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ScatteredThoughtsandRogueWords is happy to welcome Kimber Vale here today to talk about her Shooting Stars rock star series and Gio Savale of Double Takes, her latest release. Kimber has also brought along a contest to win a copy of Double Takes. Contest ends Midnight 5/16. Details and link at the bottom of the post.
Welcome, Kimber.
My Inspiration for Gio Savale of Double Takes
By Kimber Vale
When I began writing Forever is Now, the first book in my Shooting Stars series, I envisioned it as a single, standalone story. At some point during my writing, however; the idea for my MC of Double Takes wormed its way into my brain.
Back when I was in high school, I remember hearing rumors that Anthony Kiedis of the Red Hot Chili Peppers was bisexual. I took them as truth (aren't all rumors in high school true???) and I didn't think much about it. For whatever reason, I thought he had admitted to being bi in some magazine interview. Roll forward a number of years (I don't want to think about how many) and I've got this idea in my head to write a rock star with that sort of backstory. Out of curiosity, and maybe I can call it research—why the hell not?—I did an online search into Anthony Kiedis' sexual orientation, self-proclaimed and otherwise.
Turns out I shouldn't have put much stock in high school rumors.
But thanks anyway, rumor mill, because I was already invested in that plot point. Gio's band did a show with the band from Forever is Now, which allowed me to introduce Gio however briefly. I had already begun writing Double Takes when I submitted Forever, so I was able to firm up Gio's story and make sure the Gio in Forever matched the Gio in Double Takes. I was glad for that; otherwise I would have been stuck with initial concept Gio instead of 3-D Gio. 😉
The same happened when I started book three. Gio's onscreen love interest in Double Takes, Kyrie, gets his own book next. I was happy to have a good chunk of Kyrie and Greg's book complete while Double Takes was in edits so I could go back and make sure all of my facts jibed from book to book.
I'm not sure how authors do it when they start a spin off after the first book is already out. They're locked into whatever they initially wrote, which could suck.
Anyway, I had a blast crafting Double Takes. I think it's a multilayered story that will keep readers on their toes. I hope you'll check it out. Gio and I thank you. 😉
Author Bio:
Kimber Vale writes romance of all stripes, from hot hetero stories to mouthwatering men falling in love (under the name K. Vale). Keep up with Kimber's news and follow all her tour stops on her blog: http://www.kimbervale.me and friend/follow her on Facebook and Twitter @KimberVale. Come for the sex. Stay for the story. http://www.authorkimbervale.com
Find Double Takes:
On Amazon:
At Liquid Silver Books:
All Romance:
Barnes & Noble:
Watch the Double Takes book trailer:
Contest: Kimber Vale has a $25 Amazon or Barnes & Noble gift card (winner's choice) up for grabs! Ends midnight 5/16. Go here at Rafflecopter to enter.
Author K. Vale
Series Shooting Stars.Book # 2
Genre GLBT, M/M, Contemporary, Musicians, Music
Heat Level 3 .Words 63,000 Publication Date 04/21/2014
Double Takes Blurb:
Ah, the life of a rock star. Everyone thinks it's nothing but sex, drugs, and rock and roll.
Not for Giovanni Savale.
For the lead singer of Three Deaf Mice, a band that reached its pinnacle in the late nineties, it's nothing but an ugly divorce with a custody battle, money trouble, and now the nightmare exposure of starring in a reality television show. When his producer decides to cash in on an infamous interview Gio did years ago, and give the self-confessed bisexual rocker an onscreen boyfriend, things really hit the fan. Gio is certain his sexual experimentation back in his drug-abusing days meant nothing — after all he's been married for nine years, clean and sober for nearly as long, and he has a son. And Gio is not remotely attracted to Kyrie, the funny, flamboyant actor they choose for his love interest. Of course, Lance Garrett, the mysterious and sexy owner of the local antique shop, Double Takes, is a whole different story. The guy has Gio planning out a future he never imagined. With the threat of losing all custody of his ten-year-old son, ghosts from the past returning for revenge, and the cameras rolling, can Gio keep his head above water and his heart from getting broken?
Lance's hand on top of his stopped Gio from silencing the irritating voice.
Gio sat down heavily next to Lance, one hand still burdened by his dinner plate and the other sandwiched between Lance's palm and the remote. He didn't dare pull it away, and Lance apparently wanted to see the entire commercial because he kept Gio trapped there until it finished.
"What was that all about?" Lance's warm fingers slid from Gio's, leaving his hand cold.
"Ah, it's dumb. The world's most degrading way to make a paycheck."
"I wouldn't be so sure." Lance stared at something past Gio's shoulder.
"The producers took some stupid poll and found out the viewers want to see me…" Gio paused in search of the right word. What the hell did people want to see? "They wanna see me squirm. They want to see a supposedly bisexual man drowning in the same-sex dating pool. It's all bullshit—just for ratings."
"So, you're not really dating that guy?"
"No! Well, yeah, I have to for the show. But not really. It's just a publicity stunt, you know?"
"So, you aren't bi, then?" Lance cocked his head and skewered Gio with those intense hazel eyes
"Yeah! No! I mean … it's not like I…" What the fuck was he even trying to say? You've screwed around with guys before, ass munch.
The confused squint of the eyes staring back at him—moss-green with spikes of brown radiating from his pupils—told Gio his answer didn't exactly make sense to Lance, either.
"I always wondered if those rumors were true before you got married." Lance made it sound like a question.
"Well, you know how it is … when you're young, and you party too much. Sometimes you do shit you wouldn't normally do if you weren't fucked up, right?" Gio gave a weak laugh. Continue reading


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subset: commoncrawl


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Kevin McConnell has submitted Photo Essays here to Tenth before and we are grateful he continues to submit. This month's theme was movement, and Kevin has opted to give us his take on the counter theme, Stillness. Thank you again Kevin!
If you'd like to submit a photo essay, we are now booking for August, and we'd love to hear from you.


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FAQs on Total Shoulder Arthroplasty in Gilbert, Chandler, Mesa AZ
About 50,000 total shoulder arthroplasty procedures are performed by US surgeons every year. First introduced in 1950s, the surgery is an effective way to treat arthritis, pain, or damage in the shoulder joint. Osteoarthritis accounts for over three-fourth these surgeries performed today while about two-third of patients are over 65 years of age.
What is total shoulder arthroplasty?
Total shoulder arthroplasty is the surgical reconstruction of the shoulder joint. It replaces surfaces of both bone ends at the joint with prostheses. A metal ball with stem is fixed to the harm bone to replace the humeral ball while a plastic component takes the place of the glenoid socket.
The shoulder joint is ball-and-socket formation. The humeral head is fitted into the glenoid or shoulder blade socket. A fibrous band of tissue called cartilage covers the surfaces of both bones and cushion them when they slide against each other. When this cartilage is damaged the bones rub against each other causing the joint stiff and painful.
Aimed at relieving pain and disability caused by irreversible cartilage and bone damage, the total shoulder reconstruction replaced the damaged cartilage by resurfacing and restructuring of both bone ends. The reconstruction improves the shoulder joint range of motions and allows its smooth functioning.
What are conditions treated with total shoulder arthroplasty?
Total shoulder arthroplasty is a viable treatment for damage to the glenohumeral joint due to the following conditions.
- Osteoarthritis or cartilage wear and tear damage, mostly in people above 55 years
- Rheumatoid arthritis or chronic synovial membrane inflammation prevents lubrication of the cartilage and contributes to its loss and stiffness.
- Post-traumatic arthritis caused by cartilage damage due to injury to the shoulder.
- Rotator cuff tear arthropathy leading to cartilage destruction
- Avascular necrosis or damage to the shoulder joint due to lack of adequate blood supply
- Sever fracture damaging the arm bone
- Failure of the previous partial shoulder surgery
Who is a candidate for total shoulder arthroplasty?
The presence of arthritis or similar conditions does not automatically qualify total shoulder replacement. The condition must be serious enough and cannot be controlled using other pain management methods. Orthopaedic surgeons suggest the procedure when
- the shoulder pain is severe enough to cause disability in performing routine activities and impact the quality of life
- no improvement despite using all nonsurgical options
- pain symptoms continue to exist for a long time
- significant shoulder weakness and loss of motion
How is total shoulder arthroplasty performed?
The surgery is performed under general anesthesia. Patient is kept on a beach chair semisitting position and his shoulder is placed on the operating table. Surgeons access the shoulder by making incisions on the front or side. The deltoid and pectoral muscles are separated and the rotator cuff is opened.
Surgeons resurface or remove the damaged humeral head depending on its condition. A ball-shaped metal head with a stem is fixed to the arm bone. The glenoid depression is also resurfaced and attached with a plastic socket. Both implants are fixed to the surrounding muscles, bones, and tendons using cementing, press fitting, grafting, or bone ingrowth technique.
Now the ball and socket joint is reconstructed and incision is closed.
How long does total shoulder arthroplasty surgery take?
The surgery takes around 2 hours.
Do I need to stay at the hospital after total shoulder arthroplasty?
Patients should stay in the hospital for 2 to 3 days and are discharged after their condition stabilizes. Total shoulder arthroplasty is an inpatient procedure and requires shoulder rest for 2 weeks.
What are the restrictions following total shoulder arthroplasty?
- Keep the operated area clean and dry
- No shower for 4 days
- Complete shoulder rest for a week
- Use a sling for 6 weeks
- Begin physical therapy after a week
- Avoid forced shoulder muscle contractions until the sixth week
- No extreme arm positions for 6 weeks
- No driving for 6 weeks
- No overhead shoulder motion for 6 to 8 weeks
- Don't overdo forceful shoulder muscle contractions for 6 weeks
- No lightweight lifting for 6 weeks
- Complete bar on weightlifting or high-impact sports after shoulder reconstruction
- No driving or overhead activities for 6 weeks
What kind of rehabilitation is needed following total shoulder arthroplasty?
- Day 1 to 7: Gentle soft tissue massage, passive motions, no stress on the shoulder
- Week 2 to 4: Continue wearing a sling and do elbow and wrist workouts, avoid shoulder AROM, exercises to maintain shoulder joint integrity, avoid shoulder extension, do deltoid isometrics, , etc.
- Week 4 to 6: Progressive PROM, minimal resisted elbow, wrist, and hand workouts, cryotherapy, scapular forward flexion and elevation, progressive isometrics, etc.
- Week 6 to 12: Start shoulder AROM, increased PROM, dynamic shoulder and scapular stability activities, scapular forward flexion and elevation, strengthen elbow, wrist, and hand, gentle glenohumeral isometrics, etc.
- Week 12 to 4 Months: Enhanced functional workouts, shoulder and muscular endurance workouts. No lifting or pushing.
- After 4 Months: Continue structural and functional strength gains
How long is the recovery period following total shoulder arthroplasty?
Within six week, patients gain shoulder strength and perform regular activities thereafter. The reconstructed shoulder achieves its optimal level in 6 to 8 months. However, the result is mostly related to pain relief and range of motions. It should not be subject to excessive stress, high impact, or heavy loads, as these may lead to early implant failure.
What are the potential complications of total shoulder arthroplasty?
- Surgical complications, such bleeding, swelling, temporary stiffness, and pain, that go after a few days.
- Hardware failure considerably earlier than expected
- Anesthesia complications
- Nerve injury and infections due to surgical mistakes
Kim SH, Wise BL, et al. Increasing incidence of shoulder arthroplasty in the United States. J Bone Joint Surg Am. 2011 Dec 21; 93(24):2249-54
Haines JF, Trail IA, et al. The results of arthroplasty in osteoarthritis of the shoulder. J Bone Joint Surg Br. 2006 Apr; 88(4):496-501.
Matsen, F.A., III, Antoniou, J., et al. Correlates with comfort and function after total shoulder arthroplasty for degenerative joint disease. J. Shoulder Elbow Surg., 9(6):465-469, 2000
Goldberg, B.A., Smith, K.L., et al. The magnitude and durability of functional improvement after total shoulder arthroplasty for degenerative joint disease. J. Shoulder Elbow Surg., 10(5):464-469, 2001.
Wilcox R, Arslanian L, Millett P. Rehabilitation following total shoulder arthroplasty. The Journal of Orthopaedic and Sports Physical Therapy. December 2005;35(12):821-836
Keller J, Bak S, et al. Glenoid replacement in total shoulder arthroplasty. Orthopedics. March 2006;29(3):221-226.
Wiater J, Fabing M. Shoulder arthroplasty: prosthetic options and indications. The Journal of The American Academy Of Orthopaedic Surgeons. July 2009;17(7):415-425.
Barrett W, Franklin J, Jackins S, Wyss C, Matsen F. Total shoulder arthroplasty. The Journal of Bone and Joint Surgery. July 1987;69(6):865-872.
Collins D, Harryman D, Wirth M. Shoulder arthroplasty for the treatment of inflammatory arthritis. The Journal Of Bone And Joint Surgery. November 2004;86-A(11):2489-2496.
Boardman N, Cofield R, at al. Rehabilitation after total shoulder arthroplasty. The Journal of Arthroplasty. June 2001;16(4):483-486.
Figgie HE, Inglis AE, et al: Analysis of factors affecting the long term results of total shoulder arthroplasty in inflammatory arthritis. J Arthroplasty 3:123-30, 1988


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A group of about thirty illustrious Jews, many of whom would not exist if Polish Gentiles had not rescued them or their families, want to build a monument to wartime Poles who aided Jews in Warsaw. In any normal society, this would have been greeted joyously as a sign of friendship between nations. Not in Poland, where its famous self-critical intelligentsia has protested. However, its sometimes-illogical arguments conveniently ignore inconvenient evidence.
"The Rescued to the Rescuers"
Zygmunt Rolat, a Polish-Jewish émigré from Częstochowa to the United States, has initiated the building of "The Rescued to the Rescuers" monument. He is also the initiator and main sponsor of the building of the Museum of the History of Polish Jews in Warsaw, next to which the monument will be built. "This commemoration has been my dream for many years. […] I survived the war in Poland and witnessed how Poles rescued Jews. We must particularly remind the younger generation of this; this is our moral responsibility," he told the Polish Press Agency. Almost thirty Jews formed a committee supporting the monument. Its names are the crème de la crème of Jews of Polish ancestry: sculptor Samuel Willenberg, klezmer composer Leopold Kozłowski, and former speaker of the Knesseth and Israeli Ambassador to Poland Shevah Weiss figure on the list.
The Museum of the History of Polish Jews
However, Poland's leftist intelligentsia is protesting this monument. They have chosen the online edition of Krytyka Polityczna, a leftist publisher, as the platform for their letter. In the letter we read the monument is an attempt to "chase away the Jewish narrative, inconvenient to the [psychological] well-being of the majority." The authors write: "it touches us painfully that this idea came out of a Jewish initiative." They later ask that the space next to the museum be one of "autonomous, independent Jewish narrative."
The authors, on the one hand, claim that this idea is contrary to the Jewish narrative, yet they acknowledge that Jews proposed this monument. A few of the signatories have Jewish ancestry, but by no means do all. Additionally, Krytyka is not a Jewish institution and its employees are overwhelmingly Gentiles. By contrast, Jews proposed the monument.
Among the committee supporting its building is Michael Schudrich, chief rabbi of Poland. Who are they, a group of largely non-Jewish persons, to tell Jews, including the religious leader of Poland's Jewry, what the Polish-Jewish narrative should be? The monument is an "independent Jewish narrative"; however, it is also "independent" of the signatories and Krytyka's views. Furthermore, if the monument is proposed by Rolat, the man behind the museum, it would seem logical that he should decide what is or isn't next to his brainchild.
Later, the authors evaluate Poland's Righteous Gentiles: "They did NOT act in the name of the Polish nation." For this reason, they also criticize a Łódź monument by Polish-Jewish architect Czesław Bielecki showing a Polish eagle shielding a Star of David.
Zygmunt Rolat
Anti-Semitism in wartime Europe
In a way, this is correct. People who act heroically generally do not think about abstract notions such as the raison d'etat. Rather, they are simply decent people who do so out of good will, not to serve a political ideal. However, this is a salient point. Did the Poles who helped Jews run counter to the Polish state?
In Nazi-occupied Europe, most nations formed collaborationist governments (Petain in France, Pavelic in Croatia, Quisling in Norway, Tiso in Slovakia, etc.). However, the Poles did not. Of course, there were avaricious Poles who blackmailed hiding Jews to the occupiers, and in some cases they directly killed their Jewish neighbours. These individual Poles were guilty of collaboration, yet the Polish State was not.
Given significant anti-Semitism in Poland at the time, the Poles were far from perfect, yet compare favourably to most other Europeans. Jewish historian Walter Laqueur writes that "[i]f the Poles showed less sympathy and solidarity with the Jews than many Danes and Dutch, they behaved far more humanely than Romanians or Ukrainians, than Lithuanians and Latvians. A comparison with France would be by no means unfavourable for Poland."
While collaborationist governments in France, Czechoslovakia, and elsewhere were helping the Nazis kill Jews, Poland's London-based government-in-exile alerted the Allies of the genocide of their Jewish compatriots. In 1940, Witold Pilecki, the only Auschwitz volunteer, wrote the first reports documenting the extermination of European Jewry, sending them to the West. Jan Karski, an underground courier representing Poland's government, tried to persuade Washington and London to act to stop the murder of Europe's Jews, yet was brushed off.
Jan Karski monument, Warsaw
Meanwhile, Edward Raczyński, Poland's foreign minister, gave the Allies the first reports of the genocide of Europe's Jews, and appealed to Western governments and the Vatican to halt this slaughter. Poland's government-in-exile in London also helped finance Żegota, an underground Polish organization led by Gentile and Jewish Poles with the express purpose of aiding Jews, the only such institution in occupied Europe.
"Fear God, Sir! They are human beings"
The letter later claims that Polish Righteous were but "a handful." They add that often their biggest threat was other Poles and claim that they acted contrary to the majority. The letter also notes that before the war Polish anti-Semitism grew greatly.
These claims do not expose the whole picture. First, were Righteous Poles "a handful"? It is difficult to say precisely how many Poles aided their Jewish neighbours. Several historians have estimated their number; it ranges from 200,000 to upwards of one million. At that moment there were about 22 million ethnic Poles. Yale University historian Timothy Snyder estimates the number of Poles complicit in killing Jews – be they blackmailers or those who killed them directly, such as the members of the Blue Police, whose numbers peaked at 16,000 – at 100,000. Of course, this second number is evidence that, like any other country, Poland had its own wicked citizens. However, the first number of Polish helpers is larger, and Poles should take pride in them.
Thus, Polish rescuers were indeed a minority. However, this must be contextualized. During the war, the Poles themselves suffered greatly – 2-3 million non-Jewish Poles died, while Poland was invaded by Nazi Germany and Soviet Russia simultaneously. Starvation, concentration camp deportations and random shootings of civilians were everyday Polish life. Thus, many Poles themselves were busy suffering.
As Boruch Spiegel, a veteran of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising, put it: "What a lot of people don't realize is that the Poles had it pretty bad, too. Most of them were too busy trying to survive. They had their own problems." Furthermore, Poland was the only Nazi-occupied country where entire families were killed if one person aided a Jew.
The Warsaw Uprising
Given these horrible conditions, this minority's size is all the more impressive. Israel Gutman, a noted Israeli historian and Warsaw Ghetto Uprising participant, wrote that: "The Poles should be proud that they have so many righteous lights that Ringelblum [chronicler of the Warsaw Ghetto] wrote about, who are the true heroes of the flood. We can never do enough to thank these exceptional people." Indeed, it is stunning that hundreds of thousands of Poles shared their meagre resources and risked their families' lives to help others.
It is true that for Jews hiding among Poles, the greatest danger for the former were Polish blackmailers. However, the authors of the monument protest letter do not tell the whole truth. First, if a minority of Poles risked everything to aid their Jewish neighbours, an even smaller minority blackmailed or killed Jews, and such behaviour was not socially acceptable.
Marek Edelman, a Polish Jew and veteran of the Warsaw Ghetto and city-wide Warsaw Uprisings (later a noted cardiologist and Solidarity activist) noted, whenever Polish blackmailers accosted Jews (Edelman himself was their victim several times), they would do so in an alley corner, because they knew they would be denounced as scum by society. Writing in the New York Review of Books in the 1980s, Israel Shahak, a Polish-Israeli who survived the war on false papers, confirmed that when he was at a railroad, a man noted his satisfaction that the Jews are dead. Yet not all Poles were like this. Shahak notes that after "a short silence another person exclaimed—and I am translating him literally as his words are branded in my memory: 'Fear God, Sir! They are human beings'." Shahak noted that whenever Poles expressed joy that Jews were being killed, they usually heard a similar rejoinder.
In addition, historian Gunnar S. Paulssen (the son of a Jewish survivor) notes that although 70-90,000 (out of one million) Varsovian Poles aided Jews, 3-4,000 blackmailed them. Jan Grabowski, a Polish historian who has protested against the building of the Righteous memorial, gives a higher number of blackmailers, 5-10,000. Regardless of which number is more accurate, it is clear that such people, a disgrace to the Poles, were not representative of Polish society, and Righteous Poles outnumbered them.
While it is almost certain that a greater proportion of Poles in Warsaw engaged in aiding Jews than elsewhere because it the Polish intelligentsia, much less likely to be anti-Semitic than the rest of society, was fairly large there, as was the number of assimilated Jews, who had Gentile acquaintances who could help them, numbers shown above indicate that across Poland more people aided than harmed Jews.
Paradoxically, however, more Jews likely died by being denounced by Poles than were successfully saved. As Icchak Cukierman, a leader of the Polish-Jewish wartime underground, noted: "It takes only one Pole to betray a hundred Jews, but it takes ten Poles to save one Jew." This was often the case. Władysław Szpilman, the Polish musician of Jewish origin whose wartime experiences were captured in Roman Polański's The Pianist, survived thanks to thirty Poles. Hanna Krall, a famed Polish journalist of Jewish ancestry, survived the war as a child thanks to nearly fifty.
Not all Poles were anti-Semites
It is true that anti-Semitism raged in inter-war Poland, especially among the right-wing National Democrats. After Józef Piłsudski's death in 1935, the nationalist "Sanation" regime that took over harassed Jews and other minorities. Anti-Semitic violence broke out across Poland, and right-wing politicians – and the Catholic primate of Poland, Cardinal August Hlond – supported economic boycotts of Jewish businesses.
However, not all Poles were anti-Semites, and in interwar Poland growing anti-Semitism countered resistance from other Poles, especially the intelligentsia, socialists and simply good-hearted people. Furthermore, Laqueur has noted that, given the scale of anti-Semitism in Poland at the time, it is surprising that the aid Poles gave to Jews was so large, not so small.
It is also worth noting that people do not choose their nationality, but they do choose to act virtuously or not. In Poland, there were both good and evil Gentiles (and Jews). While the Germans started the most horrible war in European history, there were heroic German foes of Hitler, such as Dietrich Boenhoffer, Claus von Stauffenberg, and Sophie Scholl. There were German concentration camp guards and SS-men who secretly aided Poles and Jews. If the Germans have the right to be proud of their saintly compatriots, the Poles all the more have the right to celebrate their Righteous Gentiles. Furthermore, while Polish society had both heroic and evil individuals, the monument will commemorate Polish Righteous individuals, not to the whole Polish nation.
Humanity is capable of great evil and altruism. Auschwitz and the Warsaw Ghetto were horrific, yet they also led to the heroism of Janusz Korczak and Maximilian Kolbe. Poland's Righteous Gentiles – people who, despite the threat of the execution of their families and themselves suffering poverty and terror showed remarkable human solidarity and Christian self-sacrifice – deserve a monument, and Zygmunt Rolat has every right to realize his dream.
Filip Mazurczak studied history and Latin American literature at Creighton University and international relations at The George Washington University.


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Smoothed Edges : Celerra UBER VSA Update v3.1
It came to my attention pretty quick that something was amiss with the last Celerra VSA UBER release. I heard strange stories of disks not adding and the OVA not deploying. Since this thing is drawing close on a couple thousand downloads some environmental, transfer, and operational bugs/errors will cause problems.
But I finally nailed this down myself when I was doing my iSCSI testing. I had run into a SRM bug (see post here) this week. And as I was parsing the logs I noticed a couple lines that confirmed it. There was definitely a bug as iSCSI objects were not pulling the new instantiated ID that is created with the wizard.
So after 8 hours or so of diving through and reversing engineering I finally found the culprit. It went all the way back to the original build I get from engineering. I wrote a patch, tested against my running VSA's, and confirmed I had the fix. But while I was about rebuilding the VSA's I decided to do a couple more things that didn't make the last list. Here is the running list of changes:
- Bugfix: Passphrase for peer connections is will now save correctly. This is related to the ID bug. Before if you rebooted the VSA replications (NFS or iSCSI) would no longer work.
- Bugfix: iSCSI replication now creates LUN's and Replication sessions with proper naming ID's.
- Bugfix: NTP settings for Data Mover will update time during wizard immediately to correct large skew.
- Bugfix: Either SCSI or IDE disks will add correctly to automatic volumes now. This was a random error for some installs.
- VSA is now a fresh built VM (Hardware version 7). This cleans up the VMX considerably.
- OVA is now built from OVFTOOL 2.01. I tested deployments through Standalone Converter and VI Client deploy.
- Downloads now also have MD5 hashes available to verify no errors/changes in transit. I highly recommend checking the MD5 as several people have gotten bit errors from our FTP.
- Confirmed both the current Virtual Storage Integrator (VSI) plug-in and Celerra NFS plug-in works great with VSA. Videos soon with config.
Here are the new downloads for 3.1. I recommend replacing all previous versions of 3.0:
Now get to downloading… (***UPDATE links below are the updated 3.2 version fixing 3.1 bugs. ****) – LINK
Workstation Version
(MD5: a2136179d4d9544e4f8e3b43b7cc182e)
vSphere Version OVA
(MD5: c3d8abfb536aecca34c83d318c2c3e5f)
Have no fear of perfection – you'll never reach it. ~Salvador Dali
Celerra VSA VirtualAppliances bugfix Celerra DART 6.0 EMC iSCSI Replication SRM Tools UBER VSA VMware VSA


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Bus Service Hours are 8:30 a.m. to 4 p.m., Monday through Friday for Ela Township residents who are 55 and older and/or disabled who need transportation for shopping, errands, early showings of movies and hair, doctor and dental appointments.
To schedule a ride, call (847) 438-6677 or email email@example.com.
All emails and voice messages will be confirmed during normal business hours.
Bus Service Guidelines
- Must schedule rides at least 24 hours in advance. You cannot call for a ride on the same day as your appointment or requested ride.
- Cancellations or changes may be made the same day.
- $2 per one-way trip/$4 round trip/$1 for one additional stop.
- Exact money only. Drivers do not make change.
Hours of Operation
- Reservation line is open 8 a.m. to 1 p.m. Monday through Friday. Next-day appointments must be requested no later than 12:30 p.m. on the day before your scheduled ride.
- Service starts at 8:30 a.m. for general service (stops with no appointment time).
- All appointments should be scheduled after 9:30 a.m. and prior to 1:30 p.m. Riders with appointment times will be picked up within the hour of their scheduled appointment time.
- All riders must be back on the bus by 3:30 p.m.
- Senior Center Bus Schedule: Monday through Friday with pick up at 8:30 a.m. The last ride home is 3:30 p.m.
There is no bus service on the following Township holidays
- Wednesday, January 1, 2020 – New Year's Day
- Monday, February 17, 2020 – President's Day
- Monday, May 25, 2020 – Memorial Day
- Friday, July 3, 2020 – Independence Day (Observed)
- Monday, September 7, 2020 – Labor Day
- Tuesday, November 3, 2020 – Election Day
- Thursday, November 26, 2020 – Thanksgiving Day
- Friday, November 27, 2020 – Day after Thanksgiving
- Thursday, December 24, 2020 – Christmas Eve
- Friday, December 25, 2020 – Christmas Day
Please watch for the bus, as the driver can only wait 5 minutes at each stop. Drivers cannot leave the bus to ring your doorbell. Riders are picked up and dropped off at the end of their driveway. Buses do not go up driveways. Drivers cannot assist riders on and off the bus or help them from the bus indoors.
Drivers cannot leave the bus to deliver grocery bags. All shoppers should limit their number of bags to five, or as many as they can carry by themselves.


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DETROIT -- The season-long frustration that has surrounded the Detroit Red Wings was replaced with a familiar feeling of confidence during the second intermission of Saturday's game in Calgary.
His team was ahead by only one goal, but defenseman Brad Stuart could detect the difference.
"When we came in (to the dressing room) after the second period, there was a good feeling about the way we were playing, it's been a while since I got that sense from everybody," Stuart said. "Everybody was upbeat, talking about things we were doing well and things we could do better. It's been a while since we had that kind of energy. It was a good sign."
The Red Wings grinded out a 3-1 win against the Flames and wrapped up their longest road trip of the season with a 2-1-2 record.
Forward Todd Bertuzzi, sporting several stitches on his left cheek after getting clipped by Rene Bourque's skate, said it is something to build on for a team that has struggled out of the gate at 5-4-3.
"We needed a starting point, and that was tonight," Bertuzzi said. "It's not about guys not working hard. We overworked sometimes, and you end up running around.
"We really took care of our own zone. We really limited the amount of shots (goaltender Chris
Osgood) had, and when they had good chances, Ozzie was there to bail us out."
The Red Wings have a pair of tough home games this week: Boston on Tuesday and San Jose on Thursday. Captain Nicklas Lidstrom hopes Detroit can match the urgency it has shown in the past four periods, outscoring opponents 6-1.
"As a group of five, we stayed together a lot better, stayed close to one another," Lidstrom said. "When we retrieved the puck in our zone, I thought we had support to make that short outlet pass to get out of our zone.
"It was a real strong effort to finish the trip."
Coach Mike Babcock said he was impressed by "the way we went about our business."
"Anytime you bring in six new forwards, you're a work in progress, and then you have the injuries we had in training camp, so guys aren't ready to go," Babcock said.
Center Darren Helm, one of the players injured in camp, has played his two best games back-to-back.
"Helmer, how good is he? But because he missed training camp it's taken him this long to be a player," Babcock said. "It's real important for us now that these kids get going. That's what we need to be successful, with so many people hurt."
The Red Wings have outshot their opponents 166-100 the past four games.
"We played every game not bad, but we (did) not win. Today we did excellent job," Pavel Datsyuk said.
May avoids serious injury
Red Wings general manager Ken Holland said forward Brad May did not sustain a significant injury when he was clipped near the right eye by the stick of teammate Jason Williams while May was seated on the bench during the third period Saturday.
"It's nothing significant," Holland said. "The doctor there recommended he take some time off pending what our doctors think. He's probably day to day. It's good news."
May did not suffer any damage to the eye, only some bleeding around it. He remained in Calgary overnight for observation, in part because the doctor did not want him to fly right away because of to potential pressure problems with the eye. May flew home to Toronto on Sunday and will be in Detroit today to be re-evaluated by team doctors.
Datsyuk gets into a groove
Datsyuk has picked up the pace since returning from an upper-body injury that idled him for two games. He has two goals and four assists in his past five games, after notching only two assists in his first five games.
"I'm skating awesome, but I'm not fast, I'm still on the same speed, everybody's speed (is) better," Datsyuk said. "I feel I'm flying, but it looks like maybe the same."
Said teammate Kris Draper: "When you have injuries, you need your top players to step up and play even better. He's got a lot of confidence right now and he's doing it all at both ends of the rink."


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Photos of Murtaza Ahmadi, a 5-year-old fan of Futbol Club Barcelona Captain Lionel Messi, who lives southwest of Kabul, Afghanistan, in the war-stricken and impoverished Ghazni province, have come to the attention of the soccer star, who is reported to be planning a meeting between the two, according to the Afghanistan Football Federation.
A single photo of Murtaza was tweeted on January 16 by a Lionel Messi fan account on Twitter. At first, people thought the boy lived in Iraq, but it turned out that he was actually in Afghanistan, according to the CBC.
A kid in Iraq ????.. pic.twitter.com/ZfOEpUCNvw— Leo Messi (@messi10stats) January 16, 2016
"When he suddenly wakes up in the middle of the night, he starts crying that he wants to go to Messi," Arif Ahmadi, Murtaza's father was quoted. When the boy asked for a Messi shirt, the poor Afghan farmer was forced to tell his son that it wasn't possible, according to CNN.
"I told him that we were living in a poor village far from the city and it was impossible for me to get him the shirt."
Murtaza was said to have cried for days over his family's situation until his brother, 15-year-old Homayoun, found a blue- and white-striped shopping bag and turned it into a Messi jersey by scrawling the soccer hero's name and number with a pen and tailoring the plastic to fit his brother's tiny torso.
5 year old Murtaza Ahmadi, wearing Messi shirt made from plastic bag, playing football. Messi will meet him soon.. pic.twitter.com/sovk9h91SD— Leo Messi (@messi10stats) January 31, 2016
The attention Murtaza has received is said to have turned the little boy in a "celebrity" in his village.
"I feel very happy that he is famous now," Murtaza's father stated. "He is really excited that his pictures are everywhere now. He wants to become a football player in the future and go to school."
Afghanistan Football Federation has confirmed that Messi will meet his 5 year old fan Murtaza Ahmadi at Camp Nou ❤???? pic.twitter.com/WJjnmVOPbl— Neymar Jr. (@NeyMarvellous) January 31, 2016
On January 18, the Messi fan account tweeted that the FC Barcelona captain's team had contacted them and that something was going to be arranged for Murtaza. Yesterday, the Afghanistan Soccer Federation reported that they are working out the logistics of a meeting between Lionel Messi and Murtaza Ahmadi.
Today, the Messi fan account tweeted that the meeting will take place at Camp Nou, FC Barcelona's home stadium, presumably meaning that Murtaza and at least some members of his family are being flown to Spain, with the financing of the trip likely provided by Messi or the organizations he is involved with.
U can reach to Murtaza Ahmadi in Kabul. pic.twitter.com/WFfDUxCv7n— Rahmat Alizadah (@Rahmat64655838) January 31, 2016
On January 11, Lionel Messi was again named the best soccer player in the world when he was presented with the Ballon d'Or award at the Kongresshaus in Zurich, Switzerland, which he previously held from 2010 to 2012.
"I want to thank football in general for everything it has brought me. Both the bad and the good. Because it has made me learn and grow," Messi was quoted at the awards ceremony.
The 27-year-old was born in Argentina and diagnosed with growth hormone deficiency when he was a child. Already a talented soccer player at the age of 13, Messi moved from South America to Barcelona after the team signed him and agreed to pay for his treatments. He began playing for FC Barcelona in 2004, when he was 17.
FC Barcelona is currently the No. 1 ranked team in the Spanish La Liga professional soccer association with a record of 16-3-2. The team next plays versus Valencia on February 3 in Barcelona. It has not yet been confirmed when Murtaza Ahmadi will visit Camp Nou, but it would seem that the February 3 match may be the earliest date possible.
In addition to soccer. FC Barcelona fields teams in ice hockey, rugby, basketball, and handball. The men's soccer team has finished atop the Spanish La Liga in three of the past five years.
[Photo by Gonzalo Arroyo Moreno/Getty Images]


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I was so looking forward to this wedding because I KNEW it was going to be gorgeous. I don't think you can go wrong when you get married at the top of a mountain!! I was definitely nervous about the weather as the forecast was showing rain all day. But I knew it would work…
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Very beautiful photos! How much do you charge for a wedding ceremony/reception shoot at Crystal Mountain?


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1964 Cadillac Coupe DeVille roller, $700. Look at that patina. Look at that interior.
GM 6.2L diesel V8 w/transmission (700R4, presumably) from a wrecked Suburban, $600.
This has the potential to be a fantastic low-money JaloProject. If I had space or the skills, I'd do it myself. Anyone want to build my dream for me? All links are from the Chicago area.


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Witch balls are an old Pagan tradition. They can be used to ward off negative energy, to bring in specific energies, or simply for decoration. They look beautiful around the house or hanging by the garden.
I ordered empty, fillable ornaments from Amazon to use and filled them with items I already had laying around my house.
Depending on what you want to use your witch ball for, you can customize them with anything. For example, I wanted one to bring in positive energy and love, so I filled it with herbs such as Jasmine Flowers and Rose Hips. Every herb has a magical purpose. If you want to learn more about them before creating your witch ball, I recommend paganwiccan.about.com. This is where I get a lot of information about Wicca. There are also a lot of great books in the New Age section at the Barnes and Noble with tons of information about herbs and flowers, such as The Magic Of Flowers by Tess Whitehurts and The Only Book of Spells You'll Ever Need by Marian Singer, Trish MacGregor, & Skye Alexander.
When I'm satisfied with the contents in my witch ball, I close the ornament and tie a piece of twine that I will use to hang it with, through the holes on top and cut it to my desired length.
Before I tied the two ends of the twine together, I slid a Pentagram charm on for decoration. You can of course use any type of charms you want 🙂
I made my next witch's ball as a decoration and dedication to the Pagan Sabbat, Mabon. Mabon is the Autumn Equinox, a celebration of the second harvest when people prepare for the dark half of the year. It falls on September 21st and is known for being a time of balance, because the time of light and dark are equal. There are many ways to celebrate this Sabbat. I personally enjoy decorating for Sabbats, so I filled my witch ball with items that remind me of the Autumn Equinox. Such as corn, grass, and these little Fall decorations I found at Michael's. You could also use charms that symbolize balance such as a Yin and Yang, the Sun and the Moon, or anything you want really.
I then decided to add a skull, because I personally like dark decorations and Samhain is only about a month after Mabon. Samhain is the modern Pagans' Halloween. It falls on October 31st, and is a time where the veil between the living and the dead is raised, so communication is easier. It's also a time to celebrate the lives of those who have passed. As you can see, theres always a holiday or a reason where a witch ball can be useful or festive to hang around. It's super easy, they're appealing to look at, and they can have a lot of symbolism if you want them to.
You can fill them with a handful of your favorite crystals, flowers, herbs, anything you want that makes you happy. There are no rules. Enjoy!


text: Dillon Francis returns to moombahton roots with Skrillex Elle StevensSaturday, November 22, 2014DownloadsHouseMoombahtonNews0 Comments Over the past several years, Dillon Francis has gone from Moombahton master, to a "jack of all trades" DJ. At the start of his career, the dutch-infused Moombahton style Francis dominated shot him to stardom. As his career progressed, Francis seemed to pull away from his Moombah roots, moving closer to music that can be classified as Electro house to big room bangers. Now, Francis has announced via Twitter that he is returning to his original sound, and he's bringing dubstep guru Skrillex along for the ride. This past June at Insomniac Events' EDC Las Vegas festival, Francis dropped one of the four tracks he plans to release on his moombahton EP: a collaboration with Skrillex, "ID". Electric Sloth is bringing you a first look into the new EP. You can check out the new track, currently an ID, below. We have also posted Francis full EDC preformance, which was not one to miss. We can't wait to hear the full EP, knowing well the master of moombahton will be making his return. https://soundcloud.com/all-best-track/dillon-francis-skrillex-id-exclusive https://soundcloud.com/dillonfrancis/dillon-francis-live-at-edc-las-vegas-2014-free-download Connect with Dillon Francis: Facebook | Twitter | SoundCloud


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Engaging people in relationships where Christ transforms.
Asbury Church is a local congregation of The United Methodist Church; we welcome you to learn more about who we are and what we believe.
We value:
- Welcoming Unconditionally. We'll warmly welcome anyone without reservation or judgment, no matter their life stage, faith journey, or socioeconomic status. We believe all people matter to God, so they matter to us.
- Growing Biblically. Believing God's word requires a response and is essential to our understanding of faith, we work diligently to keep scripture at the center of spiritual growth opportunities at Asbury.
- Connecting Authentically. We'll strive to recognize the disconnected in our church body and community, create and resource connection points for them, and strengthen the connections of those who are already engaged. Because we believe life is meant to be lived in community with others, spurring one another on.
- Supporting Family. We will emotionally, spiritually, and physically support and strengthen the families in our church community. Equipping them to not only know, understand, and live God at church but to also do so at home, building a strong foundation for future generations.
- Serving Compassionately. We strive to invite each person at Asbury into local and global acts of service so that we may have Christ's servant heart formed in us as we give ourselves away for the sake of others.
- Giving Generously. We endeavor to embrace generosity in our life together as we invest in the needs and challenges of the local community and our ministry partners around the world. We know generosity changes lives – ours and the people we are serving.
We view our calling as Christ followers as a journey of obedience in the same direction over the long haul. To ensure that we are challenging ourselves and each other, we have developed mission measures to encourage ongoing movement towards Christ. Our mission measures are questions for reflection both individually and corporately designed to help us abide as we are called to do in John 15.
- What am I talking to Jesus about?
- When have I dug into God's story?
- How have I shared generously?
- What have I risked to serve?
- How have I sought to be self-emptied and Spirit-filled?
- When have I engaged in transforming relationships?
- Am I anyone's 2 am friend?


