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Billy Campbell stars as "Jordan Collier" in the USA Network original series The 4400.
Campbell grew up in Charlottesville, Virginia and attended the American Academy of Art in Chicago where he studied illustration. He trained at the Ted Liss Studio for the Performing Arts, as well as at the Players Workshop of Second City in Chicago and at Howard Fine in Los Angeles.
Campbell made his television debut as a guest star in the network series Family Ties and Hotel before becoming a series regular as the character "Luke Fuller" in the long-running primetime drama Dynasty. His other television credits include a series regular role in NBC's Crime Story and ABC's Moon Over Miami. Campbell also appeared in two Armistead Maupin acclaimed miniseries, Tales of the City and More Tales of the City, with Laura Linney and Olympia Dukakis, ABC's Max Q and CBS's Monday After the Miracle, with Roma Downey and Moira Kelly. He was also seen as Moses in the critically acclaimed NBC miniseries In the Beginning, co-starring Martin Landau and Jacqueline Bissett and he played Ted Bundy in the USA Network original movie The Stranger Beside Me. Most recently, Campbell guest-starred in a multi-episode arc on the hit series The O.C
Over the last few years, Campbell starred with Sela Ward on the critically acclaimed drama, Once and Again. During the series run, the show was nominated in 1999 for a Golden Globe� for Best Drama Series, and Campbell was recognized with a nomination for Best Performance By an Actor in a Television Series-Drama. He was also nominated for a People's Choice� Award for Best Male Performer in a New Series.
Campbell is still recognized for his role in the critically acclaimed cult classic The Rocketeer with Jennifer Connelly. His feature film credits include Gettysburg, Brylcreem Boys, Lover's Knot, The Night We Never Met and Bram Stoker's Dracula. Most recently, Campbell starred opposite Jennifer Lopez in the thriller Enough.
Among his stage credits, Campbell has starred in "Fortinbras," for which he received a 1996 Ovation Award, as well as "Backbone of America," "Hamlet," "Guys & Dolls" and "The Best Man."
Campbell currently resides in Los Angeles.


text:
Casey: Sigh, Pat. It seems like there is nowhere in this culture we can escape the pernicious influence of religion. Pat: What are you thinking of in particular? Casey: I'm thinking of the way that even some of the most "sex-positive", taboo-breaking, kink-celebrating, sexually liberated people I know still cannot enjoy the pure physicality of sex [Read More…]
February 23, 2012 by Leave a Comment
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subset: commoncrawl


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London • American and British intelligence operations have been spying on gamers across the world, media outlets reported, saying that the world's most powerful espionage agencies sent undercover agents into virtual universes to monitor activity in online fantasy games such as "World of Warcraft."
Stories carried Monday by The New York Times, the Guardian, and ProPublica said U.S. and U.K. spies have spent years trawling online games for terrorists or informants. The stories, based on documents leaked by former National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden, offer an unusual take on America's world-spanning surveillance campaign, suggesting that even the fantasy worlds popular with children, teens, and escapists of all ages aren't beyond the attention of the NSA and its British counterpart, GCHQ.


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Senior Designer
- Recruiter
- AF Selection Ltd
- Location
- England, Nottinghamshire, Nottingham
- Salary
- £30000 - £35000 per annum
- Posted
- 07 Oct 2016
- Closes
- 04 Nov 2016
- Ref
- 1082
- Marketing Disciplines
- Creative and Design, Digital / Online Marketing
- Industry Sector
- Agency, Creative Design Agency, Integrated Marketing Agency
- Contract Type
- Permanent
- Work Experience Level
- Manager
- Agency-side or Client-side
- Agency Side
- Job Role
- Graphic Designer
Branding agency with a really strong mix of b2b and b2c clients, looking for a creative Senior Designer to join the team.
The role
As Senior Designer you will be responsible for managing complex creative briefs across multiple platforms, heading up and controlling projects and working with the agency's very capable account handling team. Your work will cover a fairly even mix of both digital and print work depending on the branding your clients require. You will be interpreting design briefs and creating original concepts and will also get involved with a bit of copywriting. Clients range across a really challenging mix including pharma, agriculture, finance, education and leisure.
What we're looking for
The ability to think across multiple platforms is really key to this role, but you'll also be working in an agency environment on a mixture of clients. You must be able to demonstrate a recent portfolio of concepts and finished campaigns, and you'll probably also have had some experience of managing junior studio members.
What's on offer?
A vibrant agency who have created a great deal of success for themselves over their 25 year history, they have a really low staff-turnover and a high degree of quality and they really do offer the perfect environment to demonstrate your creative skills to the max. Second interview stage will involve a design brief test.


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Former TV Weatherman's Sentencing Delayed
A former local tv meteorologist faces up to 20 years in prison when he is sentenced by a Palm Beach County judge.
In October, a jury convicted Rob Lopicola, formerly of WPTV, of lewd and lascivious conduct and computer pornography after he was accused of unlawful sexual activity with a minor.
His sentencing was scheduled for Friday, but has been delayed until December 20, though no reason for the delay was given.
Lopicola testified that he had met the teenager on Craigslist but that he wouldn't have pursued the relationship if he had known the teenager was 15-years-old. Lopicola said he never met the boy in person, but the jury felt crude text messages exchanged between them were enough to convict him.
In November, Lopicola accepted a plea deal on a separate count of unlawful sexual activity with a minor. He has not been sentenced on the separate charge.
Photo/Video: WPTV/Youtube


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Ask Health Experts and Get Answers to Your Health Question ASAP
Hello and welcome, I am happy to help you today.
What is your mother's age?
Does she have any ongoing medical disease like dementia?
Please use the reply button to respond.
My mom will be turning 52 in March.
Does she appear depressed?
Heart murmurs, IBS (Irritable Bowel Syndrome), and Angina.
Is she unable to eat due to neurological issues or there is no definite reason?
In September 2011, she had pancreatitis. Ever since then, she hasn't been able to eat and there's no "definitive" signs as to why.
Does she take 3 meals in a day? What does her main meal consist of ?
Have you done an endoscopy?
Yes she has had an endoscopy last year. The doctors found out that her stomach lining was inflamed, but they couldn't say why. They also couldn't connect that to why she can't eat anything.
Inflamed stomach lining is usually associated with chronic gastritis which may be inflammatory like H. pylori infection or due to infiltration of abnormal cells.
Taking appetizers and liver support can also help to improve her appetitie.
They tested her for H. pylori and any other infection and it came back negative.
What do you mean by appetizers and liver support?
Appetizers are appetite stimulants.
Oh, I'm sorry, I should have specified. She's hungry. Like she wants to eat, but anytime she does, it hurts her stomach really badly. She doesn't have a loss of appetite.
Its alright I would like you to get her thoroughly treated for chronic gastritis which is a cause for inflamed stomach.
She went to the doctor and they treated her for Chronic Gastritis. They gave her some medicine, but she can't remember the name. It helped just a little bit while she ate something small, but after about an hour, her stomach would hurt even worse. So their treatment didn't help.
Treating chronic gastritis is not easy, it takes time and patience to treat it.
You have to make an appointment with a gastroenterologist.
There are a group of drugs like proton pump inhibitors, acid blockers etc.
Taking small and frequent an bland diet also helps to treat gastritis and control its symptoms.
You should also check her pancreatic status once again to make sure it is functioning normally.
Check her blood pancreatic amylase and lipase to know her pancreatic function.
She went to a gastroenterologist. They prescribed her with a medicine that starts with the letter D. She was on it every day for 2 months, but it didn't help. The doctor then said there was nothing else they could do to help her. When she was at the Mayo Clinic, they tested her Pancreas and said that it was a little high in its levels, but not enough to cause her to not be able to eat like this. And she's been eating a bland diet for about a year and a half now.
I would like you to get back to the gastroenterologist and get a prescription of anti H pylori antibiotics, even though she is negative for it. It has been seen many a times that taking antibiotics reduces the gastritis symptoms to a large extent. There are specific H. pylori regimens that are prescribed for 2 to 3 weeks time.
A repeat UGI endoscopy is also advisable to look for any changes / adverse developments, if it was done more than 3 months earlier.
I'll make sure she sets up an appointment to get those antibiotics and to try and get her to do another endoscopy. Do you know of any other things that could possibly cause this, specifically ones that may be hard to find?
You should check for gall bladder function too to exclude a "poorly functioning gall bladder". Get a HIDA scan that specifically checks for gall bladder function. which can also cause interfere with having normal meals.
Esophagitis or inflammation of the esophagus needs to be excluded which could be aggravating her problems.
Esophagitis is commonly associated with gastritis and poorly functioning esophageal valves.
So, the esophageal manometry is important for her.
Get the following done as of now:
1. Make appointment with a agstroenterologist.
3. Esophageal manometry.
2. Repeat UGI endoscopy.
4. HIDA scan for gall bladder function.
Any more questions?
Just one more. Since she's basically not eating anything besides ice cream, is there any vitamins or supplements besides the generic multivitamin that she should be taking to help get her everything she needs?
There is no single vitamin or supplement that can give you all the benefits but there is one which has been time tested as a dietary supplement known as "spirulina".
Alright. Well thank you very much for your time :)
Here is a link :http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spirulina_%28dietary_supplement%29
You can check it later.
I hope my answer has helped you.Please remember to choose accept or to rate me excellent service ( 5 or 4 positive rating)to give credit for my answer and time.Bonuses are warmly appreciated.


