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Susan Gordon
Additional Positions at AUDirector of Career Development
- Sue works with Career Center advisors, faculty, and staff to ensure that the Center's programs and services effectively meet the needs of AU students and alumni, with a particular focus on career development issues that range from declaring a major to accepting a job offer. She also oversees advising and programming for students in the College of Arts and Sciences and School of Communication. Sue recently served as career advisor to students in the College of Arts and Sciences and continues to advise pre-health students on resumes, interviews, and other aspects of medical school admissions. She also continues to administer and interpret assessments, including the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator and Strong Interest Inventory. Prior to her arrival at AU, Sue worked as a career counselor in community and federal agencies, including NIH, NASA, and the IRS. Her previous professional background includes nearly 10 years at IBM in programming and technical marketing.
DegreesMS, Counseling, Johns Hopkins University
BS, Mathematics, Wake Forest University
Favorite Spot on Campus:Quad on a warm spring day
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- Career Center
- Butler Pavilion - 5th Floor
To request an interview for a
news story, call AU Communications
at 202-885-5950 or submit a request.
Partnerships & Affiliations
MidAtlantic Career Planning Network
Co-Chair, 2008-2009
Maryland Career Development Association
Publicity Co-Chair
Scholarly, Creative & Professional Activities
Professional Certifications
- National Certified Counselor www.nbcc.org
- Licensed Clinical Professional Counselor (Maryland) http://www.dhmh.state.md.us/bopc/
- Myers-Briggs Type Indicator Certified
AU News and Achievements
Seniors Reaching Goals, One Step at a Time
New Career Center campaign helps seniors to achieve their post-graduate dreams without feeling overwhelmed....
Read More


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- Filed Under
Before the economy went south, before Pennsylvania casinos put a damper on Atlantic City, developer Bruce Toll purchased the former 2.66-acre site of Trump World's Fair Casino.
His intent was to build a high-rise luxury condo with retail on the ground floor, adjacent to Boardwalk Hall.
The condo remains a possibility in the distant future. But Toll's company, BET Investments, came before the Casino Reinvestment Development Authority's Land Use Division Thursday seeking approval for a much more modest proposal: a strip of upscale retail shops and restaurants on 16,000 square feet of ...

subset: commoncrawl


text:
Total Reviews
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All Models
I live in the northern Seattle suburbs and have had a Kia Optima Hybrid for one year now.
I am more than pleased with the gasoline mileage I get with this vehicle in this climate.
In warmer months (when nighttime lows are greater than 45 degrees F, I get better than 41 MPG combined, and during the winter months I've always gotten better than 39 MPG.
I attribute the lower gasoline mileage during winter months to two factors: 1) the gasoline formulation coming from the refineries, 2) the gasoline engine runs more just to wrm it up to meet/keep EPA required emission standards.
Having said that, I do use all the "instantaneous mileage devices to moderate that urge to "stomp on the gas," but I'm used to that having driven farm trucks and using the vaccuum gauge to do the same thing.
The real surprise to me, was the gas I realized I didn't burn when driving in stop and go conditions like through a city.
I'd go for a mile or more from stoplight to stoplight (and 10 minutes) on the electric motor alone.
Thus, my instanteous "city" mileage was almost as good as my highway mileage, in fact, better than my highway mileage when driving against the prevailing wind.
For all the "hypermiling" I may try to do, there are times when I have to tromp down on the accelerator, and this car has the torque, thanks to the electric motor, to get up and go.
"hypermiling" is not a bad thing.
In fact, the first (and best) Defensive Driving course I took back in the 70's taught defensive driving techniques that overlap hypermiling techniques.
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Young urban professionals in in Indianapolis pay less for their desired amenities, such as gourmet coffee, than yuppies in other cities. Bee Coffee Roasters, 201 S. Capitol Ave., is an independent Indianapolis coffee shop.
- Filed Under
Bring on the lattes, yoga mats and dog walkers. Turns out we live in a yuppie paradise.
Indianapolis tops a list of the most affordable cities for yuppies, compiled by the website Locality.com. The website factored in the cost of must-have yuppie amenities, from dry-cleaning to massages to gym memberships.
Locality then devised a Yuppie Price Index, to compare the annual cost of these services in 30 cities nationwide. ...


text:
Book your room at Garden Plaza Hotel Atlanta Norcross
Get an overview of this hotelSuburban hotel with free breakfast and indoor pool
Located in the heart of Norcross, this hotel is 2.9 mi (4.6 km) from The Forum on Peachtree Parkway and within 6 mi (10 km) of Malibu Grand Prix and Global Mall. Georgia Perimeter College and Red Clay Theatre are also within 9 mi (15 km).
Hotel Features
An indoor pool, an outdoor pool, and a 24-hour business center are available at this hotel. Free continental breakfast, free WiFi in public areas, and free self parking are also provided. Other amenities include a conference center, coffee/tea in the lobby, and conference rooms.
Room Amenities
All 244 rooms provide conveniences like refrigerators and coffee makers, plus free WiFi and cable TV. Other amenities available to guests include free local calls, hair dryers, and phones.Information missing or incorrect? Tell us!
Hotel Amenities
Hotel Amenities
Garden Plaza Hotel Atlanta Norcross features an indoor pool and an outdoor pool. Public areas are equipped with complimentary high-speed wireless Internet access. This hotel offers access to a 24-hour business center and meeting rooms. A complimentary breakfast is offered each morning. Event facilities include a conference center and conference space. This Norcross hotel also offers multilingual staff, gift shops/newsstands, and coffee/tea in the lobby. Onsite self parking is complimentary.
- 24-hour business center
- 24-hour front desk
- ATM/banking
- Coffee/tea in common areas
- Conference center
- Conference space
- Elevator/lift
- Express check-in
- Express check-out
- Free breakfast
- Free self parking
- Free WiFi
- Gift shops or newsstand
- Indoor pool
- Luggage storage
- Meeting rooms
- Multilingual staff
- Number of buildings/towers - 2
- Number of floors - 8
- Number of meeting rooms - 12
- Outdoor pool
- Safe-deposit box at front desk
- Total number of rooms - 244
- Use of nearby fitness center (discount)
- Wedding services
Family Friendly Amenities
- Cribs/infant beds (complimentary)
- Free Wi-Fi
- Indoor pool
- Outdoor pool
- Refrigerator
- Rollaway/extra beds available
Available in all rooms: Free WiFi
Available in some public areas: Free WiFi
Free self parking
Room Amenities
- Air conditioning
- Blackout drapes/curtains
- Cable TV service
- Climate control
- Coffee/tea maker
- Connecting/adjoining rooms available
- Free cribs/infant beds
- Daily housekeeping
- Free local calls
- Free WiFi
- Hair dryer
- Iron/ironing board
- Phone
- Premium TV channels
- Private bathroom
- Refrigerator
- Rollaway/extra beds available
- Shower/tub combination
Where to Eat
A complimentary continental breakfast is served each morning between 7 AM and 9 AM.
Nearby Things to Do
An indoor pool and an outdoor pool are on site.
Children under 14 years old are not allowed in the swimming pool or fitness facility without adult supervision.
The recreational activities listed below are available either on site or nearby; fees may apply.
- Golfing nearby
- Skydiving nearby
- Ski lessons available nearby
- Golf lessons available nearby
To make requests for specific accessibility needs, complete the "Special or Accessibility Requests" section of "Trip Preferences" when you book your hotel.
- Accessibility equipment for the deaf
- Accessible bathroom
- Braille or raised signage
- Accessible parking
- In-room accessibility
Hotel Policies
Check-in time starts at 3 PM
Minimum check-in age is 21
Check-out time is 11 AM
Payment types
Children and extra beds
- Children are welcome.
- Kids stay free! Children under 12 years old stay free when using existing bedding.
- Rollaway/extra beds are available.
- Free cribs (infant beds)!
You need to know
Extra-person charges may apply and vary depending on hotel policy.
Government-issued photo identification and a credit card or cash deposit are required at check-in for incidental charges.
Special requests are subject to availability upon check-in and may incur additional charges. Special requests cannot be guaranteed.
- Minimum Spring Break check-in age is 21 years old.
- Cleaning deposit: USD 150.00 per stay
Optional extras
- Early check-in fee: USD 25.00
- Late check-out fee: USD 25.00
Hotel Name
We should mention
This property's policy is to refuse certain bookings for the purpose of group events or parties, including pre-wedding stag/bachelor and hen/bachelorette parties. Children 12 years old and younger stay free when occupying the parent or guardian's room, using existing bedding. Only registered guests are allowed in the guestrooms. The property has connecting/adjoining rooms, which are subject to availability and can be requested by contacting the property using the number on the booking confirmation.


text:
In his latest fundraising pitch, President Barack Obama tries to piggy back on the legacy of former President Bill Clinton. "When Bill Clinton ran for president in 1992, I had just started a job registering voters in Chicago," Obama writes in an email to supporters. "I remember watching his campaign and thinking, wow, I've never seen a candidate like him."
Obama continues: "I ran for president because we lost our way as a country after President Clinton left the White House. So much of the progress he helped make was rolled back. And so much damage was done -- to the middle class, to our reputation abroad, to our shared sense of community."
Here's the full email, with the subject line, "Wow."
This would seem to mark a shift for President Obama, who faced Hillary Clinton in the 2008 Democratic election. After all, Obama's pitch then was "change" (and "hope").


