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CYPRESS — Same two girls' volleyball teams. Same location. Same objective. Same number of sets.
Almost the same result.
Sage Hill School came close to beating St. Margaret's in a CIF Southern Section title match for the second straight year.
The rival private schools met in the Division 3-A finale at Cypress College on Saturday. The only difference from last year, beside the higher division, was that the Tartans held on at the end.
Top-seeded St. Margaret's edged the third-seeded Lightning, 25-20, 25-22, 11-25, 17-25, 15-8. The Tartans' third victory against Sage Hill this year proved to be the most difficult, when it looked like it might be the easiest.
The Tartans (26-3) took the first two sets and were on their way to a sweep. In the first two sets, Sage Hill Coach Dan Thomassen said the Tartans were a step quicker and scrappier than the Lightning (21-6).
"Then we started showing our real game," said Thomassen, who saw his team take the third and fourth sets to force a decisive fifth set. "We just kept getting a little bit better.
"It's one of those where you get to a fifth game and you never know what's going to happen."
The Lightning finished second to the Tartans in the Academy League. They now finished runner-up to St. Margaret's in a section title match for the first time.
Sage Hill had won its previous two section title appearances, both under Thomassen and coming against the Tartans. The Tartans held the hardware this time at the end, led by Gigi Morally (17 kills and 16 digs) and Peighton McRobie (14 kills and 22 digs).
In the opening frame, St. Margaret's took a 4-1 lead. Two service aces by McRobie helped with the fast start.
Things began to go Sage Hill's way once they began to return the serve. The Lightning tied it at 8, but never managed to go ahead. The set was tight the rest of the way. The Tartans' biggest lead was three, but the Lightning narrowed it to 18-17 after Maggie Danner blasted a kill that knocked Morally down.
St. Margaret's called a timeout, a move by Coach Susie Maga to settle down her team. Near the bench, Morally and the Tartans gathered themselves. When they returned to the court, the Tartans closed things out.
The Tartans went on a 7-3 run. Their serving game, back-to-back aces by Ashley Torok, and Sage Hill's inability to stop Emily Miller down the stretch gave the Tartans the edge early in the match.
The momentum stayed with St. Margaret's in the next set. The first four points in the second set belonged to the Tartans and they never looked back.
Morally proved to be too much for Sage Hill to handle. She produced four kills and stuffed a shot in the second set. Twice, Thomassen called timeouts, looking for his Lightning to respond.
Down, 18-10, Sage Hill showed a little life, cutting the deficit in half with an ace by Kekai Whitford and kills by Juliette Singarella and Danner. The Lightning got within three twice, and then two. Danner's kill cut St. Margaret's lead to 24-22.
At set point, the Tartans went back to Morally. The 5-foot-10 outside hitter finished things, slamming a kill toward the back line.
Sage Hill didn't go home quietly. The Lightning avoided losing in three to the Tartans for the second time this year.
Danner helped Sage Hill's comeback cause and forced a fourth set. The senior recorded six kills during Sage Hill's 14-4 start to the third set. She finished with nine in the set.


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I was so impressed with their work on many levels. There are the type of employees who create great company reputations and should be rewarded accordingly.
The men who did the actual move were outstanding. I was impressed with their professionalism and care for our positions. I would recommend this group to anyone.
Jackie and the guys were just top class,
fast, friendly, effective and efficient. I have moved many times and they were the best and easiest to work with. Bill (owner) was also very attentive.

subset: commoncrawl


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Welcome to Georges Bay Beach House
Holiday Rental
Georges Bay Beach House is situated in Stieglitz, St Helens, on Tasmania's pristine North East coast.
With breathtaking views and only a few steps from the family friendly beach, Georges Bay Beach House is the perfect destination for your Getaway.
Directly opposite the sandy beach and sparkling blue water of Georges Bay, the Beach House has easy access to the water's edge where you can swim, kayak, fish, and go beachcombing along the shore.
The beach is alongside the foreshore reserve which is great for walking, family games, picnics, or chilling out and simply enjoying the views.
Georges Bay Beach House is only 500metres from the boat jetty and children's playground, 5 mins drive to surf beaches and only 10 mins to St Helens town centre.


text:
Ricki Bedenbaugh has a little strap on camera (hold the dirty jokes) that he puts on his motorcycle and probably other things for fun (jokes ok now…). On a weekend mission out to Palm Springs he gave it to Nick Garcia to try out and Nick filmed his own boardslide. Fun little clip:
Visit Ricki's website for more fun stuff like this.


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City passes critical exam with 10-goal victory
- From: Mercury
- June 16, 2014
HOBART City heads into the TSL mid-year bye on a high after the best win of the club's brief history on Saturday.
City thumped Launceston at North Hobart Oval despite losing players to school football and five regular senior players turning out about an hour after sitting three-hour university exams.
Coach Michael McGregor could not have been happier with his team's performance.
"It's the best win the club's had," McGregor said. "The win over Devonport was a great win, but the way we were able to dominate the game against Launceston was impressive.
"It gives us a bit more relief to win by 10 goals and it will certainly have the boys up and about."
Hobart City's onballers were at their best, particularly enforcer Gareth Delaney and sidekicks Tom Robertson and Ryan Sullivan.
"We dominated the midfield and changed a few things up in terms of rotations and our structure," McGregor said.
"We made our forward line more functional and that all worked well for us.
"Against North Launceston the week before we had enough of the football to put some scoreboard pressure on but we didn't do that and paid the price.
"Yesterday when we had our opportunities early we kicked goals and not points."
Hobart City is seventh on the ladder and one game behind Glenorchy, its next opponent after the bye.
The Magpies lost comprehensively to Burnie and slipped from fourth to sixth, while Burnie jumped to fourth and Lauderdale's mighty upset over previously unbeaten Clarence moved the Bombers back into the top five.
The bye weekend is to clear the way for Tasmania to play its interstate match against the NEAFL, made up of teams from NSW, Queensland and Northern Territory, at Blundstone Arena on Saturday.


