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Submitted by Staci R Norman on
My SA | by Valentino Lucio
When it comes to the technology industry, women are an endangered species.
The number of women entering computer science and information technology fields is dramatically lower than their male counterparts, and the figure is shrinking. Take a ride up the corporate ladder, and the numbers get even smaller.
It's a chicken-and-egg situation: There are fewer women in IT because few women have the education for those jobs. There are fewer women interested in getting that education because they see so few women in IT.
Employers say they'd like to see more women in the industry. But if women aren't applying, how can employers hire them?
The issue may have to do with cultural norms and the stereotype of who works in IT.
"It's not necessarily overt discrimination, but it's what we call unconscious bias," said Jenny Slade, communications director for the National Center for Women & Information Technology.
"We have gender stereotypes that we're often not even aware of. It might come down to something simple like the difference between buying your son an erector set and buying your daughter a doll. If you encourage young girls to tinker and take things apart and put them back together, it actually has an impact on building their confidence and determining how they feel about certain careers."
To boost interest locally, companies and organizations are creating outreach programs to expose middle school-age kids to science, technology, engineering and math disciplines. It's the early exposure that industry leaders feel will erase gender stereotypes and help establish a more diverse IT workforce.
Overcoming the stereotype of the tech geek may take time, but there are hopeful signs it could happen.
"A tech geek is no one who looks like me," said Andrea Mancillas-Cabañas, 30.
But that didn't stop the speech teacher at Jay High School and professor at Northwest Vista College from learning the computing language needed to build her first mobile application, Brides & XV. It took her eight months to build her app, which aims to help brides and teen girls better plan their weddings and quinceañeras.
"I didn't go to school for this, but I wanted to try something new. We do need more women in the field to create technology for women, not men creating technology for women."
IT careers and women
In the professional ranks, women hold 25 percent of computer- and information technology-related jobs in the United States, according to the National Center for Women & Information Technology. Climb the corporate ladder and the number of women at the top shrinks to about 20 percent.
The figures get worse for minority women. Leading the charge is Asian women, who make up about 4 percent of the computing workforce. African American women come in at 3 percent, and Hispanic women bring up the rear at 1 percent.
While there isn't a shortage of women working for technology companies in human resources, sales and marketing, seeing a woman in a technical role is rare.
"Technology has taken on this stereotype of being a domain of pale males, so to speak. Something that white men are good at, and they're the best, and everyone else is inferior," Slade said.
Finding enough qualified women to boost IT ranks is hard, said Juanita Sessions, assistant vice president of information technology at Dallas-based AT&T Inc.
In an effort to boost female employment, AT&T sometimes hires women who show a propensity for technology, Sessions said, and then trains and molds then into IT pros.
"Many will have a design background, a communications background or engineering background that we can use to transform them into IT professionals."
Nick Longo, director at San Antonio's Geekdom, a tech co-working space, said that for decades there has been an effort to pull more women into the industry, but the numbers haven't improved. He added that even though there's an abundance of technical jobs to be filled, not many women are among the applicants.
"People are always saying we need more women in tech," he said. "I want more women in tech, too. It doesn't matter. Women aren't lining up around the block for jobs."
The schooling issue
The lack of women in IT stems back to a scarcity of women learning the skills for computer-related fields.
In 1985, about 37 percent of those earning computer science degrees in the U.S. were women. In 2010, that number fell to 18 percent, according to data from the National Center for Women & Information Technology.
Slade attributes the higher numbers in the past to the industry's newness. Since then, she says gender stereotypes have become more prominent, causing the numbers to dip.
"Back then, computing was new for everyone," Slade said. "The field wanted anyone who had a passion for it and had good ideas. It didn't matter what your gender was."
When Sessions, 55, enrolled at the University of Texas at Austin in the mid-'70s, the industry was in its infancy and bulky computers were fed punch cards. There were just a handful of women in each computing class, and often women worked in female-only groups because the men would band together. But as the semesters passed, the tendency toward separation faded.
"After a while, we all became a team," she said.
Locally and statewide, the numbers are better than the national average. From 2008-2011, the number of students who graduated with computer science-or information-technology-related degrees from Texas public universities held steady around 25 percent, according to figures from the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board.
At the University of the Incarnate Word, more than one-third of all students who enroll in technology programs are women, according to figures the school provided.
But the university's numbers also reveal that more women are enrolling in technology programs that have an emphasis on graphic arts and business.
Five years ago, women made up about 36 percent of all students who were enrolled in the computer graphic arts program there. Last year, the number was nearly 50 percent.
UIW technology instructor Tim Porter said it's a 50-50 split in his upper-level classes, which focus on the business aspects of IT.
Since he started teaching there in 2009, Porter has noticed that women visit his office hours more than guys and are typically more proactive in their efforts to understand the curriculum.
"It really depends on the person, but there are female students who think they might break something and there are others who are more confident and take charge," he said.
UIW faculty and staff actively reach out to female students in an effort to guide them into more technical pathways, Porter said. He said the school hosts IT sessions where women are exposed to the subject and shown that a technical employee isn't someone who is glued to a computer.
"When people think of IT, they still think of old IT, sitting behind a computer or being in a cubicle, and you're just working on a computer," Porter said. "That old mindset is slowly fading. But the way we educate the young females is showing them examples of women in IT leadership."
Show me the tech
Attracting and retaining women in IT is something several companies and organizations are working toward.
San Antonio-based Rackspace Hosting Inc. has created a diversity program that includes mentor groups and networking events, said Tina McDaniel, a former inclusion and innovation adviser there. She left the company last month after more than five years.
"At Rackspace, a lot of the women who I would talk to would be the only female on a team," she said. "So we looked at ways of building a mentor program or we also did networking events where we pulled all the women at Rackspace together so they could mingle and network with other women to start that pure mentor relationship."
Angie Morehead is one employee involved in the mentorship programs there.
It was the novelty of downloading and sharing music along with job security within a booming career field that steered Morehead, 31, to get her associate degree in network administration from San Antonio College. The two-year degree landed her an entry-level IT position at Rackspace.
"You don't have to be a super geek to work in tech," she said.
Over the past eight years, Morehead has developed her skills by attaining various technical certifications that have allowed her to move into a senior manager role at Rackspace. While women in technical roles are outnumbered there, she says it's the company's culture and the support from the mentor groups that encourages personal and professional growth among women there.
"I don't see myself as a woman in tech. I see myself as a Racker."
Next month, Geekdom will launch its SparkEd program, which will reach out to about 1,500 students from middle schools in various districts around San Antonio, said Louis Pacilli, director of education at Geekdom.
The program consists of 30 tech camps where students can learn about robotics, entrepreneurship, website design or computer programming. Although the camps are open to all students, Pacilli said there will be a push to involve more girls and expose them to role models such as women who hold IT leadership roles.
"Let's break out of the box that tech is just for boys," said Pacilli, who was an educator in New York City before coming to Geekdom this year. "Let's expose (girls) to these technical areas early and see what happens."


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Let's review the facts about Sandra Bullock. She's absolute box office gold. She's kind of fun and funny and, even more than my beloved Julia, she's one of the boys about the whole "we're chill about the fact that we're super rich making movies" thing, and everyone loves her. She has it wired.
So I don't totally understand this dress. In the past, her choices have been kind of wackadoodle. Remember the purple cellophane thing? Me too. And the black-blue-pink business? Sandy never gets it all the way right, necessarily, but it's not usually boring.
Which is why last night's blue McQueen – the kind of gown that a rich mother in a teen soap would wear to chair the benefit gala – is so confusing. It's Sandy being sleeker, smoother. Ironing out one of the rough edges – and I guess the question is why? Love a rough edge on Sandy. Don't think she needs to even them out.
In fact, I've been screaming along with everyone else about how the dresses were boring and nobody wore anything interesting and fashion forward and risqué but I'd rather have Sandy go back to a little bit silly than this sort of staid and simple. You agree with me, right?

subset: commoncrawl


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Tuesday's Tip is another one of the daily prompts suggested by members of Geneabloggers (see link in side bar). My tip for this week is one that I use often. If I can't find an individual or family (say, in the census or on a passenger list, etc), I try saying the last name out loud in my best imitation of what I think is the appropriate accent. The idea being that how you hear it may help you come up with alternate spellings that may not be obvious.
Many of my ancestors and relatives were (or intermarried with) the Pennsylvania Dutch variety of Germans. Some of the common letter exchanges I find are B changing to P (or vice versa) and a hard C or K changing to G (or vice versa). There are probably others, but these are the ones that come to mind as I sit here and write this. Other types of accents may turn J into H or W into V.
Basically, it's just another way to come up with alternate spellings that might be too far off for Soundex or some of the other "fuzzy" matching algorithms used by some search engines. And even in the case where these alternatives are returned by the "fuzzy" search, if you type the alternative in directly it may pop the individual or family you are seeking closer to the top of the returned list, saving you the trouble of wading through all the "wrong" results to get to the "right" one.
Hope this helps!


