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You have no items in your cart. Want to get some nice things?Go shopping
With dogged obsession, Rota traced a figure eight into the thick glass looking out onto the surface of the planet. Eight weeks, eight months, eight years… he couldn't remember. The figure eight could be traced infinitely. He picked up speed moving a finger in pattern, his gaunt expression remaining the same.
The room was dirty and grey, with obvious signs of neglect. Rota sang songs in his head to pass the time, today he chose Otis Redding belting out "Respect". Otis, another brother cut down in his prime. He fell from the sky before realising the fame that would have held him on high. Fame. Infamy. They were interchangeable. Rota could relate to that.
The day had been hot, typical Texan summer dry heat. Sweat dripped down his neck forcing him to pull the chord attached to his earpiece away from the skin. His shades dug into the sides of his head. He cracked his neck. Guys in the Secret Service viewed security detail as the Holy Grail; the pinnacle of their profession. Rota spent most of his days shadowing a balding man with failing eyesight who could never remember his name. He was trained to protect, to disarm, to kill. Most of the time he kept pre-school kids with flowers at arms' length just in case the bluebonnets they proffered were compromised. He was a finely tuned Ferrari in a demolition derby.
Walkabouts were the worst. Whilst normal people smiled, waved and cheered, he was looking for abnormalities and anomalies, someone looking the other way, a person out of place. He spent all day looking for something that was never there. Each day brought smiling children, nodding suits and a different Starbucks in every town. Oh, and the titles. Always the titles.
"Good morning Sir. May I introduce Kyle Zutant, National Supply Chain Manager for the Realignment of Process." The longer the title was, the longer Rota's exhalation of air compounding his apathy. On and on it went, day and night. You have to do your duty though; every man has to do his duty.
It was ecommerce, he remembered that much. Another line of suits looking nervous and sharing knowing glances. Rota wondered if royalty were greeted in a similar manner. People loved royalty, certainly a lot more than an elderly man for whom the majority hadn't voted. There were several colossal potted plants around the huge meeting room they all congregated in. The air con was faulty so people sweated profusely. He saw the kid dart out from the elevator before anyone else. His enthusiasm had been dulled in the preceding two years but his reactions had stayed as razor sharp as the day he was sent home from Kabul. As detail flanked the would be assailant Rota stood his ground, alert to a typical diversion. The suits waiting in line were dispersing in horror with the exception of one who was moving towards Rota's client. At the point of contact he raised his hand and Rota gripped the steel shaft of his pistol. Yet there was nothing in the assailant's hand, and in a split second he was upon the president who shook his hand in shock and surprise before detail pushed him to the floor amid the din encompassing the room. Rota fell on the assailant, but something was wrong. Pressed down on his back he held up his hands in an impassive gesture, motioning to be helped back to his feet. Shouting came from the other side of the room and as Rota turned his head, the would-be assailant grasped his hand and fled. Rota felt a coarse itching on his hand yet there was nothing there, but his eyes didn't betray what he saw next… the president falling amidst a clutch of Secret Service, holding out his right hand in agony.
They found traces of thallium on Rota's hand. At least that's what he learned from the warders. The speed at which he was hooded and pushed into a car had him in no doubt as to what fate would befall him. All will be judged equally under the eyes of God they said, yet the lord had not judged him fairly. Society had judged him: he was guilty before he set foot in the courtroom. The people on the sidewalk didn't sneer, they threw rocks and spat on the unmarked van as it hurtled through the streets. The officer opposite couldn't even look at him; he stared intently at his steel toe-capped boots the whole journey. The clatter of stone made Rota jump each time something thumped into the side as visions of his fate flashed in front of his eyes. Justice was swift, especially when meted out to a black man accused of the murder of a public figure he was sworn to protect. He knew they meant to make an example of him. He wasn't going to San Quentin or Guantanamo: even the chair wouldn't be judged to be adequate enough. He was about to learn the true meaning of the phrase "rot in hell."