text: Tagged: menu, text Viewing 2 posts - 1 through 2 (of 2 total) Author Posts February 11, 2014 at 3:46 pm #222269 one2willerParticipant Page: http://schollerstaal.dk/ I can not figure out how to fix the top menu back as it was before I came to press the "create new menu" in the backend. Now the menu shows several times and the small text under the menu names are gone. How do I get the menu back as it was before. including the small text under the menu names? Thanks in advance. February 11, 2014 at 4:16 pm #222277 one2willerParticipant The problem is solved. I found it myself. I just had to build up the menu again in appearance-Menus Author Posts Viewing 2 posts - 1 through 2 (of 2 total) The topic 'Problem with top menu' is closed to new replies.


text:
Hearings and Business Meetings
SD-366 Energy Committee Hearing Room 10:30 AM
Dr. John Garrick
Chairman, U.S. Nuclear Waste Technical Review Board
Statement of
B. John Garrick, Chairman
U.S. Nuclear Waste Technical Review Board
Before the
Committee on Energy and Natural Resources
United States Senate
May 16, 2006
Mr. Chairman and members of the Committee, good morning. My name is John Garrick.
I am Chairman of the U.S. Nuclear Waste Technical Review Board. The 11 members of the Board are appointed by the President and serve on a part-time basis. Most of us have full-time occupations. In my case, I am a consultant specializing in the application of the risk sciences to complex technological systems in the space, defense, chemical, marine, and nuclear fields. I am pleased to represent the Board at this hearing on the status of the Yucca Mountain program.
As you know, Mr. Chairman, the Board was created by Congress in the 1987
amendments to the Nuclear Waste Policy Act and charged with performing an ongoing and
independent evaluation of the technical and scientific validity of Department of Energy (DOE) activities related to disposing of, packaging, and transporting high-level radioactive waste and spent nuclear fuel. The Board began its work in 1989 and has continuously reviewed the technical and scientific validity of DOE activities since that time.
The Board's technical evaluation focuses on preclosure and postclosure issues, including
(1) the operational, safety, and security performance of the proposed repository and (2) the
overall performance of the integrated waste management system. The Board believes that a
central part of its mandate is providing information on its technical evaluation to members of
Congress who will make important decisions on the management and disposal of spent nuclear fuel and high-level radioactive waste. For that reason, the Board is especially pleased to participate today in this hearing on the status of the proposed repository at Yucca Mountain in Nevada.
Mr. Chairman, over the last 18 months or so, the Board held a series of meetings with the
DOE that enabled the Board to engage in detailed technical discussions of methods of analysis used by the program. The Board will soon release a report to Congress and the Secretary of Energy that summarizes the Board's activities over the last year and that includes details of its evaluation of the DOE's technical and scientific work. In my testimony today, I will highlight some of the key issues discussed in that report and other issues that have emerged in the last few weeks.
Before I discuss in more detail the Board's technical evaluation of DOE activities related
to Yucca Mountain, I want to make clear that, in general, the Board believes that the DOE has made meaningful progress over the last year, especially in obtaining information on the
performance capability of the engineered barrier system and on the chemistry, magnitude, and rates of mountain-scale groundwater flow in the unsaturated and saturated zones under ambient temperature conditions. Using sophisticated simulation models, the DOE also has improved its ability to evaluate preclosure and postclosure performance as an integrated system. In addition, efforts have been made to reorganize the program, and a major proposal for implementing a canister-based system that can accommodate storage, transportation, and disposal of spent nuclear fuel has been proposed. As a result, the Board believes that additional evidence necessary for credibly evaluating the performance of the entire waste system can be developed. I will now discuss in more detail the status of some important technical issues.
Realistic Performance Assessment
Mr. Chairman, as you would expect, the DOE's efforts to prepare a license application
have dominated its work for the last several years. The primary tool used by the DOE to
evaluate the performance of the repository is total system performance assessment, or TSPA.
TSPA is a comprehensive set of computer models that uses experience, available data,
assumptions, and probabilities to estimate potential dose and compliance with the regulatory
standard. Uncertainty is necessarily associated with these projections that are made for periods of up to one million years. To deal with uncertainty or gaps in understanding, the DOE often uses what it considers conservative assumptions about the features or processes being modeled.
Examples of this are the ways that the DOE models the temperature dependence of generalized corrosion rates, sorption in the saturated zone, and the containment capability of some parts of the engineered barrier system.
However, because the DOE's assumptions are not always conservative, the overall
degree of conservatism is hard to assess. Consequently, TSPA may not give a realistic picture of how a proposed repository would perform. The Board believes that carrying out realistic performance analyses, perhaps in parallel with efforts to develop a compliance case, could establish a "baseline" for measuring how conservative?or nonconservative?the DOE's repository performance estimates might be. Having this information would provide decisionmakers, the scientific community, and affected parties with important and relevant information.
In addition, the Board believes that there is considerable uncertainty about the source
term incorporated in TSPA. (The source term refers to the compositions, kinds, and amounts of radionuclides that make up the source of a potential release of radioactivity from the engineered barrier system to the host rock.) To increase confidence in performance estimates, the Board has suggested that the DOE focus on analyzing the source term and tracking the radionuclides most significant to dose (neptunium-237 and plutonium-242) through the engineered and natural systems. The DOE is trying to increase its understanding of the source term through work sponsored by its Science and Technology Program. The Board believes that this important work should continue.
The Engineered System
The outer barrier of the waste package is made of a corrosion-resistant material known as
Alloy 22. Alloy 22 will not corrode significantly unless liquid water is present on the waste
package surface. The higher the temperature at which liquid water is present, the greater the
concern because metals corrode faster and are more susceptible to corrosion at higher
temperatures. The DOE maintains that potential localized corrosion of Alloy 22 at elevated
temperatures under aqueous conditions can be excluded from its TSPA calculations. In the
Board's view, the technical basis for the exclusion is not compelling. The Board continues to
believe that obtaining experimental data on localized corrosion should be a high priority,
especially given the DOE's current high-temperature repository design. In addition, future
performance assessments should not exclude general corrosion at elevated temperatures when aqueous conditions are predicted to be present. The Board will hold a workshop in September at which issues related to localized corrosion will be discussed.
The Natural System
The natural geologic system at Yucca Mountain will play an important role as a barrier to
radionuclide transport. Properties of the natural system will affect the speed of transport and the effectiveness of the engineered barriers. Over time, the DOE has continued to refine and update its model for flow and transport in the unsaturated zone. At this point, no evidence has been developed that calls into question the DOE's long-held view that flow in the unsaturated zone is dominated by fractures and faults. In addition, the Project's findings on the chemistry of water in the unsaturated and saturated zones appear broadly consistent with a large body of empirical data and experience. However, the Board continues to question the DOE's understanding of the unsaturated zone beneath the proposed repository in relation to retarding and retaining radionuclides. The Board believes that obtaining additional information on radionuclide transport is warranted, especially on secondary minerals and on colloid-facilitated radionuclide transport. Such information could be important for assessing repository performance. For example, if future investigations confirm that neptunium is captured in secondary mineral phases, estimates of the natural system's capability to isolate dose-contributing radionuclides could increase.
The Waste Management System
The Board believes that the DOE's new proposal for a canister-based system for
transporting, aging, and disposing of (TAD) spent fuel holds promise as a way of minimizing the handling of bare spent-fuel assemblies and simplifying the design of surface facilities at Yucca Mountain. However, the success of such an approach depends on a number of factors, including close cooperation and coordination among the DOE, nuclear utilities, and cask vendors. The DOE also must consider the range of consequences associated with implementing the TAD concept for preclosure and postclosure performance. The DOE's evaluation of TAD should include a more complete set of scenarios for waste acceptance, waste transportation, repository operations, design of repository surface facilities, and waste emplacement in the repository.
The DOE has developed the Total System Model (TSM), which can be used as a tool for
analyzing a variety of preclosure scenarios and the performance of the entire waste management system. The TSM can be used to examine system throughput and to identify possible choke points; it can assess the effects of delayed construction of a rail spur; and it can evaluate conditions that contribute to efficient operation of the surface facilities. For the TSM to be used most effectively, it should have the ability to represent "upset" conditions and to analyze all waste management components, including emplacement. The TSM also should be based on the most up-to-date information, and the assumptions underlying the model should be confirmed.
Because of funding constraints, much of the Project's anticipated work on establishing a
transportation network has been deferred. Nonetheless, the Board believes that the Project
should perform a comparative risk analysis of rail corridors that might be used for moving spent fuel and high-level radioactive waste to Yucca Mountain, and, once that analysis has been completed, should inform all interested and affected parties of what routes it prefers. The DOE also should develop a contingency plan for greater use of legal-weight and heavy-haul trucking.
Cross-Cutting Issues
An issue that permeates preclosure operations as well as postclosure repository
performance is the DOE's strategy for managing the heat generated by radioactive decay. For example, postclosure thermal requirements create constraints on plans for preclosure operations and the design of surface facilities at Yucca Mountain. Moreover, implementation of TAD will have implications for the thermal management strategy that do not appear to have been fully considered. As mentioned earlier, after the repository is closed, above-boiling repository temperatures that will last for about 1,000 years (the so-called thermal pulse) will affect the performance of the engineered system, including the waste packages. In particular, the potential for localized corrosion to initiate during the thermal pulse has yet to be resolved. In general, the Board believes that the DOE should consider the systemwide implications of and strengthen the technical basis for its thermal-management strategy, which also will be important for licensing.
I have referred several times in my statement to one or another "system." The Board
often uses this term to emphasize that all the elements involved in packaging, transporting, and disposing of spent nuclear fuel and high-level radioactive waste are connected, so the assessment of the behavior and performance of one element may strongly depend on or affect the behavior and performance of others. The Board believes that the DOE's preclosure and postclosure plans for the repository should recognize and accommodate those interdependencies. That is the reason that, over the years, the Board has strongly recommended integration of program elements across the broad range of scientific and engineering activities. The Board believes that any program reorganization should reflect the need to facilitate this essential integration.
Finally, Mr. Chairman, the Board believes that the technical work I have just discussed is
doable and will enhance confidence in estimates of the performance of the repository and the waste-management system. The Board thanks the Committee for inviting it to participate in this hearing and hopes that the information we have furnished today will be helpful in providing a technical context for important decisions that you will make on disposing of and managing spent nuclear fuel and high-level radioactive waste.