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By Reid Spencer (BRISTOL, Tenn.) — We've seen this script before, Matt Kenseth holding off Kasey Kahne in the closing laps of a NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race.
It happened at Las Vegas in March. It happened at Kansas in April. And it happened again in Saturday's Irwin Tools Night Race at Bristol Motor Speedway.
On inferior tires and with a fuel tank bordering on empty, Kenseth won a heated battle against Kahne to claim victory in Saturday's Irwin Tools Night Race at Bristol Motor Speedway, after Kahne moved into the second position on Lap 473 of 500.
The victory was Kenseth's fifth of the year and it guaranteed the driver of the No. 20 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota at least a wild card spot in the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup.
Juan Pablo Montoya ran third followed by Brian Vickers and Joey Logano.
The victory was Kenseth's third at Bristol and the 29th of his career but it was anything but a cakewalk. Several times in the closing laps Kahne either pulled alongside or nosed ahead of Kenseth's Toyota but was unable to complete a pass.
"I think, at the end of the day, I just don't wreck people," Kahne said plaintively after the race, clearly disappointed that he had failed to win with a superior car.
Kenseth can thank Kahne for his restraint, especially in light of four incidents earlier this season in which JGR drivers have wrecked Kahne's No. 5 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet.
"When he got there with about eight (laps) to go, I knew we had our work cut out for us," Kenseth said. "I didn't know what would happen. The interesting thing about this track is that there's only one really fast groove, and I knew I couldn't let him outside of me…
"He almost cleared me into (Turn) 3 one time. I had to drive in really, really hard to make sure he couldn't get up in front of me. That's when I had that rubbing together off of (Turn) 4. There wasn't a lot of extra room there. It was an intense race. Kasey's got a great reputation. He's a really hard racer, really talented and he's also a really fair racer.
"I thought he was going to pass me. I thought he was going to get around me there but we had just enough to hang on."
Kahne felt he couldn't have cleared Kenseth's car without putting both drivers in jeopardy.
"Yeah, I thought Matt did a good job of just running as hard as he could as close to the wall as possible, which helped him a lot, and then I was just trying to gain speed," Kahne said. "I had a better car. We were on the right strategy and I just couldn't clear him. There was a couple shots I took and I had to have been close, but I could feel him on the right side of my car and I just didn't clear him.
"I didn't figure out how to get by. It's disappointing not to win here. I thought we had the best car the last 200 laps and it was a lot of work. We didn't start the best, but (crew chief) Kenny (Francis) made a lot of good calls and our strategy was perfect at the end. It was a great night for us, good for the points and things, but yeah, I wish I could have figured out how to get by him."
Montoya, watching the battle from a safe distance in third place, was hoping for contact between the first- and second-place cars.
"I was hoping they were going to wreck on the white flag (lap), to be honest," Montoya said.
Kenseth led the field to green for a restart after a wreck in Turn 1 involving Montoya, David Stremme and Jeff Burton caused the ninth caution of the evening. By Lap 430, Kenseth had opened a lead of more than one second over Jeff Gordon.
Caution for debris on the frontstretch slowed the field for the 10th time on Lap 439. Kenseth and Gordon, both saving fuel, brought the field to green on Lap 447, but before the cars could complete the circuit, contact between the cars of Brian Vickers and Denny Hamlin ignited a massive wreck in Turns 3 and 4 that dealt serious blows to the Chase hopes of Martin Truex Jr. and Brad Keselowski.
Truex finshed 35th and fell two spots to 14th in points but still holds a provisional wild card berth with two races left before the Chase field is set at Richmond. Keselowski came home 30th and fell from eighth to 11th in the standings with no victory to offer him safe haven as a wild card.
Logano, on the other hand, moved into the top 10, as did Kahne. Kurt Busch finished 31st thanks to a loose wheel and a lengthy stay in the garage and dropped from ninth to 12th in points.
After a stoppage of four minutes 27 seconds for debris clean-up from the Lap 447 wreck, Montoya surged from fourth to second on the Lap 454 restart and took off in pursuit of Kenseth, With a full load of fuel and fresh tires, however, Kahne slipped past Montoya for second on Lap 473, caught Kenseth and waged an intensely competitive battle over the closing laps before falling short by .188 seconds.
Note: With a 14th-place finish, Clint Bowyer clinched a spot in the Chase. Bowyer remained second in the Cup standings and narrowed Jimmie Johnson's lead to 18 points, after Johnson broke the radiator on his No. 48 Chevy in a Lap 358 wreck and finished 36th.


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November 2, 2014 — Lightning Talk: Explore various lo-fidelity options for rapid prototyping. No prior experience required.
December 7, 2012 — Thinking about contributing to core, but don't know where to start? Millions of people use WordPress every day. Contributing patches can be exhilarating, but also a tad intimidating as you're starting out. At the end of this session you'll have all the knowledge you need to begin contributing. We'll cover getting a local install of trunk for development, as well as writing and applying patches. We'll look at navigating Trac, where to get answers to questions you may have, and the dynamics of the core community.
November 7, 2011


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Community members asked to clear clutter to do good for kids in need
Hey baseball Fans! Gear for Goals (G4G) is hosting a MEGA sports gear and musical instrument donation drive during the Schaumburg Boomers Baseball game on Friday, June 21st and this is your chance to clear the clutter of gently used sports gear and musical instruments out of your garage or closets and do something good for kids in need.
On this day, G4G is asking fans in attendance to bring along new and used sports equipment and/or musical instruments to donate to children in need. In return, fans will receive a discount for a future Boomers game. Not attending the game? Community members can still make a donation at the G4G truck in the Boomers' Parking Lot from 6:00 pm to 9:00 pm on June 21st that will feature a live DJ performance. It's a great time to clear the gear in your garage or closets and come out and have some family fun while supporting this worthy cause!
G4G aims to fill an entire semi-truck full of sports equipment and the gear collected will help underprivileged youth in the city and suburbs. Also, the gear will go to some of the many countries G4G now ships to including the Dominican Republic, Kenya, Bolivia, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Russia, Philippines, Jamaica, India, and Cuba. In total, G4G seeks to provide equipment to over 10,000 children this year through their 10,000/$10,000 campaign.
Event Information: G4G Awareness Night at Schaumburg Boomers Baseball Game
When: Friday, June 21st, 2013 at 6:30 pm; Gates open at 5:30 pm
Where: 1999 Springinsguth Rd. Schaumburg, IL 60193
Tickets: $10; To order tickets or for more info, contact Dr. Warren Bruhl at 312.869.2031 or via email at email@example.com.
FREE Parking. Post-game Fireworks.
About Gear for Goals
Gear for Goals is a project of Dreamweaver International. Gear for Goals' Vision is to see every child in the world have the opportunity to play, compete, and enjoy sport through equal access to necessary equipment and instruction. Follow Gear for Goals on Facebook at http://www.Facebook.com/GearforGoals.
About Dreamweaver International
Dreamweaver International is a 501c(3) organization located in the United States that provides education, healthcare, and humanitarian aid to the people of the Rift Valley of Kenya. With the addition of partner program, Gear for Goals, Dreamweaver International's scope and outreach of humanitarian care continues to grow globally. For more information, visit: http://www.dreamweaver911.org.


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On NetTuts.com today there's a new tutorial showing you how to use ParaTest for PHPUnit to execute your tests in parallel instead of the usual inline, in-order method.
PHPUnit has hinted at parallelism since 2007, but, in the meantime, our tests continue to run slowly. Time is money, right? ParaTest is a tool that sits on top of PHPUnit and allows you to run tests in parallel without the use of extensions. This is an ideal candidate for functional (i.e Selenium) tests and other long-running processes.
ParaTest operates as a separate binary that can easily be installed via Composer. They walk you through the install and show you what kind of options it lets you provide (like number of processes and the path to the PHPUnit executable). They show you how to write some parallel tests, five of them, each that sleeps for a certain amount of time. They also look at another tool that could help run your tests in parallel, Paraunit. They finish off the post with a look at some functional testing examples using Selenium, handling race conditions and some of the future plans for ParaTest's future.


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WEATHER: Unseasonably warm!
MILES THIS WEEK: Shamefully few.
WHERE TO: Hangoverland.
MOOD: Much better than this morning.
Some people run to relieve stress. They are like the free and easy gazelles of the running world, prancing gaily across the savannah, leaving their cares and worries behind.
Some run for the privilege of eating every g.d. cheeseburger they please, thankyouverymuch. These are the Great Danes of the running world–the big strong capable-looking runners who look like they could probably beat your ass and then eat your entire head. But only after this next episode of Two-And-A-Half Men and some buffalo wings.
Some run once every few months, after they overindulge at Big Bruce's Nacho Factory Sports Bar 'n' Grill and as a result feel "not-so-fresh." These people are not really part of the running kingdom, but I guess we could classify them as tree sloths, as they only really get in gear when they see the MIGHTY HARPIE EAGLE swooping in for the ambush. "RAAAAAH!" screeches the eagle. "Huh?" says the sl- OH MY GOD DID YOU SEE THAT? GROSS!


