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Do Americans Have What It Takes to Stand Up to Corporate Power, and Does Wisconsin Offer Hope?
by Susan Warner, Senior Editor, Chelsea Green Publishing
In December 2009, Bruce Levine penned a provocative article on AlterNet entitled "Are Americans a Broken People?" The piece touched a nerve among those who identify themselves as progressive, libertarian, or populist and quickly went viral across the Web. Many respondents and media members who later interviewed Levine wondered why so many Americans have remained passive in the face of attacks on their liberties and their economic well-being.
In his latest book, Get Up, Stand Up: Uniting Populists, Energizing the Defeated, and Battling the Corporate Elite, Levine has delved deeper into the cultural forces that have created a politically passive U.S. population. He questions whether "learned helplessness" has taken hold, keeping many Americans locked into an abuse syndrome of sorts. And most importantly, he suggests what can be done to turn this demoralization around. We chatted about his book and some recent efforts by Americans to in fact "get up and stand up."
Susan Warner: If the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq are so unpopular, why aren't people protesting more?
Bruce Levine: Most Americans feel they have no power over whether or not the U.S. invades another nation or for how long it will be occupied. Many Americans know that their government is run by "corporate collaborators" who don't pay attention to their opinions on wars and other big-money issues that large corporations care about. So although polls show the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq have become increasingly unpopular—a clear majority of Americans now oppose them—fewer people are protesting against them.
Actually, more protests occurred against these wars when they were more popular. Remember back in February 2003, when many Americans still believed the U.S. government's "weapons of mass destruction" rationale for the invasion of Iraq? Even though the invasion was a more popular idea back then, there were many large demonstrations against the then-imminent war, including 500,000 protesting in New York City. Even larger protests took place in Europe, with a London protest of more than 2 million, the largest demonstration ever there. But Americans' voices and the voices of the people of Great Britain, our junior partner in the Iraq invasion, were of little concern to politicians.
Americans got the message. Their opinion may matter on issues such as abortion and same-sex marriage or other issues that the corporate-government partnership—or the "corporatocracy"—doesn't care about, but their opinion is ignored when it comes to issues where real money is involved, such as wars and the Wall Street bailout.
SW: What can you say to frustrated anti-war activists?
BL: Anti-war activists—and other activists—routinely become frustrated when truths about lies, victimization, and oppression don't set people free to take action. But as a psychologist who has worked with abused people for more than 25 years, it does not surprise me to see that when we as individuals or a society eat crap for too long, we gradually lose our self-respect to the point that we become psychologically too weak to take action.
Other observers of subjugated societies have recognized this phenomenon. Paulo Freire, the Brazilian educator and author of Pedagogy of the Oppressed, understood this reality, and so did Bob Marley, who is sort of the poet laureate of oppressed people of the world. Many Americans are embarrassed to accept that we, too, after years of domestic corporatocracy subjugation, have developed what Marley calls "mental slavery." But unless we acknowledge that reality, we won't begin to heal from what I call "battered people's syndrome" and "corporatocracy abuse." In Get Up, Stand Up I explain how this can be done, including how people let go of the fear of resistance.
Continue reading this interview on Alternet.
Bruce Levine's Get Up, Stand Up is available for preorder now, and will ship in late March.


