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What's The Best Way to Invest for Your Grandchildren's College Education?
October 19, 2011
Dear Carrie,
I have $85,000 to invest for my grandchildren's education. Where would you suggest I invest it?
—A Reader
Dear Reader,
I applaud your idea wholeheartedly, with just one caveat. Before you move ahead, make absolutely sure you won't need that money for your own retirement. Err on the cautious side, and proceed with this gift to your grandkids only if you're confident you'll have the financial resources you'll need for yourself. You are being incredibly generous, but when it comes to retirement, it's hardly selfish to think of yourself first!
Accounts: lots of choices
That said, let's get to the meat of your question. Essentially, you're looking at four options: a 529 plan, a custodial account, a trust account, or simply investing using your own account (with the plan to make gifts to your grandchildren later).
529 Plan: The most obvious answer (but not necessarily the right one) is a 529 plan, the popular tax-deferred vehicle for college investing (a Coverdell; Education Savings Account can offer even greater benefits, but is limited to annual contributions of no more than $2,000 and then only if you qualify based on your adjusted gross income). In a 529 account, investment income is never taxed, as long as it's withdrawn for "qualified" higher education expenses ("qualified" means about what you'd expect: tuition and fees, room and board, and books and supplies).
Some additional benefits of 529 plans:
- You can make substantial contributions without triggering gift taxes: an individual can contribute $65,000 and a married couple $130,000 in a single five-year period (requires a special election on your gift tax return).
- You control the assets. The child is the beneficiary, but the assets are in your name; your grandkids cannot access the money directly.
- You can transfer unused assets to a wide range of family members, which could be important. Say one grandchild was college bound, but the other wasn't; 529 plan assets could be shifted to the one headed for college without penalty.
- You might get a state tax break. Some states offer tax credits for 529 contributions.
What's not to like? Well, 529 plans offer fewer investment choices than custodial accounts or trusts and trading and exchanges are often limited. And the funds can only be used for higher education; if you withdraw them for some other reason, you'll pay federal and state taxes on any investment income plus a 10 percent penalty.
A Custodial Account: If you're sure your grandkids will go to college, a 529 plan makes sense. But if your goal is simply to give them some financial assistance later in life, you might consider a custodial account. It's more flexible than a 529 in terms of what you can invest in and how your grandkids can use the money.
That can be a double-edged sword. You would control the investment now, but the assets must be given to the beneficiary when he or she turns 18, 21, or 25 (depending on your state and your wishes). Theoretically, your grandchild could reach the legal age and cash out the account to buy a Ferrari, and there'd be nothing you could do about it.
Earnings don't grow tax-free as they do with a 529 plan, but a custodial account may offer a tax benefit: Under the current tax code, the first $950 of investment earnings are tax-free and the next $950 is taxed at the child's (usually quite low) rate; after that the marginal tax rate goes up to the parents' rate.
A Trust Account: If you want more control over the money, look at a trust account, either a Crummey Trust (the odd name comes from the first person who successfully set one up) or a 2503(c) Minor's Trust. These are more complex and more expensive than your other options; if they sound appealing, consult a trust expert to see if one of these structures would be right for you. With either a custodial account or a trust account, you will be limited to the annual gift tax exclusion of $13,000 per year per recipient ($26,000 for spouses electing to "split" their gifts).
Keep It In Your Own Account: One final option is simply to earmark that money for your grandchildren and keep it in your own name and your own account. Of course you would need to stipulate your intentions in your will (or set up a trust), and potentially have part of it eaten up by estate tax. But the pluses are that you'll have complete control over how the money is invested and how and when it's disbursed. In addition if you should happen to need the money yourself, it'll be available.
So you have a lot of options, though given the amount of money you plan to invest and assuming you are very confident you won't need it yourself, the 529 plan may make the most sense. Pick a plan with low expenses and a wide range of investment choices, and then make investment choices that match the time horizon you need and offer plenty of diversification. Target funds, which rebalance automatically as the date of matriculation grows nearer, offer a simple solution, so check them out.
Good luck--and I am sure your generosity will be remembered for years and years to come.
The information provided here is for general informational purposes only and is not intended to be a substitute for specific individualized tax, legal or investment planning advice. The type of securities and investment strategies mentioned may not be suitable for everyone. Each investor needs to review a security transaction and investment strategy for his or her own particular situation. Where specific advice is necessary or appropriate, consult with a qualified tax advisor, CPA, financial planner or investment manager.


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Gun Digest 12 Days of Christmas Giveaway
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From Dec. 10 to 21, check this page for a new gun-related prize to win each day. That's 12 chances to win 12 great prizes in 12 days!
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FEB 23, 2013 - Seattle Times
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An international human rights group urged Yemen's government Saturday to crack down on human rights violations it says have taken place since the country's 2011 uprising.
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Approximately 407,000 American service men and women died while serving in World War II (WWII), including 292,000 battle-related deaths and 115,000 other deaths. The total includes 79,000 who were missing in action and never recovered. Another 672,000 suffered non-fatal wounds. This is the WWII Disabled American Veterans card of Frank R. Dahowski, Jr. (1910-1988). Frank was employed by the Luey and Abercrombie grocery business of Greenfield before enlisting in 1942. During WWII he was an Army sergeant; due to his permanent debilitating war-time injury, he left the service as a disabled veteran, unable to work when he returned home. This card entitled Frank to medical and financial benefits.
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Photo: Matt Georges // www.mattgeorges.com
Tyler Chorlton is a doer. Pro snowboarder, shop owner, and since this year, he also runs his very own video production, WhatWeWant Films. He speaks three languages fluently (English, French, Spanish) and two other ones at least fifty-fifty (Scandi and German). He started snowboarding in 1999, got pretty good pretty fast, started entering some contests, started winning, became a part of the British Olympic Snowboard Squad, and finally realised bombing through nipple deep powder is way better than a triple cork hans 1630. He's one of the most stylish snowboarders out there and when it comes to the much-loved moustache biz he's pretty much on top of the game as well. Have you seen his full part from Levity? What cheek!
Anyway, in this interview I talked about pretty much anything with Tyler. Breakfast, stache wax, snowboard shop biz, WWWF, pro snowboarder biz, Coin Coin, agents, Axolotls, surname pronouncing… anything. So, give it up for Tyler. If he's not one of your favourite snowboarders, well, he should be.
Tyler Chorlton, what did you have for breakfast today?
My wonderful girlfriend made me a whole wheat egg cheese and mushroom wrap with creme freache!
Do you wax your moustache before or after breakfast?
Haha, usually it's still waxed from the previous day. It'll just need a tune up before I go out… it's pretty tough wax!
Yep, that's the one. Pinaud Clubman's Moustash Wax. It's the wax Dali used, I sneeked into his bathroom on a tour of his house and found it there – 30 years later.
Well, I think you should be the lawful heir of Dali's wax, so sneeking into his bathroom is okay.
Haha… well, I didn't steal anything of course. It was pretty amazing to take a tour around his house, he left everything one day to another and never went back. Everything is conserved just the way he left it.
Photos by Matt Georges // www.mattgeorges.com
Damn. When did you go there?
I went there this September.
Real interview questions: What's up? What have you been up to in the last couple weeks? What's next?
All good, thanks! Lately I've been pretty busy getting things ready for winter for my shop, my movie production and my snowboard career. Next phase: when the snow gets here is to get shredding! And it's snowing now in Andorra, so I need to get a move on!
You're born English. And you grew up in France. How the hell did you end up having a snowboard shop in Andorra?
Yup, that's right. I ended up here because my dad bought a place in Andorra. It was the first place he ever skied back in the day. Then the rest is history: got an opportunity to open a shop and went for it.
When did you start your shop?
Slidewayz started in November 2010. Actually 2 years ago today as we write this!
No shit?
Yep. I just noticed that, haha.
Well, congrats, man!
Thanks very much! But that was the opening date. We started about 6 months before.
You're doing it together with your partner, right?
Yep, with my homie Merlin Balfour. He was my local idol when I started riding here as a kid.
Photos by Matt Georges // www.mattgeorges.com
And now kids are stoked to get their boards from Merlin and Mr. Chorlton.
I hope so, that's why we're here. Stoke out the kids!
Awesome. But what's it like having a core shop these days? The industry hasn't been the best friend of you guys lately, right?
Yeah, it's not easy these days for sure, but we try our best to keep it real with the industry and customers. And in the economy we have these days sometimes it's a case of surviving.
Indeed. But I think it's one of the most important jobs of our industry to prevent the smaller and local core shops from a die out..
For sure and in a way it should be the same in every industry.
Yeah… that's the theory.
It's just sad these days that kids don't mind buying their top end board from (pretty much) a supermarket.
We could go on for hours but it would just become complaining…
Probably, yeah. So next: as said, you're not only a pro snowboarder and shop owner, you also run a video production. How did the idea for WhatWeWant Films come?
Yea, basically myself and Gerome Mathieu kinda had the same idea to go off and do our own thing and hire a filmer for the season to produce a part. Turns out we wanted the same filmer – our friend Serge aka Marc Vaudroz – so eventually we just decided to join forces and created WhatWeWantFilms.
Are you happy about how Levity turned out in the end?
Yeah, I am. We had a sick season together! And we're super stoked on the movie.
Who cracks you up the most on the crew?
Gerome is hilarious, he does what we call in French a "Coincouinade" which is when something amazingly stupid comes out of his mouth or cracks us up in a way that only he is capable of such a feat. He is the guaranteed entertainment, hehe.
Have you ever had beef with another pro?
I don't think I ever have, I'm pretty much a peaceful soul. There have been misunderstandings here and there but nothing ever serious.
Let's do a little summary: Besides running a shop and having a video production, Tyler Chorlton is a professional snowboarder and his girlfriend makes him whole wheat egg cheese and mushroom wrap with creme freache for breakfast which means he can't be the that bad as boyfriend. How the hell you're doing it, man?
I dunno, dude. It does get pretty hectic at times, usually around this time of the year actually… but, you know, take it day by day, stay stoked and take care of your worries before they take care of you.
Ever thought about hiring an agent?
I have a few times but somehow it never really fell into place so I guess the situation or the timing just ain't right for me.
But everbody has an agent, Tyler.
Been doing ok without one so far, hehe.
Photos by Matt Georges // www.mattgeorges.com
All right. Next question: Have you ever seen an Axolotl?
A what?
An Axolotl.
No? Never heard of one. Does it involve a lot of axes?
I don't know. Maybe. It's a mole salamander. What's a Jumbuck?
Oh, I know what you mean!
Yea! I just googled it, haha!
Wait, the Axolotl or the Jumbuck?
It's gross.
Haha, it's a little dude.
Yeah, and imagine it would have kids with an Aye-aye. New level of gross.
On a serious note, what's the best part of being Tyler Chorlton?
Being called Tyler… people usually remember it. But if I'd have to be serious I'd have to say simply being alive.
What's the worst part of being Tyler Chorlton?
Being called Chorlton, people sometimes have a hard time with it…
What? Really?
For French and Spanish they can't get their tongue around it. In English or German it's more natural, I guess.
Photos by Matt Georges // www.mattgeorges.com
Jesus! Ask me! My name is Götschl… even Germans can't pronounce that.
Yeah, haha. I was trying out loud in Spanish accent… it doesn't work really. They would be confused.
Speaking of nicknames, has anyone called you 'TC Stache' yet?
Yea, TC is my usual nickname.
And seriously, how sick of talking about moustaches are you?
I love talking moustashes! As mine is always growing there always more to talk about, hehe.
That's it, thanks Tyler. Danny Larsen told me I have to say he said hi to you, by the way. Does anyone deserve a 'thank you', a 'hey man, what's up? How's your mum doing?' or just plain and simple a 'dude, you still owe me those 5 bucks!'? If so, here you go. It's all yours.
Yea, big shout out to Merlin, Serge, Gerome and the whole WWWF crew! Kareem, you still owe me for getting your boardbag back to Europe. D.Larsen, get growing again!
Also cheers to Beckna for being da BAUSS, the rest of my TM's and all the people I work with for just being down with what I do. My friends and Family and my girl, Love you all.
TC out.
Tyler rides for: Vans, APO, Electric, Relentless, Nixon and Grandvalira.
Big thanks to Matt Georges for providing us once again with amazing shots. Check out more of Matt's work on www.mattgeorges.com. Also click here to check out WhatWeWant Films. Then click there for the Slidewayz website, there for more Tyler videos, and there for even more videos. And there. Not there, though. That would be a waste of time. Here's good.


