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Richard Urick
- Aliquippa High School, 1971; Indiana University of Pennsylvania, 1975; Duquesne University School of Law, 1979.
- Attorney Urick is the solicitor for multiple local governments and is a lifetime member of the Million Dollar Advocates Forum (see video below). He was selected as a member of the Outstanding Lawyers of America, is a Fellow in the Litigation Council of America and has been rated by Super Lawyers. In the past he served as an assistant prosecutor for the Beaver County District Attorney's office. He is also the Past President of the Beaver County Bar Association and served on the Board of Governors of the Beaver County Bar Association. He currently chairs its Charitable Giving Committee.
Areas of Practice
- Workers Compensation
- Personal Injury
- Social Security Disability
- Municipal Law
Litigation Percentage
- 75% of Practice Devoted to Litigation
Bar Admissions
- Supreme Court of Pennsylvania, 1979
- U.S. District Court Western District of Pennsylvania, 1979
- Duquesne University School of Law, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
- Law Review: Duquesne University Law Review, 1978 – 1979
- Indiana University of Pennsylvania, Indiana, Pennsylvania
B.A. – 1975, Cum Laude
Honors: Omicron Delta Epsilon Honor Society
Honors: Pi Gamma Mu Honor Society
Major: Economics and Political Science
Representative Clients
- Lincoln Learning Solutions, Inc.
- Monaca Borough
- Shippingport Borough
- Creswell Heights Joint Authority
Honors and Awards
- Find Richard Urick on page 12 of the above publication.
- Outstanding Lawyers of America
- Martindale-Hubbell® Bar Register of Preeminent Lawyers™, 2017
- AV® Preeminent™ Peer Review Rated by Martindale-Hubbell
- Million Dollar Advocates Forum – Life Member, 2012 – Present
- Litigation Counsel of America, Fellow
- Rated by Super Lawyers
Professional Associations and Memberships
- Pennsylvania Bar Association, 1979 – Present
- Allegheny County Bar Association, 1979 – Present
- Beaver County Bar Association, 1979 – Present
- American Bar Association, 1979 – 1990
- Pennsylvania Association for Justice
- National Association of Social Security Claimant's Representatives
- Pennsylvania Bar Association, Workers Compensation Section
- Beaver County Bar Association, President, 2002 – 2003
- Beaver County Bar Association, Board of Governors, 1999 – 2002
- Pennsylvania State Association of Boroughs
- Pennsylvania Borough Solicitor's Association
- Pennsylvania Municipal Authorities Association
Past Employment Positions
- Pennsylvania State Senate, Administrative Assistant, 1975
- Pennsylvania Auditor General, Auditor, 1976
Pro Bono Activities
- Career Literacy for African American Youth.
In the Community
- In the community, Rich served as the public address announcer at Sewickley Academy boys soccer games. He also mentored African American students at Aliquippa High School.
- Sigma Tau Gamma


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A new book by Beniamino Cislaghi offers an insight into the ethical challenges of implementing cross-cultural gender transformative programmes that change social norms.
Beniamino Cislaghi is an Assistant professor at the Gender, Violence and Health Centre (GVHC). In this book – Human rights and community-led development (https://edinburghuniversitypress.com/book-human-rights-and-community-led-development.html) – Ben expands existing cross-cultural development theory by drawing on his ethnographic work in one rural West African community, as they worked together to change harmful gender and social norms.

subset: commoncrawl


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You speak business. We speak tech.
At Poatek, no matter your industry or software needs, we are here to help you boost your business with the best technology. We bring the top 1% of tech talent to your team, regardless if you are a startup, small to medium business or an enterprise level company.
Our services include:
Custom and Agile Software Development:
While planning is a must early in the process, our Agile approach means you can change those plans as you go and discover new features or iterations you'd like to add. To succeed at this, the key is communication, early and often, so we can be sure your expectations are being met and exceeded. You get the final say.
Mobile App Development:
No matter the platform, our team builds apps that meet current business needs but also have the ability to scale to add new features, cross platforms, or perform updates down the road.
Data Science & Artificial Intelligence:
The scope of our work includes analytical approaches and modeling techniques to evaluate scenarios; ad-hoc exploratory and explanatory analysis and all aspects of design, development, and delivery of Machine Learning-enabled solutions.


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Elementary School Golf Teams
After School SNAG Golf (Elementary Schools)
SNAG Golf Traditional Golf
Launched January, 2012, our on-campus Elementary Schoool Golf Program for K – 5th grade students (Pre-Futures Level) were conducted during the school year at elementary schools who have secured dates of Training – Practices – Competitions through a registration process by contacting the IRGF. SNAG Golf is conducted on campus at participating schools. TRADITIONAL Golf is conducted at four golf facility locations. The annual SNAG Golf Championship and Indian River TRADITIONAL Golf Championship for elementary and middle school players is played in April.
With the use of SNAG Golf equipment…….the focus is on teaching the fundamentals of the golf swing, practices and FUN competitions. This program is a joint venture effort between the IRGF and individual schools. This program is available for up to 12 elementary schools per year in the Indian River School District. PGA professionals, teacher/coaches and volunteer/coaches including high school players assist in these programs. Players are then invited to Saturday sessions of the IRGF Players Club where they transition from SNAG Golf to traditional golf equipment. This program is partially funded by the Florida Junior Golf Council (Florida State Golf Association).
SNAG golfers are ranked by golf skills & behavioral patterns and compete in 9 hole events called Combined Elementary School (CES) SNAG Golf Tournaments…Team Scramble Format.
The Annual Indian River SNAG Golf Championship was conducted the end of April at Vero Beach Country Club.
SNAG players are encouraged to participate in the Treasure Coast Junior Golf Tour TEAM Scramble Series in April, May and June.


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Relating Difficulty
The Processes of Constructing and Managing Difficult Interaction
Prices & shipping based on shipping country
Book Description
Relating Difficulty offers insight into the nature of difficulty in relationships across a broad range of human experience. Whether dealing with in-laws or ex-spouses, long-distance relationships or power and status in the workplace, difficulty is an all too common feature of daily life. Relating Difficulty brings the academic understanding of relational processes to the everyday problems people face at home and at work.
These essays represent a groundbreaking collection of the multidisciplinary conceptual and empirical work that currently exists on the topic. Along with issues such as chronic illness and money problems, contributors investigate contexts of relational difficulty ranging from everyday gossip, the workplace and shyness to more dangerous sexual "hookups" and partner abuse.
Drawing on evidence presented in the volume, editors D. Charles Kirkpatrick, Steve Duck, and Megan K. Foley explain how relational problems do not emerge solely from individuals or even from the relationship itself. Instead, they arise from triangles of connection and negotiation between relational partners, contexts, and outsiders. The volume challenges the simple notion that relating difficulty is just about problems with "difficult people" and offers some genuinely novel insights into a familiar everyday experience.
This exceptional volume is essential reading for practitioners, researchers and students of relationships across a wide range of disciplines as well as anyone wanting greater understanding of relational functioning in everyday life and at work.
Table of Contents
Contents: Preface. S. Duck, D.C. Kirkpatrick, M.K. Foley, Difficulty In Relating: Some Conceptual Problems With "Problematic Relationships" and Difficulties With "Difficult People." S.D. Bradshaw, Shyness and Difficult Relationships: Formation Is Just the Beginning. M.K. Foley, Locating "Difficulty": A Multi-Site Model of Intimate Terrorism. M.J. Lovaglia, J.W. Lucas, Leadership as the Management of Power in Relationships at Work. G. Allan, C. Gerstner, Money and Relationship Difficulties. M.C.M. Serewicz, The Difficulties of In-law Relationships. E.M. Sahlstein, The Trouble With Distance. E.L. Paul, Beer Goggles, Catching Feelings, and the Walk of Shame: The Myths and Realities of the Hookup Experience. E.K. Foster, R.L. Rosnow, Gossip and Network Relationships. S.S. Rollie, Nonresidential Parent-Child Relationships: Overcoming the Challenges of Absence. R. Lyons, L. Langille, S. Duck, Difficult Relationships and Relationship Difficulties: Relationship Adaption and Chronic Health Problems. S. Duck, M.K. Foley, D.C. Kirkpatrick, Relating Difficulty in a Triangular World.
View More
"The editors made good choices in selecting the difficult relationships to include. This book would be an excellent addition to a professional library, and I would definitely consider it as part of required reading in graduate studies."


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Not only relationships, but also companies may struggle to stand the test of time. It may be possible to rekindle the flame between employees and their jobs thanks to games and 'gamification'. But how does it work?
30% of Americans say they feel motivated about doing their job, according to a Gallup poll. In other words: the remaining 70% do not. However, it would be a mistake to think that levels of motivation should be measured at the time of recruitment.
For Tom Gimbel, founder and CEO of recruitment company LaSalle Network, "motivation is a variable that must be constantly monitored throughout a person's career."
He explains this as follows: "The performance of an employee is generally optimal in their first year, this being down to a combination of the challenges they face and the learning they do." It is only later that the problem arises:
"This is what is referred to as the 'sophomore slump', which takes effect after one or two years. It is at this point that the passion starts to dwindle.' And it is here that 'gamification' comes into play".
What is it we are talking about exactly?
Historically, work and play were always considered polar opposites. The concept of play made its entry into the world of work in the 1990s, in the form of a wave of extreme sports. At that time, a trend arose whereby company managers took their employees along to friendly rafting competitions. Today, games have penetrated all areas of society. There are now 500 million 'gamers' worldwide, and gaming has become a ubiquitous phenomenon, including among senior executives, 61% of whom allegedly play games during their breaks.
Many of the fields of application of games are now relevant to the world of work and are more broadly accepted, for example training and learning via quizzes and serious games. Usually, such games take the form of individual or group challenges, simulation games, team games or construction challenges using Lego or Kapla (wood).
Gamification may also manifest itself in the form of a working environment in which games are present. Following in the footsteps of start-ups, recreational areas, games consoles or pool tables and even gyms are being installed for use by employees. The objective is to encourage bonding, solidarity and personal connections between colleagues.
And where does work fit in to all of this?
Company managers are certainly justified in asking whether increasing the amount of leisure spaces might diminish productivity. But that is not the case. Simply feeling more relaxed does not cause employees to forget their priorities. Games are above all a way of fostering working relationships and team spirit. They act as a natural stimulant.
However, although motivation is certainly something to be prioritised in your company, trying to turn everything into a game does have its limits, in particular in marketing and sales departments where playfulness may turn into fierce competition that could lead to rifts within teams. Some also believe that under the pretext of 'play' it is sometimes possible to promote 'a vision of an economic system based on accumulation, efficiency and productivity, giving rise to the question of whether gamification used in a market context is perhaps transforming the very concept of gaming.'