text:
With a wide variety of products to choose from, let Morrison Inc help you customize a solution that's right for you.
Autumn is here and everyone is starting to change from life outdoors to concentrating on buttoning up for winter. Below are a few tips I would like to pass along to help you make the transition with ease. 1. Check the batteries in your smoke detector. A lot of people time this with the Daylight Savings time transition to make it easy to remember. 2. Check the manufactured date on your CO alarm. If it exceeds five years replace the alarm. They will not be effective if there is a problem. If you don't have a CO alarm PLEASE get at least one and follow the manufacturer's guidelines for installation. (In many cases local agencies and fire departments can help provide CO and smoke alarms. Call to see if there is a program that can help you.) 3. Check your furnace filters. Indoor air quality for the cold weather is only as good as the air you are recirculating. Please use a filter appropriate for your system and invest in one with the highest MERV rating your system can support to help keep you breathing freely. 4. Check your whole house humidifier pad. If you have a whole house humidifier you know how wonderful it is to not have dry static filled air, chapped skin, or damaged woodwork. Help keep you and your home comfortable by installing a new humidifier pad and making sure the system is operating properly. The humidifier will condition your home and help provide comfort but only if the pad is operating and allowing the right amount of moisture to be maintained in your home. Well, just a few quick tips to help. If you need any of your filters replaced or upgraded, whole house humidifiers, or a new filtration system, be sure to give us a call. If you are interested in reducing your energy bills, or want to improve your indoor air quality, please contact us and ask about our IAQ products and energy audit programs. I'm sure we can help improve your comfort through the upcoming cold months.
Morrison & Bryant, Making a Difference
Heating and Cooling 101
Pre-Service Checklist
Basic Troubleshooting
Hybrid Heat Systems
Invest in Air Quality
Efficiency Ratings Explained
Meeting Government Efficiency Standards
Protecting the Environment
410 Colegate Dr, Marietta, OH 45750-9549 | 740-373-5869
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Copyright © Morrison Incorporated
Web Development by Kaslo Design


text:
LBL LED Illuminated Monorail - Dual Ended LED Generator
This product is no longer available.100% Price Match
Pin It Houzz
Related Info
A dual ended LED generator. Offered in satin nickel or bronze finish. Select from white, amber, blue, green, or red LED.
Shown in white.
Intended for use with LBL LED Illuminated Monorail Systems only.
Material(s): Metal
Lamp Type: LED
Listing: CETL, ETL
Manufacturer Specifications: Click to download specifications.
Model(s): LEDMRLCAMBZ LEDMRLCAMSC LEDMRLCBUBZ LEDMRLCBUSC LEDMRLCGRBZ LEDMRLCGRSC LEDMRLCRDBZ LEDMRLCRDSC LEDMRLCWHBZ LEDMRLCWHSC
LBL Lighting
For over 40 years, LBL has been synonymous with designing and manufacturing some of the most beautiful contemporary lighting in the industry. As they look forward, LBL continues to provide a fresh, dramatic and vibrant take on contemporary lighting design. LBL's new designs deliver something unique, often unexpected and absolutely beautiful. These exceptional design details often add a surprising twist, excitement, romance, drama, fantasy, bling or fun. And behind all the creative design, LBL is committed to delivering the highest product quality.
LBL Lighting Systems are developed with three core values in mind: beauty, originality and quality. Their commitment to these principles is evident in all of their products, from their low-voltage pendants to their incredible selection of signature sconces, ceiling fixtures and outdoor lighting. LBL Lighting's designs complement every environment in which functional, yet beautiful lighting solutions, are required.
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text:
Great Decor in a Flash Without a Lot of Cash
Bonus: Get our newsletter & special offers for free. We will not share or sell your email address. View our Privacy Policy
Big Game Safari Frame
By: Maria N. Filosa for Krylon
We are adding the craft to your Craft Projects.
The project was added to your Craft Projects.
Click here to view your Craft Projects.
Showcase your "wild" side with this original frame from Krylon that's ideal for photos from the trips to the zoo.
- Krylon Leafing Pens - 18 KT. Gold (#9901)
- Krylon Leafing Pens - Silver (#9902)
- Krylon Leafing Pens - Copper (#9903)
- Krylon Matte Finish - Clear (#1321)
- Krylon Spray Adhesive - Clear (#7010)
- Sheet (8" X 10") opaque shrink plastic
- Sheet (12" X 16") heavy black textured paper (model uses Wavy Ridges from Bemiss Jason)
- Large giraffe brass charm (or animal of your choice)
- Natural hemp cord
- 6 beads
- Cookie sheet
- Cooking parchment paper
- Conventional or toaster oven
- Hot glue
- Scissors
- Ruler
- Pencil
Spray both sides of shrink plastic with Matte Finish, letting one side dry before spraying the other.
To create the safari print, paint designs and doodles on the treated shrink plastic. Using all three colors of leafing pens, make dots, stripes, squiggles, squares, etc. to fill in every area on ONE side of the plastic. Allow sheet to dry completely and cut into four equal 2" × 10" strips.
Preheat oven to 275°. Line cookie sheet with parchment paper. Place two plastic strips on cookie sheet far apart from each other to keep from touching. The plastic will roll and curl while heating and could become stuck together if they touch. Place in oven and heat for 15 minutes or until strips are laying flat. Use a spatula to help flatten wavy strips. Repeat with remaining two strips of plastic. Once cool draw a line of gold around the edge of each strip with Gold Leafing Pen.
Make frame with plastic strips, overlapping corners (see photo). Place dot of hot glue between strips at corners to secure.
Wrap hemp cord around frame at each corner, criss crossing in front for a decorative look. Knot cord at top left corner with ends hanging down in front. String beads on cords, knotting ends to secure. Trim excess cord. Knot cord in back of frame on remaining three sides and trim.
- Use Leafing Pens to accent areas on animal charm. Hot glue charm to frame.
For more project ideas, please visit www.krylon.com/projects.
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text:
I'm not going to talk out of my ass and pretend to know something that I don't, unlike you.
I do know the facts - phones are not manufactured by robots. Thus it is not as good of an option as doing it by hand. Whatever the possible reasons are, we will CERTAINLY never know which is actually the cause.


