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Servicing the Reno / Tahoe area, Batch Cupcakery offers a good selection for special diets including vegan cupcakes and new gluten-free, dairy-free paleo cupcakes. They also use coconut, olive, and canola oils in their cupcakes, so dairy-free can easily be accommodated via orders.
In addition to the cupcakes, Batch Cupcakery has a Milk Bar that includes dairy-free rice, soy, almond, and coconut milks.
Batch Cupcakery does deliver in the local area, and they are reportedly opening a new location in Incline Village at Lake Tahoe (their Squaw Valley location was closed). And yes, they do weddings!
Location: 555 S Virginia St 104 (MidTown), Reno, NV
Phone: (775) 336-1622
Website: www.batchcupcakery.com


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Bath TubsPosted by Alina on Monday Sep 15, 2008 Under Baby Products
In my five months of being a mom, I feel that I have tried out more baby bath tubs than average. At first I bought the Complete Care 4 Stage Bath Center by Safety 1st. This tub can be made longer or shorter by a sliding mechanism, however, because of this feature, this tub is impossible to fill with water beyond the depth of ~1/2 inch, thus making it impossible to submerge a child of any age. My son screamed and screamed whenever we tried to bathe him in it, probably because he was wet and feeling cold. As a gift, after purchasing the tub I just mentioned, I received a Eurobath by Primo. This tub has some protrusions built in for a reclined position as well as an upright sitting position, but the tub is HUGE. It is way too big to keep in our Manhattan apartment. Also, it did not work well for our son in the first couple of months of his life, because he just did not fit securely in the reclined portion.
After some research on the internet, I bought the Prince Lionheart washPOD. I'm pretty skeptical of any product that is advertised to be "like the womb…", but I was desperate to bathe my son without him screaming the whole time, so I bought this $28 plastic bucket. It has smooth edges and a seating insert. My son LOVED this tub. He was submerged in water up to his chest, he could feel the walls of the tub with his arms and legs, providing a feeling of containment and this was finally when all three of us really started to enjoy bath time. My son stopped crying and screaming, and my husband and I could finally relax and look forward to when "that time" in the evening came around. The manufacturer says this washPOD can be used until the child is 6 months old. Now at 5 months of age, our son is too big for it (he's 27.5 inches long), but it served us well and I'm really glad we bought it.
Since my son has outgrown the washPOD, I had to go searching once again. My newest purchase in the bathing category is the The First Years Sure Comfort Deluxe Newborn to Toddler Tub. It is wonderful. The tub is not too big. The baby can be reclined or sitting, depending on how he/she is facing. The tub also comes with a material sling that snaps on and is meant to hold a younger baby atop the water. I am able to fill the tub, so my son is submerged up to his chest and does not get cold. At the age of 5 months, we are using the reclined sitting side, but I'm sure he will prefer the upright sitting portion pretty soon. I have used it for about 3 weeks now and am very satisfied.

subset: commoncrawl


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These accidents were reported to Marion County law enforcement agencies:
Milepost 140 K-15 near 280th Road
Kevin Matthew Neufeld, 25, 410 W. Grand St., Hillsboro, was driving a 1999 Dodge Durango on K-15 at 11 p.m. July 8 when he left the roadway and drove through a cornfield owned by Greg Washmon, 615 180th Road, Hillsboro. Neufeld then attempted to exit the field and hit the bottom of the ditch, disabling the vehicle. The Dodge is registered to Suzanne Raney of Lawton, Okla.
500 block of South Ash Street, Hillsboro
A 2005 Chevrolet Trailblazer, driven by Sharon K., Prieb, 51, 549 250th Road, Lehigh, struck a 1999 Chevrolet pickup, owned by Randal Classen, 1806 Goldenrod Road, Hillsboro, at 12:40 p.m. July 12, as it backed from a space where the two vehicles were parked in the 500 block of South Ash Street, Hillsboro.
Indigo Road near 100th
Lindsey Jo Morford, 25, 1269 160th Road, Hillsboro, struck and killed a deer while driving north on Indigo Road in a 2004 Pontiac passenger vehicle, registered to Quentin A. Morford of the same address as driver, at 11 p.m. July 13. Katie Lynn Morford, 23, of the same address as driver, was a passenger in the vehicle.


