text:
Closing hole giving golfers fits at PGA Championship
CHARLOTTE, N.C. (AP) — Jordan Spieth described the 18th hole at Quail Hollow Club as "ridiculously hard."
Justin Thomas said it's simply "not a lot of fun."
Jason Day, well, he didn't even want to talk about it, leaving the course Saturday without talking to reporters after an adventurous quadruple bogey likely took him out of contention for the PGA Championship. Day's snowman dropped him seven shots behind third round leader Kevin Kisner.
Quail Hollow Club boasts that the 18th hole is one of the toughest holes in all of golf -- and you won't get much argument from the players this week.
"That is a really difficult hole," Hideki Matsuyama said. "You can hit it right like Jason did today and then there is water on the left, so it is tough all of the way around."
Rickie Fowler said other than the 18th hole at Sawgrass, he can't think of a more difficult finishing hole in golf.
Of the 75 golfers who played the 494-yard hole on Saturday, only Thorbjorn Olesen and Patrick Cantlay made birdie. Golf clap for them and the 41 golfers who escaped with a par.
But there were plenty of other funny looking numbers on the scoreboard including 20 bogeys, 10 double bogeys, a triple bogey and Day's disastrous quad.
The par-4 hole had a higher aggregate scoring average Saturday (4.6) than two of the three par 5s.
"That pin is just so tough," said J.B Holmes. "You're out there, hopefully you get it in the fairway and you just have to go at it because if you hit it 25 feet behind it, it's just a tough 2-putt."
For some players, the hole is borderline unfair.
The pin positon was six yards in front of the hole with a false front. There is a creek running along the left side and a couple of sand bunkers on the right side. Hit the wrong part of the green and it's rolling off.
Webb Simpson, who is a member at Quail Hollow, said there is very small margin for error. He didn't like the pin placement.
"The false front is eight yards, which means you are supposed to put the ball right of the hole," Simpson said. "Now we have to get it past the hole so the ball doesn't come back off the green. Little things like that, me and my caddie said if they just put the pin four yards farther back, then it's still a really hard hole but it's fair."
Added Thomas, who made par on Saturday: "That tee shot, when you are not driving it well, it's not exactly the most comfortable shot in the world. It's a hard hole for everybody."
Chris Stroud said he hit the best putt he hit all day on No. 18 — and it still didn't go in.
Thomas knows the feeling.
"It's difficult because you can't leave it under the hole as the greens are firm," Thomas said. "Then you hit to where I did and you have a treacherous 25-footer that you are trying to get down in two. It's tough."
Kisner played in the same group as Day, who got into trouble when he tried to snap-hook his second shot around a tree but slipped on the pine straw, sending the ball behind a bush. He had to take a penalty stroke but was still in trouble. In took him six shots to even the green.
While Day was blowing up, Kisner was having his own drama on the other side of the fairway after his ball hit a rock in the creek and bounced into the heavy rough, leaving him with a tricky downhill lie.
He managed to get it over the creek and onto the green and gladly settled for bogey, giving one shot back to the field.
"I wasn't too concerned with watching Jason," Kisner said of the antics on the 18th hole. "I was trying to figure out how the heck I could make five and get out of here. I don't want to be there (Sunday) for sure."


text:
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subset: commoncrawl


text:
I was worried that I was somehow underdressed.
My suit pants were a little tight from the last time I had to put them on, a result no doubt of the fact that I hadn't worn them in well over a year and well, I'm a growing boy. The decision was made to swap it out for a pair of khaki slacks. I looked something like a car salesman, but I was comfortable, so I ultimately didn't think it was an issue.
It's a good thing that it wasn't.
I get to the place, and it's a medium sized building. Apparently they share the lease with a memorabilia collection and sales business. I don't know what exactly you would call it. The point is, I walk through the door and I'm looking at a signed photograph of Adam West as Batman in the vestibule. Adam West is looking off into the distance, but facing the door, smiling gleefully as I walk in. At the desk are two men, and you know, men is a strong word.
The first guy wore a black dress shirt, untucked, with his sleeves rolled up. I never got the concept of wearing a black dress shirt. I know it sounds catty, but to me it's what a dude wears when he thinks he wants to be stylish, but really has no idea what he's doing. The other guy is wearing a white polo, topped the thinnest, douchiest chinstrap beard you could ever imagine.
Chinstrap addressed me first.
"Oh, look – this one has a tie!"
What kind of way was that to address a person you don't know? I mutter something under my breath, kind of laughing and agreeing. Yeah, I feel kind of dumb with the tie now because this boy band dropout thinks I'm overdressed for this interview. What kind of place is this? Chinny hands me a personality worksheet, the kind that you would get from your high school counselor that would somehow determine if you could go to college or not. Kind of a curveball for a job interview, but what do I know? I start to fill it out when I get ushered to a back room to finish. I step in to find about ten other people in what feels like a small classroom.
Chinster and Blackshirt start their presentation – a tag teamed effort with a lot of checkered transitions. These guys did their homework. If I understood it correctly, I'd start this job as a manager trainee. What that means is that, I'd work for the company, and one day I could be the manager. So following that logic, the guy at McDonald's microwaving your Fish McBites could someday become CEO, and the future is filled with fun possibilities.
I'd be starting at the ground level, literally walking on the ground, to people's houses where I'd ask them if they wanted to remodel their kitchens. That's kind of a crazy thing to ask a stranger to think about, let alone actually do. If I got good at the home invasions, they could move me to the mall, where I'd be the guy that stands and accosts you about your kitchen design outside of Gymboree, because why not. Pay my dues there, I get moved to my local Home Depot. I don't have a joke for the Home Depot – it's late. If I work hard in the cabinet aisle, I could eventually become a manager. Anything is possible!
Blackshirt the Pirate is talking about the super lucrative pay structure, wherein the 8 dollars hourly would be supplemented by a small bonus every time I booked an appointment. He describes the fact that the 'manager trainees' only work 30 hours per week, but would have opportunities to make more depending on our success. Direct quote, "If you're doing well, it would be retarded for this company not to give you more hours". So I'm assuming he was reading from the handbook here.
The Power Point ends, and closes, basically saying that if we want an interview, now would be the time. He ends with, "…if anyone doesn't want to take part in this success, you are welcome to leave if you don't think this is for you". So now, I'm apparently an instrument in my own failure.
This is going great.
I walk out, avoiding gaze with Chinchan while making my way from the door. I drive the hour back to Lancaster in silence. Did I learn anything? Maybe, but more than likely, no. If nothing else, I wasn't underdressed.


