to love your product or what you do, in order to be a sponsor. 20 sponsors for this category. We will upload your video and host your video for one year on our Sedona Connections Youtube channel.
We will upload you pre created video to our Sedona Connections Youtube channel and you will be a listed sponsor on our sponsors page with thumbnail link to your site. We are developing a site that will be a hub connected to our Youtube channel videos.
My vision for creating these promo video's is that it gives myself and the authentic Sedona community a hub to be represented by other local Sedonans therefore when creating a Sedona Connections promo you are joining a community of Sedonans and collectively bringing like minded beings to the same hub where they can find the local connection to the amazingly gifted healers, medicine people, artists, innovators, eateries, and holistic healing arts, together with nature and all the travel related businesses that support the Sedona Experience. Looking forward to recreating with you in the New Year 2018!
Robert Dakota is a filmmaker and multimedia artist with a unique vision: to connect people from around the world through his World ViewZ Media platform and Youtube channels. Robert traveled as a videographer and Director of Photography with the One Heart Journeys 04-08 with Drunvalo Melchizedek. Documenting the journeys to the sacred places of Peru, Japan, Hava Supai, New Zealand, Guatemala, Easter Island, Tahiti, and Moorea. In addition to journeys with One Heart, Robert also shot in other exotic locations while on his own journey's, in locations like Bali, Kauai, Maui, California, Sedona, Europe, the Andes of Chile, Patagonia, etc. He has traveled to 28 countries to date.


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What kind of associations and stereotypes arise in the mind of any person at the mention of Russia? Ask any foreigner! The Red Square, the Moscow Kremlin, bitter cold, a fur cap with ear-flaps, brown bear, red caviar, a samovar with bagels, painted rosy-cheeked matryoshka, accordion and balalaika, "Kalinka Malinka", cheerful festivities, jolly dances... the list goes on and on. And for everyone it will certainly be unique. BUT! Absolutely everyone, whether Russian or foreigner among the first images will certainly name the cold, crystal clear Russian vodka.
In Russia it enjoys a special, reverent attitude. Vodka for the Russians is a matter of pride and a truly national drink! Since ancient times, no holiday can do without it. We are used to celebrating the most important events in our life with this drink. Wedding, farewell party, old friends reunion - nothing passes without vodka, affectionately referred to as the "little white" in Russia. Vodka is an integral part of our historical culture and mentality.
A Vodka Museum without vodka is nonsense! That's why as soon as you step into the museum, its friendly staff will offer you a traditional "fine" - a shot glass of this life-giving water. For our dear guests to have no more doubts where they are. For the visitors to feel clearly the sacredness and ambience of this magical place from the very first steps.
Open daily from 10:00 to 20:00.
Language: English


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Family Support Scale (FSS)
Dunst, C. J., Jenkins, V., & Trivette, C. M (2007) Family Support Scale Reliability and Validity
Asheville, NC
Winterberry Press
This survey questionnaire measures parents' satisfaction with the perceived helpfulness of support. There are 18 items included in this questionnaire. The user is asked to respond on a 5-point Likert scale to identify their supports in informal kinship, social organizations, formal kinship, nuclear family, specialized professional services, and generic professional services. The supportive service providers will be able to identify the areas that need to be improved and addressed to better meet the families' needs. The scale is available in English only. Service providers may administer the scale.


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Uno sproloquio inestimabile di Cristina Missiroli.
"A wise and frugal government, which shall restrain men from injuring one another, which shall leave them otherwise free to regulate their own pursuits of industry and improvement, and shall not take from the mouth of labor the bread it has earned. This is the sum of good government, and this is necessary to close the circle of our felicity".
Thomas Jefferson
Terzo presidente degli Stati Uniti (1801-1809).
Nato il 13 aprile 1743 (Albermarle County, Virginia)
Morto il 4 luglio 1826 (Monticello, Virginia)


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I'm not sure if I have shared this tip with you guys yet, so here it is!
This Technique is so great and works out for almost everyone. People with super oily skin would not benefit as much as people with dry skin or more mature skin. What we are talking about here is adding oil to your foundation. Take any beauty oil, whether it be maracuja, argan, jojoba or whatever it is that you have and add a drop to the foundation that you are going to put onto your face. Mix it together and either apply it with a beauty blender, a wet sponge or any flat top kabuki brush. Let it sink in for a few minutes and then blot off any excess oil with a dry sponge. This will leave on all of the pigment and everything that that has already absorbed into the skin. After that, Set it with powder and finish the rest of your face.
This technique will literally help your foundation be one with the skin and the outcome is beautiful. Just glowy, healthy, hydrated skin! If you give this a try, let me know how it works out for you.


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All-time favorite movie?
Bringing Up Baby. It's laugh-out-loud funny!
What movie or TV show reminds you of your childhood?
Lassie. We would often watch it just before dinner when I was small. Or the Looney Tunes - we used to watch it on Saturday mornings in our jammies.
Go-to genre on movie night?
Classic film, almost anything pre-1950. A lot of films now seem as if they are regurgitating the same old things. In classic film, everything was new.
What movie could you watch endlessly?
The General. It is so cleverly constructed, has great gags, and is beautifully shot.
Favorite movie quote?
I love Sunset Boulevard because I am a huge fan of silent film.
Favorite director?
Buster Keaton, and my favorite film of his is Seven Chances.
Comedy scene that makes you LOL?
Too many to list - most are in the short films of Buster Keaton.
Best action scene that gets your adrenaline pumping?
The opening sequence of Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark. This is the kind of stuff they used to save for the climax of the film, and in Raiders, it's just the beginning!
Scary movie that keeps you up at night?
I prefer Hitchcock to graphic horror.