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Three Stories and Ten Poems
Hemingway made a false start as a poet and his first collection Three Stories and Ten Poems received acclaim no doubt but it was only through experience that he discovered that his talent lay in fiction rather than in poetry. With the publication of The Torrents of Spring he simply declared his having come of age. He repudiated his imitation of Sherwood Anderson whom he had imitated in his early stories.
In Our Time
In Our Time is a collection of short stories and vignettes. The title comes from the Common Book of Prayer but the stories reveal that there is no "peace in our time". In this book he created a new character called Nick Adams and it is the experience of Nick Adams and other similar characters which form the staple of the book. Ministers are shot, lovers are separated, affairs come to an end, murders are committed, in short, the book deals with everything decent coming to an end. The sensitive critics had set high hopes on him and their hopes were not unjustified.
The Torrents of Spring
The Torrents of Spring is a parody of Sherwood Anderson's works in general and The Dark Laughter in particular. The book is not an organic part of Hemingway's works and it does not have any parallel whatsoever with any of his other works. It is simply a declaration of his coming of age. It need hardly be said that the book has an interest of its own but it does not reveal any other significant aspect of the writer except his art of parody, satire, wit and humour.
The San Also Rises
The Sun Also Rises is a story of a few American expatriates who were living in
after the War. They were all wounded -either physically or psychologically by the war. _The old pre-war values cannot give them the direction that they are looking for and in this lost world they are all lost souls. They drink heavily to quieten their inner voice. Sex for them has lost all its glamour and having the sex act is just like having a glass of beer or wine. Jake Barnes is a casualty of the First World War. He has been hit in the genitals and as a result of this accident he cannot have any sex life. Lady Brett Ashley is in love with him but because of his physical impairment they cannot consummate their love. She is a modern Don Juan, turned bitch. She has had a brief affair with Robert Cohn, a Jew, but it does not mean a thing to her. Robert Cohn thinks of her very highly and he follows her like a lamb wherever she goes. Once she has discarded him, Robert Cohn becomes a non-entity so far as she is concerned. All the dissolute gang moves to Paris in Pamplona to watch the fiesta in which there are bull-fights everyday. The characters enter into the spirit of the fiesta because this is what they have gone there for. There is an endless round of drinking throughout the week that they are there. In the bull ring there has arrived a new matador, Pedro Romero. Brett falls in love with him and they leave Spain for Pamplona without informing others. Robert Cohn who had fought with Romero feels as if he has been defeated by the invincible courage of the young bull-fighter. After this event Robert Cohn fades away from the scene. Madrid
Romero wants Brett Ashley to marry him, but she is much older than him. Consequently, she decides that she cannot ruin the young bull-fighter. She asks the young bull-fighter to leave her alone and sends a telegram to Jake Barnes to rescue her from the Madrid Hotel. Jake Barnes who had introduced Romero to Brett Ashley feels that he is guilty of violating his code. For this there is no remedy except to go and meet Brett Ashley in
. But somehow he has come to realise the limitations of his own existence and the only way out for him is to come to terms with life without love. Madrid
A Farewell to Arms
In 1929 Hemingway published A Farewell to Arms. The hook is about the First World War and it epitomizes the whole of the American response to the First World War. Lieutenant Frederic Henry who is working in the Red Cross goes through the unusual experience of the First World War which because of its mechanised nature takes away from war all the gory that had been attached to it. He falls in love with a British nurse, Catherine Barkley. Catherine is in a state of shock because her fiance had been shot to pieces in the war. Henry has no intention whatsoever of loving her but Catherine's devotion and love are so powerful that Henry eventually falls deeply in love with her. It is a new experience for him because what he was used to was the brief contact with women in brothels. Henry, like Hemingway, has been wounded badly in the war and when he is recouping in a
hospital, Catherine, who is also transferred to that hospital, looks after him physically as well as emotionally. The sweet nights in Milan lead to the inevitable result r Catherine becomes pregnant. Milan
Henry after his recovery returns to the, front but he cannot forget Catherine who is left alone to rough out her life in the rough world. During the retreat Henry at one stage is about to be shot by the battle police for having deserted his unit. He realises the stupidity of war and his inconsequential participation in that. He deserts the army by jumping into a river and when he reaches
he discovers that Catherine has already left for Stresa, a small town on the Italy-Switzerland border. He succeeds in joining her and the two lovers escape to Milan because the Italian police are after Henry. In Switzerland they have a brief spell of happy life but when Catherine is admitted to hospital for the birth of the child she cannot bear the child in the normal way. The doctors perform a Caesarean operation. The child is still-born. Finally, Catherine dies due to internal haemorrhage. Switzerland
Henry is left all alone in this wide world. The Hemingway hero will carry the scars of this fatal accident with him throughout his life. In this novel by killing Catherine in childbirth Hemingway perhaps reconciled himself to the loss of Agnes H. von Kurowski who had refused to marry him even though she had earlier promised to do so.
Death in the Afternoon
Hemingway's interest in bull-fighting dates to the early twenties when he was in
. He collected a lot of information on the art of bull-fighting, the famous bull-fighters of the period, the ethic of the bullring, and the dangers to which the bull-fighter was constantly exposed. Hemingway had also come to learn that death is the ultimate reality and it is only in the face of death that man realises his potentialities. He found in the bull-fighter a modern hero who could give meaning to his existence by the manner of his facing danger continually. All this material goes into the best book on bull-fighting in the English language, Death in the Afternoon. Paris
Green Hills of
In Green Hills of Africa he compares the life of the writer to that of the hunter. "First, there must be talent, much talent. Talent––such as Kipling had. Then there must be discipline. The discipline of Flaubert. Then there must be the conception of what it can be and of absolute conscience as unchanging as the standard metre in
, to prevent faking. Then the writer must be intelligent and disinterested and above all he must survive. Try to get all these in one person and have him come through all the influences that press on a writer. The hardest thing, because time is so short, is for him to survive, and get his work done." The book describes Hemingway's adventure in Paris Africa where he shot lions, buffaloes, deer of many sizes and varieties. He developed a love for Africa and in the African people he found a new inspiration because these people lived in close touch with nature and thus developed a harmonious relationship with it. The civilised man, particularly the western man, had alienated himself from nature and most of his experiences were rather superficial.
Two African Stories
Out of this African venture emerged two powerful short stories. The Short Happy Life of Francis Macomber and The Snows of Kilimanjaro.
To Have and Have Not
Hemingway has written in Green Hills of Africa : "If you serve time for, society, democracy, and the other things quite young, and declining any further enlistment make you, self responsible only to yourself, you exchange the pleasant, comforting of comrades for something, you could never feel in any way than yourself. That something I cannot define completely but the feeling, comes when you write well and truly of something and know impersonally you have written in that way and those who are paid to read it and report on it do hot like the subject so they say this is all fake." What Hemingway seems to be implying is that his earlier experience during the First World War had been enough to alienate him from the social set-up in which he was born and to which he owed allegiance. He seems to have struck out a new path for himself and he was hot going to involve himself in the dilemmas of society. This alienation lasted from 1919 to 1937. The writings of this period show Hemingway's disillusionment with war, love and the high ideals in whose praise politicians, reformers and economists had been eloquent. The depression of the Nineteen Thirties seems to have aroused Hemingway's consciousness and the result of three books : To Have and Have Not, The Fifth Column and For Whom the
Tolls. Thus his "separate peace" had come to an end. Bell
If we ignore The Torrents of Spring, To Have and Have Not is Hemingway's first attempt at delineating American society. It consists of three inter-linked stories in which Harry Morgan is the hero. In Part One, Harry Morgan becomes extremely poor because one of the rich business magnates had cheated him of his legitimate dues. He is forced to adopt questionable means to earn his, livelihood and in the process loses his arm and his boat. In Part Two he shows Harry Morgan's domestic life which is extremely happy. In contrast a number of other characters are shown to be unhappy. In the final section, Part Three, Harry agrees to carry a few Cubans out of the
. The Cubans get into a boat, which Harry has hired and on their way to United States , while attempting to kill the Cubans he is wounded fatally. Although he succeeds in killing the Cubans yet as his life-blood is gushing out he pontificates : "One man alone ain't got. No man alone now ... No matter now a man alone ain't got no bloody chance." It is a commentary on the extreme individualism that Hemingway had practised and preached in his earlier novels. He seems t) have accepted. the view that as man lives in society he must accept to work within the framework provided by the society and if there is any hope of improving the lot of the poor, it must be achieved through collective action. ; Singly a man has no chance whatsoever. However admirable the moral of the story may be, it does not stem naturally from the story. The moral is highly forced and critics have taken Hemingway to task for that. Cuba
The Fifth Column
The Fifth Column is a play set against the background of the Spanish Civil War. In Hemingway's own words : "Each day we were shelled by the guns beyond
and behind the folds of Garabitas hill, and while I was writing the play, Hotel Florida, where we lived and worked, was struck by more than thirty high explosive shells." The hero, Philip Rawley, an American, is a newspaper correspondent in Leganes . He is in love with a girl called Dorothy Bridges who is an upper middle-class American girl. She wants Philip to marry her and lead a life of domesticity. Philip unknown to Dorothy is deeply involved in the Civil War and he is fighting along with the Republicans. He is spying on behalf of the Republicans and even takes part in a raid on a Fascist outpost where they capture a Fascist politician. With his help they get the names of all the members of the Fifth Column within the city. They destroy them so that the insiders may not pass on any information to the Fascist forces outside. The action is on the pattern of `cop and robber' stories but the message that the author wants to convey is that human freedom is indivisible and if it is reduced somewhere it 'is reduced everywhere. Philip has enlisted himself in the cause for the "next fifty years". Dorothy, a brainless American woman, cannot understand that: To Dorothy's question why he won't go with her anywhere after their marriage he replies "I have been to all those places and I have left them all behind. And where I go now I go alone, or with others who go there for the same reason I go." Finally, he deserts Dorothy so that he is able to contribute his maximum to the cause of the Republic. Spain
For Whom the
Tolls Bell
For Whom the Bell Tolls is Hemingway's most ambitious novel. It narrates what happens in the life of an American volunteer, Robert Jordan, who has been assigned the task of blowing up a bridge in the hills. Robert Jordan on his arrival in the cave when: the guerrillas are staying, behind the Fascist lines, finds that they are disorganised, and not very keen to fight because they have found a home and the blowing up of the bridge will necessitate a move and threaten their security which they have found in the hills. However, among the guerrillas there are two important characters to support Robert Jordan. Pilar, the gypsy woman, and Anselmo think that whatever the price they must blow up the bridge. Pablo, Pilar's husband, who was once the leader of the Republicans in a small town, is sceptical of Robert Jordan's venture.
In the cave, besides other characters, there is a girl called Maria, who had been raped by the Fascists earlier. She had been rescued by Pilar but even though the physical wounds had healed the psychic. wound is still painful. Robert and Maria are attracted to each other. Pilar, the gipsy woman, because of a sixth sense realises that Robert Jordan's time is running out and he does not have much time to live. She instigates Maria to go to Robert Jordan's sleeping bag at night. Their meeting and love-making heal Maria's psychic wounds. The intensity of love that Robert Jordan and Maria experience is unrivalled in Hemingway elsewhere because it has a mystic quality in it.
One Fascist soldier on patrol duty comes near the cave and is t dead by Robert Jordan. Once this action has been taken it is inevitable that they will be discovered. Pablo steals detonators from Robert Jordan's bag thus making the act of blowing up the bridge almost impossible. He throws them away into the stream. But in his loneliness he is obsessed with the guilt of desertion. He returns but without the detonators. The Fascist planes in the meanwhile have destroyed El Sardo and his gang who are supposed to help Robert Jordan in blowing up the bridge. Even with these handicaps Robert Jordan succeeds in blowing up the bridge and he himself is safe. When the Fascist reinforcements arrive they shoot at the retreating guerrillas and Robert Jordan's horse is hit. With the fall of the horse Robert Jordan's thigh bone is broken and he has to decide whether he should stay there to cover up the retreat of his companions or to go with them and risk the security of the entire group. For Robert Jordan, Maria has become a symbol of
, freedom, love and Heal womanhood. In spite of Maria's entreaties Robert refuses to go with the guerillas because he has not only lived a full life but also in his stay lies the safety of the group. At the end of the book Robert Jordan is seen lying on a slope with his machine-gun aimed at the leader of the Fascist patrol. Spain
The book is extremely uneven in quality but one cannot deny Hemingway's talent in this book. In the opinion of certain critics when such momentous issues as democracy, fascism, human freedom, communism––in fact, the destiny of man––are being debated in the novel there is no room for an erotic relationship between Robert Jordan and Maria. They think that it is an interpolation. This was the last important novel written by Hemingway before the Second World War.
Across the River and Into the Trees
Across the River and Into the Trees is the story of Colonel, Cantwell. He is an ageing Colonel who suffers from a serious heart trouble. In
he enjoys duck-shooting, meets his very young beloved, Renata. drinks his favourite wines and liqueurs, and on his return quietly breathes his last. Throughout the book the Colonel gives went to his bitterness against the follies of war and his superiors. Renata is a dream girl who seldom comes to life. The Colonel exemplifies what a man ought to do in the face of death. It is a life of the senses which occupies an important place in Hemingway's philosophy of life. Venice
The book was pounced upon by critics and they declared that Hemingway as an artist was dead. The book has some merit but coming, as it does, from the pen of Hemingway it certainly is a climbdown. In this book Hemingway has failed to keep the aesthetic distance between himself and his hero.
The Old Man and the Sea
With the publication of The Old Man and the Sea, Hemingway retrieved some of his lost reputation: It is the story of an. old Cuban fisherman,
, who has been unlucky in not being able to catch any fish for eighty-four days. On the eighty-fifth day h goes out fishing all by himself far out into the sea. About he succeeds in striking a giant marlin. The fish is eighteen feet long two feet longer than the skiff in which Santiago is sailing. The fish starts towing the boat far into the sea because it will not surface until it tires. The fish does not surface for that day, that night, the next day and the next night. On the morning of the third day Santiago succeeds in killing the fish. He sets sail for the return journey. On the way the smell of the blood oozing out of the heart of the marlin attracts sharks. Santiago loses his harpoon in his first encounter with the sharks. He kills as many as he can with his improvised harpoon, club and oar. But they are too many and too powerful for him. Even though Santiago has not slept for two nights and practically survived on raw fish and on a bottle of water he wages a heroic battle against the sharks. In the process he doses every conceivable weapon and in the dark the sharks devour all the meat of the marlin, and all that Santiago is left with is the skeleton of the fish. When he returns to the island he carries his mast on his shoulder to his shack where he sleeps with his face downwards and his arms stretched. The next day Manolin, the boy who admires Santiago , sees him sleeping and cries, for his hands are bleeding and the old man is almost on the verge of death. Santiago wakes up and makes plans for the future but it is an illusion. Something broke in his chest during the ordeal against the sharks and it is not certain whether he would survive. Santiago
The story is extremely simple in plot and in its style of narration, but there was universal praise for the book. It won him a Pulitzer Prize for fiction. In 1954, he was awarded Nobel Prize for "his style forming mastery of the art of modern narration."
Islands in the Stream
Islands in the Stream is Hemingway's posthumously published 'latest novel. It is an inferior work of art but bridges the gap between Across the River and into the Trees and The Old Man and the Sea. Part I describes Thomas Hudson's life with his three sons who come to spend their holidays with him. They fill in a void in their father's life. Part II deals with
's sense of loss because his sons are killed : two in an automobile accident and the third by the Nazi anti-aircraft guns. It also delineates Hudson 's reconciliation with his first wife. Part III is an account of the chase of a Nazi submarine, and in the end the hero's death is inevitable. Hudson
Mary Hemingway has brought this novel out with the help of Philip Young, and Charles Scribner (Hemingway's publisher). It does not enhance Hemingway's reputation, and perhaps Hemingway knew it. There are deliberate leaks that some more posthumous novels are on their way.
Short Story Writer
Recently a collection of stories about the Spanish Civil War has been published. The stories had appeared in different magazines in the late Thirties. They again do not add to much, except the number of short stories, written by Hemingway and published, goes up.
During his life time Hemingway has been writing short stories .and in the opinion of certain critics he is a better short-story writer than a novelist. Among his best known short stories are : The Killers, A Clean Well-Lighted Place, The Short Happy Life of Francis Macomber, Old Man at the Bridge, Fifty Grand, The Undefeated, The Snows of Kilimanjaro, Hills Like White Elephants, Big Two––Hearted River, Soldier's Rome, etc., etc.
Most of these stories describe man's alienation from himself and from society. They either deal with war or violence or death and man's reaction to these crises. The virtues that Hemingway seems to admire in his characters in these stories are courage, endurance and zeal. In other words, the words that
utters with regard to himself : "A man can be destroyed but nor defeated" ––could be an epitaph for Hemingway's other characters as well. Santiago