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The Autocrat of the Breakfast-Table
By Oliver Wendell Holmes
1858, 1891
[ILLUSTRATION: Chapter 2 half-title]
I REALLY believe some people save their bright thoughts, as being too precious for conversation. What do you think an admiring friend said the other day to one that was talking good things,--good enough to print? "Why," said he, "you are wasting merchantable literature, a cash article, at the rate, as nearly as I can tell, of fifty dollars an hour." The talker took him to the window and asked him to look out and tell what he saw.
"Nothing but a very dusty street," he said, "and a man driving a sprinkling-machine through it."
"Why don't you tell the man he is wasting that water? What would be the state of the highways of life, if we did not drive our thought-sprinklers through them with the valves open, sometimes?
"Besides, there is another thing about this talking, which you forget. It shapes our thoughts for us;--the waves of conversation roll them as the surf rolls the pebbles on the shore. Let me modify the image a little. I rough out my thoughts in talk as an artist models in clay. Spoken language is so plastic, you can pat and coax, and spread and shave, and rub out, and fill up, and stick on so easily, when you work that soft material, that there is nothing like it for modelling. Out of it come the shapes which you turn into marble or bronze in your immortal books, if you happen to write such. Or, to use another illustration, writing or printing is like shooting with a rifle; you may hit your reader's mind, or miss it;--but talking is like playing at a mark with the pipe of an engine; if it is within reach, and you have time enough, you can't help hitting it."
The company agreed that this last illustration was of superior excellence, or, in the phrase used by them, "Fust-rate." I acknowledged the compliment, but gently rebuked the expression. "Fust-rate," "prime," "a prime article," "a superior piece of goods," "a handsome garment," "a gent in a flowered vest,"--all such expressions are final. They blast the lineage of him or her who utters them, for generations up and down. There is one other phrase which will soon come to be decisive of a man's social status, if it is not already: "That tells the whole story." It is an expression which vulgar and conceited people particularly affect, and which well-meaning Ones, who know better, catch from them. It is intended to stop all debate, like the previous question in the General Court. Only it doesn't; simply because it does not usually tell the whole, nor one half of the whole story.
----It is an odd idea, that almost all our people have had a professional education. To become a doctor a man must study some three years and hear a thousand lectures, more or less. Just how much study it takes to make a lawyer I cannot say, but probably not more than this. Now most decent people hear one hundred lectures or sermons (discourses) on theology every year,--and this, twenty, thirty, fifty years together. They read a great many religious books besides. The clergy, however, rarely hear any sermons except what they preach themselves. A dull preacher might be conceived, therefore, to lapse into a state of quasi heathenism, simply for want of religious instruction. And on the other hand, an attentive and intelligent hearer, listening to a succession of wise teachers, might become actually better educated in theology than any one of them. We are all theological students, and more of us qualified as doctors of divinity than have received degrees at any of the universities.
It is not strange, therefore, that very good people should often find it difficult, if not impossible, to keep their attention fixed upon a sermon treating feebly a subject which they have thought vigorously about for years, and heard able men discuss scores of times. I have often noticed, however, that a hopelessly dull discourse acts inductively, as electricians would say, in developing strong mental currents. I am ashamed to think with what accompaniments and variations and fioriture I have sometimes followed the droning of a heavy speaker,--not willingly,--for my habit is reverential,--but as a necessary result of a slight continuous impression on the senses and the mind, which kept both in action without furnishing the food they required to work upon. If you ever saw a crow with a king-bird after him, you will get an image of a dull speaker and a lively listener. The bird in sable plumage flaps heavily along his straight-forward course, while the other sails round him, over him, under him, leaves him, comes back again, tweaks out a black feather, shoots away once more, never losing sight of him, and finally reaches the crow's perch at the same time the crow does, having cut a perfect labyrinth of loops and knots and spirals while the slow fowl was painfully working from one end of his straight line to the other.
[I think these remarks were received rather coolly. A temporary boarder from the country, consisting of a somewhat more than middle-aged female, with a parchment forehead and a dry little "frisette" shingling if, a sallow neck with a necklace of gold beads, a black dress too rusty for recent grief and contours in basso-rilievo, left the table prematurely, and was reported to have been very virulent about what I said. So I went to my good old minister, and repeated the remarks, as nearly as I could remember them, to him. He laughed good-naturedly, and said there was considerable truth in them. He thought he could tell when people's minds were wandering, by their looks. In the earlier years of his ministry he had sometimes noticed this, when he was preaching;--very little of late years. Sometimes, when his colleague was preaching, he observed this kind of inattention; but after all, it was not so very unnatural. I will say, by the way, that it is a rule I have long followed, to tell my worst thoughts to my minister, and my best thoughts to the young people I talk with.]
----I want to make a literary confession now, which I believe nobody has made before me. You know very well that I write verses sometimes, because I have read some of them at this table. (The company assented,--two or three of them in a resigned sort of way, as I thought, as if they supposed I had an epic in my pocket, and was going to read half a dozen books or so for their benefit.)--I continued. Of course I write some lines or passages which are better than others; some which, compared with the others, might be called relatively excellent. It is in the nature of things that I should consider these relatively excellent lines or passages as absolutely good. So much must be pardoned to humanity. Now I never wrote a "good"line in my life, but the moment after it was written it seemed a hundred years old. Very commonly I had a sudden conviction that I had seen it somewhere. Possibly I may have sometimes unconsciously stolen it, but I do not remember that I ever once detected any historical truth in these sudden convictions of the antiquity of my new thought or phrase. I have learned utterly to distrust them, and never allow them to bully me out of a thought or line.
This is the philosophy of it. (Here the number of the company was diminished by a small secession.) Any new formula which suddenly emerges in our consciousness has its roots in long trains of thought; it is virtually old when it first makes its appearance among the recognized growths of our intellect. Any crystalline group of musical words has had a long and still period to form in. Here is one theory.
But there is a larger law which perhaps comprehends these facts. It is this. The rapidity with which ideas grow old in our memories is in a direct ratio to tbe squares of their importance. Their apparent age runs up miraculously, like the value of diamonds, as they increase in magnitude. A great calamity, for. instance, is as old as the trilobites an hour after it has happened. It stains backward through all the leaves we have turned over in the book of life, before its blot of tears or of blood is dry on the page we are turning. For this we seem to have lived; it was foreshadowed in dreams that we leaped out of in the cold sweat of terror; in the "dissolving views" of dark day-visions; all omens pointed to it; all paths led to it. After the tossing half-forgetfulness of the first sleep that follows such an event, it comes upon us afresh, as a surprise, at waking; in a few moments it is old again,--old as eternity.
[ILLUSTRATION: The Schoolmistress]
[I wish I had not said all this then and there. I might have known better. The pale schoolmistress, in her mourning dress, was looking at me, as I noticed, with a wild sort of expression. All at once the blood dropped out of her cheeks as the mercury drops from a broken barometer-tube, and she melted away from her seat like an image of snow; a slung-shot could not have brought her down better. God forgive me!
After this little episode, I continued, to some few that remained balancing teaspoons on the edges of cups, twirling knives, or tilting upon the hind legs of their chairs until their heads reached the wall, where they left gratuitous advertisements of various popular cosmetics.]
When a person is suddenly thrust into any strange, new position of trial, he finds the place fits him as if he had been measured for it. He has committed a great crime, for instance, and is sent to the State Prison. The traditions, prcscriptions, limitations, privileges, all the sharp conditions of his new life, stamp themselves upon his consciousness as the signet on soft wax;--a single pressure is enough. Let me strengthen the image a little. Did you ever happen to see that most soft-spoken and velvet-handed steam-engine at the Mint? The smooth piston slides backward and forward as a lady might slip her delicate finger in and out of a ring. The engine lays one of its fingers calmly, but firmly, upon a bit of metal; it is a coin now, and will remember that touch, and tell a new race about it, when the date upon it is crusted over with twenty centuries. So it is that a great silent-moving misery puts a new stamp on us in an hour or a moment,--as sharp an impression as if it had taken half a lifetime to engrave it.
It is awful to be in the hands of the wholesale professional dealers in misfortune; undertakers and jailers magnetize you in a moment, and you pass out of the individual life you were living into the rhythmical movements of their horrible machinery. Do the worst thing you can, or suffer the worst that can be thought of, you find yourself in a category of humanity that stretches back as far as Cain, and with an expert at your elbow who has studied your case all out beforehand, and is waiting for you with his implements of hemp or mahogany. I believe, if a man were to be burned in any of our cities tomorrow for heresy, there would be found a master of ceremonies that knew just how many fagots were necessary, and the best way of arranging the whole matter. [9]
So we have not won the Goodwood cup; au contraire, we were a "bad fifth," if not worse than that; and trying it again, and the third time, has not yet bettered the matter. Now I am as patriotic as any of my fellow-citizens,--too patriotic in fact, for I have got into hot water by loving too much of my country; in short, if any man, whose fighting weight is not more than eight stone four pounds, disputes it, I am ready to discuss the point with him. I should have gloried to see the stars and stripes in front at the finish. I love my country, and I love horses. Stubbs's old mezzotint of Eclipse hangs over my desk, and Herring's portrait of Plenipotentiary,--whom I saw run at Epsom,--over my fireplace. Did I not elope from school to see Revenge, and Prospect, and Little John, and Peacemaker run over the race-course where now yon suburban village flourishes, in the year eighteen hundred and ever-so-few? Though I never owned a horse, have I not been the proprietor of six equine females, of which one was the prettiest little "Morgin" that ever stepped? Listen, then, to an opinion I have often expressed long before this venture of ours in England. Horse-racing is not a republican institution; horse-trotting is. Only very rich persons can keep race-horses, and everybody knows they are kept mainly as gambling implements. All that matter about blood and speed we wont discuss; we understand all that; useful, very,--of course,--great obligations to the Godolphin "Arabian," and the rest. I say racing horses are essentially gambling implements, as much as roulette tables. Now I am not preaching at this moment; I may read you one of my sermons some other morning; but I maintain that gambling, on the great scale, is not republican. It belongs to two phases of society,--a cankered over-civilization, such as exists in rich aristocracies, and the reckless life of borderers and adventurers, or the semi-barbarism of a civilization resolved into its primitive elements. Real Republicanism is stern and severe; its essence is not in forms of government, but in the omnipotence of public opinion which grows out of it. This public opinion cannot prevent gambling with dice or stocks, but it can and does compel it to keep comparatively quiet. But horse-racing is the most public way of gambling; and with all its immense attractions to the sense and the feelings,--to which I plead very susceptible,--the disguise is too thin that covers it, and everybody knows what it means. Its supporters are the Southern gentry,--fine fellows, no doubt, but not republicans exactly, as we understand the term,--a few Northern millionnaires more or less thoroughly millioned, who do not represent the real people, and the mob of sporting men, the best of whom are commonly idlers, and the worst very bad neighbors to have near one in a crowd, or to meet in a dark alley. In England, on the other hand, with its aristocratic institutions, racing is a natural growth enough; the passion for it spreads downwards through all classes, from the Queen to the costermonger. London is like a shelled corn-cob on the Derby day, and there is not a clerk who could raise the money to hire a saddle with an old hack under it that can sit down on his office-stool the next day without wincing.
[ILLUSTRATION: The Derby Day]
Now just compare the racer with the trotter for a moment. The racer is incidentally useful, but essentially something to bet upon, as much as the thimble-rigger's "little joker." The trotter is essentially and daily useful, and only incidentally a tool for sporting men.
What better reason do you want for the fact that the racer is most cultivated and reaches his greatest perfection in England, and that the trotting horses of America beat the world? And why should we have expected that the pick--if it was the pick--of our few and far-between racing stables should beat the pick of England and France? Throw over the fallacious time-test, and there was nothing to show for it but a natural kind of patriotic feeling, which we all have, with a thoroughly provincial conceit, which some of us must plead guilty to.
We may beat yet. [10] As an American, I hope we shall. As a moralist and occasional sermonizer, I am not so anxious about it. Wherever the trotting horse goes, he carries in his train brisk omnibuses, lively bakers' carts, and therefore hot rolls, the jolly butcher's wagon, .the cheerful gig, the wholesome afternoon drive with wife and child,--all the forms of moral excellence, except truth, which does not agree with any kind of horse-flesh. The racer brings with him gambling, cursing, swearing, drinking, the eating of oysters, and a distaste for mob-caps and the middle-aged virtues.
And by the way, let me beg you not to call a trotting match a race, and not to speak of a "thoroughbred" as a "blooded" horse, unless he has been recently phlebotomized. I consent to your saying "blood horse," if you like. Also, if, next year, we send out Posterior and Posterioress, the winners of the great national four-mile race in 7 18 1/2 and they happen to get beaten, pay your bets, and behave like men and gentlemen about it, if you know how.
[I felt a great deal better after blowing off the ill-temper condensed in the above paragraph. To brag little,--to show well,--to crow gently, if in luck,--to pay up, to own up, and to shut up, if beaten, are the virtues of a sporting man, and I can't say that I think we have shown them in any great perfection of late.]
----Apropos of horses. Do you know how important good jockeying is to authors? Judicious management; letting the public see your animal just enough, and not too much; holding him up hard when the market is too full of him; letting him out at just the right buying intervals; always gently feeling his mouth; never slacking and never jerking the rein;--this is what I mean by jockeying.
----When an author has a number of books out, a cunning hand will keep them all spinning, as Signor Blitz does his dinner-plates; fetching each one up, as it begins to "wabble," by an advertisement, a puff, or a quotation.
----Whenever the extracts from a living writer begin to multiply fast in the papers, without obvious reason, there is a new book or a new edition coming. The extracts are ground-bait.
----Literary life is full of curious phenomena. I don't know that there is anything more noticeable than what we may call conventional reputations. There is a tacit understanding in every community of men of letters that they will not disturb the popular fallacy respecting this or that electro-gilded celebrity. There are various reasons for this forbearance: one is old; one is rich; one is good-natured; one is such a favorite with the pit that it would not be safe to hiss him from the manager's box. The venerable augurs of the literary or scientific temple may smile faintly when one of the tribe is mentioned; but the farce is in general kept up as well as the Chinese comic scene of entreating and imploring a man to stay with you, with the implied compact between you that he shall by no means think of doing it. A poor wretch he must be who would wantonly sit down on one of these bandbox reputations. A Prince-Rupert's-drop, which is a tear of unannealed glass, lasts indefinitely, if you keep it from meddling hands; but break its tail off, and it explodes and resolves itself into powder. These celebrities I speak of are the Prince-Rupert's-drops of the learned and polite world. See how the papers treat them! What an array of pleasant kaleidoscopic phrases, which can be arranged in ever so many charming patterns, is at their service! How kind the "Critical Notices"--where small authorship comes to pick up chips of praise, fragrant, sugary, and sappy--always are to them! Well, life would be nothing without paper-credit and other fictions; so let them pass current. Don't steal their chips; don't puncture their swimming-bladders; don't come down on their pasteboard boxes; don't break the ends of their brittle and unstable reputations, you fellows who all feel sure that your names will be household words a thousand years from now.
"A thousand years is a good while," said the old gentleman who sits opposite, thoughtfully.
----Where have I been for the last three or four days? Down at the Island, [11] deer-shooting.--How many did I bag? I brought home one buck shot.--The Island is where? No matter. It is the most splendid domain that any man looks upon in these latitudes. Blue sea around it, and running up into its heart, so that the little boat slumbers like a baby in lap, while ihe tall ships are stripping naked to fight the hurricane outside, and storm-stay-sails banging and flying in ribbons. Trees, in stretches of miles; beeches, oaks, most numerous;--many of them hung with moss, looking like bearded Druids; some coiled in the clasp of huge, dark-stemmed grape-vines. Open patches where the sun gets in and goes to sleep, and the winds come so finely sifted that they are as soft as swan's down. Rocks scattered about,--Stonehenge-like monoliths. Freshwater lakes; one of them, Mary's lake, crystal-clear, full of flashing pickerel lying under the lily-pads like tigers in the jungle. Six pounds of ditto killed one morning for breakfast. Ego fecit.
The divinity-student looked as if he would like to question my Latin. No, sir, I said,--you need not trouble yourself. There is a higher law in grammar, not to be put down by Andrews and Stoddard. Then I went on.
Such hospitality as that island has seen there has not been the like of in these our New England sovereignties. There is nothing in the shape of kindness and courtesy that can make life beautiful, which has not found its home in that ocean-principality. It has welcomed all who were worthy of welcome, from the pale clergyman who came to breathe the sea-air with its medicinal salt and iodine, to the great statesman who turned his back on the affairs of empire, and smoothed his Olympian forehead, and flashed his white teeth in merriment over the long table, where his wit was the keenest and his story the best.
[I don't believe any man ever talked like that in this world. I don't believe I talked just so; but the fact is in reporting one's conversation, one cannot help Blair-ing it up more or less, ironing out crumpled paragraphs, starching limp ones, and crimping and plaiting a little sometimes; it is as natural as prinking at the looking-glass.]
How can a man help writing poetry in such a place? Everybody does write poetry that goes there. In the state archives, kept in the library of the Lord of the Isle, are whole volumes of unpublished verse,--some by well-known hands, and others, quite as good, by the last people you would think of as versifiers,--men who could pension off all the genuine poets in the country, and buy ten acres of Boston common, if it was for sale, with what they had left. Of course I had to write my little copy of verses with the rest; here it is, if you will hear me read it. When the sun is in the west, vessels sailing in an easterly direction look bright or dark to one who observes them from the north or south, according to the tack they are sailing upon. Watching them from one of the windows of the great mansion, I saw these perpetual changes, and moralized thus:--
----Insanity is often the logic of an accurate mind overtasked. Good mental machinery ought to break its own wheels and levers, if anything is thrust among them suddenly which tends to stop them or reverse their motion. A weak mind does not accumulate force enough to hurt itself; stupidity often saves a man from going mad. We frequently see persons in insane hospitals, sent there in consequence of what are called religious mental disturbances. I confess that I think better of them than of many who hold the same notions, and keep their wits and appear to enjoy life very well, outside of the asylums. Any decent person ought to go mad, if he really holds such or such opinions. It is very much to his discredit in every point of view, if he does not. What is the use of my saying what some of these opinions are? Perhaps more than one of you hold such as I should think ought to send you straight over to Somerville, if you have any logic in your heads or any human feeling in your hearts. Anything that is brutal, cruel, heathenish, that makes life hopeless for the most of mankind and perhaps for entire races, anything that assumes the necessity of the extermination of instincts which were given to be regulated,--no matter by what name you call it,--no matter whether a fakir, or a monk, or a deacon believes it,--if received, ought to produce insanity in every well-regulated mind. That condition becomes a normal one, under the circumstances. I am very much ashamed of some people for retaining their reason, when they know perfectly well that if they were not the most stupid or the most selfish of human beings, they would become non-compotes at once.
[Nobody understood this but the theological student and the schoolmistress. They looked intelligently at each other; but whether they were thinking about my paradox or not, I am not clear.--It would be natural enough. Stranger things have happened. Love and Death enter boarding-houses without asking the price of board, or whether there is room for them. Alas, these young people are poor and pallid! Love should be both rich and rosy, but must be either rich or rosy. Talk about military duty! What is that to the warfare of a married maid-of-all-work, with the title of mistress, and an American female constitution, which collapses just in the middle third of life, and comes out vulcanized India-rubber, if it happen to live through the period when health and strength are most wanted?J
----Have I ever acted in private theatricals? Often. I have played the part of the "Poor Gentleman," before a great many audiences,--more, I trust, than I shall ever face again. I did not wear a stage-costume, nor a wig, nor moustaches of burnt cork; but I was placarded and announced as a public performer, and at the proper hour I came forward with the ballet-dancer's smile upon my countenance, and made my bow and acted my part. I have seen my name stuck up in letters so big that I was ashamed to show myself in the place by daylight. I have gone to a town with a sober literary essay in my pocket, and seen myself everywhere announced as the most desperate of buffos,--one who was obliged to restrain himseTf in the full exercise of his powers, from prudential considerations. I have been through as many hardships as Ulysses, in the pursuit of my histrionic vocation. I have travelled in cars until the conductors all knew me like a brother. I have run off the rails, and stuck all night in snow-drifts, and sat behind females that would have the window open when one could not wink without his eyelids freezing together. Perhaps I shall give you some of my experiences one of these days;--I will not now, for I have something else for you.
Private theatricals, as I have figured in them in country lyceum-halls, are one thing,--and private theatricals, as they may be seen in certain gilded and frescoed saloons of our metropolis, are another. Yes, it is pleasant to see real gentlemen and ladies, who do not think it necessary to mouth, and rant, and stride, like most of our stage heroes and heroines, in the characters which show off their graces and talents; most of all to see a fresh, unrouged, unspoiled, high-bred young maiden, with a lithe figure, and a pleasant voice, acting in those love-dramas which make us young again to look upon, when real youth and beauty will play them for us.
----Of course I wrote the prologue I was asked to write. I did not see the play, though. I knew there was a young lady in it, and that somebody was in love with her, and she was in love with him, and somebody (an old tutor, I believe) wanted to interfere, and, very naturally, the young lady was too sharp for him. The play of course ends charmingly; there is a general reconciliation, and all concerned form a line and take each others' hands, as people always do after they have made up their quarrels,--and then the curtain falls,--if it does not stick, as it commonly does at private theatrical exhibitions, in which case a boy is detailed to pull it down, which he does, blushing violently.
Now, then, for my prologue. I am not going to change my cæsuras and cadences for anybody; so if you do not like the heroic, or iambic trimeter brachy-catalectic, you had better not wait to hear it.
The prologue went off very well, as I hear. No alterations were suggested by the lady to whom it was sent, so far as I know. Sometimes people criticize the poems one sends them, and suggest all sorts of improvements. [12] Who was that silly body that wanted Burns to alter "Scots wha hae," so as to lengthen the last line, thus?
"Edward!" Chains and slavery!
Here is a little poem I sent a short time since to a committee for a certain celebration. I understood that it was to be a festive and convivial occasion, and ordered myself accordingly. It seems the president of the day was what is called a "teetotaller." I received a note from him in the following words, containing the copy subjoined, with the emendations annexed to it.
"Dear Sir,--your poem gives good satisfaction to the committee. The sentiments expressed with reference to liquor are not, however, those generally entertained by this community. I have therefore consulted the clergyman of this place, who has made some slight changes, which he thinks will remove all objections, and keep the valuable portions of the poem. Please to inform me of your charge for said poem. Our means are limited, etc., etc., etc.
"Yours with respect."
The company said I had been shabbily treated, and advised me to charge the committee double,--which I did. But as I never got my pay, I don't know that it made much difference. I am a very particular person about having all I write printed as I write it. I require to see a proof, a revise, a re-revise, and a double re-revise, or fourth-proof rectified impression of all my productions, especially verse. A misprint kills a sensitive author. An intentional change of his text murders him. No wonder so many poets die young!
I have nothing more to report at this time, except two pieces of advice I gave to the young women at table. One relates to a vulgarism of language, which I grieve to say is sometimes heard even from female lips. The other is of more serious purport, and applies to such as contemplate a change of condition,--matrimony, in fact.
----The woman who "calc'lates" is lost.
----Put not your trust in money, but put your money in trust.
[ILLUSTRATION: A sensitive author]