text:
Tears are strange things. They can be unexpected, beautiful, tragic, emotional, or broken; they make little sense to me. I certainly don't think I will ever understand them, or rather, I will never understand how I somehow, understand tears, and what there trying to say, and least of all why tears of others make me feel. I remember that time when I was alone, completely. Those days were dark and lonely and unbearable, before things changed.
Gemma was like the other girls in my class, or so I thought, though I hardly knew her at all for all she was so quiet. I didn't notice her, nobody did. I think it seemed better that way at the time. A person I talked to always ended up getting hurt somehow, that's just how it was. If I glanced at her, she would smile, and look away, and that was all. On that day, in the thunderstorm, rain poured down outside. I watched from the window of the first floor, thinking. Then somebody jabbed me in the back of the ribs, I spun around, and looked into the eyes of Melody Dewater.
Melody was beautiful, the most beautiful girl in the school, as well as the most popular, talented, and obnoxious. "Alison" she smiled at me. "We've been looking for you." I glanced over her shoulder, her adoring 'friends', about 7 of them. I turned and dashed, but she was too quick. She grabbed my arm, and shoved me forcefully against the wall, the impact knocked the breathe from my lungs. "Where do think you're going?" she asked nastily, smiling her sickly sweet smile.
"Let me go." I said feebly, to which she laughed, and her little friends echoed her, grinning. They knew they were going to see a show. "But we have such a lot to talk about." She said quietly, taking my chin in her hand and lifting it up gently so I looked her in the face. She shook her stunning strawberry blonde curls. "Alison, sweetie." I hated it so much; I wished she would just go away. "I'm not your sweetie." I spat, and tried to wiggle out of her grasp, she was strong, and her grip only tightened.
"I warned you." She said, her voice dangerously low now. I could feel her grip on my arm, and my arm was breaking, slowly. I shrieked, and she shouted over my scream "I warned you Alison. Behave." I wailed, pale and shaking, and glared at her, biting my lip so hard it started bleeding, willing myself not to give her the satisfaction of tears.
"Much better." She said with a smirk, and her friends giggled. "Now then, do you remember our last little chat, Alison?" she starred at me expectantly, and slowly, I nodded. "Good, good." She said, her voice dripping with honey. She sighed, and lovingly almost, stroked my cheek, played with my hair. I could have been sick. "You know, we could be such good friends." She simpered, caressing ever so gently, her hand like steel on my arm. I grimaced "but, its such a shame, because this little, habit, of yours" she leaned closer. "It sickens me" she spat in my face. I glared right back. Melody's friends were shifting around, murmuring, they were getting impatient.
Melody sensed this, she smiled at me again. I didn't want to think about the fresh horrors she had conjured up today. I just gritted my teeth, and held my resolve to just make it though this. "This is Jamie, Alison, who has kindly agreed to help us out today." I heard her simper. I opened my eyes, to see a boy standing next to Melody, one of the tall athletic ones. "Isn't it nice of him?" she smiled, as if we all such very good friends. Ugh. I starred at Jamie. He was grinning at me nastily.
Was he going to hit me? Break my leg, or arm, or both? What? I looked at Melody, confused, and her smile grew so wide, it was freakish. "What do you think, Alison? So nice of Jamie to help you, with this annoying, little, freakish, sinful, grotesque, habit" I could almost feel her words stab at my conscience with a very, deep, loathing. Jamie was getting closer. That's when something sort of kicked in, and weirdly enough I sensed what was coming. I freaked, screamed, thrashed, somebody grabbed my other arm and held me up against the wall.
I could hear Melody and her friends, shrieking with laughter. Jamie went ahead and kissed me. His lips were hot, strange, and horribly horribly wrong. I felt a deep thick sense of nausea, and struggled to push my dinner back down into my stomach. After about a minute, he stopped, and grinned at me. Melody and her friends were cheering, like they just witnessed the messiah's return.
I could feel myself shaking violently, and I was sweating heavily from my brow as my body tried to reject itself. I turned to look at melody; her companion's laugher rang in my ears. She just smiled. She knew I just went though hell. She was deliberately trying to punish me for being alive. The grip on my arms lessened, and my knees gave way, I crumpled in a heap at Melody's feet.
"Did you like that, Alison?" she asked slowly. "No?" I looked up at her. "Ungrateful, you know? And we try so hard, poor us." I heard her friend mummer in agreement. "Punishment time" I heard her say, gleefully. Her friends cheered. I was pulled to my feet again, and they all started crowding round, eager for a turn. That's when I glimpsed a flash of pink hair. I didn't concentrate though, because that was when somebody made the first stab at my leg.
It took at least two hours. I wondered whose idea it was, the stinking garbage that now coated my face, hair, and clothes. Probably Melody. I looked up at the window from where I lay after they had left me alone. The rain. How badly I wanted to wash these hateful feelings away. I gripped the wall, pulled myself up, and forced my screaming legs to take me to the open door. You know it from there, most will in any case.
Tears are strange things. They can be unexpected, beautiful, tragic, emotional, or broken; they make little sense to me. I certainly don't think I will ever understand them, or rather, I will never understand how I somehow, understand tears, and what there trying to say, and least of all why tears of others make me feel. Nor my own sorry tears, that abandoned me along with everybody else, I had thought.
Discrimination and abuse to teenagers like Alison has to stop.
I hope this reached the people that count.
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I think he is here
But I don't know
I am so scared
But it doesn't show
My heart is throbbing
Everything we've shared
He wants to die but I cant let him
My chances to stop him are just to slim
I think he's leaving this place tonight
Or even yesterday, if im right.
Derek, boo I need you
But its not the same
Please remember
Before you go
Call my number
And talk to me slow
"yes the baby will be fine
I'm sorry to waste your time
Pretend this never happened to you
So we can live happily, you and me, boo."
Silence approaches
And tears flood
I start to cry
And there's blood
My boyfriend is gone
And its my fault
So here's my song
With a pinch of salt
Im going to cry
Baby might die
But what would it matter
I'm sure I'm just scaring myself.
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*edit: I meant put the bronzer under the cheekbone and sweep up. no need to smile to find the place to put it.
Also, I apologise for the lighting. I have a tough time with it and I am sorry it is so shabby. I have no idea what was different but suffice it to say there is a difference in the outcome.
Posted by Anu on Saturday, January 08, 2011 at 10:12 PM
Labels: Bollywood and Make-up, Tutorial
4 comments:
- Anonymous said...
Love the look! Thanks for posting the video. Does the Illamasqua primer work for darker complexions? Also, how often do you wash all your brushes?10:56 PM
- Sass said...
Hi Anu,3:24 AM
I have a question non blush related.
I was wondering if you have any recommendations for lipsticks for indian girls with dark lips.
- beautified said...
heyyy8:42 AM
- Anonymous said...
You are so beautiful! Your blod is great, I am scared of using make-up but I feel encourage to try.9:51 AM
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text:
Still, that was only the beginning of the aberration that costume-clad Mates of State and Generationals brought to the Firebird for All Hallows Eve.
People were not the only ones donning costumes for the evening either. The stage had its own decorations. Two illuminated clouds floated above instruments that had succumbed to an entanglement of green ivy. Hanging behind the stage, an intricate quilt of flowers glowed under black lights giving off an ethereal aura.
New Orleans-based Generationals duo Grant Widmer and Ted Joyner took the romantic stage first as a grotesque lizard alien and a football player with "Gens" written across his chest. Though billed as a duo, they were backed by a supporting cast featuring heavy hitters like Dracula and the Invisible Man. Their buoyant brand of pillow pop kept the audience of Betty Boops and Raggedy Anns bopping from the first bar to the last. While playing their self-described "greatest St. Louis show to date," Generationals reminded the crowd they were only stage-warmers for Mates of State.
The husband and wife duo Mates of State also brought along backing members to round out their sound. The crowded erupted in a rapturous roar stage as a police uniformed Mate Kori Gardner led a prison gang onto stage. Launching into "Get Better," the first track off of "Re-Arrange Us," the set did just that.
The adorned stage appeared as organic as the witty banter and musical chemistry between the husband and wife duo. Jason Hammel confessed he was a little freaked out by his wife's costume as it made her look like Axl Rose. When she accused him of having an Axl fantasy he laughed off, "Perhaps, that guy is such a jerk." Both singers hit notes higher than they did on record and executed a perfect silent count on "Like U Crazy." If bedroom pop is what you listen to in the comfort of your own confines, this was bedroom rock.
Towards the end of their set the band stripped off the prison garb to reveal Cardinals gear and asked the crowd if they wanted to hear old songs or new ones. The crowd howled for the old. The Mates, of course, complied.
Returning for the demanded encore, Kori invited the best-costumed fans to dance with them on stage. As Jason pounced and pounded on his drum set so hard that he lost his cymbals in the crowd, a Snow White, a lion, and a half-assed attempt at Freddy Krueger bounced around him. Perhaps it was not a dismal Elm Street effort and just another fauxhemian girl. Maybe both? Either way it perfectly capped a night of fantasy and illusion.