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Vale S.A. (NYSE:VALE) has been performing well in front of the strong headwinds in its main product line in terms of price stability. It has lost considerable sales and earnings in the past three years and cash flows came down considerably and the company has reduced its dividends. All this happened only due to the fall in commodity prices including iron ore, copper, potash, and coal. This shirked investors' confidence and the share price dropped consistently in the past three years. However, the company has developed a smart strategy to adapt to the challenging business environment. The strategy has worked for the company in the past few quarters and led it to reduce losses.
Vale's plan is simple and straight forward; Vale is looking to go forward with high value and high growth assets, and is only making targeted investments in growth opportunities. It is focusing on its existing assets to expand its production in an efficient way; this is helping the company's cash flows to pay dividend and reduce debt level. The company is further supporting its margins by reducing cost and expenses. Amid this, outlook for the metal and minerals is not stabilizing as the commodity prices are still in volatility. Lowering spending and more saving will allow the company to prosper.
Based on the new business plan, the company has sold around $6B worth of non-core assets in 2013. The company continued with its plan in the first quarter of 2014, as it sold its 36% stake in the logistics unit, VLI, and a 22% stake in Norsk Hydro (OTCQX:NHYDY) for $1.82B. On the other hand, it is making its capital investments in a more disciplined way in order to give a boost to cash flows and only targeting high-growth high-Vale assets. In the first half of this year, Vale has reduced capital expenditure to around $5B compared to the past year of $7.1B. It has completed projects like Conceição Itabiritos and Plant 2, which are both growing its iron ore production.
In addition, the company is focusing more on its existing assets to expand its production. This strategy is not only reducing cost for the company, but also enhancing its production level. At the end of the recent quarter, Vale has generated record production of iron ore around 79.4 Mt led by its focus on enhancing production from existing assets and the additional Plant 2 in Carajás and the fresh Conceição Itabiritos plant. Whereas phosphate, coal, and pallet production increased substantially compared to the past quarter. With the massive increase in production, the company has been able to post higher sales but EBITDA remains flat compared to the past quarter due to lower margins though Vale has been saving SG&A expanses to give support to margins. And its net income went down due to the impairment charges.
However, its cash position came back to a stable level after the company's implementation of the new strategy. Its strategy involves lowering capital expenditure to give a boost to cash flows. At the moment, Vale's operating cash flows are covering its capital investments and dividend payments after its initiative of lowering capital expenditure. In the first half of 2014, its operating cash flows came in at $8.6B when capital expenditure was at $5B and thus free cash flows stands at $3.9B. This reduces any risk of insolvency and the company's potential of paying dividends as it is now generating a healthy amount in free cash flows.
In Conclusion
Vale has adopted the right strategy at the right time compared to the other industry peers, particularly Cliff Natural Resources (NYSE:CLF), which remains slow in responding to the changing business environment. Thus, Vale has been able to reduce losses and risk associated with its business. Though Vale is doing good business in a difficult time, I still do not recommend Vale for defensive investors as the company has been facing problems in its main product line which are expected to continue in the coming days based on forecasts presented by the two big banks. I am also expecting the company to keep reducing losses with its new business strategy, but I do not see that Vale is outperforming in the short term. I think defensive investors can find a number of other stocks in the market which are offering consistent dividend growth with steady price appreciation at low risk.
Disclosure: The author has no positions in any stocks mentioned, and no plans to initiate any positions within the next 72 hours. The author wrote this article themselves, and it expresses their own opinions. The author is not receiving compensation for it (other than from Seeking Alpha). The author has no business relationship with any company whose stock is mentioned in this article.


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British Airways is the flag carrier of the United Kingdom. It is the largest airline in the country, based on its fleet and the number of international flight and sectors it covers. The airline is headquartered in Waterside, close to the London Heathrow Airport.
British Air was set up in 1972 to manage nationalized and smaller airline corporations that existed at the time. In 1974, these were merged to create the British Airways. The airline was privatized in 1987. It is also one of the founding members of the Oneworld airline alliance along with 4 other airline companies.
Over the years, British Airways has won several awards. Among its recent achievements is the "World's Best Business Class Airline Lounge" in April 2012. It also won the Best Transatlantic Airline award at the 2012 World Airline Awards held at the Farnborough Air Show. It has won several international awards for its lounges, website and its First Class and Business Class offerings.
British Airways operates approximately 400 aircraft across various sectors and routes. It has 2 Airbus A318-100, 44 Airbus A319-100, 49 Airbus 32-200, 18 Airbus A321-200, 3 Airbus A380-800, 19 Boeing 737-400 and 55 Boeing 747-400. It has several other aircraft of various categories servicing multiple sectors.
British Airlines flies to almost 150 destinations and 6 destinations within the country. It is one of the very few airlines to have flights to each of the six major continents.
On the Middle Eastern sector, with the ease of British airways online booking services one can fly to 8 destinations including United Arab Emirates (UAE), Bahrain, Jordon, Kuwait, Lebanon, Oman, Qatar and Saudi Arabia.
British Airways offers a range of travel classes to choose from depending on how a passenger would like to make his journey. Economy class flights provide you with prices that are all inclusive and provide the best value for money. The World Traveller Plus program is a premium economy cabin affording better privacy and space. Business and First class flights are available with a range of services.
For those passengers travelling in First, Club World or Club Europe flights; Silver or Gold members of the British Airways Executive Club, or Emerald and Sapphire members of any of the Oneworld Airline programme, there are over 60 dedicated departure lounges and over 90 partner lounges to experience. These are classified into Business, First and Arrival lounges.
British Airways baggage allowance is generous, with every adult and child over 2 years being allowed one cabin bag and one handbag on board free. The baggage limit for all hand luggage should not exceed 23 kg and should be in a maximum dimension of 22 in X 18 in X 10 in. As for checked-in baggage, the allowance is based on travel class you are in.
Economy allowances for World Traveller tickets are 2 bags of a maximum of 23 kg each for every adult over 12 years of age. All other journeys, excluding hand baggage only fares, are entitled to one bag of 23 kg maximum.
Premium World Traveller passengers can have 2 bags of a maximum of 23 kg each for every adult and child (between 2-11 years). Also for the children in this age group a car seat and a completely collapsible pushchair is allowed as is for infants. Babies are also allowed a standard sized bag as well.
In the case of mixed cabin journeys, the baggage allowance of the higher class is what is applicable throughout the journey. There are also additional allowances for frequent flyers which allow a free checked-in baggage of up to 32 kg across any class that you travel in. With such baggage allowance and the facility of British airways online check in, travelling can be pleasure.
For information on British Airways customer service or contact numbers, please click here.
With Cleartrip, you can make all your British Airways bookings on a single site. Should you make a booking at the last minute you can always check on your British Airways PNR status based on the guidelines of our site. Booking with us is an efficient process.
Choose from multiple domestic and international routes or track your flight, or simple look for pertinent information. Our site will have all you need to know on flights, discounts, ground services and more.


text: According to Apple, my Apple password has been changed, so that I may no longer obtain access to iCloud, &c. How this can have happened, I have no idea. I want now to arrange matters so that I am able to continue to use my old password. However, all of the steps suggested by Apple involve creating a new password. Is it possible actually to retrieve the old password, and, if so, how is it done ? MacBook Air, Mountain Lion


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How To Get Agyness' Batcrackers Crazy Lash Look
My my, the fashion stars certainly decided to shine bright at the recent ACE Awards. No one could really compete with Lady Gaga's interesting ensemble, but supermodel-of-the-moment Agyness Deyn came close with her edgy beauty look. Not only did she rock the bowl cut that's so chic right now, we also got the scoop from the lady behind her accompanying fine feathered friends. Makeup artist Frances Hathaway applied Shu Uemura's Black Velvet Feather False Eyelashes to her lower lids. "Agyness is a cutting edge girl," said Hathaway. "I needed a fashion-forward lash with an architectural influence." Did she ever! However, she cautions that one must exercise restraint in such situations: "When making such a big statement, keep it simple; just make one lash." After all, you wouldn't want to go overboard.