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7 Tips to Pay Fewer Taxes
Use flexible spending accounts to escape taxes on essential expenses.
Health care spending accounts
Health care spending accounts let you designate the amount to be deducted from your salary each payday, starting at the beginning of the year. For now, your employer sets the maximum amount you can contribute (in 2013, the maximum for all plans will be $2,500); your contributions avoid federal, state and local income tax as well as Social Security and Medicare taxes. The money can be withdrawn as reimbursement for qualified health expenses, such as co-payments, eyeglasses and contact lenses, and the cost of prescription drugs. (As of 2011, you can no longer use money in the account for nonprescription drugs.) If you don't use the money by the end of the plan year or, with some employers, by March 15 of the following year, you lose whatever's left in the account.
DOWNLOAD: The Kip Tips iPad App
Dependent care accounts
Dependent care accounts let you set aside up to $5,000 a year in pretax dollars to cover child care expenses for children under age 13, or day care for a disabled spouse or dependent. To qualify for this benefit, you must be employed, looking for work or a full-time student. As with the health spending account, if you don't use all the money by the end of the plan year, you lose the remaining amount.
Transportation spending accounts
Transportation spending accounts allow you to set aside pretax contributions for commuting expenses, such as bus fare, train fare or parking. In 2012, the monthly maximum you can contribute for parking is $240; for other commuting expenses, the max is $125. These plans typically let you adjust your contribution amount during the plan year, and they don't have the "use it or lose it" rule.
Sell losing investments to cut taxes
Turn your investment losers into winners by using them to cut your tax bill. You'll have to sell your investment to do so, and the assets must not have been held in a tax-deferred account, such as an IRA.
If you've got losses that qualify, you can use them to offset any capital gains you pocketed that year. You'll need to match up your long-term capital gains -- on investments held for more than one year -- with long-term losses, and match up short-term gains (held for one year or less) with short-term losses.
Do your losses exceed your gains? Use the excess to write off up to $3,000 of ordinary income. If you still have leftover losses, you can carry them forward to offset capital gains and up to $3,000 of ordinary income in future years.
Take home-office tax breaks
Karen Baca Ostrom has been running a business from her Los Angeles–area home for years, but she never claimed home-office deductions because they appeared to be more trouble than they were worth.
Now that Ostrom, a court reporter, is living in a rental following her 2011 divorce, she is having second thoughts. Home-office write-offs are simpler and far more compelling for renters than for homeowners. "It seems like it's at least worth considering," says Ostrom.
People who operate a business from home have access to a number of potentially lucrative tax breaks, but the home-office deduction can be a mixed bag. That's because homeowners who itemize deductions can already write off their biggest expenses: home mortgage interest and property taxes. Home-office deductions simply allow you to claim a portion of your utility and repair bills, as well as depreciation on the presumably small portion of the house that's used exclusively as an office.
That can add up to a relatively small tax break -- and it comes with strings. The depreciation may need to be "recaptured" when the home is sold -- meaning Uncle Sam wants you to give back some of the depreciation benefits you claimed. Taking a home-office deduction is widely believed to be a red flag that triggers an IRS audit.
But for a renter, a home-office deduction is far simpler, says Philip J. Holthouse, partner at the Los Angeles tax-accounting firm Holthouse, Carlin & Van Trigt. You simply figure out what portion of the apartment or house is used solely as office space and multiply that by the rent.
Establishing your home as your office can also allow for higher mileage deductions, says Jennifer MacMillan, a Santa Barbara–based tax specialist. For Ostrom, it would mean that every time she drives to court or meets a client, her round-trip from home is deductible at 55.5 cents per mile. "Log your mileage," MacMillan advises, because small-business owners are more likely to be audited than wage earners. But honest taxpayers who are organized should not have a problem supporting their deductions.
Other tax breaks for business owners:
--100% of health insurance premiums for the business owner and his or her family --Expenses for office equipment and supplies --Business meals and travel --Small-business retirement plan contributions up to 25% of income, or $50,000 in 2012
Use tax breaks to subsidize college
Set up a 529 savings plan and name your child as the beneficiary. These accounts let your contributions grow tax-free. If you use the money for qualified education expenses, such as tuition, fees, and room and board, the earnings on withdrawals escape taxes as well.
You can set up a 529 plan anywhere, but look to your own state first. Two-thirds of the states give residents a tax break for contributions to their state plan; Arizona, Kansas, Maine, Missouri and Pennsylvania give a tax break to residents for contributing to any state's plan. If your kid doesn't go to college, you can name another beneficiary or cash out the account, in which case you'll owe income tax and a 10% penalty on earnings.
Once you start paying for college, take advantage of the American Opportunity Credit, which returns up to $2,500 for each qualifying student. You must have a modified adjusted gross income of $90,000 or less (single filers) or $180,000 or less (married couples).
The American Opportunity Credit applies to the first four years of undergraduate education. Beyond that, go with the Lifetime Learning Credit, which lets you claim up to $2,000 in qualified expenses per family each year. This credit disappears at a modified adjusted gross income of $61,000 (single filers) and $122,000 (couples filing jointly).
Fight an unfair property assessment
About 30% of U.S. properties are assessed at higher values than their actual worth, according to the National Taxpayers Union. If you suspect that your tax assessment is too high, you can file an appeal.
Before you can determine if the assessed value of your home is accurate, you need to know how your local government assesses properties. Commonly, an appraiser will compare a home with similar recently sold properties to settle on a market value. That figure may be multiplied by a set fraction, known as an assessment ratio, to determine the taxable value.
Next, get your property's record card from your local tax assessor's office and check for errors, such as incorrect figures for square footage or number of rooms. If you can prove that any of the information is incorrect, you may be able to get a reduction in your assessment on the spot, bypassing the appeal process.
You can search Zillow.com to see estimated values and sale prices of similar homes to get an idea of whether your assessment is accurate. Then pull the record cards of those homes at the assessor's office or on its site, if it has an online database. The homes should be of about the same age and style, have the same number of bedrooms and bathrooms, and preferably be in your neighborhood. If you can find five or more properties at considerably lower values, you may have a good case.
Get all 100 of our top money-saving tips by downloading the new iPad app or purchasing the PDF version.


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Complain about old PI
Posted 13 October 2010 - 11:07 AM
Posted 13 October 2010 - 11:18 AM
...you shld've added here the one thousand and one ways on how you're gonna do it....take it easy, rkay...
ARGH!!! I am so frustrated at my "old" boss. I just switched labs to start my first post-doc and unfortunately I joined a lab at the same university, one floor down from my old lab. My old boss is one of the most negative, pessimistic, critical, demeaning, $@#!#$ I know. I am in the middle of writing my fourth paper for this man and nothing is good enough. He is constantly putting me down and telling me that my work is sub-par even though my three other papers were all accepted with little or no revisions. (First paper=no revision, second paper=one western blot, third paper=write in one paragraph to discussion to appease a reviewer). Oh yeah, all these papers were as a graduate student. I was the fifth person in my class to graduate (out of about 65) but he is constantly telling me how I took way too long to finish and now he tells me that I made a very bad choice for my post-doc laboratory and "my future is bleak". His exact words. I'm working on a fourth paper and my new boss (who is collaborator and co-author) says one of my images is worthy of the cover picture and should be submitted for it but my old boss says same image is "barely adequate". I really need to be careful as I can't afford to burn bridges and I will still need the old boss's recommendation for my next job. He's a fairly large name in the field and can open doors for me. He thinks I should have made a bigger jump as a postdoc but my personal life just won't allow for it right now. (Sell the house, lose $40K. Trying to start a family, husband just got huge promotion and raise at work...) I am trying my best not to argue with my old boss and just roll with it all but it's been 5+ years of rolling with his bs and I've just had it. He keeps saying that it's great that I'm just down the hall so if he needs an experiment done I can come do it but I don't work for him anymore. How do I break the ties with this man but not do permanent damage as I may need his recommendation in a couple years?? I know that my best bet is to just keep taking it and not do anything rash but even other people in the lab are commenting about how unfair and difficult he is with me. I don't know why he seems to dislike me so much. For 5+ years I was usually the first one in the lab and the last one out plus approximately 75% of my weekends and yet I don't work hard enough. Every lab meeting, while others are presenting the same data they've presented for 6 months, I was consistently presenting new data. I've tried my hardest to please this man and nothing seems to be ok. Other people's westerns are horrible with lots of shadows and background while mine are crystal clear. If I do happen to show a western with even the slightest trace of background, he says he finds it "unconvincing". Ack... sorry guys. I know there's really nothing anyone can do to help me but I sure appreciate the shoulder. Now...I have to get back to writing what I know will be a "horribly written and barely logical" paper.
Edited by casandra, 13 October 2010 - 11:20 AM.
- hobglobin, personal comment about my beauteous photo......
Posted 13 October 2010 - 12:31 PM
Posted 23 November 2010 - 06:35 PM
First, he views you as 'his', so your move was a slap in his face. Pardon my sexism, but it seems like older men view younger women as "daughters" (in your case, you are intellectual offspring) and expect to have the respect and obedience that a daughter would give a father-figure. He didn't want you to go to that lab, so you are a bad daughter for not respecting his wishes.
Second, he may be trying to break you down--for what reason, we will never know. Maybe he's trying to toughen you up before you leave this institution so you are ready to face whatever you encounter at your next institution. Maybe you remind him of a former student who burned him in some way. Maybe he has a beef with your current boss. Maybe he dated your mom in high school and he's taking his revenge on you. (like in that Lindsay Lohan movie I can't remember at the moment.)
Don't let him tweak you so much. Does you current boss know what's going on? If he's OK with acting as a buffer, then just keep doing your current job to the best of your ability. Don't give him so much power, worrying about recommendations and such. If he's as big as you say he is, everyone is aware of his quirks and will consider what he says accordingly. There is always some good-hearted person out there who will go to bat for you and counter his comments if they believe in you.
heh, just noted the date. How are things now?
lab rat
Edited by lab rat, 23 November 2010 - 06:36 PM.
Posted 24 November 2010 - 02:16 PM
Thanks for the reply. It's still pretty much the same. My old boss managed to think up an experiment that I should do for this paper and managed to talk my new boss (the collaborator on the paper) into having me do it. Of course this means that I need to be up in the old lab using equipment and reagents not available in the new lab. Hmmm... how convenient that he found a way to make me essentially come back to the lab. Since both PIs agree that it's an experiment worth doing, I really have no choice but to go along with it and just do the work. Heck, if it works it greatly increases the potential impact factor of this story. Meanwhile, I can't really seem to make anything work in the new lab which is very frustrating. I feel like a new graduate student since I don't know where anything is or any of the protocols. I'm constantly having to bug people in the lab but I'm trying to be polite and acknowledge any help they give me. I know that goes a long way. Otherwise, I'm just trying to get this paper done and out. On the bright side, the whole "my husband and I are trying to start our own family" worked out....I'm still trying to decide when to tell the new boss that I'm going to need time off next summer... Thanks again for the advice and shoulder. It's nice to just get things off your chest an realize that you're not alone in the boss from hell saga.
Posted 24 November 2010 - 02:59 PM
i'm sure he got to where he is now by being super anal and a perfectionist.
don't take it so personally. he might criticize your work but his criticism prob isn't hurting your work.
his comment about your future looking bleak.. hard to say if he's just being honest or if he's trying to motivate u to prove him wrong.
i've heard stories about a prof who literally told their student that their choice in thesis was stupid and that he'd get no where, but later on that same prof invested a lot of money into helping that same student start a biotech networking group (which has grown a lot!). and now they just look back on it and laugh
Posted 25 November 2010 - 04:32 PM
Edited by bob1, 25 November 2010 - 04:32 PM.
Posted 25 November 2010 - 11:10 PM
NEW!!!! Would you donate your poop for a loved one? on CoffeeTableScience!!!!
Image copyright: Adrian Koh SF.
Replication of this art is strictly prohibited without express permission of the artist
Posted 02 December 2010 - 09:43 PM
Again, don't let that guy tweak you. Talk to your boss, emphasize how stressful it is to work with that guy, and how much more pleasant to work where you are now without all that drama to worry about. Emphasize how happy you are with your new boss...then when it's appropriate, i.e., in another conversation at a later time, tell your boss your happy news. Build up to your ultimate goal: to politely bow out of that predicament with the support of your new boss, and with grace and professionalism.