text:
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The Truth About Incremental Sales - Financial Management
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The Truth About Incremental Sales
CED Magazine, July 2006
Article Date:
Copyright (C) 2006 Associated Equipment Distributors. All Rights Reserved.
The costs associated with servicing the sale are usually underestimated.
Incremental sales volume is the great white whale of distribution management – very few managers have actually seen it, but they have spent a lot of time and effort in the search. If they do find it, the results frequently are not what they anticipated.
Theoretically, incremental volume is additional sales that are generated without incurring an increase in expenses. In practice, incremental volume is more often an increase in sales that can be achieved with a modest increase in expenses. Incremental volume is frequently expressed as the idea that if the delivery truck is going right by a potential customer, the cost of making an additional stop is very low. Similarly, direct shipments are often viewed as situations where the firm only "has to sell and carry the accounts receivable for a little while."
The problem with the incremental volume concept is that in the overwhelming majority of cases the costs associated with servicing the sale are underestimated. Further, the idea of a "cost-free" sale too often leads to serious margin erosion. The combination of higher-than-planned expenses and a lower gross margin is almost always disastrous.
The Economics of Incremental Volume
Exhibit 1 illustrates the economic impact of incremental volume under present conditions in three different scenarios. The first column presents the financial position of the typical AED dealer as reported in the 2006 Cost of Doing Business report. The firm has $30 million in sales, operates on a gross margin of 21 percent of sales and produces a bottom line profit of $750,000 or 2.5 percent of sales.
Expenses are broken down into fixed and variable. Variable expenses, such as commissions, overtime and bad debts can be expected to increase directly with sales, even with incremental volume. The variable expenses have been estimated at 4 percent of sales.
Fixed expenses, in contrast, are those that could normally be expected to remain constant as sales increase. These include operating and administrative salaries, rent, utilities and depreciation.
The last three columns illustrate the impact of a 10 percent increase in sales under three different scenarios. In all three, the top half of the exhibit presents the results of the incremental volume by itself. The bottom half represents the overall impact on the firm with the incremental volume, margin and expenses added to the total.
Scenario 1
is a purely theoretical incremental approach. Sales are up by 10 percent with the same gross margin percentage as before. Of greatest consequence is that fixed expenses do not increase. The profit impact is nothing short of spectacular. The only problem is that a 10 percent increase in sales is a large jump to have absolutely no associated increase in fixed expenses.
For very small amounts of incremental sales, the first scenario can prove appropriate, especially in the short term. However, when there is any significant amount of incremental volume – and 10 percent definitely qualifies as significant – fixed expenses inevitably increase.
Scenario 2
combines the 10 percent sales increase with an 8 percent increase in fixed expenses. The idea of sales rising faster than expenses is commonly called expense leveraging. The 2 percent level of expense leveraging in Scenario 2 (10 percent sales increase and 8 percent increase in fixed expenses) represents good performance in most distribution firms. There is still a measurable improvement in profit, but it's much more modest.
Scenario 3
is the real problem with incremental volume - price cutting. In this example, incremental sales are achieved by lowering prices on the incremental sales by 10 percent. This means incremental volume has a gross margin of only 12.2 percent rather than 21 percent. The logic is that the fixed expenses have been covered, so the firm can lower its prices to generate the additional volume. However, when the price is reduced, even with expense leveraging, the profitability of the incremental sales effort is destroyed.
Controlling Incremental Sales
Exhibit 1 reflects the two things management must continually focus on to ensure that incremental sales are really profitable. They are the two things that are seldom accounted for properly. First, expense estimates associated with incremental sales should always be increased. This is because expenses are always under-estimated. Even for direct shipments, there is more than simply selling and collecting. There are always returns to handle, product functions to explain and a myriad of other costs. When costs are higher than plan, profits quickly drain away.
Second, gross margin is king in distribution. Any program that requires a significant reduction in gross margin should be avoided. It is always tempting to assume that if expenses are low, margins can be lowered and an adequate profit generated. For most firms, this is a myth.
There is another, highly strategic, problem with lower gross margins on incremental sales. As soon as one sale is made at a lower margin, it is tempting to make a second, and then a third. Ultimately, there is no stopping point on the slippery slope of gross margin reductions.
Moving Forward
If managed properly, incremental sales volume can be an important profit driver for AED members. The problem is that proper management is extremely difficult to maintain in the face of "pure, add-on" sales volume. The larger the opportunity, the more difficult the situation is to control.
Firms must make sure they properly assess the true expense relationships associated with incremental sales. Further, they must always be aware that gross margin is the single most important driver of profitability. When gross margin falls even a little, profit falls a lot.
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text:
Would someone please send me a link to the IRS Loophole web page?
Would Robert Frank please stop ending each post with a question?
It is an annoying rhetorical tic that other bloggers who also welcome comments do not use. After all, his readers know they can respond and so a pretentious, obvious question just comes off as stilted. That said, the question on this post was actually not horrific like many past questions...
These whores won't even pay a 15% tax rate, which is why all the rhetoric about lowering the corporate tax rate to "create jobs" is total BS.
In 2009, there were 1,470 households filed tax returns with incomes above $1 million that paid no federal income tax, source the Internal Revenue Service. There were nearly 237,000 returns with incomes above $1 million. This is .62%. I would bet you that this is among the lowest group percentages of a group not paying any taxes. These are people using legal congressionally passed presidentially approved deductions -- the Obama Tax rates. The IRS was aware of these, and I am sure that they were audited and did not break the law -- if they did the IRS would make their life interesting for a while.
this is stupid - they're not avoiding the tax. they're only deferring payment of it.
In the same vein, why aren't homeowners taxed on HELOCs?
Anytime I hear the words mark to market I get the shivers. That attorney needs to do accounting 101 and then maybe if he understands what it is all about then he would change his wiocked ways. I spent a moment explaining the accruals principle to a lay person. He came away with the idea that accounting was a fraud an idea that has some merit to it. I ramble on.
Great. Now all we need is government-created rampant inflation and the targeted class will show large mark-to-market gains every year even as their investments decline in real value. Any takers on a bet as to how long they keep their money in stock investments? Any guesses as to which side of this equation the brokerage firms will line up on?
I am a simple minded person. Let me try to understand this. So, I buy a stock for $100. By the end of the year it is $110. I now pay 40% on the $10. The next year it is 101, and I decide to sell to at least make 1% on my trade. Wait a min...
The bottom 47% are paying no Federal taxes, but that's to balance out the fact that state and local taxes are regressive (for example, poor people spend a greater share of their income than rich people hence their sales tax payments as a percent of income are much higher). Total tax burden is progressive only because the federal income tax manages to make up the difference (and it doesn't do a very good job of it since the end of Clinton era taxes).
Taxing on mark-to-market would catch way too many middle-class folks in the same net. The better solution is to give middle class folks the same tax break as these ultra high net worth individuals. Luckily, it looks like anyone with a portfolio margin account these days can create pretty much the same tax loophole for themselves.
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Why shoulld the retired pay taxes on Social Security income. They already paid taxes on the income the taxes were taken from. This is a scam and another burden on the poor and miiddle class. As o
There should be no taxes for Individuals making less than $100,000 per year. This would put some much needed cash in the pockets of the middle class. After all according to the republicans 47% of these individuals did not pay taxes anyway. Let those making over $100,00 take on the burden that has been on the backs of the middlle class forever.
We don't need a "mark to market" scheme to tax these transactions. If there's a contract that effects a sale then it should be taxed like any other installment sale transaction. If it passes the muster as a bona fide loan arrangement then it's not really a "loophole".
Note that middle class taxpayers who take out loans on their homes and then default or short sell get a "loophole" exemption that allows them to walk away with no tax liability ever. The HELOC comment is spot on. This is only a "loophole" because rich guys are doing it. I have a five year old HELOC I haven't paid back yet... is that a loophole?
A formidable share, I just given this onto a colleague who was doing slightly analysis on this. And he the truth is purchased me breakfast because I discovered it for him.. smile. So let me reword that: Thnx for the treat! But yeah Thnkx for spending the time to discuss this, I really feel strongly about it and love studying more on this topic. If possible, as you grow to be expertise, would you thoughts updating your blog with more details? It is highly helpful for me. Big thumb up for this blog post!
The Wealth Report is a daily blog focused on the culture and economy of the wealthy. It is written by Robert Frank, a senior writer for the Wall Street Journal and author of the newly released book "THE HIGH-BETA RICH."