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« The Force of Cluelessness |
| Tossing Out the 1920s Hydrogenators: Can It Be Done? »
Posted by Derek
Science is reporting some problems with the NIH's drug screening efforts:
A $70-million-a-year program launched 7 years ago at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to help academic researchers move into industry-style drug discovery may soon be forced to scale back sharply. NIH Director Francis Collins has been one of its biggest champions. But the NIH Molecular Libraries, according to plan, must be weaned starting next year from the NIH director's office Common Fund and find support at other NIH institutes. In a time of tight budgets, nobody wants it.
The fate of the Molecular Libraries program became "an extremely sensitive political issue" earlier this year when NIH realized it would not be easy to find a new home for the program, said one NIH official speaking on background. . .
. . .John Reed, head of the Sanford-Burnham Medical Research Institute screening center in San Diego, which receives about $16 million a year from the Common Fund, says his center has so far attracted only modest funding from drug companies. He expressed frustration with the Common Fund process. "NIH has put a huge investment into [the Molecular Libraries], and it's running very well," he says. "If there's not a long-term commitment to keep it available to the academic community, why did we make this hundreds of millions of dollars investment?"
Good question! This all grew out of the 2003 "NIH Roadmap" initiative - here's a press release from better days. But it looks partly to be a victim of sheer bad timing. There's not a lot of extra money sloshing around the drug industry these days, and there sure isn't a lot in NIH's budget, either. You wouldn't know that there's a problem at all from looking at the program's web site, would you?
Since I know there are readers out there from both sides of this particular fence, I'd be interesting in hearing some comments. Has the screening initiative been worthwhile? Should it be kept up - and if so, how?
Comments (21)
+ TrackBacks (0) | Category: Academia (vs. Industry) | Drug Assays
1. pharmadude on October 21, 2011 12:10 PM writes...
HTS is one of the least innovative aspects of big pharma drug discovery. I would think academia and the government would pursue more intellectual projects.
2. lynn on October 21, 2011 12:31 PM writes...
Well, here's a paper illustrating one of the problems of the NIH library/ies: Babaoglu et al. 2008. Comprehensive Mechanistic Analysis of Hits from High-Throughput and Docking Screens against β-Lactamase. Journal of Medicinal Chemistry 51:2502-2511. Lots of garbage in the library. While there have been problems in selecting targets for screening, and [I would say] the robustness of screens, HTS is only as good as the libraries.
3. MolecularGeek on October 21, 2011 1:01 PM writes...
Politically, I am sure that Francis Collins and the rest of the leadership at NIH feel that translational research is not an optional component in their portfolio. The majority of people I know who are not part of the pharmaceutico-medical complex think that their drug costs are too high. Cutting one of the programs that is supposed to encourage new drug development at lower industrial costs would not sell right now. I don't know how much MLRI actually does lower costs, but like being forced to take off your shoes at the airport, it's a bit of theatre that convinces people that the government is trying to solve a problem that the population cares about.
From a purely academic standpoint, the program has been a qualified success. The amount of biological and chemical data that has been added to pubchem, and that is programmatically accessible over the internet is, for someone who remembers QSAR series of 10-15 compounds, a huge break with the past. Without PubChem (and ChemBL), the majority of my development work would be painful, if not impossible. Similarly, while one can argue with the quality of the screening libraries, and the robustness of the assays, it isn't at all clear that academic labs that wanted or needed to work with HTS technologies would have any other viable options. I can't imagine one's favorite CRO in Shanghai or Mumbai being eager to run a custom assay or a custom library screen at the rates MLRI offers on the small-scale problems that most academic groups would have.
This is not to say that the program doesn't have problems. The assays, as mentioned, need further development to improve their reliability, and the data coming out of pubchem is painfully raw data, requiring careful curation and validation. But I wouldn't want to give it up, either.
4. yes but on October 21, 2011 1:30 PM writes...
I suspect that MLRI makes drug discovery more expensive rather than less, once government spending is included. As #1 suggests, pharma has spent decades doing HTS and making sure it's efficient. The price of a screen is nothing next to what it costs post-candidate selection when the MDs start to take their cut.
Genuine questions: how many academics have the time, the inclination or the experience to turn their assay into one that's truly fit for HTS? We seem to have a hard enough time with that in industry.
5. Lester Freamon on October 21, 2011 2:51 PM writes...
$70 Million a year is a pretty good deal for what we should have been able to get out of this program, which is ~25 new, moderately drug-like compounds against previously unscreened targets. This program could be a way to simply map the druggable-but-yet-undrugged proteome and get new lead molecules into animal models (or at least give a scaffold for some development if someone wants to sink a few million into medicinal chemistry to get a better version).
The problem was that the program focused too much on quantity over quality--the screening centers were graded/funded solely on the number of "probes" meeting original criteria (Usually IC50 cutoffs and an antitarget) and not on the quality of what was produced. As such, far too many shitty screens were approved--funding for RO3's for this project was near the 50-percent level. A more focused program, with more intensive medicinal chemistry and money for contract work on ADMET type assays would have been better.
In addition it would have been nice to have some screening library curation such as to remove compounds like this...
6. MolecularGeek on October 21, 2011 5:52 PM writes...
I'll concede that that aza-tropenone isn't a very nice looking compound, but it isn't as if the MLRN libraries brought it in from thin air. It appears to have been part of the NCI screening library, and it's stable enough to have been included in a couple of manual screens. One of them even used a series of conjugated tropenones to look for anti-inflamatory activity.
Is there a reason that you're picking on that one compound in particular as being a bad component of the library?
7. anon 1 on October 21, 2011 5:54 PM writes...
In vogue and sexy at the time, but not something that NIH should ever have done. Waste of time, money, resource, and not their reason to exist.
8. Nev Telen on October 21, 2011 6:58 PM writes...
A major problem with the Molecular Libraries program is that it was too large. The large size ($70M to $100M) makes it almost impossible for other institute and centers to "adopt" the program upon the wind down of the Common Fund support. I had heard that attempts were made to scale back the program at several stages but these were resisted primarily by Francis Collins. Furthermore, the output from the program (in terms of validated probes) does not seem commensurate with the large expenditure.
9. JB on October 21, 2011 7:23 PM writes...
A lot of the data available is 6 to 12 months behind due to embargoes for IP and publication reasons. Starting in 2009-2010 fiscal year of the program, much more QC was instated, with an outside review panel reviewing the reports prior to acceptance and publication. Together that mean that a lot of much better more recent stuff is just starting to come out of the network. Furthermore, I believe (not sure) the $70M/year is only the production phase that started in 2008, not the entire 7 year program. So at the end there should be an accounting- for, say, $500M of funding what came out the other end? One clinical candidate so far, several other pre-clinical programs, a lot of tool compounds, a ton of public data; then compare that return to R&D returns from pharma.
10. Anonymous on October 22, 2011 12:32 PM writes...
@#7 Exactly. And if the guvment and society want to control drug prices, they first need to control Wall Street. Runaway health care costs are the result of runaway expectations for financial return.
11. Jim H on October 22, 2011 2:49 PM writes...
Silly academic elitists. Drug companies control drug prices because they are much more efficient and effective than bureaucratic boondoggles like the NIH, who would rather usurp our tax money and cram it in their pockets.
I recently dismantled a HTS lab system in PA with fully robotic and automated cell culture through test compound application and analysis system. It paid for itself in 5 years. Can the NIH say the same? We need to cut NIH funding, now.
12. mjay on October 23, 2011 4:08 PM writes...
Good luck trying to find an Armani suit at the Filene's Basement "everything must go" sale...
13. Anonymous on October 23, 2011 10:15 PM writes...
What is going on with the national center for the advancement of translational sciences (NCATS) that was in the news last year and was supposed to be up and running Oct.1/2011. Was the NIH screening program supposed to be part of it? I guess the whole thing is on hold?
14. Lars on October 24, 2011 12:17 AM writes...
Noone would even dream of expecting that a bigpharma (or a smaller biotech for that matter) would deliver anything concrete within the frame of 7years from conception. The MLSCN etc has induced à major paradigm shift in academic research and surely, academia is going to take some time to adjust to the world of HTS.
Let's not forget that a large portion of the projects running through the NIH are not aimed at developing CDs but rather to develop cmpds that help increase the fundamental knowledge of putative drug targets. With that in mind, one should be humble in critique of the library content, although I agree that many of the cmpds in the library may cause more confusion than conclusion.
15. Nuclear Option on October 24, 2011 5:32 AM writes...
I like this program and watched it improve quite a bit over the last few years. It has dramatically increased academic interest in pharmacology, chemical biology and drug discovery. This is a good thing considering the climate in industry. There is no doubt the index library has limitations, but could surely evolve like all industry decks. The screens run were in many caseshighky creative, and the assays were developed by true experts in the biology. All a good thing.
I also echo the above comment about probe deliverables. This was regrettable, as it is not realistic to think hit to lead can be centrralized in this way. The benchmark also encouraging the scientists to call compounds probes which surely do not meet acceptable criteria
16. Nuclear Option on October 24, 2011 5:40 AM writes...
...darn iPad...
The benchmark also encourages scientists to identify compounds as probes which would not meet acceptable criteria.
Still, the program has merit. We conducted three screens, and are working up some scaffolds we would not have encountered otherwise. One additional project was inspired by a public, cell-based screening hit which we suspect operates against a compelling target.
So I hope they keep it open for business, but they can drop the lead optimization and chemical probe deliverables part. Perhaps make this a separate RFA, for promising projects among collaborating labs with specific and complementary expertise. Long term collaborations leveraging funds and resources develop between investigators, not with core labs.
17. Anonymous on October 24, 2011 10:22 AM writes...
The few times I've looked at the results of these efforts, boondogle would be a kind adjective. A large number of the screens were retreads of old targets like monoamine receptors (Why?). There is also a tendency of the academic investigators to view hits as chemical probes despite the lack of specificity data, PK data, mechanistic data etc. I've reviewed quite a few grants of investigators eager to spend a lot of money doing in vivo mechanistic studies with poorly characterized screening hits. I'm all for translational research, but drug discovery doesn't mesh well with academic culture. Let's open up some of that funding for the small companies that are actually created for translational work.
18. Zippy on October 24, 2011 11:53 AM writes...
I believe that the goal for the early Molecular Libraries efforts was to identify novel and useful pharmacological probe compounds, not necessarily drug candidates. Some good reasons exist to do this in an academic setting to complement pharma efforts. A secondary and later goal may be to build infrastructure and capabilities to enable drug discovery for interested academics.
The dominant reason for expensive failures in drug discovery is lack of efficacy in PII. This follows from inadequate understanding of the underlying biology. Target validation data best comes from human genetic studies and very solid pharmacology coupled with measurements in human tissues. Such data is often lacking for targets pursued at pharma. The Molecular Libraries program gives anyone that can write an R03 application the opportunity to generate pharmacological probes to test ideas about novel targets. These are often the people who know the most about the targets and biology. The idea is to improve to biological understanding, which can only aid drug discovery efforts. This approach is a bit like the tool compound for external use approach at many pharma, but on a larger scale and with input from academic labs. This would seem to be an opportunity for NIH-funded investigators to fulfill their mission to improve human health.
19. Jonathan on October 24, 2011 12:07 PM writes...
@Jim H I am trying to stay polite so rather than insult you I will simply direct your attention to these pair of reports: http://www.genome.gov/27544383
When you can show me that you're generating a 141:1 ROI and that you've created as many jobs, and generated as much wealth, as NIH has recently, then I'll listen to your ideas.
20. FarmaFan on October 24, 2011 9:44 PM writes...
Gumment run healthcare at it's best. We need much more of this; I can't wait for single-payer. Utopia is just around the corner.... or the edge of the cliff to utter misery.
21. ty on October 25, 2011 3:49 PM writes...
I am with 18 followed by 17. The intention serves (served?) a very important bottleneck. However, as 17 pointed out, the cultures don't mesh very well. Sure, the library is filled with crap and the PIs don't know what they are doing with small molecules. But again, we won't go anywhere unless we fill the gap between biology and chemistry and cross the bridge between academia and industry. I think it's been a great learning process and should continue.
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Okay, this is it, I have started blogging about my life and I can honestly say that it is the most therapeutic experience that I have ever experienced, better than any drug - in fact I could probably say that I am addicted to it.
I thought I would share some of my stories with you (in case anyone is interested). I don't claim to be a good writer by any stretch of the imagination, but man, I am having fun.
Posted originally here
After an enthusiastic start I haven't managed to get much further though...
My first decade (1): Home is where the heart is…
Well, I guess not many of us can remember much of what happened in the first 10 years of our lives. I know in my own life I have random flashes of memories, most of them full of contentment and security. I like listening to my 8-year old daughter rabbiting on (and on and on, encouragement not required) about what she remembers of her little past - of course most of the memories seem to relate to when she was 4… it must have been a very memorable year for her and I am looking forward to seeing how many of these memories that she retains later on in her future.
One thing that I can guarantee, which I think is really sad on so many levels, is that her memories of living near cosmopolitan London in the UK, will be worlds apart from my own upbringing, growing up barefoot and climbing trees in colonial suburban Africa.
As a family, we moved from Salisbury when my brother and I were very young. My father was transferred through the scaffolding company that he worked for (GKN Mills), to set up a branch office in Bulawayo, which was located in the industrial area by the power station there. I can remember the office too, it was an unusual musty dark room (probably like that because I usually went there on weekends with my dad) with plain old wooden furniture, half way up a high brick building accessed by an external staircase in a narrow alleyway - with a big black metal gate shutting it off from the street.
We lived in a rented house in Paddonhurst in the beginning, my memories of that time are very sparse, but there are lots of photos hidden in the dust somewhere showing us playing in the garden with a little pull-along trolley with Chenny and Suzie somewhere in the picture, the short-legged long-haired Daschund dogs that we grew older with. Mum was a stay-at-home-mum through most of these years, but she obviously started working somewhere along the line, because there were a few nursery schools and after-school care establishments in my memory archives - most of those memories aren't very pleasant though, I seem to have retained the worst of those experiences.
My most prominent 4-year old memory, was of us standing as a family in the front yard of the first and only property that my parents have ever owned, just shortly before we moved in and called it home for most of our lives to date (considering that it still is 'home'). Located in the suburb of Hillside near the infant and junior schools that we attended, the yard was massive to us then (and even now judging by the size of the average garden in the UK), about an acre and a half expanse of land filled with plenty of trees, all of which my brother and I have climbed and/or fallen out of at one stage or another.
The majority of the trees are Jacaranda's that form a haphazard line across the property – along where the previous farmyard's long driveway had apparently once been. I spent many a night hiding in the Jacaranda tree by the gate when I was in trouble, just because it was easier than running away from home, I could never be found there in the top-most branches and for some reason, nobody ever thought about looking there twice as they circled the garden in search of me.
There is an old Figtree, full of character, with massive protruding roots that became our tree-house (I do believe that Barbie and Ken got married there a few times) – it was also the dodgy support for our dangerous plank-on-a-rope swing that we became quite daringly acrobatic on when pushing ourselves out off a branch to swing as high as possible.
In addition, there is also a lop-sided Marulatree in the front garden that bore lots of fruit. Fruit that my dad attempted to make wine with once during a winemaking phase (it tasted gross) and of which I ate enough in my lifetime to eventually disbelieve the theory (still no idea to this day whether my leg was being pulled or not…) that the fruit could actually make one drunk.
Plonked slap-bang in the middle of this plot of land, is the house, a very rectangular, plain, brick building, painted white for as long as I can remember, with 3 bedrooms. I remember with fondness many a cold winter's night sitting in front of the fireplace in the lounge as a family, loving the warmth and security that emitted from it, the crisp clean sheets tucked in tightly that we went to sleep in at night during the pre-duvet days and the mosquito nets stretched over our beds on hot balmy nights.
I will always remember the carpet of purple Jacaranda flowers covering the ground at certain times of the year – usually a hive of activity with bees and the unusual aroma as the flowers were crushed or rotting… the heady smell of the Jasmine creeper that climbed up the verandah posts right near my bedroom window… the ponds alongside the parking area on the side of the house where 3 fishponds were interlinked, the smaller one set higher in the garden rockery trickling through to the largest, covered in water lilies and teaming with red goldfish. The ponds were periodically infested with frogs that kept us awake at night and tadpoles that entertained my brother and I for hours on end.
Since our black and white TV only started at 5pm in the afternoon, I also remember having a very active outdoor life, playing for hours (even days at a time) with 'dinky' cars with my brother, pushing roads through the sand with our hands to form imaginary cities… converting our old 'jungle gym' into a bus and hide and seek games, squeezing our bodies into holes and corners that I wouldn't even consider sticking my hand near these days.
We always had lots of pets. It started off with Chenny and Suzie the Daschund dogs, cats called Candy and Flossy that didn't stick around after changing homes, followed by many more cats like Ching the Siamese that we had for many years… a gentle Doberman called Cassius that treated my brother and I with kid-gloves, numerous pairs of budgies that kept learning how to escape from their cages when hanging up outside in the fresh air and a yard-full of bantum chickens (Henny-Penny, Cocky-Locky, Hansel and Gretal, they all had names) whose numbers grew and depleted periodically through the years – depending on how prolific they were at reproducing and how good the dogs were at catching them.
I'm a bit embarrassed to admit it (it hardly seems normal), but I had a pet cockerel, his name was Hagar (the horrible), he was inflicted with an inexplicable disease, was as ugly as sin, smelled odd and became tame enough for me to walk around with on my shoulder wherever I went, my mum drew the line at allowing him on the kitchen table though. He talked to me too, I promise, we had lots of deep conversations that chicken and I – when he wasn't pecking me affectionately trying to see what was in between my teeth (which made talking back to him difficult at times) – I just wish I knew where he disappeared to, it was very traumatic when he left.
I remember the work that my dad put into the property on weekends, with a cement mixer and his own hands, he laid 2 narrow parallel strips on the relatively long driveway by hand (initials still imprinted there, along with the memory of learning to ride a bike down them and that tree on the side that jumped in front of me once…). I remember how he rearranged the raised verandah outside the lounge french doors, by cutting the metal railing so that it could be accessed from the car park and added rough home-made concrete steps up to it. Through the years, a swimming pool (which became my second home, I was definitely a mermaid in a past life) was added to the front garden and a garage/pantry to the back garden, along with lots of various additions that my very handy superhero dad constructed.