text:
Did you ever notice (08/07/18 12:52:18)
"boring Elon" hehe. Anything but boring. Hope he's not in the way. Have you signed up for Mars yet?
Don't think we should despairof our tyrannic decade, but reverse engineer it.
I have a nephew who is in game design.
Character, + weapon, + costume, + scenario, + tactic (attack & counter-attack), + strategy (history reversed) and the old Burroughs Corp. solution to code defugalty = "reboot", (while IBM was perfecting = "parents never die; children first")
I think we should do the Aristotle thing, the Freud thing. Guess at soul and edge of perception, and make up our minds about motives/motifs/motivators: design our Trump Putin Merckel Kim Xi bots, and with insight and battle, with surmise and mistake, see where thimks are going.
I think we'll see how weak boasting is.
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Joined: 17 Aug 2005
Posts: 307
Location: Far, far away
Posted: Tue Jul 18, 2006 5:57 pm
Post subject:
Welcome, Sneakysocs.
I'd like to know more. Was
The Blue Spoon
written in the belief that
The Silver Spoon
(translated titles) did not address fish comprehensibly?
You'll notice that the latter book is mentioned earlier in this thread; it was just published in an English-language edition less than a year ago and sold out much earlier than a second printing was available. However, the book was not simply a translation of what US readers might consider the Italian
Joy of Cooking
; it was tailored, or altered expressly for American home cooks and catered to the cult of celebrity chefs by including new, non-traditional recipes by (the glorious) Mario Batali among others. This seems paradoxical to me because the whole point was to see what Italians themselves read now that so many more Italian ingredients are available here, whether imports, higher-quality domestic products (fresh mozzarella, La Quercia's prosciutto) or home-grown produce that was not available when Marcella Hazan first wrote her cookbooks.
In the UK Anna Del Conte seems to play the role Marcella Hazan plays in the US (I don't know about Canada, NZ, Australia or Ireland). In general, there are no Italian authors of Italian cookbooks whose works have been translated into English and become popular. I am not sure why, though some have claimed it is the lack of an Italian reverence for chefs.
I am a little skeptical since, after all, no one knew who Marcella Hazan was until she wrote her books. There are French chefs whose achievements are documented in cookbooks, but someone more knowledgeable would have to pipe up on this one. I can only think of the figures who have been introduced in collaboration with someone who writes in English: Dorie Greenspan for Pierre Herme, Patricia Wells for Robuchon or Jacques Pepin writing in English for himself.
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Joined: 03 Jul 2006
Posts: 9
Posted: Tue Jul 18, 2006 10:48 pm
Post subject:
Thank you Deste.
The Blue Spoon edition (2°) I have was printed back in 1997, so I doubt it has anything to do with The Silver Spoon, but to tell you the truth I don't know
I agree to the fact that translations do sometimes lack accuracy, reason why, whenever possible, I'd rather buy a book in its original language.
I know that a couple of Silvana Franconeri cookbooks have been translated in French. I was missing a good fish cookbook and I chose this one which attracted me not for the name but for its content, and I am glad I did.
Few Italians appreciate fancy cooking, most will go for pasta and pizzas, but they do have good chefs, Gualtiero Marchesi, l'Artusi, Mario Caramella, GF Vissani, but alas many others have emigrated because, I believe, Italian cooking and food is much more appreciated (and pays much more) abroad than in Italy, where it is being taken for granted. Italy has so many different regions and, even though the ingredients are almost the same, each region has its own way of cooking, and the same recipe can be prepared differently according to the region....hard to keep up with it! The real Italian cuisine is more of a tradition passed from generation to generation, so I guess anybody can write his own cookbook without ever becoming renowned or wanting to be introduced.
Anyway, if you need help sometimes, or if you are stuck with an Italian recipe, I will be glad to help!
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Joined: 17 Aug 2005
Posts: 307
Location: Far, far away
Posted: Thu Jul 20, 2006 3:57 am
Post subject:
sneakychocs wrote:
I agree to the fact that translations do sometimes lack accuracy, reason why, whenever possible, I'd rather buy a book in its original language.
Actually, what I meant was that instead of simply offering an exact translation of *The Silver Spoon* the publishers decided to offer a different book altogether, changing and augmenting sections to appeal to what they thought might be a different audience than the Italian couples who get copies upon marriage.
Italy has so many different regions and, even though the ingredients are almost the same, each region has its own way of cooking, and the same recipe can be prepared differently according to the region....hard to keep up with it!
Yes, you'll see this pattern has been acknowledged in the past decade or so of cookbooks written for English-speaking cooks. Cf. earlier recommendations here for books on Roman cooking, Neapolitan, Emilia-Romagna....There are lots of Sicily, Tuscany, some on Liguria, Piedmont, Calabria, Friuli (*Lidia's Kitchen*), Venice and so forth, though a stronger trend has been to offer books with a broader view that acknowledge regional origins of dishes, whether course by course (*Molto Mario*) or in different, distinct chapters in books on Northern or Southern Italy or the islands.
Some Italian writers nonetheless maintain that there is such a thing as a comprehensive national quality to the dishes and foods of the country, including an insistence on local, seasonal food prepared simply in ways that accentuate and maintain the integrity of ingredients.
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|# Copyright (C) 2010 The Android Open Source Project
|# Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License");
|# you may not use this file except in compliance with the License.
|# You may obtain a copy of the License at
|# http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
|# Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software
|# distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS,
|# WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied.
|# See the License for the specific language governing permissions and
|# limitations under the License.
|# Makefile for producing CTS coverage reports.
|# Run "make cts-test-coverage" in the $ANDROID_BUILD_TOP directory.
|include cts/CtsTestCaseList.mk
|cts_api_coverage_exe := $(HOST_OUT_EXECUTABLES)/cts-api-coverage
|dexdeps_exe := $(HOST_OUT_EXECUTABLES)/dexdeps
|coverage_out := $(HOST_OUT)/cts-api-coverage
|api_text_description := $(SRC_API_DIR)/current.txt
|api_xml_description := $(coverage_out)/api.xml
|$(api_xml_description) : $(api_text_description) $(APICHECK)
|$(hide) echo "Converting API file to XML: $@"
|$(hide) mkdir -p $(coverage_out)
|$(hide) $(APICHECK_COMMAND) -convert2xml $(api_text_description) $(api_xml_description)
|cts-test-coverage-report := $(coverage_out)/test-coverage.html
|cts-verifier-coverage-report := $(coverage_out)/verifier-coverage.html
|cts_api_coverage_dependencies := $(cts_api_coverage_exe) $(dexdeps_exe) $(api_xml_description) $(ACP)
|$(cts-test-coverage-report) : $(CTS_COVERAGE_TEST_CASE_LIST) $(cts_api_coverage_dependencies)
|$(call generate-coverage-report,"CTS Tests API Coverage Report",\
|$(cts-verifier-coverage-report) : CtsVerifier $(cts_api_coverage_dependencies)
|$(call generate-coverage-report,"CTS Verifier API Coverage Report",\
|.PHONY: cts-test-coverage
|cts-test-coverage : $(cts-test-coverage-report)
|.PHONY: cts-verifier-coverage
|cts-verifier-coverage : $(cts-verifier-coverage-report)
|# Put the test coverage report in the dist dir if "cts" is among the build goals.
|ifneq ($(filter cts, $(MAKECMDGOALS)),)
|$(call dist-for-goals, cts, $(cts-test-coverage-report):cts-test-coverage-report.html)
|$(call dist-for-goals, cts, $(cts-verifier-coverage-report):cts-verifier-coverage-report.html)
|# Arguments;
|# 1 - Name of the report printed out on the screen
|# 2 - Name of APK packages that will be scanned to generate the report
|# 3 - Name of variable to hold the calculated paths of the APKs
|# 4 - Format of the report
|# 5 - Output file name of the report
|define generate-coverage-report
|$(foreach testcase,$(2),$(eval $(call add-testcase-apk,$(3),$(testcase))))
|$(hide) mkdir -p $(coverage_out)
|$(hide) $(cts_api_coverage_exe) -d $(dexdeps_exe) -a $(api_xml_description) -f $(4) -o $(coverage_out)/$(5) $($(3))
|$(hide) echo $(1): file://$(ANDROID_BUILD_TOP)/$(coverage_out)/$(5)
|# classes.dex is stripped from package.apk if dex-preopt is enabled,
|# so we use the copy that definitely includes classes.dex.
|define add-testcase-apk
|$(1) += $(call intermediates-dir-for,APPS,$(2))/package.apk.unaligned


