text: The Friends of the Nicholson Memorial Library System will conduct its Spring Book Sale at the South Garland Branch Library, March 17, 18 and 19. Shoppers will find great book bargains on a wide variety of adult and children's books, fiction and nonfiction, paperback and hardcover, reference books, and puzzles, as well as videos, DVDs, audiobooks, computer games and more. Special sale sections may include Coffee Table Books, Readers Digest Condensed Books, Boxes of Books, and other surprises. On Thursday, March 17, from 5:30 to 8:30 p.m., the Book Sale will be open only to members of the Friends of the Nicholson Memorial Library System and Garland area teachers (with school ID). Public Book Sale dates are Friday and Saturday, March 18 and 19, from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. each day. The South Garland Branch Library is located at 4845 Broadway Blvd., at Oates Rd., in Garland. Admission to the Book Sale is free. For more information call 972-205-2543, or email email@example.com.


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Just got through watching a 60 minute story on Benghazi, and thought they made an attempt to tell what happened over there. How in the hell did we let the administration off the hook for flat out LYING to us? American's have become a bunch of candy asses and wimps! How do we have an embassy in al-quida's front yard and have no security? Why has it taken so dam long for the media to put a story out there about it?(half-assed as it was). Why was Hillary not FIRED for this?
Sorry for the rant, I'm just still mad as hell about this. Can't believe there aren't millions more out there that aren't.
Semper Fi regards.

subset: commoncrawl


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So, my players survived the seige of Redgorge, and w are planning to start chapter 7. Now, when they return to Cauldron, what should happen before the assassains hit them. I am sure they will go looking for Vhlantru and for answers about the seige...
How did any of you who have run it before handle this?
I'm trying to remember. I think when the approached Valantru he was in a near stupor that the Lord Mayor was gone and claimed that Taskerhill (the bard leader of the Stormblades dad - I'm struggling to remember names) was petitioning the rest of the council to appoint him as the new Lord Mayor and no one would dare oppose him. The party then actually 'convinced' Valantru to put his name forward and try and stop Taskerhill. In a drunken act of bravardo, Valantru agreed as long as he had the backing of the party. When the party returned later, Valantru had miraculously won the election with the doubting members of the council influenced in no small part by the backing of the all conquering heroes.
Valantru banished the Half Orcs from the city and all seemed well...
Oh, that's beautiful dd.
Yes it was only after he claimed power and the party discovered that the half orcs were guarding his noble estate during 'Lords of Oblivion' that it all began to click. Was one of the best player 'ah-ha' moments of the adventure for me, that and when the party cleric discovered that Bishop Shebeleth was a powerful villian after granting him control of her clergy, keep, funds and followers.
Its been a great adventure. I wish we had more time to play so I could see how the last part of the adventure unfolds with my changes.