text:
Last night we all went to see Jim J. Bullock perform in his one-man cabaret Upstairs at Vitello's in Studio City. Directed by Michael Lorre; Musical Direction and pianist Gary Mattison; Presented by Michael Sterling, this is a supper club with a stage. Vitello's is the scene of the crime in Robert Blake's murder mystery. Blake's wife Bonnie Lee was shot outside the restaurant.
Jim J. Bullock was amazing, funny and wonderful. He has a great singing voice and really knows how to belt out a song.
Here is a photo of us last night, March 5. Notice the "ghost" hanging onto Bullock's shirt. Maybe it was Bonnie Lee...
Lydia Cornell, Greg Louganis
Greg Louganis was there last night too. He is the Olympic Diver, author, actor and Aids activist. A wonderful man. I sat with Bruce Dent and Earlene Davis.
A GREAT EVENING. It was so good to be back with the cast of our wonderul show. If only Dad Ted Knight had been there!
LYDIA CORNELL: Author, actress, comedienne, talk show host, inspirational pubic speaker, best known as the star of ABC's "Too Close for Comfort" as TV legend Ted Knight's daughter; HBO's Curb Your Enthusiasm, and over 250 shows, episodes and movies worldwide. An international celebrity and one of TV's most popular, shyest sex symbols... "Political" no longer means what it did when we started this blog. It's about transformation and life-saving issues for women: equal pay for equal work...
Sunday, March 06, 2011
TOO CLOSE FOR COMFORT CAST TOGETHER AGAIN at VITELLO'S
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Starting New
Fairfield, Vermont is full of grassy hills, Maple Trees, and a population of less than two thousand. Every summer, and holiday my parents and I visited my grandparents. However, this was no vacation, it was permanent, and I was on my own. Never in my entire sixteen years would I have imagined that the two most important people would be taken from me, but some how I did imagine, some where in the back of my mind, I always knew that this sort of thing would happen to me, I just never said any thing. It was August, and an odd rainy day in LA California, a freak car accident that ended up in flames, and me out of the window. That was just three weeks ago.
As for the boy part, they never gave the impression of being interested. I'm not unattractive…or beautiful, pretty maybe. I'm not terribly skinny or fat. I guess I'm just normal, more dominate than recessive. Nevertheless, my brown eyes and odd colored skin never caught the attention of boys.
"Where's Grams?" I took my eyes off the sunset and stared at his face that reminded me so much of my father, except with more wrinkles.
"Oh, ah…she's not feeling to well today." He took one hand off the wheel, removed his fishing hat, and ruffled his gray hair. It seemed he wanted to avoid the subject, so I said no more.
"Which one?" I was curious; they only had an elementary and middle school.
"Yes," I said abstractedly while taking the paper. After unfolding it, I noticed there were only four hundred students that attended. Two schools had the same name, but mine was located in Fairfax. Something my grandfather said caught my attention. Having your license meant a car, and I didn't have a car.
"There's no bus… you have to drive there." Ok. Unfortunately I was going to have to say something or else was walking.
"Joe fixing a car?" Joe was not the kind of person that would normally fix cars.
"Thanks Gramps." He gave me a one armed hug, and I stiffened, but not enough for him to notice. I never liked hugs, handshakes, any thing to do with touching. Another one of my phobias; but one that I could endure.
"No problem." He released me and I let out my breath softly." When he heard it was for you, he made sure everything was working. He even got it a paint job." We both started to laugh.
I had no clue what else to talk about. We only had about two hours left to drive. It was seven thirty, and to dark to read. I decided to shut my eyes for awhile. It was a good thing I brought my school supplies, little that I had. It was hard to fall asleep, but I kept my eyes closed to avoid conversation.
I love to day dream, or in this case night dream. I thought about what I would be doing right now if my parents were alive and recalled the night one month before their death. My mother was watching her favorite show while listing to my father lecturing me on collage applications to every collage in the United States. We were debating on Pepperdine University and Stanford by the time my mother cut in. Because I never liked to be late, my applications were the most likely the first ones sent. I had already changed the mailing address on account of wanting to keep my mind busy instead of funeral arrangements. After a while I felt myself getting sleepy.
"Ace…Aceline, we're here." My eyes resisted opening, but I forced them. I woke up as we pulled up to a two story house that I now called home. The porch light was on, and the wind swung the wooden swing creating a creaking sound. I wrapped my jacket tightly around me, and walked towards the house. It reminded me of the houses that painters painted in their masterpieces.
"Grams" my voice was dry from sleeping, and she gave me a huge hug. I never stiffened with her, she would have noticed for sure. From the corner of my eye, I saw a forest green Toyota Tacoma with headlights across the top, it was better than nothing.
"I hope you don't mind being left alone, Grams has a quilt shop while I work in the maple field." He sounded earnest, but I didn't mind, I like to be alone.
"Ellen! I told you to put those away," Gramps grabbed a box and angrily threw the photos in. I was still frozen, and flinched when Grams laid her hands on my back.
"It's ok…I think I'll go to bed, what time does the school start?" My face hinted no sign of sadness.
"There's an alarm clock over by the dresser, you should wake up early. BFA is about twenty minutes away from here." He left me alone to unpack and get settled. Gramps was never a person who would pester you with questions. Grams on the other hand was like a moth to a light bulb. Today however, it seemed that she would leave me unaccompanied, and for that, I was glad.
"This is going to get annoying." I mumbled to myself. Grams didn't appear to be sick, why would Gramps lie about something like that? I pushed that thought away. I was really nervous about tomorrow …school… I wasn't going to think about that either, I would have enough trouble trying to fall asleep. Putting away my things under the bed, I found my lightly used diary. I remember taking the pages out because I wanted it to be perfect. However, this one diary I never took home with me, I actually forgot I ever had it. Flipping through the pages, I only spotted one entr�e, when I was ten. I could hardly make it out, and it had many spelling errors. I was going to lay out my clothes for tomorrow, when I heard Grams voice, apparently she was in a talkative mood.
"No, come on in." she looked around and noticed I was already unpacked.
"Yes, thank you." We sat on the bed at the same time, while her eyes wandered through the room and landed on the picture by the dresser.
" About?" Staring into my face, deciding, she shook her head.
"Grams, tell me."
"And what does this have to do with any thing?" I kept my voice level, Grams didn't seem like her regular self.She stared at me...There was a tightness on my throat, almost like someone was choking me. She looked out the window, her face fearfull. I closed my eyes breathing deeply. When I opened then back up the door slamed shut. Grams had left, and in her place was a letter. I recodnized the writing...my fathers. My hands were shaking as I closed them in a tight fist. There was something definitly wrong, but that speculation could wait. I dissmissed Grams's odd behavior on the account of a griving mother.
Holding the letter, I prepared to open it, but stopped.
The light was blinding when I opened my eyes. It took awhile to figure out where I was. I was about to get up when there was a knock at the door.
"Sure," I quickly sat up and checked the clock 6:45, apparently the alarm doesn't work.
"Raymond right?" Raymond was the redhead that always got me into trouble; he lived next door.
I smiled." Does he want a ride?"
"I could use a guide." An awkward silence made me ask the question I'd put off since last night. "When Grams came to talk with me, she didn't look that sick." His eyes were mystified.
"Right after you left…or like fifteen minutes after."He searched his thoughts.
"Did you see your gift?" Gramps walked over to the desk that opened, and lifted the lid. There was something that I never thought would be in this house.
"Well, I figured you'd need it for school, Rob and Ellen spent all day trying to figure out how to work it. It was just a little white lie." He closed the lid and headed towards the door. Out of nowhere came Lady, the brown and white sheep dog. I was wondering where she was.
"You keep Ace company now." He smiled and winked." Have a good day. Ellen will be home around six, you can visit her if you'd like to. The maple farm got's me working till eight." Gramps worked making maple syrup. Fairfield made the best. That's where the tourist go on the weekends, other than that you had to go to St. Albans to watch movies or shop for any thing.
I sighed and stretched as the sun was still peeking over the field. After dressing and doing the best I could with my hair, I prepared to leave. I delayed and gazed at my reflection in the mirror, and laughed.
"Oh well, I don't care." Moreover, I didn't. It's not like anyone was going to notice me anyways. I'm determined to be a wall. Walking back to my room I had about thirty minutes before I had to leave. I strolled on to the balcony and gasped at what was before me. The sun was still half way over the greenish-brown hills. It felt as if I was sailing on a sea of gold with no destination.
I snatched my bag and keys while rushing down the stairs. I was prepared to dash next door but Ray was surprisingly there already.
"Ace, hey…ya I'm fine." Ray had a very prominent face; with freckles all over, he was ok looking. Ray stared at me, "wow, you look…different." Okay, was that supposed to be an insult or compliment?
"Ya, lets go!" we ran to the truck and I jumped in the driver's side.
"It is." Gladly, it started with no flaws. The inside, I could tell was professionally cleaned. Joe must really feel sorry for me.
"Uh…head southwest on North Road, then Turn right at Buck Hollow." Ray was playing with the radio.
"It's ok…How many people did she tell?" Grams was an old woman that gossiped about everything and everyone; it was never unpleasant.
"Hey…did…did the Forrester's move?" I said more or less reluctantly.
"Well…"-I took a deep breath.-"I ah. I saw someone, a guy by there backyard. I guess it's nothing." He started to laugh.
"No, I was just curious." Why would he automatically think I liked him? Heck! I didn't even know him. My hands griped the wheel.
"Whatever," this was the exact reason why I never do well in social situations.
"The student parking lot is over there." Ray pointed to a fairly small parking lot that only held about one hundred cars. The butterflies in my stomach didn't want to settle down. I took a deep breath.
"Do you need a ride home?" please say no.
We were walking towards the school entrance when a boy with a bad after-shave came up to us.
"Oh, this is Aceline, or Ace …Ace this is Mark." I smiled sheepishly and tried to look for the front office.
"Yes," I wanted to make a run for it when I saw group of people approaching them. "Ray where's the office? I should get my schedule." I said impatiently.
"No! I mean, I could find it."
"I'll catch up with you later Ace." Ray smiled and so did Mark as they walked to their group of friends. Finally alone.
"Hello there, are you new?" She smiled and put on her glasses.
"Name?" She looked at the computer.
"Aceline?" Her eyes brightened." Your Gary and Ellen's granddaughter…I'm sorry about your parents." This was getting repetitive.
"If you need anything, anyone to talk to, you can talk to me." Are you serious? This town is way to nice for me, I felt the anger from last night return, and I wanted to just punch her in the face…and it surprised me.
Usually it was nice on the first day of school. My parents and I moved practically every year. We never stayed in one place, and with that, I switched schools almost every year. The first day was always the same, no one notices me, and I went though the day as if I was never there. However, there were thousands of students instead of four hundred. At BFA, everyone stared, everywhere I went a pair of eyes followed me.
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Striped coats are hard-to-find pieces you'll treasure forever; don't let these five great ones pass you by. Click through to shop them on myLucky.
More on myLucky.com:
- Shop it on myLucky: Party-Ready Clutches
- Shop It On myLucky: Holiday Knitwear
- Shop it on myLucky: A Rainbow of Lace Dresses
- Gift Guide: Skin Perfectionist
- Shop it on myLucky: Serious Statement Earrings
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Secretary of State John Kerry spent the weekend showing what predictably comes of the North Koreans behaving badly: China benefits. Unfortunately, this is not the only example of the Obama administration's cravenness in the face of misbehavior on the part of Beijing and/or its proxies. Call it Team Obama's China Syndrome.
Let's start with the umpteenth time the Chinese "good-cop" vs. North Korean "bad cop" gambit has been run against the West. After weeks of Kim Jong-Un's regime threatening to unleash "nuclear fire" on our allies and on us, the post-Americans in the Obama cabinet have responded as did their predecessors – by rewarding both Pyongyang and its Chinese sponsors.
Concessions from the United States and its allies to date include: forgoing a long-scheduled – and needed – test of an American Minuteman III intercontinental ballistic missile; terminating joint U.S.-South Korean military exercises; inducing Seoul to offer to resume aid to the North; offering new bilateral negotiations between Washington and Pyongyang; and promising to remove the modest missile defenses sought by our allies if only the new top Kim in Pyongyang would make the same empty promise as his forefathers to denuclearize.
To be sure, Beijing wants us to know that it is not happy with North Korea. The Chinese supported a new round of UN sanctions after the Kim dynasty's latest nuclear and missile tests, although considerably weakening them in the process. The state-controlled media has been allowed to criticize Pyongyang. And Secretary Kerry's interlocutors encouraged him to believe that they shared his view that the North must behave better from now on. Or it will be further isolated, or be scolded sharply or something else really bad.
Please. We are once again being treated with the contempt reserved by the xenophobic Middle Kingdom for kow-towing foreigners. The Chinese enable North Korea to survive as a gulag-nation. As Nina Shea pointed out Monday in National Review, international human rights monitors have described it as "a prison without bars." But for Beijing's food, fuel and forced repatriation of refugees, the Kim dynasty would have been out of business decades ago.
It is nothing less than outrageous that under U.S. administrations of both parties China has for years been given a pass on the dangerous behavior in which it is enabling its client to engage. Why would anyone think such a response this time will be met by anything but more of the same sort of belligerence from North Korea?
And, notwithstanding the kerfuffle last week about a disputed Defense Intelligence Agency finding that advanced North Korean missiles could be equipped with nuclear weapons, one thing should be clear: Pyongyang has today the means to act on its threats to this country through shorter-range missiles launched from offshore and capable of electro-magnetic pulse attacks, weapons smuggled across our borders or potentially via satellites it has now been able to put into orbit.
It would be bad enough if such benighted efforts to appease China were happening in a vacuum. But what makes them worse than in those in the past, is that they come against a backdrop of many other threatening Chinese activities. Such activities enormously exacerbate the dangers associated with encouraging it to behave aggressively, either through cut-outs or in its own right. These include:
- The Chinese are said to be engaging in millions of cyber attacks against U.S. official and private sector computers every day. They are not simply seeking to purloin proprietary and classified information. The former have been a tremendous boon to the PRC's economy and competitiveness. The latter have translated, among other things, into incalculable cost-avoidances on defense research and development that would otherwise have been required to field a world-class military. Taken together, such attacks are, if not actual acts of cyberwarfare, certainly precursors to it.
- It seems the ominous implications of China working with trading partners like Australia to foster deals denominated in other-than-U.S. dollars are being studiously ignored. Such efforts appear to be precursors to ending our currency's status as the world's reserve, with potentially devastating repercussions for our already-perilous fiscal situation.
- China is engaging in an escalating pattern of assertions of sovereignty throughout the East and South China Seas. These increasingly involve threats to American allies in the region that are going uncontested by the United States' declining power there.
- Last but not least, Team Obama has assiduously low-balled the growing capability of China's armed forces. Its Pacific Commander asserts that the greatest challenge in his area or responsibility is climate change. The much-touted U.S. military's "pivot" to the region has vaporized in the wake of the latest round of budget cuts – and still more that have been promised by Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel.
Particularly worrying about the administration's China Syndrome is its blindness with regard to Beijing's nuclear build-up. For example, the Chinese construction of 3,000 miles of hardened tunnels to conceal their clearly expanding strategic forces, their vast and growing number of shorter-range nuclear capable missiles aimed at Taiwan and other U.S. regional allies and assets and submarine pens dug into mountains stands in sharp contrast to the atrophying U.S. deterrent and to Team Obama's blind, unilateral pursuit of "a world without nuclear weapons." It persists in claiming Beijing has only a few hundred weapons, an estimate that may be off by a factor of ten.
President Obama is enabling the emergence in China of the next – and perhaps the next sole – superpower. No good can come of a syndrome that has that effect.