text:
*January 24 - 30
|The Struggle to
Be Real
|SABBATH AFTERNOON January 24
Read for This Week's Study:
|John 4:43-54.
Memory Text:
|"Jesus replied, 'You may go. Your son will live.' The man took Jesus at his word and departed" (John 4:50, NIV).
Key Thought:
|When we encounter Jesus, He challenges us to reevaluate everything
in our lives, even our own self-understanding.
I n this lesson we encounter a man whose faith in Jesus is sufficient to propel him to journey 16 miles uphill in order to find Jesus and ask Him to heal his son. If we had observed him, we would have called him a man of faith. Yet, Jesus labels the man's faith as the kind that's merely seeking after miraculous signs and wonders. Jesus exposes his faith as something other than what it seemed to be.
The human heart is deceptive by nature (Jer 17:9). Even at our best we sometimes deceive ourselves and others. But John tells the story of One who not only sees past our image building to the true need of the soul but helps us to a fuller and deeper knowledge of both self and God through His Word.
In this lesson we will examine a living parable of the One whose word is as good as His touch. In the process, we will gain a deeper insight into a more authentic Christian faith.
*Study this week's lesson to prepare for Sabbath, January 31.
January 25
No Honor at Home (John 4:43-45).
This passage forms the transition between the story about the woman of Samaria and the story about a royal official in Galilee who approaches Jesus in behalf of his son. It is a startling passage in which, at first glance, two separate assertions seem to contradict each other.
What saying does Jesus have in mind as He approaches His home province? John 4:43, 44. What do you think that means?
How do the Galileans react upon Jesus' arrival, and why? John 4:45.
As Jesus approaches Galilee, He is mindful that "a prophet has no honor in his own country"; yet, the Galileans welcome Jesus. In the original language, the word then occurs at the beginning of verse 45, suggesting that verse 45 is somehow the natural result of verse 44, "A prophet has no honor in his own country. When Jesus arrived in Galilee, therefore, the Galileans welcomed Him!" The welcome of the Galileans is somehow "without honor" to Jesus.
Read carefully John 4:45, as well as John 2:23-25. How do these verses explain what is happening here?
The welcoming response of the Galileans is just like that of the Judeans, who showed faith in Jesus because they had seen miracles and signs. The Galileans thought they were welcoming Jesus in a positive way. But enthusiasm for Jesus that is based on miracles only is no honor. The Galileans prove to be a people who are awed by miracles and spectacular works but who are slow to believe in Jesus' words. Their excitement about Jesus is based more on selfishness than on faith in who He was.
|In probably all of us, there are some selfish motives in our faith (after all, Why do we want salvation, if not to gain something for ourselves?). Must our motives always be pure in our walk with the Lord? Can the Lord still work with those whose motives might not be exactly what they should be?
January 26
It Is Hard to Be Real (John 4:46-49).
As is so often the case in John's Gospel, this new story functions as an acted parable, demonstrating the truth of the earlier statement. The problematic, Galilean welcome of Jesus (John 4:43-45) is illustrated with a story about a royal official who believes in Jesus yet struggles in his expression of that faith.
What problem does the royal official bring to Jesus, and what does he want Jesus to do? John 4:47, 49.
Where did both Jesus and the royal official live? John 2:12, 4:46.
Jesus and the royal official had probably spent some time as neighbors in a very small town (Capernaum was little more than one hundred meters across). The man's combination of faith and doubts well illustrates a prophet's difficulty in finding honor at home.
What does Jesus say in response to the royal official's first request? John 4:48. What did Jesus mean by this statement? Was not part of the problem the fact that they saw signs and wonders and yet still did not have true faith?
Jesus' initial response indicates that the man, like Nicodemus before him, was an example of inadequate faith. It seems that the Galileans on the whole welcomed Jesus outwardly but did not really believe in Him (John 4:43-45). The miracles Jesus performed actually may have become stumbling blocks to the people on their way to a true appreciation of Jesus.
A Galilean himself, the royal official is confronted by the reality of his partial, inadequate faith. He is not relying on the word of Jesus but requires physical evidence before he would believe. He is startled to discover that he could not hide his unbelief from Jesus (remember the theme of John 2:23-25: Jesus knows!). Realizing that he might lose all on account of unbelief, he finally throws himself at the feet of Jesus in desperation.
|What are some helpful ways of dealing with doubt? Is doubt always a negative thing, or can it sometimes play a positive role in a Christian's experience? Why?
January 27
The Path to Faith (John 4:50-54).
What does Jesus say in response to the man's second and more desperate request, and how does the royal official react? John 4:50.
"The nobleman left the Saviour's presence with a peace and joy he had never known before. Not only did he believe that his son would be restored, but with strong confidence he trusted in Christ as the Redeemer."Ellen G. White, The Desire of Ages, pp. 198, 199.
The shocking word that Jesus speaks to the man is that He does not need to travel to Capernaum; Jesus can heal at a great distance. This is a living parable of the Gospel's message to the second generation of Christians that Jesus' word is as good as His touch. He does not need to be present physically to meet any need.
The second statement of Jesus is the final piece that brings faith to the royal official. He grasps the word of Christ, and he believes. But belief brings with it a test. Would he act on that newfound faith? Would he head home believing that his son will live, or would he continue to beg Jesus to come to his home and heal his son with a touch? His actions demonstrate his newfound faith.
What do these texts say about the relationship between faith and works? Isa. 58:1-12, John 15:5, James 2:22.
It was about one o'clock in the afternoon when the royal official encountered Jesus. If he had hurried downhill (Cana is some six hundred meters higher than Capernaum, twenty-five kilometers away), he could have made it back to Capernaum that night (see Ellen G. White, The Desire of Ages, p. 199). One would think that he would have hurried home to find out whether his son was, in fact, healed. Instead, the fact that the servants were sent out to look for him the day after he met Jesus indicates that he took his time heading home, stopping somewhere for the night. The man not only headed home at Jesus' command; he did so in a manner that indicated he had fully accepted Jesus' word. The evidence of faith is action. If the only reason to hurry was worry about his son, his deliberate journey was the living expression of his confidence in Jesus' word.
|Though we are not saved by works, how do works manifest and express our faith? In your own experience, how have works strengthened your faith in the Lord? What is it about good works that strengthens faith? Also, in your experience, how do sinful works weaken faith and add to doubt?
January 28
The Solution to Life's Problems (Rom. 10:17, Hebrews 11).
According to Paul, how does faith come to a person? Rom. 10:17.
Faith came to the royal official by hearing Jesus' word from His own mouth. For the second generation of Christians, faith comes when the word of Christ is grasped in written form or in the oral presentations of those who bring that Written Word to us.
Under the surface of the story in John 4 lies the divine solution to life's problems. The story begins with a point of need. The royal official's son lay dying. When the official heard that Jesus was accessible, he did not linger at home hoping that something good might happen; he brought his problem directly to Jesus. He assumed that if Jesus accompanied him back to Capernaum, His touch would banish the illness that threatened the life of his son.
Instead, Jesus speaks the shocking word that He does not need to travel to Capernaum; He can heal at a great distance. His word is as good as His touch. The man not only takes Jesus at His word; his actions from that time on are a bodily demonstration of his faith in Jesus' word.
Read Hebrews 11. How does this chapter fit in with these issues regarding the exercise of faith?
How can we apply this faith lesson to our problems today? Four steps seem to emerge: (1) Acknowledge the problem. This is not as simple as it sounds but will be discussed further in the next day's study. (2) Take your problem to Jesus in prayer. (3) Receive the word that your need has been met. The words of Jesus to us are found in the Bible. If we want to hear those words, we need to know the Word. That is why continual Bible study is important. (4) Speak and act out God's answer. It is not enough simply to hear the Word. The Word becomes real to us when we act on it and when we tell others about our faith. Genuine belief results in corresponding action.
But what if we are like the royal official? What if our belief is mixed with unbelief? What if we have doubts? This story suggests that the doubts need to be confronted with words of faith and action. Take God at His word. Do what the Bible says, and faith will come.
|Why is the actual practice and exercise of faith so important for maintaining faith?
January 29
Steps to Authenticity
What is the natural condition of the human heart? Jer. 17:9. What is Laodicea's fundamental problem? Rev. 3:17. How do these two factors work together against us?
"Like a flash of light, the Saviour's words to the nobleman laid bare his heart. He saw that his motives in seeking Jesus were selfish. His vacillating faith appeared to him in its true character."Ellen G. White, The Desire of Ages, p. 198.
The royal official did not know the depths of his unbelief until confronted directly by Jesus. We, too, are often unaware of our sinfulness and unbelief. We are like Laodicea, the church in Revelation whose self-concept is not confirmed by reality (Rev. 3:17). How can you bring a problem to Jesus when your heart is deceiving you, when you do not even know that you have a problem?
The most effective path to true authenticity before God is a devotional encounter with Him.
1. Through Bible study we discover that God works with real people who make mistakes, such as David and Peter and Nicodemus. We do not have to be afraid to confess sins and problems to Him; He already knows them. And we find out that He does not give up on people who make mistakes. So, we gain the courage to get real with God.
2. Through prayer we seek to be real with God. God prefers that we be totally honest with Him in prayer. Jesus certainly was. "Why have You forsaken Me?" If Jesus could be that honest with God, it cannot be a sin for us! The Lord wants to hear our deepest needs, our deepest feelings, yeseven our anger.
3. Through journaling (a spiritual diary) we can bring both our Bible study and our prayers into sharp focus. The writing process draws out depths of self-understanding that often go untapped without it. The writing process can help us develop a deeper understanding of our need for God in specific areas of life.
4. Accountability to others can enhance our accountability to God. Authentic Christians usually can point to specific people who understand and love them yet can share frankly regarding the quality of their behavior.
Through exercises such as the ones above, we can gain a more accurate awareness of the barriers we set up against God in our lives.
If we know our own hearts are corrupt, if we know our own motives are not pure, if we know we are sinners to the core, why must we place our whole hope only in what Christ did for us at the Cross? See Rom. 5:8, Col. 1:14, 1 Tim. 1:15, 2:6.
January 30
Further Study:
|Many people are troubled by the idea of accountability. They suggest
that we should take everything to God in prayer (Ellen G. White, Steps
to Christ, p. 119). While Ellen
White makes statements that support such a concept, she also underlines the
importance of being accountable to other Christians.
"It is your duty to counsel with your brethren. This may touch your pride, but the humility of a mind taught by the Holy Spirit will listen to counsel, and will banish all self-confidence."Ellen G. White, Testimonies to Ministers, p. 315.
"When men's hearts are softened and subdued by the constraining influence of the Holy Spirit, they will give heed to counsel; but when they turn from admonition until their hearts become hardened, the Lord permits them to be led by other influences."Ellen G. White, Prophets and Kings, p. 425.
"There are souls perplexed with doubt, burdened with infirmities, weak in faith, and unable to grasp the Unseen; but a friend whom they can see, coming to them in Christ's stead, can be a connecting link to fasten their trembling faith upon Christ."Ellen G. White, The Desire of Ages, p. 297.
Discussion Questions:
| Read
11:6. Why is it impossible, without faith, to please God? What does that
mean, to "please God"?
How does the attitude of the Galileans toward Christ compare with that of the Samaritans in the same chapter? What lessons should that comparison have for us?
If faith is a gift from God (Eph. 2:8), why is the exercise of faith so important? Why does the Lord not just keep renewing the gift, regardless of what we do?
|Jesus returns to Galilee and finds a people who express faith in Him that is based on His ability to do miracles. Using the example of the royal official, the author of the Gospel both exposes the emptiness of such faith and points the way to true faith. Through the words of Jesus, we gain a more authentic understanding of our own sinfulness and of the barriers we erect to avoid intimacy with God. But when faith is actively expressed in words and actions, it enables us to take hold of the solutions to life's problems that God offers to us through His Word.
|I N S I D E Story
|From Disappointment
to Discovery
by J. H. ZACHARY
Anna has four daughters. Violeta, the youngest, was engaged to marry a young man, but his parents refused to permit the marriage because the couple were of different faiths. Distressed, and with time on her hands, Violeta decided to study the teachings of different churches. She found a Bible and began to read. Often she stayed up until midnight, and many times her mother heard her weeping.
One day Violeta received an invitation to attend an evangelistic meeting. She did not know what church was conducting the meeting, but she went and was thrilled that the speaker based his message upon the Bible.
Violeta offered to tell her mother what the Bible teachers were saying, but her mother refused to listen, for she wanted to follow only what her own church taught. But one day Anna happened to hear Violeta reading aloud from the Bible. As she listened, Anna felt something tugging at her heart. She realized that she was not following the Bible.
Anna found an old Bible and began reading it. She realized that it was the same as the Bible her daughter was reading. Anna began reading from it every day, searching for God.
Violeta began attending the Seventh-day Adventist church. Anna allowed her to go, thinking that going to any church was better than going to the discos. Violeta often talked to her mother about what she was learning in church. While Anna would not attend the meetings, she did listen as Violeta told her what the pastor had said.
Through Violeta's testimony, Anna heard the truths of the Bible that had been hidden from her for so long. She decided to follow the truth and began attending the Adventist church with her daughter, even though her husband opposed her. Finally he agreed to attend a series of meetings with Anna and Violeta, and he was baptized. Anna's other three daughters are also studying the Bible in preparation for baptism.
ANNA BONDORETZ (left). J. H. ZACHARY is coordinator of international evangelism for The Quiet Hour.
|Produced by the General Conference Sabbath
School and Personal Ministries Dept.
Email: firstname.lastname@example.com
Join the SSNET moderated email discussion group. You are also warmly invited to join a group discussion of this lesson Sabbath morning with your local Seventh-day Adventist congregation.
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Spring, MD 20904.
Principal Contributor: John Paulien
Editor: Clifford R. Goldstein
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text:
Gina de Araújo-Régis de Oliveira
1890 - 1960
Gina de Araújo (03/04/1890 - 1960), a female Brazilian composer and singer (born and died in Rio de Janeiro). Although her main activity had been over all as singer, Gina was also distinguished as composer from numerous songs, a symphonic poem Mandate, a requiem mass and Blind irrigation (1943).
Requiem for husband Ambassador Regis de Oliveira
Dedicatee: the Brazilian Ambassador in London, Raul Régis de Oliveira (10/10/1874 in Paris - 09/07/1942).


