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To describe the development and assess the validity and reliability of the Collaborative Care for Attention Deficit Disorders Scale (CCADDS), a measure of collaborative care processes for children with ADHD who attend primary care practices.
Collaborative care was conceptualized as a multidimensional construct. The 41-item CCADDS was developed from an existing instrument, review of the literature, focus groups, and an expert panel. The CCADDS was field tested in a national mail survey of 600 stratified and randomly selected practicing general pediatricians. Psychometric analysis included assessments of factor structure, construct validity, and internal consistency.
The overall response rate was 51%. The majority of respondents were male (56%), age 46 years old and above (59%), and white (69%). Common factor analysis identified 3 subscales: beliefs, collaborative activities, and connectedness. Internal consistency reliability (coefficient α) for the overall scale was 0.91, and subscale scores ranged from 0.80 to 0.89. The CCADDS correlated with a validated measure of provider psychosocial orientation (r =−0.36, p <0.001) and with self-reported frequency of mental health referrals or consultations (r =−0.24 to r =−0.42, p <0.001). CCADD scores were similar among physicians by race/ethnicity, gender, age group, and practice location.
Scores on the CCADDS were reliable for measuring collaborative care processes in this sample of primary care clinicians who provide treatment for children with ADHD. Evidence for validity of scores was limited. Future research is needed to confirm its psychometric properties and factor structure and provide guidance on score interpretation.
The current mental health system for children has been described as fragmented and inefficient.1,2 The President's New Freedom Commission on Mental Health has called for better coordination of mental health services.2In this groundbreaking report, fragmentation in the mental health system was identified as one of three obstacles preventing Americans from receiving excellent quality mental health care. The current system was viewed as inefficient and poorly integrated, and the commission called for a fundamental transformation in how mental health care is delivered. This proposed transformation would need to involve better collaboration between the physical and mental health systems to bridge the current gap.
Collaborative care, which seeks to bridge the gap between systems, has been defined as primary care clinicians, specialists, nurses, and other professionals along with family members developing a shared definition of a patient's problem, targeting goals, developing a comprehensive treatment plan, and supporting and problem-solving to optimize adherence and follow-up.3 Collaborative care involves the coordination of services and resources among providers and families to maximize children's potential and provide optimal care.4 Unfortunately, few instruments exist to measure collaborative care, and most of these have limited use in primary care settings.5–7 First, they are based on a theoretical framework known as Systems of Care, which espouses a core set of values and principles deemed important in the publicly funded mental health system.7–9 This framework, however, does not routinely involve primary care in the treatment of children with serious emotional disorders.10 In addition, they assume that collaborating agencies are publicly funded and include measures of interagency administrative and financial ties.5, 6 However, most primary care clinicians are employed by private or hospital-based practices that do not have administrative or financial relationships with public agencies.
In this paper, we describe the development of a novel instrument, the Collaborative Care for Attention Deficit Disorders Scale (CCADDS), which is designed to measure collaborative care processes for children with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) who receive treatment in primary care. In addition, we assess the psychometric properties of the CCADDS using a national survey of primary care pediatricians. If evidence suggests that scores are valid and reliable, the CCADDS may assist clinicians and health care organizations to measure collaboration for quality improvement initiatives in ADHD management.
The CCADDS was adapted from the Interagency Collaboration Scale (IACS) Version 5.1, a provider self-report instrument developed to measure collaboration among community agencies who serve children with serious emotional disorders.5, 6 The IACS was developed based on a literature review of Systems of Care principles; face-to-face interviews with community mental health service providers, case managers, and administrators; and review by an expert panel. The IACS has undergone field testing with samples of respondents from community mental health agencies. Based on the results of factor analyses, the IACS v.5.1 contains 31 items organized into 3 domains: values, activities, and connectedness. Responses for items were scaled using a 5-point response rating. Psychometric properties including test-retest reliability (r = 0.78 to 0.86), internal consistency (α = 0.72 to 0.97), and concurrent validity with the Systems of Care Practice Review (r = 0.32 to 0.56) for the IACS and its subscales were adequate in study samples.
Items for the CCADDS were derived based on a review of the literature regarding the coordination of care for children with ADHD,11–22 and from information derived from focus groups conducted with primary care pediatricians, teachers and school staff, therapists, and parents of children with ADHD.23 Nineteen new items, drawn from the literature review and focus group study, were added to the IACS to create a 50-item instrument with four proposed domains: beliefs, activities, individual connectedness, and group connectedness. One IACS domain, connectedness, was divided into individual and group connectedness, since focus group themes suggested the importance of collaboration at the organizational and individual provider level. Six existing items from the IACS were similar to items identified from the literature review and focus groups but were revised to reflect ADHD-specific content. Responses for all items were scaled using a 5-point response rating (1 = not at all, 2 = little, 3 = somewhat, 4 = much, 5 = very much).
The scale was pilot tested for readability, clarity, and content using a mail survey of 50 primary care pediatricians from a metropolitan community. Results of the pilot test (response rate 60%) were reviewed by a local expert panel consisting of a general pediatrician, developmental/behavioral pediatrician, child psychologist, child psychiatrist, and an adolescent medicine physician. Individual items were examined for clarity, content, and appropriateness for primary care management. Based on group consensus, nine items were dropped due to poor content or lack of clarity. In addition, some items were retained but were revised to improve clarity or content appropriateness. The revised CCADDS therefore consisted of 41 items organized into 4 domains for ease of completion with higher scores reflecting more positive collaborative care attitudes and practices.
The CCADDS was field-tested using a national mail survey of practicing general pediatricians. Pediatricians were identified using the American Medical Association's 2004 Directory of Physicians in the United States.24 This directory contained the listing of over 800,000 practicing and retired physicians in the U.S. In the directory, physicians reported their medical specialty, their address, and year of graduation. To be eligible for participation in the survey, physicians must have self-identified as pediatricians and had contact information (address ± telephone number) available in the directory. Pediatricians were excluded if they were retired or in specialty care practice.
Physicians in the eligible sample (N = 53,789) were stratified into 4 geographic regions to produce a nationally representative sample. Approximately 150 pediatricians from each region were randomly selected using computer-generated random numbers to achieve an initial sample of 600 (Figure 1). Eligible physicians were mailed a questionnaire, recruitment letter, declination card, self-addressed stamped return envelope, and an American Express gift certificate ($10). If physicians did not respond, two additional mailings and a telephone call were placed at approximate 2 week intervals. If surveys were returned unopened and no forwarding address was included, these subjects were excluded as ineligible and an additional eligible physician from the same region was randomly selected to replace them. We excluded and did not replace physicians who responded and indicated they were retired or in specialty care practice.
Pediatricians completed a questionnaire that contained questions on demographic characteristics, mental health activities, the modified Physician Belief Scale (PBS), and the CCADDS. Demographic characteristics sought included age, gender, race/ethnicity, years in practice, practice location, and the average number of patients seen per week. Mental health activities included four questions developed ad hoc regarding the frequency of co-located mental health providers in primary care practices, consultation with mental health providers, referral to mental health providers, and receipt of referral information from mental health providers. These questions were piloted for clarity and readability during the initial pilot testing of the CCADDS. The frequency of each of these activities was measured using a 4-point rating scale (always, often, sometimes, never) where lower scores indicate a greater frequency of self-reported activity. The modified PBS is a validated 14-item scale that measures physician psychosocial orientation.25 Scores range from 14 to 70 with lower scores reflecting better psychosocial orientation. The PBS contains two subscales, beliefs and burden. The beliefs subscale assesses a provider's attitudes toward mental health issues, e.g. "my patients and/or their caregivers do not want me to investigate psychosocial problems". The burden subscale assesses a provider's sense of burden in providing mental health treatment, e.g. "one reason I do not consider information about psychosocial problems is the limited time I have available". Physician psychosocial orientation as measured by the modified PBS and frequency of mental health activities were included in the questionnaire to assess their correlation with collaborative care.
Summary statistics including means, standard deviations, and proportions were ascertained for individual items and for overall and subscale scores. The percentage of missing data was determined for each item. In addition, the percentage of respondents with the lowest possible score (floor effect) and the highest possible score (ceiling effect) was determined for each subscale.
Exploratory factor analysis of the correlation matrix was conducted on the overall scale to determine how items aggregated together as factors, since the factor structure of this instrument had not been previously determined.26 Scree plots, which graph eigenvalues versus factor number, were used to visually determine factor number.27 The inflection point where the graph turns horizontal was considered to reflect diminishing increases in eigenvalues for corresponding increases in factor number and represented the appropriate factor number. Factor solutions were rotated orthogonally (Varimax) and obliquely (Promax), and the rotation that produced the highest number of salient loading items (λ ≥ 0.30) with the fewest multiple loading items, i.e. items that have salient loadings on more than 1 factor, was sought. We also examined the hyperplane count, i.e. the number of loadings between +0.10 and −0.10, and sought the rotated solution with the highest hyperplane count. Non-salient items or multiple loading items were dropped from the scale to obtain a simple structure.
Internal consistency reliability of the CCADDS and its domains was estimated using Cronbach's Alpha (α), a measure of the average split half correlation among all possible combinations of items.28 An α coefficient of at least 0.70 has been recommended for group comparisons, and an α coefficient of at least 0.90 has been recommended for individual comparisons.29 Item-total correlations were examined and represent the correlation of individual items with the sum of all other items in the scale.30 Items with low item-total (r<.20) correlation were dropped from corresponding subscales, since low item-scale correlation suggests poor correlation with other items in the scale. Intercorrelations among subscales were examined to see how closely subscales related to each other.
Construct validity, i.e. how well a scale's scores move in hypothesized directions, of the CCADDS and its subscales was examined by correlating its scores with PBS total and subscale scores and with measures of the frequency of mental health activities.30 We hypothesized that collaborative care would be associated with physician psychosocial orientation, since data suggest that greater psychosocial orientation may be associated with clinician decisions to jointly manage behavioral problems with mental health providers.31 We also hypothesized that collaborative care would be associated with self-reported frequency of collaborative mental health activities such as referral and consultation. To assess construct validity, we correlated the CCADDS total and subscales scores with those of the modified PBS using Pearson correlation coefficients and with the frequency of reported mental health activities (co-location of services, consultation, referral, and information receipt) using Spearman correlation coefficients. We adjusted p-values for multiple comparisons using Sidak's correction.32, 33 We designated correlations as small (r 0.10–0.29), medium (r 0.30–0.49), and large (r ≥ 0.50).34
Discriminant validity of the CCADDS was assessed by comparing scores among groups of subjects thought to be similar or different in their collaborative capabilities. We compared scores among groups stratified by race, sex, age group (≤ 45 years, >45 years), and practice location (urban, suburban, rural) using t-tests and one-way ANOVA. We adjusted for multiple comparisons involving scale and subscale scores using a Bonferroni correction which resulted in subsequent p-values of p<0.003 as representing statistical significance.35 We hypothesized that scores would be lower for subjects who practiced in rural communities, since rural communities may have fewer mental health resources. We hypothesized that scores would not differ by sex, race, or age group, since there was no published information on differences by these characteristics. Factor analysis was performed using SAS version 9.12 (SAS Institute, Carey, NC), and remaining statistical analyses were performed using Stata version 8.0 (Stata Corporation, College Station, TX).36, 37 The study received approval by the Institutional Review Board at The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia.
Of the initial mailing to 600 eligible pediatricians, 100 were returned unopened without a forwarding address and were replaced. The overall response rate was 50.5% (Figure 1). We excluded 61 respondents (10.2%) who reported being retired or in specialty care practice and two respondents who completed the demographics portion of the questionnaire but did not complete the CCADDS. Non-respondents included 43 (7.2%) who returned declination cards and 254 (42.3%) who never responded. Respondents did not differ (p>0.05) from non-respondents with respect to gender, years in practice, or region of the country. Participation rates by region varied from 47.3% to 53.4%, but differences in these rates were not significant (p>0.05).
Demographic characteristics of respondents are shown in Table 1. Respondents were predominantly male, older than 45 years old, white, and practiced in suburban communities. There were few Hispanic or African-American respondents. They reported on average 16.6 (SD ± 9.6) years of practice experience and saw on average 103.2 (SD ± 52.7) patients a week. Their mean PBS subscale scores were 13.1 for beliefs and 15.8 for burden, which were similar to pediatricians who participated in the Child Behavior Study, a large nation-wide study of primary care clinicians (mean beliefs score 12.8, mean burden score 15.3).25
The Scree plot generated from exploratory factor analysis suggested the presence of three or four factors. The addition of factors after the fourth resulted in a relatively horizontal downward sloping line. The 3- and 4-factor solutions were examined for plausibility. The 3-factor solution was selected, since it resulted in a plausible factor structure, in which items corresponded to beliefs, activities, and connectedness domains as in the IACS. The 4-factor solution was not deemed plausible.
Thirty-four percent of the total variance among items was explained by the 3-factor structure. The 3-factor solution was rotated orthogonally (Varimax) and obliquely (Promax). The oblique rotation generated a greater hyperplane count (59 vs. 33) and a simpler solution with absence of cross-loading items than the orthogonal rotation. We therefore selected the oblique solution and dropped the four items without salient loadings to obtain an overall scale with 37 items and 3 subscales (beliefs, activities, and connectedness). Items in the beliefs subscale reflect attitudes and beliefs regarding the importance of collaborating with schools and mental health agencies. Items in the activities subscale measure specific activities that involve collaboration, e.g. developing referral arrangements or coordinating treatment plans. Items in the connectedness subscale measure how well clinicians or practices collaborate with community organizations.
The rate of missing data was low (0.4%) with individual items having at most 3 missing responses out of 240 respondents (Table 2). Overall, only 15 subjects (6.3%) had any missing items. There were no differences between those with and without missing items with regards to age, race, sex, practice location, and years in practice (p>0.05). We therefore assumed that missing items were missing completely at random and did not impute missing values. There were no floor effects. The beliefs domain had the highest ceiling effect with 4% of respondents reporting the highest possible score. Ceiling effects for the other two subscales were low (0.4%).
The internal consistency for all three subscales (α =0.80–0.89) and the overall scale (α =0.91) were good, suggesting that items within subscales generally were associated with each other. Corrected item-total correlations were in an appropriate range for all items (r >0.20). Selective removal of individual items did not improve the internal consistency of any subscales.
The CCADDS subscale scores were moderately correlated with each other. Correlation coefficients ranged from 0.31 for beliefs and connectedness to 0.51 for activities and connectedness, suggesting medium intercorrelations. The CCADDS total score and subscale scores had small to medium correlations with the PBS total and subscale scores in the expected direction with two exceptions (Table 3). The beliefs subscale of the CCADDS did not correlate significantly with the burden subscale of the PBS, and the activities subscale of the CCADDS did not correlate significantly with the beliefs subscale of the PBS. In general, the CCADDS total score correlated best with the PBS total score and with reported frequency of mental health consultation and receipt of referral information.
Intercorrelations between CCADDS total and subscale scores and reported frequency of mental health activities were examined (Table 3). CCADDS total and subscale scores correlated best with reported frequency of mental health consultations (r =−0.17 to −0.42) and least with reported frequency of on-site mental health providers (r =−0.05 to −0.22). Only the connectedness subscale scores and the total scores correlated significantly with all mental health activities. The beliefs subscale scores consistently correlated worse with mental health activities.
Discriminant validity of the CCADDS total scores among subpopulations of the sample was examined. As hypothesized, CCADDS total scores were not significantly different by sex, age, or race-ethnicity. Although we had postulated differences in CCADDS scores by practice location, there were no significant differences after adjustment for multiple comparisons.
The CCADDS was developed from a review of the literature, focus groups, and an expert panel and was adapted from a preexisting instrument designed to measure interagency collaboration. In this nationally representative sample, the CCADDS demonstrated evidence for score reliability and limited validity for measuring collaborative care processes. Exploratory factor analysis revealed the presence of three subscales. The low missing data rate indicates that pediatric providers can understand and respond to the items. The absence of significant floor and ceiling effects indicates that the instrument captures the range of possible responses. The internal consistency reliability of the scale and subscales was strong and surpassed the 0.70 minimum standard for making group comparisons, and the overall scale's internal consistency surpassed the 0.90 minimum standard for making individual comparisons. The CCADDS correlated in expected directions with a validated measure of physician psychosocial orientation and with self-reported frequency of mental health activities. Scores and subscale scores were similar among physicians by age, gender, race/ethnicity, and practice location.
The CCADDS overall and subscale scores correlated modestly to moderately in expected directions with other measures of physician psychosocial orientation and mental health activities with a few exceptions. First, the CCADDS beliefs subscale did not correlate well with the burden subscale of the PBS, frequency of on-site mental health providers, and frequency of receipt of referral information¨ It did correlate best with the beliefs subscale of the PBS. Second, the CCADDS activities subscale did not correlate well with the beliefs subscale of the PBS or with frequency of mental health referrals. This suggests that clinicians' attitudes toward collaborating with schools and mental health providers are related to their overall views toward mental health care. It also suggests that engaging in collaborative activities has less to do with their attitudes toward collaboration than with time pressures and other burdens they may experience. It is not clear why engaging in collaborative activities, which includes a question on developing referral arrangements, did not correlate better with frequency of mental health referrals.
Several limitations to these findings warrant discussion. First, our overall response rate of 51% was low for mail surveys in general but consistent with mail surveys of physicians. Asch and colleagues reported average response rates from physician mail surveys of 54%, similar to ours, but average response rates from non-physician mail surveys of 68%.38 In addition, we found no significant differences among respondents and non-respondents with regards to sex, years in practice, or region of the country. However, it is not clear if respondents differed from non-respondents in other important ways. Second, our absolute sample size was probably insufficient to conduct analyses of important population subgroups, particularly minority physicians. However, we incorporated a sampling scheme that allowed us to select a nationally representative pool of pediatricians and improve the generalizability of our findings. The study sample was similar to that of the Pediatric Research in Office Settings (PROS), a national practice-based research network administered by the American Academy of Pediatrics, except that our sample had a greater proportion over age 45 years (59% vs. 41%).39
Despite these limitations, our data suggest that measuring collaborative care in primary care settings is feasible. Efforts to improve behavioral health care collaboration in primary care settings can be augmented with validated instruments that measure how well collaboration occurs. Such efforts can be seen as responses to federal calls to improve the coordination of mental health care for children.2 The CCADDS scores demonstrated good reliability and validity in this nationally representative sample of practicing general pediatricians. This instrument may be of assistance to quality improvement efforts targeted at ADHD treatment in primary care settings, particularly for attempts to improve collaboration between practices and schools and mental health providers. Further study, however, is needed to confirm its psychometric properties and factor structure and provide guidance on score interpretation and responsiveness to change prior to widespread implementation.
This study was funded by a grant from the National Institute of Mental Health, K23 MH065696. We would like to thank Snejana Nihtianova, M.S., for her help in the statistical analysis and survey mailings. We would also like to thank Drs. Nathan Blum, Thomas Power, Josephine Elia, Donald Schwarz, and Flaura Winston for their participation on our expert panel and for offering suggestions for instrument development. Finally, we would like to thank Katherine Bevans, Ph.D., for her critical review of the manuscript.
Publisher's Disclaimer: This is a PDF file of an unedited manuscript that has been accepted for publication. As a service to our customers we are providing this early version of the manuscript. The manuscript will undergo copyediting, typesetting, and review of the resulting proof before it is published in its final citable form. Please note that during the production process errors may be discovered which could affect the content, and all legal disclaimers that apply to the journal pertain.
PubMed Central Canada is a service of the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR) working in partnership with the National Research Council's national science library in cooperation with the National Center for Biotechnology Information at the U.S. National Library of Medicine(NCBI/NLM). It includes content provided to the PubMed Central International archive by participating publishers.


