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SZ 493 Pill - brown oval
Pill with imprint SZ 493 is Brown, Oval and has been identified as Divalproex Sodium Delayed Release 250 mg. It is supplied by Sandoz Pharmaceuticals Inc.
Divalproex sodium is used in the treatment of bipolar disorder; mania; epilepsy; migraine prevention and belongs to the drug class fatty acid derivative anticonvulsants. When treating epilepsy and manic episodes associated with bipolar disorder: There is positive evidence of human fetal risk during pregnancy. When treating migraine: Not for use in pregnancy. Divalproex sodium 250 mg is not a controlled substance under the Controlled Substances Act (CSA).
Images for SZ 493
Divalproex Sodium Delayed Release
- Imprint
- Strength
- 250 mg
- Color
- Brown
- Shape
- Oval
- Availability
- Prescription only
- Drug Class
- Fatty acid derivative anticonvulsants
- Pregnancy Category
- D - Positive evidence of risk - When treating epilepsy and manic episodes associated with bipolar disorder, X - Not for use in pregnancy - When treating migraine
- CSA Schedule
- Not a controlled drug
- Labeler / Supplier
- Sandoz Pharmaceuticals Inc.
- National Drug Code (NDC)
- 00781-1218 (Discontinued)
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True Cost is a blog on American policy, economics, and social issues, as examined through the concept of "true cost". By analyzing the true cost-benefit of any action, we can improve decision-making in our society, and reach better outcomes. Too often it seems that policy decisions are influenced by special interest groups who are able to influence policy to their benefit, while society as a whole loses. This blog can't change that, but I hope to provide rational and reasoned commentary on a range of issues including health care, energy, federal spending, and the environment. I hope that this blog raises the level of discourse on these issues, and provides hard factual evidence for its specific policy recommendations.
True Cost is written by Praveen Ghanta. I grew up in Louisiana (which explains the occasional La.-related post), studied economics and computer science at MIT in Boston, worked in New York for a while, and now call Atlanta home. Along the way I've been both an independent consultant and employee at major companies, and have started a few companies as well. My latest is HiddenLevers.com, which provides macro risk analysis for investors, helping to answer questions like, "What happens to my portfolio if oil spikes back to $150, if health care reform passes, or if China is in a bubble and pops?"
I can be contacted at praveen [at] alum dot mit dot edu. Feel free to quote or mention any articles in my blog – I ask only that you attribute this blog as the source.
Linkbacks to places True Cost is listed:

subset: commoncrawl


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I hate to admit it, but even though I have 24-7 high speed (fiber optic, no less) Internet access at home now, I still leech off my connection at work when I want to download music off Jamendo.
I have a very good reason: My router (I'll call it a router, although I'm learning that it's more than that) needs port forwarding set (supposedly) in order to download via torrent client.
Ordinarily port forwarding is something I would do in my sleep, but … the darn thing has a setup page written almost completely in kanji. And while I'm learning, and I have a guide … sort of … I'm not exactly sure I'm pressing the right button at the right time, and so I'm a little leery about changing things. It's too close to random, and I don't want to knock myself offline completely.
Because then I would have to ask a friend to call NTT West and arrange for a service call, and then feel silly while they push buttons for me and restore service. And then I'd still want to set the port forwarding again, and so forth, and so on. It's a vicious circle.
So for now, it's easier to run uTorrent on the WinXP machine at work (the 2Ghz machine that takes 10 minutes to start up … barf) and ferry the end products home via USB key. Since it's all legit and I can do real work while I download, I'm satisfied for now.
Until I get daring — or inebriated — and decide I can figure it out, and start pressing buttons at random. 😐


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Publication date: October 26th 2015
Genres: New Adult, Romance
Some secrets should never be kept…
Growing up in the servants' quarters at Haven Hill, Claire Brown was a poor outcast, living in a world of money and privilege. Her only solace was best friend, Alice Sinclair, and secret desire, Jackson Montgomery. Rich and connected, they were perfect in every way and perfect for each other.
Still, Claire was foolish enough to fall in love with Jackson, and desperate enough to hide it. When Alice found out, there was a terrible accident that left her in a coma. Jackson disappeared, leaving New Haven without even saying good-bye.
Ten years later, Claire has managed to build a life without them. So when Jackson calls out of nowhere to say Alice is awake, Claire's first thought is Thank God. Her second? I'm screwed. Lusting after Jackson destroyed her. It's nothing compared to what she's hiding now.
But nothing stays hidden forever.
Reawakened Secrets is part one of Jackson and Claire's story.
Part 2, Reawakened Sins and Part 3, Reawakened Seduction will be released early next year. To be the first to get information on deals, teasers, excerpts, bonus scenes and release dates, connect with the author on Facebook, Twitter, or Goodreads.
About the Author:
I am a married mother of three and publishing my first novel is a dream come true. As the nerd that went to bed with a flash light to read the books I swiped from my mom's room, I have always been an avid book lover. My favorites are hot, alpha male heroes (think Kristen Ashley), suspenseful, romantic thrillers (think Sandra Brown) and poignant, sweet love stories (think Abbi Glines or Colleen Hoover). My plan was always to be a writer of some sort, but somehow real life responsibilities got in the way. Now, I am an accountant with a night time writing obsession.One Saturday afternoon, I took my girls to see the latest teenage movie. Four days later, I had read all four Twilight books. I was inspired by the innocent romance and 'Edward Cullen' (don't judge). Once I found my way to Fifty Shades of Grey, I was a complete goner. All my spare time was spent reading, writing or blogging. After version one million, five hundred and fifty five of my series Reawakened , I'm finally ready to share it and hope that someone enjoys reading the story as much as I have enjoyed writing it. This one's for my mother. I hope she's looking down proud because I finally finished what I started.


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Listed in: Black Studies, as BLST-222 | History, as HIST-283
Formerly listed as: BLST-49 | HIST-64
Sean Redding (Section 01)
(Offered as HIST 283 [AFP] and BLST 222 [A].) South African history is undergoing radical shifts in the way it is being written, read and interpreted, and this course will explore established and emerging themes in the history of this intriguing country. The time period covered will span the precolonial indigenous cultures and move on to study the initiation and expansion of white settlement and its early dependence on slave labor. The course will also investigate African resistance, both in its political and cultural forms, as well as the social effects of gold-mining and migrant labor. African nationalism, including the ANC, the Black Consciousness Movement, and the United Democratic Front, will be the focus of our study of the responses to apartheid and the ultimate collapse of the apartheid state. The course will end with discussions of recent events in South Africa, particularly the Truth and Reconciliation Commission and its aftermath as well as the developing AIDS epidemic and the growing problem of crime. Two class meetings per week.
Spring semester. Professor Redding.


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VaporJet™ Trace Vapor Detector Calibration System
Product DescriptionMicroFab has expanded its developments in vapor generation for olfaction to the generation of vapors for calibrating explosives detectors, or other trace-vapor detectors.
A digitally controlled ink-jet dispenser ejects minute amounts of a dilute standard solution which is rapidly converted into vapor upon deposition onto a heater. The amount of vapor delivered to the detector is controlled by the number of drops (dose mode is specified number of drops) or the frequency of the droplet generation (continuous mode is droplets generated continuously at set frequency).
The vapor generator can be used to quantify the detection limit of trace-vapor detectors in the field or in the lab during development.
Standard Features• Drop-on-Demand (DOD) ink-jet dispensing of the explosive solution.
• JetDrive™ V board with bipolar, sine, and arbitrary waveform modes.
• CCD board based integrated camera for drop and heater observation.
• Glass reservoir for the explosive solution.
• Software controlled temperature profiles.
• Software controlled backpressure for DOD dispensing.
• Collection vial for maintenance or calibration.
• Software controlled mass flow regulator for the carrier gas.
Output Characteristics• Dose mode or Continuous
• Dosage level controlled by the number of drops (dose) or frequency (continuous) and carrier gas flowrate
• Flow controlled to accommodate different explosive detectors
• Vapors of any explosive that can be put in solution; tested TNT, RDX, PETN
• Three orders of magnitude dynamic range
Applications• Evaluation of explosives and other trace-vapor detection technologies
• Calibration and testing of trace-vapor detectors as part of detector manufacturing
• Field calibration and testing of trace-vapor detectors
• Testing the interaction of multiple materials on trace-vapor detectors
• Olfaction threshold determination
Additional Information (PDF)Brochure
Product Description
Technology Background
Dimensions & Weight
CAD Machine Views