text:
Google Trend graph of the interest in an Occupational Therapist has been pretty constant over the last 8 years with a small peak in 2010 showing up. The Occupational Therapy interest definitely has a built in cyclical reoccurance you can see from the interest graph below.
Bureau of Labor Statistics information for states that an Occupational Therapist median salary in 2010 was $72,320 a year which is about $34.77 an hour. An occupational therapist typically requires a Master's Degree in order to get this pay and a position in the job market. The total number of jobs in 2010 were reported by the BLS as 108,800 in total. The job outlook for occupational therapists is expected to grow by around 33% which is quite a bit more than most other professions. This will add around 36,400 jobs to the total occupational therapy job market from 2010 – 2020. Looking at the state by state salary information for Occupational Therapists you'll see that the highest paying states pay as much as $100,000 year.
Listed below is information that is specific to Occupational Therapist job salaries that you can expect to receive in that state area. Our state by state breakdown allows you to see which state is best to get a job as a Occupational Therapist. The salary information provided below is off of real-world job listings for Occupational Therapists and the pay offered for those jobs. We source Indeed, Simply Hired, PayScale and GlassDoor.com. The information provided by Indeed about their process for collecting salary averages is as follows: "Indeed Salary Search is based on an index of salary information extracted from over 50 million job postings from thousands of unique sources over the last 12 months. Many job descriptions don't contain salary information, but there are enough that do to produce statistically significant median salaries for millions of keyword, job title and location combinations – in fact, most job searches you are likely to think of. As new jobs are added each day, the Indeed Salary Search index is automatically updated with fresh salary data, so the salary results are as up-to-date as they could possibly be."


text:
Best practice: Designing applications for different languages and regions
Guidelines for layout
Leave enough space in your UI for translated text. The height and the width of text might expand when translated from English to other languages. For labels and other short text strings, prepare for up to 200% expansion. For lengthy text (more than 70 characters), prepare for up to 40% expansion. Where possible, place labels above the associated field. Leave blank space at the end of each label.
- Try to avoid displaying truncated text. The meaning might be unclear to users if the most important text does not appear. First, try to reduce the size of the text. If you reduce the size but you cannot read the text easily, try wrapping the text onto two lines instead. If you cannot wrap the text, consider using an abbreviation. Otherwise, use an ellipsis (...) to indicate that the text is truncated.
- Make arrangements for displaying the position of a contact's title, full name, and address on a per-language basis. These items display in a different order, depending on the language (for example, title, first name, last name, or last name, first name, title). In some countries, the zip/postal code can appear before the name of the city and contain letters as well as numbers.
- If users have the option to change display languages, display the name of the language in that language. For example, display "Italiano" instead of "Italian."
- Test translated UI to verify the layout of the UI.
- During testing, type a pangram in the target language. A pangram is a sentence that uses each character in the alphabet. Pangrams are useful because they include diacritics that can appear above, below, or beside a character.
Guidelines for color and graphics
- Be aware that colors, graphics, and symbols can have different meanings in different cultures. If you are designing an application for a specific market, carefully consider the cultural implications of your design choices.
- Avoid text and numbers in icons and images because they require localization.
- Avoid using national flags to identify languages, user IDs, or countries. Use text instead.
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What does 'NCUA Insured' mean?
Your funds are safe at your federally insured credit union.
All CULookup.com credit unions provide insurance to their members from the National Credit Union Administration (NCUA ), an independent agency of the federal government. This means that your money deposited in a federally insured credit union is insured up to $250,000, similar to the insurance provided by the FDIC (Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation) to banks.
The shares in your credit union are insured by the National Credit Union Share Insurance Fund (NCUSIF), which is backed by the full faith and credit of the United States Government. Established by Congress in 1970 to insure member share accounts at federally insured credit unions, the NCUSIF is managed by NCUA.
Credit unions that are insured by the NCUSIF must display in their offices the official NCUA insurance sign, (left). All federal credit unions must be insured by NCUA, and no credit union may terminate its federal insurance without first notifying its members.
Not one penny of insured savings has ever been lost by a member of a federally insured credit union.
(Source: National Credit Union Administration. (2010, May 11). Your Insured Funds. Retrieved from http://www.ncua.gov/NewsPublications/Publications/PDF/brochures/insured_funds/funds.pdf)
Watch some videos about safe and secure funds at your federally insured credit union!
"Your Funds in a Federally Insured Credit Union are Safe!"
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text:
Gov. Mark Dayton issued a proclamation Friday honoring the 19 Minnesotans participating in the Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia.
Said Dayton:
"I am one of many Minnesotans, who grew up dreaming of making the U.S. Olympic team. Few athletes, however, have the exceptional talent and extraordinary dedication needed to reach this sports zenith," said Governor Dayton. "For all Minnesotans, I send our state's Olympians our heartiest congratulations for their amazing achievements. We are proud to send our very best wishes to Minnesota's athletes and to the entire Team USA."
- David Backes, Minneapolis, Men's Ice Hockey, the captain of the St. Louis Blues' Hockey Team. A native of Minneapolis, he played three years of college hockey at Minnesota State University at Mankato before turning professional in 2006. At six feet, three inches, Backes is known for his determination and physical style of play.
- Jessie Diggins, Afton, Women's Nordic Skiing. At 22-years-old, Diggins is the youngest member of the U.S. Olympic Women's Nordic Ski Team. As a Stillwater Pony, she won three Minnesota state high school Nordic ski titles. Continuing that success, Diggins won a gold medal at the 2013 FIS World Ski Championships in Val di Fiemme, Italy.
- Justin Faulk, South Saint Paul, Men's Ice Hockey. Only 21-years-old, Faulk is an up-and-coming professional hockey star for the Carolina Hurricanes. Before turning professional, Faulk played high school hockey for South Saint Paul and helped lead the University of Minnesota Duluth to a National Championship in 2011.
- Jeff Isaacson, Virginia, Men's Curling, has been competitively curling since 1996. The 2014 Olympics will be his second time representing the United States. In 2010, Issacson was part of American squad that finished 10th. This year, Team USA will be looking for redemption and an Olympic medal.
- John Landsteiner, Mapleton, Men's Curling, currently resides in Duluth, where he competes as a member of the Duluth Curling Club. Though he is only 23 years-old, Landsteiner has plenty of curling experience – winning bronze medals at both the 2012 and 2013 U.S. National Championships.
- Paul Martin, Elk River, Men's Ice Hockey, a defenseman for the Pittsburgh Penguins. After starring at Elk River High School, Martin led the University of Minnesota to back-to-back National Championships in 2002 and 2003. The 2014 Olympics will be his third time representing the United States at the Winter Games.
- Gigi Marvin, Warroad, Women's Ice Hockey. The 2014 Winter Games will be Marvin's second time representing the United States at the Olympics. The Warroad native ranks fifth all-time in state girl's hockey with 196 points and was named Ms. Hockey in 2005. At the University of Minnesota, Marvin helped lead the Gophers to the NCAA Women's Frozen Four in 2009. She plays professionally for the Boston Blades.
- Ryan McDonagh, Saint Paul, Men's Ice Hockey. A product of Cretin-Derham Hall (CDH) and the University of Wisconsin-Madison, McDonagh currently plays defenseman for the New York Rangers. As a junior at CDH, he helped lead the Raiders to their first state hockey title and was named Mr. Hockey in 2007. The 2014 Games will be his first time playing in the Olympics.
- Leif Nordgren, Marine on St. Croix, Men's Biathlon, a 24-year-old graduate of Forest Lake High School and has been a member of the U.S. National Team since 2010. In 2013, Nordgren finished 5th in 4×7.5km Relay at the World Cup Oberhof, Germany.
- T.J. Oshie, Warroad, Men's Ice Hockey, starred at Warroad High School for three seasons – leading the Warriors to two state hockey titles. He then played three more seasons at the University of North Dakota before turning professional in 2008. In 2013, Oshie helped the United States win a bronze medal at the Ice Hockey World Championships. Oshie plays professionally for the St. Louis Blues.
- Zach Parise, Minneapolis, Men's Ice Hockey, a Minneapolis-native, currently is a star winger for the Minnesota Wild. Before turning professional, Parise played at Shattuck-St. Mary's in Faribault and then at the University of North Dakota. Parise played for Team USA during its silver medal campaign in 2010. This year, Parise will serve as captain of the U.S. Men's Ice Hockey Team.
- Allison Pottinger, Eden Prairie, Women's Curling, is a resident of Eden Prairie and curls at the Saint Paul Curling Club. No stranger to success, she has appeared in ten World Championships since 1995 – medaling four times. She also competed in the 2010 Winter Games. In 2008, Pottinger was named USA Female Curling Athlete of the Year.
- Anna Ringsred, Duluth, Women's Speedskating. The 2014 Winter Games will be Ringsred's first time representing the United States at the Olympics. In the 2013 Olympic Trial, she finished second in 3000m. Ringsred, a graduate of Duluth Marshal High School, has been speedskating since age 13.
- Anne Schleper, St. Cloud, Women's Ice Hockey. A graduate of St. Cloud Cathedral and the University of Minnesota, Schleper is making her Olympic debut in Sochi. Though it's hardly her first time competing internationally, Schelper won gold medals at the 2011 and 2013 World Championship and a silver medal at the 2012 World Championship. She plays professionally for the Boston Blades.
- John Shuster, Chisholm, Men's Curling. Schuster is the captain of the U.S. Olympic Curling team. This will be the Chisolm native's third time representing the United States. He won a bronze medal in 2006 and is looking to avenge a disappointing 10th place finished in 2010. When Schuster is not curling, he manages the Pickwick Restaurant and Pub in Duluth.
- Lee Stecklein, Roseville, Women's Ice Hockey, is a 2012 graduate of Roseville Area High School. In her first year at the University of Minnesota, Stecklein helped lead the Gophers to a 41-0 undefeated season and the 2013 National Championship. Currently, she is taking a leave of absence from school to represent the United States in the Olympics.
- Derek Stepan, Hastings, Men's Ice Hockey. Only 23-years-old, Stepan currently plays center for the New York Rangers. The Hastings native played his high school hockey at Shattuck-St. Mary's in Fairbault before playing two years at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. In 2010, Stepan helped the United States upset Canada at the World Junior Championships.
- Blake Wheeler, Robbinsdale, Men's Ice Hockey, currently plays right wing for the Winnipeg Jets. Growing up in Robbinsdale, Wheeler lead the Breck Mustangs to a state hockey championship in 2004. He later starred at the University of Minnesota before turning professional in 2008.
- Jared Zezel, Hibbing, Men's Curling. A student at Bemidji State University, this will be the 22-year-old, Zezel's first time in the Olympics. He finished 6th in the 2011 World Junior Championships and 3rd at the U.S. National Championships in both 2012 and 2013. Zezel and his teammates are looking to avenge a disappointing 10th place finish for Team USA at the 2010 Winter Games.