subset: commoncrawl


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Web Designers
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Graphic and Web Designers and Illustrators have many different workplace options. They often work as part of large design firms, or they may work in-house at magazines, production companies, Internet start-ups, or corporations. Some also work on a freelance or entrepreneurial basis.
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- Art Director (Advertising)
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- Visual Merchandiser


text:
Student Musicians to Perform in Austria; Send-Off Concert On Campus Wednesday
January 3, 2009
January 3, 2009, Greencastle, Ind. — The DePauw Chamber Symphony will be traveling to Austria for seven days during this month's Winter Term (January 8 - 15)to take part in the commemoration of the 200th anniversary of the death of classical composer Franz Joseph Haydn (1732-1809). During their travels to Vienna and Salzburg, the Orchestra, conducted by Orcenith Smith, will be accompanied by DePauw faculty members Nicole Brockmann and Maria Chow. Brockmann will perform as viola soloist with the ensemble.
A local audience will have the chance to hear the complete concert repertoire on Wednesday, January 7, at 7:30 p.m. in Kresge Auditorium of the Judson and Joyce Green Center for the Performing Arts. The concert is free and open to public.
Junior violist Kelly Houpt, one of 31 students embarking on the tour, states, "It is a great opportunity to be able to showcase what DePauw has to offer as a music school and to work together in an effort to create music on a more concentrated level. It also gives us a chance to participate in the celebration of Haydn's music in a global environment, something that is increasingly important while examining DePauw's place in the world."
The orchestra will begin the tour with a performance at the Esterházy Palace, where Haydn spent nearly 30 years of his life producing many compositions and developing his personal composition style. This performance will be one of the first performances at the Esterházy Palace as part of the 2009 Haydn Celebration Year.
"I am grateful to have the opportunity to travel to Austria and perform in the very place that Haydn wrote so many historical compositions, which remain a part of our musical culture today," says senior violinist Siobhan Lau.
The DePauw Chamber Symphony will also perform in Salzburg's famed Mozarteum, one of the leading music conservatory's of the world. The group's repertoire will consist of a variety of music, including Symphony No. 95 by Haydn, and music by Brahms and Hindemith, as well as American composers Ives, Ellington, and Cowell.
The Chamber Symphony, consisting of select students from the DePauw University Orchestra, was established by Professor Orcenith Smith in 1974 to perform tours during Winter Term, DePauw's January school session in which students focus on a single project whether that be a class, a trip, or an internship. The most recent Western U.S. tour included performances in Denver, Los Angeles, Phoenix, and San Francisco. The Chamber Symphony last toured in Austria in 1983 and 1997, but has also performed in Japan, Canada, England, France, Italy, Spain, the Southeastern U.S., the Midwest, the Northeastern U.S., and at Carnegie Recital Hall and the Kennedy Center.
Visit the DePauw University School of Music online.Back