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Today I got a note from an aspiring author, worried about someone stealing a good story idea. I've heard the question many times, and here's what I generally answer:
Via The Star: Malaysian author wins Best Newcomer at British Fantasy Awards. Excerpt and then a comment:
There was Malaysian magic present the British Fantasy Awards yesterday (Sept 25). Selangor-born Zen Cho was voted Best Newcomer for her book, Sorcerer To The Crown, at the awards held at FantasyCon 2016 in Scarborough, England.
The book is set in Regency-era London and sees Zacharias Wythe, England's first African Sorcerer Royal, attempting to discover why the country's magical stocks are drying up. Published by Macmillan, it is the first story in Cho's Sorcerer Royal historical fiction trilogy.
She beat The Long Way To A Small Angry Planet by Becky Chambers, The Vagrant Peter Newman, The Heir To The North by Steven Poore, and When The Heavens Fall by Marc Turner. Sorcerer To The Crown was also nominated for Best Fantasy Novel, but that award went to Naomi Novik's Uprooted.
Cho, 30, currently resides in London and was the first Malaysian to receive the William L Crawford Fantasy Award from the International Association For The Fantastic In The Arts, for her book Spirits Abroad, a collection of short stories within the speculative fiction genre. She was also the editor of Cyberpunk: Malaysia, a collection of science fiction stories published by Fixi Novo.
We are presently in a golden age of global SF and fantasy, and Zen Cho is a big reason for it. Authors from all over the world, many of them women, are incorporating new cultural concepts in genres that had been at risk of what might be called ossified Tolkienism. In both her novel and her stories, Cho is a fresh, distinct voice. I look forward to her next novels and short stories.
Via The Guardian: Ian Rankin: 'Solitude, coffee, music: 27 days later I have a first draft'. He describes a regime few of us can arrange, lacking a house in northeast Scotland and a patient spouse, but still offers much useful advice. Excerpt:
There is no such thing as a "typical" day, even when I'm busy on a book. Some days the words flow, others feel like wading through suet. The phone rings, the doorbell sounds, there's shopping to be done or an urgent email demanding a reply. That's why I try to get away.
I've got a house on the north-east coast of Scotland, three and a half hours by car from Edinburgh. Very limited mobile phone signal and no TV. There's a landline but I haven't given the number to my agent, publisher or any journalist. Perfect.
I'm in the middle of a new book right now. It's going pretty well. The first draft took me 27 writing days. It's rough – really just me checking the plot works. The second draft sees me polish the prose, fix faults in chronology and geography, and add meat to the bones of my characters.
So while my first drafts are usually done at a gallop – if I'm writing quickly, then the story will also have pace – I take things more slowly in the second and third drafts. The third draft is normally what my publisher and agent get to see.
Via The Guardian: Philip Pullman: professional writers set to become 'an endangered species'. Excerpt:
His Dark Materials author Philip Pullman is heading a new charge from writers demanding to be rewarded fairly for their work, as the Society of Authors warns that unless "serious" changes are made by publishers, the professional author "will become an endangered species".
In an open letter to Britain's publishers, the Society of Authors points to a recent survey that found that the median income of a professional author is now just £11,000, with only 11.5% of UK writers making a living solely from writing.
Pointing out that "authors remain the only essential part of the creation of a book and it is in everyone's interests to ensure they can make a living", it tells publishers that "unfair contract terms, including reduced royalty rates, are a major part of the problem".
Pullman, the current president of the society, said that the case for fair terms for writers was "overwhelming".
"From our positions as individual creators, whether of fiction or non-fiction, we authors see a landscape occupied by several large interests, some of them gathering profits in the billions, some of them displaying a questionable attitude to paying tax, some of them colonising the internet with projects whose reach is limitless and whose attitude to creators' rights is roughly that of the steamroller to the ant," said Pullman.
"It's a daunting landscape, far more savage and hostile to the author than any we've seen before. But one thing hasn't changed, which is the ignored, unacknowledged, but complete dependence of those great interests on us and on our talents and on the work we do in the quiet of our solitude. They have enormous financial and political power, but no creative power whatsoever. Whether we're poets, historians, writers of cookery books, novelists, travel writers, that comes from us alone. We originate the material they exploit."
The society wants authors to receive at least 50% of ebook revenue, rather than 25%, and is also asking publishers not to discriminate against writers "who don't have powerful agents".
"Some publishers are excellent but we see many inequitable contracts. Without serious contract reform, the professional author will become an endangered species and publishers – as well as society at large – will be left with less and less quality content," says the letter, sent by Society of Authors' chief executive Nicola Solomon.
"Unless publishers treat their authors more equitably the decline in the number of full-time writers could have serious implications for the breadth and quality of content that drives the economic success and cultural reputation of our creative industries in the UK."
All writers want, said Pullman, "is fairness". "We don't want these great powers to disappear altogether: the things they do are often things that need doing. Books are physical objects that need to be manufactured and transported and sold, or digital entities that need to be formatted and made available online. Sometimes there are things we wish they would do a little more of: editorial standards are not what they were. All those things are necessary and should be rewarded – but rewarded fairly. So is our work, and so should we," said the novelist.
The Tyee has published my article A Better Force Awakens, in which I criticize Star Wars, Star Trek, and the general quality of industrial SF and fantasy over the last quarter-century or so. But all is not lost:
By the 1990s, I understood the new market far less than I'd understood the old one in the 1970s. And I pretty well packed it in after I'd spent four years writing a novel for an agent who returned it saying only, "No one here can think 'blockbuster' about it."
By then I could go into the science fiction and fantasy section of a bookstore, search the shelves for an hour, and leave empty-handed. The sharecroppers' Star Wars and Star Trek novels filled up too many of those shelves, and the rest were clogged with umpteen boring sequels to some groundbreaker like Frank Herbert's Dune or Isaac Asimov's Foundation.
I felt like some Amazonian forest dweller whose land has been cleared to graze cattle for the American hamburger market. A vast genre of popular literature had become mere franchises, like competing pizza chains.
In the process, the franchisers had taught a generation of readers and viewers -- and writers! -- to prefer predictable sameness, not surprising variety. If it appeared at all, variety was just ever-bigger special effects, rendered by ever-bigger computers.
If I have any consolation, it's that the artisans are beginning to flourish again in the shadow of the franchises. God knows how they're finding publishers, but some astonishing writers are springing up like weeds among the cowpies.
Many are British: Charles Stross writes about interstellar travel as a pyramid scheme, and Dave Hutchinson's Fractured Europe novels look all too plausibly like the near future. China Miéville has gone beyond mere genre into a strange new realm of his own. Ian R. MacLeod's novels about the British industrial revolution (fuelled by magic, not coal) are powerfully vivid. Liu Cixin has single-handedly made China a science-fiction producer to reckon with.
Ursula's daughters
Even more encouragingly, many new writers are women. Aliette de Bodard, Franco-Vietnamese, writes beautifully about fallen angels ruling Paris and interstellar empires ruled by Vietnamese. Finnish writers Leena Krohn and Emmi Itäranta offer very different visions of very strange worlds.
Here in Canada we have Emily St. John Mandel's acclaimed climate-fiction novel Station Eleven, and Vancouver's Silvia Moreno-Garcia, whose Signal to Noise evokes a 1980s Mexico City where teenagers cast magic spells on one another.
All are worthy daughters and grand-daughters of Ursula K. Le Guin, who's still writing superbly in her 80s, and I don't see a blockbuster in any of them, much less a franchise. They are too distinctive, too individual, and far too unpredictable.
Via The Guardian: MI5 spied on Doris Lessing for 20 years, declassified documents reveal. Excerpt:
MI5 targeted the Nobel prize-winning author Doris Lessing for 20 years, listening to her phone conversations, opening her mail and closely monitoring her movements, previously top secret files reveal. The files show the extent to which MI5, helped by the Met police special branch, spied on the writer, her friends and associates, long after she abandoned communism, disgusted by the crushing of the Hungarian uprising in 1956.
MI5 was concerned about her continuing fierce opposition to colonialism, the files, released at the National Archives on Friday, make clear.
Lessing first came to MI5's notice in the early 1940s in Southern Rhodesia when, as Doris Tayler, she married Gottfried Lessing, a communist activist and leading figure in the Left Book Club.
She once described marrying Lessing as her "revolutionary duty". She kept his surname when the marriage ended and she left Southern Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe), where she was brought up, and moved to Britain in 1949.
MI5 stepped up its spying on her when, in the course of its permanent bugging of the British Communist party's headquarters in King Street, Covent Garden, her name (initially misheard as Lacey) came up in a conversation.
In 1952, MI6 passed to MI5 what it called "character sketches" of members of a visit to Moscow by a number of British authors, the files released on Friday reveal. Under the name Miss Doris Lessing, it wrote: "Her communist sympathies have been fanned almost to the point of fanaticism owing to her upbringing in Rhodesia, which has brought out in her a deep hatred of the colour bar."
MI6 added: "Colonial exploitation is her pet theme and she has now nearly become as irresponsible in her statements as … saying that everything black is wonderful and that all men and all things white are vicious."
Two years later, MI5 noted that Lessing was "the leader of the Writers Group" of the British Communist party. In 1956, Special Branch informed MI5 that Lessing, whom it described as "of plump build", had moved into a flat in Warwick Road, London SW5. "Her flat is frequently visited by persons of various nationality," it reported, "including Americans, Indians, Chinese and Negroes." The report added: "It is possible that the flat is being used for immoral purposes."
Via The Guardian: The Puppies are taking science fiction's Hugo awards back in time. Excerpt and then a comment:
The clock is ticking for the public vote in this year's Hugo awards, which celebrate excellence in science fiction. Sixteen categories are up for grabs, from best novel to short fiction, fan writing, art and dramatic presentation, and the deadline is 31 July. But this year the prizes are not just about celebrating science-fiction – it's political war.
There's usually a kerfuffle of one kind or another – popular authors habitually campaign for fans to vote them on to the list, but 2015 has proved the biggest drama the award has ever seen. That's because two linked online campaign groups, known as the "Sad Puppies" and their more politically extreme running mates, the "Rabid Puppies", have been campaigning hard to register supporters and bump their preferred titles on to the shortlists. They have managed it, too: this year's Hugos are packed with Puppies titles.
There's no avoiding the politically partisan nature of this campaign. Its leading lights range from respectable rightwingers such as US authors Larry Correia and Brad Torgerson, through to those with more outlandish views such as John C Wright and Vox Day (also known as Theodore Beale). It's the Tea Party of contemporary US sci-fi.
The Puppies are complaining that recent Hugo winners have been too highbrow, and argue that winners such as Anne Leckie's smart gender-deconstruction of space opera Ancillary Justice, or John Scalzi's witty Star-Trek-inspired metafiction Redshirts are too experimental and literary.
More importantly, as Sarah Lotz says, they're also suggesting SF has been hijacked by a conspiracy of "social justice warriors" or "SJWs", intent on filling the genre with progressive ideological propaganda.
The Puppies' real beef is that SF, and society as a whole, has become too feminist, too multiracial, too hospitable to gay and trans voices. Anti-SJW rhetoric, most of it proceeding from angry straight white men, has flooded online discussions. It's been ugly. It's also proving self-defeating. George RR Martin's intervention, urging people to register and vote in order to defeat the plans of people he call "assholes", has galvanised the counter-vote.
First of all, awards like the Hugos don't reflect literary skill or imagination; they're marketing gimmicks.
But the current uproar is nothing new. SF has been a vehicle for political propaganda for centuries, starting with Thomas More's Utopia, which took the piss out of European politics by presenting an alternative to it.
Yet I managed to scandalize an SF convention circa 1972 by suggesting that a lot of modern SF has a whiff of fascism (and this was over a decade after Starship Troopers).
Personally I don't give a damn about an SF writer's politics. Plenty of "social justice warriors" write badly, and writers like Robert Heinlein are superb (Heinlein was a genius at straight-faced put-ons—you could never tell if he meant what he said or was just pursuing a thought experiment to its logical end).
But I do object to writers who can't tell a good story and expect their political views to keep their readers buying their stuff. A really good storyteller will pursue the implications of the story wherever they lead, even if they call the storyteller's own politics into question. (I used to unnerve myself by the awful things my politically liberal characters were capable of doing, and I often sympathized with the predicaments faced by my oppressor-villains.)
Regardless of the outcome of the Hugos, I'll read SF and fantasy that surprises me by finding something surprising in genres that have been beaten almost to death in the last half-century. And I'm delighted that half a century after Heinlein and Tolkien, both genres are erupting in strange and wonderful new directions. If some writers want to express the vision of anxious, angry white American guys, great. If they can express that vision well, I'll be happy to read them.
I'll also be surprised. Heinlein's dead, guys. Utopia doesn't bomb its way out of its problems.
Ursula K. Le Guin is always worth reading, but when the Great Lady of SF and fantasy writes about China Miéville, we lesser writers should shut up, pay attention, and take notes.
Via The Guardian, Le Guin reviews Three Moments of an Explosion by China Miéville – masterfully horrific SF. Excerpt:
Much contemporary fantasy is quite violent, perhaps in an attempt to win the respect of people who assume fantasy is all fairies and fluff; but I doubt if that's why so much of China Miéville's work is so in-your-face gruesome. More likely he is meeting the expectations of a readership used to the infinite kill count of sensational films and electronic games, and is bloody-minded enough to enjoy doing so.
But, knowing him as a writer avowedly committed to Marxist principles of social justice, with an intense sensitivity to contemporary moral and emotional complexities and a thoughtful mind that finds expression in lucid, cogent talks and essays, I wonder if he uses the horrific as a brilliant barrage of blanks concealing a subtler, deeper engagement with the dark side.
Until a few years ago, I was beginning to think fantasy would never recover from Tolkien and his plagiarists: It was going to be elves and dwarves all the way down, driven by a mass market that would no longer wait for readers to discover quirky, offbeat writers.
Mercifully, I was wrong. We now have scores of high-quirk fantasy writers ranging from China Miéville and Charles Stross to Luis Alberto Urrea and the late Mal Peet. Now, I'm happy to say, we have another: A Mexican-Canadian named Silvia Moreno-García.
I discovered her in one of the fantasy/SF roundups in The Guardian, where I've learned about other excellent writers. Her first novel, Signal to Noise, deserves a lot of attention—not just from fantasy readers, but fantasy writers.
The novel gives us two key periods in the life of Mercedes (Meche) Vega, a bright young misfit in 1988 Mexico City who grows into a computer genius woring in Oslo in 2009. As a teenager, she doesn't fit into her school; her only real friend is Sebastian, an equally geeky young guy with a family as dysfunctional as Meche's.
Is this beginning to sound perilously like yet another YA novel about teenage angst? It's not, if only because we also see Meche and Sebastian as thirty-somethings still coping with their adolescent sorrows.
Those sorrows aren't just raging hormones; Meche's father is a DJ dreaming of writing a definitive book on pop music, who eventually dies alone in a grubby apartment jammed with thousands of old vinyl discs. As much as her dad drives her crazy, Meche has picked up his love of music, and stumbles on the power of magic through listening to a classic pop song and then seeing a school bully laid low by it.
I responded to Signal to Noise on both personal and intellectual levels. Personally: I grew up in early-1950s Mexico City, when we listened to American pop music on radio station XEL and suffered through the exquisite sorrows of expat teens at the American High School. We hardly knew how to make sense of our world until some Hollywood movie arrived. (The Blackboard Jungle, about inner-city juvenile delinquents, caused a major discipline problem at AHS when it first played in Mexico City.)
So it's nice to see that matters did not improve by the late 1980s, though the 1980s music was light-years beyond the early-50s drivel we loved on XEL.
Intellectually, Signal to Noise makes a point usually lost on North American anglophones: Latin America is a culture even more cosmopolitan than our own (because we barely notice the Latin Americans). Meche and her buddies are fully conversant with American and European music, as well as their own. For Meche's alcoholic dad, that foreign music is worth throwing away his life on—and Meche finds it worthwhile to try to turn his manuscript into something publishable.
So it's a witty and literate exploitation of our pop music to make it the source of the magic that Meche learns how to wield, if only to exact revenge on her jerky classmates. It's also a reminder than Mexico is a fully modern country (even in its violence and corruption), fully engaged in the world whether the gringos notice it or not.
Even on basic technical terms, the novel works very well. Meche's gradual descent, from discovering her power to abusing it, is entirely plausible. As the surviving father of two teenage daughters, I was sorely tempted to try some percussive therapy on Meche with a baseball bat. That's a tribute to Moreno-García's ability to evoke character, and she then shows Meche growing beyond her follies into someone we can understand and respect.
And what can other fantasy writers learn from Signal to Noise? Well, it tells them to ditch the elves and dwarves and look for the magic in the people around them. For Moreno-García the magic is in the music; it could as easily be in the annotations to the Torah in some Talmudic school, or an obscure corner of calculus that unleashes demons. As Leonard Cohen observed in his 1967 novel Beautiful Losers, "God is alive, magic is afoot."
Magic is certainly afoot in Signal to Noise, and other writers should pay attention.
Via the books section of The Guardian: Hugo award nominees withdraw amid 'Puppygate' storm. Excerpt and then a comment:
Two authors have withdrawn their work from contention for the prestigious Hugo science fiction awards in the wake of what George RR Martin has called "Puppygate", the controversy that has "plunged all fandom into war".
Marko Kloos, whose novel Lines of Departure had been picked along with four other authors for the best novel Hugo – an award that counts Dune and Neuromancer among its former winners – announced on Wednesday that he had withdrawn his acceptance of the nomination. Annie Bellet, whose "Goodnight Stars" was a contender for best short story, also withdrew from the race.
Both writers had been included on a slate of titles pulled together by a group of right-leaning science fiction writers dubbing themselves the Sad Puppies, who had mobilised fans to pay for membership of Worldcon, enabling them to vote and thus flood the categories with their choices. Brad Torgersen, the author behind Sad Puppies, wanted to reverse what he called the Hugos' favouring of works that were "niche, academic, overtly to the left in ideology and flavour, and ultimately lacking what might best be called visceral, gut-level, swashbuckling fun".
But they were also on the slate for the so-called Rabid Puppies campaigners, led by the writer Theodore Beale, known online as Vox Day, an inflammatory far-right blogger who was expelled from the Science Fiction Writers of America following racist comments about the award-winning author NK Jemisin.
"It has come to my attention that Lines of Departure was one of the nomination suggestions in Vox Day's 'Rabid Puppies' campaign," wrote Kloos. "I cannot in good conscience accept an award nomination that I feel I may not have earned solely with the quality of the nominated work. I also wish to disassociate myself from the originator of the 'Rabid Puppies' campaign. To put it bluntly: if this nomination gives even the appearance that Vox Day or anyone else had a hand in giving it to me because of my perceived political leanings, I don't want it. I want to be nominated for awards because of the work, not because of the 'right' or 'wrong' politics."
I've never really understood the point of such awards, except as a marketing gimmick. A good novel (especially an SF or fantasy novel) ought to challenge our vision of the world, not just agree with it–and that's regardless of whether we buckle our sashes to the right or the left. And whether a novel is really good depends on how long readers keep reading it, and discussing it.
Via The Guardian: Teen novelists: the perils and positives of publishing early. Excerpt:
Helena Coggan's debut, The Catalyst, is an accomplished first novel: a fantasy-dystopia featuring strong characterisation and sophisticated world-building. The plot might be somewhat event-saturated, especially towards the end, but to me, the book has the assurance of a writer in mid-stride, rather than the occasional fumbles and missteps of a first attempt.
This would be unusual in most debut novels; in a 15-year-old's, it's nearly unparalleled.
This is not to say that teenagers can't or shouldn't write. Young writers can be both prolific and self-critical – and story-sharing sites such as Wattpad and Movellas make it easy to invite outside scrutiny. Many teenagers start out wearing fan-fiction water-wings, before plunging into the creation of characters and settings from scratch. But few of even the most popular teen authors are ready to make the leap into the exposed format of the traditionally published book.
I admire young writer Beth Reekles tremendously, not least for combining a degree in physics with her early-burgeoning career as a writer. But her first book, The Kissing Booth, now published by Random House after huge success on Wattpad, shows signs of immaturity in the unnerving relationship that it presents as romantic and alluring – the main love interest, Noah, is handy with his fists and swift to tell the 17-year-old protagonist that she's showing too much skin, and that all the boys would hit on her if he weren't there to ward them off. He's presented throughout as the hottest of hot stuff; but 10 years on, a writer might be more inclined to portray him as a dangerous abuser-in-training than as the perfect romantic fit for the heroine.
There is nothing more important in writing YA fiction, though, than creating authentic young-adult voices to tell the story. It's a hard balance to strike – an adult writer too far removed from the ever-changing emotions, technology and idioms that inform teenagers' existence may make rookie errors that jolt the reader; a teenage writer may not yet have the skill to distil their recent experience and knowledge into book form.
This, to me, is part of what makes Coggan's book so special: a main character who's neither a barely animated cardboard cut-out nor an aggressively perfected version of the author. Instead, Rosalyn Elmsworth is a sometimes dislikable, believably exceptional 15-year-old – who happens to be keeping a deadly secret.
Having the ability to turn one's own life into compelling fiction is rare for a teenage writer, but not impossible; SE Hinton's The Outsiders, considered by many to be the first true YA novel, was mainly written when she was 16. It's still remarkable for the close, truthful feel of the characterisation and the humane treatment of the Greasers, the gang from the wrong side of the tracks; the wry, witty, put-upon narrator, Ponyboy, is a particular triumph. ("I lie to myself all the time. But I never believe me.")
Via The Guardian: You think writing's a dream job? It's more like a horror film. Excerpt:
A YouGov poll that has just been released rates being an author the most desirable job in Britain – with 60% of people saying they'd like to do it for a living. This is a 24% higher than those who want to be a TV presenter and a remarkable 29% higher than those who want to be a movie star.
The mind boggles – or it would if authors didn't spend a good majority of their time assiduously, and at tedious length, trying to avoid cliches. The fact that people fantasise about being an author only proves how little they know about the reality of the job – or how under-read they are in one of the greatest of that profession, George Orwell.
It was Orwell who wrote this description of the novelist: "All writers are vain, selfish and lazy, and at the very bottom of their motives there lies a mystery. Writing a book is a horrible, exhausting struggle, like a long bout of some painful illness. One would never undertake such a thing if one were not driven on by some demon which one can neither resist nor understand."
This is not a view of writing that occupies a great deal of space in the popular imagination. On the contrary, authors are seen as rather serene, noble characters, licking their pencils, perpetually looking out the window for inspiration – which always comes – and floating in a bubble, enjoying an Olympian perspective on the world, not bound to the nine to five like the rest, but picking beautiful sentences out of the air like passing butterflies, which they trap and affix decoratively to the page.
If only it were like that. Some writers do, I admit, talk up the delights of creating fiction. All I can say is, I have been writing books for nigh on 20 years now – and it has not been out of choice but for exactly the reason that Orwell describes – "driven by some demon which one can neither resist nor understand".
I have on more than one occasion longed for a different way of making a living, a hope that I understand now is entirely in vain, as it is my only marketable ability.
Via The New Yorker, the matriarch of our tribe speaks: "We Will Need Writers Who Can Remember Freedom": Ursula Le Guin and Last Night's N.B.A.s. As a young writer I was lucky to share a publisher with her, and thereby to know her a little. Her writing profoundly influenced mine, and may it influence everyone's. Excerpt:
But it was Ursula K. Le Guin, accepting the Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters early in the evening, who gave the definitive remarks of the ceremony, gliding through the genre debate and the Amazon-Hachette debacle on her way to explaining the crucial role that literature must play in our society.
Petite, her silver hair shining, Le Guin shrugged and grinned when Neil Gaiman placed the medal around her neck. She said that she wanted to share the honor with her fellow-fantasy and sci-fi writers, who have for so long watched "the beautiful awards," like the one she'd just received, go to the "so-called realists." Then she continued:
I think hard times are coming, when we will be wanting the voices of writers who can see alternatives to how we live now, and can see through our fear-stricken society and its obsessive technologies, to other ways of being. And even imagine some real grounds for hope.We will need writers who can remember freedom: poets, visionaries—the realists of a larger reality. Right now, I think we need writers who know the difference between production of a market commodity and the practice of an art. The profit motive is often in conflict with the aims of art.We live in capitalism. Its power seems inescapable; so did the divine right of kings. … Power can be resisted and changed by human beings; resistance and change often begin in art, and very often in our art—the art of words.I've had a long career and a good one, in good company, and here, at the end of it, I really don't want to watch American literature get sold down the river. … The name of our beautiful reward is not profit. Its name is freedom.
And here is her complete six-minute speech on YouTube.
The Tyee has published my article Rise Up from Science Fiction Monoculture! It's a review of several new books and discusses writers I think are saving the genre. Excerpt:
As a free-range kid over 60 years ago, I liked to go down to the Thieves' Market in Mexico City on Sundays. A smart 12-year-old shopper could come home with a once-functional six-gun -- or reasonably recent copies of American pulp magazines like Thrilling Wonder Stories and Startling Stories.
My parents imposed a disarmament program, but the magazines stayed. Despite their lurid artwork and clunky prose, I fell in love with the ideas they dramatized. Science fiction and fantasy inspired me to write the same kind of pulp, and to keep at it until I'd published almost a dozen novels of my own.
Then science fiction and fantasy became industries; Tolkien rip-offs competed with novels of interstellar war based on the U.S. Navy in the Second World War. Star Wars and Star Trek became invasive species, turning the vast ecosystems of 1950s science fiction into dreary monocultures. Don't get me going about Game of Thrones.
I stopped writing science fiction and largely stopped reading it. Then economist and science fiction junkie Paul Krugman mentioned a British novelist named Charles Stross, a prolific writer of both science fiction and fantasy. Stross's extraordinary novels taught me that I was lucky to have got out of the business when I did, because I sure couldn't have competed with him.
The Tyee has published my article My Old Sci-Fi Novel Is Coming True. Excerpt:
It was a strange sensation to check Google News on a lovely spring morning and find a new headline: "Irreversible collapse." The collapse is of a major part of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet under the steady erosion of warming sea water. Pretty dramatic, no doubt, but just another global warming story.
Unless you'd already written the story 40 years ago.
The recent reports cite a 1978 prediction by U.S. glaciologist John H. Mercer that such an event might result from global warming. But I had been inspired by a 1964 report that argued such a surge could start an ice age.
I can still recall the moment, circa 1973, when I ran across a newspaper article on that report. According to a New Zealand scientist named A. T. Wilson, sea water periodically gets under the Antarctic ice sheets and acts like a lubricant, allowing the enormous weight of the ice to surge into the Southern Ocean.
With the ocean covered by ice as far north as 55º south, sunlight would be reflected back into space and the planet would begin to cool. The ice would eventually melt, raising sea levels by some 20 metres in "100 years or much less," according to another scientist.
But the cooling would persist longer than the ice. Soon snow in the northern hemisphere would survive the summers, growing into glaciers and then into continental ice sheets.
I set to work on a science fiction thriller I titled Icequake, setting it in the distant future year of 1985. The first step was research: I found the original article by Wilson, and follow-up articles by him and others. Then I researched the history and present of the Antarctic, right down to the bearskins that the Russians used as doors in their Vostok base.
Via The Independent: F. Scott Fitzgerald's stories to be republished with the sex, drugs and profanities put back in. Excerpt:
The Great Gatsby author F. Scott Fitzgerald's fourth collection of stories are to be re-published with all of the sex, nudity, drug-taking and profanity originally censored by editors of The Saturday Evening Post reinstated.
The author's short stories were written for The Post during the late 1920s and early 1930s and while he was heavily in debt despite his popularity.
The Post, fearing it may upset its middle class readership, removed references to sexual acts, innuendos and nudity, including a scene involving a woman running a bath naked, amending it instead to a fully clothed woman running the water.
Scholar James West has since restored the stories using final drafts to present them in their original form for the latest volume of The Cambridge Edition of the Works of F Scott Fitzgerald.
"Before these stories were bowdlerised, they contained slurs, sexual innuendo, instances of drug use and drunkenness. They also contained profanity and mild blasphemy. The texts were scrubbed clean at The Post," Mr West told The Guardian.
"More generally, in all of the stories, the characters use the profanity, mild blasphemies, and slang words that Fitzgerald wanted them to use. They [the characters] speak like real people," he added.
Credit: The Guardian
Via La Crónica de Hoy in Mexico City: La salud de García Márquez es "muy frágil", informan familiares.[The health of García Márquez is "very fragile," family members say] Excerpt, with my translation:
La esposa del octogenario escritor colombiano Gabriel García Márquez, Mercedes Barcha, y sus hijos Rodrigo y Gonzalo emitieron hoy un comunicado en el que reconocieron que la condición del Nobel de Literatura 1982 es estable pero "muy frágil" y que "existen riesgos de complicaciones" debido a su edad.
The wife of the octogenarian Colombian writer Gabriel García Márquez, Mercedes Barcha, and their sons Rodrigo and Gonzalo today issued a statement in which they said the condition of the 1982 Nobel Laureate is stable but "very fragile," and the "there are risks of complications" owing to his age.
Los familiares del autor de "Cien años de soledad" señalaron que el novelista "sigue y seguirá convaleciendo en su casa" en Ciudad de México después de una reciente hospitalización por un proceso de infección pulmonar y en las vías urinarias.
The family of the author of One Hundred Years of Solitude said the novelist "is convalescing and will remain in his house" in Mexico City after a recent hospitalization for infections in the lungs and urinary tract.
"Su condición es estable aunque se encuentra muy frágil y existen riesgos de complicaciones de acuerdo a su edad (87 años)", enfatizó el comunicado.
"His condition is stable but he is very fragile and there are risks of complications related to his age (87)," the statement said.
Añadió que García Márquez "ha recibido muchísimas muestras de cariño de parte de los amigos y de los medios de comunicación". "La familia agradece estos gestos solidarios y pide que se respete su intimidad", puntualizó el comunicado.
It added that García Márquez "has received very many expressions of affection from friends and through the media. The family is grateful for these and asks that their privacy be respected."
All of Latin America, and much of the rest of the world, will be deeply saddened when Gabo goes. I will be among them. He has always been the Maestro, the writer who dumbfounded all other writers with his perception and storytelling genius.
The Tyee has published my article Three Dystopic Novels for Unpleasant Times. It's a review of Maddaddam by Margaret Atwood, On Such a Full Sea by Chang-Rae Lee, and Shovel Ready by Adam Sternbergh. The introduction:
I used to think that science fiction by "serious" writers was a form of poverty tourism: some famous novelist would jet into our benighted third-world genre, take a guided tour of our slums, snap some photos and go home to make a fortune with a book full of stuff that we natives had already done, and done better.
Reading Northrop Frye set me straight. He could trace the pedigree of science fiction all the way back to Menippus, a Cynic philosopher in the 3rd century B.C. Menippean satire. As Frye described it, it was directed at intellectuals; it was intended to puncture their pretensions, not to entertain the masses. In its modern forms, Frye argued, Menippean satire looks at the world in terms of a single overriding idea: H.G. Wells's invasion from Mars, for example, or Karel Capek's robots.
The overriding idea of an ideal society has been around since St. Thomas More's Utopia, and plenty of modern science fiction writers have followed his example. More was satirizing European Christians by showing them a pagan society more orderly and humane than anything in Christendom.
Later writers, in turn, satirized More by turning him on his head and portraying dystopias -- societies that are appalling perversions of what we say we value. The early Soviet writer Yevgeny Zamyatin, in his dystopian novel We, inspired both Aldous Huxley's Brave New World and George Orwell's Nineteen Eighty-Four.
Preventing the future
Those writers, all intellectuals, were really portraying their own societies' utopian dreams. In fact, they blasted those dreams so thoroughly that straight utopias became almost unwritable (though Huxley gave it a try in his late novel Island). As Ray Bradbury famously said, the purpose of science fiction is not to predict the future, but to prevent it.
Via Buzzfeed: Can You Guess The Classic Novel From Its First Sentence. I scored 13/17, and Buzzfeed correctly guessed I'd majored in English (well, an English major has to be good for something).
Alice Munro has been awarded the Nobel prize in literature, thus becoming its 13th female recipient. It's a thrilling honour for a major writer: Munro has long been recognised in North America and the UK, but the Nobel will draw international attention, not only to women's writing and Canadian writing, but to the short story, Munro's chosen métier and one often overlooked.
Whenever the Nobel is conferred, a deluge of media descends – like the pack of cards cascading on to that other Alice, she of Wonderland – not only on the winner, illuminated in the sudden glare of international publicity like a burglar trapped in headlights, but on every other writer who has known the chosen one. A quote, a reminiscence, an evaluation! Account for it! Why her? they clamour.
Munro herself is unlikely to say much along these lines: Canadians are discouraged from bragging – see the Munro story, Who Do You Think You Are? – so will probably spend much of her time hiding in the figurative tool shed.
We're all slightly furtive, we writers; especially we Canadian writers, and even more especially we Canadian female writers of an earlier generation. "Art is what you can get away with," said Canadian Marshall MacLuhan, and I invite the reader to count how many of the murderers in Munro's stories are ever caught. (Answer: none.) Munro understands the undercover heist that is fiction writing, as well as its pleasures and fears: how delicious to have done it, but what if you get found out?Sometime in the 1970s I met Alice Munro at some literary event in Vancouver, when I was a young college teacher using her short stories in my CanLit course. She was a cheerful, friendly person, and I feel proud to have been in her presence long ago.
Elmore Leonard, the beloved crime novelist whose acclaimed bestsellers and the movies made from them chronicled the violent deaths of many a thug and con man, has died. He was 87.
Leonard, winner of an honorary National Book Award in 2012, died Tuesday morning at his home in Bloomfield Township, a suburb of Detroit, from complications of a stroke, according to his researcher, Gregg Sutter. He was surrounded by family when he died, Sutter said.
His millions of fans, from bellhops to Saul Bellow, made all his books since Glitz (1985) bestsellers. When they flocked to watch John Travolta in the movie version of Get Shorty in 1995, its author became the darling of Hollywood's hippest directors. And book critics and literary lions, prone to dismiss crime novels as mere entertainments, competed for adjectives to praise him.
His more than 40 novels were populated by pathetic schemers, clever con men and casual killers. Each was characterized by moral ambivalence about crime, black humour and wickedly acute depictions of human nature: the greedy dreams of Armand Degas in Killshot, the wisecracking cool of Chili Palmer in Get Shorty, Jack Belmont's lust for notoriety in The Hot Kid.
"When something sounds like writing, I rewrite it," Leonard often said; and critics adored the flawlessly unadorned, colloquial style. As author Ann Arensberg put it in a New York Times book review, "I didn't know it was possible to be as good as Elmore Leonard."
The story is of course all over the media, but I recommend checking with his official website, which already has the news of the death.
As I said in my 2008 appreciation of him, we will not see his like again.
Tributes have been paid to the author Iain Banks, 59, best known for his novels The Wasp Factory and The Crow Road, who has died just two months after announcing he had terminal cancer.
The Scottish writer had announced his illness with trademark dark humour on his website on 3 April, telling fans he was "officially Very Poorly" and had been diagnosed with late stage gall bladder cancer and was unlikely to live for more than a year. He had asked his partner, Adele Hartley, to do him the honour "of becoming my widow", he had added.
In his last update, on 20 May, he had posted that he was considering chemotherapy to prolong his life if doctors felt it was appropriate.
But his condition deteriorated rapidly on Wednesday. In an email to friends, his widow said that he had died peacefully and was in no pain. The couple had been hoping for a few more months together.
His friend and fellow writer, Ken MacLeod, told BBC News: "He was still in good spirits and concentrating on his plans and projects and expecting to have another few months. But his situation took a turn for the worse."
He added: "What Iain brought to his writing was himself. He brought a wonderful combination of the dark and the light side of life, and he explored them both without flinching.
"He left us a very significant body of work both in mainstream literature and in science fiction. And he left a large gap in the Scottish literary scene as well as that of the wider English-speaking world."
Neil Gaiman, also a close friend of Banks, tweeted: "Iain Banks is dead. I'm crying in an empty house. A good man and a friend for almost 30 years."
Banks, an honorary associate of the National Secular Society, will have a very small, humanist funeral. He had selected a dozen people to attend the short ceremony. An informal memorial gathering will be held at a later date.
Banks, who wrote science fiction under the name Iain M Banks, published The Wasp Factory, his first novel, in 1984. It was ranked as one of the best 100 books of the 20th century in a 1997 poll conducted by Waterstone's and Channel 4. In 2008, Banks was named one of the 50 greatest British writers since 1945 in a list compiled by the Times. In all he wrote more than two dozen novels.
Jack Vance, who has died aged 96, was a writer of science fiction and high epic fantasy whose work was oddly at variance with the journeyman genre in which it first appeared. His prose – detailed, exotic, resonant of feelings, sounds and fragrances – soared well above the requirements of the genre; he described alien landscapes with bizarre and inventive energy in language that was ambitious, wordy, sometimes lurid, always bold.
One of his best-known titles, The Dying Earth, began as a collection of short stories in 1950 and eventually expanded to become a whole series of books set in a far-off future in which the sun is slowly going out, and technology and magic coexist.
His output was vast: he published more than 60 books, some under pseudonyms, among them 11 mystery novels, three of them as Ellery Queen. In addition, he wrote some of the first, and perhaps best, examples of "planetary adventures".
He, along with Edgar Rice Burroughs in the early years of the 20th century, and his contemporaries Leigh Brackett, Philip José Farmer and Edmond Hamilton, helped to create the idiom, and his novel Big Planet (which first appeared in a magazine in 1952, and was subsequently revised and expanded) is probably his best of this kind.Over 60 years later, I still remember reading Big Planet in Startling Stories, a pulp SF magazine, and the name of its hero, Claude Glystra—who had the "pushbutton rasp of authority" in his voice when he needed it. When a writer can make that kind of impression on a young reader, that's the kind of quiet success few of us ever achieve.
The Great Gatsby seems insubstantial: a string of parties and social meetings in the summer of 1922, stitched together with train trips and car rides between New York City and the Long Island suburbs of East and West Egg. Most of the characters are in their late 20s or early 30s, the last generation born in the 19th century but very much at home in the 20th. It deals with some love affairs, and a little violence. The story is just 182 pages long.
F. Scott Fitzgerald was just 29 when he published it in 1925, and already the famous author of two earlier novels and dozens of stories and articles. Toward the end of his short life (he died of heart failure in 1940, at 44), he regretted that he had not followed Gatsby with a string of similar books. Instead he veered off into projects that took years (like Tender is the Night). Then, when they appeared in the 1930s, they seemed like warmed-over 1920s. Then he struggled to make money in Hollywood to support his insane wife in a sanitarium and to put their daughter through college.
Actually, it's hard to imagine a novel that could have topped Gatsby. Scott Fitzgerald made The Great Gatsby into a kind of MRI scan of 1920s America, exposing countless social tumours and lesions that remain unhealed almost a century later.


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Flood warning & Flash Flood Warnings for much of region this evening | Hurricane Tracking Center
Latest on road closures and traffic impacts: Dr. Gridlock
11:10 p.m. update: Rain should let up after around 3 a.m., but plan for plenty of flooding issues in the morning except for Loudoun and northern Prince William counties and points west (the rain looks to continue missing those areas to the east). See map below for the exact areas covered by Flash Flood Warnings, and follow the latest updates in our live Twitter feed above. More showers tomorrow but shouldn't be nearly as heavy. Phew.
10:40 p.m. update: Flash Flood Warnings extended east to include Prince George's, Anne Arundel, northwestern Calvert, eastern Charles, northwestern St. Mary's and southeastern Baltimore counties until 4:30 a.m. Pretty much the entire eastern two-thirds of the metro area is under a Flash Flood Warning. Not included is Frederick, western Montgomery, western Fairfax, Prince William and Stafford counties and points west.
10:15 p.m. update: Flash Flood Warnings now stretch from King George County in Virginia all the way north through D.C. and north/northeast past Baltimore. A steady south-to-north stream of often heavy rain covers the warned area. Extreme rainfall rates of 1-2"/hr or a little more are possible across these areas. Flooding is likely so be very careful if you have to be out. Never try to cross a flooded road. Some good news - no Tornado Warnings are currently in effect.
Monitor severe warnings issued by the National Weather Service and radar on our Severe Weather Tracking Station below. Also, comment below with conditions where you are.
9:20 p.m. update: A train of moderate to heavy rain is moving south to north through the heart of the metro area and has prompted a Flash Flood Warning until midnight for most areas inside the Beltway including the District, and southward through Alexandria, Falls Church, Arlington, and eastern Fairfax and western Charles counties. Rain rates of 1-2"/hr are possible in these areas, which is likely to cause some flooding. Meanwhile, to the south, a Tornado Warning is in effect until 9:45 p.m. for eastern Charles and northwestern St. Mary's counties. Follow the latest developments in our live update feed above. [9:50 p.m.: TORNADO WARNING until 10:15 p.m. for southeast Prince George's, northeast Charles and northwest St. Mary's counties.]
8:15 p.m. update: More rain has arrived from the south across much of the area, while a t'storm cell possibly containing a tornado has been passing north through central St. Mary's and southern Calvert counties. As this latest batch of rain passes through, watch out for more flooding, especially re-flooding of roads that flooded earlier today. If you are out and about, be mindful that it's hard to see flooding in front of you at night. When in doubt, turn around don't drown.
5:25 p.m. update: Radar shows more narrow bands of heavy showers and thunderstorms developing to the south. Especially along and east of I-95, periods of heavy rainy and flash flooding may resume. Even to the west of the heaviest rain, creeks and streams are rising and a flood warning has been posted for a large part of the region through 11:15 p.m.
From 3:30 p.m.: What a morning into early afternoon! Hope you like rain, and you've dodged all the inconveniences, including some significant flash flooding across the area. The good news is the big batch of precipitation that's tormented the area has headed north, but the runoff will continue, and more activity is likely to pass through as the big area of low pressure continues to spin to our west. At least temperatures remain "cool," with muggy highs only near 70 most spots.
Through Tonight: Additional waves of showers and heavy rain mixed with thunder are likely during the evening and overnight, especially along and east of I-95. There's even a slight risk of severe weather before dark. It won't rain all the time, and most activity probably won't be as intense or widespread as earlier, but heavy rainfall rates remain possible as well "training" (showers repeatedly passing over the same area). Any additional rain will only exacerbate current flooding issues. Lows are pretty similar to evening temperatures, mainly upper 60s to near 70.
Remember: turn around, don't drown. This is particularly important at night when judging water depth is nearly impossible.
Tomorrow (Thursday): More periods of rain, some heavy, are possible throughout the day. The heaviest activity may tend to focus in the northeast section of the area (think Potomac river and east/north) as low pressure lingers. Totals are probably not as intense as today, but another 1-2"+ is possible in places which see the most rain. Highs should reach the mid-70s to near 80, depending on sunshine or lack thereof.
See Dan Stillman's forecast through the weekend. And if you haven't already, join us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter .
Tropics: Besides the remnants of Lee that we're dealing with locally, the tropics remain quite active. Hurricane Katia's winds are now down to 85 mph as it begins its curve back out to sea between the U.S. and Bermuda. Maria is struggling on its trek westward through the open Atlantic and it is now expected to remain a tropical storm through the next five days, but it will need to be watched as it heads west toward the southeast U.S. coast. Another disturbance in the Bay of Campeche remains relatively unorganized, though computer guidance suggests it will become Nate and eventually impact someone from northern Mexico toward the central Gulf coast, perhaps as a hurricane.


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#06 Sheer Back Topper by Margeau Soboti
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© Vogue Knitting
© nonconformknits
© summerbreezetoo
© mananachile
© nonconformknits
#06 Sheer Back Topper
Errata available: vogueknitting.com
Soboti's tee sports an exposed seam down the front and openwork in a contrast color on the flip side, courtesy of a sheer fagoting pattern. The sherbet-hued confection is knit with "Serena," a soft alpaca/cotton blend from Manos del Uruguay/Fairmount Fibers.
For more information, see: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7q9AdbjLWuM&list=PLz...


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Truly CherokeeModel Female Charlotte, North Carolina, US
My Website: Truly CherokeeMy MM URL: http://www.modelmayhem.com/ccintheqc
Mayhem # 711193
About Me
I love photography. I have loved it since I was a little girl. Only as I've grown I've started to crave it. It has become a passion of mine; creating images that speak to those who view them. Evoking emotion through sight; speaking volumes, silently.
What do my photographs say to you? How do they make you feel? Want to create with me? FABULOUS! Then please read on...
First, it's TRUE! Cherokee is my real name. I am part German and Scottish with a splash of American Indian. Would you like to guess which American Indian tribe?
I LOVE to travel and will gladly travel for work. By air, land or sea; doesn't matter. Will ALWAYS consider working for paid travel, in and of itself! Especially now that I have a PASSPORT! WOOO-HOOOO!!!!
I smile and laugh a LOT while shooting. Thankfully, when needed, I can easily switch from laughter and smiles to serious and angsty in a matter of seconds.
I like to keep my photos in the "PG-13" arena. For a somewhat solid definition visit: http://www.mpaa.org/FlmRat_Ratings.asp
Also, my belly button is pierced. My hair is real. If a MUA was used for a photo, it is noted. Otherwise, it is work of my own.
Rates vary depending on assignment. Yes, I said "rates". I have become a little selective about TF* but can be sold on it. Typically with gas money, clothes, shoes, paid travel to groovy (yeah, I said "groovy") destinations...
I want to make sure you get the images you are visualizing in that beautifully creative mind of yours! With that said, OUR time is valuable. If we BOOK a shoot, I WILL be there and ready to work! I consider confirming a day, time, location, pay rate/TF* agreement AND expectations as a booking.
Stop by for a visit...
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Cherokee- … 0002983091
Have you worked with Truly Cherokee? Add Credits for Truly Cherokee! >>
Credit Notes
I suppose you could also call this a list of references... a few of the photographers I have worked with on MM are:
Your Best Pix #1777072
Darren Casses #370022
V David Clements Photography #643334
Modstudios #425304
Ryan David Photo #4953
Feel free to contact them or any of the photographers, MUA's etc. listed in the photo credits in my portfolio. It's all good!
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Stocks cheap, firms strong, so is it time to buy?
Related topics
If a cashed-up billionaire like Warren Buffett goes on a shopping spree, he might evaluate a takeover target by comparing its share price to its core earnings.
And after the recent sell-off, this measure of value and others suggest it is a very good time to buy, both in the US and in Hong Kong.
Locally, the 46 member-companies of the Hang Seng Index are trading at 6.13 times this year's forecasted earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (ebitda). That is the cheapest local stocks have been in the 19 years Bloomberg has tracked this data - slightly below the benchmark index's 6.66 price-to-ebitda ratio for all of 2008.
Indeed, value is emerging globally. New York's S&P 500 index is priced at 5.5 times 2011 ebitda, slightly above its 2008 low of 4.94 times. So buying is exactly what Buffett is doing. Over the weekend, Berkshire Hathaway made an unsolicited US$3.25 billion all-cash bid for New York-listed insurer Transatlantic Holdings. Even before the recent sell-down, valuations were looking attractive. Berkshire spent US$3.62 billion in the second quarter investing in stocks, the most in almost three years.
It is not only that stocks look cheap. If the bears are right - and the developed world is indeed heading for a double-dip recession - companies look much better positioned this time around. This is especially true in Hong Kong, where Hang Seng Index firms boast increasingly robust balance sheets.
From a low point of almost HK$8,000 in net debt per share on average in 2006, the index companies have slashed loans and other liabilities progressively since the financial crisis, and currently sit on nearly HK$3,000 per share in net cash on average, according to Bloomberg data. So companies are better capitalised to ride out a storm. But what if there isn't one?
On average, analysts are forecasting benchmark index companies to see sales growth per share of 4.3 per cent this year and 10.1 per cent next year. Profit is expected to outpace sales, given most firms have improved their operating leverage in the three years since the outbreak of the financial crisis.
Analysts expect the Hang Seng Index to achieve an 11.2 per cent rise in average earnings per share this year, and growth of 13.5 per cent next year. Those projections may have to be slashed if the global economy slumps in the coming months. And markets may well slump further.
Regardless, investors are in for a rough ride in the near term. The Hang Seng Volatility Index yesterday jumped to 51.97 points - its highest level since the market hit a post-crisis bottom in March 2009.
But if a double-dip downturn is imminent, local firms are likely to prove much better swimmers the second time around.
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Phil Charters
Phil Charters (11/05/1958 / Australia)
» Click to list general statistics » OR, select a date :
Let There Be Hope
Boats afloat,
across an ocean moat
Sailing away,
a tyrants torment
read more >>
- Hits: Number of visitors who read the poem on the given date.
- Posts: Number of visitors who posted the poem to a friend (via e-mail) on the given date.
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09192033, Cluster
Please help our community — upload your photos of 09192033.
This is a cluster for Cadillac cars. This cluster fits 1 General Motors car models which have been manufactured for US market. This part is genuine General Motors part with GM OEM part number 09192033.
This cluster has manufacturer's warranty and 100% fits for General Motors cars. Cluster is made of top quality materials, it passed not only all manufacturer's tests but also General Motors quality control and, has to endure rough road conditions over a long time.
In spite of higher price of genuine parts buying GM genuine cluster will be a smart decision, because you will be absolutely sure that GM genuine cluster will serve you longer and will provide maximum safety and performance.
Gage (includes tachometer, speed, fuel temp) (**vpi 1-877-846-8243) (from vehicle identification number xr097037 and up) (first design 90541318)
Browse to find other vehicles 09192033 cluster fits
Parts related to 09192033 cluster:
- Cluster 09105059
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Dean Markley Helix HD SS Bass Guitar StringsProduct #H81597 Dean Markley H81597 LABAAC .045 Gauge Electric Bass Guitar Strings https://www.esnapw.com/rses/ESnapServlet?MerchantNumberSent=63655
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45 day price guarantee, 45 day return policy, 100% secure shopping
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This product has been discontinued but may be available as a Open Box item.
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Unforgettable tone and advanced engineering from Dean Markley.
The Helix SS Bass Guitar Strings are the latest addition to the Dean Markley family of legendary quality and innovation. Stainless steel alloy has an inherent bright and cutting timbre to it. It gives the strings an unforgettable "stainless" tone. Something you need to play to really understand.
Helix SS bass guitar strings feature the Hyper Elliptical Windings (compressed from side to side), which gives Helix more mass and tone, as well as extended life. This Hyper Elliptical winding is what gives Helix a more relaxed feel, with a lot less squeak and sliding noises than normal strings.
Gauges .045, .065, .085 and .105
You have to hear them to believe it. Order now!


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DIY: Taking your headlight apart (excludes facelift coupes)
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Registered User
Join Date: Aug 2007
Location: Brisbane, Australia
Posts: 7
My Ride: BMW e46 323i Manual.
View My Garage
That is pretty much what I did when I updated my 323i with a set of 325ci/330ci xenons i bought on ebay for only $200, for the pair. Had to pull both apart to fit the xenon assemblies in my non-xenon housing, due to the coupe different to the sedan. Had to make a slight adjustment with the igniter not fitting in properly but all good. Took me awhile to figure it out, if only this was here when I did it.
Oh I put my black internals back in my headlight assembly, I'm not sure what colour the ones out of the coupe were, I'll have a look on the weekend.
However the problem I have is the when the headlights are off there is an error saying my headlights are blown in the insturment cluster, this is probably because the xenon ballast/igniter is acting like an open circuit when the headlights are switched off. I have heard that I can take it to a BMW dealer to fix the problem, but apparently I loose my insides lights for highbeam, and they are only then used for flashing. And the fact they will probably charge me more then enough to plug something in and press a couple of buttons. Or put something across it to make it look like a short when the headlights are off? I saw something on ebay once to fix the problem but missed it, now they never seem to be on there.
Also, they are bi-xenon headlights, which I'd like to connect up. Can I just wire a relay into the high beam circuit, like you would if you were connecting aftermarket spotlights to your car?
Also does anybody know where to buy the plugs from??? So it kinda looks like a factory install.
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Welcome to Harvey's Home of the Original Seatbeltbag
This is my third seatbelt bag and I couldn't be happier. It is quite the head turner and garners lots of compliments. Sturdy, practical yet oh-so-hip. After all, you don't want to look like a total nerd using the wireless connection in the lobby of the Chateau Marmont.