Through the earlier years, during periods with abundant rainfall, there were times when the garden was absolutely stunning, green grass and flowerbeds filled with the most gorgeous array of flowers that my mum tended to with pride (with the assistance of a garden boy, I might add). A friend of my dad's even made use of it once for his wedding reception, just because it was so glorious…
During periods of drought, the garden was slowly transformed into a more self-sufficient garden with aloes and drought-resistant plants that could withstand the dry periods and lack of water - which is pretty much how it looks today after many years of insufficient water to maintain the garden and the fact that we were probably one of the few properties in the area that didn't rush to sink a borehole. The pool, which was lived in at one stage of our lives, hasn't been filled for more than 20 years now. The green grass is pretty much long gone, maintained as cut weeds which can look quite nice in a deceptive sort of way after the rains and the Jacaranda trees are slowly rotting and collapsing with time.
These days, the garden's boundaries may be enclosed with 6 foot high durawall fencing and locked gate, but it is still probably one of the sanctuaries in the whole wide world, that I can walk into and feel immediately at 'home', secure in the knowledge that I am very much part of its history and that it is very much a part of me.
My first decade (2): Hey ho! It's off to school we go.
Amazingly, as a 5-year old in 1975, I remember my first day ever at infant school entering 'KG1′ – as the yearly system was known in those days, before they became known as 'grades'. I 'think' KG was in reference to King George or something to that effect and was a seriously outdated system by the time that I started school.
I remember how frightening and how overwhelming it all was walking along the long length of polished red verandah to the class room holding on to my mum for dear life. I had to wear an old-fashioned chocolate-brown and white checked dress that had a belt of sorts to puff out the skirt bit and my straight brown hair was always tied up in a screamingly-tight ponytail or pigtails using elastic (as in the office kind!) and brown ribbon in a complex intertwined system that my mum used to ensure that it all stayed put – and barely moved – for the day.
I have no memories of my first ever teacher, none whatsoever, but I do remember learning to meow and purr like a kitten, to play different drums in PE sessions, to stop chewing my nails (something must have brainwashed me into stopping, I know I did bite my nails when I went in and never have done since then), to count using coloured rods of different lengths and that my first-ever best friend's name was Davina. We are still in touch now 30 years down the line, even though we were only friends for a couple of years before her family emigrated to South Africa, our friendship is officially probably one of the longest most successful pen-pal relationships that I have ever had in my life – even if we don't actually write to each other (and hardly ever have) we just seem to be content in the knowledge that we both still exist somewhere in this world and that we could write if we had something to say, or the inclination to do so.
I remember being in a yellow 'house' for sports days that always took place on very green neatly white-wash lined lawns with all the right pomp and ceremony attached with making little things like that seem gynormous and important.
In KG2 my memories seem to take an even bigger dive. I remember a pretty teacher with a fascinating hairstyle and being taught to paint a duck using the number '2′ which was submitted for the eisteddford. As an artist and designer now, I do remember that the comments weren't particularly encouraging at the time.
For the remainder of my junior school years, I remember moving on to the big school (the yearly system was known as 'standards' in those days), changing my yucky brown and white uniform for a yucky sack-like orange and white checked effort. I was allowed to walk there on my own since it was just down the road from home and my new best friend was Beverley. The classrooms were big with massive windows and the desks were double ones that had a flip-top-lid to them for us to store our neatly-covered in brown wrapping-paper books inside and a hole for an ink-well stand – not that I am old enough to have ever had to use one.
Most of all, I remember hating maths throughout those early years and times when I was so overwhelmed by the differences that the teachers tried to drum into me, compared to my dad's attempts to help me understand it all at home with my homework, that it was all just one big frustrating nightmare in my little brain… I remember a teacher telling me that I was stupid and a guy who was in my class, who I still know to this day, asking me many years later if I still cried when I was confronted with numbers – I must have been a jibbering wreck! My mum's favourite memory, which she brings up periodically (read 'as in every time I see her') is trying to rote-teach me parrot-fashion times tables and hurling the times table book across a room in frustration.
I remember the library at the school and my fascination with everything Enid Blyton and CS Lewis. I remember asking my mum what 'hols' meant once whilst reading the first paragraph of an Enid Blyton mystery and my mum telling me to keep reading, because that was maybe what the mystery was about and that I would find out at the end with the kids!
I do remember having a complex of sorts, to the extent that I was unable to talk to seniors a couple of years older than me... they terrified me, thank goodness a family friend was a senior, so he 'protected' me with the marble bullies in the playground when necessary. The massive expanse of playing fields were periodically infested with locusts and I still have a locust-phobia every time I see one and I remember trying to negotiate my way through them to the tuck shop at the other end. The tuck shop was a bargain and well worth the effort to get to, considering that a whole handful of sweets would cost one little 'tickie'.
This was also the stage that I got more involved with sport. I was in the red house named after a colonial forefather called 'Helm'. My brother and I had been doing swimming lessons for a while and swimming sessions at school were pretty much a nightmare in the beginning, until I starting getting better and beating everyone. I did a bit of diving, played netball, tennis and hockey and even attempted running in Athletics – something that I hated in those days, but grew to love later on in life.
The biggest memories that I have, was that in standard 2 we were put into 'streams' according to our capabilities. I started off in the bottom stream after the first year and moved up a stream to the middle one when I came 4th in class. In standard 3, I had a teacher that I was absolutely terrified of, but he was a very good artist and I remember a lot of the things that he taught us to this day. In standard 4, a boy who sat behind me in class, leaned over the escalator railings in Haddon and Sly department store and had his head chopped off between the floor levels – somehow I always remember that when I step onto an escalator to this day.
In standard 5 (known as grade 7 by then) my folks scraped together a princely sum $2000 in those days and I went on my first ever overseas trip to the UK with other grade 7's from schools across Bulawayo, organised by the curator of the Bulawayo museum and various teachers. We travelled in old white school buses, stayed in boarding schools in Kent that were closed for the holidays, did the major London sights and took in numerous places along the south coast, all very exciting stuff for an 11 year old that had never been away from home before. Of course I can't forget the fact that on the way back to the airport, my case flew off the roof-rack and disintegrated and there was a lot of unnecessary banter about my underwear floating across the highway for the rest of the trip.
My final biggest nightmare of Junior school was the leaver's dance. I can't honestly tell you how much I disliked all the boys in my class… they liked all the pretty blonde girls and I kept my distance. Playing kiss-catches at Birthday parties was already something that I was uncomfortable with and having to barn dance with them all, especially the idiot that I ended up having to go with… was stuff that made me feel physically ill, in fact I remember very vividly not feeling very well that evening at all, no idea how I survived it. Odd, considering a couple of years later, my opinions of boys did a complete turn around.
My first decade (3): We're all going on a summer holiday!
We seemed to have plenty of holidays in those days. The school year was broken up into 3 terms with long periods of holiday breaks in between.
I have vivid memories of overnight train trips between Bulawayo and Salisbury as a family and when we were considered old enough, flights on Air Rhodesia as unaccompanied minors to spend holiday periods passed amongst various aunts, uncles and cousins in and around Salisbury.
On the train trips, I remember the line of brown/beige carriages being hauled by smoky-black steam engines that chugged slowly, but surely along the flat landscapes past dark shapeless silhouettes in the night, stopping frequently for long periods that seemed to last for hours. As a family, we would sit in relative comfort together on the overstuffed grey seats, reading books, playing games and eating prepared picnic meals from an assortment of tubs that my mum carried around in a basket.
Later on in the evening, a group of trolleys would come along the narrow window-lined passageways with neatly uniformed black men that would make up the compartments with crisp clean 'RR' monogrammed bedding ready for the night. There was always an edged top bunk each – meaning that there wasn't a reason for us kids to fight over anything – which pulled out from the wooden panelling on the wall. I remember them being quite fun to negotiate getting onto and having to stand on the tabletop that dropped down from between the windows above the little round stainless steel basin that each compartment had, as the only option to use for our little legs to reach up. When lying on the top bunks, they provided a close-up view of the compartment ceiling and there were light switches (a fascinating little round green coloured light comes to mind) and knobs to fiddle with repeatedly. The middle berths were magically constructed pulling up the backrest of the carriage seats and the bottom seats made up the last 2 beds. Sometimes we shared these sleeping quarters with complete strangers, but the whole experience was always great fun.
I also remember waking up at ungodly hours of the morning to start out on long over-laden car trips all over the place too and the inevitable thrill of our big annual holiday to the 'seaside' in South Africa. In those days, all of our relatives lived in Rhodesia, meaning that staying with family in South Africa wasn't an option, so the big holidays meant spending time in different exciting environments with loud-patterned carpeting, ice-making machines, asteroid-game arcade rooms and a whole host of new experiences to look forward to with anticipation.
Trips to South Africa always meant an endless supply of big colourful shopping malls and department stores full of everything imaginable that we couldn't possibly get at home. My folks were as much like kids in a sweetie store as we were and besides the toys, stationary, sweets, tinned drinks and the odd fashion accessory, we always managed to come home with some electrical gadget or tool that was 'needed' in the house.
Most of the trips always included a stopover at the natural warm mineral baths at Tshipise, a short distance into South Africa near the border with Rhodesia. In the beginning, we used to stay next to the game fences and wild bush in the large circular thatched family rondawels, that were gloriously cool in the African heat – in the later years, we always camped there instead. I remember spending our days running around like lunatics tirelessly jumping in between the 3 pools from the large heated one on the lower level to the 2 'cold' water pools on the upper level and having picnic lunches alongside the poolside followed a very impatient mandatory longest-hour-in-the-world waits to let our food settle before being allowed to run riot again.
Most of the earlier 'seaside' trips were to Umhlanga Rocks where we would stay in self-catering apartments overlooking the beach with the odd trip into Durban to visit my dad's sister and her family who always happened to be holidaying there at the same time. We always spent the most amazingly lazy days on the sandy beaches, swimming, jumping and being dumped by waves much bigger than us, looking for shells in rock pools, making sand castles and eating plenty of junk food. These days were always topped off with a walk in the evening to watch an in-house movie or various tourist displays like Zulu Tribal dancers.
Later trips, after most of our relatives moved South, were to East London which is probably one of my most favourite destinations in South Africa – I consider it to be a twin of Bulawayo, which just happens to be parked by the sea - my most favourite cousin in the whole wide world lives there too, which is my biggest incentive. We did the train trip from Bulawayo to Cape Town once - which entailed about 3 solid days spent on the train through Botswana and the Orange Free State, but in those days, my dad wasn't overly keen on tackling the distance by car and he can hardly be blamed, taking speed and bored kids into consideration.
Our family car trips in the beginning must have been something to behold. The health and safety authorities of today would have had a field day with the way that things were done then. Our first 'family car' was an Austen, an ugly indestructible heavy tank (almost armoured) of metal in indescribable colours. (No matter how much I google-image search for 'Austen', I have never seen anything quite like it again since then). The interior was very roomy and my superhero dad came up with a method to keep us kids happy during those long trips… he constructed a wooden chipboard frame with legs on one side, that as a perfect fit, rested across the back seat right up to the back of the front seats and padded it with foam, blankets and pillows to make it comfortable – a literal level playing field, where my brother and I had plenty of room to alternate between loving each other one minute and then viciously trying to kill each other off with boredom and frustration the next. We usually had to abide by imaginary vertical or horizontal dividing line rules imposed on us, but that also meant that we could sleep without touching or kicking one another – which usually managed to save my parent's sanity for a few hours longer.
I remember many hours of playing I-spy with my little eye and learning Afrikaans phrases in amongst the impatient wanting to know 'if we were nearly there yet?' every 5-minute questions.
Lay-by stopovers were a regular feature on these trips too… arbitrary places in the middle of nowhere with concrete tables, benches and a dustbin where we could have our wee-breaks in the bushes and a quick bite to eat. There was always everything – just short of the kitchen sink – loaded somewhere in the car.
In our later years, as we got older and places became more expensive to stay at, all our holidays meant camping. My dad purchased a bright yellow homemade trailer, which held a plug-into-the-lighter beer-friendly (with a bit of room for milk on the side) fridge, a family tent, groundsheets, kitchen sinks, you name it, it was there. He constructed a wooden shelving unit along the side that even supported ceramic crockery in slots and a cutlery drawer… it was a kitchen on wheels away from home at any destination (my parents still use it on occasion to this day) - we were almost on a par with the other South African campers out there that even took their TV's with them on their trips.
My first decade (4): The 1970's - the Rhodesian bush war from a child's persepctive.
What do I know about the Rhodesian bush war? Pretty much nothing, all I know was that I was very young, didn't understand it and that it affected our way of life quite a bit in those early years.The Rhodesian Bush War (as it is called by most white ex-Rhodesians), or Second Chimurenga (as it is called by most Zimbabweans [citation needed]), was a conflict in Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe) between the white minority government of Ian Smith and the black nationalists of the ZANU and ZAPU movements, led by Robert Mugabe and Joshua Nkomo respectively. It lasted from 1966 to 1979.The politics involved in the war didn't mean anything to me when I was small, in fact reading further into the wikipedia link above, made me realise how clueless I still am as to the facts regarding it all. The following is very much a perspective from a child's vantage point.
Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rhodesian_Bush_War
There were things that happened during the days of the war that became part of our lives as we knew it and as kids, we knew no differently. We were probably aware of a sense of tension about us, but we carried on regardless and certainly could never have comprehended the reality that life and our futures were very uncertain during that period. The biggest advantage during those years, is that some of the closest family friends that we have ever encountered, were fostered during this phase. Close friendships forged in uncertainty that have managed to withstand the test of time thirty years later.
My father disappeared periodically out of our lives to do his compulsory service to help the Rhodesian forces and we were left alone, just the 3 of us. There were times when my mum cried a lot – mostly when my brother and I were giving her uphill and she was probably just doing her best in an attempt to cope on her own, whilst battling with her own fears and uncertainties. We all missed dad terribly when he was away. I remember the heartache that we all experienced every single time that he packed up and left us – wearing his camouflage uniform and beret with his laden canvas rucksack over his shoulder, the excitement at receiving his newsy letters that were read aloud to us and the overwhelming joy at seeing him on his return, which was always a massive highlight in our lives – besides the fact that it was like Christmas and we loved rat pack goodies that he presented us with as gifts… I also remember the container of custard powder, which was like a souvenir of the war in our household, which made the best custard in the world and which lasted for many years afterwards.
I couldn't even begin to imagine what the men out on the field experienced during the war. All I know, is that during his tour of duty, my father had experiences that he has kept details of to himself for many years and are still very much part of his memories to this day.
As kids, we were subjected to subtle things that were drummed into our heads at junior school as part of our lessons. We were given frequent talks about what we were to do if the school was attacked by gunfire. Number one priority was to dive under our wooden desks onto the hard wooden parquet flooring of the classroom and lie on our stomachs covering our heads with our arms, as far away from all the big windows as possible. We even did the occasional practice drill where in a sea of flailing arms and legs, we would dive and huddle under the desks – it always seemed like a bit of a game to us and I doubt any of us understood the severity of the situation should it have happened.
Along with the customary fire drill, the whole school was also subjected to an 'ambush' drill. A drill where all the classes lined up in the playground, as quickly and as quietly as possible followed by a very hasty and orderly stride to the school's hostel buildings – a very old colonial building with thick enough walls to hole us up in safety. There we were led into the very wide passage ways, lined up in rows and required to sit in lines along the wall and subjected to sitting in silence while a class register was read out with great speed – every single name had to be accounted for and absolute concentration on our behalves to keep up with it all was paramount. I have to say that these drills were carried out with almost military-like precision and efficiency and all of us kids knew that it wasn't a game.
Holidays to South Africa by car during those years meant travelling in armed convoys. We would leave Bulawayo and meet up with all other holiday-makers at Essexvale/Essigodini just outside Bulawayo. Cars would line up along the side of the road and wait for the time when we would all leave together as a unit, travelling at a uniform speed in close proximity for the 4 or so hours that it took to get to the South African border at those speeds. I remember them well, lines and lines of cars snaking along the miles of open roadway interspersed with gun-totting armoured vehicles at regular intervals. We always stopped for petrol, lunch and toilet breaks at Todd's Motel half way along the route before snaking our way onwards again. At the end of the trip, there was always the mad dash to get through the throngs at the border post, so that everyone could relax and get on with their holidays.
Before embarking on a convoy trip, we were always briefed on how to handle an ambush attack from the bush and the basic gist of it was, that at the sound of gunfire, the car would pull over and all occupants had to roll out low into the grassy roadside ditches well away from the car. Who knows what the plan of action would have been from there, we never had a drill to practice this manoeuvre and thank goodness we never had to face the reality. In all those years I have no idea whether any ambushes ever actually occurred. All I do remember was that there was incredible tension associated with getting from A to B in one piece, something that us kids were very aware of throughout the journey and probably the only time that our behaviour was faultless.
After Independence, there was the Entumbani uprising just outside Bulawayo… more information below:In post-independent Zimbabwe, the term "gukurahundi" is a euphemism used for the actions of Robert Mugabe's Fifth Brigade in the Ndebele provinces of Matabeleland and the Midlands during the early to late 80s. An estimated 20 000 civilians, mostly Ndebele, were killed or disappeared and have not been accounted for to this date.I remember being able to hear the gunfire from our home throughout the night and the next day and we all got to take the day off school – I didn't understand what was happening, but I do remember a very productive day playing 'dinky' cars in the sand with my brother, completely oblivious to all the details associated with it. My best friend at the time, who lived closer to the area, had window's rattling on her house and her family spent the night sleeping in the passage way. For some silly reason, I remember feeling irrationally jealous that the whole experience was more way more intense for her than it was for me.
ource: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gukurahundi
Ok!! Lets have some more child hood memories!!!! Or what about your teenage years!! That should be exciting. Really a good read, enjoyed it to bits.