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I reviewed this place a year ago, and loved it.
I still like it quite a lot, but there are some issues that need attention.
the pillows are wearing out and need to be replaced. When you can bunch up the pillow and squish it between your thumb and foreginer, and find there is no stuffing between them, the pillow is too thin. Fortunately, I had brought my own pillow. Perhaps, if I"d complained, they would have brought some other pillows, but the "standard issue" pillows should have more oomph than this.
The labyrinth that is the parking lot is a problem. On previous visit, I did not use it.
Please be aware, especially if you are coming from the US, that ALL hotels in Montreal have parking issues. The parking lots are typically too small, hard to negotiate, stalls too small, and as far as I know, no hotel will take responsibility for what goes on in them.
As Montreal hotel parking situations go, this one is not bad at all. The stalls are bigger than most, and are in fact quite adequate (I have a large car). The route in and out is problematic, as there is not enough room for 2 vehicle to simultaneoulsy round a turn, so one of them has to back up. This is a nuisance, but manageable once you are aware of it.
My complaint about the parking is that when we checked in, they did not advise us of the issues or how to deal with them. Apart from rounding the turns, the other issue is that the hotel parking is located on floors 1, 2, 3 and 6 (yes, 6) of the parking garage. We found out about this afterwards, in casual converation with the staff member who guided us and our trolley of luggage in and out of the parking garage. Even he, however, did not tell us there would be a gate in and out of the 6th floor that we would have to figure out how to negotiate. We managed to slide in under the gate by approaching it from the side, but on the way out we had to call for help. I appreciate that there are always problems with hotel parking in Montreal. I just think they need a communication plan to tell patrons how to deal with it.
Other than that the hotel continues to be good value, good location, and a good sleep, and I intend to return - with my own pillow.
- Official Description (provided by the hotel):
- The hotel Hilton Garden Inn Montreal Centre-ville operates as a full service hotel, with ample underground parking, steam bath, whirlpool, spacious exercise room, indoor roof top swimming pool and outdoor terrace with a fabulous view. ... more less
- Reservation Options:
- TripAdvisor is proud to partner with Booking.com, Expedia, Orbitz, Hotels.com, Travelocity, Priceline, Hotwire, getaroom.com, HotelQuickly, Cheap Tickets, TripOnline SA and Cancelon so you can book your Hilton Garden Inn Montreal Centre-ville reservations with confidence. We help millions of travelers each month to find the perfect hotel for both vacation and business trips, always with the best discounts and special offers.
- Also Known As:
- Hilton Garden Inn Montreal Centre-Ville Hotel Montreal
- Montreal Hilton