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Sporty's Founder and Chairman Hal Shevers has created The Sporty's Foundation, a charitable organization to promote aviation education and safety initiatives with an emphasis on youth programs.
The foundation's first bequest was a $5,000 donation to the Aircraft Electronic Association's Educational Foundation. "Part of the AEA Foundation's charter is to provide educational opportunities through scholarships to students seeking careers in the avionics industry and that is exactly the type of program The Sporty's Foundation will support," Shevers said.
Sporty's has a long tradition of supporting aviation education initiatives, including Young Eagles, the AOPA Air Safety Foundation, the Boy Scouts of America and more.
"Whether it's future employees or new customers, all of us in the aviation industry have a stake in attracting young people to our industry," said Shevers. "We need to actively recruit young people in order to ensure our own future."
For more information:


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LES MISÉRABLES Returns to Washington's National Theatre, 12/12-30
Tickets for Cameron Mackintosh's new 25th anniversary production of Les Misérables are on sale now for the back-by-popular-demand Washington engagement at The National Theatre, beginning December 12 for three weeks only. The all new production of Les Misérables features glorious new staging and spectacular reimagined scenery inspired by the paintings of Victor Hugo.
Tickets are on sale via Telecharge.com or call (800) 447-7400. Ticket prices start at $58. Tickets go on sale at The National Theatre box office November 5. For groups of 15 or more, call (866) 276-2947. For more information, visit www.nationaltheatre.org.
The New York Times calls this Les Misérables "an unquestionably spectacular production from start to finish." The London Times hails the new show "a five star hit, astonishingly powerful and as good as the original." The Star-Ledger says "a dynamically re-imagined hit. ThisLes Misérables has improved with age" and NY1-TV proclaims "this new production actually exceeds the original. The storytelling is clearer, the perspective grittier and the motivations more honest. Musical theatre fans can rejoice: Les Miz is born again."
"I'm delighted that 25 years after Les Miz originally opened in London the audience for this marvelous show is bigger and younger than ever before," said producer Cameron Mackintosh. "Over the years I have seen many successful but visually different productions, so it has been exciting to draw inspiration from the brilliant drawings and paintings of Victor Hugo himself, integrated with spectacular projections. The new Les Miz is a magnificent mix of dazzling images and epic staging, driving one of the greatest musical stories ever told."
Based on Victor Hugo's classic novel, Les Misérables is an epic and uplifting story about the survival of the human spirit. The magnificent score of Les Misérables includes the classic songs "I Dreamed a Dream," "On My Own," "Stars," "Bring Him Home," "Do You Hear the People Sing?," "One Day More," "Empty Chairs at Empty Tables," "Master Of The House," and many more.
Cameron Mackintosh's new production of Boublil and Schönberg's Les Misérables has music by Claude-Michel Schönberg, lyrics by Herbert Kretzmer from the original French text by Alain Boublil and Jean-Marc Natel, additional material by James Fenton, and original adaptation by Trevor Nunn and John Caird. The original Les Misérables orchestrations are by John Cameron with new orchestrations by Christopher Jahnke and additional orchestrations by Stephen Metcalfe and Stephen Brooker. The production is directed by Laurence Connor and James Powell, designed by Matt Kinley – inspired by the paintings of Victor Hugo, with costumes by Andreane Neofitou and additional costumes by Christine Rowlands, lighting by Paule Constable, sound by Mick Potter, musical staging by Michael Ashcroft, and projections by Fifty-Nine Productions.
Les Misérables originally opened in London at the Barbican Theatre on October 8, 1985, transferred to the Palace Theatre on December 4, 1985, and moved to its current home at the Queen's Theatre on April 3, 2004, where it continues to play to packed houses. When Les Misérables celebrated its 21st London birthday on October 8, 2006, it became the World's Longest-Running Musical, surpassing the record previously held by Cats in London's West End.
In celebration of its 25th anniversary, the legendary musical Les Misérables made theatrical history with an international first – three different productions in London at the same time. The Original Production (still playing to packed houses at the Queen's Theatre), the acclaimed New 25th Anniversary Production at the Barbican (where the show originally premiered), and a celebratory concert at The O2 Arena. The O2 Concert was presented in over 500 cinemas throughout the United States on November 17, 2010, and is now available on Blu-ray DVD through Universal Studios Home Entertainment.
The Broadway production of Les Misérables originally opened at the Broadway Theatre on March 12, 1987, and transferred to the Imperial Theatre on October 17, 1990, running for 6,680 performances. The US National Tour began in November 1987, and visited more than 150 cities before closing in St. Louis, MO, in 2006. Broadway audiences welcomed Les Miz back to New York on November 9, 2006, where the show played the Broadhurst Theatre until its final performance on January 6, 2008. To date, Les Misérables remains the third longest-running Broadway production of all time.
Seen by nearly 60 million people worldwide in 42 countries and in 21 languages, Les Misérables is undisputedly one of the world's most popular musicals ever written, with new productions continually opening around the globe, with seven more currently scheduled. There have been 36 cast recordings of Les Misérables, including the multi-platinum London cast recording, the Grammy Award-winning Broadway cast and complete symphonic albums, and the soon to be released live recording of the New 25th Anniversary Production. The video of the 10th Anniversary Royal Albert Hall Gala Concert has sold millions of copies worldwide, making it one of the best-selling musical videos ever in the UK. There are more than 2,500 productions of the Les Misérables School's Edition scheduled or being performed by more than 125,000 school children in the UK, US and Australia, making it the most successful musical ever produced in schools. Cameron Mackintosh is currently developing the film of Les Misérables with Working Title and Universal.
For more information on the production, engagement dates, and locations please visit www.LesMis.com. For a video sneak peek of the New 25th Anniversary Production of Les Misérables, please visit www.LesMis.com/watch.


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|Patrice Baumel - "Roar" (Adana Twins remix) (8:16)
|サイド 2
|Adana Twins - "Aufstand Der Massen" (7:18)
Originally released back in 2009, Amsterdam scene stalwart Patrice Baumel's anthem "Roar" now gets a - pardon the pun - roaring main room rework (featuring one massive drop!) by Hamburg's favourite sons Adana Twins - hot off their latest Watergate Mix. This is the first EP stemming from the mix itself, and could easily be the standout track off the compilation. On the flip is the adrenalised and mesmerising dancefloor drama of "Aufstand Der Massen" which has already been in constant rotation with heavy hitters like Solomun and Tale Of Us.
Tell us what you think in the Facebook comments box below:


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Prayer of an Old Man for Rescue.
1 In You, O Lord, do I put my trust and confidently take refuge; let me never be put to shame or confusion! 2 Deliver me in Your righteousness and cause me to escape; bow down Your ear to me and save me! 3 Be to me a rock of refuge in which to dwell, and a sheltering stronghold to which I may continually resort, which You have appointed to save me, for You are my Rock and my Fortress. 4 Rescue me, O my God, out of the hand of the wicked, out of the grasp of the unrighteous and ruthless man. 5 For You are my hope; O Lord God, You are my trust from my youth and the source of my confidence. 6 Upon You have I leaned and relied from birth; You are He Who took me from my mother's womb and You have been my benefactor from that day. My praise is continually of You.
7 I am as a wonder and surprise to many, but You are my strong refuge. 8 My mouth shall be filled with Your praise and with Your honor all the day. 9 Cast me not off nor send me away in the time of old age; forsake me not when my strength is spent and my powers fail. 10 For my enemies talk against me; those who watch for my life consult together, 11 Saying, God has forsaken him; pursue and persecute and take him, for there is none to deliver him.
12 O God, be not far from me! O my God, make haste to help me! 13 Let them be put to shame and consumed who are adversaries to my life; let them be covered with reproach, scorn, and dishonor who seek and require my hurt. 14 But I will hope continually, and will praise You yet more and more. 15 My mouth shall tell of Your righteous acts and of Your deeds of salvation all the day, for their number is more than I know. 16 I will come in the strength and with the mighty acts of the Lord God; I will mention and praise Your righteousness, even Yours alone.
17 O God, You have taught me from my youth, and hitherto have I declared Your wondrous works. 18 Yes, even when I am old and gray-headed, O God, forsake me not, [but keep me alive] until I have declared Your mighty strength to [this] generation, and Your might and power to all that are to come. 19 Your righteousness also, O God, is very high [reaching to the heavens], You Who have done great things; O God, who is like You, or who is Your equal? 20 You Who have shown us [all] troubles great and sore will quicken us again and will bring us up again from the depths of the earth. 21 Increase my greatness (my honor) and turn and comfort me.
22 I will also praise You with the harp, even Your truth and faithfulness, O my God; unto You will I sing praises with the lyre, O Holy One of Israel. 23 My lips shall shout for joy when I sing praises to You, and my inner being, which You have redeemed. 24 My tongue also shall talk of Your righteousness all the day long; for they are put to shame, for they are confounded, who seek and demand my hurt.


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1ST LOOK: Jennifer Lopez, Wisin & Yandel in Acapulco
Here is our first look at Jennifer Lopez with Wisin y Yandel shooting the video for the song they collaborated on together.
Like we already mentioned, they shot in Acapulco and we hear that they literally halted all action in the city.
People stopped whatever they were doing to gather around and see the music stars do their thing.
It looks like such a sunny beautiful day so the black leather and sequins looks so out of place but we'll have to wait and see the end result before we judge.
Related posts:
Previous: Omega Accused of Hitting Reporter & Cameraman
Next: Zoe Saldaña's LA Home Broken Into


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Franchise news
Silver Award for TaxAssist Accountants
The TaxAssist Accountants franchise has announced that it has won the Silver Award at the bfa Franchisor of the Year Awards 2008. Sarah Robertson, business development director of TaxAssist Accountants received the award on behalf of the company at the gala luncheon held at the Sheraton Park Lane Hotel in London. The theme of this year's awards, which are sponsored by the Daily Express and HSBC, was "Now and then, five years on" and, the company says, required applicants to demonstrate how their business has developed over the past five years.
Having received the award, Sarah Robertson commented, "We have worked consistently to improve and enhance the support package for our franchisees and we are convinced we've got the best to offer in terms of training, support, marketing and brand name. Each year the results get better and we'll continue to strive for more – more franchisees, more clients and more initiatives to stay at the forefront of the accountancy profession."
Founded in 1995, TaxAssist Accountants has become one of the largest networks of accountants in the UK. The company specializes in providing its clients, which are primarily small businesses, with bookkeeping, payroll, tax and accountancy services. Each franchisee runs his or her own business and receives support from the TaxAssist Accountants Support Centre. According to the company, the network currently consists of over 160 franchisees.
TaxAssist Accountants (UK)
accountancy and taxation service
» to the franchisor
All news
28.07.2010 »
TaxAssist Accountants win Gold at the bfa Franchisor of the Year Awards
28.07.2008 »
09.06.2008 »


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put one's money where one's mouth is
Jump to navigation Jump to search
put one's money where one's mouth is
- To make or take a bet.
- (idiomatic) To take an obvious stake in the truth of a claim that one is making.
- 2011 September 23, Jason Palmer, "Light speed: Flying into fantasy", in BBC News[1]:
- "The scientists are right to be extremely cautious about interpreting these findings," said Jim Al-Khalili, a physicist from the University of Surrey, who suggested that a simple error in the measurement is probably the source of all the fuss..."So let me put my money where my mouth is: if the Cern experiment proves to be correct and neutrinos have broken the speed of light, I will eat my boxer shorts on live TV."


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Issue 22Uncategorized
She Never Liked Dresses
One Child's View of Transgenderism
She never liked dresses
those heels were too much
she'd always prefer
those sweatpants that'd bunch.
Her sneakers were dirty
same ones every day
she was born in the wrong body
no one knows she feels this way.
Hangs out with the guys
no friends that were girls
she never wanted to be like that
all giggles and twirls.
Locked in the bathroom
cut off all her hair
she was born as a female
but she doesn't care.
Her mother just yells
father says she's a freak
she can't take it now
she has reached her peak.
She sits down and cries
throwing one of brother's toys
"You don't understand!
I'm a boy! I'm a boy!"
When I first read this poem several months ago, I was struck by three things: first, immense pride in my niece, Daniella McNamee, age 12, who wrote the poem and so graciously allowed me to share it with you here. Next, by the profound sadness conveyed in its verses, a sadness often cited by trans children who suffer everyday as they struggle to live authentic lives in the gender of their birth; and last, by the level of compassion so evident in the writing, which I know comes so naturally to Danni, who is, to my knowledge, not transgender, but rather, kind, loving and accepting of all people for what and who they are.
Unfortunately, this is not always the case. There is no need for me to lay out statistics here about the suicide rates for transgender youth, the frequency of attacks by bashers on gender-different individuals, or the continued existence of discriminatory laws that fail to protect the basic rights of transgender people. As readers of a GLBT publication, you are already undoubtedly aware of such things and eager to find new ways to combat them.
So, as we approach the annual Transgender Day of Remembrance, a solemn day that reminds us that transgender people are so often the victims of discrimination, bullying, harassment, and violence, let's think for a moment about how to tap into our children's natural tendency toward inclusion and use it to make not merely tolerance, but full acceptance of others' differences the rule rather than the exception. Perhaps we could begin by including gender diversity along with gender equality as early as the preschool years.
I spent twelve years as a day care operator. As a licensed provider, one of the regulations I was required to follow had to do with diversity and inclusion. We were mandated to have multi-ethnic dolls available to the children, to have all races included in posters and other classroom décor, and to include disability as a part of our diversity curriculum. We were also required to ensure that boys and girls had equal access to toys and games that were traditionally seen as gender specific, making sure, for example, that boys were given the opportunity to play with dolls or household/cooking toys and girls could play with cars and tools if they so desired.
When children begin receiving messages of equality and inclusion at a young age, these concepts become so ingrained in their personalities that there is no room for bias and bigotry to gain a foothold should the child encounter such attitudes at home or elsewhere. It would be so easy to add basic transgender-affirming language to the discussions we have with children regarding diversity, acceptance and fairness. A comment such as "…and sometimes girls feel that they really should be boys, and boys feel like they are actually girls inside" added to the standard "Girls can grow up to be construction workers if that's what they like to do, and boys can become stay-at-home dads if they want to" can be just the affirmation that transgender children and their peers need to hear in order to feel good about themselves and their friends. Imagine the impact something so simple could have!
By Chris McNamee


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SNS Dips
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I think this image is sooo cute- I love that little guy serving his mother breakfast in bed AND look in the left hand corner... he walked by a spider! Yikes! lol!
Well, that's all for now... enjoy your day and thanks so much for stopping by!
Challenges I would like to enter:
Craftin Desert Divas- Mother's Day
Get Creative- For the Ladies or Mother's Day
Little Red Wagon- Distress It!
Lunagirl Moonbeams- Mother
Make it Monday with Kraft Outlet- Mother's Day + Kraft CS
Pile It On- Mother's Day/For a Lady
Perfectly Rustics- Use 3 of something (3 flower & 3 pearls)


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NYCC Exclusive: FIVE GHOSTS' Frank Barbiere Haunts Dark Horse For Two New Series
It looks like Dark Horse believes in ghosts… Five Ghosts, that is. The Oregon-based independent publisher just announced that Five Ghosts writer Frank Barbiere will be writing two new miniseries series titled Blackout and The White Suits. Blackout follows a superhero who lucks into the possession of a special suit that gives him the ability to travel in and out of our dimension at will, and the ramifications of him having these abilities. The White Suits is a time-spanning action drama about a group of assassins known as the White Suits who have their roots in pre-WW2 Russian but now show up in modern day New York to corner the market on crime.
Both Blackout and The White Suits made their comics debuts earlier this year as shorts inside the anthology series Dark Horse Presents, and now we talk to the Brooklyn-based Barbiere about taking these two stories to a new level.
Newsarama: The White Suits returns to comics, but for many this is the first time they're seeing it. So, Frank, what can you tell us about The White Suits?
Frank Barbiere: The White Suits is a visually arresting action/crime comic series by Toby Cypress & myself. Aesthetically, the book is mainly black & white with splashes of color or a colored page here and there. Toby is an amazing artist and is extremely unique—I think art fans are going to go crazy over his kinetic style.
Nrama: How'd you get to work with Toby Cypress on this new series?
Barbiere: I've been a fan of Toby's for quite some time. He had done a book called Rodd Racer that absolutely blew me away a few years back, and he was just always on my "dream list" of collaborators. I reached out to him and he had room in his schedule, so we were off to the races!
Nrama: How does this tie in to the earlier The White Suits stories you've done for Dark Horse Presents?
Barbiere: The Dark Horse Presents stories are in-continuity prologues/prequels that flesh out our narrative a bit. Everything in the shorts is revisited in some way in the main story—part of the fun of it is seeing how details from the shorts affect our main story!
Nrama: I've heard of men in black, but who are the White Suits?
Barbiere: The story revolves around an enigmatic gang of killers known as the White Suits. This gang has a rich and varied history, first appearing in cold war era Russia, and has resurfaced in the present day in New York City where they are slowly taking over criminal territory and slaughtering anyone in their way. Our two lead characters are people who've had their lives touched by the Suits and want revenge.
Toby has done a wonderful job of rendering real locations in his style, so NYC natives will definitely see more than one familiar location.
Nrama: Can you tell us more about this story – who are the two leads and how were they affected by the White Suits?
Barbiere: The two leads are Sarah Anderson, an FBI agent who suspects the White Suits are responsible for the mysterious disappearance of her father, and a man known only as Prizrak--an ex-member of the Suits who is currently suffering from retrograde amnesia, but remembers being executed by the Suits.
Nrama: What would you say the tone or style of this series is?
Barbiere: It's definitely a crime story with a lot of noir influence. We've mixed that up with a lot of action to keep it driving, so I think it's very much a fun hybrid.
Nrama: In addition to The White Suits, you're also doing another book for Dark Horse – a new superhero series called Blackout. Just who or what is Blackout?
Barbiere: Blackout is a young man named Scott Travers. Scott is very much an "everyman" who is thrown into an extraordinary situation—he comes into possession of a special suit that gives him unique abilities.
Nrama: And where does that lead Scott Travers for this series?
Barbiere: The new story follows Scott as he recovers from the events in our Dark Horse Presents story. We see some direct ramifications of Scott's actions, meet some new characters, and of course are introduced to some new threats for Scott to deal with.
Nrama: I've been told Blackout was originally created by Dark Horse founder Mike Richardson. How'd you get involved, and what made this a project you wanted to do?
Barbiere: I'd been working with editor Chris Warner developing The White Suits and he tossed me the project. It's been a real honor to work on a premise/character developed by Mike Richardson, and I'm excited that Blackout is such a unique and fun character. Mike has come up with a number of great characters to populate the Dark Horse universe and it's certainly a thrill to be involved, especially considering the great reception the super hero books have gotten.
Nrama: One of the coolest part about superheroes is their powers; just what are Blackout's?
Barbiere: The Blackout suit allows the wearer to open a portal into a hidden dimension within our own (which we lovingly refer to as "the Blackout dimension"). Scott can travel through this parallel dimension as if if were our own, but he is unseen and untouchable. This gives the illusion of being able to disappear or appear out of nowhere. We've already explored some fun possibilities with these abilities (such as using them to defend against attacks and laser blasts), but there's a lot more in store for the new series.
Nrama: How does this new miniseries connect to the Blackout short you wrote for Dark Horse Presents?
Barbiere: The new series will be accessible for anyone (and you don't have to read the short to understand it), but the series takes place directly after the Dark Horse Presents stuff and builds on it accordingly.
Nrama: Last question: Some of Dark Horse's other superhero titles seem interconnected; does Blackout play in that same universe?
Barbiere: Dark Horse is definitely building to something cool and we might see Blackout appear alongside other DH characters in the future!