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Last updated - May/18/2009
One of the best deals going on shipping, for many items, is the US Post Office (USPS) FLAT RATE packages. Priority mail claims 2 days shipping to most US addresses (and this is true), but taking into account any time cut offs, 3 days all together is about guaranteed in any case.
There are 5 sizes of packaging to choose from with Flat Rate Shipping.
The light bulb is for size comparison.
- 1st is the FLAT RATE ENVELOPE (pictured above) which costs $ 4.95 to ship anywhere in the USA.
This is a very sturdy 12 1/2" x 9 1/2" envelope with no weight limit. The main stipulation is that you can secure the flap as it is (without modifying the package).
- 2nd is a small FLAT RATE BOX (not pictured) which also costs $ 4.95 to ship anywhere in the USA. (HI and AK included)
- 3rd is a FLAT RATE BOX - FRB2 - (pictured above) which costs $ 10.35 to ship anywhere in the US (domestic).
This is a box with an inside diameter of about 13 5/8" x 11 7/8" x 3 3/8", which is similar to a size that would fit a dress shirt, and as all of these Flat Rate packages, has a 70 # weight limit.
- 4th is another FLAT RATE BOX - FRB1 - (above) which also costs $ 10.35 to ship in the USA (aka Domestic addresses which include Alaska and Hawaii).
This box has an I.D. of 11" x 8 1/2" x 5 1/2", and would be similar to a size that would accommodate a stack of standard 6 red building bricks. Again, 70 # weight limit.
- 5th, and lastly, is a newer, and larger FLAT RATE BOX, 12 1/4" x 12 1/4" x 6" (not pictured here yet) package that runs $13.95 to ship in the USA (Domestic addresses), or $ 11.95 to APO/ FPO destinations.
This box is an 1 1/4" longer and 3 3/4" inches higher than the box pictured above, and again has a 70 pound weight limit.
The boxes are free, and will be delivered to your front door in a week or so, by placing your order at the USPS web site (your local Post Office should also carry them, but it may be necessary to ask, as they may be behind the counter). Later, free pick up of the items you have packaged can also be scheduled with the US Postal Service. More info can be found at "usps.com".
There are many other Priority mail packages & supplies to choose from on the USPS website, and all except those with postage already attached should be free. The Flat Rate boxes are Priority Mail items, and they can be found through a link, by searching Supplies here --> USPS.com
eBay & USPS also offer some of the Priority mail boxes branded with the eBay logo in a few of the common sizes. They may be found here --> ebaysupplies.usps.com
Also, with regards to eBay, if you use the option to "Print Shipping Label" in "My eBay"" after a buyer has won, and paid for the item, there is now an option for you to print the US Postal Priority Flat rate Envelope or Box shipping label right on your own printer, by paying for it through PayPal.
The US Postal Service web site also allows you to print Postage labels directly to your printer. This is useful for those not involved with eBay, or for those wishing to print their postage for other needs. Also, when printing postage at the USPS web site you may use your debit or credit card(s) to set up, and pay for, that shipping process. There is also an online address book you can work with.
It is very easy and straight forward after you try it a few times.
Also, by using Priority mail, your customer, or recipient gets the items quickly. Secondly, if you ship with one of the many USPS Priority mail boxes, that are free of charge (as opposed to the average single box price of between $1.50 to 4.50) you offset your shipping fees, by adding speed and reliability to the shipment.
By printing your label online you will also automatically be able to look up any delivery confirmations, and by adding either a signature confirmation, or the reasonably priced insurance, to the shipment you should have all the protection you need should something happen along the way. The tracking information, for your shipments is also available to you, or the recipient, online, at the USPS web site.
* Please note though, that the USPS online tracking runs a few days behind what you might be used to with some of the other online services. So, do not panic, as it will always shows up, just not as quick as you would wish.
Let it also be noted that Priority mail travels by air, which is very gentle on the shipment. With reasonable care taken in your packaging it is very likely you will never see any damage claims. We have yet to have a damaged Priority mail shipment. Also remember though, that when shipping by other Postal methods such as Media Mail, or Parcel Post, for example, that your shipment may be subjected to bouncing around in the back of a semi trailer for a few days.
This article mainly refers to articles shipped inside the US and APO/ FPO destinations, but Priority mail is available for shipments leaving the USA.
* The envelopes are $9.95 to Canada and Mexico, and $11.95 to all other countries.
* The smaller boxes are $25.95 to Canada and Mexico, and $41.95 to all other countries (up to 20 pounds).
* The largest box described above runs $32.95 to Canada and Mexico and $53.95 to other countries.
Lastly, the boxes and envelopes, as pictured here, are being redesigned with a different design and colors, by USPS, at this time.
--> www.usps.com/shipping/flatrate.htm <-- for official info.
Thank you for the interest, and hopefully this will help out a bit.
Hornwaddler aka Paul Malessa