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Both the UW and Seattle have well developed technology and arts communities that
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class who often move seamlessly between technology and the arts. The practicing
bar is highly sophisticated with many firms specializing in emerging growth tech
companies across the spectrum of the life sciences, information technology, and
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LTA is deeply connected to this community through its directors,
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Behind the Headline: States Fail to Raise Bar in Reading, Math Tests
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States Fail to Raise Bar in Reading, Math Tests
Wall Street Journal | 8/11/11
Behind the Headline
Few States Set World-Class Standards
Education Next | Summer 2008
A new NCES report finds that, while some states have raised their standards for proficiency in math and reading, most states still fall far below the "basic" level on NAEP. In an article that appeared in the Summer 2008 issue of Ed Next, Paul Peterson and Rick Hess examined the rigor of each state's academic standards as compared with NAEP and found that only three states—Massachusetts, South Carolina, and Missouri—had established world-class standards.
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text: 6 days ago Ive ordered a pair of Pearl Izumi Therma Fleece bibs form performancebike.com. Today comes the package and get this, the box is empty! No bibs, but a whole lot of advertisements and a Performance catalog. I called them up and got the answer that they dont even have them in stock+don't know when will. They also dont understand how that could happen. I asked for a full refund and now waiting for their letter that I have to sign in order to get my refund. Anyone had this happen to them? I know many of you order from performance. This was my first order from them, and I dont think I will ever order from them again


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Flapper will not position-floats when tank is filling and will not close. Replaced with new and same result. Any suggestions?
Normally the flapper floats until the tank is empty. Then it "falls" shut. Either: 1) the tank is failing to empty completely for some reason or 2) the flapper falls but doesn't stay down when the water starts to fill on top of it. I believe the thing that makes it stay down is vacuum. If it was working OK and this is a new problem, then I'd say there's a problem elsewhere in your system. Anything changed lately in your house? If you've just made some changes to this commode, could it be that the water filling the tank is coming into the tank in such a way that it is lifting the flapper at one edge, breaking the seal? If that's the case, you might need to adjust how the water is entering the tank. Also, make sure that the flapper is sealing properly when the tank is empty.
That may very well solve your problem if you have high water pressure.The water rushing in holds the flapper open.This is also the reason you hear of a clogged toilet which continues to overflow.The water takes a direct path past the flapper,to the bowl,to the floor and will continue until shut-off.
Please help.Toilet flush twice everytime I flush.
Diagnosing Toilet Flush Problem...
Flapper valve troubles
Problem Solved
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Need tips for perfect holiday photos? Take a Photography Class at Calumet Photographic!! 830 W. Valley Pkwy, Escondido 760.737.6002
USING YOUR WACOM TABLET with STEPHEN BURNS http://www.cvent.com/events/using-your-wacom-tablet-with-stephen-burns/event-summary-9e0809fc2be8485296ebd369577f70e7.aspx
Come and learn how Stephen Burns creates his work using the Wacom Intuos4. He will share not only his personal workflow with the Wacom Tablet but he will also demonstrate his process by creating something in class to give you an idea as to how he works.
Topics Include:
- How to customize the tablet for your personal workflow in CS5
- How to customize the pen and button on the Intuos4 for Photoshop shortcuts
- Creating your own custom brush palettes in Photoshop
- How to apply the Wacom pen for photographic & painting uses
- How Stephen uses the pen to create his personal artwork
Fee: $65
Saturday, December 10, 2011
10:00 AM - 1:00 PM Pacific Time
CREATIVE COMPOSITING with STEPHEN BURNS http://www.cvent.com/events/creative-compositing-with-stephen-burns/event-summary-ad6820bbf5f2486680575325ba054317.aspx
Join guest speaker Stephen Burns as he teaches you how to create art with the use of powerful compositing approaches in Photoshop CS5. The secret to creating well done composites is having a concrete concept (vision for your final art) and knowing the best practices to create your masterpiece.
You will learn how to isolate any subject in Photoshop by utilizing masks and channels. Burns will share the simple techniques that will allow you to effectively composite imagery together; ensuring that your concept appears to have been recorded in a single shot. This class will also show you the artistic alternatives to compositing for creating unique art pieces.
About the Instructor: Stephen Burns has been a corporate instructor and lecturer in the application of digital art and design for the past 14 years. He has been exhibiting digital fine art internationally at galleries such as Durban Art Museum in South Africa, Citizens Gallery in Yokahama, Japan, and CECUT Museum Of Mexico to name a few. Part of his exhibiting won him 1st place in the prestigious Seybold International digital arts contest.
He teaches Digital Manipulation Workshops in the San Diego and is an instructor on xtrain.com as well as with Photoshop Café. You will often see him as an instructor at Siggraph in "The Studio". He is the author of several books published by Charles River media including The Art of Poser & Photoshop, Advanced Photoshop CS4Trickery & FX and The Art Of Poser Pro & Photoshop CS4. Each chapter is a step-by-step instruction on creating digital effects and art work. He has also a contributing author in the book Secrets of Award Winning Digital Artists (Wiley Press) and Photoshop CS Savvy (Sybex). He is the president of the San Diego Photoshop Users Group and of the San Diego LightWave 3D User's Group.
Fee: $65
When: Saturday, December 10, 2011
2:00 PM - 5:00 PM Pacific Time
Details: If this class is filled, please add yourself to the waitlist by clicking the "Register" button and entering your name and email address. We will contact you if there is an opening or additional class offered.
BASIC LIGHT METERING & MULTIPLE LIGHT PORTRAITURE with MICHAEL HARTMAN
In order to create phenomenal portraits you must understand the key element involved: light. Michael Hartman will literally expose you to a whole new way of looking at light.
First, he will introduce you to the lightmeter, an invaluable tool when dealing with multiple lights and the resulting lighting ratios. Michael Hartman will demonstrate how measuring light via a lightmeter will help you understand the effects of light placement and distance. This is imperative to taking the guesswork out of lighting your subject.
This is a hands-on lighting seminar, be prepared to take your newfound knowledge and immediately apply it as you work with a professional model.