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I am sharing a blog from 2013 today – original link: http://listverse.com/2013/09/15/10-astonishing-near-death-experiences/
A feeling of weightlessness. A bright light at the end of a warm tunnel. The ability to see your own body below you, and friends or loved ones—who passed away years ago—now surrounding you in absolute peace. These are just a few of the things described by people who have had a near-death experience. And not all of them are as positive. Some recount a visit to hell, where they were overcome with fear and hopelessness, and even tortured by demons.
While many in the scientific community are skeptical of these accounts, others believe they offer the most definitive proof of life after death we might ever encounter. And though the debate continues, one thing is for certain: These people insist what they went through was life-altering. But by all means, feel free to judge for yourself.
10 Veronika-Ulrike Barthel
Veronika Barthel says that, after being struck by lightning while driving her car one day in 1981, she was instantly transported into hell, where she found demons escorting her into a big waiting room.
"The creatures that I saw there were more terrifying than anything I even saw in a horror movie. Today I know that they were demons. As soldiers they where marching past me, and in the middle of them were people that were screaming with pain. It was very difficult to breathe down there, because of the terrible smell of this place. I saw a lake, which looked like the inner part of a volcano, where people were cursing because of great pain."
She says that she saw people being thrown into caves, which were guarded by demons, who threw spears at them as they screamed. She also recalled snakes being present all over the ground, which were there to frighten and intimidate the people in hell.
After her experience, Veronika found herself transported back into her car, where for a moment, she saw her own burning hands gripping the steering wheel.
9 Howard Storm
Once a self-described "double atheist" and "know-it all college professor," Howard Storm was leading a three-week European art tour with his students when he retired to his hotel room in France on the last day of the trip. Without warning, he suddenly screamed and dropped to the floor, prompting his wife to call for help. At the hospital, the news was grim: Howard had a perforated stomach that required surgery, and if he didn't get it soon, he would die.
The wait for a doctor to arrive at the hospital was lengthy—so much so, that Howard turned to his wife at one point and said his final farewell to her, insisting that he was moments from death. That's when he recalled finding himself standing next to his own body (which was still on the hospital bed) and feeling more alive than ever, with no more stomach pain. Soon after, he heard unfamiliar voices calling to him.
"Come with us," they said. "Hurry up, let's go. We've been waiting for you."
After calling out to his wife and getting no response, he began to follow the voices, which led him out of the room and down a long, dark hallway. He followed them for so long, and became so increasingly terrified, that he told the voices he wasn't going any further. Then they attacked him.
"We had a big fight and the fight turned into them annihilating me, which they did slowly and with much relish," he says. "Mostly they were biting and tearing at me. This went on for a long time. They did other things to humiliate and violate me which I don't talk about."
Collapsed on the ground, Howard began reciting The Lord's Prayer, after hearing a soft voice tell him to "Pray to God." After saying a few other other prayers, he said that Jesus personally saved him from the demons, and sent him back to Earth, telling him to live his life differently. Storm's book, My Descent Into Death, was published in 2000.
8 Dr. Mary Neal
During a kayaking trip in 1999, Dr. Mary Neal became pinned under the water when her kayak capsized, making it impossible for her to breathe for anywhere between 15 and 25 minutes. That's when she says she experienced a near-death experience that brought her into the presence of God, Jesus, and angels.
During the experience, God told her that her family would be facing an upcoming tragedy and would need her to help them through. Specifically, her nine-year-old son Willie was going to die—but she wasn't told when, where, or how. Ten years later, at age 19, Willie was killed in a car accident in Maine by a driver who was on his cell phone.
Mary is convinced Jesus helped her under the water, making it possible for rescue workers to revive her following the kayaking accident. She awoke with two broken legs and lung complications, and spent a month in the hospital, followed by six weeks in a wheelchair. She wrote a book called, To Heaven And Back, which was published in May 2012.
7 Ben Breedlove
When 18-year-old Ben Breedlove of Austin, Texas began posting a series of videos on YouTube telling the world about his rare heart condition, they instantly went viral, attracting millions of viewers. In one of them, he tells the story of being wheeled down a dark hall by nurses to the surgery room, and seeing a bright, peaceful light near the ceiling. He was four at the time it happened.
Through a series of index cards in the video, he wrote: "There were no lights on in this hall. I couldn't take my eyes off it, and I couldn't help but smile. I had no worries at all, like nothing else in the world mattered." He talks of different times when he "cheated death," including an incident where he fainted in the hallway at school.
"While I was still unconscious, I was in this white room; no walls, it just went on and on. There was no sound, but that same peaceful feeling I had when I was four. I was wearing a really nice suit, and so was my favorite rapper, Kid Cudi. I then looked at myself in the mirror—I was proud of myself, of my entire life, everything I have done. It was the best feeling. I didn't want to leave that place. I wish I never woke up."
Ben's videos attracted the attention of rapper Kid Cudi, who apparently "broke down" after viewing them. He responded: "I broke down, I am to tears [sic] because I hate how life is so unfair. This has really touched my heart in a way I can't describe, this is why I do what I do. Why I write my life, and why I love you all so much."
On Christmas Day 2011, one week after posting the videos, Ben Breedlove suffered a heart attack and died. A family friend stated, "There are times that [the family is] overwhelmed by the pain and the loss of Ben, but then it's replaced with knowing that he was at peace with what was going to happen." The final index cards in Ben's last video stated, "Do you believe in angels or God? I do."
6 Colton Burpo
Colton Burpo wasn't quite four years old when his appendix burst, landing him in a hospital for emergency surgery. And when he awoke two hours later, he had an amazing story to tell. He said he had been to heaven, where he met Jesus, John The Baptist, God, and even family members who had passed away previously—including a baby sister that his mother had lost due to a miscarriage. Neither of his parents had ever mentioned the miscarriage to him.
He also met an old man he called "Pop," whom he had seen as a young man. Later, he was able to identify Pop in a family photograph as the man he had seen in heaven. It was his paternal grandfather. And while the surgery was taking place, Colton told his father that he had seen him in another room, where he had gone to pray.
His father, Todd Burpo, said, "We knew he wasn't making it up, because he was able to tell us what we were doing in another part of the hospital. Not even Sonja had seen me in that little room, having my meltdown with God."
Todd wrote a book called Heaven Is For Real that recounts the entire story of his son's incredible experience in detail. Colton Burpo now travels the country with his parents, sharing his story with others.
5 Betty J. Eadie
In November 1973, Betty Eadie underwent a partial hysterectomy, after which she says she floated out of her body and passed through a tunnel to heaven. She said she was guided by three hooded, monk-like figures who claimed to have always been her guardian angels and informed her that she had died prematurely.
In an excerpt from her book, Embraced By The Light, she recalls:
"I saw a pinpoint of light in the distance. The black mass around me began to take on more of the shape of a tunnel, and I felt myself traveling through it at an even greater speed, rushing toward the light. I was instinctively attracted to it, although again, I felt that others might not be. As I approached it, I noticed the figure of a man standing in it, with the light radiating all around him. There was no questioning who he was, I knew that he was my savior, and friend, and God. He was Jesus Christ, who had always loved me, even when I thought he hated me."
Following its publication in September 1994, her book became a No. 1 best seller and remains in print today.
4 Don Piper
Following a pastor's conference in January 1989, Don Piper was driving over a bridge when a Texas Department of Corrections tractor-trailer truck crossed the center line and ran into him head-on. He said he was "instantly transported to Heaven," where he found himself surrounded by dead relatives and friends, and a large pearl gate.
"The gate of heaven was a magnificent edifice, the one that I saw. It looked no less like a giant gate that had been sculpted from mother-of-pearl," he said. "Behind that portal was such a light that I don't conceive of how you could see it in an earthly body. It could only be envisioned in a heavenly body because it was too bright."
As he lay there crushed in his vehicle on the bridge, a pastor came by, who prayed over him. The EMS staff had told him that Don was deceased. After the pastor prayed, he instantly found himself back in his vehicle, staring up at a tarp that had been draped over him. At the hospital, it was revealed that, although he suffered no major head trauma, nearly every bone in his body had been broken or shattered. Don wrote a book called 90 Minutes In Heaven after his recovery.
3 Bill Wiese
In his book 23 Minutes In Hell, author Bill Wiese tells the story of laying in bed at 3:00 AM and being suddenly thrown into the depths of hell, where he was tormented by demons. He said he was placed in a small cell with vicious "beasts" who looked like reptiles. He recalls understanding that they had been assigned to torment him, which they did, throwing him against the walls and piercing his flesh with their claws. The pain became so bad that he wished for death but was not obliged. He said that he heard the cries of millions, who were either burning in hell, or being tortured as he was.
When he awoke, his wife noted that the clock read 3:23, so his book is titled 23 Minutes In Hell.
2 Crystal McVea
Following a simple medical procedure for pancreatitis in 2009, Crystal McVea of Oklahoma went into full respiratory arrest on the operating table. When that happened, she says she experienced a trip to heaven that renewed her faith in God, whom she met in person. She described him as "an immense brightness," one that she could "feel, taste, touch, hear, and smell," and recalled having 500 senses while in heaven, as opposed to the traditional human five.
"I had angels, I had God, and I fell to my knees in front of him," she said, adding that she'd always been a doubter prior to the experience. When she was asked twice by God if she'd like to return to Earth, she chose to stay both times. But despite her insistence, God sent her back—though not before relieving her of her guilt and shame.
McVea released a book about her experience called Waking Up In Heaven in April 2013.
1 Ian McCormack
While diving for lobster one day on the island of Mauritius, Ian McCormack was stung on the arm by a box jellyfish. He says that, by the time the ambulance arrived, he already felt completely paralyzed and necrosis had begun to set in. As he lay dying, Ian saw a vision of his mother praying for him, and after he made it to the hospital, he was clinically dead for a period of 15–20 minutes. That's when he found himself in a very dark place and began to hear people screaming.
"From the darkness I began to hear men's voices screaming at me telling me to 'shut up'—that I 'deserved to be there'—-that I was 'in Hell.' I couldn't believe it, but as I stood there a radiant beam of light shone through the darkness and immediately began to lift me upward. I found myself being translated up into an incredibly brilliant beam of pure white light—it seemed to be emanating from a circular opening far above me (I felt like a speck of dust being drawn up into a beam of sunlight)."
As he walked toward the light, Ian says he could feel it giving off a "living emotion," and that God then spoke to him. McCormack hasn't written a book but has shared his story with several news outlets and talk shows.
Have you experienced this or know someone that has?
Did it change your belief in life after death or not?