text:
He floated above the ravaged ground, the troops of death tailing directly after. Destruction, decay, all was broken and destroyed in Stratholme. Kel'thuzad looked at the ravaged ruins with glee. Of course this would be more than the perfect place to put Naxxramas.
"Halt. Begin summoning the ziggurats immediately. I want the necropolis raised by today's end."
The multitude of cultists that had followed him departed, followed and guarded by the legions of pestilent monstrosities to guard them in their task. Kel'thuzad, the Archlich of the Scourge, was now alone. He had nothing to do but wait until Naxxramas became operational.
Kel'thuzad let out a sigh as he once again passed his malevolent gaze over the broken remnants. Of course the town never got the chance to rebuild and it had been one of the Scourge's centers of operation for some time, but after Prince Arthas had gone to help his master and then fused with him, the need to strengthen the Scourge's defenses had become necessary. Kel'thuzad had felt the fusion. He had cowered in fear and awe at the amazing power that had been birthed in a millennium second and then, nothing. His master lay dormant and silent, yet still omnipresent.
He looked at the ground. He was no longer mortal, no longer tethered to so many necessities of the living such as sleep and food. How was it, then, that he felt an emptiness, small as it may have seemed? The power, yes, the power was a satiable medium and his master was truly the supreme being, but still Kel'thuzad hungered for more. He hungered for something many undead would not care for, but then again no other undead had been given so much free reign as he, the most trusted of the Lich King's lieutenants. No, what he most desired now was companionship.
How could he be alone? He had the armies, the Cult, and his master
but the undead were blank slates of drool and gibbering nonsense, the cultists so afraid of him that they felt anything more than the necessary would cost them their eternal life, and he in turn was too fearful of the Lich King to truly hold a conversation with him. This sort of emotion never washed over the Archlich when Prince Arthas was around. He was his king, his peer, and ultimately, Kel'thuzad had even heard from the man himself, his friend. but now Arthas was gone, elevated above him. Once again he realized he was without an equal, with everyone either below his rank or above him in the form of godliness, and he felt alone because of it.
Leaving his embittered thoughts to himself, the large skeletal lord did not notice at first the small motion. Probably it was a cockroach or a mouse or some sort of lesser life form (or dead form), but then he felt a tug at the hem of his robes. Had he eyebrows, he would have quirked them curiously, but Kel'thuzad had other means to show expressions. He looked down with bored curiosity.
At where his feet would have been was a cat. He was a Siamese, he observed, playfully batting at the phantasmagorical essence that spewed from him, occasionally catching its claw on the dark materials he wore. At first, Kel'thuzad was enraged. How dared this thing, this breathing, happy creature, toy with him like he was a rodent? The archlich felt the necromantic energies readily building at the tips of his fingers. He would vanquish this
creature that dared go near him, unafraid, so very openly. The leader of the Cult of the Damned paused, confused. He leaned down and picked up the cat with his bony fingers, staring at it directly in the eyes with his own ice-like stare. The cat batted at the air in front of him, determined to paw his boney face.
"You are not afraid of death, are you, little beast?"
Kel'thuzad had seen cats, of course, killed many of them himself, though their deaths were not on purpose and ultimately of no concern to the Scourge. He'd seen them flee from their armies. He'd seen them do what the living did: cower before the Scourge rather than willingly submit. Why, then, was this cat different?
This one had ambition. He had determination. In him, Kel'thuzad saw himself: the sole member of his society willing to search that which was dangerous, that which was considered monstrous and chaotic by all others. Kel'thuzad saw in him the desire to learn more, to discover what this dark and mysterious presence was that was before him This cat was a master of his race, the one that did not fear death and did not cower before it, but embraced it, played with it as if it were a friend, hand in hand. The other cats
those fools didn't know what they were thinking. He'd show them, show them all the error of their ways, show them who truly was to be feared!
He nearly dropped the cat by accident, so elated by his realization. He let out a maniacal cackle of happiness. Yes, this cat was a living creature, but not all of the Lich King's servants were undead. The majority of the Cultists were living men and women that had pledged themselves willingly to the master. At last, someone to share everything with, someone who would hear him as a friend. Even an old necromancer turned immortal lord of the dead needed the loving care of a pet.
"You will be my most cherished servant," he told it. "You will lay at my side and watch as we crush the upholders of the Light, those who oppose the will of the one true king. Join me and I will make you as feared as myself for as long as your existence coincides with my own!"
The cat rolled over and stared up to his new friend. Kel'thuzad bellowed happily. "It is settled, then! Now, I need a name for you, something I can remember, something fearsome. Something that makes me shiver when I hear the name, that will make my enemies shiver along with me. Ah
this will do. You shall have the name of the second most vile being to ever walk the face of Azeroth. His fist was like iron, his choice absolute, his judgment without mercy or exception. You shall be named after the man who made me toil in desperation during my youth and very nearly forced me to live in the streets, cowered me to do his bidding."
With both hands, Kel'thuzad scooped up the tiny package. Grinning terribly, he declared,"He was the landlord of Dalaran Apartments, Mr. Bigglesworth!"
The cat mewed cheerfully. Kel'thuzad rubbed the now-named Mr. Bigglesworth's head. "Now
I mustn't keep you from the other cultists. I must ensure they do not accidentally find you without my knowing and treat you like any other common cat."
As if on queue, one of the cultists appeared before the archlich. "The zyggurats are ready, my liege. What is your
?" He looked, no small bewilderment in his face, as Kel'thuzad and Mr. Bigglesworth both stared down at him, their eyes wide with judgment and superiority, Kel'thuzad's skeletal fingers grazing easily over his pet's fur, inciting a symphony of purrs.
"Prepare to summon Naxxramas and when you do, mobilize our forces inside," he ordered. The cultist nodded, a bit worried, before turning around. "My lord, would you like me to dispose of this
furball for you? I see no reason why you shou-"
A blasting chill burst forth and Mr. Bigglesworth hissed in complaint. Kel'thuzad apologetically whispered to his companion before turning, his wrath obvious, at the intimidated, paled husk of a man that was the messenger. "You will not, under any circumstances, lay a single finger on this creature. This is a decree for every last member of the Scourge: should any harm come to this devote servant of the Lich King, you will pay the price by feeding Naxxramas' soul forges with your own! Go, spread it now, and let it be known that his name is Mr. Bigglesworth!" Nearing the point of fainting out of fear but not daring to else his fate be decided for his incompetence, the messenger rushed away, yelling the name and Kel'thuzad's decree to the top of his lungs.
Kel'thuzad looked at the round, cuddly face of his beloved companion. "Welcome to the Scourge."
The Worthy Mr. Bigglesworth by AdriusFrostglareWatch
©2009-2017 AdriusFrostglare
Yeah... Kel'thuzad is among my favorite antagonists in WoW. Why? The powers of ice and death, his cunning intellect, and his ruthless status are half of it.
The other half... is his cat. The One True Pet, Mr. Bigglesworth! This story details the beginning of how the seemingly insane, powerful sociopath that is the Lich King's most trusted lieutenant came to find pet love... and how a common Siamese cat became the most feared of house pets all over the world.
EDIT: Finally fixed the incorrect spelling on "ziggurats".
The other half... is his cat. The One True Pet, Mr. Bigglesworth! This story details the beginning of how the seemingly insane, powerful sociopath that is the Lich King's most trusted lieutenant came to find pet love... and how a common Siamese cat became the most feared of house pets all over the world.
EDIT: Finally fixed the incorrect spelling on "ziggurats".
The comparison between Kelly and Mr.Bigglesworth is just...my God, I laughed SOOOO hard!!
You are a pure genius! This is just--it's full of so much win!
You are a pure genius! This is just--it's full of so much win!
awh, I love this! hehe xD
OMG love it! Kel'Thuzad and Mr.Bigglesworth is my favorite of all things in WoW and its lore. I agree so much with you AdriusFrostglare.
Yeah, I was sore when his time came. I wish he'd come back in Cataclysm, maybe as... well, that would be spoilers, now wouldn't it? But I just think the way they killed him off was pitiful. It didn't involve a quest or anything. Really, even Anub'arak had a better sendoff, and he was never a raid boss... I'd at least like to know where Mr. B is nowadays!
Mr. Bigglesworth is epic.
Just hope he stays near the original Kel'thuzad and not Lil'K.T...
Just hope he stays near the original Kel'thuzad and not Lil'K.T...
Lil'KT is just bitter jealous of his bigger counterpart because they didn't make a Lil'Bigglesworth for him
Cool story! Who knew that a master of frozen death would have a heart?
Oh man, you really captured Kel'thuzad's personality well. You win for writing thissss~
I lol'd hard at the bit where Kel'thuzad decides a name for the kitty. XDD "He was the landlord of Dalaran Apartments, Mr. Bigglesworth!"
I lol'd hard at the bit where Kel'thuzad decides a name for the kitty. XDD "He was the landlord of Dalaran Apartments, Mr. Bigglesworth!"
(try to contain laughter) the second most feared villian, the Dalaran Apartment landlord? *goes to other room, laughs, and dies*
Thank you for writing this! Ke'Thuzad is my favorite character from WoW lore for this reason...
...He's soft and cuddly on the inside
...He's soft and cuddly on the inside
I've always adored cats and have long held an interest in the undead. Mixing the two just made it that much better


text:
Analysis of the microbond test using nonlinear fracture mechanics
Novak, J. and Pearce, C.J and Grassl, P. and Yang, Liu and Thomason, James (2009) Analysis of the microbond test using nonlinear fracture mechanics. In: 17th International Conference on Composite Materials, ICCM17, 2009-07-27 - 2009-07-31.
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Thomason_JL_Pure_Analysis_of_the_microbond_test_using_nonlinear_fracture_mechanics_July_2009.doc - Preprint
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Microbond tests composed of single fibre and matrix droplet are often used to determine the properties of fibre reinforced composites. Interfacial shear strength is quantified by the maximum pull-out force assuming a uniform stress distribution along the fibre. Here, nonlinear finite element analyses are performed to investigate the validity of this assumption.
|Item type:
|Conference or Workshop Item (Paper)
|ID code:
|microbond test, fibre reinforced composite, nonlinear finite element analysis, microbond, FE simulation, bond strength, debonding, pull-out, Mechanical engineering and machinery, Mechanical Engineering, Mechanics of Materials, Computational Mechanics, Ceramics and Composites
|Technology > Mechanical engineering and machinery
|Faculty of Engineering > Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering
|Depositing user:
|Pure Administrator
|Date deposited:
|19 May 2011 04:26
|Last modified:
|25 Sep 2017 00:26
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text:
WINNIPEG - Considering they havent beaten the U.S. in 13 years, youd think a 1-1 draw would have had Canadian head coach John Herdman relatively pleased on Thursday night in Winnipeg.
Think again.
The Canadian boss was a little perturbed that his side was unable to hang on to its 1-0 lead that lasted all the way until the 78th minute at Investors Group Field. In fact, he was disappointed with the outcome.
Youre one-nil up against the number one team in the world with 15 minutes to go, Herdman said. Im not going to be standing here, clapping and whooping. We should win them games.
A draw is better than a loss, however, and it made Desiree Scotts night one to remember. The Winnipeg native played in front of family and friends for the first time as a member of the Canadian squad, and, unlike Herdman, she was beaming afterwards.


text:
Next: Next Older Quick Break: Funny Newspaper Classified Ads- Page One »
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Daily Quick Break: January 25, 2008: Strange and Unusual Celeb Baby Names
Every day InnocentEnglish.com posts a new funny or cool Quick Break. The Quick Break section has today's quick break plus previous ones so you can browse through any you missed.
Here are some of the strangest and most unusual names that celebrities and famous people have named their babies. From the innocentently creative, to the a little too cute, to the painfully cruel, the only consistency is that none of these names can be considered boring…
(If you know of some that I missed, please feel free to email me at mail @ innocentenglish.com)
Audio Science. Parent: Shannyn Sossamon
Apple. (daughter) Parent: Gwenyth Paltrow and Chris Martin. Also: Moses (son)
Astrella Celeste. Parent: Donovan
Atherton Grace. Parent: Don Johnson
To read the rest, go to: Strange and Unusual Celeb Baby Names
Quick Break Pic of the Day. Caption this Pic!
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What Kerry Learned Today: Baby Names : PlanBabyNames.com Says:
February 20th, 2008 at 3:27 am
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text:
Kiamichi Country
Kiamichi Country (pronounced: kī'ə-mĭsh'ē) is a region in southeast Oklahoma south of the Arkansas river. This is the hill and pine woods region of Oklahoma and is also known as Little Dixie. It is named after the Kiamichi river. This is a very rural area with mountains, lakes, pine woods and is very sparsely populated, except in the northern areas of the region and western area. There are also some larger towns in the southern region.
The region includes seven counties.
Other destinations[edit]
This area and the people are quite different then the remainder of Oklahoma. This is a very rural area with the largest towns and cities being just a few thousand people. In the central-west area the town are a few hundred at most and generally under 100 in population. You will find a very mountainous area here with pine forests such as the Ouachita National forest. Ouachita is the Indian word Washita with French spelling and means "good hunting grounds". It is a very good region for deer hunting and is a very popular destination during deer season. During your visit do not miss the scenic Talimena Drive, mostly located in Oklahoma, but extending to termination in Arkansas at Mena. The area was explored extensively by the French and several of the names in the area are mistaken for American Indian names, but in reality are French.
Get in[edit]
Get around[edit]
Just about the only way to get around in this area is driving.
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text: I think you reflect my views Adrian when you say "I do wonder if the journalist who relates this fantasy and I were at the same event." I wasn't at the event at all, but I think its maybe a case of the wish being father to the thought, or something like that. The only 'protest' or dissatisfaction I ever hear from blind people is the sort whingeing and moaning that goes on in pubs. A lot of huffing and puffing, and no action, let alone considered thinking. Its True, certainly, there's a hell of a lot needs to be done, but with the head as well as the Will. I did too post with a bit of tongue in cheek attitude. Ray Personal emails: Email me at mailto:ray-48@xxxxxxxx ----- Original Message ----- From: "Adrian Higginbotham" <adrian.higginbotham@xxxxxxxxxxxx> Having been involved in, and at the launch of what this article calls the DRCs own code I do wonder if the journalist who relates this fantasy and I were at the same event. Granted I haven't been privy to the DRC marketing material associated with british standards institute, publicly available specification number 78 (pas78) but the message conveyed by the piece from the Register wasn't at all that being aired on Wednesday last. True Michael Burton did say that the DRC would help any individuals persue cases in relation to Web inaccessibility but it was hardly a rabel rousing call to arms. Nor was it a critique of the Web accessibility Initiative guidelines. Pas78 is not a new web accessibility standard it is simply a guide for managers in how to ensure that the web services they buy are accessible. The basis of the advice being that all existing standards to date have been technical in nature and this has often lead to web developers trying to sell accessibility to clients who have little or no understanding of it and may conclude that it is just the techis trying to find another way to screw money out of them. I'm very disappointed in the register for such an illinformed and potentially damaging piece. Adrian Higginbotham ** To leave the list, click on the immediately-following link:- ** [mailto:access-uk-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx?subject=unsubscribe] ** If this link doesn't work then send a message to: ** access-uk-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx ** and in the Subject line type ** unsubscribe ** For other list commands such as vacation mode, click on the ** immediately-following link:- ** [mailto:access-uk-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx?subject=faq] ** or send a message, to ** access-uk-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx with the Subject:- faq


text:
My Nonprofit Reviews
Review for Children's Grief Center of New Mexico Inc, Albuquerque, NM, USA
I was dealing with grief in a context other than bereavement in my life when a friend suggested to me that volunteering might be a way to help move through my own pain and loss. So I started researching volunteer opportunities on the Internet and found the CGC back in late 2008. The idea of being around people who were also hurting was very appealing to me. I had just missed the facilitator training, so I began volunteering in the office, coming in on my alternating Fridays off and helping out with everything from solving IT problems to working on mass mailings to updating documentation. I eventually became a bereavement facilitator as well and can only say that central NM is blessed to have to have the CGC. Not only do they help adults and children move through one of the worst experiences they can have, but they also care about their volunteers. Facilitators participate in post-group meetings to help them address any issues that may have been stirred up for them around something a child or adult attendee said during a group. There are also regular appreciation events and the staff is always looking for ways to address frustrations and issues experienced by volunteers. I believe that working with or around the bereaved is not something that everyone is cut out for, but for those who are, it is highly rewarding to see people realize they are not alone, forge bonds with one another, and gain the strength to move through their grief.
More Feedback
Would you volunteer for this group again?
For the time you spent, how much of an impact did you feel your work or activity had?
A lot
Did the organization use your time wisely?
Very Well
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text:
Free delivery on all orders over £60 - More information
Certikin's Hurricane Pump range offers all the power and performance of traditional cast iron centrifugal pump with the added versatility of a chemically resistant, lightweight modern plastic design. Capable of pumping large volumes of water at high pressure. Hurricane swimming pool pumps are supplied with 3-phase motors starting at 2.9kW (4.0HP) through to 9.2kW (12.5HP) achieving flows in excess of 150 m3/hr.
We offer FREE DELIVERY on this product (UK Mainland Only). For delivery rates to Northern Ireland, Channel Islands, Isle of Wight, Isle of Man and Highlands - please request shipping cost giving postcode.
Find out all you need to know about algae and green water, how to treat it and how to cure it.
Your rights to return goods are protected under the EU Distance Selling Directive.
You are entitled to cancel your order and return the goods within 7 working days for a full refund not including the cost of delivery. Do this by contacting us by email or telephone and quoting the order number supplied to you. Your refund will be paid within 30 days. You are responsible for the cost and risk of loss or damage when returning the goods, so you should take out enough postal insurance to cover their value. This cancellation policy does not affect your rights when we are at fault - for example, if goods are faulty or incorrectly-described.
Exclusions: Bespoke items (made to measure items) are not included and cannot be returned. If a bespoke item is faulty then the product warranty /guarantee will take effect.
Any goods returned should be in saleable condition.
These terms apply to your order. We may change our terms and conditions at any time, so please do not assume that the same terms will apply in the future.
None of these terms affect your legal rights and these are not diminished in any way. If any term is held to be invalid under any applicable statute or rule of law, that term is automatically omitted from the terms to minimum extent necessary to comply with the law and without affecting the validity or enforceability of the remainder.
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text:
Rebalancing Week: Iop, Pandawa, Rogue, Sram Info - 2012-07-25 10:56Back to list
Third part of our Rebalancing week, today we reveal the changes for Iops, Pandawas, Rogues and Srams.
FireJudgment: 4>70 (instead of 3>54)
Cost changes from 4AP to 4AP+1MP
Iop's Wrath: 8>90 (instead of 8>100)
The modification to Judgment should give new opportunities to Fire Iops. We also had to slightly reduce the Iop's Wrath as it didn't match our balance scale (due to the Explosion).
EarthImpact: 2>26 (instead of 2>28)
Devastate: 7>75 (instead of 8>80)
Cost changes from 6AP+1MP to 5AP+1MP
We wanted to give more value to Devastate with a cost change: should give more builds variety.
AirJabs: 2>32 (instead of 2>30)
Flurry: 1>14 (instead of 1>12)
Gutting Gust: 1>20 (instead of 2>40)
Cost changes from 2MP to 1MP; 2/target
Since this branch is limited due to a lack of area spells or range spelsl, we thought it would make sense to slightly exceed our balance scale, with a small boost of Jabs and Flurry.
WaterBubble Trouble: On target: 3>40 (instead of 3>34)
On the barrel: 4>45 (instead of 4>40)
Cost changes from 3AP to 1AP+2MP; 2/turn
Milk Wave: On target: 6>85 (instead of 5>73)
On the barrel: 7>95 (instead of 6>80)
Cost changes from 6AP to 6AP+1WP
FireFlaming Burp: 3>38 (instead of 3>35)
Light My Fire: 3>37 (instead of 2>18)
Cost changes from 2AP to 1AP+2MP; 1/target
This slight improvement of the Earth and Fire branches was reached thanks to damage and cost changes. The current overall damage output of the Pandawa was matching our balance scale; therefore we didn't want to make more changes than necessary.
EarthBash Barrel: now limited to 2/turn
Blisskrieg: The pandawa now teleports until the 4th cell in line (not modifiable), and deals damages in line to the cells he passed through
The Earth tree changes are mainly here to limit some abuses we could see in game.
EarthPiercing Shot: 5>65 (instead of 5>52)
Reduces the targets resists of 10%>100%
Range changes from 1-4 to 2-4
Cross Fire: 3>47 (instead of 3>42)
Blam: 5>68 (instead of 4>52)
Cost changes from 4AP to 4AP+1MP
Pulsar: 1/AP-MP>12/AP-MP (instead of 1>9)
We significantly improved the earth tree with changes of damage and cost. However we decided to limit the effect of Piercing Shot to avoid abuses on Boss with high resists.
AirSlap Shot: 2>28 (instead of 2>30)
Boomerang Dagger: 4>51 (instead of 5>62)
CH: 6+2>76+12 (instead of 8+4>90+15)
Range can no longer be modified
Longsword: 6>80 (instead of 6>85)
The Air tree was lowered. Since the Air Rogue can easily access his opponent's back, can reach very high air damage thanks to his Air Master passive, and has good CH effects, it could deal too high damages. We had to change that.
FireBarbed Fire: 2>21 (instead of 2>18)
Becomes the first spell of the tree
Burning Bomb: 6>65 (instead 4>40)
It is no longer possible to target someone directly with a bomb
Becomes the 2nd spell of the tree
Blaze: 4>48 (instead of 3>34)
Cost changes from 3AP to 3AP+1MP
Blinding Bomb: 4>50 (instead of 3>30)
It is no longer possible to target someone directly with a bomb
Flaming Claw: 7>91 (instead of 6>65)
Cost changes from 6AP to 5AP+1WP; 1/target
For the Fire branch, we decided to remove the possibility to cast bombs directly on a target since it was in opposition with one of the main interest to cast them on the ground. However, we improved the damages of bombs, and other spells. This should make the branch more interesting.
SupportAir Master: changes from 40% to 30% of the initiative at lvl 20
Runaway: Changes from 40 to 30% at lvl 20
Only applies to melee attacks and moves of 1-2 cells (instead of 1-3)
FireHemorrhage: now takes the fire elementary damage of the Sram and the fire resists of the target into account.
Damage: 1 fire dmg for 2 of hemorrhage, instead of 1 dmg for 3
Cold Blood: 3>39 (instead of 3>37)
First Blood: 2>25 (instead of 2>23)
If the target is untouched: 4>40 (instead of 3>36)
Torment: Damages don't change
Damage bonus based on the HP % now works properly (no longer takes the resist)
This spell is of Sr'ambush type
Bled Dry: 4>53 (instead of 4>50)
Execution: 7>95 (instead of 6>80)
This spell is of Sr'ambush type
We improved this branch by slightly increasing spell damages and changing Hemorrhage that should take the Fire damage into account.
WaterPetty Theft: on a CH, the second AP/MP is stolen with 50% chance, instead of 100%
This spell is of Sr'ambush type
Sramshackle: on a CH, the second AP/MP is stolen with 50% chance, instead of 100%
This spell is of Sr'ambush type
AirFear: 2>25 (instead of 3>20)
Tricky Blow: 4>55 (instead of 4>45)
Forceful Blow: 3>40 (instead of 3>35)
+10% damage when hitting on the back at lvl 0; +30% at lvl 100 (instead of 30% everytime)
Guile: -25% damage during each turn (instead of -50%)
Trauma: This spell is of Sr'ambush type
We improved a few spells of the branch like Guile that should now reduce damages of 25% instead of 50%. This should offer more alternatives to Diversion and Look Around You in order to reach the target's back.
SupportsInvisibility: At lvl 9 the spell costs 3AP+1WP (instead of 3AP+2WP)
Perception:+300 Perception on the first turn (at all levels)
Lvl0= +100; lvl9=+200 Perception the following turns
Loss of 6 Perception for each AP used, instead of 2
Loss of 20 Perception at the beginning of each turn, instead of 10
When invisible damages are divided by 2 except for Sr'ambush spells
Sr'ambush spells inflict normal damage but reveal the Sram, even with the Shadow Master passive
The Invisibility mechanic was too much of an advantage, and had to be changed. Now an invisible Sram will have reduced damage, except for some spells (called "Sr'ambush") but these will reveal him directly. To summarize, the Sram will have the choice between stay invisible and harass the opponent with low damage, or deal high damage while visible. Furthermore, invisibility will last less time since we increased the Perception loss at each turn. To compensate all of that we decided to reduce the cost of Invisibility at level 9 to 1WP (instead of 2WP).
Double: Now has a fixed amount of AP, WP and MP (6AP, 4MP and 3WP).
The damage penalty doesn't change (50% at level 0 and 100% at level 9)
We decided to give a fixed amount of AP/MP to the double. We thought it was too imbalanced to be able to have a summon with the same stats as its caster for a cost of 4AP+1WP, doubling the efficiency of the Sram's gains in AP and MP (with stats and equipment) compared to other classes. With these changes, we tried to find the most adapted solution possible.
Diversion: Now has 40% chances to make the target look away at lvl 0 and 60% at lvl 100 (instead of 100%)
No longer triggers the Stabber state
No longer applies the Hemorrhage state
Here again, let us know what you think, and see you tomorrow with the Feca, Eniripsa and Xelor!


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The 2012 Samsung Amman International Marathon (AIM) was launched today at a press conference at the Greater Amman Municipality. The event was attended by Prince Firas bin Raad, AIM Chairman, Fawzi Masad, City Manager of Amman Municipality , BumSuk Hong, President of Samsung Electronics Levant, Tarek Al Hajj, Vice President for Marketing and Communications in the Arab Bank, Tarek Hashlamon, General Manager of Sama Water and Lina Al-Kurd, General Manager of AIM. Prince Firas stated after welcoming the press and sponsors: "I am delighted to announce the launch of the 2012 Samsung Amman International Marathon in the company of our AIM Board Members and our major sponsors and supporters. I would particularly like to pay tribute to our title sponsor Samsung for its extraordinary support of this event over the last four years. This event which brings together Jordanians, regional and international runners, young and old, continues to grow and we are very proud of the achievements so far. Our thanks extend to all AIM sponsors, organizers, supporters and volunteers, and we look forward to a very special day on October 19." At the event, President of Samsung Electronics Levant Mr.Hong said: "At Samsung, we seek to support the Jordanian economy and make a difference in the lives of local communities. We also believe in the importance of sports and youth-based activities for promoting public health and social cohesion. These are the reasons why we have supported AIM in recent years. We look forward to the event with great excitement." During the press conference, it was announced that the Arab Bank was a golden sponsor for the fourth consecutive year, and that Sama Water was the official water supplier for the marathon. The AIM organizers presented information about the organization of the event including the routes and timings of the different races - and the expected number and categories of participants. General Manager of AIM, explained that there would be three races: the 42.195 km race, starting at 6 am from Greater Amman Municipality; the 10 km Fun Race, starting at 8:30 am next to the Al-Hussein Sports City and finally the 4 km Kids' Race, starting at 10:30 am from the Greater Amman Municipality. The finishing line for all the races will be next to the Roman Amphi-Theatre in downtown Amman. The AIM award ceremony will be in the Roman Amphi-Theatre itself. The mission of the organizers is to promote running among Jordanians from all walks of life particularly among the youth and children. By organizing an international competitive marathon in the heart of Amman as well as organizing two shorter distance races, AIM organizers aim to support competitive athleticism, healthy lifestyles, tourism, and participating NGOs.
[1] https://www.albawaba.com/en/node/355857?nid=441322
[2] https://www.albawaba.com/trans-arabian-creative-communications
[3] http://www.albawaba.com


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When: Sat., Sept. 15 2012
If you're scared of snakes, frogs, toads, lizards, mice, rats, or insects that fly, hop, or scuttle, you should probably steer clear of the Charleston Area Convention Center this weekend. Repticon, the Comic-Con for reptile and amphibian enthusiasts, is crawling into town and setting up camp. And what, you may ask, happens at Repticon? "We do shows all over the country, and we rely on local and regional breeders to attend our conferences. They sell what they breed, and people will be able to find animals that they wouldn't be able to find at regular pet stores," says Repticon's Kathy Brice. The animals available range from pythons to dragons — yes, dragons — and since even snakes gotta eat, there will be rodents and insects available in various states of being (as in frozen, whole, live ... you get the picture). If you're considering jumping into the world of reptile and amphibian ownership, you should definitely make plans to attend. Since area breeders will be there, you'll be able to get any and all questions answered and make sure you're getting a healthy, happy specimen. Plus, the prices are unbeatable. School teachers and employees enter free, as can Boy and Girl Scouts. Even if you're not a huge lizard fan, we have the feeling that this is one of those events that will be fun to simply observe. "These are just pets of a different kind," says Brice. "It's unbelievable the passion these people have for their pets."
Elizabeth Pandolfi
Price: Free-$10