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Raw and Raw Conversion
Supplied software
The K-x comes with the new PENTAX Digital Camera Utility 4, which consolidates the Photo Browser and Photo Laboratory applications provided with previous Pentax DSLRs. Instead of having to use different applications you can now select between the Laboratory and Browser tabs to access the tools previously associated with each package. There is also a custom view which allows you to create your own customized screen with a combination of your most used/favorite functions.
Digital Camera Utility 4 is based on the 3rd-party application Silkypix and as such is one of the most comprehensive bundled image software packages around. Of course you get all the usual parameters in RAW conversion but there are also more advanced tools such as the perspective correction. The browsing element works well too and it even comes with batch processing options. Most photographers, feeling strapped-for-cash after splashing out on their new DSLR won't feel the need to invest even more in a new RAW converter – Pentax's bundled software offers most, if not all, of the capabilities of 3rd-party converters.
Note: With the K-x Digital Camera Utility 4 shows only a very limited set of EXIF data. It appears the current version of the software is not yet fully supporting the camera in this respect.
RAW conversion
As is normal in our digital SLR reviews we like to compare the supplied RAW conversion software, any optional manufacturer RAW conversion software and some third party RAW converters. In the case of the Pentax K-x we used the supplied Digital Camera Utility 4, Camera RAW 5.6 Beta and Capture One 5.0.1
- JPEG - Large/Fine, Default settings
- DCU - Pentax Digital Camera Utility 4
- ACR - Adobe Camera RAW 5.6 Beta
- CAP - Capture One 5.0.1
Color reproduction
Place your mouse over the label below the image to see the color from a GretagMacbeth Color Checker chart produced using each RAW converter. As it is common with bundled software packages Digital Camera Utility 4 produces a color response that is almost identical to the in-camera JPEG. ACR and Capture One both produce more muted output (Capture One more so than ACR).
|Pentax K-x
|Compare to:
|Adobe RGB
Sharpness and Detail
Digital Camera Utility's default sharpening is quite subtle and the Pentax converter's output is virtually indistinguishable form the in-camera JPEG. ACR squeezes marginally more detail out of the RAW file but the sharpest images has been generated by Capture One whose sharpening at default settings is fairly strong (indeed almost too strong).
|JPEG out of camera , High quality setting (all settings default)
ISO 100 studio scene 100% crop
|DCU RAW ->JPEG (Default settings)
ISO 100 studio scene 100% crops
|Adobe ACR RAW ->JPEG (Default settings)
ISO 100 studio scene 100% crops
|Capture One RAW ->JPEG (Default settings)
ISO 100 studio scene 100% crops
Again the DCU results are virtually identical to the in-camera JPEG. In the resolution test all RAW converters produce a higher measured resolution than the in-camera JPEG. ACR and Capture One produce very similar resolutions but the ACR output is cleaner with less Moire.
|JPEG from camera
|Digital Camera Utility (RAW)
|Adobe Camera RAW (RAW)
|Capture One (RAW)
Real world advantages
While we used the converters' default settings for the studio shots above we played with the parameters for optimal results during the conversion of this real life shot. Some careful sharpening in Adobe ACR generates a visible, but tiny, extra amount of detail compared to the in-camera JPEG. The K-x's JPEG engine is doing a pretty decent job and squeezes a lot of the available detail out of the captured RAW data.
|JPEG from Camera
(default sharpening)
|ACR conversion
(Sharpening 41, radius 1.0, detail 64)
RAW files for download
Here we provide RAW files, both from the review and the sample shots we take, to allow you to apply your own workflow techniques and see whether your experiences match ours.
- Studio shot ISO 100 (.zip, 14.5MB)
- Studio shot ISO 1600 (.zip, 19.4MB)
- Studio shot ISO 12800 (.zip, 21.3MB)
- ISO 200 real world shot (.zip, 16.3MB
- ISO 1600 real world shot (.zip, 16.8MB)


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Fayyad, Jordan's Prime Minister Sign Trade Agreements
RAMALLAH, October 4, 2012 (WAFA) – Prime Minister Salam Fayyad and Jordan's Prime Minister Fayez Tarawneh signed Thursday a number of vital trade agreements.
Fayyad said during a press conference following a meeting with Tarawneh at his Ramallah office that the trade agreements, most importantly the free trade agreement between the two countries, will help build strong relationships and benefit both the Palestinian and Jordanian people.
Tarawneh pointed out that the free trade agreement will commit both sides to improve the level of trade between Palestine and Jordan.
He also condemned Israeli measures in occupied East Jerusalem, particularly at al-Aqsa Mosque in the Old City, which he said violate international law and the Geneva Conventions.
Tarawneh had earlier met with President Mahmoud Abbas and discussed the latest political developments in the region.
His visit was to attend the meetings of the Joint Jordanian-Palestinian Higher Committee.


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World Breastfeeding Week. Breastfeeding advocates encourage mothers worldwide to breastfeed their babies, a practice encouraged by leading health authorities around the world. According to the World Alliance for Breastfeeding Action (WABA), a partnership that includes the World Health Organization, UNICEF, and La Leche League International, universal breastfeeding within one hour of birth would prevent an estimated one million infant deaths a year; in addition, the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) estimates that if every child in the world were breastfed exclusively for the first six months of life, 1.5 million lives would be saved every year. Yet, as a report card released this year by the International Baby Food Action Network reveals, few nations report an initial breastfeeding rate of even 50 percent.
Early breastfeeding, numerous studies have revealed, provides crucial nutrients, protects infants against disease, and promotes growth and development.
Part of the reason for the low worldwide breastfeeding rate is that women increasingly must integrate child-rearing and breastfeeding with income-generating labor, and workplaces are frequently not set up to accommodate breastfeeding mothers. Worldwide, women's labor tends to be difficult, poorly compensated, and unprotected by labor laws. Globalization and the increasingly poor conditions under which women labor worldwide make it all the more vital that maternity rights, including the right to breastfeed (and, along with it, the right of children to have adequate food), are recognized as human rights around the world.
Among other measures, WABA recommends that nations:
Image: flickr/topinambour
Thanks for writing about World Breastfeeding Week. I just wanted to share an event that is going on the whole month of August, in honor of World Breastfeeding Week:
The 2nd Annual World Breastfeeding Week Book Release Challenge will be held from August 1st - 31st, 2007.
Last year more than 150 books were "released into the wild" from all over the world; including the USA, Holland, Portugal and more. This year our goal is to double that number.
Prizes include personalized signed copies of:
The No-Cry Sleep Solution by Elizabeth Pantley
The No-Cry Sleep Solution for Toddlers & Preschoolers by Elizabeth Pantley
Gentle Baby Care by Elizabeth Pantley
Mama Knows Breast by Andi Silverman
Near Mama's Heart by Colleen Newman
A Gift for Baby by Jan Hunt
And lots more . . . .
For more information visit:


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This nonprofit arts venue stages popular, open-air concert series from mid-May through mid-July, and September through mid-October. Concerts run Thursday through Sunday, at 7:30pm. Chill on a blanket or dance by the stage. Picnics welcome. levittshell.org
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Last week we posted the official trailer for the single-player portion of Battlefield 4. While that's all fine and dandy, the Battlefield series has always been known for is it's multiplayer mayhem. Today, the multiplayer trailer has been released in celebration of the game's launch at retail. As I won't be getting Battlefield 4 until … Continue reading
Tag Archives: DICE
The 'Battlefield 4' Story Trailer Has Arrived
Despite the fact that most people think of multiplayer first for the Battlefield series, DICE seems to be putting in some effort for the single player campaign for Battlefield 4. While the single player campaign for Battleifeld 3 was…….well, not good, the premise for the single player campaign for Battlefield 4 seems intriguing. The story … Continue reading
'Second Assault DLC' For Battlefield 4 Available Day One on Xbox One
EA has announced that the 'Second Assault' DLC map pack for Battlefield 4 will be available for Xbox One players when the console launches on November 22. The 'Second Assault' map pack will consist of four of Battlefield 3's most popular maps updated for use with the Frostbite 3 engine. The pack will be free for … Continue reading
'Battlefield 4' Official Frostbite 3 Feature Video
Learn about the next generation Frostbite 3 engine powering Battlefield 4, straight from the developers at DICE. Continue reading