He pursed his lips, arched his back and let his neck support the full weight of his head as he looked upwards. He recalled the words of an old college professor who was the first to praise his astonishing capacity for information retention and concentration: "The only purpose of being is to make heartfelt contact with others."
The series of numbers he'd scrawled on the wall told it all: eight years today. Happy Birthday. He would remain here until the end of his days, all for the sake of a handshake: a murderer and enemy of the state, forever a prisoner; serving time in solitary, alone with his thoughts on the moon.
About Jon Veal
Writer of short stories, working on my first novel due out early 2014. "Jon Veal offers quick-moving word-play mixed with richly textured backgrounds."


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More in thisCategory
More ByTereena Clarke
More SALE Items
Sale price: $7.96 USD $9.95 (online download)
Common Ringtail Possums cross stitch pattern... This counted cross stitch pattern of Common Ringtail Possums was created from a beautiful photo by David Cook Wildlife Photography. Only full cross stitches are used in this pattern. It is a black and white symbol pattern. To be stitched on black fabric.
©Crosstitch.com - all images and designs copyright and may not be used or shared without permission.

subset: commoncrawl


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July 2016 Achievements
Faculty Achievements
Sheila Goldstein, Professor, ESL, was honored as a Master Mentor Teacher on May 24, at RCC's Induction Ceremony of the International Honor Society in Teacher Education, Kappa Delta Pi.
Student & Alumni Achievements
Sidra Ijaz '16 received a $1,000 scholarship from the Rockland Business Women's Network at its annual Women in Achievement Breakfast June 15 at the Crowne Plaza in Suffern. Jill Warner, chief executive officer of Jawonio, presented her the award.
David Huerta-Morales and Elfred Nova completed the six-week Bridges to the Baccalaureate summer research program and presented their findings at the annual Summer Research Symposium, July 1, at Purchase College, SUNY. Huerta-Morales' presentation is titled, "Investigating the Effect of Membrane Fluidity on Membrane Leakage Induced by the Antimicrobial Peptide Maximin-3," and Nova's is, "The Impact of Climate Change on Plants and Insects: Insights from Arabidopsis thaliana and Drosophila melanogaster."


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Meet our people
One of the many good things about our business is that we are inclusive. We are looking for potential in people, and our focus is on what you might be capable of achieving.
Here are some of our people in our team. They'll introduce themselves and then give you their honest thoughts and opinions on working life with us.
"Talent development is massively important to me. Identifying our future leaders, and training, developing and promoting internally makes for a much more dynamic and vibrant company. If success is visible, and is rewarded, then we really will be a 'can do' company, and we will continue to develop, retain and attract the best possible staff." Gordon Wilson, CEO, Advanced


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What Can I Do to Help?
Continuing with our series of helping those who are grieving, here are several ways you can have a positive impact as friends or family members work through their grief.
Don't Feel that You Have to Say Something: Our last two posts dealt with what to or not to say, however, the most important thing is to know that just being around is often enough. An embrace, a touch, a physical presence can bring as much or more comfort than words.
Take the Initiative: Just saying, "Let me know if I can do anything to help," doesn't really help. Be specific, be pro-active to be sure that your offer is accepted. For example if you can help with the shopping or a meal, suggest a time and day that you can do so. Or, offer to take on a specific task that you know will be difficult for them. Following through on your offer of support makes all the difference.
Help with Everyday Concerns: When someone is grieving, so often the small everyday tasks get lost and create larger problems. Popping over to help with errands, dishes, laundry or bill paying for someone who is emotionally exhausted is invaluable.
Help With the Children: When children are involved, sending them special cards or inviting them to outings with your family, helps everyone. This allows the adults time to grieve alone, and also gives the child a chance to be away from the sadness at home. Be a good listener. Just because they are being strong, does not mean they aren't in pain.
Accept Mood Swings: Highs and lows are part of the grieving process and you never know when someone will have a good or bad day. Be patient and flexible and aware that even after a good deal of time has gone by, moods can change dramatically.