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Regarding Banner-Herald intern Bryan Bark's Sunday column headlined "Obama: Hope for world-weary youth:" Like Barks, I'm a member of what she called "the generation expected to continue after Sept. 11." I was about to turn 16 when the 9/11 terrorist attacks on this country occurred. As did Barks, I went to the Governor's Honors Program at Valdosta State University in the wake of the attack. I have come into adulthood in a country mired in war, natural disasters and various other challenges.
Barks claims Sept. 11 swallowed our generation's "hope" and "national pride." According to her, we became "jaded" as children. I agree 9/11 showed us a world we did not want to see, but it doesn't make it any less real, and the rhetoric and election of Barack Obama as president of the United States will not change that.
Sept. 11 offered an opportunity for Americans to take off the rose-shaded lenses through which we see the world. Like Western Europe, many Americans have forgotten how our forefathers secured the prosperity into which we have been born. History shows that our country has become the beacon of liberty for the world by confronting evil abroad and encouraging private enterprise and innovation free of government at home. It's time that the 9/11 generation, Barks included, grows up and realizes this.
There is only one candidate who will limit the encroachment of the federal government at home, while confronting enemies of liberty abroad. He's the one who sees the world as it is and not as we want to see it. It's not Barack Obama.
Andy Crawford
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Legal Question in Criminal Law in Arkansas
Theft by Deception
3 yrs ago I took an antique car to what I thought was a repudible restoration mechanic.. he quoated me $4000 dollars and listed all of the the parts and hours he supposedly spent and ordered for the restoration ..He also kept adding to amount that it would take to complete the cars restoration until it came to $8000.00.. I did pay the $8,000.00 but when he demanded more I told him absolutely no way..when I went to pick up my car parts that he supposedly ordered were not there.. I had another mechanic assess the car and he told me that parts that he had charged me for were not there.. and that there was no way that it took the amount of time that he charged me for to do the little bit of work that was finished.. My question is .. Is this a criminal offense.. I have copies of all of the caneled cashiers checks that he cashed?
1 Answer from Attorneys
Re: Theft by Deception
It is possible that it is criminal. The criminal part is hard to prove in a situation like yours. A civil case might be a possibility. That would be where you attempt to get back some or all of your money. I could walk you through this process or possibly represent you if you or the place where your car was worked on is anywhere near me. I need some more details. If you would like to contact me, I provide free initial consultations. But you need to act soon.
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One of the well known toughs in movies throughout the world. I saw his film debut in Lock, Stock, and two Smoking Barrels. Now he is gone onto much bigger roles and is playing Zeljko Raznatovic alias Arkan in the new movie "The Filthy War" due for release in 2007.
But Vinnie Jones was also a well known enforcer in English Premier League soccer and holds the record for the quickest booking, 3 seconds into the game. He played for Wimbledon, Leeds United, Sheffield United, Chelsea and Queens Park Rangers. Internationally, he played for Wales, qualifying for that nationality through his grandparents. He played 384 league games and scored 33 goals in his soccer career, most of them with Wimbledon FC.
What made him notorious through the soccer world; he leapt to fame when a photographer at a match snapped him "marking" Newcastle United's Paul Gascoigne by grabbing his testicles. The photo shows Gazza in distinct discomfort.


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Len's scoring of the group dances made no sense. (Hard to believe, I know.) He roundly criticized Team Tango, strongly complimented Team Paso, then gave them both the same score. Ugh. Very frustrating.
Len's scoring of the group dances made no sense. (Hard to believe, I know.) He roundly criticized Team Tango, strongly complimented Team Paso, then gave them both the same score. Ugh. Very frustrating.
Speaking of William, I just watched the most beautiful interview with him on ABC. He was talking about how when he first came to America and saw an apple for the first time in his life. He also talked about how back in Cuba, they would get a piece of bread for breakfast then would not eat for the rest of the day until that evening. It was all quite enlightening and reminded me of how blessed I am to have been born here. He just said how grateful he is about everything.
1. Is there a Katherine/Derek romance?
2. I think it would be a huge enhancement to the show if the celebs would switch partners. Not being a ballroom dancer myself, I can only wonder about whether or not it's challenging to do the same maneuvers with a second partner.
I'm half way through the show and so far I have two comments...Maks - I shouldn't be dancing, I should be teaching. How defeated sounding can he get? Then, second - since when is Lady GaGA a classical composer (Roshon and Chelsea)?
The cure for boredom is curiosity. There is no cure for curiosity. Dorothy Parker, (attributed)
Lady GaGa-you got me there. What, Kanye wasn't classical enough?
I think changing partners every week would be a much needed change, not put so much emphasis on the pros fanbases and them racking up more wins or seeing how the judges take one of their favorite celebs and judge them the same or if their bias comes out based on the pro, and really getting to see what the pro can do. I thought Mark DaCascos was better with Anna when she subbed for Lacey in season 9, and that Maks brought out a beautiful dance in Joanna Krupa that I didn't find completely overrated. While they're at it, can they rotate the 3 stooges and bring in new judges each week?
A 30! for Maria and Derek! Well deserved...I'm going to rewind and watch again.
The cure for boredom is curiosity. There is no cure for curiosity. Dorothy Parker, (attributed)
My comments as a rabid Maks fan:
Their Argentine Tango wasn't the best I've seen, and I did think some of the lifts were awkward.
But that paso doble should have WAY outscored the tango.
I'm with the poster above who said they were almost over this show. It's just not scored fairly, and they do everything they can to keep their favorites in the running. Derek and Maria absolutely deserved the 30 tonight. Spats and Katherine were overscored.
Didn't take long for msnbc.com to publish an article about the crappy scoring.
Scoring scandal! The ballroom crowd turns on 'Dancing's' judges
By Ree Hines
An orchestra, operatic stars and an extra dose of formality set the scene for Classical Week on "Dancing With the Stars," but it also proved the perfect setting for some ballroom drama -- and this time it didn't come from the man known as the bad boy of the ballroom.
Well, at least not directly.
Sometimes-temperamental pro Maksim Chmerkovskiy was on his best behavior all night, but the same can't be said about "Dancing's" judges, who threw their weight around with harsh criticism and questionable scores, or the audience, who let those judges know just what they thought of them.
The biggest sparks of the night flew after Maks and his star partner, Melissa Gilbert, took the stage alongside two competing couples -- Donald Driver and Peta Murgatroyd, and William Levy and Cheryl Burke. Together they formed Team Paso and put on a show-stopping routine that judge Carrie Ann Inaba admitted would likely "go down in history as the fan favorite paso doble."
She wasn't wrong. The dance had everything fans clamor for, from an intense, character-driven dynamic to perfect poses to outstanding foot and legwork (especially from the gents) -- and of course, some well-placed shirtlessness. (Again, courtesy of the guys.) It was nothing short of amazing, as the standing, cheering crowd clearly communicated.
Which begged the question: Why the heck did head judge Len Goodman call it a routine of "fire and ice," with the ice alluding to the lack of heat in execution? And how could any of the judges excuse the scores they gave the anything-but-icy routine?
Carrie Ann billed it as the best, but gave it a score one point shy of the best. Len could only grump together an 8. And Bruno Tonioli matched Carrie Ann.
Now a 26 out of 30 might not seem so bad. It is, after all, just four points off a perfect score. But the kicker was that Team Paso danced head-to-head against the remaining pairs (aka, Team Tango) and clearly bested them. Yet somehow Team Tango tangoed away with a higher score.
The injustice wasn't lost on the audience, who then delivered some of the biggest and longest lasting boos heard in the ballroom to date.
That hubbub capped off an odd night of highs and lows in the ballroom – the very lowest, scorewise, also involved Maks and Melissa.
For their non-group effort, the pair put on an Argentine tango full of extreme lifts and intense choreography -- quite the feat considering that the pro was off his feet for much of the week due to an injury. As for Melissa, she did her best to follow the dance set to Mozart's ballet-friendly but not tango-ready "Marriage of Figaro," though she did it all with a look of panic.
The judges could have focused on the positives of the routine's complexity or the negatives, including the look of fear or occasional stiffness from Melissa. Instead, they mostly focused on delivering low-blows.
Bruno compared to it Coney Island's Cyclone. Len vaguely complained that it lacked "dance quality." And Carrie Ann? She said it was like "Cirque du Soleil gone terribly wrong."
In seasons past, that was the point in the evening when Maks would have earned his bad-boy rep and given the panel a review of his own (as the audience did with more boos). But (sadly) that wasn't the case on Monday night. Through gritted teeth, the pro just looked the other way and ignored the harsh words. And when co-host Brooke Burke-Charvet asked him what he thought of the judges' opinions on the 21-point dance, he simply said, "I don't think. I just dance, and I teach."
Too bad.
Of course not every couple received that sort of reception from the judges. In fact, for Maria Menounos and Derek Hough, the night was full of wins. Not only did they collect kudos for their Team Tango effort, they also put on a perfect paso doble -- and unlike the perfect team version, they nabbed a perfect score to show for it.
The judges each raised their 10 paddle for the pair to make for the season's first 30.
Other nearly top contenders included Katherine Jenkins, Donald and William, each of whom continued to display the sort of moves that might just take them all the way to the finale. Each of them also scored 27 points for their near-perfect routines.
In the middle of the pack were Jaleel White, with a 24-point Viennese waltz and Roshon Fegan, with a 25-point Argentine tango (oddly set to Lady Gaga's not-so-classical "Bad Romance").
Which means Melissa (and Maks) is in last place with the judges, and will have to hope for fan support to stay out of the bottom two. After all, Tuesday night's dreaded ballroom boot once again goes to the panel of (possibly biased) experts.
This week marks the last installment of the Dance Duel experiment that's so far sent both Gavin DeGraw and Gladys Knight packing -- at least it's the end for now. So the viewers will only help decide the overall ranking, and the judges will make the ultimate call "based solely" on the final dance off.