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Mandarin and Culture Program
Learning one or more of the modern languages is particularly useful in today's employment market. Globalization has led to a mingling of languages like never before, and the training that goes into learning a new language opens up a vast horizon of new cul-tures, histories, and works of literature, whether it's for continued personal enrichment or possible graduate study.
China ESL will open up doors with the Chinese culture and give you more opportunities to engage conversationally with them. When looking for a Mandarin course to take, you will want to find one that will give you a good understanding of the Mandarin language, and that is what China ESL provides.
By completing a Mandarin course, you will have the ability to advance personally and professionally. Especially for those that travel for business, this could be an opportunity to open further doors that perhaps you may not have been able to open up before due to the language barrier. Outside of business, speaking Mandarin could help you with communicating with the Chinese culture in your own personal life.
You will not be disappointed as you will be learning something new and exciting and at the same time creating new expanding opportunities with a whole other culture.
Home Stay Program
We welcome participants from all backgrounds to China ESL home stay Program. Participants are given a great opportunity to discover China and to enhance their understanding of local Chinese culture and customs. It is a mutually beneficial way to enjoy a great time, find contacts and build friendship with the local Chinese people and families in one of the most ancient and advancing civilized country.
Living Condition
Your living conditions will be upscale by local standards. Meanwhile, you won't have to give up your privacy and interpersonal relationship with other foreigners as two participants are expected to live in a modern apartment with their own private bedroom. Our host families are generally very well off and belong to the local elite (Government officials, party leaders, business owners, etc.), they will make provision for more exquisite food than you can eat, Internet access etc
Host Family
By staying with your host family, you will not only get a "home-away-from-home" feeling, but will also have an opportunity to participate in a unique inter-cultural experience. Our host families are carefully screened and rank amongst the wealthiest and most respected families in their respective cities or even in the country. The vast majority are successful middle aged families that want their children to spend time with foreign English speakers for cultural awareness and to improve their language skills. These families will go to great lengths to make their guests happy and will treat them to the best hotels, best restaurants, trips to historical sites and more at no expense to the guests. They feel honored and responsible to welcome foreigners into their homes. These families also will provide our participants with help in learning Chinese mandarin.
Life with a Chinese Family
Chinese are amongst the most hospitable people in the world, they will go to unimaginable lengths to make their guests comfortable and accommodate their every need. We can say without a doubt that you will be treated like royalty during your stay here. In exchange, it is required that you spend one to two hours a day with your hosts chatting and maybe exchanging English and Mandarin Chinese lessons. Overall, respect and an open mind are key to a successful home stay experience. As a family member, you will experience daily life with the host family. In addition, China ESL will make provision for a 24 hours per day, 7 days per week Emergency Support.
* Explore China's historical and cultural landmarks during afternoon or weekend excursions
* Participate in activities such as calligraphy lessons, cooking class, and a traditional Chinese medicine workshop
1. Educational
§ International learning and knowledge propels students towards acceptance and understanding of an array of different cultural and community perspectives.
§ Language acquisition is achieved through practical immersion.
§ Increase awareness and adoption of alternative, multi-faceted approaches to learning.
§ Acquire analytical and problem solving skills.
§ Enhanced interest in global issues as well as broadening general knowledge.
2. Personal
§ Self-development and awareness leading to enhanced self-confidence and self-esteem. This is often the most noticeable change in returned exchange students.
§ Enhance maturity and social poise; fuelled by the necessity to confront challenges outside a familiar support network and comfort zone.
§ The integration into another family as well as the development of life-long friendships could foster an appreciation of home and family.
§ A tremendous sense of accomplishment upon completion encourages students to develop independent opinions, make informed decisions and strive to attain fresh goals.
Most important of all, you can be assured of a safe and comfortable environment.


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On this page... (hide)
- 1. Real estate leads that work.
- 1.1 Stop wasting time on marketing that doesn't work.
- 1.2 Secrets of successful real estate investors.
- 1.3 The alternative to buying quality leads from Houses Fast.
- 1.4 Popular myths about finding motivated seller leads.
- 1.5 Houses Fast leads can be the secret of your success.
- 1.6 How you can buy these leads.
- 2. Start a free trial period to motivated seller and pre-foreclosure leads.
- 3. Types of real estate leads.
- 4. Related Categories:
Free signup to our unique real estate leads
Signup to leads with $40-80K in equity, it's a no brainer.
Author: Joshua Berg ©
Houses Fast supplies all kinds of leads to investors who can buy cheap houses fast for cash. Subscribe to a free trial period to view leads in your local area.
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Houses Fast receives thousands of leads from motivated sellers of all kinds who are looking for real estate investors who can buy their houses fast preferably for cash. We supply leads in many different cities and markets, starting with a trial period to see if they will meet your particular needs, or not. There is no obligation to continue your lead subscription if you find they do not meet the needs of your business.
1.1 Stop wasting time on marketing that doesn't work.
- Spend all your time working with sellers and not looking for them.
- We have leads to individual sellers who are motivated, with full contact information.
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1.2 Secrets of successful real estate investors.
- Getting leads to good deals that work.
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- Finding and experimenting with professional web developers and marketers.
- Spend months learning what kind of web system and SEO techniques will be successful.
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- When and if, you get a high ranking site that produces leads...
- Spend a lot of time and money maintaining it.
- Even then you won't know whether your staff, or you have the expertise to reach the goals you planned.
1.4 Popular myths about finding motivated seller leads.
- You just need a website and then you get all the motivated sellers you want.
- You just need to spend more time and money marketing.
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- We use full time SEO experts developing and keeping our websites in the highest Google rankings.
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1.6 How you can buy these leads.
- The first thing to know is, whether we have the leads you need in your local area and they're exactly what you need.
- That's why we give a free trial period to try them out for yourself first and you can then cancel at anytime you like.
- Firstly you'll need to do the simple signup registration, then supply a credit card to verify your identity for the trial.
2. Start a free trial period to motivated seller and pre-foreclosure leads.
If you do not find the exceptionally good deals you are looking for you are welcome to cancel your subscription at any time. Otherwise you may continue your subscription for a fee of $98.00 a month. You may read more about our motivated seller leads.
We are more than happy to provide a free trial period to our leads, so that you can try them for yourself to see if you can find the kind of sellers you're looking for and provide for the kind of profit margins that are required of your business. Some of the leads that we provide through our subscription system have very good profit margins which are ideal for cash buying investors. Other leads are from motivated sellers that need, or want to sell house fast, but they may not have a sufficient amount of equity in the property to interest investor buyers in purchasing the house. Some of these kind of leads are ideal for working as a short sale deal, a lease option, or even taking over payments with a subject-to type deal.
For the experienced real estate investor they will see there are many profitable real estate deals to be had from these leads all depending on the particulars of each property, the sellers particular situation, and the purchasing technique, or tools that the real estate investor buyer is knowledgeable about and may be able to use to make a profitable deal.
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- We receive many motivated seller leads for most major cities and states.
- Our leads come from sellers directly and are not cast offs from other investors.
- We have quality leads with direct contact information to the home owners.
- Houses Fast has received and passed on tens of thousands of leads to investors.
3. Types of real estate leads.
Houses Fast has received many thousands of leads over the last 10+ years through our network of real estate websites and has provided investors nationwide with many hundreds of profitable deals, by providing leads to motivated sellers who are looking for investors to buy houses fast for cash. Our top ranking websites have consistently provided a steady flow of useful leads to real estate professionals throughout the states.
Our ability to provide investor buyers to motivated and sometimes needy sellers has also helped many homeowners out of difficult situations, or difficult to sell properties, providing a win-win situation for all.
There are many kinds of leads in real estate buying and selling, below we'll talk about the many types of leads there are and also about the leads Houses Fast receives and that you may subscribe to.
3.1 Real estate investor buyer leads.
The majority of our leads are real estate investor leads which are bought, or subscribed to by investor buyers who buy houses for cash and are looking for exceptional deals and properties which they can then buy themselves, or sometimes get under contract and wholesale to other investors. so if you're looking for [investor homes for sale] then we may have the deals you need and you may try our one dollar subscription to what we consider to be some of the leads an investor can find.
3.2 Motivated seller leads.
Our leads consist mostly of motivated seller leads and come from motivated sellers who are looking for cash buyers who can buy their houses fast. Some of these sellers have problem situations which is why they may be wanting to sell their house fast, or they just have ugly houses that can be very difficult sell and they need investor rehabber's who buy rehab and resell properties.
We see sellers that have ugly houses which are either very old, or in serious disrepair, because they have had some unfortunate event occur to the property. For example some sellers are looking to sell flood houses, or burnouts, or hurricane damaged houses, houses that have been damaged by termites, toxic mold, leaking plumbing and houses with cracked slabs and/or settled foundations. Some of these type of home sellers were either not prepared to deal with, or do not want to start and get involved with such advanced structural repairs, or major rehabs.
In other situations the problem is not with the property, but the seller may have other reasons for which they want to sell their house fast. Some sellers may have inherited the house and may need offers for the house to go through probate and/or proceeds divided between separate beneficiaries. There are plenty of other reasons why a seller may be motivated and/or time constrained to sell their house quickly. For these reasons it is important that investor buyers who work with, or make offers on these properties are in fact able to buy these houses fast and not just tie up properties in contract causing unnecessary delays, or hardships to the motivated sellers.
3.3 Leads for Realtors.
If you are an agent looking for real estate leads for Realtors then in some cases our leads will be useable by you.
For example some sellers from whom we get leads are not necessarily looking to sell their houses quickly, but are just looking for offers to see how much they could sell their house fast to real estate investors. But they may then decide that they have the time and resources to put their house up for sale retail and those could make good agent leads. Other sellers are just not sure what they want to do with their property and would like to keep their options open whether it be listing their house with an agent for sale, or selling directly to investor buyers.
So if you're looking for [real estate listing leads] then it's possible that we may have some leads you're looking for, in which case you're welcome to a trial period to see if we have any [leads for real estate agents]. [Real estate leads for agents].
4. Related Categories: