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by Mark Dunning
Valencia, Spain is beautiful. I have to confess with my America centric view of the world I knew nothing about Valencia, outside of their football club. Incredible architecture, parks, beaches, and food. Wonderful place. The conference was held in La Ciudad de las Artes y las Ciencias (The city of arts and sciences) in the auditorium of the Science building. It was a great facility for a conference.
The hosts, too, were wonderful. Dr. Jose Millan and his staff deserve a lot of credit for putting on such an event. It's nice to know that Usher families have folks like them looking out for them.
The conference was enlightening and, at times, exciting. I'll give you as brief a summary of the two and half days as I can, highlighting what you really need to know.
The conference was broken in to multiple sessions. I'll go through the first session on the first day in this post then discuss the other sessions in later posts. This session was on potential therapies, which is probably of the most interest to this audience.
Clinical Trials for CNTF for Retinitis Pigmentosa
Paul Sieving, M.D., Ph.D.
National Eye Institute
We've known about neurotrophic factors (of which CNTF is one) for a while. These compounds seem to keep the cells in the eye from degenerating. However, targeting therapeutic compounds to the eye is a tricky business, as there is a barrier between the blood and the retina that prevents most molecules from entering retinal cells.. You can't just take a shot in the arm, like with a vaccine, and necessarily have the treatment reach the retinal cells. So CNTF has been put in to this kind of capsule that can be put in to the eye via minor surgery. The capsule then releases the CNTF over time.
They have begun phase I clinical trials and Dr. Sieving presented the preliminary results. Ten patients were involved in the study. Five got a limited dose of CNTF and five got a higher dose. All patients in the trial had very limited vision. Not all of them had Usher syndrome but there were Usher syndrome type II patients in the study.
The results are still being collected and analyzed, but it seems like it helped improve the vision in at least some of the patients, who were able to read more letters on an eye chart after the treatment.
Why you care
This is about as exciting as the science of Usher gets. This is a potential treatment for the vision component of Usher syndrome that is in clinical trials right now and has demonstrated, at least initially, that it might help. There are still more phases to go before this is available as a treatment, but it's promising enough that the Director of NEI wanted to talk about it.
Neuroprotective Effects of TUDCA and Safranal
Nicolas Cuenca
University of Alicante, Spain
Like CNTF, TUDCA and safranal both seem to have the ability to protect photoreceptor cells from degenerating. TUDCA is bear bile and has been used in traditional Chinese medicine as a treatment for eye and liver disease for centuries. Safranal is the stuff that turns rice yellow in paella (can you tell I was just in Spain?). Dr. Cuenca has found that treatment with TUDCA and safranal has slowed cell death in rat's with retinal degeneration.
Why you care
This, too, is pretty exciting stuff. The research is farther away from helping families than the CNTF research and the doses used in the study were very, very high. Much higher than you'd want to take. But it did help. More studies need to be done, but it's promising. However, until more studies are done, please don't stuff yourself or your kid full of TUDCA. We don't know enough about it. You might want to think about adding some more yellow rice to your diet, however. Any excuse to eat more paella is good with me.
The Use of Aminoglycosides as a Therapy for Usher Syndrome
Tamar Ben-Yosef
Technion-Isreal Institute of Technology, Haifa, Israel
Let me see if I can do this topic justice. Usher syndrome is caused by mutations in DNA. DNA contains the instructions on how to build certain proteins. If the instructions are wrong, you get a bad protein and cells don't work properly. There are different ways to screw up instructions (just ask my wife when she sends me to the grocery store). One particular type of mutation is called a nonsense mutation. Basically these are periods in a sentence where they shouldn't be. So when my wife says 'pick up milk and bread PERIOD' I hear 'pick up milk PERIOD' and screw up the instructions.
Aminoglycosides are drugs that allow a 'read through' of that misplaced period, hopefully allowing the full instructions on how to build a particular protein to be read.
There are some aminoglycosides that are commercially available today. The problem is that they are often toxic at the levels necessary to get the desired read-through result. Dr. Ben-Yosef has found some compounds that are more effective in getting a read through effect while reducing the toxicity. Unfortunately at the moment none of these compounds seem to work with nonsense mutations in Usher.
Why you care
If you or your family member has a nonsense mutation, you care a lot. This has the potential to treat your Usher syndrome by simply taking a pill. However, this is still in the theory stage. It hasn't even helped treat Usher in an animal model yet.
Gene Therapy for Usher syndrome Type 1B
David Williams
Jules Stein Eye Institute, UCLA School of Medicine
Jennifer has explained gene therapy much better than I can here and here. Just to give a quick synopsis, gene therapy is the act of overriding bad instructions within DNA by supplying a new set of good instructions. So going back to my wife example, she could override the entire bad instruction of 'go sit on the couch and watch TV' with the good string 'go downstairs and do the laundry'.
This is accomplished by using a virus to 'infect' the cells with the new DNA. The problem is that different genes are different sizes and viruses are like airplanes in that they have a limited payload that they can carry. There are also only a limited number of viruses that can be used in gene therapy. The virus has to be safe and not cause other problems.
One virus known to be safe is the HIV-1 lentivirus. Dr. Williams and his team have found that this virus can be stuffed with a good copy of the MYO7-A gene that causes Usher type 1b and that it can deliver that gene to cells.
Why you care
I care a lot because my daughter has type 1B. This proves that a safe virus can be used to deliver a good copy of the type 1B gene. This is an important step in moving toward clinical trials. In fact, there aren't too many more steps before we get there. Right now the hope is that Phase I clinical trials will begin in mid-2011. By the way, this estimated date was not discussed at this conference but comes from a discussion had with Dr. Stephen Rose in a Coalition for Usher Syndrome Conference Call a while back. In other words, don't write it in your calendar just yet.
USH1C Therapy Strategies in the Retina
Kerstin Nagel-Wolfrum
Johannes Gutenberg University of Mainz, Germany
The two previous subjects, those of aminoglycosides and gene therapy, were both discussed in this session as potential therapies for Usher type 1C. Preliminary data show that the gene can be delivered via a virus, which is good news for gene therapy as an option. Also 20% of all Usher cases are nonsense mutations and a particular aminoglycoside called PTC124 seemed to show promise in clinical trials for non-eye diseases.
Why you care
This is similarly good news for Usher 1C patients. While no particular date for clinical trials of gene therapy for Usher 1C were discussed, things are looking as promising for gene therapy in type 1C as they are for type 1B. On the aminoglycoside front, this just reiterated much of what Dr. Ben-Yosef had said but with a focus on Usher 1C.
Stem Cell Therapy for Usher 2a
Peter Francis
Casey Eye Institute, Oregon
Jennifer discussed Stem Cell Therapy and this particular study at length in a previous post, so I won't go in to detail about it. A quick summary, though, is that stem cell therapy is the method of taking stem cells, essentially baby cells that could grow in to any other type of cell, and getting them to grow in to a healthy cell, in this case photoreceptor cells for Usher type 2A.
Two interesting things came up in this discussion. The first was that they have developed a way to test the vision in mice with Usher 2a and those tests have revealed vision loss in the mice. This is significant because historically we've had a hard time developing a mouse model that displays the vision loss phenotype. Dr. Francis found that the mice were losing their vision prior to any noticeable loss of photoreceptors. This is good news for testing potential treatments.
Those tests found that the mice treated with stem cell therapy had little functional deterioration of their vision during the ten week test period.
Why you care
This is great news for two reasons. First, a functional mouse model is critical to testing treatments and we hadn't really had one before. These tests could potentially be used with other Usher mouse models as well. Second, the stem cell treatment seemed to work, at least in mice. No schedule for clinical trials was discussed, but this was an important step in the process. It's also important for other types of Usher syndrome which may also be treated in the same manner some day. Stem cells are the best bet for reversing vision loss in the long run, though, obviously, that's a long way off.
Gene Therapy in Usher Syndrome Type 3
Eeva-Marja Sankila
University of Helsinki, Finland
More gene therapy, this time for Usher type 3. As with Type 1B and Type 1C, it appears that Usher Type 3 genes can be delivered via a virus.
Why you care
Same as we discussed earlier. This is good news for using gene therapy as a treatment for Usher Type 3. Again, no dates for potential clinical trials were discussed.
Most of the morning of the first day was exciting news for families with Usher syndrome. I will caution our readers once again, though, that wheels of science turn slowly. There will be more of these every other year science conferences before any of these are regularly administered treatments for families with Usher. That said, we are definitely headed in the right direction and, as you'll read in the next post about the psychosocial aspects of Usher syndrome, the treatments are coming none too soon.
Monday, June 7, 2010
All You Need to Know About the Usher Syndrome and Related Disorders Conference, Part I: Potential Therapies
Mark Dunning
2 comments:
- seth said...
What is the connection between Dr. Sieving's work and that of Neurotech? Any word on when Neurotech will start phase 3 trials for Usher?
- June 07, 2010
- Mark Dunning said...
Dr. Sieving was reporting on the Neurotech study. He did not mention when the next phase would start.
- June 07, 2010
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100 Colorado Creatives: John Moore
#49: John Moore
There is no greater friend of Denver theater than John Moore, a self-described storyteller given to telling its stories in great -- and loving -- detail. On his CultureWest.org website, the former Denver Post critic has laboriously followed the work of his friends in theater, of which there must be scores, if not hundreds. Now Moore's solo efforts will be further legitimized with his new gig as Associate Director of Content Strategy for the Denver Center for the Performing Arts. It's a fancy title for what he's been doing all along. Only he'll be able to do it better now -- if that's possible.
See also: Best Performance by a Theater Advocate - 2012: John Moore
It's a job that feels tailor-made for Moore, an enthusiast who wears his love of theater proudly on his sleeve. And since he's just starting that job, it feels like an opportune time to get to know this new face of the Denver Center -- so we invited Moore to tackle the 100CC questionnaire on the brink of the fall theater season. As you will find out, Moore -- who understatedly calls himself "one bloated Colorado Creative" -- has plenty to say. And expect to see lots more Moore in the future.
Westword: If you could collaborate with anyone in history, who would it be, and why?
John Moore: I went through a serious Joan of Arc crush. I blame my six years as an altar boy. Here was a woman some say was charged by God himself with keeping France out from under the control of the marauding Brits. Others say she was a raving schizophrenic who heard voices in her head, and not only acted on them -- hundreds of people died following her into a fool's errand. Her vanquished foes reported she was surrounded by light even in darkness, and that clouds of butterflies followed in her wake.
Beyond what she continues to represent -- an anarchic feminist 600 years before her time
-- I love the chasm of potential interpretation she left for others to fight over: Was she a saint, a witch, a freak, a lunatic, a Kill Bill-worthy bad-ass in league with the devil? I want to exit this Earth leaving that kind of ambiguity behind. I envy her courage. And as a writer, want that interview. If not her? Hmmm ... Maybe Liz Phair, circa "Exile in Guyville," before she threw it all away and went all Goo-Goo Dolls.
Who in the world is interesting to you right now, and why?
Erin Rollman is a Denver actor who just gave up one of her kidneys to a total stranger, setting off a chain of five kidney donations that have saved five lives. She allowed me to follow her for a month leading up to the operation. It's my last freelance piece for the Denver Post, and it should be coming out in a few days. I can't think of a better way to say goodbye after so many years of storytelling at the Post. I adore Erin as an actress, I am intimidated by her intelligence, and I am now awed by the way she looks at the world. Writing her story was a blessing.
Continue reading for more from John Moore.
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A young visitor to the Modern Homes Exhibition in City Hall Cork flings himself enthusiastically on the very comfortable Naturafit bed covers while Naturafit representative Kurt Gamper looks on in amusement.
We bought one of those bed covers a few months back and it's great. It helps keep the bed warm and it's very comfortable. My wife Jacinta bought one of their pillows and she swears by it.
Disclaimer: Other than being satisfied customers we don't have any connection with the company.
If you visit the exhibition this weekend make sure you buy some chocolate from the Fosters Chocolate stand by the entrance. It's delicious!
There are hot spas on display too, but if you're thinking of buying, please read about Carl Fogarty's experiences. It might make you think twice!
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Arcane Brilliance: Mage AoE in Cataclysm, part 1 {WoW}
Sep 5th 2010 4:08PM I posted something like this on the EU forums. Seeing as we'll get to mess with the flow of time with Time Warp, I don't think it's that much of a stretch to be able to rip through the fabric of space. I calls it Singularity. And yes, I did play Mass Effect. Linky: http://forums.wow-europe.com/thread.html?sid=1&topicId=14469337449


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Biography of Samuel H. Waddle
Samuel H. Waddle is now the oldest original settler in his locality of Saline County. He went there more than fifty years ago. He knew Central Kansas when it was an almost unlimited stretch of prairie. The buffalo and the Indians were still here and the frontier civilization was a straggling line of homestead shacks


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Larry Rosen: A Case Study In Understanding (and Enforcing) the GPL
timothy posted about 5 months ago | from the he-actually-wrote-the-book dept.
lrosen (attorney Lawrence Rosen) writes with a response to an article that appeared on Opensource.com late last month, detailing a court case that arose between Versata Software and Ameriprise Financial Services; part of the resulting dispute hinges on Versata's use of GPL'd software (parsing utility VTD-X, from Ximpleware), though without acknowledging the license. According to the article's author, attorney Aaron Williamson (former staff attorney for the Software Freedom Law Center), "Lawyers for commercial software vendors have feared a claim like this for essentially the entire 20-odd-year lifetime of the GPL: a vendor incorporates some GPL-licensed code into a product—maybe naively, maybe willfully—and could be compelled to freely license the entire product as a result. The documents filed by Amerprise in the case reflect this fearful atmosphere, adopting the classically fear-mongering characterization of the GPL as a 'viral' license that 'infects' its host and 'requires it to become open source, too.'" Rosen writes: I want to acknowledge Aaron's main points: This lawsuit challenges certain assumptions about GPLv2 licensing, and it also emphasizes the effects of patents on the FOSS (and commercial) software ecosystem. I also want to acknowledge that I have been consulted as an expert by the plaintiff in this litigation (Ximpleware vs. Versata, et al.) and so some of what I say below they may also say in court.
Read on for the rest (and Williamson's article, too, for a better understanding of this reaction to it). An important take-away: it's not just the license that matters.
Let's be open about the facts here. Ximpleware worked diligently over many years to create certain valuable software. The author posted his source code on SourceForge. He offered the software under GPLv2. He also offered that software under commercial licenses. And he sought and received and provided notice of United States patent claims related to that software.
Unbeknownst to Ximpleware, Versata took that GPLv2 software and incorporated it into Versata products – without disclosing that GPLv2 software or in any other way honoring the terms of the GPLv2 license. The reason Ximpleware became aware of that GPLv2 breach is because some months ago Versata and one of its customers, Ameriprise, became embroiled in their own litigation. The breach of GPLv2 came out during discovery.
Ximpleware has terminated that license as to Versata. This is exactly what the Software Freedom Conservancy and others do when confronted by GPL breaches.
That earlier litigation is between two (or more) commercial companies; it is not a FOSS problem. These are mature, sophisticated, profitable companies that have the wherewithal to protect themselves. I know in my own law practice, whether I represent software vendors or their commercial customers, we typically provide for some level of indemnification. Perhaps Ameriprise and the other customer-defendants can count on Versata defending them against Ximpleware. Such a commercial dispute between big companies – even if it involves the GPLv2 software of a small company and separate indemnification for copyright or patent infringement – is between them alone.
But as to Ximpleware and its GPLv2 copyrighted and patented software, there are a few misunderstandings reflected in Aaron Williamson's article:
1. The notion of "implied patent licensing" has no clear legal precedent in any software licensing. While it is true that goods one purchases include a patent license under what is known as the "exhaustion doctrine," there is no exhaustion of patented software when copies are made (even though copying of the software itself is authorized by GPLv2). For example, a typical commercial patent license nowadays might include a royalty for each Android phone manufactured and sold. Companies that distribute Android phones and its FOSS software acquire patent licenses so recipients of their phones are indeed free to use those phones. But that isn't because of some implied patent licenses that come with Android software, but because commercial companies who distribute phones pay for those patent rights, directly or indirectly. I think it is entirely reasonable to require commercial companies to get their patent licenses in writing.
2. Versata's customers who received the (in breach!) GPLv2 software all moved to dismiss Ximpleware's infringement claims against them, pointing to Section 0 of GPLv2, which says, "[t]he act of running the Program is not restricted." What that sentence actually means is just what it says: The GPLv2 copyright grant itself (which is all there is in GPLv2) does not restrict the act of running the program. Nor could it; that is a true statement because running a program is not one of the enumerated copyright rights subject to a copyright license (17 USC 106). The authors of the GPL licenses have themselves made that argument repeatedly: The use of software is simply not a copyright issue.
3. Because there are U.S. patent claims on this Ximpleware software, Section 7 of GPLv2 prohibits its distribution under that license in the United States (or any jurisdictions where patent claims restrict its use). If Ameriprise and the other defendants were outside the U.S. where the Ximpleware patents don't apply, then GPLv2 would indeed be sufficient for that use. But inside the U.S. those customers are not authorized and they cannot rely on an assumed patent grant in GPLv2. Otherwise GPLv2 Section 7 would be an irrelevant provision. Reread it carefully if you doubt this.
The Versata customers certainly cannot depend on an implied patent license received indirectly through a vendor who was in breach of GPLv2 since the beginning – and still is! Versata ignored and failed to disclose to its own customers Ximpleware's patent notices concerning that GPLv2 software, but those patents are nevertheless infringed.
Should we forgive commercial companies who fail to undertake honest compliance with the GPL? Should we forgive their customers who aren't diligent in acquiring their software from diligent vendors?
As Aaron Williamson suggests, we shouldn't ignore the implications of this case. After all, the creator of Ximpleware software made his source code freely available under GPLv2 and posted clear notices to potential commercial customers of his U.S. patents and of his commercial licensing options. Lots of small (and large!) open source commercial companies do that. Although it is ultimately up to the courts to decide this case, from a FOSS point of view Ximpleware is the good guy here!
There is rich detail about this matter that will come out during litigation. Please don't criticize until you understand all the facts.
Lawrence Rosen
Rosenlaw & Einschlag (email@example.com)"


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Caption This! {WoW}
Aug 8th 2007 9:46AM "I'd hate to be the guy that has to clean up all the Gryphon mess!"