These suggestions are edited from an article in the My Careletter, printed with permission from Heartlight Magazine.
Leave a Reply.
D. Stiller
FDR Nr.:4139
December 2019


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WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The top U.S. trade negotiator said late on Tuesday that President Donald Trump is determined to challenge China's use of unfair subsidies and "non-economic" industrial policy to build up export industries that are costing American jobs.
[ David Lawder | July 26, 2017 |Reuters]
U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer, in a rare media interview, said that the Trump administration would work to hold China's practices to the rules of the World Trade Organization, an organization that he has criticized for being ineffective in enforcing fair trade.
Speaking on the syndicated "Kevin McCullough Radio" conservative talk show, Lighthizer said there was "no question that China has an industrial policy that is designed to create jobs and wealth in China."
"Our objective is not to let that go on in an unfair way."
Lighthizer, a longtime steel industry trade lawyer who served as deputy USTR in the 1980s, said there were many examples of China's WTO violations, including dumping of products below cost, unfair subsidies for state firms and other "non-economic" policies.
"You have to take on their industrial policy one way or another," Lighthizer said. "For example, they will develop an industry behind a closed market in China. When that industry is developed with subsidies and with protection, they'll then let it loose on the world."
He said this has happened in steel, aluminum and other products.
"If it's unfair the president's going to go after it."
Lighthizer's comments come about a week after senior Trump administration officials at bilateral economic talks failed to secure any concrete commitments from their Chinese counterparts to eliminate excess steel production capacity or to further open the Chinese services industry to foreign competition.
News conferences at the conclusion of the U.S.-China Comprehensive Economic Dialogue talks were canceled and there was no joint statement for the first time since the summer bilateral economic meetings were launched in 2006.
China later sought to put a more positive spin on the meeting, saying the two sides had agreed to take "active and effective measures" to tackle the global steel overcapacity problem.
Earlier on Tuesday, Trump said in a Wall Street Journal interview that his administration would take its time in deciding on whether to enact steel tariffs or quotas on national security grounds, saying "we don't want to do it at this moment."
Trump added that the steel decision could come after debates in Congress on health care, taxes and infrastructure spending
Regarding negotiations starting in August to modernize the North American Free Trade Agreement, Lighthizer said that Trump wanted to change the 23-year-old trade pact to stop a "basic unfairness" that has allowed U.S. factories and manufacturing jobs to migrate to Mexico.
Asked by radio host McCullough if Trump still wanted to scrap NAFTA, Lighthizer said: "Scrapped is too strong but the president wants very substantial changes," Lighthizer said.


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Yauheni Preiherman
Опубликовано на сайте BelarusDigest
In less than two weeks, the Secretary of the Security Council Leanid Maltsau has to submit his proposal on the optimisation of the law enforcement agencies ("siloviki"). This follows the Presidential Decree No. 168 aimed at reforming the public administration in Belarus.
This will again raise questions about the role of the "siloviki" and, ultimately, about how the country is governed and who makes the decisions. The obvious easy answer goes that, of course, Alexander Luakshenka does. In the personalistic authoritarianism he indeed makes all important decisions himself. However, it would be an extreme oversimplification to see only Lukashenka behind any single decision or piece of legislation.
The bureaucratic machine undoubtedly plays a decisive role in shaping policy alternatives that Lukashenka considers. It governs Belarus as much as its highest official does. Therefore, understanding the mechanics of this machine is crucial. A recent study of Minsk-based Liberal Club helps shade some light on it.
It shows that the state decision-making process looks like a cycle with four different stages. It is strictly top-down and, therefore, highly reactive. The study also reveals poor communication between different ministries and other governmental bodies.
The public administration system in Belarus, in a way, resembles a Papal conclave: the outcomes of its work immediately become public and there are always rumours about, but generally the decision-making process remains non-transparent to outsiders.
Off-record interviews with state officials present the only opportunity to get an overall picture of the world inside the Belarusian state apparatus. The Centre for Analytical Initiatives of the Liberal Club has conducted a series of such interviews as part of its study on the reform of Belarus' public administration system. This article is based on their findings.
20 semi-structured interviews were conducted in April-May 2013. The interviewees represent the Presidential Administration, Council of Ministers, 5 ministries, 2 state concerns, 2 Voblast Executive Committees and 3 City Executive Committees.
Four Stages of State Decision-Making
The recent interviews reveal that the established decision-making process has four major stages and no single legal enactment which regulates it. Of course, the four stages do not apply to extraordinary cases where Lukashenka decides on the spot – like, for example, the cases of the confectionery factories Kommunarka and Spartak or the recent case of the private medical centreEcomedservice.
At the first stage officials identify problems that need addressing. This normally results from various forms of monitoring the socioeconomic and political situation in the country: opinion polls, household surveys, analysis of citizens' complaints, inspections, etc.
Initiatives to address a problem are the responsibility of either the relevant government bodies (ministries or state concerns) or supreme governmental bodies (the Council of Ministers and the Presidential Administration). These bodies produce all sorts of annual legislative plans and state programmes that prioritise issues for the state.
At the second stage, once the priorities are set, thematic government bodies are assigned the task of drafting decrees or other legislative acts. According to the majority of the interviewees, ministries and those whom are assigned the tasks have enough competence to develop decent quality drafts.
However, the quality often suffers at the third stage, when drafts are circulated for discussion among all interested bodies. Among other things, each institution involved pursues its own corporate goals. The resulting balance of interests may significantly undermine the ideas of the original drafters.
Finally, at the fourth stage it will end up in the Presidential Administration. There they go through another round of balance-of-interests discussions. Influential officials have every chance to amend drafts the way they want (if high-ranking officials themselves do not clash over certain issues). Importantly, the Presidential Administration's governing principle is political expediency. As a result, here the contents of some drafts become further modified and streamlined in comparison with their technocratic original drafts.
Only after these four stages Alexandr Lukashenka reviews the drafts (if they need his signature) and makes his own decision. No doubt, his opinion is heavily affected by the previous stages of decision-making and also by the people who present the drafts to him.
Socioeconomic plans serve as typical examples of this four-stage process. At a government meeting last year Lukashenka famously exclaimed: "Why do you submit these plans to me to sign and then fail to fulfil them?"
The answer is easy: because in the existing decision-making short-term political goals and populism often prevail over any reasonable analysis and long-term planning.
Another important implication of the findings is that state decision-making remains highly reactive. The majority of problems fall in the government's focus only after they become very serious. This results from the top-down hierarchical approach to identifying problems and making decisions.
This partially explains why Lukashenka has to interfere personally in all sorts of problems: the system of governance often remains inactive without an impulse from him. Of course, it was precisely Lukashenka's own political style that resulted in the consolidation of this very system. It is still important to remark that Lukashenka's personal involvement in every matter is often the only way to get things done by the bureaucratic machine.
Poor Inter-Institutional Communication
Finally, the interviews reveal another problem: the lack of proper communication among separate governmental bodies. If one ministry needs some data from another one, there is every chance that it will not get it. Or will not get it on time.
This strange situation primarily results from competition of powerful officials and state agencies. Sometimes they would rather be happy to learn of the bad performance of their colleagues than the country's progress. The crisis-hit year of 2011, when certain cracks inside the government became obvious, serves as a good example of their disjointed relations.
In addition, Belarusian bureaucrats like to classify everything. Even harmless decrees can bear the "for internal use only" label. More sensitive documents get higher protection, which complicates the transfer of information even within the state machine.
Simply put, the state decision-making process in Belarus looks like a closed cycle broken into four main stages. The initial impulse comes from the supreme governmental bodies or even Lukashenka himself. Then it transforms into a draft that returns to the supreme level in a form suitable for the balance of interests and political expediency.
The natural drawbacks of this super-centralized system are poor inter-institutional communication and reactive actions instead of proactive strategic thinking.
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Concentration dynamics of coarse and fine particulate matter at and around the signalised traffic intersections
Kumar, Prashant and Goel, Anju (2016) Concentration dynamics of coarse and fine particulate matter at and around the signalised traffic intersections Environmental Science Processes and Impacts, 18. pp. 1220-1235.
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Understanding of rapidly evolving concentrations of particulate matter (PMC) at signalised traffic intersections (TIs) is limited, but important for accurate exposure assessment. We performed "mobile" and "fixed–site" monitoring of size–resolved PMCs in the 0.25–34 µm range at TIs. On-road mobile measurements were made inside a car under five different ventilation settings on a 6 km long round route, passing through 10 different TIs. Fixed–site measurements were conducted at two types (3– and 4–way) of TIs. The aims were to assess the effect of different ventilation settings on in–vehicle PMCs and their comparison during the delay conditions at the TIs with those experienced by pedestrians while crossing these TIs. We also estimated zone of influence (ZoI) for PM10, PM2.5 and PM1 under different driving conditions and fitted probability distribution functions to fixed-site data to understand the concentration and exposure dynamics of coarse and fine particles around the studied (3– and 4–way) TIs. The fine particles (PM2.5) showed a strong positive exponential correlation with the air exchange rates under different ventilation settings compared with coarse particles (PM2.5-10) showing an opposite trend. This suggested that the ventilation system of the car was relatively more efficient in removing coarse particles from the incoming outside air. On– road median PM10, PM2.5 and PM1 during delays at TIs were ~40%, 16% and 17% higher, respectively, compared with free–flow conditions at the rest of the route. About 7% of average commuting time spent during delay conditions over all the runs at the TIs corresponded to 10, 7 and 8% of total respiratory deposition dose (RDD) for PM10, PM2.5 and PM1, respectively. The maximum length of ZoI for PM2.5 and PM1 was highest at 4–way TI and for PM10 at 3–way TI. On–road average RDD rate of PM10 inside the cabin when windows were fully open was up to ~7–times to those for pedestrians at the TIs.
|Item Type:
|Subjects :
|Civil & Environmental Engineering
|Divisions :
|Faculty of Engineering and Physical Sciences > Civil and Environmental Engineering
|Authors :
|Date :
|4 August 2016
|Copyright Disclaimer :
|This Open Access Article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial 3.0 Unported Licence
|Uncontrolled Keywords :
|Pedestrian exposure; Coarse and fine particulate matter; Traffic intersections; Ventilation settings
|Depositing User :
|Symplectic Elements
|Date Deposited :
|05 Aug 2016 07:46
|Last Modified :
|16 Jan 2019 17:06
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While I'd rather be able to get everything I need locally at a decent price, it's just not possible, so I shop online a lot. I used to shop a lot at Hancock's of Paducah, but their shipping is kind of high depending on the size of your order, their "new and improved" website is dog slow and painful to use and calling to place an order isn't always the most pleasant or easy experience either. Backorders have always been a problem with Hancocks as well, since they can never tell you when (or if) the backordered item might show up. I've shopped at Jinny Beyer's site a few times over the years, but the last experience was soooo painful and required two phone calls and at least that many emails that I won't do it again unless I'm desperate.
Lately I've discovered some new sites, some great, some not so good. I'll list below some of my recent online shopping destinations (and some old faves) and my experiences with them, in no particular order:
Quilting Warehouse—I really like this place. The online shop is easy to use, well laid out, and has great prices from what I've seen so far. I discovered it while searching for the cheapest prices on fusible Velcro by the box. Not only are their prices good, they don't kill you on shipping, and add nothing for handling at all. A small-to-medium box with two boxes of 15 feet of Velcro each, and two small packages of needles only cost $41.60 for product and $3.85 for shipping. They shipped my order within two days of receiving it, and it was in my hands in a week. Definitely a keeper.
eQuilter—Not that this is a recent find, and I'm sure you all have shopped here before. Great for fabric shopping, shipping costs are average, but it took them six days to ship my last order which was too long IMO. I do like their virtual design wall where I can see fabrics together before choosing which ones to buy. However, I wish that they would list the manufacturers names and style numbers with the fabrics in the shop, but that's one of my giant pet peeves with many online fabric retailers. It would make it so much easier to shop for a certain fabric when you have that information in hand, if the shops would note it in the item name or description.