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Sugar Shout Out: Hollywood's Most Bankable Comedic Actors
Posts for April 19th 2009
Britney Spears in Pink
Grey's Anatomy Actress Ellen Pompeo is Pregnant!
Nicole and Harlow
Beckhams Shopping at the Grove
Kellan and Peter at LAX
GLAAD Media Awards in LA
Guess Who?
Sofia Coppola Sets Next Movie in Legendary Hollywood Hot Spot
Reese and Jake at Coachella
Isla and Olive Get Into Swing Set Season
Twilight Kids at a Sage and the Dills Concert


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Einmal eine grosse Dame sein
1934. Germany. Gerhardt Lamprecht. 87 min.
Thursday, April 4, 2013, 8:00 p.m.
Theater 1 (The Roy and Niuta Titus Theater 1), T1
Einmal eine grosse Dame sein
1934. Germany. Directed by Gerhardt Lamprecht. With Käthe von Nagy, Wolf Albach-Retty, Gretl Theimer. This is a satirical look at German class-consciousness and status seeking. Lamprecht's directorial career spanned from 1921 to 1958, and his most well-known films were Emil and the Detectives (from an early Billy Wilder script) and Madame Bovary, starring Pola Negri. Perhaps even more memorable was his role as a film historian; he produced the definitive catalogue of German silent films, published by the Deutsche Kinemathek, and his collection of documents formed the basis of the Kinemathek's research material. Print courtesy of the Friedrich Wilhelm Murnau Foundation. In German; English subtitles. 87 min.
In the Film exhibition The Weimar Touch
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Left Masthead
October 9, 2015
Pakistan and the Taliban, Sitting in a Tree
Posted on Jun 13, 2010
A new report issued by the London School of Economics claims that Pakistan's intelligence agency is not only funding and training Taliban insurgents in Afghanistan but also holds sway in the insurgency's leadership council.
The assertion that Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence has ties to the Taliban is not new, but the scope of the relationship, the report's author claims, could be damaging as the U.S. continues to court Pakistan's support. —JCL
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By cheyennebode, June 14, 2010 at 2:37 pm Link to this comment
By bogi666, June 14, 2010 at 8:56 am Link to this comment
Let's see, the Pakistan ISI sent a $100,000 to the 9/11 hijackers a day or two before 9/11. Furthermore the ISI gets some funding from the CIA. The USG funds the ISI which funds the 9/11 19 terrorists which defeated the USG in 1 day. The USG funded the 19 9/11 terrorists. With this shocking revelation why am I not surprised?Also, Cheney was in charge of the eastern U.S. defense on 9/11 when all of the Air Forces were NOT IN THE AIR.Do I sense conspiracy by the USG for the 9/11 defeat of the USG by 19 men with box cutters on 9/11. How could anyone conclude involvement by the USG for 9/11.
By Mike, June 13, 2010 at 7:31 pm Link to this comment
Speaking of Afghanistan, this story could keep the US there for decades, unfortunately. If this does pan out expect a whole new set of lousy excuses to keep sending American servicemen and women to their graves.
The previously unknown deposits — including huge veins of iron, copper, cobalt, gold and critical industrial metals like lithium — are so big and include so many minerals that are essential to modern industry that Afghanistan could eventually be transformed into one of the most important mining centers in the world, the United States officials believe."