Enter to win a Spectral Tiger Mount from WoW Insider! {WoW}
Jul 26th 2007 1:17AM Yar! Ninja Pirates FTW!
Forum Post of the Day: Notice of legal action {WoW}
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Breakfast Topic: Patch 2.U {WoW}
Jul 14th 2007 10:26AM Ret pally fix time!
1. The paladin talent "Vengence" now wipes 30% agro from the paladin everytime it is refreshed.
2. The paladin talent "Vengence" now also increases group damage by 1% per stack.
3. The paladin talent "Repentence" is now a 40 sec long CC on a 1 min cooldown.
4. Crusader Strike is now a 6 sec cooldown, and costs 4% of base mana, also applies the Judgement of the Crusader.
5. New Talent: "Vengence Everlasting" requiring 41 points in the retribution tree. This talent makes every stack of "Vengence" give you a 5% chance to restore 150 mana and health to the group.
Caption This! [Updated] {WoW}
Jun 11th 2007 9:23AM "I call dibs on her Overies!"
Damn Black Dragon Whelp pets never drop...
Ask WoW Insider: How would you design your own battleground? {WoW}
Jun 8th 2007 1:19PM I would make a 20v20, set in the STV jungle. You would have multiple objectives, and a flag. Make sure there are lots of trees and hanging vines and such to obscure vision. There would be a NPC trolls with a main leader that would have to be killed, and a flag that both sides would have to capture for bonus honor. The troll leader being killed would end the match with the winning side getting bonus honor for the flags they capped, and the losing side getting nothing for the flags.
Get trinkets out of inventory-- and on a chain {WoW}
Jun 4th 2007 3:49PM As a pally i would love this! I have 3 sets of trinkets, a spell power set, a healing set, and a crit set, with at least 6 more that I wish I could switch out with for different situations (372 Jewelcrafter). Add to that my 2nd set of gear (full change) different weapons, 2 seperate sheilds, and all my reagents and water and such, im filling 2 18 slots, quest items and trash take up another, so at any given time I only have 2 bags open for mining or grinding or trash. I would love to see something like this implemented.
Something's coming [UPDATE] {WoW}
May 13th 2007 3:10PM Im hoping for a Starcraft 2(RTS Style) that expands on the hybrids from the hidden lvl in the expansion. There is so much that they can do with that story, and also design a few more races to throw in, change up how it is played, and the addition of the hero system from WC3 or something like it would be great! I hope they dont head in the MMO direction yet, they need to flesh out the stories and the reason for the game to exist first. A second SC game would give a great basis for an MMO when they are done with WoW (2-5 years in the future, assuming they introduce a lot of expansions, with the Lich King as a step below a final Bad Guy, possibly a reincarnated Sargaras or other Ancients)
WoW Moviewatch: How to Paladin IX {WoW}
May 11th 2007 7:13PM This video is a lot like a train wreck, a messy one, that makes you puke a little. I think even kids with ADD will have issues with this one. I dont advocate drug use usually, but this guy needs something very strong!
What would it take for ret pallies to raid? {WoW}
May 11th 2007 3:33PM A lot of these people are the same holy pallys that were looking for sympathy when the holy nerfs were announced. Especially people who make the comments like "QQQQQQQQQQQQ". The ret community is not asking to be on the top of the dps charts or anything like that. If you look around the forums, you will notice most of the stuff ret pallys are asking for is along the lines of more utility. We need something to seperate us out, add utility to those around us, and put out a little dps on our own.
And so people dont think im just talking out my a$$ here, Im the only Eckozealot on any server, I also run a Latros with the Spellpower netherwing sheild, and my heal gear is at +1000 for now untill I get my rep up. 20/0/41


text: I have lost 7 pounds in 5 days on Atkins. Of course I'm super excited but I'm wondering how much of it is really just water weight? I don't know if it's water weight, but I have drinken more water the past 5 days then I have in a very long time, it's probably not as much as I should but I would say about 3-5 bottles. Also I haven't been eating enough veggies and a lot of meat so I hope that's not a problem today I had a hamburger patty with mayo cheese and lettuce then a big salad with broccoli cheese steak and ranch I then had a broccoli and ranch snack and for supper a Mcdouble for McDonald's no bun and plain( bad I know first form of cheatingish ) when I got home a few turkey and cheese wraps and that's everything I've ate for the day. Not enough veggies I know. I've also heard the Atkins shakes are completely off guard right? Feedback please! It's already getting hard to eat my veggies :( but I'm not nearly as hungry as I was


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Channel 6 News - Search Results
Saratoga woman faces drug charges
SARATOGA -- Police arrested a woman they say was selling hydrocodone and cocaine in Saratoga.
Alicia Busha, 30, was arrested after a 4-month investigation. The Saratoga County Sheriff's Office says she was selling hydrocodone pills in the town, as well as selling about half an ounce of cocaine in her home with two men who were also arrested on drug charges.
Busha was arrested at her home and charged with several counts of criminal sale of a controlled substance.


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every year allison sarofim throws a halloween bash at her townhouse in nyc. i think it's the thing to get an invite too, see all the pictures from vogue here. this years theme was paul gauguin, interesting right? think art, tahiti, palm trees, topless ladies, banana's and zebras (yes, giancarlo giammetti went as a zebra).
speaking of giancarlo, it was fun following the night, seeing a lot of pictures the next morning of the party on giancarlo's instagram. actually everyone who went to the party was instagraming- i saw hundreds of pics! another reason i love instagram, you can be there but not really be there- my kind of party!
looked like quite the event with all the players- valentino, calvin klein, lynn wyatt, marina rust and kinda random, woody allen. yes, the woody allen! i can't think of anything more fun then seeing woody allen at a gauguin halloween party hanging out with douglas friedman and the brant boys. leave it to allison sarafim- the queen of halloween!
Allison Sarofim
Paul Gauguin Painting
The Brant boys
The Valentino clan- Giancarlo Giammeti's Instagram
Zani Gugglemann
Bob Colacello and a banana
Model RJ King and Giancarlo- Giancarlo Giammeti's Instagram
Ross Bleckner and Calvin Klein
Marjorie Gugelman, also known as "mad marge."
Lynn and "Mad Marge"- Giancarlo Giammeti's Instagram
Valentino and Lynn Wyatt
Marina Rust
Yvonne Force Villareal and some tigers
Douglas Freidman
The pic of the night- Giancarlo Giammeti's Instagram
Nick Cohen with Allison Sarofim- The Halloween Queen
Well, with the exception of Woody and Valentino it looks like everyone had a swell time. Lighten up you two !
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Home › Academics › Colleges › Henry Kendall College of Arts and Sciences › Faculty and Staff Directory
The College of Arts and Sciences faculty and staff are dedicated to mentoring students, not only in their field of study but through out the University of Tulsa. For a complete list of Faculty and Staff in each department visit the department pages.
**Faculty who are Department Chairs have been bolded.
Assistant Director of Sports Bands
In addition to teaching, I have 17 years' musical arranging experience, having written over 80 competitive marching band shows for various high schools in Oklahoma, Texas, Illinois, and Georgia.
Henry Kendall College of Arts & Sciences Chapman Hall 111PH: (918) 631-2244FAX: (918) 631-3721


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Remember when I told you that I had a slight obsession with monkeys at Batu Caves? Well, that kind of applies to pandas too. In fact, if I'm being honest, it applies to most animals of all shapes and sizes.
I make no secret of the fact that I love a good zoo. So when I found out that a popular theme park in Hong Kong – Ocean Park – combined rides with a zoo which housed a family of pandas, it was immediately top of my itinerary. I mean seriously…a zoo AND a theme park? Together, in the same place?? Mind. Blown.
After almost an hour in a small, noisy bus through the traffic-logged streets of Hong Kong Island, we arrived to a grand entrance complete with unusual sculptures of sea creatures. I must hasten to add here that the main attraction of the zoo used to be a sea life show with a sea lion called Whiskers, but honestly, who has the time for sea lions when there are pandas to be seen?
As with many theme parks, Ocean Park Hong Kong is split into different sections revolving around different themes. My favourite of these actually didn't contain any rides at all, but was a street reminiscent of old Hong Kong, with street sellers serving traditional dishes, old-style Chinese music and photo opportunities aplenty.


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wrought iron
wrought iron
noun: a kind of iron that is often used to make decorative fences, furniture, etc.
Full Definition of WROUGHT IRON
Examples of WROUGHT IRON
- an antique wrought iron fence
- a chair made of wrought iron
First Known Use of WROUGHT IRON
Rhymes with WROUGHT IRON
wrought iron
noun (Concise Encyclopedia)One of the two forms in which iron is obtained by smelting. Wrought iron is a soft, easily worked, fibrous metal. It usually contains less than 0.1% carbon and 1–2% slag. It is superior for most purposes to cast iron, which is hard and brittle because of its higher carbon content. In antiquity, iron was smelted directly by heating ore in a forge with charcoal, which served both as fuel and reducing agent. While still hot, the iron-and-slag mixture was removed as a lump and worked (wrought) with a hammer to expel most of the slag and weld the iron into a coherent mass. Wrought iron began to take the place of bronze (being far more available) in Asia Minor in the 2nd millennium BC; its use for tools and weapons was established in China, India, and the Mediterranean by the 3rd century BC. Later, in Europe, wrought iron was produced indirectly from cast iron (see puddling process). With the invention of the Bessemer process and open-hearth process, steel supplanted wrought iron for structural purposes, and its use in the 20th century has been principally decorative.