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The brand's redefine range is a form of a skin care regimen that uses peptide technology and cosmetic ingredients to reduce and defend against the signs of aging. The results are a fairer, smoother and a flawless skin tone. The entire regimen is a comprehensive two months course, which involves the use of 4 different types of products to effectively enhance the skin tone. Below is the Rodan and fields redefine review.
Find What You Are Looking For Below:
How To Apply Redefine
The redefine regimen consists of a four-step program, which goes on for about 60 days. Initially a four-step program may sound intimidating to the users, but it is in fact cost effective. The entire process of applying the products takes only 10 minutes in total. Within only three or four days, you are sure to notice positive visible results. (For more reviews on Rodan and Fields products click here.)
The first step in the program is the cleansing mask,
which has to applied daily. The cleansing mask is a non-foamy type of facemask. The small granules are best for polishing the skin. The facemask cleans the clogged pores, removes the dead skin, and purifies the face without any stripping.
The skin is left feeling supple, soft, and clean. Before applying the facemask, it is essential to remove the make up using a makeup using a makeup remover. You have to apply a pea-sized amount on your fingertips and cover the entirety of the face with a layer of the mask. wash it off after leaving it on for two minutes.
The ingredients of the face cleansing mask is Kailin, water, titanium dioxide, cetyl alcohol, sodium lactate, potassium hydroxide, stearic acid, Xanthum gum and fragrance for the smell.
The second step of the program is to us the pore minimization toner.
The toner leaves the skin balanced and feeling hydrated, supple, and soft. After a long day out in the pollution, the dirt and the sweat can be physically removed using the toner. After the facemask, the toner should be applied on the neck and the face using a gauze pad and avoiding the area of the eyes.
After allowing it to dry, rinse it off. The ingredients of the toner are lactobionic acid, water ginseng root extract, citric acid, ammonium hydroxide, licorice root extract, castor oil, lentil seed extract, and fragrance to make the smell appealing.
The third step is the triple defense treatment broad-spectrum SPF 30 day cream.
It is an effective daily moisturizer, which is fast absorbing and lightweight. The sunscreen does not leave behind a white caste, which makes the face appear ugly. The cream dissipates soon after application and offers a high degree of protection from the sun.
The quarter-sized amount should be take on the fingertips and rubbed on your face in a circular manner. The ingredients include 2.5% Homosalate, 3% Avobenzene and 2.7% octocrylene as the active ingredients and water, glycerin, hydrolyzed silk, silica, olive fruit extract, butylene glycol and glyceryl stearate as the inactive ingredients .
The overnight cream has a very thin consistency and is a hydrating treatment cream for nighttime.
The cream will leave your skin feeling soft, supple and give it a luminescence.
This cream can achieve what only beauty oils can achieve. This cream should be applied at night before going to bed. The ingredients of the restorative night cream include caprylyl glycol, hydrolyzed sericin, titanium dioxide, polysorbate 20, water and glycerin.
Are There Any Side effects
In case of extra sensitive skin the potassium hydroxide in the morning cream may cause rashes on the forehead. Redefine regimen is for those people who have less sensitive skin and whose skin is not overly prone to dryness . Other than minor irritation on rare cases, the products from the redefine range have no major side effects and are easy to use.
Does Redefine Really Work?
*Results may vary from person to person.
Until you use the products from the redefine line you will not know how dehydrated your skin is. After using the products, you will notice the dewy younger looking skin and amazing texture. You will not find the need to use foundation after using the redefine products.
What is more, while promoting the products from the redefine range, you will receive additional discounts while purchasing. The rodan and fields redefine review from the users has been astounding.


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Goan Clove Opening Hours
365 or 366 days a year,
Check in time : 12:00 PM onwards
Check out time : before 10:00 AM
Everyone is welcome at Goan Clove, from builders to Honeymoon Couples, party animals to Bike riders. But we aren't very fond of horrible people. Our ground rule is to have fun but be friendly, loving and kind.
We would like you to feel at home with us and like most homes we haves some rules:
– Don't take it or break it
We really care about our stuff, so we wouldn't want you to take it or break it, if you do so, you will need to pay replacement costs. If you are found stealing we will have to tell on you. Since we are so attached, the emotional damage can be pretty high.
– Swimming Pool
Usage of Swimming Pool shall be charged @ Rs 150 per person/kid per day. Between 9 AM till 5 PM. The usage of swimming pool shall be entirely the guest responsibility.
– To smoke or not to smoke?
You may smoke in your rooms and designated public spaces. Use of drugs, possession and selling of any kind is not tolerated in any part of GoanClove. If you do so, you will do at your risk and consequences, Goa Police is very strict on Drug substance users and peddlers.
– Allow us to strip… search
There is the possibility that you will be asked to be strip searched, to protect the general safety of everybody. If you are found with a weapon or any illegal substances you will be escorted off the premises immediately. Honestly.
– Neighbors are shy
Kindly wear proper cloths in and around the Hotel premises, our Neighbors are very shy.
– Park it straight
You must park your vehicle/bicycle in a designated area in a way that does not obstruct others (like your driving instructor taught you). Otherwise, you risk your vehicle being towed away and that costs a lot.
– Be kind to the neighbors
You must think about the neighbors inside and out, let them sleep between 22.00pm and 08.00am. If you want to party, there are plenty of places in Goa / Vagator.
– Play by the rules
Visitors who do not stick to the rules of Goan Clove can be denied entry or asked to leave. The hotel reserves the rights to cancel the booking /stay, in case the guest is found to be creating nuisance / disturbance to other guest/ not complying the rules and stay policies of hotel. In such circumstance, the Hotel shall retain the entire payment of stay and no refund shall be made whatsoever.
– Breakfast
Breakfast ( Limited Menu) shall be served as per CP plan from 8 AM up to 10 AM only with Room Service, any further order of breakfast shall be charged @ Rs 150 per person/ child. Any other plan with meals will also have limited meals per person as per our Menu made.
– Use / Misuse / Abuse of Unlimited Free Internet
We are just providers of the complementary facility, any use / misuse/ abuse of Internet shall be your' s and shall be governed by Indian Cyber Security laws and provisions. In case of Non-working of Internet, no refund or claim shall be entertained.
– Rooms not available kind of condition
In case due to some unavoidable circumstances, room at Goan Clove cannot be allocated to the guest, the guest shall be accommodated at an appropriate hotel in the vicinity which the hotel feels deemed fit. Under any circumstances the booking cannot be cancelled by the guest and no refund shall be made whatsoever.
– Power Failure
In case of Power failure / AC or any other equipment not working, the hotel shall not be held responsible for the same and no refund shall be made.
– God Save us all
In case of any unfortunate accident to the guest or group members in the hotel premises including swimming pool, the hotel shall be not held responsible in any circumstance.
– Booking done through OTA's ( Cleartrip/Yatra/Expedia/Agoda) or Agents ( XYZ Travels, ABC Vacations)
In case the guest has done his/her booking from any Agent/Booking portal other than Goan Clove all grievances are to be addressed to the respective agents no direct complaints/refunds will be entertained. All disputes are subjected to Mumbai jurisdiction only.
– Surprise Guest / Intruders
From 10pm to 8 Am No outside guest will be permitted in the Room allotted to our guest. If a person known to our guest is found during this time the Hotel reserves the right to charge extra person charges at our own discretion.
– Night – Light Insects / Mosquitoes Avoid
Keep the windows /doors closed between 6PM to till you wake up,
– Save power – Save Nation
Switch off all the Electrical switches/ Air-conditioning / Geyser when leaving the room or not in use.
– Housekeeping
Housekeeping will be done once a day between 9 AM to 5PM .Kindly co-operate. 1 Towel each person will be provided once a day. Bed sheet & other linen will be changed once in 3 days (can be done earlier on special request).Guest are requested not to take towels to the Pool/ Beach
– Complementary
1 Bottle of Mineral water is complimentary per person/day. Tea/Coffee is also complimentary but will be limited as per hotel rules.
– In case of Flight / Train delay/ missed the flight / Train / Bus
Reservations will be deemed as guarantee on confirmed booking up to 1800 hours only. However, a booking confirmation number will ensure that your reservation is held on a definite basis, up to your actual time of check-in, on the day of reservation.
We in to business of Hospitality and we have some fixed cost which is required to run the operation, and also we are empathic to our Guest and their any valid reason for cancellation and shortening their stay. Hence below is our refund and cancellation policy
Online Hotel Reservation Service does not charge any cancellation fee for rooms that have not been confirmed. However once your room has been confirmed, you are subject to the cancellation policies as explained below.
Modification Charges: A Fees of Rs 400 / USD 10 will apply to the booking. (Any reduction in the number of nights or rooms or booking amount will be termed as cancellation and cancellation charges will apply accordingly).
The cancellation policy below applies to all bookings. It must be clearly understood that any policies dictated by the hotel will always take precedent over the policy stated here. We will of course inform you clearly and completely if this is the case with your booking.
Cancellation Charges:
Note: All Refund Transfer charges shall be charged from guest account, If any.
Cancellation Procedure: Cancel by sending us an e-mail to email@example.com with the word "CANCEL" in the subject line and quoting your name and arrival date and booking confirmation number. Our utmost concern is that you get maximum refund back. Failure to do so will result in you being subject to the conditions described above so it is imperative that you let us know as early as possible. Extension of stay: Be sure to make your reservation for the full duration of your stay. If you do need to extend your booking after arrival, you will need to contact our Reservations office as the hotel will not offer you these discount prices (Hotel may charge you rates applicable as on date).
Shortening your stay: Goan Clove offers some flexibility with regard to this issue. However, as a facilitator Goan Clove has to abide by the hotel policies. You have to e-mail or fax to the hotel 14 days before arrival, clearly specifying the dates of shortening your stay and the refund amount from the hotel. Otherwise, you shall be charged as per the actual number of nights as mentioned at the time of advance booking
No Show (Non-use of reservation): In case you do not utilize your reservation and fail to contact us to cancel it in a stipulated time period as specified above, we would not be in a position to return you any amount pertaining to your booking. The reason for this is that the room in the hotel is booked in your name, and the hotel cannot let the room be occupied by anyone else. The room is held unoccupied upto 48 hours. Thus, even if you do not show up the hotel will charge room reservation charges from us.
No cancellation or refund for the booking during Dec 15 ~ Jan 15.
We presume that the guest has read and understood all the hotel policies before check in.
We are located near to Vagator Beach, next to the lively Baga and Anjuna Beach, the markets on Arpora. Click pin to find us, like a treasure map. Using Public Transport? Goan Clove is located on Vagator Beach Road, ahead of Anjuna Petrol Pump and before the famous Mango Tree Restaurant, look out for White color 2 story building. From Airport / train station you may take Govt authorized prepaid taxi or auto to reach our Hotel.