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Four interesting new papers – Parks & Poverty, Pleistocene extinctions, Evosystem services, and making better assessments
1) Parks can help local people. Protected areas reduced poverty in surrounding areas in Costa Rica and Thailand by K.S. Andam and other in PNAS (doi:/10.1073/pnas.0914177107)
2) Evidence for a long Anthropocene. Pleistocene extinctions of mega-herbivores may have lead to global cooling due to reduction on methane. Methane emissions from extinct megafauna by Felisa A. Smith and others in Nature Geoscience(doi:/10.1038/ngeo877)
3) Evosystem services, the services of evolution. By Daniel Faith and others. Evosystem services: an evolutionary perspective on the links between biodiversity and human well-being (doi:10.1016/j.cosust.2010.04.002). Evosystem services seem fall into the category of regulating and supporting services to me. However, an interesting idea. It would be nice to see it further developed.
4) A bit older, Reflections on how to make global scientific assessments better. From new journal Current Opinion in Environmental Sustainability How to make global assessments more effective: lessons from the assessment community by Dale Rothman and others. (doi:10.1016/j.cosust.2009.09.002)


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Get this set of unique Bakers Gonna Bake novelty decals for your home, office, or gear show off your personality.
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Dinner at the Confluence of Winter and Spring
And what a better setting than our house in Reno. And in a flick of time, the snow will be gone from the mountains, and the bloom will be gone from the broom.
And it is a good time to grill scallops in the now-lengthened evening. Big scallops, as fresh as can be, from Sierra Gold, the Reno seafood supplier for restaurants and resorts (er… casinos) and now selling to folks like us from their retail shop in Sparks.
Those scallops are marinating in mirin, lime juice, and soy sauce… there is pepper bacon which goes so well with scallops, asparagus and some red onion slices because anytime I light the grill, I put on some onion slices to use whenever.
Here we are, cooking on the Big Green Egg at the first turn. As it turns out, these ingredients take "three minutes a side," how convenient. Oh, the tomato… just because I have one. (I ate it for breakfast with cottage cheese.)
So this is the dinner plate. Carol made a pasta salad which made a swell starch component to dinner. I gotta say, everything was perfect. YUM.
The wine, a 2013 Bonny Doon Le Cigare Blanc.


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Mysticism is a generic term used to describe a wide variety of experiences in which individuals understand themselves to be united with the divine. Mystical experiences are most often recorded by adherents of one of the major world religions, but similar experiences are documented by individuals who have felt themselves united with the 'spirit' of nature and by those who have undergone a drug-induced altered state of consciousness.
Classic descriptions of the mystical experience in Christianity occur in 2 Corinthians 12:2-3, in Augustine [354-430] (Confessions Book 7, ch. 17; Book 9, ch. 10) and Bernard of Clairvaux (1090-1153). The great age of Christian mysticism occurs between the time of Bernard and the 16th century. Mysticism of this period is often divided into two types. The first (Brautmystik) described the mystical union primarily in terms of the union between bride and bridegroom, the second (Wesensmystik) as a union of essences. In the 14th century mystical literature was particularly abundant in the Rhineland (Meister Eckhart, Johan Tauler) and in England. The 16th century in Spain marked the golden age of Catholic mysticism in John of the Cross and Teresa of Avila.
In its 'classic' Christian form the mystical experience proper was understood as the final phase of a three-fold path. In the first (the purgative) the believer practiced the purgation of sin, in the second (the illuminative) the development of a virtuous life, and in the third (the unitive) she experienced union itself. The unitive experience was generally understood as a union of essences in which the believer retained his individuality (in distinction to essential union described in much Eastern mysticism in which the believer is lost in the divine) and as open to only a few. By the 15th century this threefold path was democratized and mystical vocabulary was often used to describe every Christian's union with Christ in faith and particularly when receiving the Eucharistic sacrament. This tendency is especially evident in two late medieval spiritual treatises which were popular among later Protestants, the Theologia deutsch and the Imitation of Christi.
As the term is generally understood, "mysticism" ought not to be used in describing either Anabaptist or Mennonite spirituality. Mystical themes and images can be found in Anabaptist writings, but neither the Anabaptists nor the Mennonites made wide use of mystical manuals such as the Theologia deutsch (as did the Lutherans, for example.) The term Gelassenheit, current in mystical literature of the 13th to 15th century does appear in Anabaptist literature but by the 16th century it was a common spiritual term and its presence does not indicate a direct influence of mysticism, although it and other terms and themes in Anabaptist writing may indicate that some mystical literature of the period was read by the Anabaptists.
Erb, Peter C. "Anabaptist Spirituality" in Frank C. Senn, ed., Protestant Spiritual Traditions. New York: Paulist, 1986: 80-124.
Packull, Werner O. Mysticism and the Early South German-Austrian Anabaptist Movement, 1525-1531. Scottdale, PA: Herald Press, 1977.
Boyd, Stephen B. "Pilgram Marpeck and the Justice of Christ." ThD diss., Harvard U., 1984.
Martin, Dennis D. "Catholic Spirituality and Anabaptist and Mennonite Discipleship." Mennonite Quarterly Review 62 (1988): 5-25.
Bernard of Clairvaux, Selected Writings, Classics of Western Spirituality. New York: Paulist Press, 1988.
Eitzen, Lando. "The Mennonites and Mysticism." MA thesis, U of Minnesota, 1948.
Additional Information
Augustine Confessions (Text)
Bernard of Clairvaux (Text - On loving God)
Imitation of Christ (Text)
John Tauler (Texts)
Teresa of Avila (Life - Text)
|Peter C Erb
|Date Published
Cite This Article
MLA style
Erb, Peter C. "Mysticism." Global Anabaptist Mennonite Encyclopedia Online. 1989. Web. 8 Jun 2023. https://gameo.org/index.php?title=Mysticism&oldid=143421.
APA style
Erb, Peter C. (1989). Mysticism. Global Anabaptist Mennonite Encyclopedia Online. Retrieved 8 June 2023, from https://gameo.org/index.php?title=Mysticism&oldid=143421.
Adapted by permission of Herald Press, Harrisonburg, Virginia, from Mennonite Encyclopedia, Vol. 5, p. 615. All rights reserved.
©1996-2023 by the Global Anabaptist Mennonite Encyclopedia Online. All rights reserved.


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SHARANYA KANVILKAR writes from Bombay: A question mark hangs over India's most famous exclamation mark after a further slip in health of Rasipuram Krishnaswami Laxman, the iconic cartoonist of The Times of India.
The 86-year-old Laxman, who has drawn cartoons for ToI for 63 years, has been airlifted to Bombay, reportedly after suffering a "mild stroke", and is receiving treatment at the Breach Candy hospital, family sources say.
(A report in The Times of India says he suffered three mini-strokes between Thursday and Saturday.)
Already a shadow of his former self after a first stroke seven years ago which affected his left hand, R.K. Laxman, as he is known to newspaper readers, was first admitted to the Sahyadri hospital in Poona, where he currently lives, but was airlifted to Bombay on Sunday evening.
(A PTI report in The Hindu says the three mild strokes have affected the right side of his body as also his speech.)
Mysore-born Laxman was last spotted at the engagement ceremony of his grand-niece in Bombay earlier this year.
Despite his first stroke, Laxman returned to draw the "You Said It!" pocket cartoon for The Times of India every morning, although the state of his health showed in the scraggly lines and often times in the cartoon being desultorily buried in the inside pages.
On days he doesn't come up with a cartoon, ToI dips into its archives.
Photograph: courtesy The Hindu
Also read: Making all of us smile can make one of us cry
Look who inspired R.K. Laxman's common man!
External reading: The Ramon Magsaysay foundation citation


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You are currently browsing the daily archive for March 3, 2011.
She came into the boro less than a year ago, and only yesterday did I catch her close up. Enjoy.
View of the afterside of the house.
Backing from the dock and rotating 180 degrees . . . note the Empire State Building off to the northeast.
Portside three-quarters view of the house.
Starboard view with the W in Hoboken in the distance. No really . . this isn't "product placement."
Shots all from Pier 40 . . . now with Stevens Institute of Technology in the distance. Unrelated . . . Alfred Kinsey was born in Hoboken and his father taught at Stevens.
All fotos by Will Van Dorp, who left this part of Pier 40 to visit Village Community Boathouse. And related to that, check out a new site linked to my blogroll: DoryMan.
Totally unrelated . . . or entangled: that red color, fires, and the Empire State Building, check out this Valentine's Day story. And wilder than that, a boat dance happening most of a year ago not far from Pier 40.