subset: commoncrawl


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Green Tea and Coconut Natural Body Scrub
Green Tea and Coconut Natural Body Scrub
Fair Trade/Organic Cane Sugar is a natural exfoliant that works to strip away dead skin cells. Organic Virgin Coconut Oil penetrates deep into pores for intense hydration and also is anti-fungal, anti-microbial & anti-bacterial. It is high in antioxidants with Vitamin E & K. It improves skins elasticity, heals capillaries, reduces age spots and wrinkles.
Matcha Green Tea is super high in antioxidants. It reduces inflammation and its deep green color equals high concentration of chlorophyll which helps to eliminate toxins. It boosts energy, while at the same time offering stress relief! Matcha naturally fights the signs of aging.
- 8 oz


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Megavideo Com
Megavideo.com: Optimal Movie Watching Online
The site's general information
If you are familiar with the MegaUpload, then you must have heard of the Megavideo. If not, you will come across it online, sooner or later. The site offers free video sharing online that will only require you to join as its member. What is more, you can upload your own video or collect movies or videos that you like and organize it with your account.
What is good with the site is that you have an option to use it for advertising and earn 100% giving a little fee to megavideo for the cost coverage. The site offers a premium membership that allows the user more privileges in video sharing and a lot more.
Features – Download/Upload/watching movie online
You can download movies, documentaries, films, shows and a lot more from megavideo. What is so wonderful with the site is that it has a lot of types of videos to offer. You can start downloading recent movies from theaters right away. And those films or sitcoms that are thought to have lost in time, megavideo have it in their data store for everybody's pleasure.
Download from megavideo usually is for premium users, but there are a lot of ways to do it for free. One way to download videos from this site is by using the video zilla, a megavideo downloader, to download video from the site for free. All you need to is to run video zilla and play the video from the megavideo. You will then see that video zilla is grabbing the megavideo film or movie or video clips. Click the checkbox beside the title then click the download button then wait for it to finish downloading.
Upload and watching movie
Uploads with megavideo is as easy as one two three. All you need to do is click the upload button. It will direct you to a page where you are going to put some video description like the title, tags, category and additional description. Once it is uploaded, the video will then be included in the My videos page where you can organize your own videos.
Watching the videos from megavideo is very easy. Just click the videos in the navigation bar where arrays of videos are being displayed. If you want to search for a video, just type the title of the video at the search textbox. You will then be presented with another video displays. Just click the video that you want.
Using megavideo is very elementary you won't get lost with the site's simplicity. To enjoy the videos more, you can always visit the site and join for free.