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California's Proposition 65 (or "Prop 65" as it is often referred to) requires companies doing business in California to notify consumers of potentially hazardous chemicals present in their products and packaging. For products that may cause significant exposure to listed compounds, the warning label must state that the product "contains chemicals known by the State of California to cause cancer or reproductive harm." A proposition 65 label can cause consumers to seek alternative products, ultimately hurting sales.
Demonstrating compliance can be a daunting task for manufacturers and retailers selling their products in California. With almost 900 listed chemicals of concern in the Proposition 65 List of Chemicals, frequent changes to the list, and varying thresholds by product and substance, manufacturers need expertise and precision testing to meet Prop 65 requirements and avoid potential fees and litigation.
Manufacturers and retailers that sell in California, need to perform due diligence to determine if products require Proposition 65 labeling. UL's customers rely on our toxicology and chemical testing expertise to help assess their risk of having chemicals of concern in their products.
- Product Line and Supply Chain Assessment – UL will review raw material and component supply chains to determine the likelihood that chemicals of concern may be present. We make recommendations on supplier requirements and test programs to help monitor the presence of listed chemicals and mitigate risk in the supply chain.
- Chemical Emissions Testing – UL uses dynamic environmental chamber technology to detect and measure the chemicals that a product emits, providing measurable, verifiable data – the first step in meeting Prop 65 requirements.
- Chemical Testing – Around the world to conduct testing for the chemicals listed within the Prop 65 regulation in products and raw materials.
- Exposure Assessments – For products that include one or more listed compounds, UL's technical experts can perform an exposure assessment. An exposure assessment evaluates how much of a substance a person inhales, ingests or absorbs through the skin. Our product toxicology experts work with manufacturers to determine reasonable usage of their products to assess if exposure above the save harbor level is likely.
- Safe Harbor Level Development – For chemicals that do not have a safe harbor level established by the state of California, UL's toxicology experts can develop a reference level for use in the exposure assessment.
Do your products require a label under the Prop 65 regulation? Safe products are paramount to long-term business success, a strong brand and happy, loyal consumers. Protect your brand, differentiate your products, mitigate risk, and demonstrate your commitment to the safety and health of your consumers with UL's Prop 65 Compliance solutions.
- Reduce Risk
- Reach Health-Conscious Buyers
- Sell Safer Products
By working with UL to conduct Prop 65 testing, manufacturers help ensure that they are offering a safer, more sustainable product. They also benefit from testing and evaluation by a third party trusted by green and health-conscious buyers. UL has the expertise and capabilities to offer complete assessment, evaluation, testing and consulting services, allowing manufacturers the convenience of working with a single partner for all their needs. To learn more about California Proposition 65 and UL's Proposition 65 Solutions, send an email to email@example.com or call the phone numbers below. We look forward to helping you understand Proposition 65 testing requirements and the Prop 65 testing labs that meet your needs.
Contact Us
For more information about UL's Prop 65 Solutions, contact us at:
Greater China
Japan, Korea


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Continental and Women's Pro Team Registration FAQ
Waugh serves as the independent auditor that certifies each team is set up to meet the established USAC and UCI rules. They'll look to be sure each contract contains the necessary elements of legality, confirm each team abides by the U28 rule at all times, that the percentage of Americans is correct, etc.
In the interest of fairness to all the registering teams, Waugh & Goodwin, LLP charges a flat rate of $800 for the pre-season UCI registration. Each time a team is re-audited during the season, the cost is $125 per rider added to the roster.
Each rider must have a license issued by the national federation in the country they reside in. This means that if you have a foreign (non U.S. citizen) rider who lives and competes in the United States, he must purchase his Professional license from USA Cycling*. Our international license fees are much less expensive than many countries, although there are certainly exceptions.
All team support staff (director sportif, assistant director sportif, mechanic, soigneur, team doctor) must own a UCI Support License in order to participate in or work at a UCI calendar event. The national federation in the country where the staff person resides must also issue these licenses. It is very important that the team manager, director sportif, and director sportif adjoint are properly licensed and listed on the UCI website. You will find that many commissaires will not allow a person other than the UCI registered director sportif to drive a vehicle in the caravan nor represent the team at tepam meetings.
* UCI rules specify that it is the federation where a rider lives, not the federation of the rider's citizenship, that issues licenses. It is assumed that if you have a foreign rider on your team, that rider will be residing in the United States for more than half the year. That makes it our responsibility, per UCI rules, to issue the license. However, some federations provide an insurance product that may be superior to what the rider can obtain here. For that reason, some riders need to retain the license of their home federation. This creates problems for us due to our need to adequately track riders and maintain them in the USADA pool. For this reason, any foreign rider on your team who plans to maintain his international license from his home federation will have to purchase a USA Cycling domestic license at a minimum. This is a last resort, however. It is much preferable that all your riders have USA Cycling professional licenses.
USA Cycling does not test nor adjudicate any doping violations. Testing and adjudication are carried out by the respective agency. USA Cycling will carry out any sanction. It is the team's and rider's responsibility to know the rules and the list of prohibited substances. This information is on the UCI website and the USADA website.
For any non-UCI race in the United States, the team manager or rider will receive a fine sheet from the Chief Referee. This fine should not be paid on site. When the Chief Referee turns in a fine sheet, we log the fine into our database, which sends an email to the rider informing them of the fine and telling them they have 10 days to pay it. If payment is not received within the 10 days, they are automatically suspended and an email is sent informing them of that. Please keep track of your riders' fines, as all of this is handled automatically from our end once we receive the notice of the fine from the Chief Referee.
- They can ride UCI races with your team.
- They can ride a UCI race as part of the USA national team if your team is not participating.
- They can ride domestic races in the United States.
For answers to any other team registration questions, contact Shawn Farrell (719.434.4264 or 719.229.0732).
This Article Updated October 2, 2014 @ 02:45 PM For more information contact:


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I am curious why you chose France. It has been many years since I was there and I was favorably impressed by the art and culture but was put off by how rude people were in the big cities. They really did not like foreigners of any nationality. I was in France for three weeks this summer, and didn't find that to be any more true than anywhere else in the western world -- people are nearly always nicer to strangers in the countryside than the big city. If a Frenchman spent half a trip in rural New York state and half in New York city I'm sure he'd say something similar.But even in Paris people were friendly enough. Now there are some cultural differences -- if you expect quick service, even at McDonalds, you're insane but it's not like the locals get treated differently.Doug
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Paul Wesley Morasch Sr. 1918 - 2008 Edwardsville
Paul Wesley Morasch Sr.
Paul Wesley Morasch Sr., 89, of Edwardsville, died Saturday, Feb. 9, 2008, while in the company of his family at the Leavenworth VA Medical Center's Nursing Home. Services will be at 9:30 a.m. Thursday, Feb. 14, 2008, at the Alden-Harrington Funeral Home in Bonner Springs, KS. With burial to follow in the Leavenworth VA National Cemetery. Visitation was Wednesday at the funeral home. The family suggests memorial contributions to the Shriner's Crippled Children's Hospitals in care of the funeral home.
Mr. Morasch was born Dec. 17, 1918 in Kansas City, Kan., and lived most of his life in this area. He went into the Civilian Conservation Corp. at age 16 and then joined the U.S. Army at age 22 in 1940. While he was attached to the 2nd Division he was captured during the battle of the Bulge on Dec. 18th, 1944. On April 30, 1945 he was liberated by the British from Stalag 10B. He finally returned home on June 9, 1945. After his return he opened and ran many auto repair shops, worked at Feld Chevrolet and then retired from BPU in 1980. He moved to Texas shortly thereafter and lived there until his return to Kansas City in late 2006. He was a member of the 15th Infantry Regiment, 3rd Infantry Division, American Ex-Prisoners of War, Delaware Masonic Lodge, Kerrville Masonic Lodge, American Legion, Disabled American Vets, Abdallah Shrine, Alzafar Shrine, The Veterans of Foreign Wars, Hill Country High Twelve, Eagles, and also performed 17 years of volunteer service at the Kerrville, Texas, Veterans Hospital.
He was preceded in death by his Wife, Marie, in 2006 and five of his children, Phillip, Tom, Kenny, Georgia and Perry. He is survived by five children, Paul W. Morasch Jr., Belton, Mo.; James G. Morasch of Edwardsville; Terri Davis of Basehor; Richard Leslie of Kansas City, Kan.; and Kay Rebolkaba, Placerville, Calif.; one sister, Ruby Frazier of Wichita, Kan.; and two brothers, Merle Morasch, Kansas City, Kan.; and Arthur Morasch, Overland Park. There are 19 grandchildren and 17 great-grandchildren.
Arrangements: Alden-Harrington Funeral Home, 214 Oak St. Bonner Springs KS 66012, 913-422-4074.
- E-mail this obituary
- Contact Alden-Harrington Funeral Home by phone: 913-422-4074


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Just wish to pass on my congratulations to the technician at JAX Artarmon who carried out the wheel balance and alignment on my Alfa Romeo Giulietta the week before last. Driving from Sydney to Tamworth yesterday via M1 was an absolute delight with perfect steering and not the slightest hint of steering wheel vibration. I would like to bring my Audi Q3 to the same technician next month. Regards Wayne - Very Satisfied Customer
Name: Wayne
Location: Artarmon, NSW.