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text:
Amazon is to bolster the UK launch of its Kindle Fire tablet by creating 5,000 full-time and temporary jobs in Blighty.
The web retailer will open three new distribution centres in Britain, and claims it will recruit 2,000 people on a permanent basis over the next two years - as well as 3,000 temporary workers during the run up to Christmas in 2012 to cope with increased orders.
Positions will also be opened in computing, management and human resources departments.
The expansion was announced as Amazon opened a 450,000 sq ft centre in Hemel Hempstead, Hertfordshire, creating 600 positions. The online bazaar has eight centres in the UK, and the new sites will be open by 2015.
The news came as the company unveiled three new next-gen Kindle Fire tablets, which it's hurling at Apple. ®


text:
Asset Publisher
Sharif University of Technology - Weekly Cosmology Seminar ( Sunday- 27 November 2016 - 7 Azar 1395)
دانشکده فیزیک دانشگاه صنعتی شریف
سمینار هفتگی گروه کیهان شناسی
Evolved stars as probes of galaxy formation and evolution
The evolution of galaxies is driven by the birth and death of stars. Nearby galaxies in the Local Group offer us a complete suite of galactic environments that is perfect for studying the connection between stellar populations and galaxy evolution. Therefore, the Local Group of galaxies offers a superb near-field cosmology site. Here, we can reconstruct the formation histories, and probe the structure and dynamics, of spiral galaxies as well as the many dwarf satellite galaxies surrounding the Milky Way and Andromeda, and of isolated dwarfs using the resolved stellar populations. In this talk, first I will introduce a near-IR monitoring campaign of the Local Group spiral galaxy M33, carried out with the UK IR Telescope (UKIRT). The pulsating evolved stars are identified and their distributions are used to derive the star formation rate as a function of age. I will outline the methodology and will present the results for the central square kiloparsec and for the disc of M33. Then, I will introduce an ongoing survey (started in June 2015) to monitor the Local Group dwarf galaxies accessible from La Palma with Isaac Newton Telescope (INT). We will use the luminosity distribution of the LPVs to reconstruct the star formation history – a method we have successfully applied in other Local Group galaxies.
یکشنبه 7 آذر ماه 1395، ساعت 15:00
دانشکده فیزیک، تالار پرتوی


text:
COLUMBUS, Ohio -- In the first study of its kind in the United States, researchers at Nationwide Children's Hospital will examine the effectiveness of antibiotic therapy alone to treat appendicitis in children, research that could allow patients to avoid a surgery many may not need. The $1.6 million project also will explore the impact that involving children and their parents in medical decision-making may have on a child's response to treatment.
Appendicitis, caused by a bacterial infection in the appendix, is the most common reason for emergency abdominal surgery in children, sending more than 80,000 young people to the operating room each year. In as many as half of those cases, the condition may have been treatable with antibiotics alone, according to Katherine J. Deans, MD, MHSc, and Peter C. Minneci, MD, MHSc, co-directors of the Center for Surgical Outcomes Research at Nationwide Children's and leaders of this new study, which is funded by the nonprofit Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute (PCORI).
"The idea that surgery is the only treatment for appendicitis goes back to 50 or 60 years ago when high-resolution imaging studies were unavailable for early diagnosis and antibiotics were less effective in treating intra-abdominal infections," Dr. Deans says. "Surgery was established as the mainstay of therapy for appendicitis because of the risk of death that could occur if an intra-abdominal infection was not adequately treated." That's not the case today, thanks to access to ultrasound and CT scans and a wide range of antibiotics, allowing physicians to more accurately diagnose and treat appendicitis early.
The new research will build on findings from a small pilot study Drs. Deans and Minneci launched last year. Preliminary data suggest that, when caught early, appendicitis can be treated with antibiotics, making surgery unnecessary. The results are similar to those from a series of European studies performed in adults that have found that in most cases, appendicitis doesn't require surgery at all.
For their study, Drs. Deans and Minneci will conduct a randomized controlled trial of a novel application that involves engaging patients and families as critical decision makers in choosing the therapy that is best for them. Medical decision-making in pediatrics involves not just the medical care team and the patient, but the patient's parents and family as well, says Dr. Deans, who along with Dr. Minneci is a principal investigator in The Research Institute at Nationwide Children's and an assistant professor of surgery and pediatrics at The Ohio State University College of Medicine.
"I love this study because it gets to the heart of what is needed in medical care right now—engaging the patient, and in this case, the parents and caregivers, in making decisions that are right for the family's own personal values," Dr. Deans says.
For this project, researchers will work with two Columbus-based companies, Soul Theatre and Clutch Interactive, to design an iPad app with an interactive tool that patients and parents can use to learn more about the causes of appendicitis, treatment options and what to expect during and after each kind of treatment. The app will feature versions for kids and adults.
Children who come to the emergency room and are diagnosed with appendicitis will be invited to participate in the study with their parents. Participants will be randomly assigned to one of two groups—both will discuss appendicitis and treatment options with a physician, but one group will also get the information via the app on an iPad provided to them.
Once participants have received all the information, they will either opt for surgery or a course of IV antibiotics alone. Patients who choose antibiotic therapy alone will be admitted to the hospital for at least 24 to 48 hours, so that physicians can monitor whether the drugs are working. If their condition hasn't improved, they will have surgery to remove the appendix. Participants will be followed until 18 years of age to ensure that appendicitis does not recur in the group that chose antibiotic therapy.
"The study represents a groundbreaking investigation that will help determine whether children with appendicitis can be safely treated without undergoing surgery and brings the patient and family into the decision process as partners with the surgeon," says Nationwide Children's Surgeon-in-Chief Lawrence Moss, MD. "This underscores Nationwide Children's Hospital's commitment to family-centered care of every child."
Authorized by Congress in 2010, PCORI funds research that will provide patients, their caregivers and clinicians with the evidence-based information needed to make better-informed health care decisions. Of the 400 proposals considered, only 51—just 12 percent—were selected. All proposals have been approved pending the completion of a business and programmatic review by PCORI staff and completion of a formal award contract.
"The PCORI award to Dr. Deans and Dr. Minneci is an extraordinary achievement, given the intense national competition," says John Barnard, MD, president of The Research Institute at Nationwide Children's. "Their expertise in clinical and outcomes research is an unique asset for Nationwide Children's Hospital, especially in the current environment of health care reform."


text:
Robert Louis Stevenson
Robert Louis Stevenson (1850-1894 / Edinburgh / Scotland)
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Autumn Fires
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And all up the vale,
From the autumn bonfires
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Demi Lovato has tackled longrunning rumors she used cocaine while battling personal problems, admitting she was desperate to recreate the adrenaline rush of live concerts.
The Disney star sought professional help in 2010 for a number of issues, including an eating disorder, depression and self-harming.
Lovato has been brutally honest about her battles since leaving rehab, but has failed to respond to reports suggesting she was regularly involved in drug-taking before she faced her issues.
However, she has now opened up about the subject in a new interview with Fabulous magazine, and when asked if she took cocaine in her dark days, she says, "It's something I don't really want to talk about. What I can say is that I was depressed. I would come off stage in front of 18,000 people and suddenly be alone in a hotel room. I'd come crashing down and would try and find a way to recreate that feeling to stay up."
And the singer claims she was regularly offered drugs by promoters to entice her to keep returning to certain venues.
She adds, "Promoters gave me drugs and alcohol in restaurants or clubs. They wanted me to come back so I would be seen there. They were basically kissing my a**. I thought they were my friends. I thought I was having fun.
"Being a celebrity can be dangerous. Nobody says 'no'. That's why so many end up overdosing and dying. It could definitely have happened to me."


text:
At Sytner Group, our customers are our number one priority. If you would like to discuss your experience at one of our Land Rover retailers, please feel free to contact us directly using the links below.
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As well as offering New and Approved Used Stock, Guy Salmon Land Rover also have a number of Special Offers available throughout the year, ranging from impressive finance offers, right through to competitively priced Land Rover servicing. We are confident that you will find the perfect Land Rover model for you at Guy Salmon Land Rover and our dedicated and enthusiastic team are waiting to hear from you.
We invite you to view our range of New, Approved Used and Aftersales services, available at all Guy Salmon Land Rover retailers including the brand new Range Rover Velar and the Range Rover Sport. Please feel free to browse through our new and used stock to find the right model for you.
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We look forward to welcoming you to one of our centres soon. Alternatively, why not start your search with our free and easy live help service.Find out more


text:
Dip a chip into this deliciously spicy, cheesy 2-ingredient dip for parties. Feel free to add your favorite toppings!
Hurray, hurrah, it's almost 2013! You know what that means… Fresh starts and fresh foods. But not before a big chip smothered in cheesy, creamy queso dip! Kick your new healthy eating habit for a night and dig in, why don't ya?
A pile of pepper jack cheese and your favorite salsa is all you need for this delicious dip. Zap it in the oven for a bit 'til it's bubbly, throw a bowl of chips alongside and it's a party!
Queso is always a huge hit at my friends' little shindigs, and this is my favorite simple way to serve it. If you feel like using a different cheese, Velveeta and Monterey jack are fine substitutes, but don't buy queso blanco or fresco cheeses; they won't melt well. Keeping it warm in a slow cooker or fondue pot will keep it creamy, but you can always microwave it for a minute here and there between chip-fulls.
Enjoy the remainder of your holidays and the New Year to come, foodie friends! I hope you have a fabulous end-of-year plan, whether it involves toasting with friends or watching the countdown in your pj's. Both sound equally enjoyable to me!
Craving more? Keep in touch on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest and Instagram for new post updates and more. You can also check out my FAQ page, or contact me with any questions or inquiries!
Mexican Queso Dip
Yield: Serves 8
2 cups (8 oz.) Sargento® Shredded Pepper Jack Cheese
1 1/4 cups (10 oz.) salsa, your favorite
For topping
Fresh pico de gallo, optional
Pickled jalapenos, optional
For serving
Assorted cut-up fresh vegetables (recommended: bell peppers, carrots, zucchini)
Tortilla chips
Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.
In a medium oven-safe dish, combine cheese and salsa. Mix and spread out evenly.
Bake for 15 to 18 minutes, or until bubbly. Garnish with fresh pico de gallo and/or pickled jalapenos, if desired. Serve immediately with cut-up vegetables and/or tortilla chips.
Adapted from Sargento


text:
Just finished civ stage, summoned a lot of pizza ships and got ready to go to space stage. Clicked the advance to next stage button, didn't work. Checked the timeline,
Im using:
Dark Injections (unlimited complexity camera fix version)
Beta Spore Start (which is just a mod which removes the cutscene and makes you come out of water on your own)
Force Save
Fungus 3's weapon pack (minus Genetic Modifier)
Tribal Village Freedom
On Spore Galactic Adventures version 1.1 (which is normal spore 1.5.1)
I was in this order:
Taking over every spice derrick
Charming an epic
Editing cities while two religious vehicles were moving
Summoning a lot of economic aircraft
Dressing up my species
Summoning more economic aircraft
(ironically, Imgur was overloaded when this happened and it was the first time in over three months i had to come to upload any images)
Edit: If anyone wants the pizza, here's a link for it's image file. It's an economic vehicle mostly taking inspiration from the Pizza Hut Meat Lover's/Meat Supreme, because i have the creativity of a toddler. The religious sandwich vehicle is also available here.
Has been resolved, however the timeline stain still remains.