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This story originally appeared in the December 9, 1986 issue of the Boston Phoenix.
AIDS is not a disease of homosexuals or intravenous drug users alone: it threatens millions of sexually active Americans regardless of age, gender, race or place of residence.--Newsweek, November 24, 1986
I really haven't accepted the fact that it's something that can actually happen.--Boston Globe, November 12, 1986, quoting a 20-year-old
The news about AIDS just keeps getting worse. Just look at the latest newspapers or peruse the weekly news magazines and you'll be struck by the developing consensus of dire predictions and mushrooming fears about the future of AIDS in America. Ever since official AIDS projections for the next five years were released, in June, journalists and scientists have been busy creating a ghastly vision of the future.
Here is a commonly offered scenario: the year is 1991. Four million Americans are infected with the fatal AIDS virus, and as many as half of them will eventually develop the incurable disease. In this year alone, 54,000 citizens – homosexuals and heterosexuals, drug users and teetotalers – will perish from AIDS as it becomes one of the nation's leading killers, second only to heart disease. The high cost of treating AIDS sufferers is crippling the Medicare system, several major insurance companies have already been bankrupted, and the economy has plunged into deep recession. Every man, woman, and child in the country now undergoes regular AIDS testing and carries the results around on identification cards. Sex outside marriage is illegal. It is a felony for an infected person to have sex with a noninfected person. All pregnant women must submit to an AIDS test – if the results are positive, abortion is mandatory.
This futuristic nightmare that sounds like a combination of 1984 and The Andromeda Strain is now just a gruesome fiction. But there is a growing sense that this scenario, sketched out in the August 10 issue of the Los Angeles Times Magazine by Neil R. Schram, MD, chairman of the Los Angeles City/County AIDS Task Force, may be tomorrow's reality. Newsweek's November 24 cover story begins in strikingly similar fashion, with a future president declaring a national state of emergency to combat the virulent epidemic that by that time –1991—has taken nearly 200,000 lives and shows no signs of slowing its deadly advance.
Could this possibly come to pass? An increasing number of experts, eyeing a growing body of evidence, believe it could happen, particularly since so many people now potentially at risk are failing to heed the gathering storm clouds and are averting their gaze from a very disturbing set of facts, statistics and projections.
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The New Zealand housing market is currently experiencing an upturn. Until recently, the main action has been in Auckland, where there is a housing shortage caused by internal migration and a lack of new houses built in recent years, and Christchurch, where of course a large number of houses have been destroyed.
However, of late, the upturn has been broadening across the country. In October, house sales lifted in every single region and were a third higher than a year ago nationwide. And where sales go, prices tend to follow a few months later. Median house prices in Auckland have hit new highs, up 14 per cent in a year. Prices elsewhere have not moved as much, but the sharp lift in sales suggests they may start to rise more decisively as well.
The catalyst is not hard to identify: mortgage rates are near record lows. The floating mortgage rate is currently around 5.7 per cent, compared with double figures just four years ago. Statistically, one can forecast house prices successfully using just interest rates and population growth: what is happening now is entirely in line with the housing market's usual behaviour, even with net migration relatively weak.
The question is, how sustainable can the housing upturn be? Auckland house prices in particular are "overvalued" by traditional metrics, such as comparison with rents, or with incomes. And the rest of the country is hardly going for a song - the fall in house prices from their peaks has been minimal in most regions, while income growth in recent years has beenmodest.
Most importantly, households are already carrying a lot of debt on average: while some progress has beenmade in recent years, total household debt is still around 140 per cent of income, versus 60 per cent in the early 1990s. The Government owes a lot, too, making New Zealand a heavily indebted nation all up. There are natural limits on how much debt households will be willing to take on and how much foreign investors will be willing to lend to them.
With all this in mind, ANZ's view is that the current lift in the housing market will not defy gravity and become a bubble, but that it will self-correct. The increase in Auckland house prices, which kicked the cycle off, is a classic and necessary development given a mismatch of demand and supply, and it is succeeding in doing its job, namely spurring a supply response. The number of listings with Barfoot & Thompson in Auckland (roughly 40 per cent market share) is up 25 per cent versus a year ago, and the number of consents for residential dwellings in the region is 12 per cent higher than a year ago. These developments should see house prices find their level before things get "silly". The Reserve Bank will certainly be hoping so. The last thing they want to have to be doing is popping a housing bubble at a time when the broader economy is far from booming and the currency is already so high, as higher interest rates could push the New Zealand dollar still higher.
The main challenge for the New Zealand housing market - and quite possibly the broader New Zealand economy - over coming years will be growing Auckland and rebuilding Christchurch at the same time. It is inevitable that construction costs will increase (you might want to remodel your kitchen sooner rather than later). The question is by how much, and whether it will feed through into broader inflation pressures across the economy.
In part, this will depend on howmany builders and tradespeople return from over the ditch. The Australian mining construction boom is cooling rapidly, a development which could prove very well timed from New Zealand's point of view. But of course, new arrivals need somewhere to live, so it's a double-edged sword. But this is a story for another year. For now, inflation remains benign across the economy, thanks to the high currency, moderating wage growth, and a tepid retail sector.
We don't see this changing any time soon, and the Reserve Bank is not likely to raise interest rates before 2014, in our view. Indeed, evidence is mounting that the economy stalled completely in recent months, and this may well put pressure on the Reserve Bank to cut interest rates again. Economic indicators for growth further ahead look respectable, however, and so a cut is far from in the bag.
The housing market certainly doesn't appear to need one.
* Sharon Zöllner is senior economist at ANZ
This material is for information purposes only. You should seek professional advice relevant to your individual circumstances. While ANZ has taken care to ensure that this information is from reliable sources, it cannot warrant its accuracy, completeness or suitability for your intended use. To the extent permitted by law, ANZ does not accept any responsibility or liability arising from your use of this information.


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The Skillzys® Development League programs are designed to teach proper technique through training activities and then provide a game like environment where kids can Show Their Skills!
Our Skillzys® programs are designed to work with our DinoMites and The Future! programs to build on the skills learned in those classes while providing small sided games (3v3, 4v4, 6v6) to allow kids to play real games while learning how to become a great player!
U6 Jr Ball Masters
U8 Ball Masters
U10 Advanced Ball Masters
Elite Ball Masters
Skillzys® Playing Nights & Times
Registration Cost is $115. Deadline is March 31st, 2014!
Registration includes a uniform for the player.
There is a difference between technique and skill. All the technical skill in the world doesn't help players if they cannot put the technique to use under the pressures of actual game competition. Technique is learned, and that learning happens on the training fields. Skill is also learned, and the best way to develop skill is through practice in real game situations. Skillzys® facilitate parents and coaches to help their young players focus on this skill development, help encourage the attempt of this skill, and allow recognition of successful skill execution regardless of the final score in any youth soccer match. This focus, encouragement, and recognition help breed confidence, excitement, and passion for the game in all players, ensuring a positive youth soccer experience for all.
Think of Skillzys® as Boy or Girl Scout merit badges, but for sports.
With a similar size and feel of a typical credit card, Skillzys® are award-winning, high-quality, colorful, plastic bag tags depicting individual sports techniques, basic tactical ideas, or positive character traits. Young athletes earn Skillzys® by successfully executing a specific technique or tactic or by demonstrating a particular trait under the real-time pressures of match competition.