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Daikin Ventilation Systems
Modern buildings are subject to stringent requirements for energy efficiency, reducing the natural flow of air through a building and bringing unwanted side-effects including:
- Lack of fresh air and oxygen
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Kaskaskia College
Lewis and Clark Community College
Rend Lake College
Southwestern Illinois College
You must apply to the programs listed above. For more information about these agreements, please contact Engineering Student Services.
Academic Profiles | Curriculum Guides
Below are the academic profiles that outline each degree program's focus, career outlooks, and admission requirements.


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I've had the pleasure of trying some great phones and the HTC One M8 is no different. I call it the top model for the HTC brand. It is large and in charge(5.7 inches), vivid and bright. Fast too.
When I first got the phone I loved the way the subtle curve in the back fit my hand. Comparing it to the other big phone I reviewed, the Galaxy Note 3, this design is a bit thinner and more sleek. Still too big for one handed use and looks funny if you try and stuff it in your pocket but it isn't about looks, its about how it works!
Firstly as I started playing around with features and the like I noticed that the battery life was not good. It would go down 1 percent literally every 2 minutes. At first I thought I had a faulty unit. That would be a massive deal breaker for me. I ended up downloading the app Battery Doctor and that helped a lot to save juice. However, about 3 weeks into the review the phone had an OS update to the newest KitKat system. Immediately after this update the batter life was vastly improved. With the battery app and the update I wasn't having to charge at all, even after using navigation for a couple hours.
The COOLEST feature to me is the dual camera because it will give your photos a 3D style to the photo, you have to see this one to believe it!
Bottom Line: HTC M8 is great for my needs having a fast OS and great screen size. To put it in terms that most will understand, it is a sexy phone full of features, and I'd use it!
Buy It: The HTC One M8 is available at Verizon Wireless for $199 (with 2 yr contract) or $29.99 on the Edge program. Full retail is $599.


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Sherrybaby Trailer (2006)
"No one makes it alone." 08 September 2006 Drama 96 mins
After serving time in prison, former drug addict Sherry Swanson returns home to reclaim her young daughter from family members who have been raising the child. Sherry's family, especially her sister-in-law, doubt Sherry's ability to be a good mother, and Sherry finds her resolve to stay clean slowly weakening.
Watch the official Sherrybaby 2006 trailer in HD below or find more Sherrybaby videos on Vidimovie.


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Dr Amy Talbot & Associates is located at Suite 209 Q Central, 10 Norbrik Drive in Bella Vista, Sydney, just opposite Norwest Private Hospital.
Google Map
Public Transport
Bus route T64 has regular services running between Parramatta, Bella Vista and Rouse Hill throughout the day and stops outside the CircaRetail Shopping Centre and Norwest Private Hospital (both stops are within 5 minutes walk to the practice). The practice is also a short 5-10 minute walk from the 'Norbrik' T-way stop on Old Windsor Rd, which is serviced by bus routes T63, T65, T66, 740 and 715. Timetables are available online at www.cdcbus.com.au and www.hillsbus.com.au and by calling 13 15 00. The T-way connects to a number of local train stations, making the practice easily accessible from across Sydney.
Q Central has a number of free visitors' parking spaces available on the ground floor of the building. The car park sometimes gets busy during peak periods. At these times free parking is available in the surrounding streets or in the CircaRetail shopping centre car park, which is approximately a 5 minute walk away, and can be accessed from Norbrik Drive or Circa Boulevarde. Paid parking is available at Norwest Private Hospital (across the road from Q Central) for $4 an hour.
Dr Amy Talbot & Associates provides clinical psychology services to individuals and families in the Hills District including Acacia Gardens, Baulkham Hills, Beaumont Hills, Bella Vista, Castle Hill, Cherrybrook, Glenhaven, Glenwood, Kellyville, Kellyville Ridge, Kings Langley, Norwest, Quakers Hill, Rouse Hill, Stanhope Gardens, The Ponds, Winston Hills and other suburbs within the greater Sydney area.


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Ceton is one of the few companies that really has a foot firmly in the Windows Media Center world, and today they've released their new Windows Media Extender, the Echo, to the world, with the addition of Android support. Ceton's Echo stands out above current solutions like the Xbox 360 as much more approriate for an always-on, low-power device that you can set and forget.
The inclusion of Android is probably part of the explanation of the slight delay in production of the extenders, and an arrow pointing toward the future. With support of Media Center in Windows 8 Embedded in question, this gives Ceton the ability to continue to robustly support their platform in the future, while covering their existing customers are fully as possible. Hypothetically, any media based app currently available on Android — like Netflix, Amazon Instant, HBO GO, Vudu, or UltraViolet — should be supported. So if you've been hungering to extend your WMC experience, click the link below to get yours today.
Buy the Ceton Echo – Windows Media Center Extender now at Amazon.
Via: [Engadget]


text:
I used to think parenting was easy. I used to think I'd have five or maybe even six kids. I used to think I rocked at this whole parenting thing - that it was satisfyingly easy, even. And then God sent me Oliver. It's not that I don't love him as much as I love the others, or even that I like him less. It's not that at all. It's that with him, I'm forever finding myself having to teach things I never imagined I'd have to teach a child.
Like, for example, it's not OK to belly-buck your friend on the school field. Sometimes - I'm beginning to find - belly-bucking, because it hurts more than one might expect, can escalate to a full on wrestle match on the ground with your friend during recess. You may have intended to begin and end with happy, laughing belly-bucking, only to find yourself sweaty and dirty and being pulled along to visit the principal by a concerned teachers' assistant. Theoretically speaking, of course. If you are one of the lucky ones and you have a principal who understands your heart and the fact that you are a physical little boy who needs a physical outlet and who believes in you, you may well be OK. But not all principals have the requisite time or energy to get to know your beautiful heart and so, one might think, you'd be wise to learn early on to be less physical in your play. Are you reading between the cryptic lines yet?
With Oliver, we have to explain why it's important to be mannerly and patient. The other joykids understood these things instinctively when they were his age. Their own internal policeman informed them all on his own. With Oliver, we have to painstakingly walk him through why you shouldn't impatiently tell your friends off when you feel the first stab of irritation with them. He doesn't suffer fools gladly. Where Oliver is concerned, I don't wonder at his long-term success in life. I know he'll be a world-changer. I admire him and his indomitable spirit. He loves God and his family with a cement-like fortitude. No one can push him around on the inside. Oliver is an incredible person who insists upon doing things well or not at all. He's diligent, careful and he prides himself on his competence. He's smart in a way that has you always writing emails about his aforementioned intelligence to your mother, because you can't believe it sometimes and everyone needs a grandma to brag to with impunity.
But the journey between Oliver's adult self and the little six-year-old we see before us today is fraught with hills to be climbed and valleys to be carefully descended. But I have noticed that when you get to the top of one of the more daunting hills - one of the ones you where you wondered if you'd ever reach the summit - you notice that the air is clear and bracingly beautiful. You wonder if maybe you can't see to the ends of the Earth. There is real clarity there and because it's been hard-earned, it fills the lungs.
I adore my Oliver and I respect him so much. I've never liked anyone more. Shepherding his young heart isn't easy. But maybe the things in life really worth having are the things that require that you invest all of yourself. Who needs five kids, anyway?