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- 800.878.7323
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Simple Sewing: Patterns and How-To for 24 Fresh and Easy Projects with Pattern(s)by Lotta Jansdotter
Synopses & Reviews
Publisher Comments:
Internationally celebrated designer Lotta Jansdotter collects 24 of her most popular sewing patterns into one irresistible collection. Our innovative packaging makes for easy use reusable pattern sheets are neatly tucked into a folder inside this full-color, lay-flat spiral bound book.
Lotta has included patterns for handy tote bags, smart aprons, chic bed linens, and much more. Each project is paired with step-by-step instructions, charming photographs, inspiring design ideas, and helpful, hand-drawn how-to illustrations everything you need to make whimsical pieces for the home and beyond. Best of all, there's nothing complicated about the projects. Never has simplicity looked so sophisticated.
When Lotta Jansdotter steps out in one of her signature outfits, fans always ask, andldquo;Did you make that yourself?andrdquo; Often the answer is, andldquo;Yes, and so can you!andrdquo; With that in mind, the style icon created Lotta Jansdotter Everyday Style, a pattern book/inspiration guide anchored by five easy, versatile sewing patternsandmdash;skirt, dress, blouse, pants/shorts, and jacket/coatandmdash;and highlighted with quick DIY accessories, including hats, bags, scarves, and jewelry.
Photographed over the course of a year in her life in New York, Tennessee, India, and Sweden and organized by season, Jansdotter shares her sources of inspiration and how she and her friends mix and match her key pieces while working, play- ing, resting, and traveling. Lotta Jansdotter Everyday Style brings Jansdotterandrsquo;s infectious and sought-after sense of style to new followers and longtime devotees alike.
Frog princes, VW buses, and big bad wolvesand#151;these are the sorts of subjects that Heather Ross depicts on the fabrics she designs, which the sewing and quilting communities feverishly collect (with many fabrics going for huge sums on eBay once they sell out at traditional retail outlets). In Heather Ross Prints, a book-and-DVD package, Ross shares reproducible artwork for more than 50 of her most popular prints. She provides step-by-step instructions for 20 craft projects using the prints on the DVDand#151;everything from sea turtle stationery to a shower curtain covered with swirling mermaids. Crafters can use the artwork on the DVD as they wish, printing on fabric, paper, or whatever surface they choose. Plus, Ross teaches her process for designing fabric using Photoshopand#151;a boon to anyone who has ever dreamed of following in her footsteps.
Praise for Heather Ross Prints:
and#147;Wow. I get so excited flipping through page after page of amazing craft projects.and#8221; and#151;Babble.com
and#147;Crafters who like Rossand#8217;s aesthetic will appreciate her generous approach to sharing her art, as well as the creative ideas for incorporating unique, custom-made designs into their homeand#8217;s dand#233;cor.and#8221; and#151;Library Journal
and#147;Rossand#8217;s and#145;Step-by-Step Guide to Creating Digital Designs in Photoshopand#8217; is terrific, and will have you feeling creative and confident in no time. Not only will you know how to use the digital art on the DVD, you'll learn how to create your own!and#8221; and#151;Scrapbooking and Beyond magazine
and#147;The resources and ideas in this book will make any fabric-holicand#8217;s head just explode. So refreshing for an artist to offer up her designs and allow you to PLAY!and#8221; and#151;Generation Q Magazine
and#147;Heather Ross brings you to a magical place. Her illustrations immediately transport you to a dream world filled with unicorns, flowers and gnomes.and#8221; and#151;Babble.com
and#147;Nothing is more fulfilling than making things by hand for your babyand#8217;s nursery. But what to make? The answer to that question lies inside Heather Ross Prints, the latest craft book by celebrated designer Heather Ross. Itand#8217;s filled with highly original projects that will bring the handmade stamp of approval to your home.and#8221; and#151;DisneyBaby.com
and#147;The most interesting section of the book reveals Heatherand#8217;s step-by-step process of creating designs in Photoshop. With screenshots of the entire process, it is quite informative to snoop over her shoulder and see a scanned pencil sketch turn into a wonderful illustration and pattern design. For me, this section is the reason to purchase the book.and#8221; and#151;Uppercase magazine
and#147;The last section of the book, titled and#147;Resources,and#8221; would more aptly be called and#147;Free Awesomeness.and#8221; . . . Craft books are so plentiful these days that it can be hard to stand out from the pack, but Heather Ross Prints is, quite simply, a game changer.and#8221; and#151;Apartment Therapy
and#147;Heather Ross Prints includes cheerful and enchanting projects for interior decoration, small gifts and garments that are an inexpensive, easy and exciting way to introduce yourself to crafts or delve into new projects if youand#8217;re a DIY veteran.and#8221; and#151;Eco Salon
and#147;Flipping through gave me ideas I want to tryand#133;.and#8221; and#151;DesignMom.com
and#147;Most crafters will admit to elbowing someone out of the way at the fabric store to score the last yard of Heather Ross fabric. Guilty? Then you know why sewers and printmakers alike are going crazy for Heatherand#8217;s new book, Heather Ross Prints
and#147;What really makes the book worth buying is her willingness to walk you step by step through the process of designing and having your own fabric printed.and#8221;
and#151;Santa Cruz Sentinel
About the Author
Scandinavian-born Lotta Jansdotter is a self-taught designer. She works from her studio in Brooklyn, New York, where she sells her products and designs online and to hundreds of stores worldwide.
Meiko Arquillos is a photographer based in San Francisco who grew up in Tokyo.
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text: [ Magic Valley Election 2011 Results By James Tidmarsh November 9, 2011 It was a slow but steady turn out for election day 2011 through out the Magic Valley. Voter turn out was at around 20 percent not bad considering two years ago turn out was at around 13 percent... Read More|Comment Category: News, Twin Falls News Tags: Election Results, Magic Valley, Twin Falls Send to a friend! Share on Facebook Share on Twitter Pin it! Reddit This! Share on Tumblr!


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Donovan's Auto & Tire Center
5601 Ridge Rd, Cincinnati, OH 45213 Map & directions
Call Now: (513) 342-3716
"They did a great job fixing my car for the price quoted and delivered on the day promised."
"They are honest. They do good work and they are honest."
"Donovan's was fast, to the point, and honest with their work. They were open about the problems and didn't..."
"I've been going to them for over 20 years. They are reasonable and reliable. I've had four different vehicles..."
"Donovan's is excellent. When they tell you work needs to be done, it really needs to be done. We trust..."
"I've been using him for years. When you find somebody good and reliable you go to them."
"Donovan's has always provided excellent service. They listen and give clear explanations. Work is always..."
"Always do a good job and explain what they are doing and why they did it."
"They do great work and it is a good family run business."
"They have always been thorough and professional with their service. I believe they are honest with their..."
"The prices and workmanship is always good and fair. They do not gouge their customers"
"I have taken cars there for over 45 years and have had great service and seen this company grow from 4 or 5..."
About Donovan's Auto & Tire Center
RepairPal's Comprehensive Evaluation
Assessment Summary
Donovan's Auto and Tire Center has been serving the Cincinnati community since 1958. The owner Dale Donavan is been a part of this organization for over 17 years. He leads a team of 8 employees that keep this large shop moving. The team of 4 technicians combine for over 99 years of experience. this certified shop crew has the automotive tools and computer diagnostic equipment required to properly service and repair your late model computer controlled vehicle and receive regular training to keep current on the latest automotive technologies. The shop features a comfortable waiting room, fresh coffee, a shuttle service, and wireless internet for your convenience.
Message from the Shop
We are in the automotive tire and repair business. We have been in business for over 52 years and are family owned/operated. If it doesn't need it, you won't get it. Dale Donovan also do a radio show every Saturday on 55KRC from 4-7pm on car repair. We have 13 employees and they have all worked for the company for more than 5 years.
Auto Makes We Service
|Check Engine Light
|Oil Change & Lube
|Scheduled Maintenance
|Service & Repair
|Timing Belts
|Tire Sales/Repair
Customer Reviews 23 verified reviews (25 total)23 Sort by: Date | Helpful
I have taken cars there for over 45 years and have had great service and seen this company grow from 4 or 5 employees to the fifteen or so they have now. The quality of the work and the staff always seem to be top notch. I know it is a family business and I met and knew the man that started it all. His honesty and his word were always backed up by his employees. I know with that quality they will be around another 50 years.
Donovan's has done it again! I went in this morning just before 8:00 a.m. in hopes that I could get an oil change before reporting to work at 8:30 (Good luck, I thought!)Dan came out to the car and ushered me into the garage advising that "Sure! We can do it right now!" By 8:10 he had checked my fluids, my tires, etc. and I was good to go! Got to work right on time. Thanks again! Little did I know that I could get a 10% discount through my AARP membership! This is great!
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Special Places Project 2013
This section of the page features an image gallery, so if you're using a screen reader you may wish to jump to the main content.
We all have a place that means something special to us whether it's the place you grew up or the romantic setting for your wedding day.
We want to celebrate these places with you and inspire others with your memories and experiences, to help grow the nation's love of the places we treasure.
Our team of celebrities wanted to share their special places to inspire and grow the nation's love of the places we hold close to us.
Actress, Kim Cattrall shares Blickling Estate in Norfolk as her special place 'Visiting my cousin in Norfolk and decided to visit Anne Boleyn's childhood home. It was a perfect day.'
Actor, Jude Law shares his memories of why Cliveden House is special to him 'One of the great scenes of Sherlock Holmes was shot at Cliveden House - It's such a gorgeous place. I had no idea the National Trust looked after the gardens and grounds there, they are glorious and I love spending time wandering around them. We can rest assured the Trust will look after them for generations to come.'
Other celebrities growing the love of special places include Nell McAndrew sharing photographs of Ham House in London.
Actress, Naomie Harris shares fond memories of Waddesdon Manor 'I'm a huge fan of visiting stately homes, and have visited many of those owned by the National Trust. Waddesdon Manor, is one of my favourite, and when I lived in Buckinghamshire I used to visit it frequently. I love the way the homes are so carefully preserved, so that you can get a very visceral sense of what life must have been like during the different periods of British history. Visiting a stately home is also a great way to escape the hustle and bustle of London life, where I now live, and experience a different pace of life. When visiting a NT property I always feel like a character in 'The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe' stepping through the wardrobe into a different world.'
Austin Healey sharing memories of Cowny Bridge in North Wales describing it as his special place after spending time playing in the water as a child.
The Famous Baker Brothers, Tom and Henry Herbert, chose Dyrham Park near Bath after their family picnics there and the spectacular views across the South Gloucestershire countryside.
Musician Gary Kemp chose the Lake District as his special place after summers spent holidaying in the heart of the National Trust countryside, sharing a picture of his son topping a Lakeland Fell.
We carried out study which revealed that four out of five people (81 per cent) said visiting their favourite place had a bigger impact on their well being than shopping or going to the cinema.
- Nearly a third of those surveyed (31 per cent) said their favourite place was where they grew up, while 30 per cent chose a recent holiday spot and one in four (25 per cent) the location of a childhood family outing.
- One in ten was romantically-minded (ten per cent) and admitted that their special place was where they were married and five per cent where they were proposed to.
- 87 per cent said their special place made them happy just thinking about it, with three quarters of those surveyed (75 per cent) revealing the place they love the most reminded them of their family.