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Loon Boompole Loon with Strait Cable 16' GraphiteSLOON17
Loon Boompole Loon with Strait Cable 16' GraphiteSLOON17
The Loon Boom - the finest of Loon Audio's boom poles - The Loon Boom is offered in three different packages. 1. Basic Boom- This Loon includes a BaseMate, TogLoc, CareKit, Field Kit, and Hat. 2. Basic Boom with Straight Cable. 3. Basic Boom with Coiled+Wing. Loon Audio is proud to offer a boom pole with the latest Patent Pending technology and enhanced features that allow boom operators to confidently capture pure sound. Our graphite is significantly lighter than the conventional boom without sacrificing durability or stiffness. This allows for improved agility during rapid cuing. Boom operators can manipulate this feather light pole from point to point because of our critical design features. We are confident you will immediately understand why Loon Audio is excited for the Loon Boom to become a reliable tool for your professional needs. Please explore the details that separate the Loon Boom and its performance from the conventional boom. TogLoc -- The light weight TogLoc microphone connector makes use of our Patent Pending technology that allows for a safe and secure connection. When the collar is tightened it forces the internal collet into a dual cone shape. This deformation creates such a secure connection that it resists several hundred pounds of pull out force. This, dual conical, locking system also creates a very quiet connection. The TogLoc microphone connector is easy to remove simply be loosening the collar three turns. This allows the collet to return to its natural state allowing TogLocs to be removed or inserted. Dual Locking System -- In developing the Loon Boom collar system we made it a goal to separate ourselves from the conventional boom and offer performance enhancing features. First, our collars provide a comfortable grip coupled with only a quarter turn release. Secondly, we paid particular attention to creating a secure and quiet connection in each joint. Below is a description of our collar and joint connection. Collars: Each point of the collar is geometrically designed for a purpose both internally and externally. The rectangular bars on the exterior provide substantial grip without being excessively coarse. The internal geometry is designed to activate our Dual Locking system when tightening the collar. Every collar is O-Ring sealed to protect against grime. We have also designed the geometry of the collars and collets to resist breaking loose even when the adjacent graphite tubes are twisted. Joint Connection: Our firm and quiet connection is a result of having two separate collets lock each joint verses the conventional method of just one. First, when the collar is tightened it couples with angles of the collet to create one connection. Second, the collar simultaneously activates another collet system located at the tail end of the internal graphite tube. This creates an extremely secure and quiet connection. It is through this Patent Pending system that Loon Audio is able to offer the next generation of booms. Graphite -- The carbon fibers used in our Loon Boom pole employ a proprietary matrix that took over three years to achieve. This matrix permits our graphite tubes to be exceptionally light, durable and rigid. Accomplishing these three features, simultaneously, is unprecedented. We utilize unique manufacturing techniques in combination with select materials to achieve this arduous task. All Loon Booms have six graphite sections. We customized each section with different strength to weight ratios to suite its purpose at its particular location on the pole. For example, the top three sections, located toward the microphone, are modified to be lighter and more durable. This alteration creates a more responsive boom for the operator. Do not confuse the static weight of a boom pole with the dynamic response that you will appreciate with the Loon Boom. Additionally, we reinforced the tail end of all six sections for increased support and durability. This Patent Pending feature provides extra rigidity at every joint on all of our booms. Our graphite elevates the performance of the Loon Boom to an entirely new level. Once you feel a Loon Boom you will experience an agility and responsiveness that will bring a smile to your face.
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Lowry-Dunham, Case & Vivien
Low Rates, Local Agents and Complete Peace of Mind.
Get A Quote
Rest Easy Knowing YourBusiness is Protected.
Get a Life Insurance Quoteand Provide Security for Yearsto Come.
Offer Your EmployeesBetter Benefits.
We were founded in 1901 when the Northshore was a healthful escape from the Big Easy. Since that time, the Northshore has grown and so have we, but our goal remains the same: to provide professional, sound insurance services to the hard working people of our community. With a staff of over 20 associates, and one of Louisiana's most highly automated insurance offices, we stay abreast of trends in our industry.
Our associates and support staff strive to make your pursuit of reliable and affordable insurance coverage as easy as possible. We invest a great deal of time in getting to know you so we can devise an insurance program that will most effectively match your needs. Yes, in 1901 the bulk of our business centered on lumber, brickmaking and houses, but now we insure almost any exposure, almost anywhere.


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Mental Health
Have Mental Health Questions? Ask a Psychiatrist Online
Hi Joanna,
Habits that don't go away typically serve a purpose (which is why they come back over and over).
Depending on what the habit is, I may be able to give you some pointers as to how to work through it.
Is it something you can share with me? Or at least give me a general idea of what it is?
Thank you for telling me - it helps me to help you :-)
A few more questions - if you don't do this - what happens? What do you think and what do you feel?
And has there ever been a time that you stopped doing it?
Thanks for this additional information.
People can become 'addicted' in a very loose sense to thoughts, feelings or behaviors for a few reasons: but in every case - it serves a purpose.
It seems this behavior is where you focus all of your attention in order to deal with feelings. Not just bad feelings - but good feelings as well. It's just like you said - you can't relax until you've cleared it out. But the catch - is that you see it as needing to clear out your eye - when the trigger is actually the feeling. Does that make sense? The "problem" isn't your eye - the problem is your feelings - your emotional feelings. Basically, you are taking all of your feelings and funneling them into your eye. You don't have to deal with feelings while you are focused on your eye.
This cycle can become obsessive - where you might think about it a lot or compulsive- where you can't stop yourself from doing it or feel very uncomfortable if you don't satisfy your urge to do it.
In order to stop the behavior, you have to address the underlying issue.
You said you went to a life coach - have you considered seeing a therapist? A therapist would be the professional of choice to see to fully address this issue.
Keep in mind that any behavior that repeats itself - no matter how undesireable on your part is serving a purpose (otherwise - if it were useless to you - it would go away).
Find a PhD or PsyD Psychologist with whom you really have a connection - someone you really like - and trust, who works with this thought-feeling-behavior cycle.
This is actually an easily treatable issue - in person. It's just a matter of finding out your triggers (emotions - like you stated, or whatever else triggers your desire) and replacing that with constructive emotional (or ___ ) responses.
Hope this helps!
Feel free to ask as many questions as you want - we can continue to discuss this - for days, if you want...
I think you can see PhD's or PsyD's (or the equivilant) through the NHS - but I am not positive - I am in the US, and we don't have that here... but I am sure you could easily find out - don't you think?
Can you ask your regular MD for a referral?
Good. I hope you can find someone easily!
Here is the US, there is no free medical care at all- we have to pay for insurance through our jobs (not everyone has to offer it though) and if you don't have a job like that - insurance is barely affordable.
Insurance pays for about half of what the doctor charges - sometimes a little more.
Insurance does pay for some mental health care - but they limit how many times you can go.
It's a frustrating system as we hear about people who need insurance to pay for some life saving treatment and they refuse... and sometimes people can't afford to pay out of pocket... our givernment has been considering starting a NHS because we have so many people who are not insured and can't afford medical care. Some people are really for it and some say it will take the money out of Dr's pockets.
I have a brother in law who is a radiologist and makes over $1 million USD a year - his salary would be cut - greatly! So of course he's not interested...
I think it would be nice - but do hear that appointments are hard to get quickly...
I understand... let me know what you find out.
It's about 3:30 in the morning here... and I am going to bed now. Email me tomorrow and let me know what you found out!
Sorry! I was so tired.... so where were we? You were going to check into whether or not you could see a psychologist - any luck with that so far?
Thanks, XXXXX XXXXX was great - how about yours?
Can you call your GP today and ask?
I am just hoping you can get a referral to a Psychologist nearby. Is that a possibility?
Okay -- let me know...
Hi Jo!!
My weekend was great - how was yours?
Start with the surgery's counselors and if you don't really connect with the first person - see if there is someone else.... go through all of them if you have to - but find someone who (1) you really like and connect with and (2) is helping.
Nancy :-)
Great! Let me know how it goes!