text: Non-lodgment advice 2016 The quickest way to tell us you don't need to lodge is online through myGov. Benefits of submitting an online form Benefit Paper Online Get immediate confirmation that you've fulfilled your tax obligations Environmentally friendly Helpful messages to guide you Submit your non-lodgment advice via myGovIf you don't have a myGov account, you'll be asked to set one up first. How to access the paper 2016 Non-lodgment adviceWarning: This information may not apply to the current year. Check the content carefully to ensure it is applicable to your circumstances. End of attention You can download this publication in Portable Document Format (PDF) – download Non-lodgment advice 2016 (NAT 2586, PDF, 168KB)This link will download a file to lodge your non-lodgment advice by mail. For a printed copy of this form: use our automated self-help publications ordering service at any time – you need to know the full title of the publication to use this service phone our Publications Distribution Service on 1300 720 092. You can speak to an operator between 8.00am and 6.00pm Monday to Friday. Before you phone, check whether there are other publications you may need – this will save you time and help us. For each publication you order, you need the full title. Complete this form if you consider that you do not need to lodge a tax return for the 2016 income year. NAT 2586-6.2016.Last modified: 09 Oct 2017QC 48935


text:
*entry not enter (end of video)…
no way was i doing this a third time with yaman driving me crazy!*
I don't enter many competitions, but the Sketching Work competition
for the Centre for Transformative Work Design out of Perth AU was easy for me
as I sketch our lives and work quite a lot, and was thrilled
to create a pen + ink + watercolor folded journal.
I kind of didn't want to send it; the images were sweet.
I have never had an entry returned, but thankfully, when I lost,
they did the honorable thing and returned it!
The winning entries are lovely!
The point of the competition was to tell the story of a workplace,
what it did and what made it a joyful place to work… Instead of assuming I knew,
I took Mitchell seriously as a subject and interviewed him.
The interview was sent separately, and is below:
Mitchell and I work together in our conservation firm,
MPF Conservation. Mitchell bought his brother-in-law's upholstery shop at 23. Fascinated with traditional forms (unlike his brother-in-law), he hired skilled journeymen to amend his training. Several men trained helped him to become the conservator of museum antiquities he is today. It was really fun interviewing Mitchell; some of the
answers surprised me!
"I love uncovering ingenious historical fiber filled structural forms (sofas + chairs). I enjoy taking soft materials (hair, cotton, coir) and turning them into structural elements with proper flex, comfort, and decorative beauty. A bit like making a cake!"
"I love that each project is completely different; unusual objects walk in the door all the time! I work on a mid-century modern piece one month and a 200-year-old piece the next, tassels and fringe one week and a leather bellow the next."
"Sometimes I wish I occasionally worked with other talented upholsterers for the camaraderie and swapping skills. It can be lonely working every day by oneself. Having the shop cats, good friends, keeps my heart happy. It is a perk of owning the business. They can't always be in the studio — they are banned when we have museum projects, or if a client is allergic or if the show-cover is silk, though they have their nails trimmed weekly."
* An aside, we are often in different rooms, and they are well-trained. *
"While projects last from 3-8 weeks, in each phase I'm doing something different. Woodworking, tailoring, hand-stitching, upholstering, and traditional finishes. The job is physically demanding, standing long hours, pulling heavy threads, hand-stitching, moving furniture, so as I get older, it can be taxing, but it also keeps me in shape!"
"Throwaway furniture has changed the demand for our skills, which means we must be competitive to obtain projects. "Average" folks don't know that today's "expensive" furniture is still shortly destined for the landfill. They don't realize a lovely restored old sofa is less expensive than many they will buy & toss
out within 2 decades! Our throwaway society has also made it difficult to obtain proper supplies in the USA; items are bought from France, Germany & England."
"My most memorable project was conserving the Flemish Sofa that resides in the Hearst Castle Library. The most challenging was the first time I conserved an original mid-century Egg Chair by Arne Jacobsen ca. 1960… An engineering feat!"
(Flemish Sofa and Egg Chair! Guess I better sketch them soon!)
I am sending you to my page of the competition but warning you that unfortunately
the scanning process for my competition entry was incorrect.
If you look at other's work know that this may be so for them as well!
Platinum Carbon pen and ink told the line story.
Watercolor washes added the color.
I tested everything on a side throwaway sheet as I had limited time,
sketching Mitchell from life then inking then adding color.
frankly the most nerve-wracking was adding words to it,
because I am dyslexic and gads it would ruin the journal!
I love my entry; I wish I'd won. Our journal now lives on in our reception space!
BTW, I am available for hire to create memories!
Do you have an event or keepsake or place to sketch?
To hear about classes, follow me on Facebook
or check out my new, improved dkatiepowellart.com
"Memory is more indelible than ink."
Anita Loos, Gentlemen Prefer Blondes.
"I think not…."
Me… why I journal!
Watercolor paper in a folding handmade journal,
Platinum Carbon Pen with Platinum Carbon ink waterproof cartridges,
Da Vinci, Holbein, QoR, DS Primatek and Daniel Smith watercolors.
As my Patreon supporter, you will have
access to some content not on this website,
sneak previews, goodies, discounts on classes.
I teach architectural sketching,
art journaling (art+writing), creativity, watercolors.
That annoying loud-mouth editor/critic in your head? GONE! How great would that be?


text:
My name is Fadi BouKaram and I'm a Lebanese photographer. I'm taking a five-month road trip across the U.S., discovering and photographing all the country's Lebanons. For some reason, America has so many cities and towns called Lebanon. Just look at the map. Each dot represents one.
I found out about this by accident one time when I was googling Lebanon (my country), and I got a link to Lebanon, Pennsylvania, which got me wondering. Then I started scouring the online databases the US has of its city names, and I found over 50. But here's the thing. Sometimes names of cities change in the US, or they lose their populations, so of the 50+ I found, there's about 43 still standing today. For example, the two Lebanons in Texas are now ghost towns…
Now all these Lebanons aside, I found out through my research that the mayors of 7 of these towns (the starred ones on the map), were invited by president Camille Chamoun in March 1955 to come visit the real Lebanon. They did, spending two weeks in Beirut and touring the country, and then when they left, they were each given a cedar sapling (a true Cedar of Lebanon, i.e. Cedrus Libani) that they took to their towns and supposedly planted there. I want to find out if these trees still exist today.
So this is basically my trip. The original plan was to get a used RV/caravan from San Francisco, and start driving, living in the car to save on hotel costs and all that, and then return to San Francisco in March 2017 before returning to Beirut. However, I didn't find any decent RV there, but I did find one in Seattle. So I drove there to get it and that's where my trip started. I am now writing this post in Butte, Montana, and the closest Lebanon on my route is the one in North Dakota, a week's worth of driving. So stay tuned. In the meantime, I will be sharing photos on Instagram and Facebook, so if you're interested, please follow these pages listed above.
Last, if interested in seeing how the RV looks on the inside, or if you just didn't want to read all of what I mentioned above and skipped to the last paragraph, well here's a short video, introducing myself and talking about the trip.


text:
Southern Grampians Shire Council looks to the future to ensure planning and development is done in a sustainable and meaningful manner taking all issues into account.
Strategic Planning plays a key role in long-term planning and includes encouraging quality urban design and protecting and enhancing the Shire's environmental assets and high quality agricultural land, now and into the future.
Should you have any further queries regarding Strategic Planning within the Southern Grampians Shire, please contact the Planning Department.
ContactPlanning Department1 Market PlaceHamilton Vic 3300Phone (03) 5573 0444Email email@example.com


text: December 8, 2010 Arts & Culture Dispatch from Stockholm By Sergio Vilela When Mario Vargas Llosa got the call, his first thought was that it was an emergency of some kind. It was around five in the morning in New York, the same hour as in Lima, where most of his family lives—which is why he was alarmed. He'd risen a few moments earlier and, at that hour when the city sleeps, was sitting down to read. It was part of his routine while he was teaching at Princeton for a semester. His wife, Patricia, handed him the phone, and a voice said it was the Swedish Academy. Vargas Llosa first thought it might be a joke, like the one the heartless friends of the Italian writer Alberto Moravia had pulled on him: They awarded him the Nobel in jest, with a call just like this one. And Moravia celebrated, as if he'd actually won. Vargas Llosa hesitated. The voice assured him he had actually won the 2010 Nobel Prize for Literature, and then the call ended. Those were strange moments—a controlled euphoria, a surprising well of emotion, skepticism. The phone rang again, and the same voice announced that the news would be made official in fourteen minutes, that he should be prepared. Read More


text:
You really should have been there!
Shepherds Bush Empire London October 2013
Thirty years since their last gig in London!
'…Mr Lawrence! Mr Lawrence! A man come through!'. (Van Morrison)
' Love is lovelier the second time around'. (Cahn/Van Heuson)
Passion is no ordinary word.
Graham Parker, even in the doldrums of a thirty year plus career in music, has always written and performed his songs with shattering commitment.
And, especially when partnered (not supported) by the astonishingly resourceful and committed group of musicians known as The Rumour, he made records and played concerts between 1975 and 1981 that will stand as peaks of rock excellence in the passionate tradition of Bob Dylan and Van Morrison.
Parker, a scrawny Englishman with electric energy, has generally punched above his weight as a singer and performer – always reaching out for the perfect dramatic expression of the emotions and narratives contained within his extensive songbook.
His ace to play is a thrillingly soulful voice which can plead for, pledge, and command love.
Parker 's vocals lend colour, weight and dynamism to his songs whether in his tender yearning ballads ('Fool's Gold') his wide screen technicolour story epics ('Watch The moon Come Down') or in his helter- skelter, jump-on or be run over rockers ('Soul Shoes').
A Graham Parker vocal at his best has instantly recognisable authority (you know he really means it!) without sacrificing his vulnerability or sense of wonder.
The Rumour: Brinsley Schwarz (guitar), Martin Belmont (guitar), Bob Andrews (keyboards), Andrew Bodnar (bass) and Steve Goulding (drums) combine impressive musical chops with the rare ability to really listen to each other and their lead singer.
So, the songs they play have an organic texture that allows them to breathe, build and bloom into flesh and blood life. This is a band committed to each other and their craft.
It's no accident that they took their name from a song by The Band – the ultimate exemplars of co-operative built to last music making in the rock era.
In their heyday Parker and the Rumour were a match for any live band in the world and their classic albums – Howling Wind and Squeezing Out Sparks – were astounding examples of rock songcraft.
In reaction the hip critics raved, the cogniscenti queued and fellow artists like Bruce Springsteen listened hard. However, lacking irresistible hits, a clearly defined commercial image and extensive radio play the great British and American publics and the music moguls were never convinced.
Eventually the grind of endless touring without commensurate reward took its inevitable toll.
Graham Parker relocated to the Woodstock area and settled down in every sense proceeded to record a series of intelligent and well wrought albums that satisfied his audience without troubling the mass market.
Almost every one contained a song or two most songwriters would have killed for and all featured singing that could lift or break your heart.
The Rumour went their separate ways and found niches that satisfied their varied needs for full time involvement in music.
And that's where the story might have ended. Another band, much loved and fervently recalled, that as time went by became more of a myth and less of a reality.
Until, out of the blue, a crowd funded documentary led to a one off reunion for Parker and some of the band and a decision that a reunited GP and The Rumour would record another album – now known as, 'Three Chords Good'.
To add to the twilight zone like sense that, 'something weird is happening here' it turned out that the actor/director Judd Apatow, a longtime fan, thought he might usefully cast Graham Parker as a once revered rocker beloved by the mid-life crisis hero in his movie 'This is 40'.
In the movie the hero gets his favourite band together. So, through the magical power of Hollywood Graham Parker and the Rumour after a thirty year lay off trod the boards together again and found that they still had the elusive chemistry that makes a band really special.
They might have gained a few pounds and gone grey hair but musically they still snarled and burned and perhaps now had more control and swing – better able to know when to push and when to throttle back.
New songs were written and recorded for 'Three Chords Good' which emerged as a set of beautifully conceived and played songs worthy of the band's history.
Given all the above – why not tour again and see if the old soul shoes could still tear up the dance floor?
So, conscious of my own grey hair and how desperately I wanted GP and the Rumour to be once again the great band who had often made an in concert reality of the challenge presented in taking on Sam Cooke's 'Let's Have A Party' I took my seat in the Shepherd's Bush Empire with no small amount of nervousness.
From the first, everything's in place, burnished opening chords of the endlessly yearning 'Fool's Gold' it was obvious that this was a band and a singer that were not simply leaning on memories of former glories.
Rather, here was a band of brothers who were, almost anazedly, finding that they could still make their songs come freshly alive as new creations.
You could see old friends in the audience turning to each other with face-splitting grins mouthing 'My god they really still have got it!'
Their mojo was definitely still working and song by song they burned up the stage and lit up our night. Particular highlights included a scorching take on Howling Wind featuring Brinsley Schwarz's barbed wire guitar and Bob Andrews just this side of crazed keyboards alongside GP's anguished vocal.
A new song 'Snake Oil Capital of the World' showed Parker's vocals could still have sarcastic bite and that the Rumour could keep him on his toes through the controlled intensity of their playing.
During 'Discovering Japan' Steve Goulding and Andrew Bodnar showed what a potent rhythm section they were with the former's powerhouse drumming especially impressive.
The expressionist drama of 'Watch the Moon come down' captured the whole outfit in magesterial form switching from relaxed vamping to all out attack with fluent ease – the theatre seemed bathed in spectral moonlight.
Martin Belmont, a giant figure who always looks as if he is just about to start a fight, played throughout with lyrical beligerance and on a swooningly intense 'Local Girls' his guitar rang out to the rafters.
The showstopping 'Dont Ask Me Questions' proved, if proof were needed, that Graham Parker does have a heart full of soul and the vocal graces to arouse shivers in his audience.
His songs can also summon whole audience to passionately sing as his ragged but righteous chorus. No-one left the gig without having been moved and delighted at witnessing a true renaissance.
Looking back, the concert acted as a series of triumphant demonstrations of Graham Parker and The Rumour's passion, skill and sheer determination to do honour to themselves, their heritage, their new songs and their audience.
Not that this audience needed much winning over. I have never felt such waves of such pure affection travelling between an audience and the stage. Indeed at times the band seemed taken aback by the overwhelming reaction their heroic playing produced.
There was a real sense that the Empire was filled with people on and off stage celebrating the good times of old and deliriously happy to be creating, not recreating, new peaks of experience.
Graham Parker and The Rumour have weathered their storms, come to terms with the rollercoaster of good and bad fortune and come through into a new world.
Sometimes, although you properly never believe this in youth, love can be lovelier the second time around!


text:
Let it Ride
One of my favorite stamp sets from the Stampin' Up!® Occasions Catalog is Let it Ride. I love the sentiments; Amelia loves horses. So between the two of us, this was one of our first picks when the catalog came out.
My friend Jackie Susnik has done some lovely things with this set. I needed one more design for my classes this month, so I CASEd (Copy and share everything) one of her cards. I changed a few things, but not much. Her card was so perfect that any changes I made took away from the awesomeness.
Isn't that fun? Here are the details.
First, I punched a 2″ circle from the Wood Textures Designer Series Paper (DSP). On a separate piece of Whisper White Cardstock, I stamped the horse image in Tuxedo Black Memento Ink, then colored with Stampin' Blends. I used a Light Crumb Cake and a Light Soft Suede with a little Petal Pink for the ears.
Next, I stamped the Hardwood Background Stamp on the Soft Suede card front using Early Espresso Ink. One of the most striking things about Jackie's card was the Basic Black layer along the edge. I used the Corrugated Dynamic Textured Impressions Embossing Folder to emboss it, then added it to the front of the card.
When I cut my Whisper White Cardstock for the horse image, I trimmed a bit off for the sentiment. I simply notched one edge with my Paper Snips.
To create the "bow," I looped the Old Olive Linen Thread several times, then tied another little piece of thread around it to keep it together. Then I added it to the card with a Glue Dot.
Some of the ladies in class decided they'd rather have the row of trees instead of the horse. (I won't tell Amelia.) We used Shaded Spruce to stamp the trees, and they looked lovely.
Thanks, Jackie, for the awesome inspiration. You rock!
Thanks for stopping by Stamping with Buffy. Have a lovely day!
Product List


text:
The school year has just started and I am already sick of packing lunches! I always see amazing looking lunches on Pinterest that I would like to pack but who has the time and those containers! I went looking for some of those nice compartmentalized (is that even a word) containers and they are pricey. They were ranging from CDN$45-80. Oh Mylanta, I will need a second job! I can't comit to just one container and those are so expensive. Can you sense my angst here?
Anyway, on to the post. After perusing Pinterest for a few hours, I mean minutes, I came across these little pizzas that looked like faeries made them. This is it, my lunch saver.
We used:
1 tube pilsbury pizza dough
1 stick small pepperoni
1 small can pizza sauce (for dipping)
Preheat oven to 350F.
We used a small round cookie cutter to make little dough circles just a little larger than he diameter of the pepperoni.
Place dough circles on a lightly greased baking sheet and press the pepperoni into the dough.Bake for 10 mins on 350F.
And here is a lunch all ready to go, note the absence of cool container. I will comit to a cool container soon.
There are good. Of course you can use cheese or anything that your child likes on the dough. This took minutes and she can't wait to have lunch.


text:
Wikipedia defines Comfort Food as "food prepared traditionally, that may have a nostalgic or sentimental appeal, or simply provide an easy-to-eat, easy-to-digest meal rich in calories, nutrients or both".
While I wouldn't argue with any of the above I might add that, Comfort Food for me is often a dish that will comfort my soul following a rough time, can be a dish that reminds me of someone I care deeply about and most certainly, comfort food will warm the body on a cold day or the heart on a rainy one.
Getting back to the definition, Wikepedia goes on to say comfort foods can be "foods that have a nostalgic element either to an individual or specific culture" and this is where I get to my point. Oyako Donburi is a very well known comfort food in Japan and especially popular in Hawaii. It is a dish of chicken and eggs simmered in a warm broth and served in a bowl over rice.
In Japanese "Oyako" loosely translates to "parent and child" and "Donburi" is usually "bowl" or "rice bowl". You may also see this dish called "Oyakodon" which is simply an abbreviation of the same. Vaguely similar in ingredients to the Vietnamese soup, Pho Ga, which has definitely become a comfort food for my wife and I, Oyako Donburi may well become our next new favorite.
Which brings me to today…it's been raining steady here for two days straight and yesterday was a lazy, rainy Sunday. It was the perfect day for making a big batch of homemade chicken stock and when the rain continued all day today, a comfort food meal seemed to be just what the doctor ordered. After a little research and some stovetop experimentation, Oyako Donburi was just the right prescription for a cozy night at home!
Notes: This recipe is not entirely authentic and is something of a fusion recipe as I use a Chinese method of "velveting" the chicken in step 1. Although you can skip this step and simply simmer the chicken pieces in the broth with the onions, I highly recommend taking the extra few minutes. The difference in flavor and texture is well worth the added effort.
Once the chicken is "velveted", I prepare Step 3 one portion at a time for continuity…this step comes together fairly quickly. Feel free to experiment with ingredients; a Google search of Oyako Donburi recipes will give you many ideas from adding miso or cilantro to using bonito flakes (dried fish) for a variety of flavors.
Oyako Donburi
Begin by preparing enough brown rice for two 1 to 1-1/2 cup portions, then go to step 1 while the rice is cooking. The rice should be steaming hot when added to the bowls as it serves to finish cooking the eggs.
Step 1 – "Velvet" the chicken:
2 Tbsp – Dry sake
2 Tbsp – Warm water
2 Tbsp – Corn starch
1 – White of 1 large egg
1 – Good pinch of kosher salt
1 Large or 2 small – Chicken breast halves, split lengthwise then sliced crosswise into thin slices
1 Tsp – Sesame oil
Combine the first 5 ingredients and whisk only until well combined. Stir in the chicken pieces and marinate this mixture for at least ½ hour, refrigerated.
Fill a small wok (or a med sauce pan) at least half full with water and bring to a gentle boil. Add 1 tablespoon of sesame oil then carefully add ½ of the chicken, strained of excess marinade, and cook gently separating the chicken slices to prevent clumping.
When the chicken is solid white and cooked through (about 1-1/2 to two minutes) the chicken will begin to float. At that point, remove the chicken to a strainer to drain. Repeat until all of the chicken is cooked setting the strainer over a bowl to drain. Discard the water and if making ahead, refrigerate the chicken until ready to use. Note: I used a Chinese Spider Strainer for this cooking process and a traditional 8″ mesh strainer to drain the chicken.
Step 2 – Simmer and "bowl" the following 1 portion at a time
1/2 Cup – Fresh chicken broth
1 Portion – Chicken, prepared in step one
1 quarter – Large yellow onion, sliced in ¼" slices, divided
3 Med – Shitake mushroom caps, sliced in ¼" slices, divided
2 – Green Onions, sliced thin on a sharp angle (bias)
1/4 Cup – Fresh arugula (or spinach)
2 Tbsp – Dry sake
2 Tbsp – Tamari sauce
2 Tsp – Agave nectar
½ Tsp – Sesame Oil
2 eggs
Nori (Dried seaweed) for garnish
In a small wok or pan (I used a non-stick egg skillet) bring the broth to a gentle boil over medium high heat. Stir in the sake, tamari, agave nectar and sesame oil, then add the onion and mushroom slices. Simmer until the onions are just becoming translucent (about 5 minutes) then add the chicken from step 1 along with the arugula.
Simmer one minute more stirring to ensure even heating. (Note: If you are skipping step one, add the chicken one minute after the onions and mushrooms and simmer until cooked through, then add the arugula for one minute more.)
Crack the eggs into a bowl and beat just enough to break the yolks and slightly mix the eggs. Stir in half the sliced green onions then gently pour the eggs evenly over the top of the simmering broth. Cook 30 seconds, then using chop sticks, stir once just enough to distribute the eggs evenly, cover and cook 30 seconds more while you spoon the rice into a bowl for serving.
(If necessary microwave the rice for 30 seconds to make sure it's hot then) Gently slide the cooked mixture out of the pan and into the bowl over 1 to ½ cups steaming hot rice. Cover the bowl with a saucer and serve as the eggs finish cooking in the hot bowl. Garnish with the remainder of the sliced green onions and crumbled or sliced dried nori.


text:
Universiti Sains Malaysia Thesis Template
LianTze Lim
Last Updated
4 years ago
LaTeX Project Public License 1.3c
usmthesis is a LaTeX class for typesetting a Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM) postgraduate research thesis. (Updated December 8, 2016 with a bunch of new document class options you can use to mix-and-match various settings required by IPS for different candidates. Please read the comments in
There will be no further updates until an official updated formatting guidelines with concrete clear instructions is available.
Copyright (C) 2005-2016 Lim Lian Tze
Website: http://liantze.penguinattack.org/latextypesetting.html
Github: https://github.com/liantze/usmthesis


text:
The Late Movies: Songs About Hot Summers
By Erica Palan
On this date in 1935, the Dust Bowl heat wave reached its peak, with temperatures reaching 109°F in Chicago, Illinois and 104°F in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. As we sweat through another long, hot summer in America, here are six songs inspired by rising temps (or at least six songs that make us think of hot summer nights).
Heat Wave
Martha and the Vandellas recorded this song in July 1963 and it was later featured in the Whoopi Goldberg movie Sister Act.
You Took The Words Right Out Of My Mouth (Hot Summer Night)
This ditty was Meatloaf's first single off his solo album.
Hot Hot Hot
David Johansen, formerly of the New York Dolls, has called the tune "the bane of my existence."
Summer Nights
The massive hit is from the musical Grease, and the best-known version was recorded by John Travolta and Olivia Newton-John for the film version.
Summer in the City
Recorded by The Lovin' Spoonful, this quintessential summer anthem features a series of car horns during the instrumental bridge.
Cruel Summer
Girl group Bananarama recorded this song, but it wasn't a big hit until it was included on the soundtrack of The Karate Kid.


text:
Miel de Abejas
Black Leather Flip Flops
We're pretty sure black flip flops are a summer staple. The leather elevates the sandal while remaining easy to pair with a swimsuit at the beach or a flirty maxi dress! These are custom-made for Abejas so you won't find them anywhere else!
Product info:
- Miel de Abejas Black Leather Flip Flops
- 100% leather upper
- Vibram rubber sole
- If you are in between sizes, we recommend sizing up
If you have any questions, call us at 713-522-3025, or email email@example.com! We'd love to help you find something you love! See a deal elsewhere? Call us to price-match! Must present active link to item in stock on competitor website.
Want to try it on? Let us style an approval box for you! Must have valid CC on file. Jewelry cannot be sent in approval box. Minimum of 3 items for approval box.
Free shipping and returns on orders over $250!
We accept returns or exchange for unworn unaltered, and unwashed items, with tags still attached. postmarked within ten (10) days of the original shipping date.
Trunk show + pre-order items are final sale and cannot be returned or exchanged.
Call us 713.522.3025
Hours: Tuesday – Saturday 10am – 5pm CST


text:
LOS ANGELES, Calif.–A parolee was in fair condition today with a head wound he suffered when he was shot in the head on the Harbor (110) Freeway in South Los Angeles while being pursued by gang rivals, police said.
The incident began around 8:30 p.m. Sunday, when a gang member recently paroled to a rival gang's area set out to see his girlfriend, said Sgt. James Winter of the Los Angeles Police Department's Southeast Station.
"It started on surface streets," Winter said.
Rival gang members spotted the parolee in the area of 117th Street and Compton Avenue, pursued him onto the Glenn Anderson (105) Freeway and followed as he transitioned to the southbound Harbor (110) Freeway, where the shooting occurred around 9 p.m. Sunday, he said.
"The male victim was driving when several rounds were fired into his car," said Sgt. Rudy Alaniz of the Los Angeles Police Department 77th Street Station, whose officers also responded to the shooting.
The bullet that struck the victim went in and out above his left ear, Winter said.
Alaniz said the victim–whose name and age were being withheld–was walking and talking when officers arrived. He was taken to a hospital in fair condition, he said.


text:
I've been slacking big time lately in the blog department. For that I am sorry. Want to know what hasn't changed during the last few weeks of blog silence? Bad Peanut. She's still just as bad as ever. When Monika was home at the beginning of March, she decided to hashtag "dailybadpeanut." I'm sure glad she did. Now I have a virtual scrapbook of her badness. This is just some of her badness. She knows how to open doors (cabinets), just like the raptors!!!
Wednesday, April 9, 2014
Tuesday, March 25, 2014
Myrtle Beach, South Carolina.
This week I am in Myrtle Beach, SC. I'm squeezing some pleasure out of another work trip (squeezing pleasure out, sounds kind of gross… sorry).
Saturday, March 22, 2014
A Washington-ing we shall go! Last weekend Ben and I headed up to Washington to visit Peanut… among other things...
Posted by Monika at 8:30 AM 19 comments:
Labels: instagram, Moms, Peanut and Purls, Penelope, washington state
Thursday, March 13, 2014
I've been spending quite a bit of time exploring my neighborhood and downtown Olympia lately. I have my set jogging route, and rarely do I venture from three(ish) tried and true paths. I like the friendly little mileposts that I've come to enjoy along they way. I tend to think of it as "nice graffiti."
Tuesday, March 11, 2014
A week-ending we shall go...
The weather just turned here in, recently not so sunny California, and I am taking advantage to the full effect. How you may ask? Well to start off with I'm sitting inside and enjoying my light drenched living room and indoor foliage.
Posted by Monika at 8:30 AM 19 comments:
Saturday, March 8, 2014
I have been spending a lot of time walking with two little (not actually little) dogs, around our little neighborhood. Olive is holding on to our treasures, I am in love with pink jasmine and really want to plant a ton everywhere.
I have also been walking around outside of my Burbank neighborhood. For instance I drove down to Newport Beach and met up with Ben's sister Sammy. I had to walk much farther then I anticipated because there wasn't a lot of free parking, but at least I found a spot that allowed for me to have a be achy stroll along the boardwalk to get to my final destination.
Destination being Balboa Park (I think there are way too many places named Balboa this or that). This ferris wheel went way to fast to be safe. We did not go on this.
Luckily I wasn't gone too long, because there was someone waiting for me at home.
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Mrs. Vander Leyden's Glasses
There are not many Christmas stories featuring cockroaches although there are many which include angels, kindly strangers, bells, bugles, elves, reindeer and presents beneath tree boughs—none of which will be found in this account of events leading up to Christmas 1981.
Although she is now passed, Mrs. Vander Leyden lived at 30 East Chicago Avenue, at the Lawson YMCA. Her rent was paid directly to the YMCA by the Wilmington Bank & Trust Company of Delaware and she cashed a dividend check and her Social Security at the Stop N'Drink on the corner. The Stop N'Drink was a bar insofar as it served drinks and sold packaged goods over plywood strapped onto concrete pylons. But it also operated as a rough justice credit union. Regardless of the season, Mrs. Vander Leyden wore a black princess cut wool coat, a black pillbox hat and black shoes. She carried a black patent leather purse at all times, very close to her body.
Mrs. Vander Leyden had lived at the YMCA for longer than any employee or resident could remember so it seemed as if she were part of the building, like the granite discus throwers on either side of the first floor entrance, the three red neon letters on the twelfth floor roof (Y blank space CA) or the Seven Virtues mural in the second floor lobby of which four Virtues were covered with announcements about bridge matches, Friends of Bill meetings, items for sale, and for a social worker who came on Tuesday mornings to help residents figure out their entitlements.
The first, third and fourth floors of the Lawson housed the gym, the swimming pool, and the weight rooms (the clientele being the gentrified folks living to the east of the building). There was a county hospital detox unit on the first floor at the back of the building. The fifth floors and beyond had twenty rooms each for residents—the eighth floor for women and the remaining floors for men. There were two communal bathrooms on each of these floors.
On any given evening the second floor lobby was where the gray haired men played cards underneath the Virtue of Charity and Hope. There was a television set in the corner, a vending machine, and a bank of lockboxes—every day residents checked for their mail and the pink phone messages left by the switchboard operators. Mrs. Vander Leyden never was seen in the lobby. But Mr. Hancock was there from early morning until long past when the window of the front desk was shuttered, as he used one of the tables as his office for a lawsuit so complex and convoluted that nobody was of the energy to ask how his work progressed.
The morning after she moved in, Kristi Hollingsworth answered "yes" when Mr. Hancock asked her in the first floor foyer—right in front of Dwayne's desk—if she was The Law Student. This was just how quickly important information and gossip traveled within the building Mr. Hancock told her he had been unlawfully fired from his position as a union shop man and she gave him the phone number of the Northwestern Law School Legal Clinic and told him to ask for Professor Elson.
"Tell him Kristi Hollingsworth said he could help you," she told Mr. Hancock. "And tell him I'm in his Civil Procedure class. I only just started so he might not remember me."
Dwayne watched this exchange from behind his desk. It was his job to know residents and members of the athletic club and to stop anybody who wasn't authorized from taking the stairs—mostly clients of the rent boys on the twentieth floor. For that purpose Dwayne wore a uniform and a badge. Dwayne had been eating his lunch while Mr. Hancock and Kristi talked. When Mr. Hancock went upstairs to his office, Dwayne pulled his gun from his holster in order to check it, which is something he often did when he was thinking.
"You got rid of that problem," he said without actually looking at Kristi. "But I think you now got yourself a bigger one now."
And indeed, two days later, Professor Elson asked Kristi to remain after his lecture on motions to dismiss.
"You ever do that to me again, so help me God," he said. "Do you understand me? That man is crazy. The Trilateral Commission? The United Nations? The unions setting out to kill him? Do you have any idea how long it took me to get off the phone?"
Indeed, Kristi had heard a good deal more in the intervening two days from Mr. Hancock and she understood. For the rest of the time she lived at the Lawson, she pretended she couldn't hear Mr. Hancock calling out "It's the Law Student. Come here, Law Student!" as she picked up her mail and her messages.
Kristi didn't notice Mrs. Vander Leyden the first few weeks of that first semester even though they both lived on the eighth floor, a mere four doors from each other.
Both women approached the elevator at roughly the same time every morning: Kristi had an eight o'clock Contracts class for which she was always late and Mrs. Vander Leyden went to eight fifteen mass at the Holy Name Cathedral on the corner opposite the Stop N'Drink.
If the elevator came when Kristi was there, Mrs. Vander Leyden would appear to have suddenly remembered something mislaid or forgotten in her room.
If Mrs. Vander Leyden entered the elevator first and Kristi was running and yelled for her to hold the door, she seemed to be quite deaf.
And in every near interaction, Mrs. Vander Leyden also gave the appearance of being quite blind, as her black rimmed glasses were scratched to a sheen that made eye contact impossible.
Kristi wasn't particularly aware of her surroundings. She would not have made a good detective. She didn't expect to make a good lawyer. She had enrolled in law school because the economy was bad and school—any kind of school—seemed like a good place to lay low until good jobs were to be had. As a sign of her lack of deductive powers one October morning, she walked outside and was intrigued by a car that appeared to have had its hood and roof knocked in, but otherwise remained completely pristine—as pristine as any fifteen year old car can be.
It was as if God had smashed his fist down in a fit of pique.
"What kind of car accident does that?" she wondered. And it wasn't until she came back to the Lawson that afternoon that Dwayne commented.
"It was a jumper," he said. He was standing outside the entrance, in front of a granite discus thrower, taking a break to smoke cigarettes and harass the passing women with his friend Douglas.
"Checked into the twelfth floor and just jumped," Douglas fulminated. "They say he was a poet. Published something."
"If'n it was me, I'd check into the Ritz Carlton hotel," Dwayne said. "Not this place."
Some men who had come outside to enjoy the sun and they laughed, one of them declaring that he'd order up some room service before he'd go. The conversation made an epistemological turn. Could fish eggs be all that caviar was said to be and was it worth trying for a final meal? Was champagne or Courvoisier was a better bracer before one jumped? Would a cigar be nice or just a regular pack of cigarettes?
Then the men talked about women. And what kind would be the best to have if it was to be the last time.
"I'd want a white woman," one of them opined. "Because a black woman gets in her groove and it's the same motion over and over until she pops. Now, a white woman, she jerks around and screws up the rhythm and it's a surprise what she's going to do next."
"And they sure love the dick," another said. "You can best believe that white guys don't got no dick and they don't know what to do with what all they do got."
Dwayne, Douglas, and every man looked at Kristi Hollingsworth for some sort of editorial comment.
Kristi could feel the hives rising up her chest and coloring her face. She excused herself as she had homework. The first year of law school was brutal and she was no intellect. Douglas asked if he could speak with her.
"Sure," Kristi said.
"Well, I need to talk to you private like."
He led her into the alley out back near the intake door for the detox unit. He offered her a cigarette but she said she didn't smoke.
"So let's say you commit a crime," Douglas said. He paused just a moment to take a first drag. "A bunch of time has gone by and then the law can't do anything. What's that called?"
"Statute of limitations."
"That's it. That's it. Well, how long before that kicks in?"
"Depends on the crime," she said. And as he considered this, she added, "the worse the crime the longer the statute of limitations."
"What's the worst crime you can think of?"
"Killing your grandmother?"
"Worse than that."
Kristi felt a tugging like the tides heading towards the lake and away from Douglas but he reached out a hand and rubbed her sleeve.
"I'm not fixing to do any harm to you. I just want an answer."
"We haven't gotten to that in Crim but I believe it's something like twenty years. For the worst crime I can think of."
"Aw, that ain't gonna be no help."
"Maybe you should go to Mexico," Kristi said, slipping towards the sidewalk but Douglas held firm onto her sleeve. "They don't have an extradition treaty."
"What's that?"
"It means they won't send you back to the States."
"I have relatives in California."
"We have extradition with California."
Dwayne stood at the end of the alley fingering his gun. Douglas relinquished Kristi's arm.
"Hey, you want to take a look at my woman?" Dwayne asked Kristi, following her into the building. "Here, let me show you. What do you think?"
He pulled from his wallet a Polaroid of a naked woman with her legs spread around a bottle of Courvoisier.
"See, this is why I don't have to think about jumping," he said. "And it's also why you don't have to worry about me when I say I'm watching out for you. Because you are way out of your league with this group and I don't want to see you hurt."
"I know both of those things to be true."
"Just so you do. People here are dangerous."
And that's when Kristi first gave any notice to Mrs. Vander Leyden. While she could believe the rent boys, the crazy mutterers, the ex-cons, and Mr. Hancock were dangerous, she couldn't imagine Mrs. Vander Leyden being any trouble whatsoever.