text:
The Stench in Here is Terrible
The story is told of a young chemist who, one evening, accidentally ingested a droplet of an unknown fluid from one of his test tubes, the leftovers of a past experiment.
Within minutes his mind went reeling and he was subjected to not only the wildest hallucinations, but also what he felt were world-altering insights into the nature of the universe.
The next day, after the drug had worn off, he tried to describe his experience to his colleagues and friends, but could not find the words to do it justice. Everyone he spoke to shrugged it off as a particularly vivid dream and went about their daily chores.
Frustrated, the next evening he placed a larger drop on his tongue, intentionally this time, and entered into a mental state beyond his imagining; he seemed to grasp, with no effort on his part, the very nature of existence. He not only saw God, he realized that he was and always had been part of God. He understood holistically and simultaneously every scientific axiom and principle -- including ones that had not yet been discovered -- as all being aspects of a single unified theorem of the cosmos, a theorem which he could inspect at his leisure, as if he were holding it in his hand.
But the next morning, once again, he could not remember the specifics of his insights, and his attempts to recount his breakthrough fell on deaf ears; his fellow scientists could not make heads nor tails of what he was saying, and his friends remained unmoved at his futile ramblings about God and the universe.
The young chemist was convinced down to the deepest recesses of his soul that he was perceiving a new level of reality, and vowed to record his new awareness and bring it to the world, thereby ushering in a glorious new age for humanity. So on the third night he locked himself in his lab with a large notebook and his favorite pen, and pledged to write down all his insights as they occurred.
He took another drop. His mind expanded. And he started writing.
It was glorious! His visions and realizations were even deeper than those of the previous night, but this time around he was able to describe it all in real time as it was happening. His pen flew across the page, words tumbling from him like a waterfall, delineating in lush detail everything he saw and grasped. He laughed in ecstasy with each new brilliancy, and sobbed in gratitude that he was able to preserve it forever and thereby change mankind for the better.
When he woke up the following morning, he once again had forgotten the details of his experience, but this time it would not be lost. He leapt up and found his notebook on his desk. Heart pounding, so excited that he was short of breath, he opened the cover and began to read.
But the first page was blank.
As was the second.
Frantically, he began flipping through the pages: they were all blank, until he got to the very last page. There, in his own distinctive handwriting, but so small and cramped that he could barely read it, was the only sentence he had written all night:
The stench in here is terrible.


text:
Israeli Arab MP Azmi Bishara, a staunch opponent of Israel's policies towards the Palestinians and neighbouring Arab states, is set to resign from parliament, a report said on Monday.
Bishara, who is currently in Jordan to promote his latest book, "will tender his resignation from the Knesset (parliament) on Tuesday," the Israeli Arab-language Assennara daily said on its Website.
According to the report, which was denied by his party, Bishara will submit his resignation in a letter through "one of his colleagues."
However, his party, the National Democratic Assembly, or Balad, denied "the inexact and untrue reports."
Bishara left Israel two weeks ago to attend meetings and has remained abroad even though he briefly returned to Israel last week to attend a wedding, the report said.
The 50 year old entered the Israeli parliament in 1996 as the head of Balad which was formed following the Oslo accords between the Jewish state and the Palestinians.
He has travelled several times to Syria where he met with President Bashar al-Assad.
[1] http://www.albawaba.com


text:
Caboose Is Loose
- Artist: Loose Caboose Band
- Format: CD
- Release Date: 9/5/2000
|your cart is empty
Two brothers recorded their own songs that their families and neighbors had enjoyed forever. On the Loose Caboose they loaded pianos, guitars, trumpets, bodhran and doumbek drums, didgeridoos, and lots of voices. On board, you'll hear songs about your child's smile, the first kindergarten friend, Halloween costumes, and grandma's kitchen. The conductor offers a selection of styles - pop, rock, reggae, and dixieland. As the Loose Caboose pulls into the station, you'll run to buy a return ticket to dance and laugh again soon.


text:
Breaking News: MTN To Increase Browsing Tariffs
MTN Nigeria has announced planned increment in browsing rates, effective from December 1, 2016.
According to a message sent its subscribers this afternoon, MTN said the increment is to it reflect the new rates set by the NCC to operators.
The text message reads: "Dear customer, please be informed that from December 1, some MTN data tariffs will be increased to reflect the new rates set by the NCC to operators. Thank you."
The NCC data rate is still unknown at the time of filing this report.
tags: breaking news Browsing Tariffs


text: I have mentioned that I webmaster for a diver in the keys who has personally tried to "make a difference". For the last several year Ken has been experimentally growing staghorn coral on his live rock farm (among other experiments) and has become involved with NOAA, Mote and the National Marine Sanctuary to promote restoration. He recently received the Florida award for an individual impacting conservation. NOAA has determined the first place to plant his coral frags and the first harvest and planting started last Friday. http://www.sanctuaryfriends.org/news_display.cfm?newsid=64 If you are interested in seeing some of the other projects Ken has piloted, please visit the links page on the sealifeinc.net website: http://sealifeinc.net/catalog/links.php