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Internet gaming legislation may surface during the current lame duck session of Congress. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) and other proponents may introduce a bill to legalize Internet poker, similar to what occurred in the lame duck session that followed the 2010 elections when Sen. Reid proposed a draft Internet gaming bill.
The NTRA's federal legislative team remains active in all discussions related to the development of Internet poker legislation due to its potential impact on horse racing. Such expansion of online gambling is certain to increase competition for our industry's growing advance deposit wagering market.
The NTRA will oppose unless our team secures a series of provisions that serve to protect horse racing. The list includes 1) no additional regulatory authority over our industry; 2) language clarifying that the Wire Act does not apply to wagers made permissible under the Interstate Horseracing Act because the new bill would amend the federal Wire Act, making horse racing's current protection vulnerable; 3) horseplayer-related tax withholding and reporting issues; and 4) language that allows certain horse racing entities to apply for and be rewarded an Internet poker license.
Read NTRA CEO Alex Waldrop's viewpoint here.


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Opera. Tristan and Isolde ought to be separated by hate, yet they love each other more than they love life itself. With this gigantic intimate drama, we celebrate Wagner's bicentennial.
"...Tristan and Isolde has a restrained intensity that has you sitting there in total concentration right up to the Liebestod in the final minutes" Svenska Dagbladet
"It is a congenial use of the scenographic space" Göteborgs-Posten
"Highly expressive yet also delicate and sparkling musical sensitivity, like chamber music, under the direction of Stefan Lano" Dagens Nyheter
"Both of those playing the principal roles, Annalena Persson and Lars Cleveman, make outstanding contributions" Göteborgs-Posten
"We welcome Katarina Karnéus' Brangäne, Isolde's faithful attendant, into the host of great Swedish Wagnerian female singers" Expressen
A ship out at sea, between the Ireland of the king's daughter Isolde and her future homeland in Cornwall, is the setting for this gigantic but intimate drama with a deadly love potion at its heart. Using material from Celtic legend, Wagner weaves a multi-faceted and tragic love story, full of philosophical and existential themes. The famous Tristan chord of the overture changed the history of music forever. The harmonic, late romantic music has the ability to transfix its audiences and touch us deep within our soul.
Tristan loves and desires Isolde, but as he has been ordered to act as her consort and take her to Marke, King of Cornwall, his honour forbids him to face up to his feelings. Isolde, who loves and desires Tristan, is deeply hurt by his rejection and decides that they should drink a goblet of poison together. Secretly, Isolde's lady's maid replaces the deadly potion with one whose effect is to create an irrevocable love. Now madly in love, Tristan and Isolde submit to their spiritual and physical love in a stunningly beautiful love duet, one of the longest and most passionate in the history of opera. Their imprudence and deceit has terrible consequences in this story of a love so overwhelming that it can be fulfilled only in death.
In charge of the production is the close-knit and acclaimed team behind the production of Wagner's Ring of the Nibelung at Wermland Opera in spring 2011. Director Wilhelm Carlsson returns to The Göteborg Opera after Goya (2009) and set designer Peter Lundquist returns after Mary Poppins (2008). Conductor Stefan Lano makes his first appearance in Sweden.
Some of Scandinavia's leading singers have come together for Tristan and Isolde. Isolde is sung by Annalena Persson, who has already interpreted the role on several international stages. As her beloved Tristan we see Lars Cleveman, making an eagerly awaited first appearance at The Göteborg Opera after his summer 2011 debut in Bayreuth as Tannhäuser. Katarina Karnéus makes her appearance as the lady's maid who turns death into love. American baritone James Johnsson takes the role of Kurwenal.


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"Kurn Hattin was the best choice my family ever made for me. When I was in the 8th grade I didn't want to leave."
"I didn't know how to make friends. I had a lot of problems. I felt like I was stuck in quicksand. Then I came to Kurn Hattin. It was a slow process, but I was given a lot of structure and I needed and responded to that structure."
"I can't help reiterating my admiration and thanks to a wonderful haven for needy children and one which has provided guidance, education and encouragement to many, many children, who have gone on to lead meaningful adulthood lives, some who have become leaders in society."
"I still remember walking into Kurn Hattin. The scared little girl I was. Seeing myself grow over the years has been a blessing. But I never could have done it without the backbone of my forever home. Thank you, all of you. I really did it. I graduated high school!"
"I was so proud of my girl, getting up on stage and singing her heart out. Kurn Hattin is building her up with so much confidence. I will be forever grateful for what you are doing for my little girl."
"Kurn Hattin gave me guidance and structure when I needed it most. Kurn Hattin was the most perfect support my parents could have asked for. As they say, it takes a village to raise a child. Kurn Hattin is that village"
"The lessons of life that I still carry today were taught to me at Kurn Hattin 50 plus years ago. Although many of my teachers who stood at the 'fork in the road' are gone, I carry on their legacy. And now I stand at the fork in the road to point the way for those who follow."
"Discipline, respect, loyalty, and love are what I learned from the houseparents. I have 3 older brothers and we all went there. Thanks Kurn Hattin–Always the place I call home."
"My son has since graduated from high school and just turned 18! He's an accomplished jazz musician and artist. Thank you Kurn Hattin for all you do for children."
"I support Kurn Hattin partly for sentimental reasons and as a teacher, I know the needs of children who no longer can live at home. I like their philosophy—to return the children home to their families. The families are given time to strengthen and heal. The children are given every chance to succeed and find their own niche whether it is with music, sports, writing, or animals."
"Born with a silver spoon in one's mouth. It's a phrase I associate with my upbringing at Kurn Hattin. I attended Kurn Hattin from 3rd to 8th grade and was given security, consistency, guidance, and direction. The girls, boys, teachers, and houseparents became my forever family."
"The area I came from wasn't the best environment. Though I didn't want to be here at first, I'd say my mom did the right thing. The houseparents are like family. They changed my life. I matured in all aspects from being a little kid to growing into a man."
"Kurn Hattin provided advice, support, and encouragement to pursue my dreams. The most important lesson I learned was to be humble, kind, and help those who were less fortunate. Because of Kurn Hattin, I have found my voice, my purpose in life, and my passion to help those who are in need."
"I'm grateful to have had the experience at Kurn Hattin Homes, which was my and my brother's 'village' that made such a positive mark on our lives."
"I love Kurn Hattin and miss it like crazy. Kristi Lisai, thank you for being the BEST English teacher ever, being so easy to talk to, and teaching me how to be such a good writer! Richard M. Long, thank you for never giving up on me when I would do so badly in social studies. And to all of the other teachers and staff, just thank you for being my ... AWESOME TEACHERS!"
"Best years of my life. I'm now 36 married and have 3 beautiful daughters. Just wanted to say 'thank you' for everything this school did for me. Kurn Hattin definitely made me the man I am today."
"I'm so proud to have been at Kurn Hattin. It turned my life around and put me on the right track. I'm not sure where I would have been otherwise. And I believe I was the only boy who made 'Eagle Scout' at that time."