text:
Home > Uncategorized > FreeSpirit-Rowan 10&10 Series: Long Ruffled Scarves in Valori Wells/Novella Rayon
FreeSpirit-Rowan 10&10 Series: Long Ruffled Scarves in Valori Wells/Novella Rayon
What's the lifeblood of any wardrobe? Accessories! Why do we love accessories so much? Because they're a fast, economical way to jump start an old outfit. Throw on a belt, wrap up in a scarf, add a fabric flower pin… suddenly, it's a whole new look and feel. The small size of accessories also makes them a great way to try out new substrates, like the beautiful rayon we're using today from Valori Wells' Novella collection. Our long, beautiful scarf has an elastic channel through the middle, allowing it to ruche up into a fun, ruffly shape secured at each end with a pretty little bow. We made two scarves, each one in two coordinating rayons. Wear them separately or together. For yourself or as a gift, these quick and easy accessories are a great way to brighten up anyone's wardrobe for the new year.
You need to move fast to keep up with Valori Wells: professional quilter, author, fabric designer, pattern designer, painter, photographer, and co-owner of one of the best little fabric shops in our neck of the woods, The Stitchin' Post in Sisters, Oregon. We've worked with Valori's fabric before, and were excited to add her to our 10 Designers & 10 Collections series with FreeSprit and Rowan.
Valori's Novella came out in November of 2012 in a quilting cotton, a sateen and the lovely rayon we're using today. The collection is readily available at in-store and online retailers. We found a good selection at Sew4Home Marketplace vendor, Fabric.com.
Our thanks to the great folks at FreeSpirit and Rowan Fabrics for sponsoring these four weeks of Resolution Inspiration from ten of their amazing designers. What's Valori's resolution? It's deep and beautiful, just like her designs:
"My resolution is to take charge of my life, to take every day and give it everything I have. To remember and cherish the little blessings in the everyday."
Check out the Westminster Fibers Retail Locator for shopping options near you; we will be continuing to add shops throughout the first weeks of the series, so if you don't see your fave right away, check back in a day or two. Remember, not all shops take delivery and/or display fabrics on the same schedule, so actual in-stock dates may vary. Also, you can always ask your favorite local independent fabric retailer to special order fabric for you.
Sewing Tools You Need
- Any Sewing Machine (we recommend the Janome Horizon Memory Craft 8900 QCP)
- Ditch Stitch foot (optional)
Fabric and Other Supplies
Supplies listed below are for one scarf, which finishes at approximately 5″ x 65″.
The amount of fabric needed depends on the direction (if any) of your fabric's motif. We used two coordinating motifs from within the Valori Wells Novella Rayon collection. One was non-directional (the floral) and so could be cut width of fabric (WOF), which meant just ⅓ yard was needed. If you needed to cut vertically, you'd want at least 1½ yards (and you'd have enough left over to make several scarves) Our second fabric was directional (the stripe), and we wanted our stripe to run vertically, so we opted to get a full yard of the second fabric in order to fussy cut our 29″ length as one piece. Again, this meant we had leftovers, but we LOVE leftovers! If your end panel fabric is non-driectional, you can get away with ⅝ yard.
- ⅓ – 1½ yard of one 57 – 60″ wide rayon or similar lightweight fabric for the main center strip of each scarf; we used Novella Rayon Peony in Aquastone and in Gold by Valori Wells for FreeSpirit Fabrics
- ⅝ – 1 yard of a second coordinating 57 – 60″ wide rayon or similar lightweight fabric for the end panels of each scarf; we used Novella Rayon Rain in Ocean and in Aquastone by Valori Wells for FreeSpirit Fabrics
- 2 yards of ¼" soft, flat elastic
- 1 yard of ⅛" wide ribbon; we used a coordinating light blue satin ribbon purchased locally
- All purpose thread to match fabric
- See-through ruler
- Fabric pen or pencil
- Iron and ironing board
- Scissors or rotary cutter and mat
- Tape measure
- Seam gauge
- Seam ripper
- Straight pins
- Large safety pin
Getting Started
NOTE: If you are new to working with sheer fabric, like rayon, check out our tutorial for some tips and tricks. For example, when cutting sheers, it's best cut as a single layer; once you get the fabric straight on your mat, tape it in place so it doesn't shift. You could also use push pins or fabric weights, depending on your cutting surface.
- From the main center rayon (Peony in our samples), cut ONE 11″ x WOF (width of fabric, apx 58″ in our sample) strip.
- From the end panel rayon (Rain in our samples), cut TWO 11″ x 29″ strips.
NOTE: As mentioned above, cut width and length to best match the motif of your fabric, we cut the Peony WOF and the Rain parallel to the selvedge.
- Trim the selvedges from all pieces.
- Cut the ⅛" ribbon into two 18″ lengths.
- Leave the elastic as one continuous 72″ length.
At Your Sewing Machine & Ironing Board
- Place one end panel right sides together, on each end of the main center panel. Pin in place.
- Using a ½" seam allowance, stitch the ends in place.
- Press the seam allowances open and flat.
- Fold the scarf in half lengthwise, right sides together.
- Find the exact center of the long edge (it will be approximately 114″ in length at this point) and mark with a pin. Then, place a pin 1½" to the left of the center mark and another pin 1½" to the right of the center mark .
- Using a ½" seam allowance, stitch the length of the scarf. Stop and lock your seam at the first pin.
- Cut the threads and reposition to start up again at the third pin. Finish the seam. The 3″ center opening will be used for turning the scarf right side out.
- You now have one long tube. Press the seam allowance together and to one side.
- With the tube still wrong side out, roll the seam to the center of the tube. You are centering the seam allowance not just the seam. The seamline itself should be 2¼" from one folded edge and the raw edge of the seam allowance should be 2¼" from the opposite folded edge.
- Place one pin at the seam line. Place a second pin just beyond the raw edge of the seam allowance.
- Using a ½" seam allowance, stitch across the end of the scarf. Stop and lock your seam at the first pin.
- Cut the threads and reposition to start up again at the second pin. Finish the seam.
- Repeat these steps to stitch the opposite end of the scarf.
- Turn the scarf right side out through the opening you left at the center of the long side seam. Carefully reach in through the opening and gently push out the corners with a long, blunt end tool, such as a long knitting needle or chopstick. You want the corners to be nice, sharp 90˚angles.
- Flatten the scarf, rolling the tube again so the seam itself is 2¼" from the folded edge. Press well.
- Fold in the raw edges opening left for turning so they are flush with the sewn seam.
- Edgestitch along the seamline. A Ditch Stitch foot can be used for this step, which was our choice. This foot has a handy center guide that we ran along the seam itself, adjusting our needle position so it was just to the left of the seam.
- Stitch the length of the scarf. This seam will also close the opening you used for turning.
- Run a second line of stitching ½" to the left of the first line of stitching.
NOTE: We were able to use the markings on our Janome Horizon Memory Craft 8900 QCP 9mm AcuFeed presser foot to keep a true ½" distance. You could also draw in the ½" stitching line with a fabric pen or pencil and follow along the drawn line. Just be sure to use a fabric pen or pencil that will wipe away easily or disappear with exposure to the air since you are working on the right side of the fabric.
- These two lines of stitching create a ½" channel down the center of the scarf.
- Find the 72″ length of ¼" elastic. Attach a safety pin to one end. Using the safety pin as your guide, feed the elastic through the center channel.
- When you pop out the other end of the channel, secure the elastic in place with the safety pin and a back-up straight pin. You don't want the elastic to accidentally snap back through the channel!
- Grab on to the the opposite end of the elastic (the unpinned end) and gather up the scarf until it measures approximately 65″.
NOTE: This was the "ruffle look" we liked. You can certainly increase the length for a softer gather or decrease the length for more ruffles.
- Secure this other end with a pin (or two).
- Find one of the 18″ lengths of ⅛" ribbon. Fold the ribbon in half to find the middle.
- Unfold and place the middle of the ribbon at the end of the channel, centering it within the channel and directly on top of the elastic. Pin the ribbon in place, being careful to not unpin the elastic.
- Make a short horizontal seam across the end of the channel, securing the elastic and the ribbon and closing the end of the channel. Stitch back and forth at least a couple times to make sure your seam is strong.
- Fold the ribbon down into place and trim off the excess elastic.
- Repeat to attach the remaining ribbon on the opposite end of the scarf.
- Distribute the ruffles evenly along the length of the scarf.
- Tie each of the ribbons into a pretty bow.
Project Design: Alicia Thommas
Sample Creation and Instructional Outline: Michele Mishler
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Scholars at Benjamin Cardozo High School are up in arms over an apparent $400,000 slash to programs cutting into the school's Advanced Placement courses.
"I think it's ridiculous," said senior Student Organization President Tom Dinegar. "We should not have to settle for less."
Students and local leaders said internal bookkeeping errors by the city's Department of Education (DOE) caused the deep cuts to gym periods and double-period AP science and math classes.
"DOE made an error, and now thousands of students are left in the lurch in the middle of the school year," said Councilmember Mark Weprin. "By cutting funds to the school, DOE is unfairly punishing the students for its own mistakes."
Nearly 300 students packed the athletic field on October 2 to protest the changes. They chanted behind the fence and waved signs that read "Save Our School."
"These are the classes that make Cardozo what it is," Dinegar said. "It's definitely going to affect grades on AP exams, and we're not a failing school."
The change in course offerings was due to "an unforeseen decrease in projected student enrollment" of 15 students, according to the DOE and a letter Principal Gerald Martori sent to parents this week.
Martori said second period classes in double periods "will be conducted in a blended learning model" and will be "devoted to student research, problem solving and portfolio development."
Without a teacher behind the helm, students say that essentially means a free period to study independently. But the rigorous college-level courses, they say, require back-to-back 45 minute instructions from a qualified teacher.
"We'll have less time to learn review material and have a hard time passing the test," said junior Hannah Oh. "It's already hard with two period classes."
Some gym classes were also decreased to two to three days a week, according to the letter. The changes went into effect this week.
DOE spokesperson Marcus Liem said Cardozo will be able to maintain its AP courses. He also said there were no budget cuts to the 2014 school year and no enrollment error.
"School budgets fluctuate annually based on the number of registered students," he said. "We are working closely with Principal Martori to make sure that the school's programming is aligned with their budget and continues to focus on providing rigorous courses to prepare our students for college and careers."
- Teachers, parents demand firing of College Point elementary school principal
- Survey says overcrowding problem at Queens schools
- Residents rally against Bayside school