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(Cambridge) 01223 299011 | Email: email@example.com
Outstanding facility, excellent customer service, highly recommended.
Mr S: Aston Martin DBS
Thank you for your excellent service and attention to detail throughout.
Mr H: Ferrari 458
Neil and the team were a pleasure to deal with, highly professional and my car had a lovely holiday, thank you.
Mr M: Ferrari 575
What an outstanding facility, we'll be back again next year.
Mr & Mrs P
Nothing was too much trouble, including dropping me back home after leaving the car.
Mr J: Ford Mustang
Thank you for arranging the shipping to get my car back home, excellent service from start to finish.
Mr H: South Africa
CarSafe operate as an extension of our business, providing an outstanding facility and exceptional levels of customer service to us and our clients. They have become an invaluable asset.
Corporate client
My first question was "will you store any car?" As I have rather shabby but very loved 2CV which has huge sentimental value. CarSafe give it the same attention as they would a car worth vastly more than mine, but I still wouldn't swap it!
Mrs K: Citroen Dolly
The time Neil and the team take to understand the "quirks" of the car was unexpected but very welcome.
Mr S: Silver Shadow
CarSafe look after 5 of my cars which I take out on a fairly regular basis. The cars are always ready when I arrive and the process is swift and courteous. An excellent service, thank you.
Mr K
We visited 3 storage companies before we went to CarSafe but Neil operates on a totally different level. The facility is wonderful, if a little tricky to find.
Mr & Mrs D: VW split screen
I was wary of car storage having previously had a bad experience. Voiced my concerns to Neil who understood my reservations and answered all my questions confidently. Suffice to say my Porsche is now at CarSafe and very well looked after.
Mr M: Porsche 911
CarSafe arranged collection on behalf of my son who works away. They sent him a video of the car arriving and a showcase video. It makes him miss it even more but at least he can see it.
Mrs H: Porsche Boxter
(CarSafe is based in Cambridge Covering the London City area)
Here at CarSafe, we provide the perfect solution to safe car parking in London City, East London. We are the London City vehicle storage specialists of choice for London City and are experienced in professional long-term car parking. Our discreet secure parking facility caters for car owners who require long-term car parking for holiday or long-term business parking.
Regardless of how long your vehicle's stay with us is, you can be completely assured of its safety at all times. CarSafe offers superb long-term car parking for performance cars and holiday parking for classic cars as well. Secure vehicle storage solutions in London City are what we offer here at CarSafe at our secure, state of the art, long-term car parking facility. So, if you are looking for holiday parking, long-term airport parking or business parking, please contact us.
We offer high-end long-term car parking in East London for our valued clients, so you have total peace of mind if need to be away from home. If work takes you away and means you need business parking or secure vehicle storage for business, we can help. CarSafe safe car parking provides you with the very best in discreet secure car parking in London City. We're fully equipped to offer the very best in secure car parking.
Close to the A11 in Cambridgeshire, we are centrally located to London making London City easily accessible to us. Similarly, a manageable distance for you should you wish to visit our long-term car parking facility or deliver your vehicle to us. CarSafe also has a dedicated vehicle transportation service for our clients, which allows us to offer you a hassle-free way of getting your car into long-term car parking with us. This is a great time-saver giving you one less thing to think about.
Our CarSafe car parking facility offers high-quality, technically sound, secure vehicle storage for business and for holiday parking in London City available to all car owners, including performance vehicle collectors. CarSafe is the vehicle storage specialist company for you. We are happy to assist you in any long-term car parking in London City requirements.
CarSafe continually provides unrivalled levels of safe car parking all year round as we understand how treasured and valued your vehicle is. Keeping your car safe is at the heart of everything we do and that is why we have created a discreet, state of the art car parking facility. If you need holiday parking or business parking in London City, East London and would like to experience the very best in quality secure parking, please contact us.
Copyright © CarSafe 2020


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If you receive a magazine so inside of this then you shall find out at least one section surrounding promotion as regards hair growth products.
But we ask whether these produces may make the hair grow rapid.
Thus hair growth products could be advertised. Truly, we find no medical confirmation hair growth products may help.
What the produces truly perform remains motivate the hair follicles into the scalp for the hair to advance more healthful and more forceful.
Most part of common hair growth products means scalp interviewees.
And they purify the scalp totally and take the total build up including proteins away.
It's well to knead your scalp afterward employing the product for exciting the follicles and the circulation of the blood for improving hair growth then making it black.
Other hair growth products categories are taken in orally. Mainly of them surround vitamins as example B6, B12 zinc otherwise copper. So the body requires the total elements for more healthful and powerful hair.
Once you feel like trying some of the various hair growth products which exist, then examine the package although FDA examined it previously. Afterward, this remained completely demonstrated into correct also purpose health trials in addition the whole trait effects having emerged were discerned.
Actually, when looking the hair growth cautiously, this shall indicate you if the product states a hair growth otherwise a hair thickening for the reason that it's not completed to confuse them. The FDA approved two hair reinstatement products into the year 2001. While between them should on the box as a result you get better possibility of this to be affecting. These two components describe finasteride comprised minoxidil. Habitually the element Finasteride (or Propecia) was most recommended to apply for men. The other element Minoxidil (or Rogaine) could be presented with no recommendations also is larger efficient through women than men.
Really, the additional distinction between the two is that Minoxidil should be applied at home and for external use and Finasteride must be employed orally.
That remains your own will in taking which one of the numerous of hair growth products to that will help your hair growth rapid. All to undertake remains to examine the package warily before starting making use of this at home. Moreover, in case you are questioning about countless hair growth products thus that's better to call on medical career concerning advice.


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At DBS, we are committed to "Get the most out of every move" for truckload shippers. We implement solutions that safely load more units per truck and run fewer trucks. The results will have equally positive impacts on both profitability for our clients and sustainability initiatives targeting reduced greenhouse gas emissions. We will enable twofold value creation, financial performance and environmental performance, both of which are measurable and verifiable.
K.C. Kern, President 2009


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Frequently Answer Question
Forex Beginner's FAQ Answered
1. What is Forex trading?
2. Why does it seem nobody knew much about Forex until recently?
3. How Forex trading works?
4. How high are the risk in Forex trading?
5. Forex vs traditonal stocks/mutual funds trading: How does they match up?
6. What are the major traded currencies?
7. Who are the major players in Forex trading?
8. What tools do i need to start trading Forex?
9. What is the leverage at this market?
10. What is Margin?
11. Do I need to have any specific academic background in order to be successful?
12. Your question was not answered here?
13. How to open up a demo account?
14. How to open up a real account?
15. How to fund a real account?
16. I've downloaded the expert advisor for MetaTrader platform but I don't know how to install it. What
should I do?
17. I've downloaded a custom indicator for MetaTrader platform but I don't know how to install it. What
should I do?
Q: What is Forex trading?
Forex, Foreign Exchange Market, is an international exchange market where currencies from all around the world are traded. It involves buying and selling different currencies of the world.
Forex market is the largest trade market in the world, yielding $1.9 trillion daily. It is traded all around the world but United States, Japan, United Kindom, and Europes have the most active Forex traders.
Q: Why does it seem nobody knew much about Forex until recently?
Until a few years ago only the "big boys" could play this game. The initial requirement was that you could trade only if you had over ten million dollars. The foreign exchange was originally intended to be used by bankers and multinational corporations. Forex was opened to everyone during the late 90s. It's the number one market in many different aspects. It is the most liquid, largest and fastest growing financial market in the world. Trading forex attracts many new investors because of its huge leverage and low start-up capital requirement. Most firms let you start with a mini-trading account with a measly $250.
Q: How Forex trading works?
Forex is often traded in pairs, for example USD/Euro, USD/JPY, Euro/JPY, GBP/CHF, and CAD/USD. You get 'short' in one currency and you will get 'long' in the other one. Unlike conventional stocks market, Forex trading does not have a centralized trade market.
It is considered as Over-the-Counter or Inter-bank as trades are done between two counterparts via electronic network or telephone connections. Forex works truly as a 24-hour market.
Everyday Forex trade begins when the financial centers in Sydney start their day, and moves around the globe to Tokyo, London, and then New York. Traders can always response to the market regardless of the local time.
Q: How high are the risk in Forex trading?
The risks of losing money in Forex trading is high, but it is controllable via proper education and trading system. Trading system is a must in Forex trading. Charts, graphs, or pivot points are handful to indicate the right time to enter or exit the market. An 'automated system', such as make your easierAs in any trade market, discipline, control of emotion, and money management are the traits needed to be succeed in Forex trading.
Rewards in Forex trading can be very lucrative if traders manage their risk nicely. One benefit to using our recommended brokerage firm is that they guarantee fills at your Limit and Stop-Loss order prices with no slippage.
This means you can have total control over the amount you risk on each trade. But remember, FOREX Trading is speculative and any capital used should be risk capital. In fact, we recommend that you trade on a demo account until you have shown profit for at least three consecutive months before trading real money.
Q: Forex vs traditonal stocks/mutual funds trading: How does they match up?
Forex and conventional stocks are different type of trading. When trading Forex, most trader's objectives are to predict short term movement in the currency exchange values. Most Forex tradings are done in day-trading style where traders will buy and sell in the same day. Different from Forex, stocks and mutual funds trading are more to long term style where trades may last for years or even decades!
Q: What are the major traded currencies?
Major traded currencies are United States dollars, Australian Dollars, Japanese Yens, British Pounds, Swiss Francs, Canadian Dollars, and the Euro Dollars.
Q: Who are the major players in Forex trading?
According to Wall Street Journal Europe, 73% of the trade volume is covered by Deutsche Bank, who covered 17% of the total currency trades; followed by UBS, Citi Group, HSBC, Barclays, Merril Lynch, J. P. Morgan Chase, Coldman Sachs, ABN Amro, and Morgan Stanley.
Q: What tools do i need to start trading Forex?
It does not need a lot to start trading Forex: a funded Forex account and a computer with Internet connections are basically sufficient for you to start trading foreign currencies. However, proper Forex education and systematic trading tools are highly recommended to minimize your risks in Forex market.
Also, beginner traders are advised to start off their trading in Forex with a demo account first. A demo account is an account set up with 'play' money for the purpose of training and shapen your trading skills. It's free to open a demo account with most of the Forex online brokers and it does not risk your real money in the trades.
Q: What is the leverage at this market?
Most forex brokers usually offer 100:1, but higher leverage such as 200:1 also available at Forex.Com. A 100:1 leverage means that with $1,000, you control $100,000 of currency. No other market gives you so much liquidity and leverage at the same time.
Q: What is Margin?
Margin is essentially collateral for a position. It allows traders to take on leveraged positions with a fraction of the equity necessary to fund the trade. In the equity markets, the usual margin allowed is 50% which means an investor has double the buying power. In the forex market leverage ranges from 1% to 2%, giving investors the high leverage needed to trade actively.
Q: Do I need to have any specific academic background in order to be successful?
Not at all! Successful active traders come from many different professions. Very often, people who are very successful at school or at their businesses wrongly believe that their success will be automatically transferred to forex trading. It's usually not the case. Active trading has its own learning pace and our Go-School education will prepare you to enter this exciting field.
Q: Your question was not answered here?
You can contact us if the question isn't answered anywhere.
Q: How to open up a demo account?
You have to download and install the Metatrader Platform first. The download link for Gain Capital's Metatrader is http://www.efxnow.com/mt/forexmt4.exe
- Open the Metatrader Platform ( You can open it from the shortcut at desktop ).
- Open up the "File" then click "Open An Acccout".
- Fill in the boxes with your details. You choose the "leverage" and the "start balance" as you like.
- Tick the small box (" I Agree") at the bottom then "Next".
- Choose the Demo Server, then "Next".
- A new Demo account will be created.
Q: How to open up a real account?
- You have to complete and submit your application online, by click this link
- After you have submitted the application, you have to upload 2 kinds of documents as "Proof of ID and Address".
- Proof of ID : National ID, Driving License, Passport
- Proof of Address : Credit Card Bill, Phone Bill, Electricity Bill, etc. Those Documents must under the same name and address.
You can upload the file from this link
- After you have submitted and uploaded your Application form and your documenst. Then you will receive a confirmation email from Forex.Com with User ID ( ussualy take 2-3 days ). After you have received the User ID then you can fund your account
Q: How to fund a real account?
You can do deposit after you have received your USER ID. You can deposit using Wire Transfer or Credit Card:
1. Using Wire/ Transfer Bank ( 2-3 work days )
Fill in your Wire Transfer form with this details :
Nama Account Penerima
GAIN Capital FOREX.com UK Ltd
Alamat Penerima
9th Floor
Bank Penerima
Barclays Bank PLC, London
Alamat Bank Penerima
Nomor Account Rekening Tujuan
200000 74400311
SWIFT Code Bank Penerima
Sort Code
Berita : # nama Anda# & # nomor login Anda#
2. Using Credit Card ( 1 day )
You have to enter to member area using this link then using your User Id and Password to login.
Then choose : Support > Fund My Account > Credit Card
How To install EA or Custom Indicators Answered
Q: I've downloaded the expert advisor for MetaTrader platform but I don't know how to install it. What should I do?
You can read the MetaTrader Expert Advisors User's Tutorial at Forex Wisdom Page to find out how to install those expert advisors.
Q: I've downloaded a custom indicator for MetaTrader platform but I don't know how to install it. What should I do?
You can read the MetaTrader Indicators User's Tutorial at Forex Wisdom Page to find out how to install those indicators.