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god damnit i was about to tell him you asshole
fuck you god change my name please :)?
change my name to Princess Bubblegum for my birthday :p
your resistance is admirable
but even the strongest walls crumble to dust with time
daw thanks
I like ho God changed Hicky's name to Morty and back again in maybe less than a month on a whim, but I have PB as my avatar since November and he refuses.
i didnt change hicky's name
uh, yeah you did
mewtwo did
I need to get better connections with Mewtwo it seems.
i dont see why you wont change my name. youre just a lazy asshole
I asked him to capitalize the T in my name, but he says he doesn't like it that way :[
I PMed Mewtwo and asked him to change my name.
Lets see what happens. If nothing, I guess I will email him.
kirby stop being autistic
you have to suck his purplish dick
:( it was my bday too
happy birthday motherfucker!
kirby's so cute, he thinks i wont change it back


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After destroying hundreds of homes in Cuba, Paloma has been downgraded to a tropical depression by the National Hurricane Center.
At 4 p.m. EST, Paloma's center was 15 miles (25 km) south-southwest of Camaguey, Cuba. Once as strong as 145 mph (230 kph), the storm's winds had weakened to 35 mph (55 kph). Paloma was drifting toward the north at about 1 mph (2 kph). The Hurricane Center forecast put Paloma or its remnants near the north coast of Cuba on Monday.
Cuba's state media says the storm toppled a major communications tower and interrupted electricity and phone service. No storm-related deaths were immediately reported.
Paloma roared ashore near Santa Cruz del Sur late Saturday as a Category 4 hurricane. Forecasters say the Cuban and Bahamian governments discontinued all warnings associated with Paloma by Sunday morning.


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OMG does Jonathan Wilhite ^%$#
Re: OMG does Jonathan Wilhite ^%$#
posted at 11/23/2009 3:11 PM ESTIn Response to Re: OMG does Jonathan Wilhite ^%$#:Ok...we are done...like you said...You gonna argue that a guy had passes thrwon to him...he still has ball skills...he grabbed one right off the turf...so I dont know what game you watched...I forgot about Wilhites little pic.,.becasue guess what he gave up one too ...the one that cost us the game...so I guess that makes him even at Zero again....The main thing is you are ignorant if you think Wilhite is better than Bodden becasue he played on Wayne....HE HAD HELP BOZO THE WHOLE 1ST HALF WE DOUBLED WAYNE..AFTER THE SECOND HALF WHEN WILHITE WAS LEFT ALONE HE GAVE UP 10 PASSED FOR 100 PLUS YARDS...SO WHAT ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT...THEY SINGLED UP BODDEN AND GAVE WILHITE HELP...SO IT DOESNT MEAN THEY THINK WILHITE IS BETTER....I WISH BOTH WILHITE AND BODDEN WERE FREE AGENTS NEXT YEAR SO WE COULD SEE WHO GETS A BIGGER CONTRACT....YOU MAY WATCH A LOT OF FOOTBALL BUT YOU DONT COMPREHEND EVERYTHING GOING ON OBVIOUSLY....NICE CHATTIN W/ YOU...NO MOE RESPONSE FROM ME...BUT I'LL BE HERE TILL 5 IF YOU HAVE SOME FACTS....
Posted by patsfan76
No response is ever required. Apparently you don't know what the term "ball skills" means. Look it up... It may keep you from embarrassing yourself any further. You don't even know football economics 101. Those who do realize that a young, fast, with excellent ball skills (lookout there's that term again)DB with tremendous upside trumps a slower, older DB with limited ball skills come contract time. FYI, I'm gonna contact boston.com and see if they can incorporate the use of google or bing on highlighted words to make it easier on you to keep up... Have a nice day...
This post has been removed.
Re: OMG does Jonathan Wilhite ^%$#
posted at 11/23/2009 3:37 PM ESTIn Response to Re: OMG does Jonathan Wilhite ^%$#:I am done talkin to Sodium..but can someone tell him the meaning of ball skills is your ability to catch a ball when it comes to you..Not all this other B.S. you are talking about....If a guy like Leigh Bodden who doesnt get thrown at as much as Wilhite can have 5 INT's and Wilhite has one....Where do you come up with the fact that Wilhite has better ball skills...what facts is he basing this on....Maybe in your opinion he is better, and I like Wilhite dont get me wrong..You are the one saying Wilhite has excellent ball skills...SO you tell me how someone with 2 career INts if that is considered to have excellent ball skills and one with 5 in one year has no ball skills...Can you really explain that or it just is what it is....WT F is he talking about keepin up...Google??? for what...you are the one who has posted nothing to support your erroneous statements like Springs giving up the most 1st downs this year....Its not too late to take it back,...but if you are not...then please post a stats link otherwise you are just making Ish up.... " Do you swear or affirm to tell the TRUTH , the WHOLE TRUTH , and NOTHING but the TRUTH , so help you GOD"
Posted by patsfan76
Stop it, you're killing me. I told you to stop embarrassing yourself. You're just proving that you know absolutely NOTHING about the subject you're trying to argue. Stop it... PLEASE!!! My healthcare plan doesn't cover "death by LMAO"
Re: OMG does Jonathan Wilhite ^%$#
posted at 11/23/2009 5:27 PM EST
Best Secondary? LMAO! On Paper they could be as good and better than the previous years. Until the pats raise another banner with this unit they ain't S H I t! The pats D has let this team down for the past three seasons. A Pass Rush will help out our secondary a whole lot though
1. AFC Champ Game blow lead to Colts
2. Super Bowl agains G-men: on the final drive 2 or three dropped INT's and three guys couldn't tackle Ely
3. Blown coverage on 3rd and 14 in OT against the Jests with a QB who has a torn up shoulder.
Yes I know only Merriweather, Sanders and the W kids are the only holdovers from the previous teams
Re: OMG does Jonathan Wilhite ^%$#
posted at 11/23/2009 5:32 PM ESTIn Response to Re: OMG does Jonathan Wilhite ^%$#:I would say Wilhite is a poor man's Ellis Hobbs. The TD he gave up today was poor. He was in position, he saw the ball coming and he did nothing.
Posted by ewhite1065
Poor man's Ellis Hobbs?
I thought Ellis Hobbs was a poor man's Ellis Hobbs.
Wilhite . . .
well, sure, he kinda blows, but he's just a kid and there's no reason to think he won't get better. Of course, he might not, either, but hope springs eternal and all that.
This post has been removed.
Re: OMG does Jonathan Wilhite ^%$#
posted at 11/23/2009 6:10 PM ESTWe have a good secondary. It doesn't matter who the better Corner is, all that matters is they don't get burned.
This post has been removed.
Re: OMG does Jonathan Wilhite ^%$#
posted at 11/23/2009 6:47 PM ESTIn Response to Re: OMG does Jonathan Wilhite ^%$#:Just for Shets and Giggles,...I found the info in just a few clicks...so I guess you didnt want to post it http://www.nfl.com/players/leighbodden/profile?id=BOD194145 Bodden has started 9 games this year....he has 37 tackles, 12 pass deflections and 5 ints with one for a TD http://www.nfl.com/players/jonathanwilhite/profile?id=WIL062357 8 games this year and 7 starts he has 24 tackles , 4 pass deflections, and one INT Butler almost has the same stats as Wilhite playing part time, and teams have thrown more balls towards Wilhite than Bodden,,,now tell me again how you came up with Wilhite having excellent ball skills and Leigh Bodden having no ball skills...oh and the comment you made about getting Boddens INT's thrown right at him...remember the tippy toe sideline catch against the Ravens??? that looked like ball skills, and yesterday he snatched one right off the turf...So what was you saying again!?!? See what I just did....I just backed up what I said with facts and a link...you see thats how we do here.....still lost?? Ok...i.e Brandon Meriweather came into the league in 07 and dropped 4 easy pics(no ball skills), the next year he worked with the jugs..and guess what 7 INT's in the last 24 games after his rookie year..he developed ball skills....still with me?? Ok, now what was you saying now?!?!?
Posted by patsfan76
Already answered your question... I know all about nfl.com stats. I've reviewed, it still doesn't support your theory. Every scout, GM, coach in every form of organized football knows the meaning of ball skills MOST fans do also, but not you...
Re: OMG does Jonathan Wilhite ^%$#
posted at 11/23/2009 7:52 PM ESTPoor Man's Hobbs! OUCH! You mean the guy who, in his first preseason...guesses (wrong) and gets burned for a 70 yard TD. After the game, proceeds to tell reporters that he'd make the same play again, he's a playmaker (yeah, just for the wrong team). Belichick is then asked about the play, and Hobbs' response...to which he said something to the effect of "He gave pu a TD...why would he make the same play?" Hobbs then was unseen until week 8.
As for Sunday's game, I dn't think he ever saw the ball, he turned and looked, but given his reaction...I honestly don't think he ever picked it up in the air. Just my opinion. As for Reggie Wayne...seriously? You call that getting burned? Not being able to cover an elite receiver from the 4 yard line catchin passes from one of the elite QBs in league history is getting burned???? Tough critics...and he was right there...unlike Hobbs in the SB when he wasn't within 5 yards.
I haven't even noticed Wilhite on the field enough to have any opinion of his play. This is basically his rookie year, so cut the guy some slack! Knee-jerk reactions like this would have led to the trade of Pedroia, cutting of Asante, cutting of Cassel...you get the point. Patience is the name of the game with young players. Always has been. We saw knee-jerk in Boston...his name was (and still is) Rick Pitino...and we all know how that turned out.
Re: OMG does Jonathan Wilhite ^%$#
posted at 11/23/2009 8:13 PM EST
Is that cat fight over yet? Imagine if the Pats lost this game...Ooph!!