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Hurricane season began on Monday and officials on the national, state and local level are again united as they issue their annual call to action: Be prepared.
While the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration has predicted a "normal" season this year, 35 million of us live in regions most threatened by Atlantic hurricanes, according to Commerce Secretary Gary Locke. Public awareness and public preparedness are the best defenses against a hurricane, he said in a prepared statement issued this month by NOAA.
We agree.
With nine to 14 named storms predicted - four to seven of which are likely to become hurricanes - even a "normal" season should not bring complacency.
It's time again to gather documents, compile supplies and put together evacuation plans.
Among the things the state recommends we should all have stockpiled between June 1 and Nov. 30? Water and non-perishable food and snacks to last three to seven days; a non-electric can opener, paper plates and utensils we won't have to wash; flashlights and other portable, self-powered light sources; batteries, medications and ice chests.
Gov. Charlie Crist's office also suggests we ready portable and NOAA weather-band radios and waterproof tarps, and that we make sure we have containers for fuel for propane grills or portable generators.
Storm shutters or plywood for windows remain a good idea for battening down the hatches if and when a watch is issued.
If ordered to evacuate, we should all have important papers, Social Security cards, immunization records, cash and prescription medications at the ready along with special supplies for children, and carriers and food for any pets.
For more information on getting ready, we invite you to stop by the Island Reporter's office - located in The Village Shops, at 2340 Periwinkle Way, Unit K - and pick up a free copy of "Eyes In The Sky," our annual Hurricane Guide. You may also visit www.cape-coral-daily-breeze.com, where we have posted the guide online. It can be found under "specials" down the left hand column.
We will keep you updated, on-line and in-print, as the 2009 tropical storm season progresses.
Be prepared. Be safe. And may this "normal" season pass without any storms for the record books.
- Reporter editorial


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Monday, March 21, 2005
4 comments:
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Showing posts with tag: running
Fine Tune Exercise and Appetite Control
Appetite Control, Hormones and Exercise Tied In To Weight Loss Multiple studies conclude that sticking to a program of exercise that includes alternating walking, running and quiet time/meditation will aid in appetite control. It is proven that exercise impacts hormones which ties into burning calories and appetite control. One month is too short a time […]Read more →


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You'll probably have noticed that the blog has a new look. I figured since I have a new home and a new life, that my old blog should have one too. There is a new title, which is also very apt. So many changes in the last two years and there are yet more to come. Life (a move halfway across the world) and love (an adorable daughter) got in the way of my plans, as life and love are wont to do and I've adjusted as best I can.
It probably won't come as much of a surprise that I'm winding things up for Socktopus. It's been an incredible journey and adventure, one I would never have had the honour of experiencing if not for your support. Thank you.
I have a few loose ends to tie up, and I still have a cabinet full of yarn and WIPs so knitting will stay in my life, as will Socktopus in a non-commercial form. It will simply have a smaller pie piece of my life.
With regard to my designs, alot of people have been asking where they can buy them. I have found a good home for all my patterns. I don't have the time to look after them, but don't want them to languish away in a forgotten corner of my hard drive either. Happily, p/hop has offered to curate all my patterns with proceeds going towards Medicins Sans Frontier.
I couldn't be happier. Knitters will still be able to knit my designs and combined we will be contributing to an organisation that does vital work. I need to get all my files over to p/hop first, and then p/hop needs to edit them into the p/hop house style but it shouldn't be too long before my patterns are back in the world again. Yay!


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Martyrs Zeno and his servant, Zenas, of Philadelphia
The Holy Martyrs Zeno and Zenas lived in the Arabian city of Philadelphia, and led a pious life. Saint Zeno possessed a large fortune, but he distributed his substance to the poor and manumitted slaves. Together with his devoted servant Zenas, he went to the governor and urged him to give up idolatry and accept Christ. They were tied to pillars, struck with iron hooks, and their wounds were rubbed with vinegar and salt.
Their sides and chests were scorched with fire, they were thrown in a pit, and boiling oil was poured over the sufferers. The saints endured all the tortures with forbearance and by the power of God they remained alive. Finally, the martyrs were beheaded with a sword (+ 304).


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Preparations for the 2013 Havelock Chili Festival are hot and heavy, with the unveiling of a new logo and a push for vendor and cook registration with less than a month to go before the deadline.
Preparations for the 2013 Havelock Chili Festival are hot and heavy, with the unveiling of a new logo and a push for vendor and cook registration with less than a month to go before the deadline.
The festival, put on by the Havelock Chamber of Commerce, is scheduled for Oct. 18-19 at Havelock City Park.
Shannon LuQuire with Trade Ideas, who also designed logos for the Havelock Tourist and Event Center and Craven County Schools, developed the new copyrighted festival logo, which features a spoon through the center of a flame display with the words Havelock Chili Festival.
�She really knows the Havelock community,� Stephanie Duncan, executive director of the chamber, said of LuQuire. �She was able to capture the essence of those other organizations she�s worked with and we feel confident she was able to do that with us. The new logo itself shows the enthusiasm people have for the chili festival.�
Duncan said the Havelock Chili Festival Committee, a volunteer group that plans the festival for 11 months, thought a new logo was needed.
�Every once in a while you have to rebrand yourself,� Duncan said. �You look at Walmart and how they took the dash out between wal and mart. Wendy�s changed the girl a little bit. Pepsi, that red and blue circle, you know that circle is Pepsi. Logos go through cycles and they have to be tweaked a little bit.
�When you see that fire and that spoon, you know immediately without anyone saying anything that it�s the Havelock Chili Festival. We want to and we strive to one day have people on the other side of the country see that logo and know that it�s the Havelock Chili Festival and to really stand out above the rest.�
Duncan said the new logo would be incorporated into promotional and marketing campaigns as well as on T-shirts for the festival.
The two-day event kicks off at 5 p.m. Oct. 18 and features the chicken wings and chili verde competitions. About 15,000 chicken wings are expected to be sold. The band Spare Change is scheduled to perform.
Oct. 19 features the red chili and salsa competitions, with the headline entertainment being the band Cold Biscuit.
Those wishing to participate in the Havelock Chili Festival as either cooks or vendors have until Oct. 1 to register to avoid a late fee.
All types of vendors including food, craft, commercial and handcrafted merchandise, and nonprofit organizations are eligible to apply
For food vendors, the cost is $300 or $600 depending on space needed, while the cost for nonprofit food vendors is $150 or $275.
The cost for merchandise vendors is $150, $300 or $550 depending on space needed, with nonprofits at $125.
For nonprofit groups with simple literature, the charge is $100.
Cooks are needed for chicken wings, green chili, red chili and salsa. The entry fee for chicken wings is $50, which is refundable, and $45 for green chili and red chili. Cooks are competing for nearly $3,000 in prize money.
The International Chili Society sanctions the festival as the official North Carolina chili cookoff, with the winner of the red chili, chili verde and salsa competitions eligible to represent the state in the 2014 ICS World Championship.
The Havelock Chili Festival raises money for area nonprofit organizations, with about $11,000 raised last year. The Easter Seals/Craven-Cherry Point Child Development Center, Coastal Women�s Shelter, Early College EAST, Annunciation Catholic School, Havelock High Band Boosters and the Cherry Point Young Marines stand to benefit from this year�s festival.
The festival is free to attend, and parking is also free.
�I want us to be a point of destination,� Duncan said. �I want us to be able to show people what this community has to offer because we do have a lot to offer.�
For more information, visit the Havelock Chamber of Commerce office inside the Havelock Tourist and Event Center, call the chamber office at 447-1101, go online to the festival website at chilifestival.org or email email@example.com.