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So who's the guy with the pen? Ben Franklin? I think so! Steve
Steve J, you gotta go with the shoulder length hair......Pen fixed.
(SteveJ planned much of my last X-country ride, he knows back roads of the Mid-West/Southwestern states better than I know back roads here in Tampa)
This is all too funny.First off, cool pic there Stevewfl(aka#9334). The b/w photo is cool.Maybe just a bit of exaggeration(sp fixed) there.Nice job on the fix, Brian. I did the shoulder length thing back in my Flower Child days, I'll pass on that at this time.Edit to add: Maybe I do have a little something in common with Mr. Franklin.
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Featured is an awesome set of eight brown champagne glasses from Imperial Glass. These heavy pieces are from the discontinued Hoffman House collection (pattern 46) which went into production in 1960. They have a wafer stem and measure 4 1/8 inches tall. They are 3 7/8 inches in diameter at the rim. These high-quality, hand finished pieces are in excellent shape, free from any chips or cracks. All eight pieces for one low price.
Shipping Policy
I do combine shipping and refund shipping overages in excess of $1.50 (covers shipping materials) above actual cost, I'm not trying to make money off of shipping charges. I strive to ship items no later than the following business day. Items are generally shipped USPS priority mail which includes $50 insurance. All items are carefully packaged. If an item is damaged during shipping, please take pictures and let me know immediately so a claim can be filed with the shipper. If you prefer an alternate shipping method please send me a message to discuss options.
Sometimes Priority Mail shipping is cost prohibitive (especially for those on the West Coast). Send me a message and we'll see if Flat Rate shipping is possible. Prices for this service is generally about $19 for a "Large" box and about $13.65 for a "Medium" box. Note that USPS Flat Rate boxes aren't that big, so this might not be an option when purchasing larger items.
All items are described as accurately as possible, and any damage noted. Items are twenty or more years old and may show wear consistent with age/use. I encourage you to ask any questions prior to purchase. I generally do not accept returns, but there are always exceptions, so please message me if you feel you need to return an item. If you are not satisfied with your purchase for any reason please reach out right away so that we may reach an amicable solution, I want you to be happy with and enjoy your purchase!
I enjoy finding vintage pieces and moving them along to new homes. I'm an easy going person and do this more as a hobby than a business, I like researching these old items to find their origins/history. If you want to discuss any items listed, tell me I'm way off base on my pricing, wrong on my description, or whatever convo me!


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|more useful options
tk label text disappears ?!by lepetitalbert (Abbot)
|on Jul 31, 2006 at 13:30 UTC ( #564740=perlquestion: print w/replies, xml )
|Need Help??
lepetitalbert has asked for the wisdom of the Perl Monks concerning the following question:
Hello Dear Monks,
I'm trying to create my first GUI and don't understand the following :
This code works, but when I uncomment the lines between BUG HERE and END BUG, the -text option in my $label_canton disappears.
If I minimize the window or hide it with another window from another app and restore it the text is here again.
And I don't understand WHY
Have a nice day<>/p
P.S Ctrl-c to see the dialogbox
complete code here
"There is only one good, namely knowledge, and only one evil, namely ignorance." Socrates
Back to Seekers of Perl Wisdom


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Take a journey through this beautiful wine country wedding video – an unforgettable love story of Grace and Mike as they celebrate their wedding in Napa at the Meritage Resort with friends and family on September 8, 2017.
This gorgeous wine country wedding film features breathtaking aerial shots of the vineyards at the Meritage Resort and finishes with an epic dance party in the caves of the wine cellars. Grace and Mike's wedding was absolutely gorgeous and we are so honored they chose us to film their special day!
For more information about booking us to film your wedding or special event, please contact us here.


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How are you feeling? David Shrigley.
Billboard art at HIGH LINE NY.
David Shrigley's new book HOW ARE YOU FEELING?, published in tandem with an exhibition at The Cornerhouse, in Manchester UK, will be launched on October 4th. The exhibition features drawings, paintings, sculpture and never-seen-before live performance… taking you on a skewed, cathartic journey through the clever, amusing world of David Shrigley. The exhibition offers an interactive experience as many of the works in the show invite your participation in order to complete them. 'How Are You Feeling?' is a familiar phrase often used in self-help, psychiatry and the diagnosis of psychosis. For this exhibition, Shrigley offers you art-therapy to help you cope with "an increasingly crazy and poorly signposted world". On from Sat 6 Oct 2012 – Sun 6 Jan 2013. Curated by Mike Chavez-Dawson.
Mega fan of Shrigley for some time (remember this throwback? http://fantastic-dl.blogspot.ca/2008/01/david-shrigley-doesnt-get-old.html) I appreciate and embrace this new honest and satirical project…


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Sorry I haven't written in the blog in a while. I've been busy filling out financial aid forms for college for Sara and when I'm not filling them out, I'm worrying about them. I'm trying to hand this over to the Lord (though I guess He still expects me to fill out the forms!). Here is some news from Ruhengeri:
- New Beginnings: I have 2 New Year's Resolutions. The first is a broad theme I am hoping for this year: Seeking God. I was inspired by a recent visitor, a non-Christian, who responded "I'm seeking," when I asked him what his spiritual background was. As usual, I couldn't think of anything to say! Of course LATER I thought of many scriptures that deal with seeking. One of the most famous ones is from Jeremiah 29:13: You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart. Another one I like is from the Psalms You, O Lord, have never forsaken those who seek you. I couldn't resist those promises! I'm not sure what this will look like, but I have started a Beth Moore Bible Study (James) with some other women here and I am enjoying that a lot. I am also trying to be diligent in reading the Bible in one year, using the Holy Trinity Brompton commentary, which I recommend. So, please pray for me in this endeavor. The second resolution is not to use the internet on Sundays-it's hard and I consider Skyping my parents on Sundays okay, but so far it has been quite free'ing. I try to spend more time with Lydia and Moses, write letters, cook, etc.
2. The Children's choir is growing-they even have new uniforms. We are thankful for Chantale (see prior post) who is directing with the choir.
3. The English service continues to grow-here is Caleb preaching on Stewardship. I am preaching this Sunday on God's Creation and Our Response to It (we are using a new system of pre-assigned topics). It's a good topic, but challenging. I am going to use Psalm 19 and John 1 and Louis Giglio-thanks, Louis!Please pray that is will be a Spirit filled sermon.
4. Visitors We continue to have a lot of visitors-and were happy and honored to have Cal and Mimi Wilson on Saturday night with us and next month Caleb's parents are coming, which is quite exciting. In addition, we've had lots of other nice and helpful visitors.
5. THE PIG. She belongs to Sarah Jane and I could not do the pig justice, so I will refer you to an excellent blog post from Sarah Jane. http://dehartdispatches.blogspot.com/2014/01/a-pig-and-her-girl.html
6. On a more serious note-a grenade went off in Ruhengeri/Musanze a couple of days ago. It seems to be an isolated incident. But please pray for the security of our area and all of Rwanda as we approach the 20th anniversary of the genocide
In peace I will lie down and sleep, for you alone, Lord, make me dwell in safety. Psalm 4:8


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Former fire chief testifies he 'tried to forget' Christmas tragedy
STAMFORD - A lawyer taking testimony in civil suits filed over the tragic Christmas blaze of 2011 struck a raw nerve while questioning former Fire Chief Antonio Conte.
The lawyer asked Conte, who rose from firefighter to chief in his 39 years with the Stamford department, for details about the subsequent investigation.
Lawyer: "You wanted to know how a fire started that killed five people, right?"
Conte: "Yes."
Lawyer: "And why is that?"
Conte: "Why would I want to know? Why would we want to know? We lost five people. I mean, we're firefighters — our job is to save lives, not see them perish."
The testimony — taken in October 2015 and recently obtained by The Advocate — explains in new detail how firefighters were driven from the windows and doors of 2267 Shippan Ave. by flames and blasts of super-heated smoke. Those able to enter the house found floors burned away, ceilings collapsing, a stairwell gone.
The devastation that killed Lily Badger, 9, and her 7-year-old twin sisters, Sarah and Grace, and their grandparents created unquantifiable anguish for the family. But Conte testified to the depth of the emotional toll on firefighters.
A lawyer asked whether Conte, in the weeks following the fire, requested updates from the marshal's office about the progress of their investigation. Conte said he did not.
"I was dealing with a lot of issues within the fire department as far as how the men were doing mentally," Conte testified. "We tried to have an after-action report, which we do after every structure fire, to go over what everybody's role was. It lasted maybe two minutes and guys started to break down. I had to stop everything and get … experts in to deal with post-traumatic stress disorder syndrome."
Conte, in fact, broke down briefly while testifying — nearly four years after the fire.
More Information
Other stories from the Badger Files
Lawyers question city attorney's role in fatal fire case
Testimony reveals lax rules at Stamford building department
Demolition date doctored in 2011 Shippan fatal fire
Official gives clashing recollections in Christmas fire testimony
Fire marshal's walk with mournful mother
Evidence lost in the rubble of Stamford Christmas fire
Murky testimony on Badger house tear-down
Testimony reveals contractor's account of Shippan fire
New details about how inspector arrived at fire cause
Rising from ashes of fatal Stamford Christmas fire
He was describing what happened when he arrived at the scene before dawn. A captain trying to enter a second-story window reported on his radio that he saw two people inside on a stair landing. But the floor between the window and the landing was gone, and he could not reach them, the captain radioed.
"He was perched on a ladder and he could see in and he spotted two of the victims. They were down … oh, wow," Conte testified, unable to continue.
"You need a minute?" the lawyer asked. "Take a break."
Conte got out a few more words — that the captain said the victims were not viable — then the lawyer called for a five-minute recess.
Valiant effort
The first unit to arrive at the fire was Engine Four, but none of that crew saw anyone alive, Conte said. Firefighters were trying to get into the three-story house from ladders, the porch roof, and a scaffold erected during a renovation. But they could not find a way. A half-hour into their effort, the incident commander had to order them to retreat.
That decision is devastating for firefighters, Conte said. It was made worse when they later discovered that none of the victims had been in bed.
Lawyer: "So they had all been up, trying to escape — that was clear?"
Conte: "Yes."
The lawyer asked Conte how long he remained at the scene.
"You know, I don't remember," Conte said. "It's — to be honest with you — I tried to forget as much about that day as possible."
Questioned about his role that morning, Conte said he did not take over for the incident commander — the ranking fire official on duty when the department received the call. That's not good practice, Conte said, and besides, the commander, Deputy Chief William Smith, had his full confidence.
"Chief Smith had been at the fire for I don't know how long before I was even notified, so he knew where the crews were, he knew how the fire had extended, he knew what they tried or hadn't tried yet, and for me to come in cold would be a huge mistake."
Since his expertise is fire suppression, he circled the house in repeated assessments of the firefighting effort, reporting the information to Smith, Conte said.
Conte said he took a similar stance with the investigation — he let the fire marshals work.
Job of a chief
Lawyer: "Did you ever ask to review a fire investigation report?"
Conte: "No … the fire marshal and his staff do the investigation. I'm not trained in that field."
Lawsuits filed by the parents, Madonna and Matthew Badger, stem from the building department's decision to tear down the home the day after Christmas without permission, and to quickly dump the remains — considered evidence.
Badger's suit charges that building officials wanted to cover up botched department inspections of a renovation. The marshal concluded that discarded fireplace ashes were the cause, but Badger alleges it could have been shoddy electrical work.
Conte said it's the building department's job to discern whether a structure is sound. He heard about the demolition afterwards, he said.
Lawyer: "How did you learn of it?"
Conte: "Someone said it. I don't even know who. But I never went back down there. I didn't want to go back down there."
No one from the building department let him know the house would be torn down the next day, Conte testified, and he doesn't know whether anyone else in his department was notified.
A lawyer asked Conte why he didn't direct the fire marshal to preserve the house as evidence.
"One thing a chief does is delegate authority," Conte replied. "And the … fire marshal, who is state-certified and trained, knows enough to do things of that nature. He doesn't have to be reminded to preserve evidence."
He didn't ask the state fire marshal to investigate because that was the Stamford marshal's call, Conte said.
He did not discuss the cause of the fire with anyone in the department, Conte said. There was much speculation about it in the media, and reporters were "trying to get into the firehouse" to ask questions, he said.
A day or two after the fire, the department received a directive from then-Mayor Michael Pavia, who "wanted guys to stop talking to anybody about the fire," Conte said. So he told his assistants "to make sure that the mayor's wishes are complied with."
He didn't talk to anyone, either, Conte said.
Lawyer: "You understood that message to mean not to talk to the people under you that were investigating the fire?"
Conte: "I kept my mouth shut."
He never saw the final investigation report, Conte testified. He didn't even read news accounts.
"I tried to … put it out of my mind totally," he testified.
firstname.lastname@example.com; 203-964-2296; stamfordadvocate.com/angelacarella.


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I resubmitted the Heartbreak Paper today.
Do you remember the sad tale of the Heartbreak Paper? Four years ago I gave an interdisciplinary conference talk that I wanted to turn into a paper. I emailed one of the leading lights in Discipline #2 and said, "Hey, would you like to write a paper with me?" To my surprise and delight she said, "Sure! You write the first draft and I'll write the second."
In the spring of 2014 we submitted it to a Discipline #1 journal; in the summer, we received a cautious revise/resubmit decision. Oh, boy, did I revise. Hours and hours and hours and hours invested in making the changes that the reviewers requested. Almost exactly three years ago, I resubmitted it. In the winter of 2015 it was rejected. When I got the decision email I closed my office door and cried.
Because it's an interdisciplinary paper, it was hard to find a good alternate home for it. Also, I was crushed like a weeping bug who was paralyzed by impostor syndrome. One really sad bug is what I'm saying here. But I kept looking, and sent it off in 2016 to a lower-tier journal that had responded favorably to my initial query.
Rejected again.
In 2017 I got some outside feedback on the Heartbreak Paper. I thought about pitching it as a book chapter. I thought about self-publishing it on my university's online archive. I thought about interdisciplinary journals. But dernit, you guys, I wrote this paper for service providers in Discipline #1, and they won't read it if it's in some backwater interdisciplinary journal that wants to charge them $45 for the privilege. And do you know what? They need to read this paper. I am the most self-critical person you have never met, and yet every time I come back to this paper I think, "Wow, this is an excellent paper. This is the best damn thing I have ever written for an academic audience and it deserves to be published."
So. I reworked it for still another publication. This one has a much lower word limit, so I hacked away great chunks of the paper. "Killing my darlings," said my email to the writing challenge coordinator. "Still killing those darlings," said the next email. Today I extracted the remains of the paper from the bleeding wreckage of dead darlings scattered round about and sent it off into the ether.
And if it gets rejected again, I might have to set something on fire. Wish me luck. Or pass the matches. One of the two.


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Month: December 2016
Chapter 106 is out!
I'm so sry for being not able to update any chapter for this time frame of about 1 and 1/2 months. Finally, my exam is over. So, things should be getting back to normal by next week. There will be another one more chapter coming out this week. Here's chapter 106!