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Adult Degree has a limited number of seats open in courses that fulfill the Sociology/Anthropology requirement for Human Development majors. Might we suggest taking one of the following Fall courses instead? We will be offering 3 sections of Hum Dev 346: Culture, Development, and Health. If you take this, it wouldn't be able to doublecount as your gender/cultural diversity course or additional advanced coursework course. You could instead take Socio 307: Social Theory, Socio 310: Urban Sociology, or DJS 348: Gender and the Law. You would need to send a course substitution form to Dr. Burns once you've registered for one of these courses in order to have it count as your sociology/anthropology course.
Category Archives: Internet Courses
Don't Forget Summer Classes
Not enough options for you for fall? Don't forget about summer! Human Development and Psychology both have a number of offerings, many of which are online. There is also an online section of Social Science Statistics (COMM SCI 205). Act now if you are interested. Registration for these courses opened in January, and some options are closed at this point.
Breaking News: How to Avoid Error Messages and Registration Frustration with Internet Courses
Most internet courses for Spring 2013 (those offered through the Adult Degree Program) now have a new section number system. As you look at the course listing, all offerings have a class number (e.g., HUM DEV 345), but they also have a section number (e.g., 0001, 1200) and an SIS number (e.g., 3264 – the number you enter in SIS to register). These internet classes now have two sets of section and SIS numbers. They have both a 1200 and an 1800 section number, but those actually refer to the SAME CLASS. Confused? Just stay with me, and I'll try to explain using the example below of Prof. White's Human Sexuality class. These two entries are actually for one class taught by Prof. White. The class as a whole is capped at 40 students, and 15 of those seats are assigned to section 1200, with 25 seats assigned to section 1800. Again, though, it's the same class. However, students need to register for different "sections" depending on who they are. Section 1200 is open ONLY to IST majors in the Adult Degree program, so it is listed as "open", but it is really only open to those IST/Adult Degree students. Section 1800 is for all other students BUT there is a priority registration for Bellin Nursing students until Dec. 5th, so all other students (probably most of you reading this!) will not be able to get into the class until that date. You can, however, waitlist yourself for the class once your registration appointment day/time arrives, and I would encourage you to do so if you really want to enroll in one of these internet courses. The sooner you waitlist, the higher on the list you will likely be. The key, though, is that you can ONLY waitlist yourself for the 1800 section number. If you try to waitlist for the 1200 section number, you will get a message saying you don't meet pre-requisites (because you are not an IST student). The good news here is that you should not have to contact the instructor for permission to register for 1800 sections of these classes once the priority registration period has passed on December 5th. Consult with your advisor if you have any questions.
HUM DEV 345 Human Sexuality 3264 1200 LEC 3 Open Internet White, James M
HUM DEV 345 Human Sexuality 3790 1800 LEC 3 Reserved Internet White, James M


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Art in Vienna 1898-1918
Art in Vienna 1898-1918
By Peter Vergo
The artistic stagnation of Vienna at the end of the nineteenth century was rudely shaken by the artists of the Secession. Their works at first shocked a conservative public; but their successive exhibitions, their magazine "Ver Sacrum", and their application to the applied arts and architecture soon brought them an enthusiastic following and wealthy patronage. This book traces the course of this development, of the Wiener Werkstatte that followed, and the individual works of the artists concerned. Peter Vergo quotes extensively from the writings of contemporary reviewers, critics and the artists themselves. He has eyewitness accounts of the exhibitions, the opening of the Secession building, the work in progress on the Palais Stoclet and Kabarett Fledermaus. The result is a documentary study of the successes and failures, hopes and fears of the members of an artistic movement which is still admired today.
285 pages
150 color images, 75 black & white images
Phaidon Press, 2015
10.2 x 1.1 x 11.8 inches


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Home improvement loans
FHA and Fannie Mae offer loans for home energy improvements. The FHA's PowerSaver program allows those homeowners who are eligible to borrow up to $25,000 for "green" improvements, while Fannie Mae has an add-on program to mortgages specifically for energy-improvement. You can read all about these two loans at the Los Angeles Times.


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Orange Krush & Time Machine 4 x 4 Pulling Team, 6200 lb Class Modified Truck
Hauler for sale
1986 IH DT 466, 5+2spd, 4.10 gear, AC, Air Brakes, Air Ride Seats
New Front Tires
Living area, shower, microwave, furnace,
Aluminum ramps, 8,000lb winch,
Room for 1 large vehicle
Storage underneath. Runs RV plates
65,000 miles $32,000
CALL Dave 815-895-7045
1986 IH DT 466 Diesel , 5+2spd, 4.10 gear in single rear end,
Chassis Has AC, Air Brakes, Air Ride Seats, am, fm, cassette, radio
New Front Tires, new rear brake shoes, drums, hardware,
Bumper to bumper 39' 8" long 12'6" to top of the vent window
Living area, 11 feet long 92" wide, shower, microwave, furnace,110 v AC
Inside of rear is 21feet long 8 feet wide on the inside
Back of truck has -Aluminum ramps, 8,000lb winch,
Room for 1 large vehicle, floor plate anchors for tie downs
Storage underneath. Runs RV plates
65,000 miles
This truck is used for hauling the Orange Krush 6,200 lb 4x4 pull truck, selling it because bought one more truck and are now using a semi and trailer to haul with
Located in northen Illinios
Great driving and running truck.


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Three schools join Grantham academies trust
Three special schools have joined a Grantham academies trust which recently proposed opening a new school in the town.
The Priory School, The Garth School and John Fielding School, all based in Spalding, have all recently become academies and have joined the Community Inclusive Trust (CIT) in Grantham.
CIT already manages two special schools in Grantham, Ambergate Sports College and Sandon School (both rated 'Outstanding'), and also sponsors Isaac Newton Primary School.
It recently proposed opening a new primary school to the west of Grantham to cater for families who will move into town as hundreds of houses are built in the Poplar Farm area off Barrowby Road.
The Priory School in Spalding supports the needs of pupils aged 11 to 16, all of whom have Moderate Learning Difficulties and many of whom have Autistic Spectrum Disorder and Social Communication Difficulties. The Garth School and John Fielding Schools meet the needs of pupils aged between two and 19 and are well equipped to meet their complex, severe and Profound Learning Difficulties.
Executive Head Daran Bland said: "This marks a really exciting time in the history of all three special schools. Education is going through a significant period of change and uncertainty, with schools having to adapt to life with ever decreasing capacity within Local Authorities.
"We have chosen to convert to academy status and join CIT following careful consideration of the options available to us. It is our firm belief that working in partnership with colleagues at CIT will lead to further improved outcomes for pupils across our family of schools, both now and into the future."
Peter Bell, CIT Chief Executive, said: "CIT and I are delighted to be formalising the long standing working relationship with Mr Bland and his staff, through Garth, Priory and John Fielding joining the Community Inclusive Trust as academies. As a trust we will continue to work in partnership with the schools to provide the highest level of education available."
For more information about The Spalding Special Schools, email email@example.com
To find out more information about CIT, email firstname.lastname@example.com
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The Sealed LetterBook - 2008
From the critics
Community Activity
CommentAdd a Comment
An indie bookseller friend of mine commented (when she saw I was reading this), "oh - you are just discovering Emma Donoghue's backlist historical novels? They are just delicious -- enjoy them!!!
This particular historical fiction work is based on a real 1864 British divorce case that scandalized the country and filled the tabloids. The Lady Helen and Admiral Harry Codrington were calling it quits in quite a dramatic and public way, in an era well before marriage failures became common. Thrown into the mix is women's advocate and publisher Miss Emily Faithfull, a childhood friend of The Lady's.
There is no question Miss Donoghue writes solidly, beautifully, in fact : there were several times in the book's first half I found myself wondering, "wow- every single word choice is absolutely perfect!".
While I did find the back-and-forth narration and the case drag on a bit long, my admiration for the actual setting, characterization, and tone continued.
Fans of her later blockbuster "Room" may be disappointed, but readers of historical romance and period pieces will probably be delighted.
I love Emma Donaghue's writing and this was not an exception. It didn't have quite the appeal as "Room" or "Slammerkin" but I still found it really interesting.
Based on an infamous divorce trial, this novel focuses on a friendship of two women, one, Emily, a single career gal and the other, Helen, a pampered wife. It is through Helen''s boredom and pursuance of exciting sexual partners that her eventual downfall happens. And when Helen''s husband deserts her, Helen uses everything in her power to survive a brutal divorce including her friendship in ever faithful Emily. Here''s the kicker - this isn''t a modern chicklit. This story is set in Victorian England and packs quite the punch.
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Queen Of Perfumes: Scentbird
These days the craze of perfume is increasing dramatically, more and more people use perfumes in order to put a good impression on other. There are various types of perfumes available in the market, let me tell you about a company which sale wonderful world's best perfumes. Its name is Scentbird, it's an NYC-based company, its sales the world's best high-quality products on the internet.
About company
Its sales its 450 rich perfumes on its official website, there are many users which purchase perfumes from its website. You can easily buy your favorite fragrance anytime because their shipping is too quick, you will get your order in a day. You will never get bored from their perfumes; the richness and fragrance of their product are unique. This company made perfumes for gentlemen and ladies both, so both genders can keep fresh their clothes. You will definitely become the fan of them because it will make your reputation in the front of your friends. In addition to this; when you put it on your clothes then people will automatically ask you about its brand because it has royal fragrances. Nevertheless; some people prefer light fragrance, so they how they can try its smell when they purchase it from the website. Let me tell you it's solution, they can read its description, which perfume they want to buy because the company always provides the description about the fragrance.
How to purchase a perfume from it
The user needs to sign-up on the official website of the Scentbird; they will ask you details of your credit card and address. The user can check out its website to know more about 2017 SCENTBIRD FRAGRENCE REVIEW + 15% OFF COUPON. If you become its member, then they may provide your Scentbird coupon code, due to this they can easily get advantages of the exciting offers.