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Listen to the episode in the player, download it here, or subscribe on iTunes, Stitcher, or TuneIn.
Today, we have figured out a way to talk both about our new book–How To Explore Your College Options: A Workbook for High School Students–and to make good on the title of our current series, Colleges in the Spotlight. As we were writing the book, we realized that we could use a lot of college examples, drawn from our earlier podcast episodes, to illuminate the points we were trying to make. I thought it would be interesting to see just how many colleges were mentioned in the book–and by "mentioned," I mean that they were used to illustrate the answers to some of the 52 questions that teenagers are asked to find the answers to for each college on their Long List of College Options (LLCO). In a way, these colleges are in our spotlight for things that they are doing right or for characteristics they have that are noteworthy. To find out why we mentioned each college, you are going to have to get the book!
1. Colleges in the Spotlight
So, here we go. Here are the colleges that we thought were worth mentioning–for some reason or other (they are listed roughly in the order in which they are mentioned in the book, and I might have missed a few):
- Fordham University (joint program with the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater)
- Richmond, The American International University in London
- University of Colorado Boulder
- The University of Rhode Island
- Tuskegee University
- University of Iowa
- University of Vermont
- University of Delaware
- University of Wyoming
- City University of New York (and its Hunter College campus)
- College of William & Mary
- University of Pennsylvania
- Fisk University
- Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey
- Penn State
- University of California campuses
- California State University campuses
- Cornell University
- Soka University of America
- The University of New Mexico
- Columbia University
- Brown University
- Harvard University
- Barnard College
- Morehouse College
- Spelman College
- Hampden-Sydney College
- Wabash College
- Kenyon College
- Kent State University
- New York University
- Carleton College
- University of Minnesota
- Milwaukee School of Engineering
- University of Alaska Fairbanks
- University of Washington
- University of New Hampshire
- Georgia State University
- Amherst College
- Vassar College
- Reed College
- Hamilton College
- Colorado College
- Rice University
- Duke University
- California Institute of Technology
- St. John's College
- Massachusetts Institute of Technology
- University of Hawai'i at Mānoa
- The Evergreen State College
- Pitzer College (one of the five undergraduate colleges of The Claremont Colleges)
- Centre College
- Goucher College
- Hampshire College
- Bennington College
- Sterling College
- Drexel University
- Northeastern University
- St. Michael's College
- University of Rochester
- University of Massachusetts Boston
That's more than 60 colleges, which is actually quite a few. Of course, you can always refer back to the virtual college tour we did in Episodes 27 through 53 for a discussion of even more colleges, organized by geographic region of the U.S.
But the new book doesn't stop with those 60-plus. We also name some great college towns–"great," according to one of the lists of great college towns that publications love to compile. Do you know what colleges are located in these towns?
- College Station, TX
- Charlottesville, VA
- Saratoga Springs, NY
- Asheville, NC
- Flagstaff, AZ
- Boulder, CO
- Santa Cruz, CA
- St. Augustine, FL
- Burlington, VT
- Annapolis, MD
- Ann Arbor, MI
- Athens, GA
- Oxford, MS
- Iowa City, IA
2. Now, It's Up to You
Now, it's up to you. At least, that is what we say at the end of the book. We wrote this to each student, assuming that he or she had done the assignments as they were presented:
You have done a lot of work to gather information about the colleges on your LLCO. You have completed a College Profile Worksheet on quite a few colleges by now. You have learned more than many high school students know about a variety of specific colleges and about higher education generally.
So, it's time to start comparing and contrasting the colleges you have researched. That will be a long process, which will require analysis and evaluation by you and your parents and perhaps other important family members. And it's okay that it is a long process because this is a big decision for all of you.
Remember that choosing which colleges to apply to can be every bit as important as choosing which college to attend. In an ideal world, you should be happy with every college you apply to because that will take the pressure off as you wait for acceptances to come in.
Of course, you might be more excited about some choices than others, but don't apply to any college that you would not want to attend. That is a waste of your time and money. We are confident that there is a college that you can be admitted to that will make you happy. Even safety schools don't have to be disappointing choices. If they are for you now, you just haven't looked hard enough yet! Get busy.
We mean that last point really sincerely: If your teenager's safety schools are disappointing choices for him or her, you all just haven't looked hard enough yet. There are great colleges–especially some public flagship universities and some large private universities–that are very likely to admit good students, especially those who come from other states. Having a safety school that your teenager does not want to go to is really not having any safety school at all.
We mean it when we say, "Look harder." We hope that our new book will help your teenager look harder, think harder, and work harder to expand his or her LLCO, to get exciting colleges onto that LLCO, to learn as much as possible about each one of them (by completing a College Profile Worksheet for each one), and to feel satisfied when all of the applications are submitted–that is, satisfied that all of the colleges he or she applied to are good choices, just for different reasons. And a satisfied teenager is likely to produce a satisfied parent. Or at least it should.
Find our books on Amazon!
- How To Find the Right College: A Workbook for Parents of High School Students (available as a Kindle ebook and in paperback)
- How To Explore Your College Options: A Workbook for High School Students (available in paperback)
Ask your questions or share your feedback by…
- Leaving a comment below on the show notes for this episode
- Calling us at (516) 900-6922 to record a question on our USACollegeChat voicemail if you want us to answer your question live on our podcast
Connect with us through…
- Subscribing to our podcast on Google Play Music, iTunes, Stitcher, or TuneIn
- Liking us on Facebook or following us on Twitter
- Reviewing parent materials we have available at www.policystudies.org
- Inquiring about our consulting services if you need individualized help


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Vig optimize
With the 0.7.0 hugin release, photometric parameters such as exposure (EV), vignetting, white balance and camera response curve can be optimised in a similar way to lens distortion. These photometric parameters can be edited in the hugin Camera and Lens tab or calculated automatically in the hugin Exposure tab.
For this to work, photos first have to be aligned with correct relative positions and lens parameters. hugin will compare randomly selected groups of pixels from matching areas in each of the overlapping photos. Exposure and response curve can be calculated with any kind of overlap, however vignetting calculations require partial overlap, ideally around 50%.
As well as the GUI process of optimisation/calculation in the hugin Exposure tab, photometric calculation can also be performed on the command-line with the vig_optimize tool. This functionally is configured via 'v' variable lines in the .pto project file in a similar way to the autooptimiser tool:
- The camera response curve is simplified using the EMoR sensor model which reduces the variation to five numbers, these are the Ra, Rb, Rc, Rd & Re image (i) parameters (the default values of 0.0 are equivalent to an 'average' generic sensor).
- The vignetting model is represented by a polynomial with four parameters: Va (this is always 1.0 and doesn't need to be optimised) and Vb, Vc & Vd (which default to 0.0 - equivalent to no vignetting). The vignetting centre can also be different from the geometrical centre, this is specified by Vx & Vy (both default to 0.0).
- Exposure (EV) is represented by a single value Eev (defaults 0.0, equivalent to no-change).
- The white balance is represented by multipliers for the red and blue channels Er and Eb (the defaults of 1.0 are equivalent to no-change).
A typical 'v' variable line configuration would look like this, i.e. optimise camera response curve and vignetting for image 0 and exposure for images 1, 2, 3 and 4:
v Ra0 Rb0 Rc0 Rd0 Re0 Vb0 Vc0 Vd0 v Eev1 Eev2 Eev3 Eev4
(vignetting centre and white balance are left unchanged)
The .pto project itself can then be optimised with vig_optimize on the command-line like so:
vig_optimize -o myproject.pto myproject.pto


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- Product Details
- Paraffin wax, benzene and sulfur free.
- Dimensions: .875" Dia 8" H.
- Made in France.Care Instructions: Burning candles should not be placed too close to each other, Do not place burning candles in strong draft, Take care not to break the wick after the candle has been extinguished, Remove any foreign substance from the melted wax, such as broken matchstick, Never leave burning candles unattended.
- May require slight shaving down at the base to fit certain candle holders.
- Dripless and smokeless.
- Approximate burn time 7 hours.
- Shipping Information
- Items in stock ship within 1 to 2 business days.
- Exceptions may apply for items marked Oversized.
- 30 days return or exchange except on items that are made to order.
You may also need


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bring (something) down on (oneself)(redirected from bring down on himself)
bring (something) down on (oneself)
1. Literally, to cause something to fall on oneself. While he attempted to water the Christmas tree, he shook its branches and brought various ornaments down on himself.
2. To cause negative consequences for oneself. You brought this down on yourself—I had no role in your failure.
bring something down onone('s head)
1. Lit. to cause something to fall onto one's head. (See also bring something crashing down (around one).) He jarred the shelves and all the books were brought down on his head. When he hit the wall of the hut, he brought down the roof on himself.
2. Fig. to cause the collapse of something or some enterprise onto oneself. Your bumbling will bring everything down on your head! Your mistakes have brought down the whole thing on your own head.


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Trade Finance Guide: A Quick Reference for U.S. Exporters is designed to help U.S. companies, especially small and medium-sized enterprises, learn the basics of trade finance so that they can turn their export opportunities into actual sales and achieve the ultimate goal of getting paid—especially on time—for those sales. Concise, two-page chapters offer the basics of numerous financing techniques, from open accounts, to forfaiting, to government assisted foreign-buyer financing.
The current edition of the Trade Finance Guide was published in November 2012.
Use the links to the left to navigate the Trade Finance Guide by chapter. In addition, the complete Trade Finance Guide is available for download in PDF format. You can also download the complete guide in a Spanish version or navigate the guide by chapter in Spanish.
For more information, contact the author of the Guide:
Yuki Fujiyama
Office of Financial Services Industries
Notice to Visitors!
The link you have chosen will take you to a non-U.S. Government website.
If the page does not appear in 5 seconds, please click this: outside web site
Export.gov is managed by the International Trade Administration and
external links are covered by its website disclaimer statement.
BuyUSA.gov is managed by the International Trade Administration and
external links are covered by its website disclaimer statement.


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The Micasaverde & Vera community forums have moved Click here to visit the new Vera Control community forum
iOS App:- Touch ID and pin code. Adds an extra layer of security to the application. You can setup a pin code from Settings -> Application.- Rooms Overview - A quick glance right from the Dashboard to all the rooms in the house that have associated devices. Depending on what sensors you have installed, a sequence of camera images, temperature, humidity, lightness and power consumption will be displayed. Apple Watch:- Apple Watch App - basic interface for changing house modes and viewing alerts. You can setup a small modular complication to start the Vera watch app right from the clock interface.
This version includes under the hood improvements and bug fixes. It is a release candidate to be published in the App Store.


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*Please contact dealer to verify price, options, and other vehicle details.
MPG Disclaimer: *Based on 2010 EPA mileage and driving range ratings. Use for comparison purposes only. Your MPGe/MPG and driving range will vary depending on driving conditions, how you drive and maintain your vehicle, battery age/condition, and other factors.
Disclaimer: While every reasonable effort is made to we ensure the accuracy of this information, we are not responsible for any errors or omissions contained on these Pages . Please verify any information in question with Charlottetown Toyota Scion.


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Vile Comments from Turia
The Maori party come up with crazy stuff sometimes, but this sort of vile putridness is what I would expect from the National Front.
The Maori Party has likened the plan to ban the wearing of gang patches in Wanganui to the targeting of Jews in World War II.
The comments came during debate in Parliament last night on a proposal by National MP Chester Borrows to ban the wearing of gang insignia in the city and follows the shooting of two-year-old Jhia Te Tua in a gang-related incident in the city last year.
Maori Party co-leader Tariana Turia opposed the proposal, telling Parliament that like the Jews, members of gangs would be punished for being members of a particular group.
"All this bill does, is to exclude, to suppress, to prohibit, to ban, to close your eyes and put up walls to force our problems out of sight, out of mind."
Comparing a criminal group, where membership is voluntary, and that spends their time intimidating innocent people (and much worse) to a race that has undergone persecution for thousands of years, who suffered a mass slaughter of their people numbering in the millions – what was she thinking?
Time will tell what she actually meant by this, but on the face of it, this is offensive beyond words. She should know better – much, much better.
If this is reported as she said it, she should be thrown out of parliament. I'm tempted to describe exactly how, and what should happen afterwards but I will restrain myself.