text:
The functions in this section look at or change the text of one or more strings. Optional parameters are enclosed in square brackets ("[" and "]").
index(in, find)
$ awk 'BEGIN { print index("peanut", "an") }' -| 3If find is not found,
index returns zero.
(Remember that string indices in
awk start at one.)
length("abcde") is five. By
length(15 * 35) works out to three. How? Well, 15 * 35 =
525, and 525 is then converted to the string
"525", which has
three characters.
If no argument is supplied,
length returns the length of
In older versions of
awk, you could call the
length function
without any parentheses. Doing so is marked as "deprecated" in the
POSIX standard. This means that while you can do this in your
programs, it is a feature that can eventually be removed from a future
version of the standard. Therefore, for maximal portability of your
awk programs, you should always supply the parentheses.
match(string, regexp)
match function searches the string, string, for the
longest, leftmost substring matched by the regular expression,
regexp. It returns the character position, or index, of
where that substring begins (one, if it starts at the beginning of
string). If no match is found, it returns zero.
match function sets the built-in variable
RSTART to
the index. It also sets the built-in variable
RLENGTH to the
length in characters of the matched substring. If no match is found,
RSTART is set to zero, and
RLENGTH to -1.
For example:
awk '{ if ($1 == "FIND") regex = $2 else { where = match($0, regex) if (where != 0) print "Match of", regex, "found at", \ where, "in", $0 } }'This program looks for lines that match the regular expression stored in the variable
regex. This regular expression can be changed. If the
first word on a line is `FIND',
regex is changed to be the
second word on that line. Therefore, given:
FIND ru+n My program runs but not very quickly FIND Melvin JF+KM This line is property of Reality Engineering Co. Melvin was here.
awk prints:
Match of ru+n found at 12 in My program runs Match of Melvin found at 1 in Melvin was here.
split(string, array [, fieldsep])
array[1], the second piece in
array[2], and so
forth. The string value of the third argument, fieldsep, is
a regexp describing where to split string (much as
FS can
be a regexp describing where to split input records). If
the fieldsep is omitted, the value of
FS is used.
split returns the number of elements created.
split function splits strings into pieces in a
manner similar to the way input lines are split into fields. For example:
split("cul-de-sac", a, "-")splits the string `cul-de-sac' into three fields using `-' as the separator. It sets the contents of the array
a as follows:
a[1] = "cul" a[2] = "de" a[3] = "sac"The value returned by this call to
split is three.
As with input field-splitting, when the value of fieldsep is
" ", leading and trailing whitespace is ignored, and the elements
are separated by runs of whitespace.
Also as with input field-splitting, if fieldsep is the null string, each
individual character in the string is split into its own array element.
(This is a
gawk-specific extension.)
Recent implementations of
awk, including
gawk, allow
the third argument to be a regexp constant (
/abc/), as well as a
string (d.c.). The POSIX standard allows this as well.
Before splitting the string,
split deletes any previously existing
elements in the array array (d.c.).
sprintf(format, expression1,...)
printf would
have printed out with the same arguments
(see section Using
printf Statements for Fancier Printing).
For example:
sprintf("pi = %.2f (approx.)", 22/7)returns the string
"pi = 3.14 (approx.)".
sub(regexp, replacement [, target])
sub function alters the value of target.
It searches this value, which is treated as a string, for the
leftmost longest substring matched by the regular expression, regexp,
extending this match as far as possible. Then the entire string is
changed by replacing the matched text with replacement.
The modified string becomes the new value of target.
This function is peculiar because target is not simply
used to compute a value, and not just any expression will do: it
must be a variable, field or array element, so that
sub can
store a modified value there. If this argument is omitted, then the
default is to use and alter
For example:
str = "water, water, everywhere" sub(/at/, "ith", str)sets
str to
"wither, water, everywhere", by replacing the
leftmost, longest occurrence of `at' with `ith'.
sub function returns the number of substitutions made (either
one or zero).
If the special character `&' appears in replacement, it
stands for the precise substring that was matched by regexp. (If
the regexp can match more than one string, then this precise substring
may vary.) For example:
awk '{ sub(/candidate/, "& and his wife"); print }'changes the first occurrence of `candidate' to `candidate and his wife' on each input line. Here is another example:
awk 'BEGIN { str = "daabaaa" sub(/a*/, "c&c", str) print str }' -| dcaacbaaaThis shows how `&' can represent a non-constant string, and also illustrates the "leftmost, longest" rule in regexp matching (see section How Much Text Matches?). The effect of this special character (`&') can be turned off by putting a backslash before it in the string. As usual, to insert one backslash in the string, you must write two backslashes. Therefore, write `\\&' in a string constant to include a literal `&' in the replacement. For example, here is how to replace the first `|' on each line with an `&':
awk '{ sub(/\|/, "\\&"); print }'Note: As mentioned above, the third argument to
sub must
be a variable, field or array reference.
Some versions of
awk allow the third argument to
be an expression which is not an lvalue. In such a case,
would still search for the pattern and return zero or one, but the result of
the substitution (if any) would be thrown away because there is no place
to put it. Such versions of
awk accept expressions like
sub(/USA/, "United States", "the USA and Canada")For historical compatibility,
gawk will accept erroneous code,
such as in the above example. However, using any other non-changeable
object as the third parameter will cause a fatal error, and your program
will not run.
gsub(regexp, replacement [, target])
sub function, except
gsub replaces
all of the longest, leftmost, non-overlapping matching
substrings it can find. The `g' in
gsub stands for
"global," which means replace everywhere. For example:
awk '{ gsub(/Britain/, "United Kingdom"); print }'replaces all occurrences of the string `Britain' with `United Kingdom' for all input records. The
gsub function returns the number of substitutions made. If
the variable to be searched and altered, target, is
omitted, then the entire input record,
$0, is used.
As in
sub, the characters `&' and `\' are special,
and the third argument must be an lvalue.
gensub(regexp, replacement, how [, target])
gensub is a general substitution function. Like
sub and
gsub, it searches the target string target for matches of
the regular expression regexp. Unlike
sub and
gsub, the modified string is returned as the result of the
function, and the original target string is not changed. If
how is a string beginning with `g' or `G', then it
replaces all matches of regexp with replacement.
Otherwise, how is a number indicating which match of regexp
to replace. If no target is supplied,
$0 is used instead.
gensub provides an additional feature that is not available
sub or
gsub: the ability to specify components of
a regexp in the replacement text. This is done by using parentheses
in the regexp to mark the components, and then specifying `\n'
in the replacement text, where n is a digit from one to nine.
For example:
$ gawk ' > BEGIN { > a = "abc def" > b = gensub(/(.+) (.+)/, "\\2 \\1", "g", a) > print b > }' -| def abcAs described above for
sub, you must type two backslashes in order
to get one into the string.
In the replacement text, the sequence `\0' represents the entire
matched text, as does the character `&'.
This example shows how you can use the third argument to control
which match of the regexp should be changed.
$ echo a b c a b c | > gawk '{ print gensub(/a/, "AA", 2) }' -| a b c AA b cIn this case,
$0 is used as the default target string.
gensub returns the new string as its result, which is
passed directly to
print for printing.
If the how argument is a string that does not begin with `g' or
`G', or if it is a number that is less than zero, only one
substitution is performed.
gensub is a
gawk extension; it is not available
in compatibility mode (see section Command Line Options).
substr(string, start [, length])
substr("washington", 5, 3) returns
If length is not present, this function returns the whole suffix of
string that begins at character number start. For example,
substr("washington", 5) returns
"ington". The whole
suffix is also returned
if length is greater than the number of characters remaining
in the string, counting from character number start.
Note: The string returned by
substr cannot be
assigned to. Thus, it is a mistake to attempt to change a portion of
a string, like this:
string = "abcdef" # try to get "abCDEf", won't work substr(string, 3, 3) = "CDE"or to use
substr as the third agument of
sub or
gsub(/xyz/, "pdq", substr($0, 5, 20)) # WRONG
tolower("MiXeD cAsE 123") returns
"mixed case 123".
toupper("MiXeD cAsE 123") returns
gsub and
When using
gsub or
gensub, and trying to get literal
backslashes and ampersands into the replacement text, you need to remember
that there are several levels of escape processing going on.
First, there is the lexical level, which is when
awk reads
your program, and builds an internal copy of your program that can
be executed.
Then there is the run-time level, when
awk actually scans the
replacement string to determine what to generate.
At both levels,
awk looks for a defined set of characters that
can come after a backslash. At the lexical level, it looks for the
escape sequences listed in section Escape Sequences.
Thus, for every `\' that
awk will process at the run-time
level, you type two `\'s at the lexical level.
When a character that is not valid for an escape sequence follows the
`\', Unix
awk and
gawk both simply remove the initial
`\', and put the following character into the string. Thus, for
"a\qb" is treated as
At the run-time level, the various functions handle sequences of `\' and `&' differently. The situation is (sadly) somewhat complex.
Historically, the
sub and
gsub functions treated the two
character sequence `\&' specially; this sequence was replaced in
the generated text with a single `&'. Any other `\' within
the replacement string that did not precede an `&' was passed
through unchanged. To illustrate with a table:
This table shows both the lexical level processing, where
an odd number of backslashes becomes an even number at the run time level,
and the run-time processing done by
(For the sake of simplicity, the rest of the tables below only show the
case of even numbers of `\'s entered at the lexical level.)
The problem with the historical approach is that there is no way to get a literal `\' followed by the matched text.
The 1992 POSIX standard attempted to fix this problem. The standard
says that
sub and
gsub look for either a `\' or an `&'
after the `\'. If either one follows a `\', that character is
output literally. The interpretation of `\' and `&' then becomes
like this:
This would appear to solve the problem. Unfortunately, the phrasing of the standard is unusual. It says, in effect, that `\' turns off the special meaning of any following character, but that for anything other than `\' and `&', such special meaning is undefined. This wording leads to two problems.
awk programs.
awk program is portable, every character
in the replacement string must be preceded with a
The POSIX standard is under revision.(12) Because of the above problems, proposed text for the revised standard reverts to rules that correspond more closely to the original existing practice. The proposed rules have special cases that make it possible to produce a `\' preceding the matched text.
In a nutshell, at the run-time level, there are now three special sequences of characters, `\\\&', `\\&' and `\&', whereas historically, there was only one. However, as in the historical case, any `\' that is not part of one of these three sequences is not special, and appears in the output literally.
gawk 3.0 follows these proposed POSIX rules for
sub and
Whether these proposed rules will actually become codified into the
standard is unknown at this point. Subsequent
gawk releases will
track the standard and implement whatever the final version specifies;
this book will be updated as well.
The rules for
gensub are considerably simpler. At the run-time
level, whenever
gawk sees a `\', if the following character
is a digit, then the text that matched the corresponding parenthesized
subexpression is placed in the generated output. Otherwise,
no matter what the character after the `\' is, that character will
appear in the generated text, and the `\' will not.
Because of the complexity of the lexical and run-time level processing,
and the special cases for
sub and
we recommend the use of
gawk and
gensub for when you have
to do substitutions.
Go to the first, previous, next, last section, table of contents.