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Come and chat to CURTIS SITTENFELD about SISTERLAND (and all her previous books), Tues 4 Mar 2014, 9-10pm(111 Posts)
Following the international success of her two previous bestsellers PREP and AMERICAN WIFE, Curtis Sittenfeld has been called the new Donna Tartt, the new Anne Tyler, the new Alice Munro (her own favourite writer). Her latest novel, SISTERLAND, is about a pair of twins, Violet and Kate, who both have psychic visions, or 'the senses' as they call them. As they grow up in their suburban, dysfunctional household, it becomes clear that Violet is going to be Bad Twin (drops out of school, can't maintain a relationship, embraces her ESP with relish) and Kate the Good Twin (gets married, has two children, completely denies her psychic powers in the hope of a 'normal' life). But when Vi predicts a giant earthquake will hit their town, the resulting publicity and fame forces both sisters to reconsider their attitudes. Vi is a brilliant character – funny, crazy, flaky. Kate's struggle with the daily joys and anxieties of motherhood and marriage is expertly observed. And over all this runs the ticking time-bomb of Vi's prediction and whether the earthquake will actually happen. A clever combination of the paranormal and the everyday ultra-normal, this is a wise, funny and highly enjoyable read from an author we might call the new Kate Atkinson…
You can find more on Curtis' highly informative website including her journalism.
Random House have 50 copies to give to Mumsnetters – to claim yours please fill in your details on the book of the month page. We'll post here when all the copies have gone. If you're not lucky enough to bag one of the free books, you can always get your paperback or Kindle version here.
We are thrilled that Curtis will be joining us and answering questions about SISTERLAND, her writing career and her previous novels on Tuesday 4 March, 9-10pm. ??So please feel free to discuss the book here throughout the month, pop up any advance questions and we will see you all here, Tue 4 March.
Ooh ooh, was thinking of recommending this as our next book at book club, so can't read the thread, but I'll be back!
Mumsnet - thank you for my free copy, it was much appreciated!
To everyone posting above who found Kate irritating with her perfect mother act - I think this was borne out of the character's genuine anxieties about her children which were rooted in her childhood and also, more interestingly, this reflects modern notions of parenthood in America. Even having one coffee and one beer per day whilst breastfeeding would seem quite devilishly carefree by the standards of many Americans.
Question for Curtis: I really admire how you relay a precise sense of time and place in your fiction; for example, Sisterland was peppered with references to strip malls, smoothies, stairclimbing (the exercise du jour in the '90s) and the presence or absence of email and cell phones which made me howl with recognition of the recent past (e.g. the formal, accurately punctuated emails between Vi and Kate in their first weeks of college). How do you decide which details of everyday life are worth including and which might be tedious or lack meaning for a broad audience?
Thank you very much for the book, much appreciated.
Posting my question now while it's fresh in my mind - was it a hard decision to give Kate the sole narrative POV, rather than sharing with Vi?
And How has becoming a mother yourself affected what you want to write about it and how you physically write?
Thanks to all who have posted their thoughts and questions so far. Do put any advance questions up here over the next week and we'll send them to Curtis on March 1st.
Don't forget you can ask questions about any of her books, so if you are a big fan of American Wife (one of my absolute favorites) or you'd love to know more about how she wrote Prep, then do ask about those too.
Looking forward to seeing you all here on March 4th...
I enjoyed the book a lot and read it really quickly. I can understand what everyone is saying about Kate, but I didn't find her irritating I just thought she was trying really hard to not be her mum.
I was expecting something more at the end though so was disappointed. I thought there would be something about their mum or dad's involvement in their senses and that was there way of looking after them all along.
I thought maybe it was implied that their dad was guardian....that he was giving vi the answers.... Is there anything in that CURTIS?
I bought a copy and have just finished it. I found the first four hundred pages really, really tedious- one more reference to nursing or naps and the book was going out the window- but I found real strength in the depiction of the adultery and its aftermath, and thought the book had a great ending, which is often the hardest thing to achieve.
My question for Curtis would be, was the constant reference or nursing, strollers, purée and naps deliberate in order to make Kate the cliche of a suburban housewife, and was it not a risk to give a single POV to someone who does nothing exciting until the last third of the narrative? And, although I think someone has already asked this, what made her decide just how much minutiae to leave in? I was also horrified by Kate's judgemental attitude and sanctimoniousness, and I have to say I felt a certain relish when she fell off her pedestal, but with so strong an ending it would have been nice for her to come to these realisations half way through, and then developed her post-adultery character further.
I would be interested to now try Prep or American Wife.
Found this quite hard going at times , too much detail and not enough going on in the book , although due to the premise of the book I felt compelled to stick with it to the end . Well written and good at scene setting especially the time changing from past to present day . The relationship between Vi and daisy is written beautifully with lots of details. Great unique idea of the twins having ESP and felt it could have been more exciting , fab book for those who love long detailed stories although felt the end was a bit of a let down. Not a page turner for me.
I just thought of a question after posting above. Why did Curtis decide to have Kate's daughter leave her nursery well before the truck incident? It might have been stronger if she had been currently enrolled when the incident happened, albeit part time
I've almost reached the half way point, and this morning read that Emma Hall, Violet's PR was British and had an accent which was "hard to understand" albeit when combined with her being on speakerphone and in a car with open windows.
What, exactly, is a "British accent"? I presumed what was meant here was a Home Counties Middle/Upper Class English accent circa 1940s (think Brief Encounter and other such films ). Common misconception that all British people speak like that. I don't, and I don't know anyone who does. It isn't the first time I've come across a comment like this in an American novel and it made me slam the book shut with annoyance.
There are many rich and varied accents in Great Britain, as there are in America, and everywhere else. For example, my late FIL, British but born and brought up in Jamaica, had a Jamaican accent all his life.
I'll get off my soapbox now, and put it away. Reading on with interest
Throughout the book, I found Kate to be submissive and never in control of making her own decisions. She tends to fall into situations/relationships and any decisions that she does make are often an impulsive response to something else. Her ultimate decision in sleeping with Hank and consequently becoming pregnant, leads her into a relationship with her husband where she becomes even more submissive. Would others agree with this?
Hi DottyDee and everyone,
I've been thinking about my earlier review and feeling guilty at being quite a harsh critic by my standards. I've been enjoying reading what everyone else thinks however.
I think DottyDee hits it on the head with the 'submissiveness' of the lead character - this is what got me going! But that means the author's done a great job of creating a believable character and this has to be congratulated.
I've heard great things about American Wife so will look out for it. Thanks again Mumsnet! Love this book club!
It took me a while to get into Sisterland. It's not a pacey book, but its exploration of the characters through present, past (and psychic vision!) really won me over. I actually stayed up far too late to finish the book when I was getting close to the end.
The relationship between the twins was really interesting. My guess about why they are twins rather than siblings is that bond holding them together is so much stronger (at least in people's perceptions!). However, it was the relationship with their mum and dad (particularly when you found out that their senses came from him) that made me ask more questions.
I can't stand that no fictional characters seem able to be faithful to their partner, so was disappointed at Kate / Hank, but guess it's a way of exploring the huge emotional letdown that Kate had around the earthquake, particularly with her husband away.
I thought the parts about motherhood rang really true. This is where, for me, Kate's character was at its most sympathetic.
Overall, I did enjoy the book and would return to the author's work again (but I was knackered the day after I finished it!!!).
Yes, Kate is quite a submissive character. I think that's why the relationship with her parents is so interesting. She seems to have a 'keep your head down and be normal' approach which is so different from her twin's.
DuchessofMalfi - totally agree about the 'British accent' - I'm from up north, my parents are Scottish and my little girl's got some west country twangs!!! To be fair, I'd use the term 'American accent' which would probably seem just as ridiculous across the pond!
I finished reading it this afternoon. Unfortunately I didn't enjoy it as much as I had hoped I would. The character of Kate annoyed me - it seemed all too easy for her to "forget about" her husband conveniently and sleep with Hank, her supposed friend. Why would she suddenly choose to do that? It seemed out of character.
All the way through I thought I didn't like Vi. Her alleged psychic powers made her appear odd. But by the end, I found myself liking her better - she was a strong character, answerable to no-one but herself, and not diminished by her perceived failed prophecy.
However, my thought about Vi's (and Kate's) prophecy of the earthquake was more to do with the upheavals in their own family.
So my question to Curtis Sittenfeld is - was the earthquake prophecy, to some extent, allegorical? Vi saw a disaster approaching, but it was personal to her sister. Kate, in choosing that particular date, had set herself on the path to self-destruction, and I wonder whether it would have happened anyway?
First book by Curtis Sittenfield that I have read. I found it to be slow in places, but enjoyed the characters, and found the plot interesting.
Thanks very much for my copy. I finished it last night at nearly midnight! Although it is not my usual choice of book I quite enjoyed it. I like Curtis' writing style and found it a comforting, easy read. It was quite a long book in terms of the plot panning out and I thought the characters developed quite slowly, but I didn't mind too much. I thought it was descriptive, but not in an annoying way, and I built up a good picture in my head of the twins and their surroundings.
*Spoiler**** the only disappointment to me was the ending. I quite liked Kate throughout the story (preferred Vi!), but when she chose not to tell Hank at the end, it really changed my opinion of her. I also felt Hank let go of his suspicions too easily and that Jeremy pretty much immediately accepted what she'd done and started planning their future, which was weird. It felt as if there was a massive build up to something that didn't happen and then they buggered off into the sunset pretty quickly. I think a more messy and protracted ending would've been more interesting. I also thought the daycare crash was hardly mentioned and really wanted Vi to have been right about something to validate her senses. I would've been happier if she'd had a second revelation that had come true publicly, for example.
One part of the book I did like was the bit where one second Kate was totally into shagging Hank and then when he started to take ages to come it immediately changed the situation and the way she was feeling. I thought that was very realistic and it made me feel sorry for her, as if that moment would have made her realise pretty quickly that the grass isn't always greener and fantasies should prob remain exactly that as the reality doesn't always match up.
As for a question for Curtis, for some reason, throughout the book I had Vi in my head as Melissa McCarthy! So I would be interested in who Curtis would visualise playing the characters should the book be turned into a film?
Just finished Sisterland and, on the whole enjoyed it. I was however deeply skeptical about the media interest and ability to believe the prediction of the earthquake as, in general those with psychic ability tend to be ignored at best and ridiculed more often so one voice would unlikely to be taken as gospel even of the person had "predicted" a couple of smaller in incidents and most of these can usually be attributed to probability. Example...you have a friend...or work colleague...or relative with the letter A in their name (looks at the persons body language as you say each slowly for a reaction..)...ah yes, relative...a brother...sister...yes sister...what's her name (Abigail interjects the person). Yes. Abigail...she's been happy / sad etc....eventually the person has enough information to guess the story but appear as if they have special powers. Observational powers perhaps but unlikely to be much more than that I'm afraid!!
Getting one person to believe is difficult but the skeptics would have a field day...
Like others, I felt the ending was rushed while other areas could have been amended (the medication mentioned by another reader being an example).
Hi Curtis, Can I sneak in a question about one of your other books? American Wife is one of my favourite books of all time and I'm really interested to know whether Laura Bush has read the book and what she thought of it?
Just a quick reminder to put all your advance questions up here, and don't forget you can ask about any of Curtis' books...
Stayed up late last night to finish the book. Overall I really enjoyed it and was surprised at how much I actually liked reading the day to day routine stuff which other readers seem to have found tedious! Quite early on I thought that there wouldn't be an actual earthquake but that personal worlds would be altered/broken/cracked (and any other earthquake related words). Can't make my mind up whether I like Kate or not...I think probably more not.....I don't think I sympathised enough with her to understand why she felt the need to cause such seismic waves in her and her family's life.....why would you want to hurt a man like Jeremy. There can't be many men who would accept the fact their wife wants to blow their money on a PR representative and have another mans child??? I know mine wouldn't!
However I will be passing the book on for others to read and will be purchasing a copy of The American Wife and Prep.
Thanks Curtis and Mumsnet.
I purchased this book on kindle. I'm new to Mumsnet and am simply THRILLED to join a book club. I'm a mum of twins and an author of children's books (and by bizarre coincidence have authored a fantasy novel about twins --although they are 13 year old boys and it's set in India)
I have also lived in the American Midwest for many years so a lot about this book resonated with me. I read somewhere that alice Munro is one of Curtis's favourite authors. I could see Munro's influence in Curtis's book. I liked the details that some saw as tedious although I do admit that at times, it felt a bit heavy handed. Mostly though, for me it actually slowed things down enough that it made it more suspenseful. My favourite character was Vi. I thought she was endearing and warm. Kate was well done too as a conflicted, somewhat repressed past-psychic. I would have loved some more information and detail on the kidnapping as well as the psychic phenomena Kate experienced. However, all in all a wonderful book, and the most amazing part for me was the relationship of the twins. I savoured it throughout. Lovely and thoroughly enjoyable.
Thanks very much for my copy of the book. I thought it was a gripping story and for me it was a page turner. The portrayal of all the relationships, especially the relationship between Kate and Vi, were the best thing about it. Their love for each other seems genuine. I see many of the previous posters found one or the other of them annoying, but for me their contradictions gave more depth to the characters.
I did have to suspend my disbelief sometimes, especially for the whole media storm around Vi's prediction.
I liked the use of detail in the book. All the stuff about childcare rang true for me. If that made it bit boring, imo that's true, sometimes caring for young children is boring.
Overall, even though there were a few niggles, I really enjoyed the book.
My question for Curtis is about St Louis. The setting of the story in St Louis is important for the book in many ways. I know nothing at all about St Louis, so all the detail about the neighbourhoods and the streets they drove on were lost on me. What made you decide to set the book there and what does St Louis mean to you?
Thank you for my copy.
I did enjoy the book and have added Prep and American Wife to my TBR pile.
One of my questions is the same as MrsSquirrel about the setting, St Louis.
I would also like to ask Curtis which authors she enjoys reading and if she can recommend any up and coming American writers?
Looking forward to the chat tomorrow night.
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text:
Prescott v. Georgia Department of Corrections et al
5:05-cv-00347 | Georgia Middle District Court
Interested in this case?With Docket Alarm you can:
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organic referrals traffic from 8 websites around the world. Middleeastdoctor.com servers are located in the United States.
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Middle East Doctor
Middle East Doctor.com is a comprehensive and professional listing site for doctors, hospitals, clinics and medical-related services across the region which makes it easy for patients to find medical specialists. Middle East doctor covers professionals in UAE (Dubai, Abu Dhabi), Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Iran, Kuwait, Lebanon, Oman, Qatar, Bahrain, Jordan, Syria and Iraq.
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text:
My hair flows long and wavy down upon my sturdy shoulders
but now glints silver, no more chestnut, for I never dye it.
My eyes, they shine and sparkle but they show the toll of living
reflected in their depths and in the tender skin surrounding.
My breasts are rounded, ripe and lush but not high like a showgirl's,
they've nursed a child tenderly and pillowed heads of lovers.
My arms are strong and caring but their firmness falters slightly,
the flesh is smooth and silky although not as taut as twenty.
My smile is wide and genuine but shows the lines of living,
a bit of blur beneath my chin betraying former sleekness.
Below my bellybutton puffs a ripple of new contours –
once flat and firm, now rounded some with time's seductive smearing.
My legs are long and limber, slender still but not rock hard
as they were once in days long gone – my thighs will envelope you.
And in the back my roundness spreads across my hips so softly
but much more independently than once it did – when was that?
My heart beats, warm and open, with the fire of youth and beauty
but flesh speaks true, cannot disguise the decades of my dying.
So, sorry, I'm not perfect. . .time erodes, sculpts and enhances
not always in the ways we wish.
And if this doesn't matter much then take me now
and be content with traces of my glory,
and know my heart is strong and true and never once will falter.
No toll of unkind time can ever its devotion alter.
© 2013 RC deWinter
Outer alteration, inner constancy.