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|Previous Page | Table of Contents | Index | Next Page
How To Get More Information(p4)
Internal Revenue Service(p4)
Contacting your Taxpayer Advocate.(p4)
|Low Income Taxpayer Clinics (LITCs).(p4)
Small business workshops.(p4)
Subscribe to e-news for small businesses.(p4)
Free tax services.(p4)
Internet. You can access the IRS website at www.irs.gov 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, to:
Phone. Many services are available by phone.
Evaluating the quality of our telephone services. To ensure IRS representatives give accurate, courteous, and professional answers, we use several methods to evaluate the quality of our telephone services. One method is for a second IRS representative to listen in on or record random telephone calls. Another is to ask some callers to complete a short survey at the end of the call.
Walk-in. Many products and services are available on a walk-in basis.
Mail. You can send your order for forms, instructions, and publications to the address below. You should receive a response within 10 days after your request is received.
Internal Revenue Service
1201 N. Mitsubishi Motorway
Bloomington, IL 61705–6613
DVD for tax products. You can order Publication 1796, IRS Tax Products DVD, and obtain:
Purchase the DVD from National Technical Information Service (NTIS) at www.irs.gov/cdorders for $30 (no handling fee) or call 1-877-CDFORMS (1-877-233-6767) toll free to buy the DVD for $30 (plus a $6 handling fee).
Small Business Administration(p5)
Small Business Development Centers (SBDCs).(p5)
Business Information Centers (BICs).(p5)
Service Corps of Retired Executives (SCORE).(p5)
Internet. You can visit the SBA website at www.sba.gov. While visiting the SBA website, you can find a variety of information of interest to small business owners.
Phone. Call the SBA Answer Desk at 1-800-UASK-SBA (1-800-827-5722) for general information about programs available to assist small business owners.
Walk-in. You can walk in to a Small Business Development Center or Business Information Center to request assistance with your small business. To find the location nearest you, visit the SBA website or call the SBA Answer Desk.
Other Federal Agencies(p5)
Internet. You can visit the GPO website at www.access.gpo.gov.
Mail. Write to the GPO at the following address.
Superintendent of Documents
U.S. Government Printing Office
P.O. Box 979050
St. Louis, MO 63917-9000
Phone. Call the GPO toll-free at 1-866-512-1800 or at 202-512-1800 from the Washington, DC area.
|Previous Page | Table of Contents | Top of Page | Index | Next Page


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Michael Jackson's Lead Single -- 'Hold My Hand'
The first new Michael Jackson single will be a not-so-new duet with Akon -- a song entitled "Hold My Hand" that was originally leaked in 2008.
Epic Records/Sony Music just announced the lead single off the upcoming album "Michael" -- and "Hold My Hand" will be released this coming Monday, November 15 on michaeljackson.com.
Akon and MJ recorded the track back in 2007 ... a raw, incomplete version was eventually leaked to the public.
The new album will feature a total of 10 tracks -- including the controversial "Breaking News" -- when it's released December 14.
Here's the version that came out in 2008.
Waiting for your permission to load the comments.


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Ten-year-old Black Lawrence Press, an imprint of Dzanc Books, had its editorial approach to publishing contemporary literature and creative nonfiction affirmed last month when the National Endowment of the Arts chose three of its authors to receive 2013 Literature Fellowships. Twenty-five fellowships were awarded in all. "It was very validating," said executive director Diane Goettel. "It made us feel we are really doing the right thing, recognizing important writers."
Each of the grant winners had previously won a Black River Chapbook Competition, which includes a $500 prize and publication by Black Lawrence, along with 25 free books. Although the three NEA recipients are poets, the chapbook contest, like all the competitions Black Lawrence sponsors, is open to both poets and short story writers. It hearkens back to the press's roots in the online literary magazine The Adirondack Review, which publishes both fiction and poetry. (TAR and Black Lawrence are separate now.) NEA fellowship recipient David Rigsbee, who has written 18 books and chapbooks, won the chapbook competition in spring 2009 for The Pilot House. Lisa Fay Coutley, who published a previous chapbook, won for In the Carnival of Breathing in fall 2009. And Shane McRae, author of two books and three chapbooks, wrote this spring's award-winner, Nonfiction, to be published in fall 2013.
From the very beginning, Black Lawrence—the name comes from the press's upstate New York roots in the land between the Black River and St. Lawrence River—made no distinction between poetry and nonfiction. "We were very new and wanted to cast a wide net," said Goettel, adding that part of the reason that the press was founded was to make it easier for poets and fiction writers published by TAR to get book contracts. In addition to its semiannual chapbook competitions, it holds three annual contests to award publishing contracts: the Big Moose Prize of $1,000 for an unpublished novel; the St. Lawrence Book Award of $1,000 for an unpublished collection of poems or short stories by an author who hasn't published a full-length book of poetry or short stories; and the Hudson Prize for an unpublished collection of poems or short stories. All entries are screened by editors.
Although Black Lawrence finds many of its authors through contests, the press also has an open reading period during the month of November, and it encourages emerging writers, as well as those who have been previously published, to submit. To date, the press has published 100 writers, and several, according to Goettel, are working on their third or fourth books with Black Lawrence. Many more, like Dzanc founder and publisher Steven Gillis, have published two books with the press—in his case, Temporary People (2008) and The Consequence of Skating (2010).
Goettel, who oversees the list from her home in Hong Kong, joined Black Lawrence as an intern in 2004 and quickly rose to become the editor of TAR and then went on to head the press. In, 2008, the same year Black Lawrence published its first novel with Gillis, it also became an imprint of the publishing group he founded, Dzanc, which handles its distribution to the trade in conjunction with Consortium. As executive director Dan Wickett explained, Dzanc didn't buy Black Lawrence. He prefers to think of Black Lawrence and Dzanc's imprints as sharing a "working relationship. The reason this all started was because Steve and myself were really excited about the books they were putting out. But you couldn't find them, except on their Web site."
Wickett sees Dzanc's biggest impact on Black Lawrence to date as ensuring that every book is profitable and that the press prints the right quantities. Dzanc is also working on making Black Lawrence's titles available in paperback and e-book formats. For now, though, the line breaks make poetry problematic online.
As for any changes to Black Lawrence in the wake of the fellowships, Goettel said, "I don't think it will change anything. Now we have this feather in our cap." But it could bring her closer to her goal: to be like Copper Canyon.