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On October 2nd, Flying Lotus released his fourth feature length album, Until the Quiet Comes. A complex and challenging piece, this new material is a definite tactical reinvention by the famed Los Angeles based producer.
The 45 minute compilation will please the oldest of fans while intriguing newcomers to Flying Lotus' one of a kind style. Featuring a inimitable combination of skillful acoustic and electronic sounds that provides a psychedelic texture to his music, you will not be disappointed.
Wobbly bass guitar, and futuristic syntesization are the mainstay behind his tracks. His futuristic sound is one that defies any real genre despite obvious jazz, hip-hop, soul and electronic influences.
Until the Quiet Comes is an intricately detailed and complete album as it connects all its pieces seamlessly and should be listened to in its entirety in order to be fully appreciated. The first half of the album lulls you with clipped melodic phrases and simple yet variable rhythmic gestures, snatches of voices cut off before any words are made intelligible. The second half of them album takes you to a place much, much darker. Lyrics arise but sound distant and veiled—a feature that lends itself well to the vocalists, Erykah Badu, Thom Yorke and the Laura Darlington. The album's peculiar melodies and texture filled beats will keep you wanting more. This is truly music to relax to, take a step back from the real world, and soak in the good vibes.


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I hope you've read the classic children's book Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day by Judith Viorst. I hope you've read it mostly because it's a tremendous book. But I also hope you've read it because it will make you appreciate the kind of week I had.
On Monday, Abby and I were rear ended in the van. It was the other driver's fault, but the other driver was not going to drive our van to the body shop for estimates. I would have to do that. And when would I find time to do that? I could tell it was going to be a difficult week.
The next day my neck hurt when I turned my head to the left.
Then, on Wednesday, I parked the car downtown. I didn't know it, but someone went all Rocky on our bumper. My husband discovered the damage the next day. Nobody left a note. Nobody took responsibility. We'd have to pay for the repairs. I could tell it was going to be a difficult week. I think I'll move to San Diego.
On Saturday, the transmission in the van went out. We couldn't drive in reverse. Not only would I have to take the van to a body shop for an estimate but now I'd have to take it to the mechanic for repairs. And find another way to get around. I wonder if I could find a way to get to San Diego.
On Sunday the furnace freaked out. It blew cold air. And the fan ran on and on. We turned it off. The house got cold. I bet it's not cold in San Diego.
The next Monday I drove the van to the body shop for an estimate. On the way there I couldn't go faster than 30 mph. The transmission was getting worse. I decided not to drive the van to San Diego.
Then my cell phone died. Not ran-out-of-battery-died, but dead died. It really isn't too surprising. It was practically an antique. But still. I was without a phone. And I'm pretty sure I gave my upgrade to one of my offspring.
This all came at a time when our bank account showed the effects of helping two daughters pay for college. The next few months are likely to be the "tightest" we've faced in a long time. So why did God choose this week to have both vehicles damaged, the transmission fail in the van, the furnace die, and my cell phone give out? It seemed like an obvious question. Even for someone in San Diego.
I told my pastor about our string of unfortunate events. He said he was sorry it had been a difficult week. He said I should trust God. He said God was working for my good and His glory. Hmm, not a "poor Becky" in there anywhere. So I decided to trust God.
My friend Randy loaned me his car. His new car. A cute little Mazda stick shift. I had great fun driving it around for a few days. And I realized I had wonderful friends that were willing to trust me with valuable possessions and inconvenience themselves for my benefit. Randy's Mazda gave us a way to get around while the van was in the shop.
The transmission in the van had been replaced a year ago so it was still under warrantee. It's now repaired at no cost to us.
The furnace repair man came and flipped a small red switch hidden inside the furnace. We paid only $85. The house was soon as toasty as San Diego.
The other day, as Doug drove home from work, a man pulled up next to him and motioned for him to roll down his window.
"I can pull those dents out for you," he said. He suggested he and Doug pull into a parking lot to talk. "Most body shops will tell you to replace the entire bumper or the entire side panel," he said. And he's right. That's what we'd been told. "I'll pull out those dents and you'll just have a little scratch in the paint." Doug got his number. We plan to give him a call and see what he can do.
Then, a couple nights ago, I went to the AT&T store. I didn't have an upgrade on my phone But Doug did. So I used his upgrade and got a groovy new phone with a full keyboard. Only $20 after rebate.
How 'bout that? My good and God's glory. And I didn't even have to move to San Diego.


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Chances are, you've invested a fair amount of money on your cameras and lenses. You've certainly invested long hours pondering the craft of capturing the image. But how much time have you devoted to where that constellation of 1's and 0's that constitutes your livelihood goes once it's captured? How long have you considered your choice of memory card for your SLR, the discs you burn for yourself or for clients, or the hard drives you store your photos on in your studio and on the road?
Despite outward appearances, not all flash cards, CDs/DVDs, and hard-disk drives are created equal, so it pays to pay attention.
Flash in the Pan
Despite the popular notion that all flash memory cards are disgorged from the same factory with nothing to distinguish them but the housing, there is actually a good deal of variance between cards, asserts Jeff Cable, director of marketing, LEXAR. The difference goes beyond the performance and capacity specifications you're used to. "People forget that there is a lot of intelligence in those cards," he says. NAND flash--the basic ingredient in a memory card--is manufactured in different quality grades, with less-expensive cards plucking the lower-quality NAND, Cable adds.
Quality control can also vary markedly between brands. "We have a lab with 16 people, and all they do is test products all day," Cable notes.
Off-Loading On the Road
Flash memory has also migrated over to notebook computers in the form of Solid State Drives (SSDs). Unlike hard drives, SSDs have no moving parts, so they can take an enormous amount of jostling without impairing any data stored on them.
Notebooks that use an SSD instead of a hard drive boot and load applications faster, as much as 10 times faster in the case of SANDISK's newest G3 SSDs, says Don Barnetson, senior director of SSD marketing, SanDisk. "What that means for high-end photographers is the ability to scroll through thumbnails of pictures in real time, rather than waiting for them to slowly appear one after the other."
You'll also enjoy about a 15 percent boost in battery life when using an SSD, according to Barnetson. "Photographers are some of the most demanding users in the computing space, so we expect them to be early adopters of SSD technology," Barnetson says.
Where SSDs do lag behind hard disks is in price and capacity--you'll pay more for the benefits of SSDs. However, flash prices are plummeting--on average of more than 50 percent a year for the past three years, Barnetson says. While they may never achieve a price-per-gigabyte parity with hard disks, flash vendors hope that users will pay for the security, speed, and energy savings.
Go for the Gold
Before you reach for a spindle of CDs or DVDs to burn an event, studio session, or simply make a backup, Steven Mizelle, president of KMP MEDIA, has a message for you: Think about risk. Most CDs and DVDs have a life span between two and seven years, he says: "There are a lot of ways that the integrity of the data burned onto them can be damaged."
If the images are lost, they can take your reputation with them. By contrast, gold-plated archival-grade discs not only look snazzy but provide clients with the peace of mind that the photos stored on those discs will last as long as 100 years (provided, of course, that they're not used as Frisbees or otherwise mishandled).
Newer Blu-ray discs are capable of enduring for approximately 50 years under the right conditions, says Jim DePuydt, product manager, IMATION. They're too expensive to simply hand over like a CD or DVD, but they do serve as a handy archival solution, provided you have a Blu-ray burner, DePuydt says.
Indeed, as a medium for long-term archiving, nothing aside from magnetic tape can currently match an archival CD, DVD, or even a Blu-ray disc, says DePuydt. Hard disks fail, and flash memory holds data in the form of an electric charge, which dissipates over time.
RAID Parade
As the volume of images under management grows, many studios turn to hard disks arranged in RAID (redundant array of independent disks) arrays for both conventional day-to-day editing and longer-term archiving, says Dale Pistilli, VP marketing, branded products, WESTERN DIGITAL. These groupings of hard-disk drives provide several benefits. First, since they combine multiple drives, they offer redundancy (hence, data security) in the event one drive fails. Depending on the configuration, they can be speedy for editing large files without bogging down your system.
RAID offers a "very low potential for data loss," Pistilli says. For studios that want to both edit files quickly and back them up securely, the company offers a RAID 5 system (the networkable WD ShareSpace 4), which combines the performance attributes of a RAID 0 platform with the data security of a RAID 1 array.
Hard-disk drives will survive longer than your typical optical disc, Pistilli says, and are considerably less expensive per gigabyte than flash memory--as much as 30 times less for some products.
Keep it Safe
When it comes to your images, it's good to cultivate what Cable characterizes as a healthy paranoia regarding your files. "There is no such thing as total security," Mizelle warns, but that shouldn't stop you from saving your files on the highest-quality media across multiple platforms. The professional life you save may be your own.