Learn More About WROUGHT IRON
Previous Word in the Dictionary: wrought (adjective)
All Words Near: wrought iron
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Shining Heaven
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1. Chapter One
2. Chapter 2
3. Chapter 3
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Summary: Willow moves to Japan and discovers a new world of Hellmouthy proportions.
4 Oct 10
26 Jan 11
Chapter One
TITLE: Shining Heaven
AUTHOR: fairybloom
EMAIL: email@example.com
DISTRIBUTION: Twisting the Hellmouth, anyone else please ask.
SPOILERS: up to season 2 for Buffy, all Bleach season just in case
Disclaimer: I do not own Buffy the Vampire Slayer or Bleach. Buffy belongs to Joss Whedon and Mutant Enemy. Bleach belongs to Mr. Kubo. No infringement intended.
A/N: Hello to all. I know I shouldn't be starting another story, but I couldn't get this plot bunny out of my head.
A/N: Instead of Buffy starting in their sophomore year, it was freshman year. Willow is 16. Buffy ran to LA after Becoming, but came back after a day or two.
Chapter 1
Willow would like to pretend that she was shocked as she watched her parents gather their suit cases and carry-on's.
What she was really surprised at, was the fact that it had taken them this long to leave again.
The Dr.'s Rosenberg had handed her a credit card and had made sure their daughter had what ever she would need to live in her new home and were now planning to escape to their year long tour of Far Eastern and European Diagnosis. The two would be traveling to different hospitals and conference halls, meeting other psychiatric doctors and doing whatever the hell it was they did when they were gone.
It had been a whole eight days since Willow and her parents had arrived in Karakura Town, Japan. The house they had moved into was a decent size and there was a clinic next door. She and her mother had gone to enroll her in school just the day before.
She had had to take an entrance exam to place her scholastic aptitude.
And be measured for a uniform.
Willow was so pissed that she was beyond words.
Uprooted months from finishing her sophomore year, from her friends, her first boyfriend, and the only home she'd ever remembered, to move to the opposite side of the globe.
All because her mother, in a very healthy mental display of denial, had warped her ending up in the hospital during the whole Angel/ Angelus thing, into a more palatable memory of god knew what and insisted on moving her daughter to a more safe and mentally challenging environment. If they had to leave on an extended trip, they could not, in good conscience, leave her there in Sunnydale.
Not with all the gangs, and crime running amok.
But apparently, it was ok to leave her alone in Japan of all places.
Since they had already been scheduled for the year long tour, they had told her to pack, handed her a few books on learning Japanese and told her that even though they were a bad influence on her, she could say good-bye to that boy and that Bunny person.
When Willow had demanded to know when she'd be coming back to Sunnydale, her mother had looked at her sternly and said, "You're not."
Temper barely checked, Willow had turned on her heel and stormed out of the house.
The walk over to the library and then the meeting with the rest of the scooby gang was still a tear soaked blur.
Thankfully, she had had Oz, Buffy, and Xander to lean on. She probably would have fallen apart without those three to help keep her together emotionally. They had stayed with her late into the night, until she had to go back to her, all of a sudden loving parents.
The house had gone on the market a week later. Her parents were entrusting the sale to the realtor, who had also set up the deal for buying the house in Karakura Town.
Apparently, it was an excellent time to buy real-estate in Japan.
No amount of begging, arguing, or threatening had changed their minds.
In fact, it had seemed to anger them that she wasn't being more mature about things. Willow's mother had said they had raised her to be more responsible, she should behave her age and stop hassling them.
Willow had been so agitated at their indifferent attitude towards her desire to remain in Sunnydale, she had growled in frustration, "How is it that you never hesitated on leaving me alone before this, but now you care or something?"
How one insolent question could completely change someones world, Willow would never know, but the answer her parents had given to her rhetorical question had definitely changed hers.
Deeming that since she had just turned sixteen, she was old enough to know the truth.
She had been adopted.
From New York no less.
Her parents had been in LA finishing up work for their doctorates, when they had both decided it was a suitable time in their lives together that they should start a family.
After a year of trying to conceive and failing, Ira and Shelia Rosenberg found that they couldn't have a baby on their own, so they had gone to an adoption agency.
Six months later they were bringing a brand new baby Willow home to their house in the suburbs a few hours outside of LA.
According to her parents, the agency had only been able to tell them that she had been found in a small park in New York City, across the street from a museum.
Her age had been estimated. And her birthday had been chosen based loosely by how old the doctor that had checked her over had deemed she was.
So, basically, in the space of a few days, she had lost everything.
Even her damn birthday.
Willow was brought out of her thoughts as her parents finished gathering their things, reminded her to get to school on time the next day and to stay out of trouble, nodded farewell and were out the door. She wouldn't see them in the flesh again for a year or more.
"Good," Willow muttered bitterly. "A year would be too soon, in my opinion."
She rolled her shoulders to ease the tension all her pent up anger was causing, and headed up the stairs to the second floor to finish unpacking her stuff and make a list of what she was going to need from the supermarket.
Entering her new room, she eyed the last of her unpacked boxes with distaste, grumbled and got to work.
A couple of hours later, and her room had started to look some what inviting. The late afternoon sunlight streamed in the lavender curtained windows and bathed everything in a warm, purple tinted glow.
Willow gave the room one last critical look and went to her desk to turn on her computer.
As she listened to the familiar sounds of the machine coming to life, she couldn't help but think of the numerous times she had searched the net for information for Buffy or Giles.
Needless to say, the scoobies hadn't been thrilled when she had told them she was moving. Outrage and tears had been the general consensus that wonderful afternoon.
Finished with loading up, the computer chimed to let her know that she had mail.
Steeling herself for the inevitable, she double clicked the envelope icon that had a small 36 in the corner and watched as the screen that popped up, filled with letter after letter from the Sunnydale crew.
Oz's letters were short, sweet, and painful. She could tell he missed her, but Willow was glad that she had been mature enough to break it off with him before she moved.
Buffy's were mainly themed in outrage and anger at Willow's parents. How could they just rip her away from them? The blonde had just gotten back from running away to LA, how was she going to cope without Angel and her best friend? How dare they be so callous about telling her about her adoption! How could they, after moving all the way to freaking JAPAN, then leave their daughter alone for an unholy amount of time?!
Though she completely agreed with the Slayer's frustration, Willow moved on to Xander's letters, in hopes of reading something that would help cool her own anger and agitation.
Bittersweet feelings filled her eyes with tears as Xander's attempt to cheer her up and tell her that she was missed made pangs of homesickness overwhelm her.
Abruptly, she scrolled over and closed her mail, making all the painful but treasured words disappear. Willow wiped the tears from her eyes and sat back, trying to think of something to distract herself.
Her eyes roved the room a bit restlessly.
And landed on the old black leather trunk that sat at the foot of her bed.
It had been rather hard to ship this over with the rest of her belongings, but, some how she had smuggled a good chunk of her occult paraphernalia under her mother's suddenly too interested in her life nose.
She had to replenish some of her supplies, though. Unfortunately, she'd had to leave her herbs and athme with Giles.
She couldn't think of a good enough excuse to be able to bring the dagger overseas with her, so she had entrusted the ceremonial weapon with the Watcher until she could get it back from him.
Willow turned her attention back to the computer and opened her web browser. She plugged in a search for rare herbs and items shops in the area.
She scribbled down a couple of address's and realized she recognized one as being on the same street as the supermarket a few blocks away. She could see what they had to offer, then hit the market.
She changed out of the comfy maroon Sunnydale High sweatshirt and pants she had been wearing, into a nice pair of jeans and a pretty, dark green three-quarter length sleeved top. The material was soft and she liked the small added touch of satin that lined the collar.
As Cordelia would say, "Buffy had finally had an impact on her wardrobe. Thank God."
Willow smiled softly as she slipped on a pair of soft, brown leather boots, that had a touch of heel and a square-cut toe. Buffy had given them to her as a going away present. The blonde had said that it was Willow's duty to bring a touch of Californian fashion to Japan.
The girls had giggled when Buffy had shown her the hidden dagger sheaths in the tops and said, "Fashion and function, a slayer or slayerettes best defense."
She grabbed her purse off her desk and made sure she had the credit card her parents had given to her to buy groceries and such. She also made sure she had her secret knot of cash she had been saving and adding to over the years, in her hidden zipper compartment next to a couple of extra stakes and bottle or two of holy water.
Willow sighed in exasperation and brushed her long hair back behind her ear, then sighed again as it refused to obey and slithered forward again. Rolling her eyes at herself for making that ridicules promise to Buffy to not cut it, she grabbed her house keys and headed out.
The store was only a few blocks over and the weather was absolutely beautiful, so the walk was quite pleasant. She turned to look as she came upon the address she had written down and gave a little start to see that the shop was a quaint looking house, with it's front section set up as store.
Her eyes slowly read the sign hung above the door.
Urahara's Shop.
Thankful she had taken to reading and speaking Japanese better that she could write it, she walked down the driveway to the front and noticed that the door was slide open to allow the late afternoon sun in. She hesitated just inside the doorway to let her eyes adjust to the dimness.
There was no one around, so once she could see properly again, she walked over to the side and looked the merchandise over.
To an untrained eye, this store seemed to offer a quaint selection of rare herbs and trinkets, candy and simple groceries. But as she really looked closer, little things started to pique her curiosity.
They had all manor of plant life, dried, freshly picked, whole or cut, that she needed to replenish her own supplies. A nice selection of crystals for making elixirs and focuses. Even the 'tea' selections were put together in a manor that the herbs would be well suited to do a number of different decoctions.
Pleasantly surprised, Willow let out a deep sigh of relief as it became clear that she had hit pay dirt in finding this place.
An amused chuckling sounded behind her and she spun on her heel to see two men, who looked like complete opposites, standing in front of a doorway that lead deeper into the house.
The taller of the two towered over the other and had dark hair pulled back in a small ponytail. He looked to be in his late thirties to early forties, but he was still thickly muscled. He had a serious mustache attached to thick sideburns and glasses that were pushed up on his nose with a hand large enough to palm her face.
Trying not to gulp visibly, Willow looked over the other man quickly. He was half a foot taller than her, and still a good head shorter than the other man, and he had a slight build. His hair was blond and shaggy down past his chin.
He wore a semi-traditional black over green robe over loose fitting black pants. The weird, to her anyway, outfit was accompanied with a number of accessories that had her suppressing a grin.
Tall wooden slat-platform type sandals, one of the ugliest, stripped white and green hats she'd ever seen, a white fan stenciled with crimson and golden cherry blossoms, and a cane held in the hand without the fan.
"Um, hi," Willow said nervously as the two just continued to look at her. "I like your shop."
"Thank you. How can we be of service to such a pretty young lady?" the blonde replied.
"I noticed that you had a few things that I would be interested in buying. You have a great selection," she said with a smile.
Hat-guy just inclined his head in thanks and motioned to the tables, "What did you need?"
She turned and bit her lip as she studied the table. Willow knew exactly what she wanted but hesitated to answer, she felt like this guy was going to weigh what she said, and it made her uncomfortable.
She shook her head at herself ruefully, surprised at how weird she was being.
"Hmm, well, I needed," she began as she eyed the table, "thyme, rosemary, fever few, marigold petals, sage, thorn apple, lavender, a few silver ferns. A piece of rose quartz, amethyst, and citron. Oh, and clover, chamomile, and ginger and some clothe bandages," she finished with an absent nod.
The two men traded a quick glance with each other and the taller of the two moved forward and started to gather her order as the blonde said, "My name is Kisuke Urahara, the propitier of this fine shop. That was a very interesting shopping list. Not many people order those plants and crystals together. Are you interested in herbal healing?"
Giving him a soft smile for his effort to dance around his questions, she said, "Sort of. Some is for healing potions and elixirs, some is for protection charms and some is for tea. I'm Willow Rosenberg, by the way."
The tall man chuckled at her response, and Urahara smirked at her.
Remembering that she also needed an athme, she looked around the shop, but didn't see any blades. She wondered if they could recommend a shop to her. "I was wondering," she started, but hesitated. The blonde raised an eyebrow at her and she continued, "Would you know where I could buy an athme?"
He startled at her question and the big guy turned to look at her.
After an uncomfortable moment of him staring at her, Urahara said quietly but firmly, "Tessai."
The tall man, apparently Tessai, put down the bag he had gathered her purchases into and walked over to a cabinet set in the corner of the room. He motioned her over to take a look, and she slowly joined him. Their odd reaction had made her pause. Maybe she shouldn't have asked.
Her weirdness meter was starting to go off, and she didn't like it. She may have only helped Buffy for a couple of years or so on the hellmouth, but some things were already ingrained in her.
Keeping one eye on hat-guy, Willow stopped next to Tessai and looked into the cabinet. About a half dozen daggers were hung up on hooks on the back wall of the upright chest. There was a variety of different styles and lengths, but as soon as she saw the one hanging in the upper right corner, she knew that it was the one she wanted.
Her hand itched to hold the black hilt, with its thin silver wire twining down to the pummel cap. Her flesh yearned to see if its surface was as smooth and cool as it looked. To see if it's long, curve tipped blade was as sharp as it promised to be.
Every fiber in her called out for her to take the dagger, but she knew better than to just go grabbing at it. "May I?" she whispered to Tessai and gestured towards her dagger.
He reached in and took it up gently, then turned to her and held it out for her to take.
Her hand came up and grasped the hilt loosely, and as it settled into place, she felt as if it had always belonged there.
As if she had found a piece of herself.
Willow knew two things as soon as it came into contact with her skin.
One, that this blade would hold and store her energy, much better than the one she'd left in Sunnydale, and two, that the hilt was made of hematite. A stone that appeared to be pitch black with an odd off-silver shine, but in reality was a red so dark, it was like looking at dead blood.
She had always been sensitive to hematite.
As a child, she had gone to natural history museums, fascinated with the sections about minerals and plant life. She had loved learning about the amazing things that occurred in nature. But when they inevitably came to the part about crystals, she would be drawn to the hematite samples. Not the emeralds, not pretty rubies or diamonds, but hematite.
When she got older and started learning about the mystical arts, she had put her interest in plants to good use. Many of the same things people use in a normal, everyday capacity, she was learning to use in spells and healing potions.
If only she had known when she was a child that she would learn to use the pretty lion head looking marigolds she loved so much, for making a tincture to help ease a migraine or tooth ache, as well as make a protection charm that helped against psychic attack.
How to use lavender, sage and an amethyst to protect your home from invasion of evil spirits and intent.
So many things that could be used in an extra-ordinary way.
So of course she had researched the crystal that had always seemed to call to her. And she found that hematite had a trait it was very well known for in certain circles. It was always used to, "Surrender to your shadow self."
"That is correct," Tessai rumbled next to her, making Willow startle. She hadn't realized that she had said that last part out loud.
"So, how much for everything, including the dagger?" she craned her head around and asked Urahara. He gave her a mischievous smile, which he tried to cover by snapping his fan in front of his face.
When everything was paid for, Willow declined to have the dagger wrapped.
With both men watching curiously, she lifted her pant leg to expose the top of her right boot and slipped the blade into the holder like the damn thing had been made for it.
Thoroughly freaked out by this point, the red head gave a burst of nervous laughter as she lowered the material back down to hide the blade, then thanked the two frowning men, grabbed her bag of herbal goodies and left as quickly as she could.
"Kisuke...," Tessai murmured worriedly as he watched the young red haired girl flee down their driveway.
"I know," the blonde responded equally as worried.
The next morning Willow woke up just before the sun crested the horizon.
When she had gotten home the night prior, not wanting to deal with that days weirdness, she had put her groceries away, cooked herself a quick and light meal, cleaned up and went to bed.
But the first thing she thought of as she opened her eyes that morning, was of her reaction to her new athme. She'd read about some witches that had bonded with their ceremonial blades, but she had never thought to experience it herself.
She would have to bless and bind the new blade to herself before she could use it in any spell casting, but once she did, somehow she knew it would be a great help to focusing her power.
Unfortunately, she was still having problems controlling her magic. It seemed the only things that she didn't screw up with her spells, was her herb lore, potions, and restoring Angel's soul.
Willow glanced at her alarm clock and groaned to see that it wasn't even five yet. She rolled her eyes, and flung the covers off of herself.
She walked over to her trunk and opened the lid. After she retrieved the athme, she gathered up what she would need for starting the blessing for her new blade. And since she decided to do a full bonding with it, the ritual would be an all day thing.
The sooner she started, the sooner she could use it to help lay a protection ward around her new house. As it was, she'd have to carry the blade with her all day to keep it soaked in her energies, and before bed tonight, she'd have to do another circle to close the bonding.
So the boots Buffy had given to her, were going to come in handy today.
She padded down the stairs in her bare feet, and went to the door that lead out back. There was a nice little garden set up to the right and a sitting area to the left. A privacy fence encircled the whole house, so she shouldn't have to worry about anyone seeing her.
Willow went over to the grass in front of the flower garden and set up her circle.
She sat at the center, facing towards the rising sun, with her blade, a box of wooden matches, a candle, two small dishes that had salt in one and water in the other, and a small braided whip of sage set in front of her.
"Energies to the North and Essence of Earth, hear me," she murmured quietly. She took some salt from the little dish and sprinkled it over the dagger, and watched the tiny white particles disappear into the grass.
Next, she took out a match and struck it off the box's edge and lit the small, white candle. "Energies to the South and Essence of Fire, hear me," she said as she passed the flame over the blade.
She then picked up and lit the end of the braided whip of sage in the candle's flame, and after it had a good cherry on it, she blew it out. As she passed the whip gracefully back and forth over the dagger, smoke trailing lazily into the air, she said, "Energies to the East and Essence of Wind, hear me."
Lastly, she took up the little bowl of water and sprinkled droplets down as she intoned, "Energies to the West and Essence of Water, hear me."
She put down the bowl, and held the dagger up on the flat of her palms and whispered, "Bless this blade and guide my hand. Let this tool be one with my energy and be the compass to lead my way. Blessed Be."
A small breeze began to rustle the leaves of the tree's, and birds who had been welcoming the new day with song, burst out with cascades of soaring notes.
Willow thanked the four Corners and lowered her arms to cradle the athme in her lap. She closed her eyes and cleared her mind, and began her morning meditation exercises.