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I recently purchased Avery Elle's Floral Bouquet stamp set. The matching dies make it easy to have a lovely bouquet cutout to place on a card.
I stamped the images on Gina K. Designs 80# White Cardstock with Memento Tuxedo Black Ink since I planned to color it with Copic Markers. Colors used were: G21, G94, YG17; V22, V25; R89, R85, R83, R81. I really liked the combination of deep pink and purple. Once the coloring was done it was run through the Big Shot with the matching dies. I decided to place the bouquet on an oval cut with a My Favorite Things Stitched Oval STAX die. The oval was cut again with Darice Sticky Back Foam and then trimmed down to be just smaller than the shape and the two were adhered together.
I placed the bouquet where I planned to adhere it to determine where to stamp the sentiment, which is from the same stamp set. It was stamped with Hero Hues India Ink Black. The bouquet was adhered to the oval with 3M ½" Foam Tape. The small sprig of two flower buds was adhered with Multi Medium Matte and tucked under the right edge of the bouquet.
I think an embossed background adds interest and dimension to a card, so a rectangle of Gina K. Designs 80# White Cardstock was die cut with the rectangle from Simon Says Stamp Bundle of Stitched Shapes and then run through the Big Shot with the Cuttlebug Oxford Embossing Folder. It was adhered to a side folding A2 cardbase made from Gina K. Designs 120# Black Cardstock with Tombo Mono Multi Glue. The focal image oval was adhered in the center of the card with the same glue. To accent the stamen in the center of the flowers Platinum Stickles was added. As a finishing touch Clear Wink of Stella was added to the flowers and the card was done.
- Avery Elle Floral Bouquet Stamp and Die
- My Favorite Things Stitched Oval STAX
- Gina K. Designs 120# Black Cardstock
- Gina K. Designs 80# White Cardstock
- Hero Hues India Ink Black
- Cuttlebug Oxford Embossing Folder
- Simon Says Stamp Bundle of Stitched Shapes Rectangle
- Darice Sticky Back Foam Sheet
- 3M ½" Foam Tape
- Copic Markers: G21, G94, YG17; V22, V25; R89, R85, R83, R81
- Platinum Stickles
- Clear Wink of Stella


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When Turner-prize-winning artist Steve McQueen was approached by the Imperial War Museum in 2003 to create an artwork in response to the war in Iraq, he didn't suffer a moment of hesitation for fear of the subject's gravity. "I wanted it," he says firmly in the office of his south London studio as he recalls the occasion. "I wanted it because it was a great commission to have. I wanted the responsibility."
But that thirst to engage with the hottest political issue of our time was frustrated when he was sent on a six-day tour to Basra, which turned out to be anything but conducive to the creation of art. "When I got there, it was like a magical mystery tour. They led me by the hand. I couldn't investigate anything. I got back home and I had nothing – what can you do in six days? It was a huge waste of time."
As the situation in Iraq worsened, McQueen realised he was unlikely
to get the chance to return, and worried about the completion of his commission, until he had an unlikely epiphany.
"I was doing my taxes, and I suddenly had this idea of a stamp. The only people who are allowed to be portrayed on stamps are dead people, or the royal family. And I thought this would be a better way to honour the dead than making some kind of three-dimensional object in London which no one would come and see."
McQueen's idea was to make a series of stamps carrying the individual portraits of all the (until then) 110 British people who had died in the war. He took the idea to the Ministry of Defence and the Royal Mail, where it was received with all that special lack of enthusiasm and closing of ranks that the British establishment brings to bear on projects that appear too provocative for comfort.
"They fobbed us off," says McQueen, with no little passion in his voice. "Allan Leighton [chairman of the Royal Mail] was initially sympathetic, but he saw how powerful this idea could be, and didn't seem to want to expose
"At the MOD, we had this incredible meeting with about 16,000 people on their side of this long table, and four of us on my side. They were horrified. They said: 'Why can't you do landscapes?' I said: 'What are you so ashamed of?'"
Far from being discouraged, McQueen went ahead with his plan anyway. Today, his long-awaited work on the Iraq war, "Queen and Country", will at last see the light of day, in the great hall of Manchester's Central Library, as a preview to this summer's inaugural Manchester International Festival. The stamps have been designed and produced, as if for mass manufacture, and placed inside wooden sliders, the way that valuable stamps are conserved in the British Museum.
They even have the Queen's head on them. I ask McQueen if that is not illegal, and his voice deepens a shade: "So put me in jail."
It is clear that this piece of work has become something of a crusade for him. I wonder if he has any sympathy for the MOD and the Royal Mail, whose shrinking away from such a project in the middle of a less-than-popular war is surely understandable? "No, no. Not at all. If you are willing enough to
send people to fight and die, you should at least have the decency to honour them.
"What exactly is the problem? It is not an anti-war project. It is honouring the people who have died. I have no sympathy for their position at all. If they are ashamed, let them say it in public." By now, words are tumbling out of McQueen, almost quicker than he can process them. "If [the Royal Mail] can react quickly enough to commemorate the Ashes series, then an 18-year-old who catches a bullet in his head can be honoured in the same way. I mean, come on. Catching a ball? Leather on willow?" His contempt is palpable.
McQueen, now in his late 30s, came to prominence when he won the Turner prize in 1999, with a series of short films that made no hint of the political provocation to come. Bear documented a brief, ambiguous encounter between two naked men; Deadpan riffed on the famous Buster Keaton sequence when a house collapses all around the passive comedian.
But more recently, the artist has entered more contentious waters. He is currently working on a film about Bobby Sands, the Irish Republican hunger striker, but declines to answer any questions about the project. "I am here to talk about this," he says single-mindedly of his latest work.
He is determined to see the stamp project through, in the hope that it does receive official endorsement. He says he is sure the public will be supportive and, crucially, he has the blessing of the great majority of the relatives of the dead. "Out of 110 people, we had 98 positive responses, and just four 'no's. The rest we couldn't contact. It was a great surprise. They are the co-authors of the work."
The relatives were asked to send in their favoured image of the victims. It must have been an emotional process, I suggest. "It was difficult. It was very, very heavy. All those images of people who have died, hand-written letters from girlfriends, wives, parents. It is almost as if it was the first time they had been allowed to speak."
On Sunday, the work was shown to those same relatives in a private ceremony. McQueen first thought a couple of dozen people would come, but then realised there would be about 100. There is an unmistakable note of catharsis in the air. "These people have not been given a look in. They have not been treated correctly." He strenuously denies being a political artist, but says that if his artwork is what it takes to right a few wrongs, "then fine, I'm political".
McQueen, who currently lives in Amsterdam, has thought long and hard about this work. The day after our conversation, he rang me to admonish himself for not having mentioned the "estimated 650,000 Iraqis who have died in this war too. We should reflect on that as well."
I had asked him what his own views on the war were, but he waved the question away. "It doesn't matter at all. What I want to focus on is those people who died for Queen and country. That's it. End of story."
The stamps, he says, would be a way for the issue to "enter the bloodstream of the country. Something that would hit you over your toast and marmalade. All I am saying is: 'Look at this.' It's very simple."
'Queen and Country' will be on show in the Great Hall, Central Library, Manchester, until July 15
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With perfectly mild weather in the forecast, Baltimoreans are stepping outside to enjoy outdoor fitness without the dread of drowning in sweat. This is the perfect season to get outside—gorgeous weather, fewer bugs, stunning scenery. Plus, it's at this time that we have the rare and beautiful opportunity to explore some of our area's most treasured hiking trails.
Nature hikes/walks are generally both pleasing and economical, but they're also a great fitness option! A study at the University of Michigan found that hiking can increase the amount of energy your body uses by up to 28 percent. When you walk on a level surface, your stride can become passive like the swing of pendulum. However, on uneven terrain like what you'd encounter on a hike or nature walk, your body increases muscle activity and energy expenditure. You move from passive to active with variations in step length, width, push off, strikes, etc. No matter what speed or incline, all of these changes help activate your body and help your muscles work harder.
One of the best things about hiking is that you don't have to do much to get started and you don't have to go hard-core to enjoy the benefits, meaning it's affordable and perfect for all fitness levels. Like any exercise endeavor, just make sure you're prepared with proper attire (especially footwear!) and water. Ready to go? You don't have to travel far—remarkable hikes are closer than you think! We talked to Dave Seel from Mountain Pirate Adventures to hear some of his favorite spots you can take a hike:
Cascade Falls Trail | Patapsco State Park
While there are lots of trails in Patapsco, Seel says this is one of his favorite trails to hike/run in and around Baltimore. "While it can get busy on the weekends, it's easily accessible for all ages and the waterfalls make for great picture opportunities with kids." Scenic moments include streams, wildlife and waterfalls. Moderate – 3 mile loop.
Oregon Ridge Loop | Oregon Ridge Park
There are so many reasons to love Oregon Ridge. The trails are always well maintained and Seel says the nice Nature Center and facilities make it the perfect spot to enjoy with the whole family. "I like the 4 mile loop for hiking and trail running, but there are lots of different trails here to explore." Scenic moments include lovely woods, wildlife and trail side streams. Easy – 4 mile loop.
Annapolis Rock via The Appalachian Trail | South Mountain State Park
"If you get motivated by scenic rock outlooks and views-for-days, this is the hike for you," says Seel. "It's a great one too because it's on a section of the Appalachian Trail that stretches all the way from Georgia to Maine . . . so you can have daydreams of hiking all 2,100 miles." While this is definitely not easy, Seel knows the stretches of uphill hiking are worth it. He reminds us to pack plenty of water and snacks and/or a water filter as there is a nice spring by the outlook (but he wouldn't recommend drinking it without filtering). Scenic moments include feeling awesome on the AT, nice woodlands and scenic views. Moderate – 5 miles total out and back.
Maryland Heights Loop | Harpers Ferry National Historic Park
For those that really want to feel the burn and reach some scenic views, look no further than Maryland Heights. This trail has lots for Civil War history buffs and some serious elevation gain. "This trail will definitely leave you worked and ready for a beer in nearby Frederick," Seel confirms. But the beers will be worth it – along with the beautiful views of the confluence between the Shenandoah and Potomac rivers at Harper's Ferry. Hard – 6 mile loop.