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|B6 Flight 1062 Aus-jfk Declared An Emergency Landi posted Mon Mar 13 2006 04:52:06 by AIROSO7121
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|Booking An SQ Flight To US Cities posted Tue Dec 12 2006 15:56:34 by Coal


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How Long to Cook a Turkey (Or How Not to Ruin Thanksgiving Dinner with a Toddler Underfoot)Jean Van't Hul
As any mom of young children knows, getting dinner on the table can be a challenge on the best of days. But what about a big Thanksgiving feast? Is it possible? Here are 13 tips and tricks for getting Thanksgiving dinner on the table despite mommy brain, toys on the floor, and a small, distracting person zooming around at knee level.
Tip 1: The turkey takes a loooong time to cook
As in hours. Don't wait until you're getting hungry before you pop it in the oven or you'll be sitting down to dinner after the kids go to bed. On the other hand, maybe that's a good strategy for a peaceful meal (just kidding).
Tip 2: Figure out how long to cook your turkey
20 minutes per pound at 325 degrees Fahrenheit is standard, which means a 10 pound turkey will take over 3 hours, while a 20 pound turkey will take at least 6 hours. But a stuffed turkey or a defrosted turkey (as opposed to fresh) can add another five minutes each per pound. The only surefire way to know when your bird is cooked completely is to use a meat thermometer. When it reads 180 degrees Fahrenheit inside the meatiest part of the thigh, you can take it out. Decide when you want to eat and count backward from there to figure out when to preheat the oven and prep the turkey (and make sure to have a meat thermometer on hand).
Tip 4: Keep your toddler occupied
If you're going to juggle turkey basting with cooking several dishes that you only cook once a year, you will have to focus. And we all know how hard it is to focus with a toddler constantly vying for attention. Your best friend today is a spouse or family member who will take the kiddo to the park or for a nice long walk. If this isn't possible, consider some of these other tips for keeping him occupied.
Tip 5: Your next best friend is an older cousin
Preferably one he adores to play with who can both keep an eye on him and keep him entertained while you cook the Thanksgiving meal. Plan your guest list accordingly. An older sibling may work in a pinch, but will likely result in more squabbles and parental interference than a cousin.
Tip 6: Plan as if you're taking a cross-country plane trip
Stock up on a few new trinkets and toys that are sure to keep your toddler entertained. Novelty goes a long way. Try a new box of colorful band-aids (the preferred method of body decoration in our house), a fun little toy, and a new art material such as do-a-dot markers or Crayola twistables slick stix. Things from the dollar store or dollar aisle at Target work fine. Avoid books (they'll want you to sit down and read to them rather than cook), balls (they will end up underfoot), and paints (you don't want to have to deal with the clean up).
Tip 7: Don't discount screen time
If you're normally against screen time for toddlers, you may want to reconsider for today. If your toddler is a screen-time veteran, choose a new or favorite DVD that will keep your toddler occupied for a while. Or set him up with YouTube videos or PBS Kids online.
Tip 8: Enlist your toddler's help
While your toddler may want to help cook (or just be near you), you probably just want to get dinner done. Compromise and find a task he can do to "help" while you work too. Ideas: tear lettuce, sort or count raisins, whisk her own little bowl of flour and spices, roll out some extra cookie or pie dough, wash potatoes, or just play with a baster and a bowl of water over a big towel.
Tip 10: Make the pies the day before
They'll keep just fine and that will be one less thing to think about on Thanksgiving Day. While you're at it, you can chop vegetables, assemble a casserole, or make the cranberry sauce ahead of time as well.
Tip 11: It's okay to buy pre-made
I'm not a stuffing-out-of-a-box person so this is a hard lesson for me, but you (and I) don't have to make it all from scratch. The toddler years are a good time to cut yourself some slack and make things a bit easier on yourself. Pick up some sides at the deli, a pie at the bakery, or make something from a box or can.
Tip 12: Plan ahead with cooking and prep times for all your dishes
This is useful even if you don't have mommy brain. And it's extra valuable if you have helpers in the kitchen. You can refer to your handy dandy list to see when each item should be started. Here's an example for a 2pm Thanksgiving meal. Your times will vary depending on the recipes you use.
- 10 lb Turkey: truss and prep at 9:30am, put in the oven at 10am
- Green bean casserole: start at 10:30am
- Pumpkin soup: start at 11:30am
- Mini cornbread muffins: start at 1pm
- Stuffing: start at 12noon
- Pies: bake a day ahead
- Cranberry sauce: Make ahead or use canned
- Salad: Assemble at 12:30pm
- Gravy: start at 1:15pm
Tip 13: Keep the kids occupied during the meal
Toddlers may eat in five minutes what it took you five hours to cook, so how do you keep them occupied while the adults enjoy their meal? You can set out some crayons and a decorate-your-own placemat (a piece of poster board works fine) at each spot or cover the whole table with paper. When the kids are tired of drawing, whip out a new packet of stickers you have stashed near the table. Or just let them play nearby.
How about you? Do you have any tips to share for getting Thanksgiving dinner on the table with toddlers in the house?
Read more of Jean's writing at The Artful Parent.
And don't miss a post! Follow Jean on Twitter and Facebook!
Want more ideas to keep your kids occupied? See this list of 11 easy toddler art activities.


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Is everybody fine?
Movies | Two-dimensional focus limits a good film about an aging father
Everybody's Fine is rated PG-13 for thematic elements and one scene's bad language, but it should be FG-50, indicating its fitness particularly for fathers over 50. Others may also like it, but I confess that it jerked the tears from me, up to its contrived, mistaken Hollywood happy ending.
The film tells the story of Frank Goode (Robert De Niro), who has spent his adult life working in a wire factory to support his wife and four children. Now she is dead and they are adults who were used to communicating with him through her, so he sets out on a cross-country train and bus trip to visit each one. Ready to luxuriate in their happiness, he eventually learns that each is troubled.
Director Kirk Jones includes some brilliant touches. When Frank sees his grown children moving toward him, he momentarily visualizes them when they were small: Fathers over 50 know how that goes. Jones connects scenes by shots of the telephone wires that Frank spent his working life helping to manufacture: Ironically, he has helped multitudes to communicate but finds it hard to talk with his own family.
Everybody's Fine describes well the surface of each character, with every home telling a story: Frank's is neat, one son's is empty, one daughter's is spectacular but coldly alienating, another's is someone else's borrowed to make a false impression. Hollywood movies involving non-communicating children and fathers often tell the story from a prodigal son's point of view, with dad as idiot-but this one respectfully tells it from the father's.
The film has two downsides, one subtle and one clear: its sappy happy ending. Not wanting to be a spoiler, I'll just say that the children are no longer protecting their father and he is no longer asking anything of them. They sit around the table, secrets revealed, and even Frank frankly says that his wife always overcooked the Thanksgiving turkey. Moral of story: As long as you're honest and respect diversity, everything is fine. Give me a break.
At a post-screening press opportunity I asked director Jones if the ending was part of his original vision. His unsurprising answer was no: Trial audiences left uneasy, and "I didn't want to make a movie that depressed people." He did come up with one moving solution (it involves a painting with telephone poles) but the overall conclusion left me wondering: Could the film end, without depressing the audience, in some other way?
Yes-and the other way points to the film's subtle downside but life's subtle upside. Everybody's Fine defines problems as horizontal-relationships among people-so all the potential solutions are horizontal. The movie's two-dimensional world has no room for a third, vertical dimension, and without that third dimension defeat is inevitable. In a two-dimensional world, the only alternatives are despair or sappiness.
But think of It's a Wonderful Life (1946): Beneath its whimsicality sits the profound lesson that God can give us a new perspective on our lives. A quiet, small film, Tender Mercies (1983), makes the same point by moving an alcoholic singer (Robert Duvall) to an understanding that allows him to survive the death of his daughter.
Frank in Everybody's Fine is a quasi-Christ figure, journeying to help his children and nearly laying down his life for them. Near the end he has a physical crisis; a Christian filmmaker would give him a spiritual crisis. Christian parents can hope on some deep level to have things to talk about with their grown children-but only if all learn that we're fellow pilgrims on a journey we share.
Even without that Christian edge, Everybody's Fine is a useful stage-of-life movie. I have my list of great films, but three movies that fall short have gotten to me emotionally at decade-long intervals: Field of Dreams (1989) for sons thinking about fathers, The Family Man (2000) for careerists thinking about home, and Everybody's Fine for fathers thinking about children.


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Gwyneth Paltrow visited Good Morning America yesterday in New York City.
The blonde actress opted for a light summery look despite the wet miserable weather.
She teamed an Alexander Wang blush pink ribbed dress with an asymmetric hemline with an Alexander Wang blazer.
Gwyneth accessorized with an Monique Pean ivory pendant and Sergio Rossi 'Clonia' sandals.
Credit: Fame Pictures


text:
According to vetstreet.com, the top ten female puppy names from 2012 include Bella, Daisy, Lucy, Molly, and Lola. Notice anything odd? They're all human names! Gone are the days of pets named Fluffy and Pooch. In are the days of human children named after fruits and vegetables. In the Middle Ages, though, you might run into dogs that answer to Amiable, Trinket, Nosewise, Holdfast, and Clench. For more about pet ownership back then, check out historian Kathleen Walker Meikle's book Medieval Pets. This is part of a complete episode.
1 Response
johng423 says:
Co-workers laughed at my dog's name – Jeffrey. But it made sense when I explained I had him a couple of months before I decided to keep him, so I had time to get to know his personality. Looking through a book of [human] names, I found Jeffrey, which is Old French for "divinely peaceful." That certainly fit, so Jeffrey it was. (He was so mellow that he could calm down other dogs by just standing
(Besides, I said, I'm not gonna name him something stupid, then stand on the front porch where all the neighbors could hear me calling at the top of my voice, "Come here, Doodles"!)
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text:
Watch Burnt Lumpia's Marvin Gapultos Break Down His New Adobo Road Cookbook
The collection includes 99 recipes for Filipino street food and home-cooking.
The collection includes 99 recipes for Filipino street food and home-cooking.
The KISS stars will wait on wounded warriors and veterans in Torrance.
Owner Johneric Concordia infuses Filipino flavor with Southern U.S. smoked meats and soul food.
Well, Dr. Dre won't be there, but you can catch oyster and intestine mien xian.
Puerto Rico wants to start exporting meat from the giant reptiles. Any takers? Anyone?
A calamansi margarita and a Manila Mule will be among those paired with Edric Ocampo's cooking.
Signage is up and an opening looks close for the Filipino barbecue crew.
Owner Johneric Concordia makes a plea for funding his Echo Park community center/barbecue joint.
And Sa Aming Nayon got its first critical review.
Owner Johneric Concordia says the expansion is part of a dream to build his community.
The Filipino pop-up finds a new home.
Filipino pop-up Maharlika will be serving the embryonic duck eggs this weekend until they run out.
FIG's chef is demonstrating three dishes live at Snyder Diamond while organizers of a food event debacle promise to do a better job in a bigger space.
Tim Burton took a cue from a TV toque and a famous club is sued by a more famous club.
Chinese pork sausage for dessert? Rodelio Aglibot says "go for it."
In search of a 'Fear Factor'–worthy Filipino delicacy.
King Phojanakong plans to bring an outpost of Kuma Inn to the border of Clinton Hill and Bedford-Stuyvesant.


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Fort Sinquefield
Back to
Sites Associated
Creek War
Campaigns of the
Territorial Militia
Fort Sinquefield was one of several fortifications constructed in the
Tensaw region in the summer of 1813. The fort, home to
approximately fifty settlers, was attacked by a large group of Red
Stick warriors on September 2, 1813. Most of the people caught
outside the fort's walls narrowly escaped to safety when a settler
named Isaac Hayden famously turned a pack of hunting dogs on the
attackers. In the two-hour battle, the fort's small garrison successfully
held off the Red Stick force of several times their number. After the
battle, the inhabitants of the Sinquefield fled to Fort Madison, ten miles
The site of Fort Sinquefield lies near Fort Sinquefield Road, a short
distance off Highway 84 in the vicinity of the community of Whatley
in central Clarke County, Alabama. The site is commemorated by a
partial reconstruction of one of the fort's walls,
several historic
markers, and a walking trail leading to the site of the spring where
some of the residents of the fort were washing clothes when the
attack began.
About three quarters of a mile away, at the junction of
Fort Sinquefield Road and Highway 84, is a
commemorating the battle


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When it comes to reading online, don't forget your vegetables
In this day and age, everyone has had experiences with predictive technology. Google helps you fill in the blanks when you search. Netflix, TiVo and others suggest TV shows to you. Heck, Facebook even tries to tell you who your friends are.
One place that predictive technology is really being heavily utilized is with mobile apps that provide reading material. These apps analyze what you like to read, and suggest new material based on past choices. Sounds pretty convenient — but is this really a good thing?
Dan Misener, host of CBC Radio's Spark questions how good apps like these are. He argues that apps like Zite, produced in Vancouver, narrow our horizons sometimes, and provide us with reading material that is low in value, since we read so much of it already.
Here's an excerpt from his article:
When I tried the Zite app, I really did have the sense that it was learning about me.
And while I recognize that these recommendation services can be useful, part of me can't help but worry. Specifically, I'm concerned that online personalization will perpetuate my bad or lazy habits.
For instance, I spend a lot of time reading gadget blogs. Arguably, too much time. Over the past two weeks, there's no question that I've read more reviews of the iPad 2 than necessary.
I know others with similar vices: Hollywood gossip blogs or obsessive sports coverage. My question is: Do I really need a tool that will help me find yet another iPad 2 review? Or would I be better off reading something new and unfamiliar?
Put me down in the "obsessive sports coverage" category. I need to stop reading so many fan blogs.
Misener raises some excellent points in this article. In particular, he frames the predictive qualities of these apps in the context of "comfort versus challenge." While these apps provide us with lots of great stuff to read that we're already familiar with, they often don't give us much breadth.
It's sort of the way political news websites work. Read Fox News' website, and you'll be sure to find plenty of right-wing commentary from both writers and readers leaving comments. Read the Huffington Post (or, alternatively, the Colbuffington Repost, Stephen Colbert's number one news aggregator aggregator), and you'll find plenty of left-wing commentary. The obsessive readers of these websites don't read these websites to find new and exciting content that changes the way they think; too often, they're simply looking for articles that reinforce their own views.
Here's my proposal: apps like Zite can find articles that are exactly what you normally read, right? So, can't they find articles that are the kind you never read? If I'm reading left-wing commentary all the time (guilty as charged) it would probably do me well to be exposed to some views that are contrary to my own. If leftist articles are the double-stacked cheeseburgers of my reading, then perhaps I need some conservative steamed broccoli to go with it. Even if I don't like it, at least I know it'll be good for me. I think an app that provides content like this would be quite enriching.
That is, until I get bored and start reading sports blogs again.


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Côte d'Ivoire: UN urges rival groups to facilitate aid delivery, protect civilians
|UN News Service
|Publication Date
|8 March 2011
|Cite as
|UN News Service, Côte d'Ivoire: UN urges rival groups to facilitate aid delivery, protect civilians, 8 March 2011, available at: http://www.refworld.org/docid/4d79c5992.html [accessed 30 May 2016]
|This is not a UNHCR publication. UNHCR is not responsible for, nor does it necessarily endorse, its content. Any views expressed are solely those of the author or publisher and do not necessarily reflect those of UNHCR, the United Nations or its Member States.
The United Nation refugee agency today appealed to rival groups in Côte d'Ivoire to support efforts to deliver urgently needed humanitarian aid to those affected by the post-election turmoil and avoid putting civilians at risk.
As of yesterday, the unrest in the West African country has displaced between 200,000 and 300,000 people in the country's commercial capital, Abidjan, according to the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR).
Another 70,000 inhabitants of the country's western region have fled their homes and crossed over into neighbouring Liberia as a result of violence, with half of those arriving since 24 February.
Today the UN Central Emergency Response Fund (CERF) allocated $6 million to help those who are seeking refuge in Liberia as well as the communities hosting them.
Humanitarian and protection needs of civilians are growing fast with thousands of people across Abidjan having sought safety in community centres where living conditions are inadequate, Adrian Edwards, UNHCR's spokesperson in Geneva told reporters.
In Abobo, a northern suburb of Abidjan, some 60 families remain trapped in a church and apparently prevented by fighters from leaving, according to Mr. Edwards. In the western region of the country, humanitarian access to people in need has been severely impeded by insecurity.
"The risks for civilians, including people of concern under UNHCR's mandate, are also growing. Persistent reports that Liberian mercenaries are being brought in to join the fighting is fuelling distrust. This in turn is creating risks for the 24,000 Liberian refugees in Côte d'Ivoire," said Mr. Edwards.
UNHCR has received reports from the Liberian Government and other partners that an additional 7,000 people have arrived in Liberia. "This sudden influx is placing enormous strains on local communities and abilities of aid organizations to help," said Mr. Edwards.
In Buutuo, a town in eastern Liberia's Nimba County, the water and sanitation situation is critical, with reported cases of diarrhoea and malaria, as well as food shortages.
Mr. Edwards said UNHCR and its partners have been working to rehabilitate bridges and roads to improve access. "We have also been providing direct support where we can to refugees and the communities around them."
Côte d'Ivoire has been beset by political uncertainty, with factional fighting and other forms of violence flaring up in Abidjan and the western region, since incumbent president Laurent Gbagbo refused to leave office after his UN-certified defeat by opposition leader Alassane Ouattara in last November's presidential election.