text:
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Cant tell you how glad I was to find that you have the same year vette as myself... I have a white 90 coupe. Yeah baby!
Rob, would like to suggest that you have some kind of warning on your posted videos that contain cursing or other child-inappropriate language. I usually have a grandkid in and out of my office, so when I opened up the video of the dude running his vette into the SR8, I was glad the kids weren't around to hear the numerous F-bombs being launched. A heads up would be appreciated.
Hi Rob no excuses here but have been pretty sick with liver issues sound familiar I was a supporting member .Are the 25 dollar fee a yearly deal .hope to see you guys at carslile this year take care steve
I found a really cool site to add to the Toolbox Caculators. You have to register and log on to use it but it's free. It's http://www.headerdesign.com . You can design headers and do other flow related calculations by entering in your engine data.
Gone but not forgotten
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text:
Given the rallies and momentum swings in the Orioles' series opener against the Oakland Athletics on Friday night, it became a game the Orioles needed to win to not only gain ground in the playoff chase but also boost the team's psyche.
The biggest boost, might have come from struggling closer Jim Johnson, who turned in his most dominant outing in weeks to record a perfect ninth inning and seal a 9-7 victory before an announced 36,761 at Camden Yards.
The Orioles offense did its job, highlighted by second baseman Brian Roberts' sixth career grand slam, but seeing Johnson dominate the final inning — needing just nine pitches, eight strikes, to retire the A's in order — to record his 40th save of the season was a sight Baltimore was glad to see.
"I think it was a relief for a lot of people, but there's always work to be done," Johnson said. "Tonight was a crazy game with the way it went, four runs, six runs, three runs, all that. We know what we have to do. We know what's in front of us. We're going to take it from game to game."
After watching an early three-run lead disappear, the Orioles rallied in the bottom of the seventh for a comeback victory that drew them within two games of the A's for the second Americanl League wild-card spot with 35 games remaining in the regular season. The win also clinched a season series win over Oakland for the first time since 1998. (That would give the Orioles home-field advantage if the teams end up tied for the final wild-card spot or tied for both wild-card spots.)
Johnson, who had blown his previous three save opportunities, converted his first save since Aug. 6 and became the first Orioles reliever to record multiple 40-save seasons.
"You could see the look in his eye," Roberts said of Johnson. "Sometimes we need that as players. We need to have a little kick in the rear end. He's been great for us. He's been incredible. He's had his ups and downs, but who doesn't over the course of 162 games? I thought tonight he came out really aggressive. He threw the ball incredible. We all looked at each other and were like, 'Whoa. This is almost a different guy.' Sometimes we need to play with a chip on our shoulder, and I think he did that tonight."
Johnson struck out the first batter he faced — Oakland cleanup hitter Brandon Moss — on three pitches. He got help on the next batter from third baseman Manny Machado — who made a diving play on Yoenis Cespedes' grounder — and then got Seth Smith to ground to second to end the game.
"I was able to command both sides of the plate … and [was] getting later action," Johnson said. "There were a couple of games where it kind of looked like the ball was reacting too soon, so hitters had just a little [notice]. These guys are really good, so if they see it early, they can make that adjustment. Just trying to get like another foot on the ball or so like that and pound the zone."
Roberts drove in a season-high four runs after hitting his first grand slam in nearly three years in the fourth inning. But the Orioles (69-58) would need more to clinch the victory.
Trailing 7-6 at the seventh-inning stretch, the Orioles scored three runs in the bottom half of the inning, taking advantage of an Oakland error and two infield hits.
Nate McLouth started the inning drawing a leadoff walk, then he swiped second for 29th stolen base of the season. Machado's single put runners at the corners.
After Chris Davis reached on an error by second baseman Eric Sogard that scored McLouth and tied the game, Adam Jones swung at the first pitch from Oakland reliever Ryan Cook (5-3), sending a slow roller to third. Jones beat out Josh Donaldson's throw, scoring Machado from third.
Matt Wieters followed with another infield single, and Nick Markakis took the first pitch of his at-bat up the middle to score Davis and give the Orioles a 9-7 lead.
"A swinging bunt and a ball that deflected there off the glove," Orioles manager Buck Showalter said. "I've said many times, the baseball gods, if you keep grinding, they'll shine on you, and our guys have. They've never given in. When these guys backs are to the wall, I have a lot of faith in what they'll bring."
Given a three-run lead after four innings , Orioles right-hander Bud Norris was unable to hold it and suffered his worst outing since being acquired just before the non-waiver trade deadline.
Norris allowed seven runs — tying a season-high — over 4 2/3 innings, including four in the top of the fifth right after the Orioles took a 6-3 lead on Roberts' grand slam.
In his first three starts after being acquired from the Houston Astros on July 31, Norris was 2-0 with a 2.65 ERA. But in his past two starts, Norris has pitched to a 9.90 ERA. In four starts against the A's this season, has a 9.35 ERA.
"There's a couple teams out there that have done that to me," Norris said. "There are other teams I have done very well against. I think that's part of baseball and anything can happen. I don't know if they see the ball better off me or what it may be. But I'm going to learn from this one and keep trucking along."
Roberts' slam capped a six-run fourth inning and chased Oakland starter Dan Straily from the game. Roberts drove a 1-1, 89-mph fastball down the right-field line and onto the flag court on Straily's 30th pitch of the inning.
Roberts, whose previous grand slam came Sept. 12, 2009 at Yankee Stadium, is 13-for-29 (.448) with 22 RBIs with runners in scoring position this year. Earlier in the inning, Jones hit his 27th homer of the season, an opposite-field two-run shot that just cleared the scoreboard in right.
Straily held the Orioles hitless over the first three innings, but he tied a season-high with four walks. Two of the walks he issued in the fourth inning came around to score.
The Orioles' lead was short-lived, as the A's sent 10 men to the plate in the top of the fifth and took a 7-6 lead.
But after the Orioles regained the lead — and got scoreless relief innings from Francisco Rodriguez (2-0) and Tommy Hunter in the seventh and eighth — Johnson came out for the ninth to cheers from the home crowd. The cheers grew louder throughout his short, effective inning.
"I'd like to say it does," Johnson said when asked it the outing helped his confidence. "But confidence is short-lived until the next day. Like I said before, you've got to trust what your work ethic is and what you put into it, and hopefully results will follow."
Latest Orioles