An hour later, she took down her circle, and after she gathered everything up, she headed inside and upstairs.
She had to get a shower.
To get ready for school.
She had to wear a uniform.
She was thrilled.
If something could be good and crappy at the same time, Karakura High School was it.
It was crappy because she had to finish out her sophomore year in a foreign country.
It was good, because the school year here was shorter than in Sunnydale, so she would only have a little over a month before summer vacation.
What she was going to do over the summer, she had no idea.
It was homeroom and Willow stood in front of the chalkboard, being introduced to her new classmates. She gave a shy wave and was allowed to take a seat.
The row closest to the windows had a desk open behind a pretty red headed girl who was looking at her curiously. She hoped she wasn't taking anybodies seat, but from the looks of it, there weren't any other open desks. Willow gave the girl a friendly smile as she walked past and slid into the chair.
The girl turned around and introduced herself, "Hi, I'm Orihime Inoue, are you really from California?"
Willow nodded shyly. "Yep. Good ol' Usa, land of the free, home of the... not me," she finished with a blush.
"Oh, how sad! Do you miss it there very much?" Orihime asked sympathetically. When Willow nodded again, she said, "Don't worry, I'm sure you'll like it here in no time."
Willow smiled her thanks, but before they could talk any more, the teacher called the class to order. She sat back and paid attention as roll call was taken, so she could learn the kids names that were seated around her.
The morning wore on and Willow found that she didn't have any problems keeping up academically with her new classmates. Her relief was short lived though as lunch time came around and everyone started to either leave or break into groups.
As she stood to gather her things, a shiver worked its way up her spine and Willow twitched her shoulders to dispel it. She raised an eyebrow as the tall orange-haired boy who sat next to her, Itchy something, who had been talking to Orihime, shot out of his seat and bolted from the room. Even stranger, the black haired girl who sat next to him, also ran out.
She stared after them for a couple of moments, then looked to Orihime to see her reaction to her friends just suddenly running off, but the other girl was looking out the window intently.
Following her gaze, Willow looked out in time to see Itchy run across the gym field, but he was dressed differently. He had some how changed out of his school uniform and was now wearing a traditional looking black robe.
And what looked like a huge damn sword slung across his back, wrapped in a odd white, binding sort of clothe.
"Ichigo," Orihime whispered worriedly.
"Why is he wearing a sword?" Willow murmured. "And where is he going?"
"The sword is his...," Orihime started to answer absently, then jerked in surprise and whipped around to look at her. She hissed,"You can see him?!"
Willow recoiled from the other girl's reaction and warily said, "Yeah. So what? He supposed to be invisible or something?"
Orihime frowned at her, but didn't say anything, so Willow shrugged her shoulders and muttered, "Whatever." She picked up her back pack and left the classroom to go and try to find someplace quiet to have her lunch. She didn't think she could handle getting to know any more of her new classmates today.
By the time she had found a nice shady spot under a tree and had finished her lunch, she had managed to push the strange encounter with her fellow red head from earlier, out of her mind.
The rest of the school day went sort of smoothly, except for a few odd looks between herself and Ichigo.
He had shown up, dressed in his uniform again, before the bell had rung to signal that lunch was over. Both he and Rukia, the dark haired girl who had run after him, had had a quick, whispered conversation with Orihime, and ever since then she could feel them staring at her off and on throughout the rest of the day.
When the final bell rang, Willow kept her head down as she gathered her belongings, she didn't want to invite any conversations.
Some of her new classmates acted a little too weird.
And she grew up on the hellmouth, so that was saying something.
The whole walk home, she felt like she was being watched, but when she looked over her shoulder, no one was there.
She felt freaked out, frustrated, and if she was honest with herself, a little frightened.
All of which was making her kinda cranky.
It felt like it took an eternity to walk the last two blocks to her house. If who ever was staring at her had had lasers for eyes, she would look like swiss cheese before she made it to her front door.
Willow unlocked her door, got inside, shut and re-locked her door so fast, she thought she must have set a land speed record or something. She crept to the window in the front den and twitched the curtain back every so slightly. She peered through, but didn't see anybody.
She let the curtain fall back and bit her lip in thought. Was she being too paranoid? If not, did this have to do with Ichigo? Or Urahara? What the hell was going on?!
She felt so isolated.
Alone in a house that was much too big for just her, more than half-way around the world from anybody that she called friend or family.
The red head wrapped her arms around to hug herself and she went upstairs to change out of the horrible gray pleated skirt and white button-up shirt.
After she slipped on her pair of favorite, worn, practically faded to white jeans, and a cute little pink t-shirt, that had a large red star on the chest, she slipped her athme out of the boot holder and went to do her homework.
She'd have to wait until later to finish the ritual that binded her to the blade. It had had to be initiated in the rising suns light, and it had to be finished under the brilliance of a rising full moon. Which was good, because she could lay a protection ward around the perimeter of the house afterward.
Willow spent the next couple of hours doing her homework, and when she finished she set up her bag for the next morning and left it by the front door for her to grab on her way out. She had a bit of time until she had to get ready, so she made herself a light dinner.
It was a little over an hour later and she had just finished setting her circle. The moon was rising into the beautiful purple tinged night sky. She knelt at the center and started invoking the four corners and their corresponding elements.
"Let my strength be as unbending as this blade. May I be as true and sharp as its edge. Be of me and I of you," she whispered, then pricked the tip of her right-hand index finger.
She watched as a bead of blood welled to the surface, then pressed her finger to the cool metal of the blade and smeared a trail of red from the tip to the hilt. She grasped the athme in her right hand and thrust it up to the night sky.
"As above, so below. As I will it, so mote it be," she murmured and stabbed the blade into the ground.
She felt a shock run up her hand as a connection to the earth's energies snapped into place. Willow sighed in relief and shifted to sit flat on the ground, never taking her right hand off the dagger's hilt.
Once she was settled, she closed her eyes and centered her mind. She started at the crown of her head, and moved down her body to her feet, opening her chakra points along the way, infusing the glow of her energy with her body and blade.
She sent her will and essence down into her athme, down into the ground that cradled it. Then, after she had absorbed some of the steady and constant flow that filled the earth, she sent everything up into the cosmos, creating a link of power that connected her with nature and the essence of the universe.
Willow let a small smile stretch her lips as she said the final blessing on her new athme, "Earth, Air, Fire, Water, and Spirit, I claim this blade as my own. Strengthen my arm so I may be worthy to wield it. Blessed Be."
She closed down her chakras, and thanked the Corners before she pulled the dagger out of the earth and took down her circle. She had one last thing to do before she could go in and relax before she had to go to bed. But walking the perimeter with the burning sage and amethyst in one hand and her newly blessed athme in the other, wouldn't be hard.
When that was done, she collected the little bowls, the candle, matches, and the little stump of sage that was left, and brought everything inside. She'd have to go to Urahara's to get more, but she didn't need it right away, so it could wait a couple of days.
That night, as she was washing up before getting into bed, if she had looked out the window, she would have seen a sight that would have had her screaming for Buffy.
A monstrously huge creature with a bone white mask covering its face stood at the border of her front property. It kept a good couple of feet from the ward she had lain earlier, but that was the only thing keeping it from coming closer.
It's long, serpentine tail gently whipped back and forth behind it, but the creature didn't seem agitated.
That changed as a figure dressed in black robes, with orange hair, leaped out from the shadows and cut a slice in the creatures bone mask.
Even though the monster was easily defeated, the man with the sword noticed something odd.
As the creature dissolved and float away into nothing, it kept its face turned towards the house it had been staring at, not looking at him even once before it died.
The next day at school was a bit quieter for Willow.
Mainly due to the fact that the students who had been wigging her out yesterday, had left at lunch and hadn't come back yet.
At the end of the day, as she was gathering her books and things to go home, Willow couldn't help overhear an interesting conversation.
"Orihime, do you know where we're supposed to go?" a tall and muscular boy asked the red head who sat in front of her.
"I think Yoruichi said that Mr. Urahara wanted us on the foot bridge. But, Chad, we have a little time before we have to be there."
"All the same, we should go."
"Do you think Ichigo will be alright?" Orihime asked worriedly.
"I hope so."
Willow couldn't help but to perk her ears when she heard them mention the strange blonde who ran the herbal shop. And maybe if she snuck along, she could see what Ichigo did with that ginormous sword of his.
Mind made up, she followed at a discrete distance behind her fellow classmates, trying to not let them see her behind them.
She was a couple of blocks away when she saw the pair go up a flight of stairs and onto a foot bridge that lead into a park. They stopped and rested against the rail and were staring up at something.
Willow looked, but didn't see anything at first.
Then, she couldn't help but notice a thin crack in the sky, as it started to be pushed open from the other side.
Willow's heart felt like it was going to stop, as she stared in horror as bone white hands seemed to grip the tear on either side and start to rip the sky open.
She stood, frozen in terror, as the things black hooded head began to push its way into their reality.
As it's body came into view, she saw that it was freaking huge!
It opened its mouth and let out a roar that reverberated in her bones.
Willow looked around for help, but she soon noticed that nobody else seemed to be seeing the creature the size of a sky scrapper as it stomped its way into their reality.
A flash of blue light hit the creature in the face, but only seemed to nick it.