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Delta Cove Apartments
Every senior has a story! Come share your life stories with us here at Delta Cove Senior Apartments
Come experience the difference of living in a well-managed owner operated Senior 55+ Community. Welcome to Delta Cove Apartments. We offer adorable and affordable living for our discerning Seniors 55 & Better. Delta Cove Apartments has combined independent living with added features that provide the support and security our resident's needs. Delta Cove Apartments is a place where family is most important. We are committed to providing you with a great sense of belonging, a peace of mind in your decision to have chosen us. Delta Cove Apartments has pulled out all the stops for our resident family with different programs from the local community: Nutritious Lunch Program served Mon-Fri sponsored by Meal On Wheels of Sacramento, social events, and a competent and caring staff. The only person we are missing is YOU! So what are you waiting for? Start your quality lifestyle at Delta Cove today!


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|Episode Info
Episode number: 47x191
Production Number: 11901
Airdate: Tuesday August 21st, 2012
Director: Grant A. Johnson (1)
Writer: Gary Tomlin, Christopher Whitesell, Janet Iacobuzio
Brant Daugherty
As Brian
Sebastian Lacause
As Silvio (as Sebastian La Cause)
Aaron Kunitz
As Johnny DiMera
Griffin Kunitz
As Johnny DiMera
Ashley Park
As Diane (as Ashley Williams)
Suzanne Rogers
As Maggie Kiriakis
Arianne Zucker
As Nicole Walker
Joseph Mascolo
As Stefano DiMera
Galen Gering
As Rafe Hernandez
Melissa Reeves
As Jennifer Horton
Kate Mansi
As Abigail DiMera
Deidre Hall
As Marlena Evans
Alison Sweeney
As Samantha DiMera
James Scott
As E.J. DiMera
Shawn Christian
As Daniel Jonas
Chandler Massey
As Will Horton
Freddie Smith
As Sonny Kiriakis
Ian Buchanan (1)
As Ian McAllister
|• Executive Producer
|Ken Corday
|• Co-Executive Producer
|Greg Meng  | Lisa de Cazotte
|• Producer
|Albert Alarr
|• Staff Writer
|Jeanne Marie Ford  | Richard Culliton  | Carolyn Culliton  | David A. Levinson  | Melissa Salmons
|• Script Editor
|Fran Myers (1)
|• Exec. In Charge Of Prod.
|Greg Meng
|• Co-head Writer
|Gary Tomlin  | Christopher Whitesell
|• Associate Head Writer
|Rick Draughon  | Ryan Quan  | Christopher Dunn (1)  | Lorraine Broderick  | Dave Ryan
|• Assistant To Head Writer
|Renee Godelia
|• Senior Coordinating Producer
|Janet Spellman-Rider  | Tim Stevens


text:
By: Adam Strong
Number of Reviews: 293
Average Score: 64
Risky Amateurs
This site is closed.
This site is closed.
If you're thinking about doing something naughty in public, just know that there's always a bit of risk involved. After all, you wouldn't want to get caught by the police for indecent exposure. Or worse - attract someone who's not your type. That's why my hat is always tipped to those Risky Amateurs who are willing to show us their boobies anyway.
All the content on RiskyAmateurs showcases chicks 18 to 30-something, but mostly in the under-25 range. Some are just hanging out with the cameraman at a park, others are shopping in a sex store and plenty more are partying at Mardi Gras. However, this isn't just a flashing site and most of the chicks seemed sober while showing us their goodies.
None of the material is exclusive, but it's still really hot. Some scenes just have the camera following chicks around as they give quick peaks at their butts, tits and pussies whenever they think the coast is clear. Others have a bit of lesbian action and it's probably safe to say that about half show masturbation. If done in a car, it's usually of the five-finger-fumble variety, while the movies taking place in a sex shop employ dildos and/or vibrators.
When you first sign in, you end up on a page from which you can access the many sites that make up the Wank Pass network, like Scandal Shows, Public Sex Shows and Strip Club Cheaters. To find this site, all you need to do is click on its banner, which takes you to its movie section. The design is kind of barebones, but not to the point of being ugly or making it difficult to navigate.
There are 130 videos and each can be streamed in three different sizes as well as downloaded in an MP4 file. The download is always an HD file, but the stream seems to get worse the larger you make it. I suspect either the smallest or medium-sized stream (depending on the individual vid) is the real movie and that the other two are just using different zoom ratios. Regardless, I recommend sticking with the downloadable version for every one.
There aren't any photos. There also aren't any usability feaures, like being able to save your favorties or use kyword tags. I meant it before when I said this was a barebones sites. When it comes to updates, only the "upcoming videos" are dated and the website uses these to make it look like they update every other day, but the truth is that the site is just rotating its porn.
If you like seeing amateurs getting naked in public, then you will likely enjoy the material on Risky Amateurs. However, with none of the porn being exclusive, you've probably already seen it elsewhere.
* Please include a pro and a con about the site. Balance is essential in making a comment worthwhile. Scores without comments will be deleted.
* Watch out for ratings of zero and 100. In our opinion, there is no such thing as a site that is absolutely perfect or completely worthless.


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Written on: 09/10/2013
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May 25, 2013
Mature Themes
My gaming groups consist of adults, men and women all over 18 years of age. Like just about any group of friends, we can be crude at times. We tell jokes of varying tastes, but always in good fun. Knowing how to identify "the line," and knowing not to cross it, is a part of any basic human interaction. The same is true of games. We play games that often have very mature elements to them. Drug abuse. Discrimination. Genocide. Racism/racial intolerance. Cannibalism. Rape. These elements come up in our stories because, unfortunately, they are elements of the real world we live in and in many ways, our games are reflections of that world. Now, this isn't to say that these things are always a major focus of our games. Depending on the characters in question and the story we are trying to tell, elements such these will come up. We refuse to do anything as horrid as play out a rape scene, but I have watched powerful moments play out in game as characters struggle with their inner demons. Watching a great swordsman suffer with alcoholism after loosing his wife to a terrible monster in Dungeons & Dragons; playing a character who suffered through years of mental and emotional torture at the hands of her brother in Shadowrun; and seeing a mighty shield-maiden struggling with the male-dominated viking-like culture of the northern lands in Anima: Beyond Fantasy are incredible. These are elements that make stories great and characters enduring. Even so, it is important to note that such themes must be handled with care.
The most important thing a Gamemaster can do is to know his/her players. Know what their limits are. Know what things are okay to talk about/use in game and what should be kept completely off of the table. I cannot imagine dealing with a rape situation in a game where one of my players might be a rape victim. No. I would never want to put them through that. As I mentioned in my earlier look at Religion in Gaming, it is all about respecting your players and their feelings. If any specific topic makes them too uncomfortable to enjoy a game, you should not use it. At all. Period.
It is also important to never try and glorify any theme or element of a game that people might find utterly distasteful. When used, they should be used to the same effect they would have in the real world. Genocide should be horrible, not just something your average dragon does on a slow Tuesday. Themes like drug abuse, discrimination, rape, etc. should never be taken lightly, even if your group is fine with having such things in your game. Something that a role-playing game allows us to do is to express ourselves in ways we might not be able to in real life. Having my character attack a troll that was about to torture the character's best friend (another character) for a snuff film just because she was an elf in his gang's turf in a recent Shadowrun game was a powerful moment. My character, and by extension, I, genuinely detested that troll. The very thought of what he wanted to do was sickening. I hesitate to compare that to any sort of "righteous anger," but it definitely added a layer of desperation to the scene, turning what might have been just another fight with some random bangers into something memorable. Something important.
Oh, and don't worry, we did manage to save her.
In closing, if you are going to use topics like this in your games, I have only two pieces of advice. Use them sparingly, and be careful. Games are about having fun and telling stories. They aren't meant to make people uncomfortable. Keep that in mind before things go too far.
Image Credit: Jaimie Duplass / Shutterstock


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To start 2011, we targeted 5 resolutions for any wine lover to achieve including ourselves. They were as follows:
- Drink sparkling wine other than just for special events
- Slow down and enjoy wine more
- Venture out of your comfort zone
- Learn more about wine
- Open that special bottle
So, how did you do? And what are you looking forward to in 2012?
We did a pretty good job with focusing on more sparkling this year and frequented many of the awesome sparkling producers in Sonoma and surrounding areas including Domaine Carneros, Schramsburg (Calistoga), Roederer Estate (Anderson Valley) and even some Champagne, which can only come from the Champagne region in France. One thing we learned is that there are initials on the labels of Champagne that give you an indication of who made the wine. For Champagne developed by winegrowers and are generally considered of higher quality (though of smaller volume) look for an "RM" for "Récoltant Manipulant." Bubbles are definitely not just for special occasions anymore. We are happy to note that we have Blanc de Noirs as well as Brut style sparklers that are made in the traditional method, or Methode Champenoise, but at much more affordable price points than some of the houses mentioned above.
Slow Down
Well, we didn't do a great job here in terms of slowing down, though a lot wine did flow. It's tough to slow down when there is so much to do and so much wine to share. It's good to see the economy showing some positive signs in the industry and we did our best to keep up. As we shared on our blog throughout the year, we celebrated different styles of wine with our friends and fans from Syrah to Pinot Noir and Chardonnay. We look forward to trying many more wines with you in 2012… any suggestions?
It is tough to ask anyone to venture outside of their norms and what they like, especially when it comes to wine. Folks just know what they want and what they like and refuse to try something new. It's like trying those nasty green vegetables as a kid, but then learn to love as an adult. Over time the palate does change and with the versatility of wine grapes and winemaking styles, no two wines taste alike. For example, have you ever tried Carignane? This grape historically has been used as a blending grape but many more producers are making 100% varietals these days.
Bright cherry candy, raspberry jam and wild blackberry aromas combine with rich vanilla and cinnamon-cedar spice. Soft and inviting tannins support the structure of this medium-bodied wine. Earthy and lively on the palate and displays warm berry pie and caramelized cherry cola flavors, its finish lingers with rich fruity finish
We brought this funky (as in awesomely cool) wine on the Wine Wednesday show on the local KSRO radio last week and everyone was blown away with this rich, luscious, approachable, medium-bodied freak show. Boom! Your comfort zone has just been blown.
Learn More
Man, we finished school so many years ago, why do we always have to be learning something? With wine you can end up learning something without even trying. With our work with local Chef Dan Lucia of DL Catering we learned quite a bit about how food can be paired with wine. Check out some of his videos on our YouTube channel. Ultimately, just enjoy the ride and look at resolution #2 for slowing down and enjoying the wine. But, just try not to learn something… however, resistance is futile.
Ok, this is going to sound cheesy but every wine we opened this year was "special." The point here is to remove the notion that there is a perfect pairing, a perfect bottle for the perfect occasion and forget about saving that bottle in the cellar for 20 years. Life is short and meant to be enjoyed. Enjoy it with wine. If you want a special occasion, personalize it and share it with friends and people you love. If you must have an occasion, this year's Open That Bottle Night (OTBN) is on February 25, 2012.
Tell us how you did with your resolutions and what you are looking forward to most in 2012. Cheers!