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Obituary: Georgia Patricia Paparella, 80, of Apple Valley, Calif.
Georgia Patricia Paparella, age 80, of Apple Valley, CA, a longtime resident of Shelton, peacefully entered into rest on Tuesday, December 23, 2014 at the Valley Crest Memory Care facility in Apple Valley, CA with family by her side. She was the beloved wife of Michael J. Paparella, Jr.
Georgia was born in Perth Amboy, NJ on August 19, 1934, one of three children born to Morris and Sadie Fleischman. After they were married she and Michael moved to Bridgeport in 1954 then on to Shelton in 1959. They celebrated their 60th wedding anniversary in May of 2014 with her whole family in attendance.
After graduating from St. Vincent's Nursing School in Bridgeport, CT, Georgia worked as an L.P.N. at St. Vincent's Hospital and later at Long Hill Convalescent Home in Shelton. Georgia was known for always commenting on how much she enjoyed her time working at the nursing home and how much she loved the residents there. She also spent many years as a volunteer with the ambulance service at the Huntington Fire House in Shelton.
Besides her family Georgia enjoyed camping, crocheting, cooking, reading and pinochle. Friends and family were treated to many wonderful Thanksgiving and Christmas dinners where both good food and love were on the menu.
After her retirement she moved to a small ranch in Crown Point, NY where she and Michael kept horses that her granddaughter rode in various shows and fairs which she always loved attending.
Along with her husband Michael, Georgia is survived by her four children, Michael Paparella, III of Great Falls, MT, David Paparella of Apple Valley, CA, Paul Paparella of Paradise Valley, AZ and Roseanne Simanavage of Crown Point, NY as well as her 9 grandchildren Sarah, Joseph, Ethan, Wendy, John, Matthew, Suzanne, Steve and Katie. She was predeceased by her parents as well as her brother Philip and her sister Bernice.
A memorial service celebrating Georgia's life will be held at Sunset Hills Memorial Park in Apple Valley, CA at a date to be determined.


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Get Your Own Issues In the Way of Your Parenting
Because this is so easy to do, we probably need to constantly monitor to make sure that we aren't allowing our issues to impact our parenting. This battle may be greater then ever before. One of the issues that can impact how we parent, is the temptation to compare our children to others. To feel superior or defeated by how our child "stacks up" to children around them. That is far too much pressure to put on our child. It is also attempting to meet our self worth needs through the performance of our child. Another area where we can be tempted to find our self worth, is how we are performing. While pinterest has been an amazing place to find ideas to help all areas of home life, it can also add a lot of pressure. Pressure to make sure we are organizing like this, cooking like that, creatively crafting with our children and making every holiday an extreme blow out. While all of these things can be good, we cannot allow ourselves to get wrapped up in this and miss the important parts of parenting, such as being there for our kids, listening to their hearts and simply spending time with them. These are just a few small examples of how we can let our own issues get in the way of parenting and make it harder.
Podcast: Download


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Article content
Somewhere in Ottawa, there's a seven-year old Bernese mountain dog strolling along with a made-in- London titanium snout.
It means a family still has their beloved pet this Christmas after the implant allowed the dog to survive surgery last month to remove a cancerous tumour.
And for ADEISS (Advanced Design in Surgical Solutions), a new London medical devices company, it's another step forward in manufacturing titanium implants with 3-D printers to rebuild skulls and other human body parts.
ADEISS, in Western University's Research Park, is working toward federal certification expected next year to manufacture parts for human surgery.
But in the meantime, chief executive Paul Paolatto said the veterinary work, which requires less regulatory approval, is a good ramp-up to the human market.
"We do a lot of training and learning and it gives us a chance to make a few bucks in the process," said Paolatto.
ADEISS is partnered with the British company Renishaw, which made the connection with Ottawa veterinarian Julius Liptak, who performed the surgery to remove the large tumour from the dog's muzzle and replace the bone tissue with the implant.
The dog went home the day after the surgery and is able to breathe through its nose.
"The dog is doing well now and is having a happy, healthy Christmas," said Matt Parkes, ADEISS's technical manager.
Titanium is commonly used to replace bone tissue because it is a strong, smooth, non-corrosive metal that is "bio-compatible" – not triggering a rejection response in surrounding tissue.
The titanium implant is created by taking a scan of the patient to create a precision model, then using powdered titanium fused with heat in a 3-D printer to create the implant — a process that takes about eight hours.
"The complexity in the geometry that can be achieved in 3-D printing can't be done with conventional methods — at least not in a way that would allow the dog to breathe and eat," said Parkes.
ADEISS is working with University of Guelph researchers to see how the implants can be used in other veterinary surgery.
The company also created a titanium lower jaw for a dog in that city after removal of a tumour.
tap here to see other videos from our team.


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I almost missed this one... Had to have it pointed out to me via PM
But today is day 143, meaning I passed 20 weeks on Friday and it is 4 months and 3 weeks today. 5 months soon.
Time is going so quickly now!
I feel fine with it too, cravings are a thing of the past and even urges are very few and far between.
Very happy to say that smoking is just something I used to do.... and the old saying IS true.... If I can do it, anyone can. The tougher times do come to an end, and quicker than you think.... and
"none of it is life threatening, while smoking is" (copyright NicFirth)
It's been a while, but... *does his little dance*


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GenGAME writes: "Just like Ocarina of Time's 3D world caused a revolution for the franchise, adding a deep multiplayer component will forever change the series' conventions. No longer will we think of multiplayer as something for spin-offs and extra modes: it'll become a core feature instead.
"While the fact that Zelda's kind of 'late to the party' in terms of taking full advantage of cooperative play means it won't completely change the way video games are made going forward, it'll still mean that the series will at long last have dived fully into 'next-gen.'"
Co-op...in a Zelda game
NO...just NO
I love Zelda because it takes you on an epic single player journey where you can escape to a fantasy land full of mythical things and surroundings. What people don't need is to be interupted and miss half of the stuff on screen, story related because your talking to your friend about something else. I've seen it happen to a ton of people when playing Halo for example
"Yeah I honestly don't know why she even said that to me at college I mean - Woah....what's just happened, who's he, where are we going now"
I know what some of you are thinking..."You don't have to play co-op" but the thing is like Dead Space 3 for example they would spend their time making your surrounding built for two people when playing so if you can play by yourself it will feel off.
Zelda like Fallout, Uncharted, Elder Scrolls, Hitman for example should stay single player in the campaign. Co-op should not exist in any shape or form, if you want that go play another game
then can add co op if they want but id like the core gameplay to still be solo.
I think for a 3D Zelda they should do what the Souls series has been doing. Not really co-op but the ability to leave messages or be sommuned by someone would be interesting.
Yeah. Just what the industry needs. More pointless multiplayer. It seems that some people are really that lonely.
I actually wouldn't mind seeing another 4 Swords type since I didn't get the chance to play the earlier two properly.
But for a main entry, I would prefer it to remain single player. I am not against the option to have a co-op campaign. While I loved Skyrim as a solo adventure, my brother and I are waiting to play through again because someone is working on a multi-player mod for PC. Done well, the co-op could add replay value. Again though, it has to be optional.
My primary concerns are:
A) It is a copy of other games (such as the author demonstrated by mentioning classes, which I complete disagree with) keep it a Zelda game, not a clone with the Zelda name.
B) It is tacked on like the star bit collection in Mario Galaxy, instead of a proper full application where each player has equal responsibility for success and/or failure.
C) It takes away from the main game's development *cough* Mass Effect 3 *cough*.
I'm wary anyway given Skyward Sword and Nintendo's leanings for hand holding lately, but while difficult, I try to keep an open mind until more information becomes available.