She looked to see where the light came from and gasped as she recognized two of her classmates standing in front of the beast. The one who had shot the blue light was that skinny guy with the glasses, who sat at the front of her class, and the other was unmistakably Ichigo.
The two appeared to be arguing something, and then the guy with the glasses did something that nearly had her giggling, even with a twenty story monster howling above.
He tied Ichigo's huge sword to his head and held out his arms like he had thought of the perfect solution.
Willow wasn't sure if she was having a crazy dream, or if what was happening in front of her, actually was.
Before she could decide if she should pinch herself, the creature opened its mouth and a strange red energy started to gather between its teeth. Ichigo grabbed his sword off of the other guys head and ran toward it.
As it started to release the pent up blast of energy, Willow cried out in horror and started to run towards the scene. She didn't know what she would do when she got there, but she had to do something to help.
Even if, it was to pull the dead bodies of her classmates out of the way.
She stumbled as the energy blast hit Ichigo, and she felt a backwash of power as he met it head on with his blade. Stunned, she watched as he held it back, and began to push it away.
With a roar of his own, Ichigo snapped his sword up, and a brilliant slash of light blue energy ripped up the front of the monster.
It howled in pain and started to back away, towards the tear in reality it had come from. It grasped the edges and started to pull the sky around itself, to close up the hole.
Willow didn't stop and watch as the thing disappeared, she rushed forward to see if the two boys were alright. Ichigo had collapsed on the ground and the other boy was staring at the retreating monster.
She skidded to a halt next to Ichigo, and knelt down to look him over for any obvious damage, but she didn't see any blood except for on his face.
"Are you alright?" she gasped a bit breathlessly.
He looked up at her, startled and asked, "What are you doing here?"
Before she could answer, he let out a shout of pain and she felt a huge burst of energy rip through her.
She screamed in agony as the power arched her back and nearly raised her off her knee's with the force of it slamming into her over and over again.
It felt like she was being burned from the inside out, but at the same time a great pressure was crushing her from the outside in.
Helplessly, she flailed her arms, trying to find something to hold onto, something to stop the pain.
There was a biting sting on her hand and Willow felt something deep within her swell and then snap, and she fell into the blessed blackness of being unconscious.
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Chris such a stud
COLDPLAY have crammed so much plant life into new studios that their support staff have labelled it "The Greenhouse".
Frontman CHRIS MARTIN is taking a keen interest in horticulture at the moment. And at a recent garden party at his north London home he bored, sorry, told pals, including RICHARD ASHCROFT, all about it.


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Memorabilia historian Jeff Nolan on Treasures of the Hard Rock exhibition
With more than 77,000 pieces of music history in its possession, the Hard Rock Cafe empire is a global music museum as well as eatertainment complex. Along with presenting permanent displays in dozens of locations across the world, the company culls pieces from its archives for traveling exhibitions. Treasures of the Hard Rock -- which includes two collections, "Gone Too Soon" and "Music Gives Back" -- is one such show, opening today at the Hard Rock Cafe Denver in Denver. Hard Rock International A little piece of Jimi Hendrix.
Jeff Nolan, Hard Rock's music and memorabilia historian and the curator overseeing all of the company's exhibits, recently spoke with Westword about the process of creating a traveling show.
See also:
- Hard Rock Cafe's 40th Anniversary Memorabilia Tour hits Denver next week
- Colorado Music Hall of Fame artifacts stolen: Flash Cadillac guitar, gold record and more
- xx marks the spot: Own a piece of, ahem, music history. Buy xx's lighting gear.
Westword: How do you go about putting exhibitions like "Gone Too Soon" and "Music Gives Back" together?Hard Rock International Clothing belonging to Elton John, John Lennon and Bono.
Jeff Nolan: Picking pieces for traveling tours is one of the more interesting things that we get to do here. The folks involved, myself included, are passionate about we think is the "good" stuff, or the stuff that we think will be compelling to folks. The conversations and debates around making final decisions can be pretty animated.
With this particular (traveling tour), we had two collections. "Gone Too Soon" is pretty self-explanatory. A lot of rock stars left the world before their time. Of course, an odd number of them, too, at age 27.
The 27 Club has many members -- Brian Jones, Amy Winehouse, Jimi Hendrix, Kurt Cobain. It's quite a list.
I just found out something about the 27 Club that I didn't know, as a music and memorabilia historian for Hard Rock International. I was embarrassed I didn't know this -- Chris Bell of Big Star was 27 when he died. I learned it from watching the new Big Star documentary (Nothing Can Hurt Me).
I feel like as that movie circulates, the 27 Club conversation will once again be revived. It is interesting to look at different musicians who passed at that age, and seeing where they were in their lives and careers at that time.
Absolutely. I've heard so many different theories on the 27 Club -- from the completely hippie to the numerological to the coincidental. It sort of shows an arc of life. The folks who really started to get a lot of success in their early 20s, by the time they were 27, you can be kind of spent, creatively. At least for a while. It's crazy to think that someone like Jimi Hendrix was only 27 when he died. These people become mythological creatures. They seem ageless. I mean, Buddy Holly was 22!
I just think of how I felt when Kurt Cobain died -- and I was only 13 and I was devastated. But now he's a completely different character to a whole new generation of people.
When I talk to kids and tell them I saw Nirvana many times, on club dates, too, it is very similar to when I was a kid and one of my uncles telling me he saw The Beatles. It doesn't seem like it could be real.
And you never know the outcome at the time -- it may just be one of thousands of shows you have seen.
Everyone has these stories - but being fanatical about music, I've seen so many bands in this context. I remember seeing shows that would be iconic, but at the time, it would be just another gig. Some of those legendary gigs, they kind of sucked. (Laughs.)
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Used Cars in Fond du Lac WI
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Yes, I hate myself for that headline. The Colombian wizard is at it again, compensating for a possible Messi-less day in Spain. Falcao has scored twice as Atlético Madrid leads Deportivo 3-0 late in the second half. Let the rumour mill reignite.
Update 2:24 pm: Ha. Falcao now has four goals on the day — Atlético leads 5-0 with 20 minutes to go. Man oh man.
Update II 2:30 pm:
Fuck me. 5 for Falcao. F. I. V. E. 6-0.
— Sid Lowe (@sidlowe) December 9, 2012


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The Digital Artistry of 'Pacific Rim'
Behind the Scenes By Neil Miller on July 21, 2013 | Comments (4)Taking a break from Comic-Con, it's time to look back at a movie that made quite the splash in San Diego last year and is currently in theaters, Guillermo del Toro's Pacific Rim. At that time, there was but a trailer for the giant monsters vs. giant robots movie, but the buzz was electric. One calendar year later, the film has made it's way to theaters and has opened much softer than expected by the Warner Bros. accounting department. All the same, it's a movie I, myself said was more fun "than anything else we're going to see towering above us on the big screen this summer" in our review. One of the biggest draws of Pacific Rim: the scope of the action and the scale of its participants. Most of which is accomplished via the mastery of the folks at Industrial Light & Magic and Spectral Motion, among others. Under the watchful eyes of VFX supervisors John Knoll and James E. Price, and animation supervisor Hal Hickel, a team of artists created some of the most impressive icons of Summer 2013. Care to know how they did it? Good, because we just so happen to have a video explaining the "Digital Artistry of Pacific Rim." Watch it for yourself just after the jump.
30 Things We Learned from the 'Jurassic Park 3' Commentary
Commentary Commentary By Kevin Carr on January 17, 2013 | Be the First To CommentEven though there's pretty much no information about the upcoming Jurassic Park 4 film that was announced earlier this week, you'll find plenty of speculation and discussion about it on the interwebs. So why not jump on that bandwagon and dissect the famous dinosaur movies? Yeah, we'd all like to go back to the original Jurassic Park for this Commentary Commentary, but sadly, Spielberg hasn't sat down to record his thoughts on that or the sequel. That means we're left with Jurassic Park 3. The plus side is that we get Stan Winston's take on the whole thing as he is joined by other members of the film's special effects team. And on to the commentary…
ILM Teaches Us How to Craft the Final Battle of 'The Avengers' In Just Three Minutes
Movie News By Kate Erbland on December 28, 2012 | Comments (1)As the year slowly winds to a close, now it as good as any time to reflect on some of our very favorite scenes, stunts, and effects from the best films of the year, and few projects had quite as many memorable scenes, stunts, and effects as Joss Whedon's The Avengers.The Marvel-made universe of The Avengers was so jaw-droppingly rendered that's not surprising that audiences just sort of wholesale accepted much of what was on screen, getting caught up in the action instead of wondering how the heck they did that. Until now! Industrial Light & Magic has shared a new video (via ComingSoon) that breaks down some of the challenges of the film's epic final battle and how they crafted them with their magic and/or light. As ILM tells it, the film "posed many visual effects challenges, [and] one of the larger challenges was pulling together the 'tie-in' shot during the third act of the film. Rather than frames, this single shot is measured in minutes on screen and is one of the longest effects shots in the film. It incorporates both practical special effects and extensive digital visual effects by ILM. The New York City environment that serves as the setting for this shot (and virtually the entire alien invasion) is computer generated by the visual effects team at ILM." Check it out after the break!