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Holy smokes, yes. Simpsons is one of those shows I want canceled so bad it hurts. Mostly because it's like seeing a recently killed friend continue to be beaten and abused posthumously. I just want The Simpsons to end with whatever humor and dignity they have remaining.
Lisa went from being the character I could most relate with to a complete tool. It's like every time they do a Lisa episode, she's found some new way to be progressive and contrary to society. She's just not an 8-year-old girl anymore.
The big thing ruining Simpsons is Homer. They realized early on that he was popular, and now it's like the contest between the writers to see who can make Homer the stupidest. He ends up being rather predictable, because in any given situation if you can guess the dumbest thing he could possibly do, that's probably what he will do. I miss Homer from around Season 3… He was an idiot, but a good-natured one who wanted the best for his family. And every now and then he did something right.
I find with most of the new Simpsons you can watch the first five minutes, learn the set up and switch off in the knowledge that nothing will have changed.
I used to like the Halloween episodes because they were funny. Then it was an opportunity for me to see them get killed. Now they're so unfunny I can't even bring myslef to try and watch possible character death. Even if remembering an episode of Family Guy can give you a brain haemmorage trying to work out the plot points, it still makes me laugh.
Jesus, I hope they don't do the same thing to Futurama.
Cancel the second half of all Law and Orders, as that's when the moralising lawyers show up to challenge a BIG ISSUE and it just gets boring and predictable. I agree with Supermathsbeaver about SVU, that show is the closest thing I have ever got to feeling sympathy for Paedophiles, which means there's something wrong with that format.
Everbody Loves Raymond, cos I bloody don't.
Every Big Brother that ever was and ever will be.
Numb3rs and CSI. I read that CSI New York (which used to be gritty and a nice break from the "gosh aren't people weird" of Las Vegas and "Gosh aren't people beautiful" of Miami) changed to more touristy areas of New York and everyone became that much more annoying. So all CSIs.
Pitt and Kantrop. I don't know if it's still on, but god I hope not.
There's more but I've forgotten.


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If you think these images are as cute and colorfully appealing as I do, be sure to check out Jinjerup! There you will find these images, and many other equally cuddly ones, available as free desktop wallpaper! Sweet!
Via Design is Mine.
cute free wallpapers
- -February 8, 2009, 11:07AM
very simple and very uniquely cute. i really like the fruits.
- -February 8, 2009, 3:03PM
OMG! They are really sweet!
- -February 14, 2009, 10:43PM
Heya all @ Free People! Many thanks for featuring Jinjerup! :D am really glad you guys love the wallpapers!
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Globe Trot: Linking to the legacy of the Iron Lady
International | Mindy Belz
On the Iron Lady: The UK's Guardian is liveblogging news and reaction related to the death of Margaret Thatcher, Britain's first female prime minister and its longest serving head of state in the 20th century, who died on Monday.
Conservative Home has more links on Thatcher from a conservative British perspective, including today's interesting discussion about manufacturing, which actually rose under Thatcher, along with some article links putting to rest the contention that Thatcher destroyed coal mining. Former White House staffer Pete Wehner has personal reflections on why Thatcher truly belongs to the ages.
The head of Egypt's Coptic Church, in an unusual lashing out, has criticized Egyptian authorities for failing to respond to Sunday's attack on a church service, where two were killed. Pope Tawadros II also warned that Egyptian society "is collapsing."
A powerful earthquake struck close to Iran's only nuclear power station on Tuesday, killing 37 people and injuring 850, according to Iranian state media. The quake totally destroyed one village, according to Red Crescent, but did not damage the nearby Bushehr nuclear plant
SAT-7, one of the largest Christian satellite networks, dedicated to reaching the Middle East, has issued guidance for donors and warnings about the effects of the banking crisis in Cyprus, where it is headquartered. The organization stands to lose about $50,000 in one of the Cyprus banks slated for closure.
The Syrian government has refused to admit into the country a UN investigative team it requested last month, contending that rebels had launched what many believe may have been a chemical weapons attack near Aleppo.
Vietnamese officials are saying the church leader who died in police custody committed suicide.
Chrysler has issued six recalls involving more than a quarter-million cars worldwide over different safety issues—none of which, it says, are known to have caused an accident or injury.
Copyright © 2016 God's World Publications