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OPTIMA Invitational
Posted: Nov 15, 2016
2016 OPTIMA Ultimate Street Car Invitational Photo Gallery 2
The 2016 OPTIMA Ultimate Street Car Invitational, presented by K&N Filters, took place on the weekend of November 5th & 6th, 2016 at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. The event was the ninth edition and featured some of the very best all-around street cars and trucks in the world. If you'd like to watch OPTIMA's Search for the Ultimate Street Car, presented by Advance Auto Parts, add the OPTIMA Network to your Roku lineup for free and watch past episodes on-demand, as many times and anytime you'd like.
See more images of the cars and trucks that competed in this amazing event in the gallery below and in these other galleries:
Gallery 1
Gallery 3


text:
Women's Trousers
The best DENHAM trousers for womenDenim lies at the heart of our business, but we know that women may need a smart or casual alternative to jeans.
Our offering of trousers and leggings are the perfect substitute for jeans and are ideal for wearing to work or after-hours.
Mix and match these bottoms with any of tops to create a complete look.
Shirts | Jackets | Knits | Sweats


text:
|The Joy of Tears
|Genesis 37:1-36
|From the ( Summer 2013) series.
|Message by Eugene Phillips, Jr. on July 28, 2013 (Sunday Morning).
|How Can I Trust Christianity When So Many Christians Are Hypocrites?
|1 John 1:5-2:2
|From the ( The Questions Christians Hope No One Will Ask!) series.
|Message by Dr. Ken Cuffey on July 22, 2012 (Sunday Morning).
|To Judge or Not To Judge? Part 3
|Luke 23:34-39
|From the ( To Judge or Not To Judge?) series.
|Message by Rick Wagner on June 17, 2012 (Sunday Morning).
|Will you forgive me?
|Matthew 6:12
|From the ( No Series) series.
|Message by Bill White on December 26, 2010 (Sunday Morning).
|Lie #3: Some Things Just Can't Be Forgiven
|Romans 12:9-20
|From the ( The Lies of Satan) series.
|Message by Rick Wagner on October 18, 2009 (Sunday Morning).
Evangelical Free Church of Bloomington
2910 East Lincoln St., Bloomington, IL 61704   (309) 663-6534
© 2020 E-Free Bloomington
Traditional Worship: 8:00am
Contemporary Worship: 9:30am and 11:00am


text:
FaceTime Mod, improves the quality of video through FaceTime, is available for free in Cydia. FaceTime Mod is a really amazing tweak that can increase the FPS (Frames Per Seconds) the number of images per second, giving more clarity to the video call with higher quality. In addition to improving the quality via WiFi network, we can also reduce the number of frames per second when video calls on 3G network. This can be very useful, especially with our networks are not fast or to save MB of traffic.
FaceTime Mod manages to determine your rate, and automatically adapts the quality and number of frames per second. In addition speaking is more clearly. The default FaceTime from Apple warrants 15 FPS, after install FaceTime mod it will be able to get 30 FPS.
All this work will be automatic because the Tweak analyze the speed of your connection and if it proves good, it will provide service to the highest possible frame. Obviously the best results are achieved when you are connected with a WiFi network.
Original FPS:
- Minimum 15 , Maximum 15
Modified FPS:
- Minimum 6 , Maximum 30
Note : Face Time Mod is available only on repo.modyouri.com
Via http://www.ihackintosh.com/2010/08/facetime-mod-improves-video-by-increasing-fps/


text:
Get ready for another great photography experience!
Ray Mabry here and I'm excited to announce that I will be leading the Santa Rosa group for the Scott Kelby's 5th Annual Worldwide Photo Walk for the 4th year in a row. If you haven't done this before, here are some fun facts…
Photographers all over the world gather for this event. At last count there are over 1137 Photo walks and over to 21,000 walkers.
Want to enter the Worldwide Photo walk photo contest? You must register below – limited space so sign up now!
Click here to sign up to for the photo contest.
You don't have to sign up if you just want to come out and join us! You can register for the meet up here instead.
If you do compete in the World Wide Photo Walk contest, you will be able to upload your favorite photo for our local competition that I will be judging. The winner will receive a copy of Scott Kelby's new book and the winning photo is also submitted for the World Wide photo competition.
Here is a quick overview of the planned walking route and some suggestions and points of interest for you to keep in mind when on the walk. See the last page go see the map of the walk.
Let's get started!
We will gather at Historic Railroad Square in front of the California Welcome Center at 4:30pm introduce ourselves and take a quick group photo and then get on our way at 5:00pm. Sunset is at 6:30pm and dusk begins at 7:00pm.
After the group photo it is all up to you to either follow some of my suggestion or take it as you go, it is totally up to you – we are here to have fun.
The new route I've chosen this year is diverse in Historic, Artistic, Architectural, Social, and HDR opportunities.
Our walk will take us through Old Town and Down Town Santa Rosa.
1. Historic Railroad Square has a great deal to offer a photographer. There is the historic value as well as textures, color, people and sculptures.
2. 4th street of Old Town lends a plethora of opportunities for shots of store fronts, marquees, people, Architecture, and textures to name but a few.
3. Along Davis Street are additional opportunities to get marquees, Architecture, and textures.
4. A right on 6th street will take us through the new underpass of the freeway.
5. Along the entire path you will find art from ArtStart featuring Benches, Mosaics, signs, and Murals. Artstart (http://artstart.us ) is an award winning privately incorporated 501(c)3 non-profit educational arts organization serving all of Sonoma County.
6. Just past the underpass is the Santa Rosa Mall parking lot where you can find a variety of contrasted red brick and green ivy that is suitable for HDR.
Note: Santa Rosa Mall security has asked us to not take photos of the Mall building due to security issues.
7. On 7th Street you will find the Sonoma County Museum. Here you might be overwhelmed by all the opportunities available to you.
8. A right turn on to B Street will take us past the Brick yard and in front of the Mall.
9. A Left on to 4th Street.
10. A right on to E Street will take you past the Public Library.
11. A right onto 2nd Street will… and take you straight to Comstock Mall giving you plenty of fun things to photograph. Play with the water in the fountains or capture more of the ArtStart works and well as some fantastic Architecture.
12. Once through the Comstock Mall you will take a right toward the Old Courthouse Square. Here you will find more things to photograph than you may have time to capture. Old courthouse square is a great place to photograph people, water fountains, trees, building, and architecture.
13. Once you are done playing in the Old Courthouse Square head down 4th street toward the Mall. Make a left on B Street and then a right onto 3rd Street and go under the mall and under the Freeway overpass.
14. The Freeway underpass is another wonderful place to get texture and creative angles of the curvilinear arches of the support structure.
15. Continuing on 3rd street until Wilson Street and take a right and head back to the Visitor Center where we will meet and hang out at Chevy's and share stories of the day.
16. For those that get back early there is a lot to photograph of the area of 15 Third Street.
Looking forward to another exciting event – Ray


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It has taken a leading role in Dali Mid-autumn festival tourism, and the key point is on custom and cultural brand with personality.
The Mid-autumn Festival which occurs on the 15th day of the 8th lunar month (around mid-September is an occasion for viewing the full moon according to Chinese tradition). But nowadays in addition to viewing the full moon and family reunion, more and more Chinese prefer to visiting the places which has fascinating for scenery and interesting local cultures. At present Erhai Lake which is in Dali, Yunnan province in the south of China, is one of the Chinese most exciting attractions for viewing the full moon.
A press conference about enjoying the full moon in Erhai Lake on Mid-autumn festival in 2015 was hold at 14:00 on September 6th in 2015 by "Cang Hai Yi Shu" (which means a villa in Dali, in China). This is the first time that the first-class domestic scenic sports convers a news conference for Mid-autumn Festival's individual, distinctive and deep tourism. It also implies that Dali Mid-autumn Festival's distinctive scenic spots promotional activities were spread widely and deeply. Dali is also the first city in China which promotes its individual and differentiated festival marketing strategy by press conferences. And we will try our best to develop our local cultures during this Mid-autumn Festival and national day.
Dali is a small tourist city in China, it is one of the favourite tourist destinations for tourists all over the world, too. Visiting Dali city on Chinese traditional Mid-autumn Festival must be a great choice.
This time we will have the night tour by cruise ship in Erhai Lake on Mid-autumn Festival. It is also the first time that we combine the cruises tourism and local cultures together in tourism in Dali city. On that day we will provide local original ecology art performances and typical Yunnan cuisine. The local people will also engage in the festival activities with great enthusiasm. Come and feel the unique Chinese Minority ethnic customs in Dali city. It's worth seeing.
1. Boarding time?18:00-20:00 September 27. Disembark 22:30, the tour bus will leave the wharf for Dali ancient town, Cai village wharf and Shuanglang ancient town.
2. Temperature in Dali is between 16-23 degrees during the National Day and Mid-Autumn festival, please be sure to keep warm.
Media Contact
Company Name: Mtbinn.com
Contact Person: Jacke
Email: email@example.com
Phone: (86) 0872-2380211
City: Dali
State: Yunnan
Country: China
Website: www.mtbinn.com


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For more information email workshopsix (at) gmail
Here is a note from Octavia:
Hi everyone,
Please find attached a poster for the jewellery raffle that Workshop 6 is kindly holding for me to help me get to Munich next year for the international jewellery fair 'Schmuck'. I've had four pieces of work selected to be shown there and would love to attend this auspicious event!
There are nine prize draws of jewellery by myself and the generous ladies of Workshop 6; Jane Dodd, Cheryl Sills, Mia Straka, Anna Wallis and Jasmine Watson. Also kindly donated is a beautiful jewel by Renee Bevan.
First prize is my brooch featured on the poster: 'Her Majesty c.1948', edition 2/5 and the second prize is the cameo brooch or ring of your choice from my 'classic' collection. I will provide photos of the other prize jewels next week to tempt you….
I would be most grateful for any support or if you know of anyone else who might be interested, please pass it on. The prizes will be drawn on January 28th 2012.
If you would like to purchase a ticket from the comfort of your home I can provide bank account details and email you a scan of your ticket.
all the best and have a great Christmas,