text:
Home sellers don't always give you the full details of the property they are trying to sell. Unfortunately, hiring a professional inspector can get expensive if you are viewing multiple homes. Therefore, here are some things that are obvious even to a novice which can tell you not to buy the home.
Firstly, always look at the neighborhood. Are people seemingly leaving in a mass exodus? Talk to your potential new neighbors and ask what the area is like. Have a look at how the land is shaped. If you notice that the yard is on a downwards slope towards the property, the foundations could be affected by rain water. Use your nose: bad smells in or out the property are a bad sign. Look into whether there are pests. If there have been bugs or insects, people in the street are likely to know about it, so ask them.
Next, it is time to look at how the property was treated by the current owners. Find out whether it was maintained properly. If you find that the owners haven't look after the outside properly, the inside is likely to be the same. Also, look at the wiring. Real issues can only be identified by a qualified professional, but you can get a good idea yourself. For instance, flickering lights and hot or warm outlets are signs of a bigger problem. Similarly, if you notice that there is a single wall, or just a few walls that have been painted very recently, where others haven't, the owners may be hiding something. Check the windows. Look at whether the windows have mold or condensation or are hard to open; this could be a sign of expensive problems.If an owner declares certain rooms as "off limit", then go find a different home to buy. If you notice that walls have been changed or other structural work has been completed, you must find out whether this was done by someone qualified to do that type of work.
When push comes to shove, you are the only one who can work out whether or not you want to purchase a property. Plus, it is certainly true that a home with problems is often a home that can be sold at an even greater discount. You do have to ask yourself whether that bargain is worth the potential financial hassle you are putting yourself through. Whether you purchase a property as an investment or as a home, it is always going to be a building that somebody will live in, and you need to make sure that the quality of life in that property can be pleasant and enjoyable. Naturally, it is vital that you also check the property itself, but don't forget just how important the neighborhood actually is. All you really have to do in order to find out whether the property itself is any good is hire a property inspector. This is different than a neighborhood inspection, which really requires a personal opinion and feel, something that only you can do and decide upon.


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Ladies Only Kick Boxing 3.06 miles
Slimming World 4.73 miles
Home-Start Harrow volunteers needed 4.73 miles
Bump2Baby Fitness 7.36 miles
Coming along to a specialised postnatal fitness class, you'll be rest assured that your exercise session is both safe and effective for you and your baby (and really good fun too!). Suitable from your 6/8 week postnatal check Bump2Babys Buggy Classes combine different cardio for all levels with toning, strengthening, and fat burning exercises. Classes with Chloe not only help you lose that baby weight but also improve Core Stability and strengthen the Pelvic Floor with her specialised CORE RESTORE section.
Bump2Baby Fitness 7.36 miles
David Lloyd Hatfield 10.41 miles
Curves 10.76 miles
Panshanger Golf Complex 14.66 miles
R.E.D.I. TRAINING 15.16 miles
Advent Calendar Competition
This year we are bringing back our Advent Calendar Competition on our Facebook page! Each day from 1st - 24th December we will be running a task on the page and picking someone to win a prize bundle. With prizes from Our Little Globe, Stuck on You, Thermapen, Scentco UK, ToucanBox, HamaBeads, Orchard Toys, Pip Ahoy, Gotrovo and more, don't miss it!
Christmas Activities
If you are looking for ideas to keep the children busy throughout the Christmas holidays, or the kids want some ideas and inspiration for cards and gifts them take a look at our Winter KidsZone. Jam packed full of fun ideas that everyone can get involved in! Activities for indoors and out - some are messy, some are not! What are you waiting for?!?!