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The Whack-a-Doodle-Doo! Songbook contains childrens songs which have the musical notes color-coded to match...
Put classical themes of the great composers into the hands of every student!
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I've written on a number of occasions on why cities should look to strengthen their visual identity and distinctive character using civic icons or images that can provide a powerful graphical or design representation of the city. For example, I wrote about I wrote about how London's use of its civic icons – it's red buses, black cabs, bobby uniforms, phone booths, and tube logo – had assumed an almost totemistic stature there.
In the United States, I'd have to rate Chicago far and away #1 in the use of official civic symbols (maybe the best in the world for all I know), and also note the overall high level of design quality of these objects. Today I want to focus on one particular aspect of this, the city flag and its uses.
The city flag is pictured at the top. I included a border on the image because of the white field. This was rated as the #2 city flag in America by the North American Vexillological Association after Washington, DC. I actually like Chicago's better, because the aggressive asymmetry of DC's flag is a bit off-putting to me.
The Chicago flag is also highly symbolic. The two blue stripes symbolize the cities waterways – the top Lake Michigan and the North Branch of the Chicago River, the bottom the South Branch and the I&M Canal – while the three resulting white stripes represent the North, West, and South Sides of the city. The stars also symbolize various things. There were originally only two stars, with the others added later, and there are periodic calls to add a fifth star, though four seems about right to me.
If you come to Chicago you'll notice that the city flag is ubiquitous. In fact, the first place you notice it is when you arrive at O'Hare, where you see a large row of huge alternating US and Chicago flags at the roadway leading into the terminal. You'll notice that the Illinois flag is missing. Illinois has, like most states, a lousy flag. While you see it at government buildings and around downtown, it is much more rare than Chicago's own flag, giving what I think is a powerful sense of how the city likes to think of itself as a standalone entity in its state and region. (The contrast with Indianapolis is an interesting one. Indy also has a fabulous city flag, but one much more rarely used. And despite Indiana also having a somewhat dubious state flag, it is much more common to see in Indy than the city's own flag. Of course, it is the state capital as well, but I don't think that is the full explanation).
Here's a picture of the bridge over Michigan Ave, featuring bold use of flags:
One thing that sets Chicago apart is not just the city's own use of the flag, but its widespread adoption by others. Here's one flying over the entrance to Marshall Fields on State St.
An office building Michigan Ave. This will mark our last appearance of the Illinois state flag, so let's wave goodbye to it.
This extends far beyond downtown, however. Here's a bank in West Lakeview:
Even this Irish bar on Southport couldn't resist getting into the act:
But what really puts Chicago into a class by itself is the way that the city and its citizens have embraced the flag imagery to infuse into the design of other objects, and even sometimes themselves.
First the city. Here's Chicago's police car livery, which is based on the city flag. It's also one of the finest police car liveries in the world. I'm not sure how far back this dates, but it's as least as far the Blues Brothers movie. I don't recognize the font (though I'm sure someone will post it about 5 seconds), but I love its aggressive blockiness that is perfect for the City of Big Shoulders:
There's an actual city flag in gold trim near the rear of the blue stripe if you look. When you contrast more current designs with this classic, you can see that in Chicago, as in any number of cities, quality of public design has actually declined in some regards.
Here's someone who did their bicycle up in city flag style:
Both the Sun-Times and the Red Eye (a free daily distributed by the Tribune) used the city flag for their election day issues:
Local bookmark sharing site the Windy Citizen uses the city flag as the basis for its site design:
If you'll note the social media sharing icons at the bottom of this post, the one that enables submitting to Windy Citizen is a star from the city flag.
You can even buy Chicago flag soap:
Sorry, I don't have a link to where you can buy this, but again, I'm sure one will be forthcoming from a commenter.
Here's one even I think it a little crazy. People are starting to tattoo themselves with the city flag. Here's a picture of local mixologist Charles Joly I found via the 312 Dining Diva.
I've personally seen multiple people in my neighborhood with city flag tattoos on their arms. Talk about pride and loyalty. But I guess that level of fanaticism is what Chicago has managed to inspire.


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Nondiscrimination Protection in the Affordable Care Act: Section 1557
For a PDF version of this factsheet, please see below.
Section 1557 of the Affordable Care Act prohibits discrimination in health care programs on the basis of race, color, national origin, sex, sex stereotypes, gender identity, age, or disability. This is the first time that federal law has prohibited sex discrimination in health care. Health insurers, hospitals, the health insurance exchanges, and any other entities that receive federal funds are covered by this law. It became effective upon passage of the ACA.
Section 1557 gives the Department of Health and Human Services' Office for Civil Rights the authority and obligation to investigate potential violations of the law and enforce this new civil rights guarantee.
The text of Section 1557
Except as otherwise provided for in this title (or an amendment made by this title), an individual shall not, on the ground prohibited under title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 (42 U.S.C. 2000d et seq.), title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972 (20 U.S.C. 1681 et seq.), the Age Discrimination Act of 1975 (42 U.S.C. 6101 et seq.), or section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 (29 U.S.C. 794), be excluded from participation in, be denied the benefits of, or be subjected to discrimination under, any health program or activity, any part of which is receiving Federal financial assistance, including credits, subsidies, or contracts of insurance, or under any program or activity that is administered by an Executive Agency or any entity established under this title (or amendments). The enforcement mechanisms provided for and available under such title VI, title IX, section 504, or such Age Discrimination Act shall apply for purposes of violations of this subsection.
Why do we need Section 1557?
Prior to passage of the ACA, no federal law provided comprehensive protection against sex discrimination in health care. The ACA has many provisions that address specific inequities in the health care marketplace—such as the failure to provide contraceptive coverage to women, the exclusion of maternity care from health insurance plans, and the lack of protection for nursing mothers in the workplace, among others. Section 1557, however, applies longstanding sex discrimination prohibitions across the board and to all aspects of health care, including some not addressed explicitly by the ACA.
What is the scope of Section 1557?
Section 1557 has a broad scope and applies to a wide range of health programs and entities. It protects individuals from discrimination in:
- Any health program or activity of a recipient of federal financial assistance, such as hospitals, clinics, employers, or insurance companies that receive federal money. Visiting nurse programs, community health education interventions, and similar programs that receive federal dollars also must comply with Section 1557. Section 1557 specifically extends its discrimination prohibition to entities that receive federal financial assistance in the form of contracts of insurance, credits, or subsidies.
- Any program or activity administered by an executive agency, including federal health programs like Medicare, Medicaid, and CHiP.
- Any program or activity created under Title I of the ACA, including the new state health insurance exchanges.
What does "sex discrimination" mean under Section 1557?
Section 1557 is similar to Title IX, which prohibits sex discrimination in education programs that receive federal financial assistance and other federal laws like Title VII, which prohibits discrimination in employment. Under Title IX and other civil rights laws, sex discrimination includes, but is not limited to, discrimination based on pregnancy, pregnancy-related conditions, marital or familial status, gender identity, and sex-stereotyping.
How is Section 1557 enforced?
The enforcement mechanisms available under Section 1557 are those available under the civil rights laws it references. The Department of Health and Human Services' Office for Civil Rights (OCR) has jurisdiction to oversee and enforce Section 1557. OCR has announced that it is open to receiving and investigating complaints alleging violations of Section 1557. And, like Title IX, it also allows people to go to court themselves, to secure an order than the discrimination stop and any damages to compensate them from the injuries they suffered due to the discrimination.
How can I find out more?
Please contact the National Women's Law Center at (202) 588-5180 or firstname.lastname@example.com if you would like to work with us or if you identify potential violations of Section 1557.
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Join the Reproductive Health Campaign
Go to ThisIsPersonal.org to get the facts and tools you need to help protect women's reproductive health.