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Robust Right 1) Paterson lays out his recipe for defeating UKIP
'Mr Paterson sighs as he reflects on how his fellow Conservatives have tried to tackle the Ukip terrier snapping at David Cameron's ankle. "The insults must stop. Most Ukip voters want robust and Conservative policies. Lower taxes. Cheaper energy. Honesty about immigration. Fairness for England. We give them Conservative policies and we win them back." The Conservatives aren't giving them Conservative policies at the moment? "Not enough of them."' – The Times (£)
- He will urge Cameron to apply to leave the EU today – Daily Telegraph
- We must remain an open, trading nation – The Times Leader (£)
- 'Bonkers' Brussels rules will raise price of marigolds – Daily Mail
- Tension between Farage and his MPs – Peter McKay, Daily Mail
- The radical left is right about the Eurozone – Wolfgang Munchau, FT
>Today: ToryDiary: Owen Paterson's robust pitch to those who've given up on the Conservatives
>Yesterday: Ali Miraj on Comment: What's driving voters to UKIP? Muddy policy and an absence of authenticity
Robust Right 2) Number 10 mulls restrictions on in-work benefits for EU migrants
'Polish workers would lose out financially by moving to Britain for low-paid jobs if David Cameron adopts bold immigration reforms being considered by Number 10, a new study has found. Banning migrants from claiming in-work benefits would mean Poles on the average wage would be more than £50 worse off a week if they took up low-payed jobs in the UK, according to a report from Open Europe.' – Daily Telegraph
- Give Brits a chance – Mats Persson, Daily Telegraph
- Gibb: migrants raise school standards – Daily Mail
- Families with work fall below the poverty line – Daily Mail
- The young are the new poor – The Independent
- Half a million sanctioned for failing jobseeker standards – The Sun (£)
- MPs call for tax cut on children's flights – Daily Mail
- Take back control of our borders – The Sun Says (£)
- Fundamental change is the only way – Daily Mail Leader
- Better pay and conditions would defeat UKIP – The Guardian Leader
Robust Right 3) Ridley: Gain influence by leaving the EU
'In today's speech on the European Union, previewed in this morning's Times, Owen Paterson, the former environment secretary, will make a surprising and telling point. It is that many of the rules handed down to British businesses and consumers by Brussels have often (and increasingly) been in turn handed down to it by higher powers. This means, he argues, that we would have more influence outside the EU than within it. We could rejoin some top tables.' – Matt Ridley, The Times (£)
May 1) Coalition 'unlikely' to hit net migration target
'The target of reducing net migration to below 100,000 a year has been abandoned by the Government after Theresa May admitted that it has been "blown off course" and was now "unlikely". In an interview with The Telegraph, the Home Secretary appeared to confirm that the Government has now abandoned a "no ifs, no buts" pledge made by David Cameron to reduce net migration to the "tens of thousands" by next year.' – Daily Telegraph
May 2) Home Secretary's new push for online security measures
'Her comments came as she prepared to unveil the Government's Counter-Terrorism and Security Bill, which will contain a series of measures designed to prevent British-born jihadists who have travelled to Iraq and Syria returning to the UK. In the interview, Mrs May also Called on internet companies and social media sites to recognise their "responsibilities" and prevent extremist videos and propaganda being distributed online.' – Daily Telegraph
- Plan to outlaw ransom payments – The Guardian
- Anti-terror police appeal to farmers to secure fertiliser – Yorkshire Post
- Don't give the Lib Dems a veto on our safety – Daily Telegraph Leader
- ISIS-inspired attack on UK 'inevitable' – Daily Mail
- British veterans volunteer to fight with Kurdish Peshmerga – The Times (£)
May 3) Child abuse cases are 'only the tip of the iceberg'
'Mrs May told BBC1's Andrew Marr Show it was "not possible" to say whether there had been a cover-up in the abuse and murder of young boys. She said: "How was it that in the past, but continuing today, the very institutions of the state that should be protecting children were not doing so? We must as a society, I believe, get to the truth of that and because I think what we've already seen revealed is only the tip of the iceberg on this issue."' – The Times (£)
- Even more urgency to investigate – Daily Mail Leader
- New domestic abuse crackdown – Daily Mail
Ashcroft: After Rochester and Strood, all bets are off for 2015
'The fact that the Conservatives are losing voters to Ukip while struggling to attract those who voted for other parties in 2010 suggests they have still not successfully shown what a Conservative government is for. This needs to be done on a broad front in a way that encompasses the economy and public services. For a wavering voter to plump for the Tories next May, they do not have to feel they are already benefiting from an economic recovery and tough decisions on public finances – but they do need to have an idea of what those benefits will be and how they will share in them.' – Lord Ashcroft, The Guardian
- Miliband is Rochester's biggest loser – Trevor Kavanagh, The Sun (£)
- Triangulation is dead – and UKIP should worry – Matthew Elliott, CityAM
- Green ambitions grow – The Independent
- A left wing insurgency, please – The Independent Leader
- Charlotte Leslie MP's column: And the real Heir to Blair is…Nigel Farage
- The Deep End: Will UKIP actually change anything?
Field: Miliband is cut off from voters by a Berlin Wall of millionaires
'Ed Miliband's clique of millionaire advisors are acting like a 'Berlin Wall' stopping Labour connecting with ordinary voters, backbench MPs have warned. The Labour leader is facing mounting criticism over his sacking of shadow minister Emily Thornberry over her 'snobby' tweet of a family home draped in England flags last week. Former welfare minister Frank Field said the incident was 'the most serious thing that has happened' to Labour – 'because it gives vent to what everybody's guts are telling them about us'.' – Daily Mail
- MPs divided over Thornberry sacking – Daily Mail
- Ed deserves a Darwin Award – Boris Johnson, Daily Telegraph
- How hard is it to respect voters? – Janet Daley, Daily Telegraph
- Miliband's patriotism rings hollow – Dominic Lawson, Daily Mail
- Prolier than thou – Rachel Johnson, Daily Mail
>Yesterday: Adam Lent on Comment: Conservatives should embrace the goal of greater economic equality – as Thatcher did
Labour frontbenchers fight publicly over vote 'manipulating'
'A Labour shadow minister yesterday accused Tom Watson of rigging the party's leadership elections. In a furious Twitter row, Shadow Northern Ireland Secretary Ivan Lewis suggested the former Labour campaign chief had been responsible for 'manipulating' votes. The spat resurrected tensions between Blairites and Brownites in the riven party.' – Daily Mail
Gordon Brown to stand down in 2015
'Former prime minister Gordon Brown is expected to announce his decision to step down as an MP at his annual Christmas party next week, according to a senior Labour insider. The Kirkcaldy and Cowdenbeath MP is set to confirm that he will not contest his seat at the general election in May.' – The Scotsman
- He failed us all – Dan Hodges, Daily Telegraph
- Jim Murphy backs devolution of income tax – The Scotsman
- Darling warns it would end in tears – FT
Fears for patients as NHS strike begins
'Concern for hospital patients increased on Sunday night as NHS staff prepared to strike amid evidence of mounting waits at A&E units. Health workers including nurses, midwives, domestic staff and radiographers were due to walk out for four hours from 7am today in the ongoing row over pay. The strike will not affect emergency treatment but will add to the backlog of patients waiting for operations.' – Daily Telegraph
- Guardian writer attacks Cameron for 'misty-eyed rhetoric' about his son Ivan – Daily Mail
Fabricant's campaign on blood donations
'Fabricant had cause to be annoyed by Bercow's attempt to exclude him from the reception for Pink News. The gay rights website wanted to thank Fabricant for calling for curbs on gay blood donors to be scrapped. The MP puts it as only he can: 'If you are a straight guy screwing three girls a night and never use a condom, you can give blood. But if you are a gay bloke in a monogamous relationship having safe sex, unless you sign an affidavit that you have been celibate for 12 months, you can't.'' – Daily Mail
There's space for a million houses on brownfield sites
'The number of new homes which could be built on brownfield land is being grossly underestimated by the government, which is allowing developers to target open countryside instead, according to the Campaign to Protect Rural England. There is enough brownfield, or previously developed, land in England for at least a million homes, a report by the charity says.' – The Times (£)
Children bear heavy cost of divorce
'Divorce has a devastating impact on the children of divided couples, leading to poor examination results and driving them to abuse alcohol or drugs, according to a survey being made public today. Almost two thirds of children whose parents divorced said that the break-up affected their GCSEs. One in eight said that they had turned to drugs or alcohol to ease the stress.' – The Times (£)
News in brief
- Lewis Hamilton wins World Championship – Daily Mail
- Fortnum and Mason expands – FT
- The Home Secretary's visit to a desert island – Melanie Phillips, The Times (£)
- HS2 'slowly dying' – Daily Telegraph
- University dropout becomes world Scrabble champion – Daily Mail
- Train fire at Charing Cross – Daily Telegraph
- 'Mad' Frankie Fraser is dying – The Sun (£)
- Deadlock in Iran nuclear talks – FT
- Tesco donates to new war memorial – The Sun (£)
- Australian baby found in drain – The Guardian


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Our jobs as real estate agents is to try and keep the situation under control and emotions out of the negotiations so that the parties can work towards a harmonious conclusion. Usually that is a sound strategy and works great. Well, it works great as long as both buyer and seller are interested in a "fair market" value outcome for both sides.
The strategy doesn't work so well however if one side or the other is either a "winner takes all" personality or if the buyer's agent has allowed the buyers to look at properties priced above their approved range in the misguided belief that sellers are still willing to consider offers 30-40% below list price. Those buyers and their agents are in for a long and disappointing ride.
At least that's the case here in Western North Carolina. Unless a property is brutally blemished, it has been a few years since we've seen evidence of properties going for sale at such bargain basement prices. More and more often, properties are getting full price or close to that if the sellers' agent guided them right in the beginning. It has also been quite some time since the norm in pricing was unrealistically high. (although a few of those do make it onto the market)
It is all about setting reasonable expectations in the beginning with both buyers and sellers. We as agents have this law that we must work under stating that we must present all offers. Okay, we can do that. If your buyer insists on offering 30-40% below the list price and adding to that a laundry list of concessions on the sellers' part, I sure hope you've prepared them for what could be my sellers' response. My seller wants to sell this house and I want that for them. Believe it or not, I'm even going to work really hard to keep the seller from ending the negotiations right then and there since we all know that often that first volley from the buyer is testing the water.
It's all about the tone of that first response from the seller. If they respond with full price and no concessions, yep...you've made them mad...move on. If they respond with a rejection and a suggestion that you try again, you have a chance to still negotiate a reasonable deal. If you are lucky enough that the seller responds with a slight price reduction and an acceptance of a portion of the requested concessions...this could be the start of getting into a new home. The buyer's next counter-offer will really set the stage for the possibility of reaching a mutually acceptable compromise. If the buyer insists on staying in the farthest regions of imagination, this isn't going to be the house for them most likely.
Usually when this scenario happens, it turns out to be the buyers aren't financially qualified for a house in that particular price range. The sad thing is that if their buyer's agent has encouraged looking in the out of reach price range, nothing in the buyers' own price range will be appealing to them. Not only is this a sad, sad story all the way around but a tremendous waste of time for everyone concerned.
This behavior typically harms the buyer more than the seller. More often than not, the buyer HAS to find a home...the seller already has a home. Looking for and buying a home is a lot of work...hard work. I'll never understand why some buyers want to make it harder on themselves.
From the agent's point of view though, all I can say is "What are you thinking?". Until there is a closing, all agents can expect is to spend money and time on a transaction. Encouraging your buyer to look way above their means is a rookie mistake and we've all done it. I haven't done it though since my first year in real estate when I realized everyone loses!
But hey, that was then and this is now. I'm throwing off the frustration from last week, my seller is already over it and we're both ready to tackle the world with renewed vigor. This is the song to get us moving, "Gimme Shelter" by the Rolling Stones. Bless their hearts, even when they were young they already looked like seasoned firewood. LOL.
Have a great week!