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Akali "League of Legends": Stills Ft Zalaria Cosplay
Crimson assassin, beautiful and deadly. Zalaria cosplay captured Blood Moon Akali's elegance, beauty, and deadly aspects like she's naturally born to do it!
When Zalaria Cosplay re-emerged on IGSP radar in 2015, I didn't waste any time contacting her for a shoot. Her beautiful cosplay, easy-going nature and her positive attitude made her a fantastic model to work with! She's willing to try new poses that are not typical to her character, and she nailed them beautifully! Zalaria Cosplay is definitely the one to watch in 2015!
Cosplay: Zalaria Cosplay
Photography: Nathan Tan
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Zalaria CosplayCosplayer / VIsit her page
My first official shoot with I Got Superpowers was with Nathan and he was an absolute dream to work with! I immediately felt comfortable with his casual attitude and his dedication to getting the perfect pose and feel of the character is wonderful. I had such a good time working with him and loved how he took the time to show me the shots so we could work out new ideas.


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Lexus upped its marketing level for the 2013 GS with a 30-second TV commercial spot for the February 5 Super Bowl game scheduled to be shown live in NBC. The commercial spot will hint that Lexus will launch more premium cars in the future. The commercial was created by Attik while overall GS launch advertising is led Team One.
The commercial could also be seen in a 15-second preview at Facebook.com/Lexus and YouTube.com/Lexus, the automaker said in a statement today. Scheduled to be shown at the live broadcast of the Super Bowl are commercials from Hyundai Motor America, General Motors, Volkswagen of America and Acura.
Hyundai has two spots during the broadcast, and a 60-second commercial before kickoff. Volkswagen has a 60-second spot for its 2012 Beetle. Acura has also gained a spot. GM, meanwhile, revealed it is working on five commercials for the Super Bowl, which may include Chevrolet Camaro, Volt and the Sonic, and the ATS.
Lexus introduced its new GS in California during the 2011 Pebble Beach Concours d'Elegance. It will be launched in early 2012 and will include the F-Sport and the hybrid versions. For the UK market, there will be the GS 250 petrol-engined and GS450h full hybrid models.
To herald a fresh chapter in Lexus history, the new GS will be bringing a driving experience that is more engaging, as well as a contemporary and more spacious interior and a more confident-looking design. It boasts a bold spindle grille that will be a signature feature for future models from Lexus. This grille is supported by a chassis that has been redesigned to offer the car a wide and strong stance, and to give an inspiring feel to it. Plus, driving the new Lexus GS will reward you with precise and crisp handling.
Lexus Engineers rose to the challenge of developing a more spacious environment for the new GS interior while leaving the dimensions of its exterior virtually unchanged. They were able to increase the cabin and the boot space in order to create an interior that is richly appointed and that will transport you and your luggage to your destination with utmost ease and comfort.
The engineering team's key focus was to design a new GS that is strong, agile, and more engaging. And to achieve this objective, the engineers came up with a new aerodynamic body, a stiffer structure, a wider stance, a transmission capable of quicker changes, and an engine sound and exhaust note that are distinctive.
Additionally, thanks to more spot welds and laser welds in specific locations, the revised platform of the new Lexus GS is more rigid than that of the previous model. The track is also wider by 40 millimeters at the front and by 50 millimeters at the rear, and works together with a revised suspension that is designed for a superior cornering performance and a more confident stance.
What's more, the new Lexus GS has a new suspension system that is designed to guide the car with precision through corners. The car's front boasts aluminium control arms with larger bushings. Meanwhile, its rear subframe has been redesigned completely to accommodate a multi-link rear suspension. This improved geometry enhances rear-end control. Lastly, with its stiffer platform and its lighter components, the car's shock absorbers can respond faster to small inputs by using lighter-viscosity oil.


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Not Accepting Guests
- Last login about 3 years ago
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About Me
I'm 24years old currently living in London since I'm 19; I can say is like my second home( good or bad? you choose). Here in London I'm studying design with lots of passion and satisfaction. I study anthropology in order to become a graphic designer. I like long talks with friends on different subject as long as is not some crappy fashion trend or style. I've been travelling a lot in my life in europe and abroad. Experiencing the real life in place I visit is my main goal, getting to know habits,manner, tradition and way of living I believe is the best way of enjoying your trip- no all inclusive crappy hotel. Peace,
It's never about perfection, I believe that mistake, errors, discrepancies and deviation from what is mainstream "right" or "good" make our life interesting and colorful with all sorts of nuances
Why I'm on Couchsurfing
I host and hope to be hosted
I've been both surfing which is an amazing experience- realizing people's kindness is always incredible.
I also host couch surfers in my flat in London whenever I can
Graphic design, anthropology, jazz, electronic, balkan music, exhibition, good food since I'm Italian, chatting,
- folklore
- design
- graphic design
- fashion
- dining
- traveling
- music
- jazz
- surfing
- anthropology
Music, Movies, and Books
Don't like movies but i love books and music, amongst my favourite
james blake
The doors
buena vista social club
jimi hendrix
One Amazing Thing I've Done
Photoshooting on dried salt lake with blu smoke bombs!!!
Summer 2012 I've drove a car with my partner from London to Mongolia in the most incredible experience ever!
Countries I've Visited
Germany, Morocco
Countries I've Lived In
Germany, Italy, United Kingdom


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Utilizing Flowers For Your Landscaped Garden
A lot of people will certainly usually, go over a potential interest in landscaping for their home, yet never ever get around to doing it. While landscaping your home for the first time can be intimidating, it is a whole lot simpler to do if you recognize the best process to do. This article has great deals of tips to help you landscape.
When preparing a landscaping job for your home, make sure that you attempt to totally estimate all the costs involved. This is essential. Not only do you wish to make certain that you are not stuck on a project that you can not finish, however you likewise will have the ability to plan out just what products you require prior to mosting likely to the shop.
Do not aim to accomplish all your landscaping projects at the very same time. Damage your job down right into even more economical and less labor intensive actions. You will certainly also have the ability to make any adjustments that you think about without having to re-do the entire task.
Discover alternative methods to obtain your products. You ought to likewise talk with your next-door neighbors and find out if they have any kind of extra products they would sell you at a reduced cost.
A great way to connect your whole landscape with each other is to utilize support plants. Support plants are plants that you consistently utilize that will provide your entire style a sense of unity and also balance. By doing this your landscaping will certainly flow with each other flawlessly and look like it potentially can.
If your house is located in a dry part of the nation, workout caution when growing high grasses in your yard. To decrease the threat of damage from wildfires, it is best to use short, grounded varieties of yard. If you absolutely have to plant high turfs, you must do so more than 100 feet far from your home.
Several plants are seasonally valued, and might transform in cost a good deal in simply a couple of weeks. Know the periods for plants, as well as get firm expenses on your task.
When thinking about your brand-new landscape design, you need to think about the amount of available sunlight, as well as choose the appropriate plants for this direct exposure. If you do refrain from doing this, you plants will either wither because they get too much sunlight, or they will just remain stagnant or pass away due to the fact that they do not get enough.
Landscaping has becoming a warm fad recently, as well as more individuals planning to beautify and also remodel their residences. Although some people listen to the word landscaping and also assume it will certainly be hard as well as tough, they would certainly be stunned to learn that it is not difficult in any way. Use the pointers in this article to make sure that you could learn how to landscape, also.
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Christmas Day: Raleigh Updates and a New Niner
First off, Merry Christmas to all my B&P reader(s). We had an unusually warm Christmas day, so after opening presents (making the kids wait until 7:00am), playing new board games, etc., I headed out after lunch for a quick spin and some quiet. Jodi got me some new medium-heavy riding gloves that were just right for our temps in the low 40s (I now have four different pairs of warm gloves to span riding from the 50s to the teens).
I've done a bit of updating on my mid 80s Raleigh Technium:
I've done a bit of updating on my mid 80s Raleigh Technium:


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By Sabine Lobnig, Mar 08, 2012, 15:48 • 2 minute reading
An Australian test facility for air conditioners has been made available to industry for research and development, offering a new resource to develop innovative products and help validate manufacturer claims regarding thermal and electrical performance of air conditioning systems. With hydrocarbons becoming increasingly popular, this new test facility could help expand their use.
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