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Halo 3 heatmaps of where players die most frequently. It's really interesting to see certain areas of levels darker than others. I think there are full time people at Bungie who are sort of "video game analytics" people (much like I'm the "analytics" guy at my job) Must be sort of an interesting job studying maps and trying to improve the game play.
By: Neal Grosskopf
Tags: halo, videogames ( Add Tag )


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VIDEO: Ellie Goulding Talks 2013 Tour and More
Ellie Goulding recently sat down with Billboard.com to talk about her 2013 tour and goals for the New Year. Watch both parts of the interview below!
Goulding's "Lights" met with success in 2011, and her second album "Halcyon" hit No. 9 on the Billboard 200 at its release in October. Now the the singer is heading out on tour and will appear on ABC's "New Year's Rockin' Eve" on December 31st.<
ABC's "Dick Clark's New Year's Rockin' Eve" begins at 8 p.m. ET on December 31, featuring a tribute to Dick Clark. Ryan Seacrest will take over from Times Square at 10 p.m., with performances by Justin Bieber, OneRepublic, Jason Aldean, The Wanted, Brandy and more. Black Eyed Peas' Fergie is set to host the West Coast party in LA.


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Model: PP2952-Tire-Chock
No jack needed for your flats on your tandem wheel trailers. Simply pull the good tire onto the Trailer Pal to raise the flat tire for changing. Extra thick and reinforced diamond plate will handle the load for most any tandem axle trailer.
• All joints are fully welded
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• Lite weight for hanging on wall
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ParthusCeva melds DSP design know-how with licensing clout
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Fresh from a merger that pairs a long DSP licensing history with platform-level design expertise, the newly combined ParthusCeva is eager to exploit what it believes will be the next evolution in system-on-chip signal processing.
That evolution, triggered by a maturing semiconductor IP (SIP) market and the migration of DSP technology into virtually every communications-related application, will enable the company to sit alongside SIP powerhouses ARM and MIPS Technologies, ParthusCeva's executives claim.
But before it can achieve that status, the company must confront a host of challenges in an industry in which licensable-DSP alternatives are increasingly abundant, customers are struggling to roll out new products, and Parthus-Ceva's own core market--cellular handsets--is experiencing slower growth.
"We believe we have the architectural franchise, the overall technology portfolio, and the customer relationships for a very strong upside potential as industry demand recovers," said president and chief executive Kevin Fielding.
"DSP cores are the semiconductor engine for several high-growth market applications, including such areas as wireless communications, mobile computing, consumer and multimedia, and computer networking. ParthusCeva is perfectly positioned to deliver these solutions," Fielding said.
ParthusCeva's official headquarters is in San Jose, where the company maintains a sales and marketing presence, but the bulk of the design and research and development work is being carried out in Tel Aviv, Israel, and Dublin, Ireland. The company was formed earlier this month through the merger of Ceva, formerly the licensing division of DSP Group, Santa Clara, Calif., and Parthus Technologies plc, a Dublin-based provider of platform-level IP.
Together the companies have more than 90 licensees, although only 15 bear royalties. ParthusCeva will not disclose specific revenue projections for the combined company until next month, but executives believe it is now the third-largest IP house, trailing ARM and Rambus but larger than MIPS.
Elaine Coughlan, ParthusCeva's chief financial officer, said the company had combined revenue of $44.6 million through the first three quarters of 2002, and a pro forma net income of $274,000 excluding special charges for amortization and restructuring. An annual revenue run rate of around $60 million is anticipated, according to analysts.
In addition to its DSP cores--Teak, TeakLite, Palm, and the Cedar core, which will be introduced in 2003--ParthusCeva will offer a suite of subsystem solutions and application-specific platforms targeting areas like wireless LAN, Bluetooth, MP3, GPS, and voice-over-Internet Protocol, in addition to the company's signature market, cellular handsets.
ParthusCeva's core technology is the second most prevalent DSP architecture used in cell phone handsets, trailing only Texas Instruments Inc.'s TMS320C5x, according to Forward Concepts Co., Tempe, Ariz. ParthusCeva has seen its share in the market drop, however, from 20% in 2000 to 15% in 2001, and faces the potential defection of at least two key customers, said Forward Concepts analyst Will Strauss.
"Their two biggest licensees, Infineon and Philips, have both announced plans to use other chipsets for handset designs," Strauss said. "I think [ParthusCeva] will be hard pressed to stay even until they can get a head of steam up on some new licensees."
ParthusCeva is also facing increased competition from such DSP licensing houses as Adelante, Improv, and 3DSP, as well as from ARC, ARM, MIPS, and Tensilica, all of which are now providing processor cores with DSP capabilities.
The SIP market has grown from $300 million in 1998 to more than $1 billion this year, according to Gartner Dataquest Inc., San Jose, and IP as a percentage of semiconductor R&D budgets has grown from 2% to 8% in the same period. Some of the growth can be attributed to an increase in IP offerings, although royalties have slowed in the past year as the electronics market has softened.
"It remains a very tough business," ParthusCeva's Fielding said. "It's not necessarily that we're running into more competition; if anything, there's less competition. And it's not an issue that we're running into enormous price pressure. We are having difficulty in actually getting deals closed because of cost and budgetary pressure within our customer base."
Gideon Wertheizer, the company's executive vice president and chief technology officer, said that as markets begin to grow again, ParthusCeva will be among the first to benefit because of its legacy business.
"People lock into a processor architecture and don't want to switch from one processor vendor to another," Wertheizer said. "We were the first with the idea of a licensable DSP core, and people have now asked why we need [to offer] design services, and why we don't just stick to IP.
"But our approach is to have a one-stop shop. There aren't many companies in the world that can afford all the disciplines--DSP, CPU, mixed-signal, software--which are all competencies that we can leverage."


text: I need some help with crate training an adult dog. I have a 5 year old chihuahua/dachshund mix. He has never had a crate until we bought one yesterday. The only reason we bought one is because he has started becoming destructive lately when left in the house alone, and my husband (who works from home full time) has to travel for work for three days this week and three days next week, and I don't want to come home to a mess. I am having a hard time training him to go into the crate. I am keeping it positive and as stress free as possible, but he seems very resistant. He wouldn't take any treats from me when I was using them to lead him into it by dropping a treat closer and closer to the crate so he could get used to it. Anytime I would even try to get him close to the crate, he would roll over and show his belly. I did finally get him inside with a lot of coaxing and nudging and he stayed for a bit even though the door was open, but I am concerned that he is going to be highly stressed out when he is left in there on the days that my husband is traveling and I am at work. I feel like I am missing something but I guess it is because he is older. When I crate trained my pitbull, she was 6 months old, and she took to it immediately. I just led her to it by dropping treats closer and closer to the crate and praising her as she got closer and then started dropping some inside so she would have to go in and praised her when she went in to get them. She is almost a year and a half old now and she absolutely loves her crate. She goes in there all the time to rest even though we didn't send her. That is what I want for my older dog, along with the reassurance that I am not going to come home to a mess while my husband is traveling. Is there something I can do to help him not be so resistant so he won't roll over and show his belly to me and not get up, and also not stress him out over the entire thing at the same time? I appreciate any advice given.


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He's one of the few rookies with a realistic chance of making the team.
So has been the chatter.
But in order for Taylor Chorney to start the season with the Edmonton Oilers, he'll have to take someone else's job.
"You try not to listen too much about what you hear," Chorney said.
"I guess the only thing that I'm worried about is making sure that I'm putting my best foot forward every time I step on the ice.
"I just want to go out there and put myself in a position where hopefully I can do some things, catch some eyes and be right there at the end."
Chorney, 21, comes into camp with a high profile.
The five-foot-11, 182-pound defenceman was the Oilers second pick (36th overall) in the 2005 NHL Entry Draft behind Andrew Cogliano.
He spent the last three seasons playing U.S. college hockey at the University of North Dakota, but decided to forgo his final year and turn pro.
Last night he was in the lineup as the Oilers rookies took on the University of Alberta Golden Bears in their annual exhibition game at the Clare Drake Arena.
"He's been unbelievable so far," said Springfield Falcons head coach Jeff Truitt, who's currently coaching the Oilers rookies. "He's such a smooth skater, he sees the ice really well and has great poise with the puck.
"When he has the puck, good things happen. He makes good reads and is sure noticeable with his skating ability, he's so smooth out there. He's a great player."
Chorney had three goals and 21 assists for North Dakota last season, helping them get to the semifinals of the NCAA Frozen Four tournament. The previous year he had 31 points in 39 games.
"It was a good year, it went really well," Chorney said. "Maybe statistically I didn't have quite as many points as I would have liked. But in the end it doesn't really matter to me. We had an awesome group of guys and we put together a good run at the end of the year. We came up a little bit short at the end, but the friendships I made with my teammates - it was so positive, that it was unbelievable overall."
As a college player, Chorney was not able to attend Oilers training camp prior to leaving school.
He wrestled with the decision following his sophomore season, but decided to go back for a third year. After that, the choice was easy. He just has to find a way to complete his marketing degree away from the rink - a promise made to his parents after leaving school.
"It just felt right for me at the end of the year," Chorney said. "I felt I was in a similar situation right at the end of my sophomore season. I could have come, but I was second-guessing then and I knew that if I was second-guessing, then it wasn't the time.
"At the end of last year, once I got over the fact that we had lost in the semifinals, it just felt right for me and felt it was time to take the next step and challenge myself."
The biggest step will be getting used to the professional game. The grind often takes its toll on collegiate players in their first season.
"To me, the biggest thing will off-ice," Chorney said. "There are not as many people watching you all the time, you're just expected to do things, expected to conduct yourself as a professional.
"In college you have your coaches always telling you what you have to do. Here they tell you to be here at a certain time and if you're not, they just send you home."
Rookie camp concludes with tonight's game against the Canucks rookies and a game against a group of ACAC all-stars Thursday, both at the Encana Arena in Camrose.