On the Monday before Thanksgiving, when it was still nice enough to walk to the school in her jeans and a t-shirt, with a just in case sweater in her backpack, Kristi was intrigued by a crowd held behind velvet rope at the Park Hyatt entrance. The Park Hyatt was a magnificent hotel equidistant from the Lawson and the law school and Kristi was saving her money for a Christmas brunch there. Several well dressed men hovered around a black limousine festooned with two British flags on its hood. Kristi watched for several minutes from across the street—mindful that Professor Rahl had said that if she were late for one more Antitrust lecture he would drop her grade a full letter.
The Prince emerged from the hotel. He was shorter than Kristi expected, but trim and his suit jacked sported a few medals. He accepted two bouquets from children in the crowd. He shook hands with some of the onlookers and smiled pleasantly at the photographers.
Mrs. Vander Leyden stood at the outer reaches of the crowd, positioned near the front hood of the limousine. The Prince turned to make a few remarks, none of which could be heard from across the street. Then he got into the limousine. Mrs. VanderLeyden fell to a curtsey that was not quite worthy of a Texas debutante and yet quite worthy of an American citizen paying homage to a foreign potentate. She remained in that position until the limousine had disappeared into traffic and the crowd had dissipated. Then she rose with a solemnity of a woman who had been in the presence of a miracle.
Kristi decided in that moment that she liked Mrs. Vander Leyden, although she did not—at that time—know her name. That she had to ask Dwayne about.
"She comes from money," Dwayne added. "It had to have been there. Check out her shoes. They're old, they need to be re-soled, but they're Ferragamo. Salvatore Ferragamo. He's big in Italy. And she always wears gloves and the hat. That's old school. But crazy. Definitely. Why else would she stay? Anybody sane with a wallet would get themselves the hell out of here."
Kristi had been raised a Methodist, then sort of fell out of the habit. But the five fifteen mass at Holy Name was a short one and the relief priests had interesting homilies. The first time she took communion the priest hesitated, holding the wafer until she remembered to say "amen" to the body of Christ. She read the order of service and got to be pretty adept at some parts of the Nicene Creed and at mumbling through the parts she couldn't memorize. There was a regular dozen that came to the service and Mrs. Vander Leyden was one of them. Once, when Kristi tried to say "peace be with you" to her during the course of the service, Mrs. Vander Leyden declined to acknowledge her.
It was the Advent Season. On the steps of the church, as Kristi paused to watch the first snowflakes swirl liked fireflies around the streetlights, Mrs. Vander Leyden walked past her, clutching her black patent leather purse to her chest and muttering a vicious incantation.
"The law student, the law student, she breaks every law in the books!"
There are people who shrug off the inexplicable, the strange. They can hear something directed at them and deflect it, perhaps even laugh at it. Kristi was not one of these people. She stood at the church, watching Mrs. Vander Leyden walk across the street. The older woman paused only once, decided against entering the Stop N'Drink, quickened her pace as she crossed the alley next to the Lawson, and then finally disappeared into the brightly lit foyer.
Kristi stood for so long that the priest, readying to lock up for the night, stepped outside and asked her if she was all right. She said she was and then she covered the same trail as Mrs. Vander Leyden before her. When Dwayne asked if she were all right, she repeated that she was. She picked up her mail. There was a red envelop postmarked Palm Springs, California.
"Law student! Hey, law student! Come here, I have some interesting new developments to tell you about!"
Mr. Hancock's voice was not rhythmic or steely as Mrs. Vander Leyden's, but now the words "law student" spooked Kristi and when the elevator delivered her to the eighth floor she kept one hand braced for a quick exit if Mrs. Vander Leyden were to ambush her.
But the hall was empty.
She went to her room.
She slipped off her jacket and put the red envelop on the desk in front of her.
While her first impulse was to rip up the card and her second to cry, Kristi implemented the third impulse. She put her hands out onto the desk. Putting pressure on the pinkie finger of her left hand, she said "I'm in law school."
Then she pressed down the ring finger of her left hand while saying "I'm going to make a good living when I get out of law school." Putting pressure on the middle finger of her left hand, she reminded herself that she had enough money to buy food. The index finger was about the guy in Civ Pro—Andy–who had asked if she would share her notes from two Antitrust classes he had missed. Maybe he liked her. The thumb was that she had enough money to buy a lipstick from Clinique and they were having a gift with purchase at the Marshall Field's and she could go there tomorrow if she wanted. Onward through the right hand the litany of blessings but the effect on her mood didn't last as long as she would have liked. She decided to take a shower. She gathered up her soap, towel, toothbrush, body lotion and a razor.
Mrs. Vander Leyden stood across from her door, leaning against the wall. Her glasses were like twin pale moons set on a black sky.
"Good evening," Kristi said. She walked down the hall towards the communal showers.
"The law student, the law student, she breaks every law in the books," Mrs. Vander Leyden chanted. "The law student, the law student."
Kristi had had no trouble, or not much, since starting law school. This was trouble.
Kristi closed the door to the showers and even though it was not the custom on the eighth floor, she locked it behind her. After an unsatisfactory shower, she braced herself to find Mrs. Vander Leyden lying in wait.
The hall was empty.
Mrs. Vander Leyden played a large role in Kristi's habits during the Advent Season. No more going to mass because Kristi was afraid Mrs. Vander Leyden would disrupt a service which she did the day after the red envelop was delivered. Nor would Kristi buy beer at the Stop N'Drink because she wasn't sure that Mrs. Vander Leyden might not be cashing a check. Kristi took the stairs rather than the elevator and she didn't linger at Dwayne's desk in the afternoons. Still, Mrs. Vander Leyden appeared not even just outside Kristi's door, but also at odd places where Kristi had never before seen her—at the coffee shop, at the park, and, most disturbing, at the vendor truck outside the law school.
Each time, Mrs. Vander Leyden chanted her curse until Kristi found an escape.
Now, the Lawson provided daily maid service just like any fine hotel. The eighth floor's maid was named Alyce and she entered every eighth floor resident's room more or less every twenty four hours in order to ascertain that rent checks would be forthcoming because certainly the dead cannot pay. New towels were handed out on Fridays but only if the towel used in the previous week was laid on the floor outside one's door. Sheets were changed every other week. And there was a random vacuuming, but nothing to keep a calendar by.
The Friday before Christmas, Kristi returned from her last final and was followed from the stairwell to her room by Mrs. Vander Leyden. Alyce was changing the sheets in Kristi's room and there wasn't enough space for the two of them—and this is not a comment on Alyce's avoir dupois. Nonetheless, Kristi closed the door to Mrs. Vander Leyden and got up on top of the desk to give Alyce room to do her job.
"What am I going to do?" Kristi asked.
"She's a crazy one, she is. She got into it with me, this would have been three years ago, and you know what? I don't ever ever ever go in her room. She could be dead in her sleep for a week and the only way we're going to find out is when I smell something terrible from under the door. Something smelling more terrible."
"But what do I do?"
"To make her stop going off on you?" Alyce asked. "I have no idea. Maybe you just got to learn to live with it."
"That's what Dwayne says. But I can't."
"Then maybe you got to move out."
"I don't have any place else to go."
"Well, that's why any of us are here."
As Alyce waddled out of the room, she put her hand very briefly—and not just to support her weight—on Kristi's shoulder.
"She's not out there."
"But she'll be back," Kristi said.
After Alyce left, Kristi sat down proper at her desk and the ten fingers were counted: I'm finished with finals. I think I got a good grade in Antitrust. I've been invited to my Contracts Prof's Christmas party. I have a study date with Andy.
But she couldn't finish. The prospect of Mrs. Vander Leyden appearing at the doorway of her Contracts professor's house was enough to derail even the most heartfelt shout out of thanks to the universe. She spent the rest of the evening reading the same page of a P.G. Wodehouse novel.
On the following morning, Kristi woke up to a miserable wailing from outside her room.
It could have been somebody injured—in October, a woman had come back to the Lawson after having been shot in the shoulder and she had sounded something like this. Oh, how Alyce had complained about the blood on the carpet!
It could have been an animal, but it would have to be a large one for the sound it was making.
Kristi put her head under her pillow and wondered when Alyce was going to start shouting for help.
And then she remembered that it was Christmas Eve. Alyce had the day off and the next day. Many of the women on the floor had gone to relatives or friends. It might even be just Kristi left behind. She picked up the phone and dialed the switchboard.
"I'm not sending anybody up there unless you tell me what it is," the operator said.
"I don't know."
"Yeah, well, there it is."
The howling continued after the operator hung up. Kristi was no hero. She wasn't brave. She wasn't particularly curious—the satisfaction of curiosity being, in her experience, disappointment. But she opened the door and looked out into the hallway.
The howling was Mrs. Vander Leyden, crouched on the floor directly in front of the open door to her room. She wore a nightgown that had once been white and once had lace. She pulled her hands away from her face as Kristi warily approached. The two women stared at each other, although it was clear to Kristi that Mrs. Vander Leyden couldn't see at all without her glasses.
"Mrs. Vander Leyden, what's wrong?"
"Who are you?"
"I'm . . . the law student."
"I can't see. I can't find my glasses. Help me."
"I'll find your glasses, Mrs. Vander Leyden."
This is the part of this Christmas story where there are cockroaches. A large number of them. A writhing, living bulbous intrusion on the wall was the first thing Kristi saw and she thought "this is where they all come from". Then there were the newspapers, stacked from floor to ceiling and tied with twine—and cockroaches skittered between pages and around the stacks. How Mrs. Vander Leyden negotiated with the newspapers and the cockroaches was a mystery as Kristi could see no desk, no chair, no nightstand, no bed. The glasses were on top of a stack of papers that seemed to be church bulletins from several decades gone.
"Here they are," Kristi said. She helped the glasses into Mrs. Vander Leyden's shaking hands.
Mrs. Vanderleiden put them on and goggled at Kristi.
"Bless you! Bless you!"
Mrs. Vander Leyden grabbed Kristi's hands and pressed them to her lips.
"It's all right, really, it's all right," Kristi said.
She helped Mrs. Vander Leyden get to her feet.
"What did you say your name was again?"
"That's a lovely name."
"Thank you. Merry Christmas, Mrs. Vander Leyden."
"Merry Christmas, Kristi," Mrs. Vander Leyden said.
Then Mrs. Vander Leyden entered her realm of cockroaches and paper. She closed the door. Kristi went back to her own room. The red envelop was still on her desk. It was early. Officially, she should wait until the next morning. But this was as good of a time as it was going to get and it would have to be done. She sat down and opened it.
Inside was a Christmas card, all right. Pale blue with a little boy holding a song book. There was a little bit of glitter and a background of snowflakes. On the inside, the inscription read "Tis the season, wishing you a joyous Christmas" and the signature was "love, Mom" with the word love smudged as if there had been some misapprehension placed into its four letters.
Kristi put her hands out on the desk. She realized she was smiling.
She put pressure on all ten fingers and said "I found Mrs. Vander Leyden's glasses."