Movie News After Dark: Louie Does Lincoln and 7 Other Things You Should See
Movie News By Neil Miller on November 5, 2012 | Be the First To CommentWhat is Movie News After Dark? It's the definitive voice heard late at night. Well, it depends upon what room of the house you're in, but it's pretty unmistakable. It's loud, it talks about movies and TV shows and it does not appreciate it when you just feign interest. We begin this evening with a shot of Ken Watanabe in the forthcoming Japanese remake of Clint Eastwood's Unforgiven. See, they remake our stuff, too. Although I'm sure this will be much better than the American version of Ringu.
5 Weird Ways Disney Buying Lucasfilm Just Changed The Future
Cinematic Listology By J.F. Sargent on November 2, 2012 | Comments (3)Though it's definitely the biggest and most immediate piece of news, there's more going on with Disney's acquisition of LucasFilm than just the release of Episode 7. For starters…
Inside Industrial Light & Magic: A Day on a 'Battleship'
Blu-ray Spotlight By Neil Miller on August 31, 2012 | Be the First To Comment"Is it okay if I take a picture of that?" Visiting Industrial Light & Magic isn't just another assignment. Even a seasoned movie blogger knows that much. This job takes you all kinds of interesting places — sets in the middle of the Bayou, the snow covered mountains of Utah, even the Four Seasons in Beverly Hills. But a trip to San Francisco, home of LucasFilm and ILM, that's something special. It doesn't matter so much that my first trip to the house that George built (before he went crazy) was in honor of Battleship, a movie-sized adaptation of a classic board game. What matter is that I got to stand next to the original Vigo the Carpathian painting from Ghostbusters 2. Of course, there was also a bit of learning about visual effects from some of the brightest minds in the business, all in celebration of Universal's big watery explosion known as Battleship.
J.J. Abrams Plans to Engage on 'Star Trek 2′ in January
In Development By Scott Beggs on November 16, 2011 | Comments (4)Can it be? Is it true? Have the stars aligned to ensure that J.J. Abrams is ready to start rolling cameras on Star Trek 2. According to Star Trek Movie, January 15, 2012 is the day that Abrams takes a seat in the director's chair, tugs his uniform down and calmly says, "Make it so." Roberto Orci, Alex Kurtzman and Damon Lindelof are currently polishing a script to fit within the budgetary confines that Paramount has outlined. Apparently Industrial Light and Magic is already working on some of the effects shots that can be done before filming even starts. So it's finally happening. Now, the only real question is whether it will be ready for its vague 2013 release date. With a full year of production, it seems more than likely. How will you celebrate?
Welcome back to Junkfood Cinema; I am not Banksy. But like that ninja/superhero street artist, I appear from nowhere and deface your perfectly good internet walls with my tasteless taste in movies. I will eviscerate history's most problem-laden cinematic missteps before circumventing any notions of a favorable reputation by singing the film's dubious praises. To drive the proverbial nail into the coffin, and into your aorta, I will then pair the movie with an appropriate junk food selection to ruin your swimsuit season. South by Southwest is a film festival that carries with it a debauchery only outdone by the Mos Eisley-level of scum and villainy that is Fantastic Fest. With the daunting schedule of pounding beers, drinking lager in line for various films, and taking a break from running from venue to venue with an ice cold brew, it can be really hard to grant the same level of attention and diligence to one's weekly features that one normally does. But luckily for me, the Ain't It Cool News secret screening during SxSW provided the perfect fodder for this week's column. This week's snack: Dragonslayer.
Interview: Gore Verbinski on Bringing Leone and Realism to 'Rango'
Features By Jack Giroux on March 5, 2011 | Be the First To CommentGore Verbinski's Rango is not a spoof or satire of westerns. It is, in fact, a genuine western. Keeping that in mind, Verbinski hasn't made an animated film with modern "of-the-moment" pop-culture references and a wacky hip soundtrack. Rango is no Shrek or Madagascar. The archetypes, the story, the score (courtesy of Hans Zimmer) and style is done in an old-school fashion, but with a slight twist. This isn't Verbinski's first western outing. The Pirates of the Caribbean films are total odes to the western and even some of Verbinski's smaller-scale films – such as The Weather Man and The Mexican – feature the stampings of the genre. As for the realism, Verbinski wanted to keep his animated feature as grounded in live-action filmmaking as much as possible. Here's what the soft-spoken eclectic director had to say about not making a western spoof, avoiding perfection in animation, and the meta aspect of Rango:
Neil Miller
Scott Beggs
Rob Hunter
Kate Erbland
Christopher Campbell


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The Bandits have been invited to play in the Evolvement Radio Battle Radical on Thursday April 26! This Battle of the Bands style competition will mark the BKs first live stint at The Grog in Newburyport, Massamachusetts. Need more info? Climb on into our face space. Want to come to the show as our honored guest? Email us: email@example.com.
LATEST ALBUM: EPiC HELLO
The Bandit Kings' second full-length album, was recorded by Tony Goddess at Bang-A-Song Studio in Gloucester, MA and was realized under the watchful eyes of songwriter/producer Dan King and co-producer Dave Mattacks (who's worked with likes of Paul McCartney, Fairport Convention, Nick Drake, etc.); with a whole lotta love from Goddess (Papas Fritas, Jenny Dee and the Deelinquents), Nelson Bragg (from the Brian Wilson Band), and Russ Lawton (Trey Anastasio Band). Mixed at Q Division Studios in Somerville and mastered at M-Works in Cambridge, the new album is a collaboratve rock effort with accordian snapsots and heavy reliance on the bands country and folk roots. Full of both twang and rasp, each song is its own story with a common jangle-pop thread that pulls together to form a tight 30 minute ride. Not exactly a rollercoaster ride, but a train ride, with rumbling stops in Lucinda Williams-ville, hard turns in Pretenders-town, and gentle coasting through Heart city.
WHO ARE THE BANDiT KiNGS, YOU ASK?!
The Bandit Kings are an alt. country/rock/pop band with two female lead vocalists, a vintage jangle sound and modern rock rhythms. Originally formed in the Art/Rock/Island town of Gloucester, Massachusetts, they call the North Shore home and Boston/New England are their stomping grounds. Featuring Renee Dupuis on lead vocals and keys, Ann Marie, also on lead vocals (and torpid tambo), Dennis Monagle on drums, Joe Cardoza on bass, and Dan King on lead guitar. Since it's inception in 2010, the band has found bare-bones musical chemistry, including the rich meld of vocalists Ann Marie and Dupuis, who "both have voices that bring us back to the dawn of country rock, whisky soaked and raspy in just the right places while never crossing into the overpowering." (Aww thanks Boston Band Crush)
The BKs debuted one melancholy March in 2010, were immediately booked at Boston club, Tommy Doyle's in Harvard Square and pretty soon heard their original hits Laredo and Show Me the Stars Tonight featured and replayed on Boston's 92.5 WXRV The River—both recorded at good friend Tony Goddess' Bang-A-Song Studios (Papas Fritas). This past December, the Bandits were interviewed and recorded live in studio with Meg Griffin for her new show on Sirius XM Radio Having Words with Meg (Sirius Satellite Radio XM 30).
In the past two years the BKs have multiple clubs in Boston, Vermont, Maine, and much of New England, including TT the Bears and the Plough and Stars in Cambridge, House of Blues in Boston, Funky Red Barn in Maine and Radio Bean in Burlington (for a complete listing of clubs the Bandits have rocked, go here). The band has played stages and festivals and most importantly, has been the house band for two years running for the infamous Monday Night Open Jamm at the Rhumbline in Gloucester, MA. The Open Jamm has seen repeat players, the likes of Kingsley Flood, Nelson Bragg (Brian Wilson Band), Russ Lawton (Trey Anastasio Band), Tony and Sam Goddess, David Brown (Billy Joel), and so many more.
In January of 2012, in association with Lovestuck Productions, the BKs trekked cross-country for the second time to Los Angeles to play multiple venues, including famed clubs Molly Malones and Saint Rocke. See adventure photos here
PAST ALBUMS: EP, PRECiOUS STONES, & LiVE iN LA
The BKs first three albums featured single, Show Me the Stars Tonight, which combines a country twang with rolling guitar and conspiratorial song-play by lead singers, Ann Marie and Renee Dupuis. Call it Alt. Country, Jangle Rock, Cowpunk, Rock/Pop/Indie, their albums are full of surprises and thoughtful originality—from the wild roar of The Jerker, to the steady mantra of GoGoGo. Past recordings also include fan favorites Threads and Over, as well as radio hit Laredo, all emphasizing moody harmonies and honest homages to love, heart-crush, and moving on. The band's special ingredients are a mixture of Ann Marie's spine tingling raw rasp and Renee's dreamy intimate delivery.
Catch The Bandit Kings while you can.
They just might steal your heart.


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Thu, Sep 25, 08 at 11:00
In the past 10 mos or so I've become extremely scent sensitive. When it comes to cleaning my house I can't stand all the fragrances at once. I know 7th Generation makes some fragrance free products but I believe they are much more costly. Given these economic times I'm hoping not to go for "more expensive". I already use fragrance free laundry detergent. I also use vinegar & water to clean my guinea pig cage & the scent quickly dissipates, so I'm thinking maybe that can be used on other things as well. Can anyone recommend any products or make your own at home that I can use? Unfortunately I don't think anything cleans like bleach so for the shower & toilet i'll just deal with that. I'm specifically concerned about what to use on my granite counter tops, stainless steel & wood floors.
Mich |
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