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Archive for May, 2012
What Time Is It, Burger?
We give Burger a Dentastix treat every night at the recommendation of our vet (as a way to keep up the work done at his teeth cleaning last fall). Plus, Burger likes them. Pardon me. What I meant to say was: Burger is CRAZY for them. As soon as the sun starts to set each day he knows Dentastix deliciousness is nearing and takes up his post right next to the desk where we keep them. Here's the scene that often follows (which isn't even a great example of the wildness that often ensues – but the end just made me crack up).
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"Poop In Stroller"
These are the types of reminder emails that I send myself from my iPhone when, before falling asleep at night, I realize Burger's doggy bag from our walk earlier that day is still sitting in the bottom of the stroller in the sunroom. Ain't technology grand?
I'm too tired to get out of bed and get it (plus the alarm's on, yada yada) so my email will remind me to get it in the morning. No harm, no foul. Well, it is foul, but thankfully the doggie bag keeps it contained.


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Category Archives: Philosophy
Lao Tzu says
But you knew that, right?
This is More Water
There was a rider attached to yesterday's post, which I did not write.
It is this. Ending one's life for incessant mental pain would perhaps seem to be no more or less valid than ending it because some other physical disease has eroded quality of life to the point where the future trajectory is adjudged to be only downwards.
I do believe however that there are two differences: the possibility of renewed hope, or its medically verified absence; and the openness, or otherwise, of the method.
I watched my grandmother die, and, although I question the events leading up to her death, it was as they say, a process. It was not brought on violently, or suddenly, by accident or on purpose. It did not traumatise any relatives or friends any more than it rightfully should have. We were left with a few questions surrounding the medical circumstances that eventually led to her slipping away quietly, but these were not unanswerable. We were not left with a burden to carry. In March, my grandpa's youngest sister, the last of my paternal grandparent's generation decided that her quality of life had reached its nadir. She took to her bed and refused food, until she died ten days later. Her family mourned, but we also understood and respected her decision.
Perhaps we humans should have the right to die when we can no longer go on, but as adults we have a responsibility to approach it ethically, as a process, in which the feelings and rights of others have a place, and a voice, which in turn may offer reasonably solid ground on which to stand when it is all over.
Whilst thinking about these issues, I read this article about the Swiss clinic Dignitas, which clarified its approach, particularly in regard to those people who are in sustained mental pain and anguish.
The Meaning Making Machine
We all have one.
Sometimes, I just want to flip the lid, take it out of my cranium and rest the damn thing on the window ledge.
There is no meaning. There is meaning. There is no meaning. There is meaning.
Chunter chunter, huffle puffle puff.
Wittgenstein was right.
No Phone, No Blog
When I first started blogging I was more than happy to rob images off the internet to illustrate my point; in fact, that was half the fun. Now, I tend to use my own photos, and, since I dropped the phone after one too many meetings the other week and it went kaput on me, I also seem to have lost the will to blog.
But not quite.
The problem is, with writing, that if you don't keep up your daily practice, you sort of create a mental log jam of thoughts and when you sit down to sift through them there are a number of occupational hazards. The first is, that if you are careless, you will end up writing AN UNCONTROLLABLE RANT, TO THE POWER OF TEN. That danger is only amplified when you find you wake up and are living in the UKIP poster county of Great Britain, you still have an OFSTED inspection, a friend dies too soon, a friend of a friend dies (some might say too late), and the 11 plus results are in town.
So let's not go there.
The second problem is that, if you forbid yourself the luxury of a rant, you will instead find yourself going blank on the idea front. It's almost as if the rant needs to be cleared out first. Like turning on the kitchen tap in an old house and waiting for the earthy brown flow of water to finally run clear. The thing is, if I even have one reader left, I'd hardly like them to have to read the murky effluent, although I am aware opinion can be entertaining and amusing and, if done well thought-provoking. It's just that I'm not in the mood. Which brings me to the crux of the matter.
I suppose, to be truthful, I am depressed.
It's not like I am not familiar with the concept, and accompanying feelings of drag, but, even after all these years (and I suppose it's thirty at the last count) it still manages to creep up on me and settle in to my bones before I finally catch on. These days I have finally cultivated what could be considered a neat trick to manage it. Feel the feelings and do most of what must be done anyway. Don't stoke the feelings with thoughts. Retreat to the Inner Citadel, where everything and all is well.
Just do it.
And I do. When I twig on. Which I have.
Marbles, specifically the Blue One
Sometimes, I really feel am losing mine. Today I wrote an actual letter, with a pen and paper and everything. In my head, I am sitting at a desk with a view out over an unflooded meadow – perhaps it's a summerhouse with a wood-burner in the corner. I guide my fountain pen over that thick creamy paper that costs a fortune and form elegant words that cohere and serve my purpose. In practice, I am sitting in the car, leaning on a student's workbook, using a pen I picked up in the workroom and writing on a scratty piece of supermarket own A4. The pen turns out to be too good for the paper, and bleeds through heavily onto the reverse. This affects my formatting as my rambling text spreads over the page. I end up with my address written in capitals along the very top edge of the paper, my signature drifting out almost into the right hand margin.
I teach letter composition. It is in not my finest hour. Still, I enjoyed the pen.
Then I queued in the Post Office to post my missive. Old habits die hard. When I came upon the snake of people ahead of me, and the third cashier slammed the blind down on her position, I might have wept, fallen to the floor and gnashed my teeth. And then, I remembered that I don't do that sort of thing any more. I am mindful now, and a queue gives me a quiet minute, or ten, to be in the moment, to meditate, and to connect with the interconnectedness of everything – even in Post Offices. A queue offers me the chance to connect with the inner bliss of everything. As I did this, I was reminded of the film – The Overview – about the experience of astronauts spending much time in space earth-gazing; literally gazing back at what is also known as the Blue Marble, our own planet. And as they do this, they experience a profound shift in perspective, that never leaves them. They will be able to explain it better than I can, so I am posting the link to the film here, but I will say that as I thought of the Blue Marble, in the Post Office queue, I was nearly brought to tears at the miracle I was ever born at all, to experience the wondrousness of it all.
For those of you who know me – don't worry – I've counted the marbles and the few I have, remain.
Going retro
I think our generation… by which I mean…
Ah. Now you see – lately, when I come to think, or write something, I can get all tied up in knots because I now insist on categorising the concept in quite tight terms before I move into rant or pondering mode. Teaching has taught me that it is no good whatsoever assuming everybody knows what I am on about, I have to first check understanding, and clarify meaning.
Today, in class, we were talking about Power. I had to clarify that I was talking about power in a personal sense, rather than power in a professional or status sense, although there is that power too. We then moved on, all starting from the same page, hopefully… This evening I realised I had not written A Thing all week. This is a disaster on many levels, but you'll be glad to hear I won't define and categorise the substrates now; after all you may only have landed here by accident, expecting nice retro images or something, rather than a rather abstract meander about the Wittgenstein proposition that:
Actually, I don't believe it, and, in the end, neither did Wittgenstein. There are many more fundamental ways to communicate than through words because, yes, they do limit us, it's just that, just as we get caught up in thoughts, so we get caught up in words – expressing ourselves through language. We forget that there are other ways to express our feelings and intentions – our heart, soul too, if you believe in one.
This post was to talk all about how my generation has had a lot of techno gizmo work fast fast fast stuff to get on top of in our lifetimes, and my peers, like me feel that we may have reached a tipping point in our heads… that point where we say, you know, perhaps I don't have to stay on top of all this now. Perhaps I can't keep on top of it all now. Perhaps… there's more to life than being able to interface with all kinds of technology in ever-efficient ways. Maybe, maybe it would be better for our wellbeing to just let some of it go.
So what if I can't manage my Twitter timeline or feed properly. Heck, I don't even know the difference between the two terms, or if there is one. And, the truth is, I don't think I care. Not that much.
Maybe it really is time to go retro, just a little, at least at weekends, and let the world whizz by, if it wants.
Stoic Week round-up
I've tried doing Stoic week and I can conclude there is way to go before I am a real Stoic. I can do some of it, but my big stumbling block is non-attachment to outcomes, particularly in regard to those outcomes we can't control… As the Alcoholics Anon Serenity prayer says:
I really get attached to outcomes – in fact my whole working life is about them – and it's not always knowing the difference between those that I can control, and those that I can't that regularly struggle with.
You see, what if, I, on my own can't control an outcome… but if I find enough like-minded individuals and get together with them – perhaps we can. I realise I now sound like Barack Obama's first presidential election campaign, and maybe that's my trouble. I can't quite see my limitations… well not at least until I've run into them. Head first usually. And when that happens and I am rubbing my head, then I usually repeat my other maxims for life (to myself).
First this:
Then this:
And then, finally…
This one
And then, I lie down, light a cigar and have a glass of wine. So maybe, just maybe, I too am a little Stoic round the edges. Or maybe it's just that I'm a plain stubborn, hardhead. Who knows.
(I've been so busy trying to be Stoic this week, that I am quite behind on things I need to write about. First there is the Isa Muazu case and immigration to the UK in general. In true Stoic style I am waiting until my emotions settle before I embark on that post, and I am hoping the Home Secretary will be called to answer questions about his failed and inhumane deportation tomorrow in the House of Commons which may enlighten my own writing process – although I doubt it. Then there are the two films I saw this week which mixed profundity and pain with kitsch moments and conversation that don't say the half of it – and ain't that just about the size of real life? And finally, there was a beautiful moment of connection I witnessed this afternoon that I am determined shall not be lost to the busyness of existence and would like to reflect on here.)
Oh, and there is a new blog to be revealed as this one is now bulging at the seams.
Keep up at the back.


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Colour Palette Challenge – week 7 – coffee
Being as I am working on my mokume gane technique at the moment I used this weeks colours from the Color Palette a Week Flickr group to play about with it some more. You may I have seen the sheets I made, here's some of the jewellery I have made. Got some beads too but I haven't polished or strung them yet.
|Textured domed disc with a centre from the stamped mokume gane sheet
|Domed disc pendant made with the shavings from the stamped mokume gane, it has such a different feel to it
|Pendent made up of 2 oval pieces, one plain colour the other mokume gane.
I am half way through a series of blue, turquoise and green mokume gane pendants. Can't wait to show you but I will have to as it is the kids school holidays and we are busy, busy, busy! Hope you all have a good week.