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Although referrals and direct marketing are the fitness industry's time-tested methods for attracting new members, smart club owners are looking to digital options, such as Internet and e-mail marketing, to reach new clients during the current economic recession.
More traditional advertising vehicles, such as print and TV ads, are losing ground to digital media campaigns, according to Advertising Age's 2008 Agency Report. Revenue at U.S. digital specialty agencies rose 27 percent during 2007, compared to a 9 percent revenue increase for all agencies.
"You have to have a presence on the Internet. It's critical and cost-effective," says Rick Bouza, owner of RHB Solutions, a consulting firm that specializes in single-source management for health clubs.
Community strategic alliances and referrals have always been core marketing strategies for health clubs when the economy gets tough, Bouza says, but the same messages that were used in the past with much success now are being used with only moderate success. For instance, club owners who normally relied on direct mail may not be getting the same return on investment with those campaigns today, so they may need to rethink their marketing options.
"People get hundreds of pieces of mail, and you really have to scream to get noticed," he says.
Instead, Bouza says that club operators need to use a five- or six-pronged approach to marketing, rather than the two- to three-pronged approach of the past. That's why traditional lead generation techniques now are being combined with digital outreach campaigns as a cost-effective way to add a new dimension to the sales strategy at many clubs. In a down economy, club owners should use every tool available to reach their target market and cut back on options that don't work, Bouza says.
Even national club chains like Curves are using a multifaceted approach to draw new members. Curves spokesperson Becky Frusher says a versatile approach, coupled with an enticing offer, helped make January 2009 a successful month for her company, a month in which leads were up 113 percent over the same time last year
"These are hard leads — either phone calls from TV ads or people who filled out an e-mail request for more information," Frusher says.
Curves advertised a special discount offer for 50 percent off the membership fee, plus 30 days free. The company also promoted its CurvesSmart personal training technology to attract new members. By using a variety of media choices, Curves was able to reach a broader demographic.
Although TV ads helped Curves announce national promotions, TV and radio advertising is expected to decline by about 5 percent in 2009, while online ad spending is expected to rise 9 percent, according to projections by eMarketer, a digital marketing company. eMarketer estimates that search engine optimization (SEO) Web marketing will grow nearly 15 percent this year, and that e-mail marketing will grow 3.5 percent. SEO involves using targeted search and keyword strategies to ensure a site appears among the top search engine results (see SEO and Social Networking story).
"We do print and TV ads, but this year, I plan to cut that budget back by 20 percent and put that into Web-based advertising," says Howard Brodsky, CEO of New York Health & Racquet Club. "The Web is our No. 1 priority by a long shot."
By turning to a Web-based strategy, club owners can capitalize on generally cheaper ad rates, save on printing and mailing costs, and reach a targeted demographic.
Bouza, who advises his clients to opt for online marketing, says, "In our experience, the market overwhelmingly is looking to the Internet for health club information, especially if you are between 18 and 50 years old, which is a substantial part of health club goers."
Web demographics are evolving to reflect more women coming online, as well as more users ages 35 and older, eMarketer says. It predicts that in 2009, the number of U.S. Internet users will grow to 200 million people — nearly 65 percent of the population.
Brodsky notes that members of Generation X and Generation Y are prime online target markets. Though the age ranges vary slightly by definition, Generation Xers were born roughly from 1965 to 1981 — a group of approximately 50 million 28- to 44-year-olds. Generation Y members were born mostly between 1977 and 2002, which includes more than 70 million Americans ages 7 to 32 years old.
"Generation X and Generation Y want answers quickly," says Brodsky, whose company prides itself on quick turnarounds for online inquiries. "Web information has been collected for a long time, but typically you get a next-day response. We respond to someone within 10 to 20 minutes. I think we get a hold of our prospects faster than anyone. Our conversion rate is excellent."
Promotions for New York Health & Racquet Clubs are designed to send prospects to the company's Web site. Its home page features its current promotion and encourages viewers to fill out a form for more information. The form notifications are sent directly to Brodsky, who distributes them to the appropriate people at his clubs, usually within 90 seconds, he says.
That 90-second turnaround is much faster than it was when Brodsky started at the New York Health & Racquet Club several years ago. At that time, Internet requests were processed every three months. The change was necessary since Web users are used to instant gratification online, he says, so it's important to quickly answer their requests and convert them to sales.
Consultant Karen Woodard agrees.
"It is critical that clubs check and follow up with the Web site leads immediately — faster response increases the likelihood of the sales from that lead," says Woodard, president of Premium Performance Training. "Leads generated from the club's Web site are strong, as the lead has typically done his or her homework and is interested and more educated about your club specifically."
This means people who request information from a club's Web site should be treated the same as prospects who come through the facility's doors.
However, not all club owners are able or willing to set up lead generation technology on their Web sites. Instead, some of them turn to online lead generation companies. These companies list clubs in a searchable online directory. Leads that come in from that listing are then sent to the club operator. Club owners are charged for each lead or sometimes pay a monthly fee for them.
Owners of these lead generation sites say they've recently noticed an increase in club owners signing up for their directories.
"We're definitely seeing an increase in gym owners adding themselves to our database," says the owner of one lead generation site. "We attribute that to the economy and people looking for cheaper ways to market themselves."
However, some club owners caution that when choosing an online referral company, be sure to do a Google search for the targeted keywords to see if the lead generation company you are considering appears on the first page of the search results. Viewers are less likely to visit sites ranked lower in search results, so a club may not get the desired number of leads for its money if a company isn't listed on page one.
E-mail Blasts
Targeted e-mail blasts are another way to reach customers for relatively little cost, compared with print campaigns. The e-mail blasts can be used to announce special events and offers, or to promote member referrals.
L&T Health & Fitness, a national provider of worksite fitness and wellness programs, uses member e-mail campaigns for referrals.
"A lot of our leads come from current members," says Allison Flatley, chief operating officer for L&T, Falls Church, VA. "Our most popular referral program is birthday cards. Each member gets a birthday card with coupons to give to nonmembers for a free trial. We get a 25 percent return rate, which is phenomenal. Depending on the facility and culture, many of them are e-cards."
The conversion rates for the birthday card passes range from 40 percent to 71 percent, Flatley says.
Although L & T uses its membership base for its e-mail promotion, club owners also can purchase targeted e-mail lists through agencies or online list rental companies to reach potential members.
Brodsky does e-mail blasts in conjunction with other companies already reaching his target audience. For instance, his club recently advertised in a Warner Bros. e-mail campaign that was sent to promote the movie "He's Just Not That Into You."
Ad Agencies
Despite all the online offerings, some club operators still use more traditional advertising and lead generation methods, such as print advertising and direct mail. In fact, Fitness Together, Highlands Ranch, CO, hired an ad agency to design promotional materials for its franchisees. Fitness Together is a chain of personal training fitness studios with more than 400 locations in the United States and abroad.
To build a more cohesive brand, Fitness Together worked with its agency to redesign its Web site and create new in-store displays, print ads, outdoor boards and direct mail pieces. Franchisees were given access to the materials free of charge, but they pay for their own media placement, says Sue Beranek, vice president of marketing and brand strategy for Fitness Together. She notes that franchisees sometimes band together to place ads in more expensive publications.
"We really feel like any owner or manager can stretch what we provide them to their local market," she says. "I'm hearing a lot of positives from the campaign. Franchisees are appreciative that we provided a campaign for them."
Franchisees can pay to place the ads in targeted local publications like homeowners' association newsletters or city magazines. Although its new campaign used a variety of media outlets, Fitness Together is still exploring other options, including more online solutions.
"We are looking at new vehicles to reach the public, such as outdoor boards at the train stations in New York, to testing e-mail blast and direct mail combinations," Beranek says. "Things change, and even though direct marketing has worked for us, we're always looking for new things because who knows what 2009 might bring?"
For many club operators, 2009 is bringing a new approach to lead generation that includes more online marketing, combined with traditional solutions, to reach new member prospects who are increasingly turning online for information.
Read the sidebar, SEO and Social Networking, for more information on how these tools can help club lead generation efforts.


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Dinner Tonight: Pork Paillards with Orange Marmalade Vinaigrette Recipe
Your source for quick recipe every single week day.
I first became a convert to the idea of pairing meat with vinaigrettes by reading Michael Symon. His argument is that a heavy, stock-based sauce is not the ideal complement to a rich piece of meat; instead, you want a light-on-its-feet, well-balanced mixture of acidity and fat. It's surprising how important vinegar or citrus can be to great seasoning—it's often what's missing. Rather than richness on top of richness, the key here is a sweet-tart vinaigrette.
This recipe comes from Taming the Flame by Elizabeth Karmel, a veritable grilling and barbecue bible. This quick dish caught my eye, made from "pailliards" of pork (made by pounding the meat until thin and quick-cooking), which are grilled with scallions and doused with a vinaigrette of orange juice, apple cider vinegar, marmalade, olive oil, and a touch of cream.
- Yield:4
- Active time: 15
- Total time:25
- 1 pound boneless pork chops (about 2 chops)
- 2 bunches scallions, ends and roots trimmed, left whole
- 1/2 cup orange juice (about 1 juicing orange)
- 2 teaspoons apple cider vinegar
- 2 teaspoons heavy cream
- 2 tablespoons orange marmalade
- 2/3 cup olive oil
- 1/3 cup canola oil
- Salt and pepper to taste
With a sharp knife, slice the chops in half horizontally to make 4 1/2-inch-thick chops. Rub each with a little olive oil, sandwich between wax paper, parchment paper, or plastic wrap, and pound with a meat mallet or rolling pin until 1/4-inch thick. Season the chops with salt and pepper and set aside.
In a small bowl, whisk together the orange juice, vinegar and cream. Whisk in the marmalade, then add the oil in a slow stream at first while whisking constantly to create a smooth dressing. Continue whisking in the rest of the oil, taste for seasoning, and set aside.
Prepare a grill or heat a grill pan over high heat. Rub the scallions with olive oil and grill until charred and soft, 3 to 5 minutes. Remove to a platter and add the pork to the grill; cook until well-marked and firm, 3 to 4 minutes on each side. Transfer to a platter to rest for a moment.
Drizzle the pork and onions with the vinaigrette, and serve immediately.


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Sandwich Monday: Sagal Sandwich
Today, a very special Sandwich Monday: Peter shares the sandwich that made him who he is today.
Every day during the 7th and 8th grade I would go into the lunchroom at Columbia Junior High School in Berkeley Heights, N.J., and unwrap the same sandwich: Hebrew National salami on white bread with sweet pickle relish.
I've been wanting to re-create the sandwich for years. I used Trader Joe's Organic White bread, which is as stiff and crumbly as the bread I remember, but is a little too tasty. Fortunately, pickle relish still tastes like pickle relish.
Peter: Making this sandwich was like a Proustian flashback. I felt suddenly weird, unsure and awkward. Fortunately, my hair also grew back.
Ian: I can't imagine the 13-year-old Peter eating this without also imagining a 20-year-old Carl there, too.
Peter: The salami has changed. It's much blander than it used to be. Back in the day, I remember it being more peppery and redolent of humiliation.
Mike: That's probably the Clearasil.
Eva: I don't know if this is related, but after eating this I suddenly know a lot of Star Trek trivia.
Ian: This is basically a reorganized hot dog.
Peter: I actually like it. I did then, too. It's why to this day I like to go into fine dining establishments and smear pickle relish on everything.
Ian: As bad as this sandwich is, I'm happy to learn the phrase "Sagal Sandwich" does not refer to a wrestling move. Yet.
[The verdict: Well, I liked it, but then again, I always did. You got any Sandwiches Of Your Youth?]


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Rossella Marrai-Ricco has been working in the football media industry for six seasons, covering predominantly Italian and South African football. She has interviewed some of the biggest names in football. Her work can be found in Soccer Laduma's (South Africa) weekly newspaper, Soccer360 or Football Italia.
Showing posts from August, 2012
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I've had a chance to use and review all of the products from my April and decide on how much I liked them. So now it is time to do my box wrap up.
In case you don't remember, here is a summary of the Awesomeness level:
Box Awesomeness Level Review (AL)
- 5 points for an item that surpasses everything else I've tried and becomes my #1 choice for what role it fulfills
- 4 points for an item that becomes added to my permanent collection of cosmetics and I will repurchase
- 3 points for an item that joins my "I might buy this again" list
- 2 points for an item I finished or will finish the entire sample of but in the end decided not to re-purchase
- 1 point for an item that I tried and immediately threw out/gave away
- 0 points if the item was a duplicate of something from a previous bag/box/kit that only scored a 1 in that box – meaning I knew enough to not even bother with trying it.
- Don't forget that I subtract 1/2 point for samples that can only be used 2 or fewer times.