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July 19, 2012
The International Monetary Fund's mission chief for Greece, Poul Thomsen, walked grim-faced into his first meeting with newly elected Prime Minister Antonis Samaras on July 5 wearing a black tie looking as if he was going to a funeral.
Whether he was making a point or not, the first meet-and-greet visit by Greece's exasperated international lenders with the new government was blunt, both sides told Reuters.
"Talking to them was like going to a doctor, who is looking over your tests shaking his head, and you're wondering if you are going to live or die," a senior Greek government official told Reuters, on condition of anonymity, after the visit.
Now, the same Greek officials are preparing for a new and crucial round of talks starting next week.
For three days earlier this month, senior inspectors from the troika of the International Monetary Fund, European Commission and European Central Bank rushed in and out of ministers' offices with their heads down, clutching files and avoiding reporters.


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The Montreal Jubilation Gospel Choir (MJGC), founded and directed by Trevor W. Payne, gave its first performance in 1982 at St James United Church, in Montreal. The choir's first members were drawn primarily from the Montreal Black Community Youth Choir (1974-81). This earlier incarnation was founded by Rev Frank Gabourel, Daisy Peterson Sweeney, and Trevor Payne to commemorate the 75th anniversary of Union United Church, Montreal's oldest black community church - with whom the Jubilation Choir remained affiliated until 1985.
MJGC performs in an annual gospel celebration in Montreal. It has given performances across Canada, the US and Europe, and has been featured with such Canadian performers as Oliver Jones, Martine St-Clair and Céline Dion, and American recording artists such as New Kids on the Block, Ray Charles and Salome Bey. MJGC has performed at Montreal's International Jazz Festival, the Stratford Festival, and Toronto's Harbourfront and International Choral Festival. It has participated in annual fund-raising events for a variety of Canadian organizations, such as Aubèrge Madeleine, Education Plus, Share the Warmth Foundation, and the Lamplighter's Children's Leukemia-Cancer Foundation.
Repertoire and Recordings
MJGC has recorded nine discs, several of which have won prestigious awards. Included among these is a 1995 Juno award for Jubilation V: Joy to the World. The Association of Gospel Music Ministries named the choir its outstanding recording artist in 1987, and best choral ensemble in 1989, when it also won for best gospel album. It was also named vocal group of the year by Jazz Report, 1993-5.
The choir's repertoire focuses on gospel music, both traditional and contemporary, some of which has been retained from MJGC's earlier incarnation as the Montreal Black Community Youth Choir (MBCYC). Pieces such as "Changed," "Goin' Up Yonder," Geographical Fugue for Speaking Chorus, "Oh, Mary Don't You Weep," "The Storm is Passing Over," "How I Got Over," "To the Glory of God," "In That Morning," "Swing Low, Sweet Chariot," "Soon Ah Will Be Done," "Joshua Fit the Battle of Jericho," "Plenty Good Room," and "O Happy Day" were first recorded by MBCYC and remain present in MJGC's recordings. To this core repertoire, MJGC has added a mix of music ranging from Gregorian chant to Bach chorales, a modern jazz oratorio, and traditional Zulu music.


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For 46 years, Wade Walker sold Jeeps at his dealership in Montpelier, Vt. Now that dealership is going to have to reinvent itself.
In mid-May, Chrysler told Walker it would terminate his franchise agreement as part of the automaker's plan to cut costs through bankruptcy proceedings by shedding about a quarter of its 3,189 U.S. dealerships. (General Motors, which like Chrysler has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, has announced plans to cut about 40 percent of its 6,000-dealer network by the end of next year.)
Walker said his dealership sold about 100 Jeeps a year, making up about a quarter of his business. His Ford franchise made up the rest of his sales, and he's hoping to survive on selling Ford cars and trucks from here on out.
"This impacts our business tremendously," said Walker, who values his dealership at up to $4 million. "If you lose 25 percent of your business when car sales are already down about 40 percent, it's really difficult."
As a new Chrysler emerges from the wreckage of the automaker's bankruptcy filing, Walker is among hundreds of dealers left in limbo.
Many are struggling to cope with their sudden ejection from the Chrysler family. Some are scrambling to sell their assets, or find new lines of business, while a few are contemplating the prospect of complete financial ruin.
"It's unprecedented to wind down what are multimillion-dollar businesses in a matter of weeks," said Paul Taylor, chief economist for the National Automobile Dealers Association.
"The extreme 'hurry up' process we've seen here has made financial planning very difficult for these dealers, and of course that's compounded by the loss of their franchises" he added.
Walker is among the luckier dealers.
After hearing that his franchise agreement with Chrysler would be terminated, Walker sold his inventory to a local dealer who had escaped termination. But he wasn't so fortunate with his parts business, which he is now unable to use for warranty work on Jeeps. So far, he's only recouped about 40 percent of the value of that $50,000 business, he said.
Walker doesn't think he will need to let any employees go to make ends meet in the difficult months ahead, but he isn't ruling out a round of layoffs, including whittling down his team of eight technicians.
"We're facing a problem when it comes to revenue," he said. "How do I get revenue to satisfy my business needs? That's what I need to replace, not just from vehicle sales but also from warranties and parts sales."
Walker says he will have to replace the lost revenue by selling more Fords or otherwise downsize, and "obviously that will mean cutting employees and overhead."
"Or if we decide our business isn't viable any more, we'll have to sell it," Walker said.
Chrysler Deputy CEO Jim Press called the cuts are "the most difficult business action" of his career but they were necessary to help save the ailing automaker, which is now being run by Italian automaker Fiat.
Press said the poor performance of many of the dealers who were eliminated cost the company $1.5 billion in lost sales each year plus $150 million in advertising and marketing costs and another $33 million in administrative expenses.
James Anderer, who owns Island Jeep in Lindenhurst, N.Y., disagrees. He says dealers are independent businesses that pick up their own expenses and cost the automakers nothing.
Anderer, who also was cut loose by Chrysler, said his business is well-capitalized with sales 128 percent above the automaker's minimal sales requirement for Chrysler dealerships. His dealership was also rated as a five-star facility by Chrysler, he notes, meaning it has met a certain level of customer satisfaction and sales volume.
"Why pick me? I am the crown jewel; I am ranked in the top 2 percent of dealers in the country," Anderer said. "I am going to fight this; I am not giving up. If they want to cut 25 percent of their dealers they should cut the lower performing ones."
For Anderer, the termination notice marks an inglorious end for his 22-year-old business on New York's Long Island, launched in 1987, when he bought a local Renault dealership for $600,000. Renault dealerships were soon combined with Jeep, and then Jeep became part of Chrysler. That's when his business took off, growing from selling six cars a month to more than 100 and from three technicians to 18 today.
Anderer expects to cut his work force from 48 employees to 15 "very soon." He said the publicity he has received from appearing on numerous news outlets to argue his case against Chrysler has led to a groundswell of support.
"Because of my media attention I have sold every car I have, but I still have my parts division to sell and soon I'll have to make a determination as to whether I can stay in business, or whether I can take on another brand. But my future is uncertain," he said.
"Most of the good brands already have good dealers attached to them, so I would have to pay a premium," Anderer added. "A Toyota store around here would go for between $12 million and $15 million, and a Honda dealership would go for around $20 million. Those are difficult options for us."
As for switching to Ford or its Lincoln-Mercury brand, Anderer demurred.
"I don't know if I want to go through what I went through with Chrysler again," he said. "Ford may be well-capitalized now, but where will they be in a few years?"
For Wade Walker, Ford is the future for his business. So far the automaker, which is also shrinking its U.S. dealer network, although not as drastically as GM or Chrysler, has treated its franchisees well, said Walker.
"Hopefully that will continue, but we've already seen two domestic automakers force dealers to close, and I hope that Ford doesn't fall into that trap," he said. "For the future, we're just going to look at everything — used cars, other manufacturers; we have to look everywhere to find revenue."
Above all, Walker intends to remain upbeat about his situation. The auto sales market can't stay depressed for long, and he expects to carry on selling cars in some capacity, he said.
"You get dealt cards in life and they don't always make you happy, but you have to keep moving forward, otherwise you're standing still," he said.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.