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Half-Off Green Fees for Veterans on Veterans' Day
All four city courses off half-off green fees for U.S. Veterans and Active Duty Personnel
The Parks and Recreation Department's Golf Division is proud to announce that on Veterans' Day, November 11, 2012, all courses will offer half-off green fees to United States Military Veterans. The Golf Division is proud to honor our service members - past and present - and want to thank all who've served. Please join us!


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Good news! There are working links and episode descriptions for ALL EPISODES, ALL 9 SEASONS.
Also thought I should mention: There are episodes that are mislabeled on there host site but I have placed them in the correct episode slot on Sidereel. EXAMPLE: Season 4/Episode 10 Paper Hearts.....on 56.com it is labeled as "X-Files.4-11.El.Mundo.Gira." RIGHT video, wrong name.
So please be careful before attempting to rearrange videos (the title may not match up but the video is in the right place on SideReel). Enjoy!


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"Singin' in the Rain" is one of Travelzoo's favourite musicals and it is now touring the UK. You can save up to 58% on seats when the show comes to the Theatre Royal Plymouth next week.
What's included
7:30pm performances on 17-19, 23-26 June.
About the show
Based on the classic MGM film, "Singin' in the Rain" stars Maxwell Caulfield ("Emmerdale", "Dynasty") and "Coronation Street" favourite Vicky Binns. It features songs such as "Good Morning", "Make 'Em Laugh" and, of course, "Singin' in the Rain". Be warned, if you sit in the first few rows you might get splashed by some of the 12,000 litres of water used in every performance! See clips of the show here.
"A night of sheer delight... Full of great gags. Five stars" -- The Daily Telegraph
"This all-tapping, all-splashing show will put a smile on anyone's face... Five stars" -- Daily Express
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Sept. 8, 2010
• Camp Randall Carry-in Policy
MADISON, Wis. -- Fans headed to Camp Randall Stadium for the Badgers' home-opener against San Jose State this Saturday are encouraged to review the stadium policies, specifically the carry-in policy for all UW home games.As a point of clarification this season, the only bags that will be permitted in the stadium are those that are 8.5" x 11" (or the size of a normal sheet of paper). The type of bag is no longer an issue merely the size. Any bag (purse, backpack, drawstring bag, etc.) bigger than 8.5" x 11" will not be allowed in the stadium. All bags that are allowed into the stadium must be searched first.Also a reminder to fans traveling eastbound on University Avenue to the Camp Randall Stadium/UW Campus area there is road construction around Midvale Avenue with lane closures. Fans traveling University Avenue are encouraged to build in extra travel time and expect delays.
Below is a list of permitted and prohibited items. You can also check out the Camp Randall Stadium page for the complete policies list, parking information, seating chart and more.
Items permitted: bags 8.5" x 11" or smaller, binoculars, cameras, blankets, jackets, items related to a medical condition, chairbacks (not more than 16" wide), and diaper bags (with child).
Items prohibited (including, but not limited to): bags larger than 8.5" x 11", food, beverages, containers, strollers, laser pointers, umbrellas, banners, flags, signs, noisemakers, weapons, inflatables, or any items deemed dangerous or inappropriate.
All items and spectators are subject to search. Storage facilities are not available for checking prohibited items. Items left at gates will be disposed of accordingly.Express gates are available at Camp Randall Stadium for those who do not bring carry-in items. Halloween costumes may be worn at Camp Randall Stadium and the Kohl Center, but the costumes must be able to fit into a normal seating space and must be of an appropriate nature. No additional carry-ins will be allowed as part of a Halloween costume.
2015 Board of Regents of the University of Wisconsin System. All rights reserved worldwide.
Contact Us | Problems or accessibility issues: email@example.com


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CDT Standard Grade revision and instruction website links.
Most of these have been used for revision for the recent prelims but this is a handy guide for those who need to work at home.
Use the SQA site to look at the past papers and the marking instructions.
SQA – http://www.sqa.org.uk/sqa/41161.html
BBC bitesize (GCSE – Electronics and Systems and Control)
A very useful website for all CDT subjects with lots of information and revision is –
Again follow relevant subject links.


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Hopkins, Daniel look to close deal
COLUMBIA - Before the playoffs began, Jeff Maness ticked off one dangerous and talented team after another in a stacked Upper State bracket.
There was undefeated Greer. J.L. Mann and superstar Damien Leonard. Lower Richland and its up tempo style with 6-foot-8 Malcolm Rhett.
But nearly three weeks after the playoffs started, Daniel and Maness, its coach, have survived that tough Upper State bracket, and as Maness said before the playoffs, "If you make it to the state championship, you've done some work. There are some tough teams."
Indeed, Daniel has done some work, but has more remaining at 8:30 tonight against Lake City in the Class AAA state championship in Columbia at the Colonial Life Arena.
The Lions, who are 22-3 and undefeated against in-state competition, are in the program's first state championship since it won back-to-back in 1966 and '67.
Maness said his team survived the tough Upper State bracket because of senior leadership from guys like point guard Cedrick Smith and guard DeAndre Hopkins.
"These two guys especially, have really become vocal leaders not only leading by example, but being able to speak up and speak to the team," Maness said.
Along with exorcising the demons that lingered over the program following last year's third-round loss to Greer in which Daniel blew a 24-point lead to lose 88-86, the Lions have also eased the pain of the football disappointments from the previous two Upper State championships.
"For the team it's great to come back from a loss like last year and for our momentum to carry us this far is a real good thing," Smith said. "We've grown a lot together. From the beginning of the season you can tell how we play now, we play much more as a team."
Added Maness, "(We) really grew up from last year with some of the disappointments we had. Even though it was a successful season as well, last year, it didn't end like we wanted it."
To make this season end like they want, Daniel would have to beat Lake City, which knocked off Darlington to win the school's first Lower State title on Saturday. The Panthers (24-4) are led by 6-2 senior Corey Baker, who averages 16 points per game.
"As he goes, we go," Lake City coach Willie Thomas said. "He's probably the one player that if we lose, we would struggle to replace."
The key in this game, Thomas admitted, is containing Hopkins' dribble penetration. In three of the four playoff games, Hopkins used a pass-first mentality to feed teammates cutting off the baseline. Against Mann, he took the scoring in his own hands, but Maness said all of his players are free to score or pass depending on the flow of each game.
But Hopkins is consistently at the forefront of each opponent's game plan against Daniel. He averages 11.5 points, 7.5 assists, 6.3 rebounds and 2.6 steals per game.
"We just hope to get better each week, and hopefully we're going to get better this week because it's going to require that to be able to contain Mr. Hopkins because he is a phenomenal player," Thomas said. "We're just going to try to contain him, but our focus is not Daniel, it's Lake City and Lake City doing the best they can do and hopefully we have enough to be victorious."
For Hopkins, no matter the outcome of this game, it ends a star-studded career in which he transformed from a basketball-first player to a college football prospect and signed to play at Clemson in February. At a press conference on Monday, he was confident in how his career would end.
"As soon as we win on Saturday I'm going to start working out at Clemson," he said. "I don't have much time to reflect on this."
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Field Trip Shows the City More Festival Love
Newer and more-er, though, do not necessarily mean better.
Newer and more-er, though, do not necessarily mean better.
For better or worse, art wasn't the main attraction at AGO's gold-themed fundraiser.
The Bicycles released a new album Thursday night at Lula Lounge, with special guests Hooded Fang, and The Magic.
A local indie-pop musician's sophomore album is full of powerful, disco-inflected tracks.
Today: Dave Meslin loves democracy, and you should too; The Weather Station loves singing with friends; Claire, From the Bus loves Ralph (and it scares him); improvisers love White Rhino; and Doldrums and pals love partying late.
Today: Serial Villains at Type Books, Truth or Dare at Red Sandcastle Theatre, Long Winter 4 at the Great Hall, and Static Zine's romantic comedy at The Central.
A new single by the local artist gets an appropriately sexy video.
In today's Urban Planner: the fall funny festival season continues with The Toronto Improv Festival; The Vagabond Trust returns to the Ossington; and Slim Twig, U.S. Girls, and Sic Alps play for kids of all ages at Double Double Land.
This weekend: a reading festival brings tons of authors to town, stretch those legs with WALKfest, take a stand against the Mega-Quarry with Soupstock, expand your inner creativity with a zine festival, and more.
In today's Urban Planner: an album release, a film-inspired concert, a lion (a Snoop one), fall theatre, and much more.
In today's Urban Planner: give our tall ships a proper farewell before they set sail; revel in some genre-blurring music acts (and more) at the Soundclash Festival; see slam poets reach for the prize at Slamtario 2012; and the Fringe heads into its final weekend.
The first-ever New Traditions Music and Art Festival brought collaboration and creativity to the Island. And, hopefully, some new traditions that will stick around.
In today's UP: Elise Legrow and Maylee Todd's sultry sounds at the Drake Underground; the thrumming sounds of lightsaber battles; and three possible Soulpepper shows, with a Home advantage.
In today's UP: As theatre like Clybourne Park and The
Today in Toronto: learn about local urban sustainability at U of T's Environment Week, celebrate Canadian poet Irving Layton's life at a centenary celebration, join an evening of storytelling with the Raconteurs, and get your laugh on with Egg Zepellin's comedy and variety show.
In today's (lucky) Urban Planner: art supporting other art—literally—at G Gallery; Levi MacDougall returns to Hogtown; the Festival of New Formats hits get encores; The Wrecking Ball mashes up readers and rockers; Rich Aucoin Lives at the Drake (one night only); and A Soul (Winter Party).
In today's UP: the Word Festival's 76 hours of Shakespeare & the King James Bible; (actual) Brothers of the Weird; Woody Allen's Death: A Play is Arts & Lies' first stage baby; Greg Proops is Comedy Bar's 3rd anniversary guest; and Maylee & Pegwee Power fundraise to get to Europe.
In today's Urban Planner: a new run for an old favourite at Soulpepper, new five-minute Opera Briefs at the season opener for Tapestry New Opera, and classic old soul jams from a new purpose-assembled band at A Soul.