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Previous Chapter | Table of Contents | Next Chapter
Fighting at the Xiang Palace
Feng Jin Yuan finally came out, and he even trotted the entire way. Feng Yu Heng simply saying that she would be going to the Xiang Palace nearly caused his soul to fly away in fear.
"You cannot go!" He finally arrived at the entrance of Pine courtyard. Although he had prepared himself mentally when he saw the ground covered in blood and the headless corpse, even if he was the prime minister, he felt his legs tremble. "A-Heng." He bit the bullet and desperately tried to convince her, "If you go to the Xiang Palace based only on the words of a servant, that is improper!"
Feng Yu Heng stared at him and asked: "Then what does father believe is proper?"
Feng Jin Yuan pondered a little then tried to say: "Mei Xiang has already died. You were a little too harsh with your punishment. Now there is no evidence one way or the other. Even if you went, if he denies it, what can you do?"
Feng Yu Heng suddenly laughed, "Father, who said that I wanted him to admit to anything? I am just going to return the woman that he was raising in the Feng manor."
"Hah, what woman. Don't listen to that servant's nonsense!" Feng Jin Yuan stomped his feet and went to grab Feng Yu Heng. At the same time, he said: "Listen to father and quickly go back. Father will definitely get the best doctor in the world to take a look at your mother's illness and will definitely get the best medicine in the world to treat her. Don't worry, father will do as father said! Father…"
The whip cracked, and who knew that Feng Yu Heng would actually whip Feng Jin Yuan. Although this did not break the skin, it did cause the Winter coat to become torn. Feng Jin Yuan felt his arm hurt so much that he could not raise it.
"You-" He glared at Feng Yu Heng in horror. He wanted to say that a child hitting their father would be struck down by lightning! But when he looked up, he found that the skies were clear, and the sun was shining down. There was no possibility of lightning.
"I will tell you-" Feng Yu Heng fiercely said: "I am the best doctor in the world. I have the best medicine in the world, but I still cannot cure my mother. Feng Jin Yuan! Put away the word "father." You truly do not deserve to be called a father! Today, I will definitely be going to the Xiang Palace. If you so desire, you can come to take a look. If you are afraid, just obediently stay in the manor like a scared turtle. I will say it again. Anyone that dares to touch my mother, I will definitely tear their heads off!"
Once she said this, she waved to the guards then turned and left.
Feng Jin Yuan held his arm and stood in place. In his mind, he repeatedly wondered if he should go or not.
If he went, would the third prince believe that he was going with Feng Yu Heng to accuse him?
If he did not go, if that girl caused too grand of a scene, how should he handle it? After all, to outsiders, that was his Feng manor's daughter!
Feng Jin Yuan was extremely troubled, but Kang Yi said: "Husband, quickly go and take a look. A-Heng is still holding her whip!"
These words reminded Feng Jin Yuan. In the worst case scenario, that girl would go fight to the death at the Xiang Palace. If someone truly lost their life, regardless of which side, he could not bear that responsibility!
If the prince died, that would be a big problem. If Feng Yu Heng died, there would be nobody to produce steel, and that would be an even bigger problem!
Stomping his feet, he went to follow them.
When he arrived at the gate, the gatekeeper told him: "Second young miss' group left on horseback. At this time, they should have already traveled a few blocks."
The driver cracked his whip, and the horses flew straight toward the Xiang Palace. Feng Jin Yuan, however, trembled out of habit upon hearing the sound of the whip.
When they arrived, Feng Yu Heng's group had already arrived for quite some time. He saw her order someone bring the corpse forward and place it in front of the Xiang Palace's gate. She then said to the guards that stood in front of the Xiang Palace: "Go tell your prince that the woman he was raising outside has died. This county princess has come to return her corpse."
The Xiang Palace's guards were startled. One of them went into the palace to report, while the other stood outside and stared at the headless corpse, a cold filling his heart.
Not long later, the third prince, Xuan Tian Ye personally came out of the palace. Still having an angry expression, it was as though he was surrounded by countless ghosts that had died unjust deaths. As a whole, he looked very gloomy.
Well before he heard about county princess Ji An's arrival, he knew what had happened. None of the people that he had sent out to kill Mei Xiang returned alive. Not only was this the case, the place where Mei Xiang's family had been buried was dug up. All four corpses had disappeared.
Despite all of his preparation to protect himself, he had protected himself against Feng Yu Heng attacking during the night and against Xuan Tian Ming setting fire to his palace; however, he did not think that Feng Yu Heng would not attack in secret. Instead, she openly carried the corpse all the way to the Xiang Palace's gate.
What exactly did this woman want to do? Could it be that she really believed that she had the power to compete with a prince?
Thinking of this, Xuan Tian Ye was not too optimistic. As an opponent, he understood Feng Yu Heng. This girl was indeed just as arrogant as Xuan Tian Ming, but she did not act as blindly. Since she dared to come so openly, who knew what sort of trap she had dug for him to fall into.
Xuan Tian Ye's brow twitched uncontrollably a few times, as a bad premonition filled his heart.
Just as he stepped out of the palace, he saw Feng Yu Heng looking at him with her elegant face. That face was inexplicably pure. Although there were a few spots of blood, she still looked as though she was a very pure jade. There were absolutely no impurities.
Mei Xiang's corpse lay at Xuan Tian Ye's feet, but he did not even take a look at her, as he looked right back at Feng Yu Heng.
The civilians that were looking on had already been pushed back by the guards. The two looked at each other like this for a long time until the people of the Feng family and the Xiang Palace could no longer endure watching the two look at each other icily. At this time, Xuan Tian Ye suddenly shifted his gaze. With a bit of panic from not wanting to be found out, he looked off into the distance. He required five breaths to regain his composure.
While they were facing off, his heart was filled with panic. He did not know what was happening with Feng Yu Heng's eyes. It was as though they had the power to bewitch people and see through people's innermost thoughts. Staring straight at him, they went straight through his pupils and into his brain.
Xuan Tian Ye was suspicious. He almost suspected whether or not this girl knew some witchcraft; however, he did not know that Feng Yu Heng was just using a psychological method to increase the effect on his mind. From there, she used her eyes to convey a message that caused Xuan Tian Ye to feel this odd pressure.
This standoff caused Feng Jin Yuan to feel shocked. He seemed to have understood that the third prince had just lost to an inexperienced 13-year-old little girl. In everyone's eyes, Prince Xiang, who was like a powerful and stern deity, had clearly been defeated by Feng Yu Heng!
Feng Jin Yuan was not the only one to feel extremely shocked, as Kang Yi also felt that way. She repeatedly told herself that she had to have people report more information about county princess Ji An after she returned to the manor. She had to know everything about this girl!
At this time, Xuan Tian Ye was finally unable to endure the atmosphere. He was the first to speak and said: "I wonder why younger sister has come to visit. What is the matter?"
Feng Yu Heng raised the corner of her lip, and she looked as though this person was about to feign ignorance. That was also fine.
She simply did not mention the matter of Mei Xiang. Instead, she only jutted out her little chin and asked him: "A-Heng is itching to exercise today and wanted to come and find third brother to practice martial arts. I wonder if third brother is able to give me some face?" Before Xuan Tian Ye could speak, she immediately added: "The sun today is quite nice. I came quite a distance, so I trust third brother won't send me away, right? Let us fight quicker. I heard that concubine An has a pair of extremely interesting emerald hummingbirds. I was thinking of going into the palace after to take a look."
Xuan Tian Ye was startled. The matter of the emeralds throwing poison had happened a long time ago. He originally thought that it would become a grand disaster for the Northwest army; however, he did not think that Feng Yu Heng would go and actually save all of those soldiers. After the fact, he felt that it was a pity, but the opposition did not find any clues, which allowed him to let out a sigh of relief.
However, he did not think that Feng Yu Heng would not just bring Mei Xiang's corpse. She also brought up concubine An's emerald hummingbirds. Could it be that she knew about that matter?
But he immediately calmed down. What could she do even if she knew? Speaking frankly, it was nothing more than a guess. Even if she received a confession from concubine An, it was fine. Concubine An was a lunatic. Who would believe something that a lunatic said?
Xuan Tian Ye's expression visibly relaxed. Looking at Feng Yu Heng, he began smiling, "Since younger sister is interested, this prince must give you some face. Since you came up with the idea, just tell me, how do you want to compete?"
Feng Yu Heng smiled and replied: "Any method is fine. I will not choose."
Xuan Tian Ye nodded, as his eyes went to the whip in Feng Yu Heng's hand, "Since younger sister brought a whip, let us compete with weapons. You are proficient with a whip, and I am proficient with a sword. Although I have the advantage in sharpness, when it comes to killing, younger sister has the advantage. With these two balancing each other out, neither of us is at a disadvantage."
Feng Yu Heng giggled so hard that her belly began to hurt. When she straightened herself out, she pointed at Xuan Tian Ye and said: "Third brother is a grown man, yet you weasel about trying to have a fair match with a little girl. You even have the gall to say that neither of us is at a disadvantage. Truly amusing."
Xuan Tian Ye blushed a deep red from what she said. He wanted to say that taking a step back was fine. After all, she was a young child; however, before he could say anything, he heard Feng Yu Heng loudly say: "Good! Competing with weapons is fine! Whip against sword. This sort of match up is quite interesting as well. Then third brother, tell me. What should we bet on?"
"Bet?" Intuition told Xuan Tian Ye that Feng Yu Heng's trick would be in this bet. He had made mental preparations and began to think about how he could take the initiative, thus he said: "Although you and I are county princess and prince, since you wish to bet, we cannot be too unconventional. Let's just do as the civilians do and bet with silver!"
"Silver?" Feng Yu Heng appeared shocked then immediately smiled, "Third brother is joking. If we are to bet, it must be with gold. Wouldn't using silver be a loss of status?"
Xuan Tian Ye pondered a little, "That's also fine. Then let's bet on gold. Un…" He gritted his teeth, "Ten thousand taels of gold!"
"Hahaha!" Feng Yu Heng laughed once more. This time, she laughed even more arrogantly than before.
It was not just her. Even the Cheng shi sisters could not hold back their laughter; however, after receiving a warning look from Feng Jin Yuan, they gradually stopped laughing.
"What are you laughing for?" Xuan Tian Ye was puzzled.
Kang Yi helplessly sighed and kindly reminded: "My Lord, when county princess bets with gold, it is always in the millions of taels. Normally… it is five million taels."
"What?" Xuan Tian Ye shouted. He then recalled Kang Yi being scammed of five million taels of gold by Xuan Tian Ming. He then recalled Feng Yu Heng scamming Ru Jia of five million taels of gold. Speaking like this, of course, ten thousand taels of gold would cause her to laugh her head off.
But… even more, could he even afford it?
He had already spent most of his wealth on raising an army. The reason he still had ten thousand taels of gold was because someone took the initiative to give it to him before the end of the year, and he did not have time to spend it yet, thus he dared to make a bet with Feng Yu Heng. But if it was five million taels, he truly could not afford that.
His attendant reminded him: "My Lord, what is wrong with agreeing? You will not lose." In the eyes of the servants, Prince Xiang had great skills. Fighting a 13-year-old child, would that not be child's play?
But Feng Yu Heng said: "No good. Since it's a bet, we must first take out what we have and place it out in the open. An empty bet is no fun."
Xuan Tian Ye was out of ideas and simply shrugged: "How about you tell me, what should we bet on?"
Feng Yu Heng was waiting for him to say this, as she immediately said in a loud voice: "How about we bet with our lives!"