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Designing Healthy Organizations: Education and Transparency in XD Consulting Work
Published: October 7, 2013
Imagine that you're checking into a hospital to receive medical care. You don't really know what's wrong with you, but you know something isn't right. You feel light-headed, short of breath, and have a severe headache. You could have waited to see whether you improved on your own, but you're worried it might be something serious, so you seek expert advice sooner rather than later. Doctors and staff come in to see you and go out. They're polite, but answer your questions curtly, and you don't know exactly what's going on. You wonder, What is wrong with me? What are they testing for? Will I be okay? When will I go home? When they discharge you and you're ready to leave, the staff finally give you your diagnosis, along with written instructions explaining what you need to do. As the hospital staff proceed to treat other patients, they leave you to figure it out on your own, and you head home.
Can you imagine such a hospital experience—being kept in the dark about your own diagnosis and prognosis, until you're about to be discharged? Can you imagine a medical staff expecting you to change your behavior based on a few brief interactions with them and a set of written instructions? Luckily, the healthcare industry has figured out more effective approaches to treating patients and achieving better outcomes. Unfortunately, those of us in experience design (XD) consulting have not. In this column, I'll first explore why the typical XD consulting approach is not healthy for our client organizations. Then I'll look at what I think should be the ultimate goal of an XD engagement: educating our clients and being transparent about our XD methods and approaches.
XD Consulting: Designed for Stagnancy
The typical XD approach is fairly formulaic:
- Doing up-front planning and engaging with the stakeholders to help them understand the project goals and discuss project administrivia.
- Conducting some form of user research to gather insights about the core audiences who will interact with the product being designed.
- Providing a set of recommendations and design concepts.
- Doing additional phases of validation with the core audience, which may continue iteratively into implementation.
Throughout this process, XD consultants engage stakeholders at major milestones to get their input and approvals. If appropriate, we encourage stakeholders to observe the insight-gathering activities themselves, so they can see what we're seeing, or we share videos or other research artifacts that capture what we've learned. All along the way, our clients blindly nod and agree, maybe asking a few questions here and there for clarification. But they generally caveat their comments with "You're the experts."
At the end of an engagement, we present our recommendations and deliver a final set of design assets, which could be anything from design concepts, to a prototype, to even an operational solution. We also likely share our ideas for change management with the client and, most important, how to maintain and optimize the solution over time through measurement and analytics. Then, we leave. We move on to our next big thing and hope our clients have taken our recommendations to heart. But what do our clients do after the consultants leave? The stakeholders and the organization continue on as before, owning some beautiful new deliverables and concepts, but wondering, Now what?
I am always shocked and disappointed by how much good XD consulting work lies stagnant and remains unused—and by how organizations continue to create bad experiences. Sometimes the reasons are beyond our clients' control—such as budget cuts or stakeholder changes. But all too often, the explanation is simply that the organization was incapable of putting into action the great ideas they garnered from the design process. I believe they really do attempt to carry through with the work. We've heard feedback such as, "The insights and the design work were great, but then, when it came time to implement them, I don't know, we just couldn't make it happen." Or "We just couldn't translate the deliverables into what we actually needed to do." I believe our client organizations have a much greater chance of creating good experiences when they can see first-hand what it means to do experience design and begin internalizing our practices themselves.
XD Consulting: Not Unlike a Bad Medical Experience
Let's compare the aforementioned hospital experience to XD consulting. Imagine that our clients are the patients and we, the consultants, are the hospital staff. Our interactions with our patients are transactional and without true meaning—much like those of the medical staff that I described. Vacuous statements such as, "We're going to take your blood work today" and "We're just monitoring your heart rate" are not so different from "We need your approval of the site map before doing wireframes." With each interaction, the patient needs to know what's going on, but the hospital staff doesn't feel comfortable sharing information before they know exactly what is wrong and what they can do about it. XD consultants frequently act covertly, exposing their methods and deliverables to clients only at predesignated milestones. We are notoriously uncomfortable with requests to see our in-progress thinking. So instead, our interactions become very transactional—intended to elicit only what we need to do our jobs and move the project forward.
In the hospital example, when the staff finally feel comfortable sharing the details of the diagnosis and prognosis—it's just stress, by the way—they tell the patient he's ready to be discharged and provide him with some information about what to do when he's at home. That's it. The closing conversation is just as transactional as the previous ones because they're now readying the room for the next patient to arrive.
In consulting, when we share our final findings and recommendations, this presentation usually marks the end of the project. We've likely given our client some deliverables along the way, but typically, we don't consider them final until the very end of the project. Unfortunately, this usually occurs when the consulting team is ready to move on to a new project, so we'll provide minimal support and not much of a transition.
Emphasizing Transparency and Education
Fortunately for us, as patients, the sort of hospital experience that I described earlier is happening less and less frequently. Studies have proven that medical care should focus on education and provide transparency throughout the process rather than consist of transactional touchpoints whose intent is to protect staff integrity rather than address patient needs. Now, doctors and staff explain complex medical concepts in easy-to-understand terms rather than clinical jargon that demands simple trust from patients. They reveal their clinical decisions to patients rather than keeping them secret. They encourage patients to practice healthy behaviors while they're in the hospital and explain the benefits of these behaviors rather than speedily giving patients written instructions at the end of their hospital stay. Staff also follow up with the patient after the visit rather than assuming the patient's primary care physician will address the patient's need, as was previously common.
These new medical practices are improving patients' health outcomes. Patients are being exposed to the process and have an active role in it rather than being treated as though they're simply on the receiving end of various medical activities without knowing how they pertain to their health. Similarly, to effect true transformation and enable our clients to realize our design recommendations, as XD consultants, we should emphasize transparency and education in their engagements with clients.
How to Create Healthy Organizations
With several of our clients during this past year, we have tried a few new approaches to increase the transparency of our process and enhance the educational value of our work to our clients. But before I outline these approaches, I have three important caveats:
- The goal is not to make people who aren't designers be designers—just as an effective medical experience doesn't mean that a well-educated patient could suddenly become a doctor. Our clients aren't going to go from working in, say, Human Resources to creating wireframes or designing service prototypes. Rather, the goal is to help organizations start to learn and adopt good XD practices, so they can sustain these activities when the consultants leave.
- Not all organizations want to understand how we do what we do. Some clients are quite content with XD consultants being the experts and the magic staying behind the curtain. They don't want to heap another burden on their own team.
- Similarly, not all organizations experience problems when embedding XD recommendations into their work. Some have in-house people who can carry the recommendations forward.
For every situation like those I mentioned earlier, where quality XD work has gone unused, numerous examples exist where just the opposite has occurred. The key is to discover early—during the proposal phase—whether a project and an organization are a good fit for one of the following approaches, by explaining the options and their benefits and assessing the client's interest in pursuing them.
The Client as Team Member
Rather than conducting insight-gathering and design activities behind closed doors, we brought our project stakeholders directly into our project team, making what we did and how we did it completely visible to them. On one project, we were helping to redesign a self-service IT ticketing application. We conducted up-front interviews and created scenarios and personas. Our final deliverable was a prototype of the future system.
We solicited eight employees from the client team to be our evangelists, all of whom had suitable roles for owning these types of XD activities. With both these team members and their managers, we set expectations for the level of involvement they would have—the number of hours that would be required—and the benefits of including them on the team. They participated in our reviews, saw early drafts of various deliverables, and attended our team meetings. We also led training sessions for them on the use of personas, research methods, and conceptual designs. Near the end of the project, we gave these new design evangelists homework assignments. They were able to create research approaches and personas and moderate interview sessions, with us overseeing their work.
The Client as Student
On another project, the client wanted to get feedback on the employee experience of applying for a disability leave. They had recently changed their insurance provider and wanted to understand employee expectations of the new process. The client was familiar with doing interviews and wanted to own those activities, but they knew they weren't the subject-matter experts on experience design, so wanted someone to help them along the way. We acted as their teachers and advisors, reviewing their deliverables, conducting interview run-throughs, and providing feedback on their interview sessions. This approach allowed the client to jump head first into their research activities, but with the safety net of our support and advice.
The Client as Colleague
For a few projects, we created engagements that focused less on multiperson consulting teams and more on resource augmentation, placing either a member of our full-time team or an external contractor at the client site. Usually, these projects were with clients who were about to start a large IT system redesign that would span years—or in one case, with an organization that wanted to create an internal XD COE (Center of Excellence).
The benefit of this approach is providing clients with ongoing, one-on-one access to an XD resource that has been vetted by our team, along with broader connectivity to and support from our full-time staff. For the organization that wants to create an XD COE over the long term, we can use these resources not only to support the engagement at hand, but also to provide reconnaissance and increase our understanding of the company, how they function, and how projects run. The insights that we have gained from the people who are working closely with the client have been invaluable to us in enabling us to assist them in creating a COE strategy and plan moving forward.
Why Transparency and Education?
If the idea of teaching our clients how to do the work of XD consultancies sounds like blasphemy to you, I understand. It kind of is. We're not really accustomed to teaching our clients essentially how to do our work. However, I can no longer turn a blind eye and just hope that a client will actually follow through on our insights and recommendations. I'm far more excited by the prospect of actually teaching an organization how to adopt XD practices and skills to create good experiences for people.
As I have said to numerous clients, "I don't want to be doing research with you again in two years. I'd rather enable you to do it yourself." Part of me realizes that I am potentially consulting my way out of a job. The irony, however, is that clients who engage in this more educational and transparent approach to consulting see it as evidence of a true partnership. We're doing what's right for their organization. They, in turn, trust us more, and that creates a more sustainable relationship, which has reciprocal benefits to the client and our consultancy. And, on top of the value that such an approach provides to both a client and a consultancy, the greatest benefit is to the people who get to experience good designs as a result. After all, aren't they the ones to whom we have the greatest responsibility?
Topic: Business of UX | Columns | Service Design | UX Strategy
2 Comments
Exquisitely well put.
I have recently transitioned from an in-house team to a consulting agency, and not being able to impact the XD throughout it's entire lifecycle terrifies me. Lobbing things over the fence is just how I now do things. I believe that explaining everything that I do, and how I do it, and why I do it, and how it should be implemented and sustained are basic requirements of anyone who does and especially presents XD to clients—which could be an opportunity for the baby-step initiating approaches you recommend.
Strongly advocating these values not only makes for more sustainable environments, which adopt good practices, but also (a point I think you severely understated) more successful engagements and projects, or simply put, just better business for the consultancy.
Thanks, Petar. Glad you liked it.
I think coming from in-house to the consulting world provides you with an interesting lens. I've worked at a small agency, then at an even smaller UX consulting firm, and now I'm doing XD consulting within a huge technology firm. Each one has different flavors of being able to see one's work through to fruition, but never quite the potential for impact as being in-house. However, I also know that in-house has its own challenges—one being bureaucracy and the other being that companies want only external consultants to tell them what to do. The irony! Grass is always greener I suppose.
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Playdate: A Visit to the Momasterytoddler-times
It's been awhile since we took a trip to a cool parenting blog for a playdate here on Strollerderby, so when a friend's Facebook linked out to a site containing what she thought was some cool mom poetry, I figured it was time to take a gander.
The poetry in question was actually guest post by my FB friend's sister and indeed very cool, but the profile info along the side of Momastery's blog post is what pulled me in: "I chose 'Momastery' because a monastery is a sacred place, apart from the world, where a seeker retreats to figure out what matters and catch glimpses of God. That's exactly what motherhood is like to me. It's also exactly like being slowly pecked to death by merciless chickens."
I'm not exactly religious. But merciless chickens? Oh, oh, this I had to read.
I scrolled down to the bottom of Momastery – searching for a way to get back to the root of the blog, and stumbled across a little gem describing the "monkees," her name for her followers (and one of my favorite's for my child). It put my qualms about religion and my take on the blog at rest:
"Monkees are too consumed with loving people to bother judging them. Monkees are too busy singing songs of redemption and sorrow and joy to put anybody down. That's our official motto. Our unofficial motto is this: We are trying very hard not to be jerks."
Those there are words to live by. At times funny, at times probing and often very personal, it's worth a read.
So go check out Momastery, and tell us – what's a new blog you've found on one of your playdates?
More by this author:
When Trashy Books are Good For Kids
Hey Doritos, Child Violence Isn't Funny
Wi-Fi on the School Bus – Where Does it End?


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A Spectacular Sonoma Wedding
Matt & Mary met on eHarmony and within one month they were dating! Despite living 5 hours apart they made the drive every weekend to spend time together.
Their wedding venue was the stunning Arbor and Lakes at Sonoma State.
Photographer: Larsen's Photography
Dress Designer: Maggie Sottero
Hair Stylist: Pazzo di Capello
Floral Designer: Sebastopol Growers
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