Amethyst Quilts—Not much to say about this place since my order never was completed. I was searching for a certain fabric and found it here through the Quilt Shops Search Engine, only to have the shop email me the day after I placed my order to say they didn't have the fabric after all. Sad, very sad. That's another of my huge pet peeves right there. Online shops that show fabrics and products that they don't have in the store and don't keep their stock levels current are really frustrating and definitely don't inspire me to go back. The only thing is, it seems like all 210 online quilt shops that are designed and programmed by the folks that run the Search Engine look about the same; I might not even realize it if I ran across this same shop again a year down the road during another fabric hunt until after I'd placed my order for something else they might not have.
Thread and More—This one's a mixed bag. The first time I ordered, my order was shipped the next day, and the shipping fee seemed average. The second time, it took them two weeks to ship my order out, and they charged me $7.99 shipping and $1.50 handling for a teeny tiny little Priority Mail box that cost them $4.80 to mail. The product total was only $19.92, so $7.99 was a bit steep to begin with but to add insult to injury, there was no "packaging" to speak of that would have cost them a huge amount of money or extra time. The four packages of finger cots and four packs of John James needles I ordered were inside a plastic zip top bag with the receipt, and the box was free from the Postal Service! I'm not too impressed with this place after the second go round.
Sewing Supply Warehouse—I can't say enough good things about the service here. I buy Sulky thread from them, because they have the cheapest price that I've found on the 'Net at $2.09 per spool. They ship orders out the next day for an average shipping cost without extra handling fees, and their online shop is powered by Yahoo!; nothing stellar, but very usable and gets the job done without glitches. The only complaint that I have is that they don't carry more of the items that are on my "need to order" list. How simple life could be if they did.
Soft Expressions—I've been ordering from this site for years, so it's not a recent find, but worthy of inclusion here. They have great prices, mostly much lower than retail and other sites. Timely shipping, usually just two days from order placement to shipment, with slightly lower than average shipping fees and no extra handling charges. The site is not laid out the best, but it is functional and gets the job done.
There you have it, almost all the online sites I've shopped at recently. I'm sure I've left out a couple of favorites that I've not visited recently. I can think of Red Rock Threads off the top of my head; always great service with extra reasonable shipping rates, probably some of the lowest in the business actually. I'm sure more sites will come to me as soon as I hit "Publish." 🙂
Your Voice: Where do you turn when your LQS doesn't have what you need for your latest quilting project? What are your favorite online shopping haunts, and how do they stack up when it comes to the real nitty gritty of it all with shipping times, costs and handling fees?


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Much remains to be accomplished before persons with disabilities can realize their full potential as equal and valued members of society.
That's the message from the UN Secretary-General on the International Day of Disabled Persons, observed this Saturday, 3 December.
The Secretary-General pointed out that this month marks 10 years since the UN General Assembly adopted the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities.
Since then, he said, disability has increasingly been incorporated into global agendas related to human rights and development.
Countries have begun implementing the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, or as the UN chief called it: "our blueprint for peace, prosperity, dignity and opportunity for all on a healthy planet."
Agenda 2030 promises to "leave no one behind," which Mr Ban said will require the full inclusion and effective participation of persons with disabilities.
However, the Secretary-General pointed out that much remains to be done for this to happen.
"For the 2030 Agenda to succeed, we must include persons with disabilities in implementation and monitoring and use the Convention as a guide," he stated.
The UN chief called for the elimination of stereotypes, discrimination and other obstacles which infringe the rights of persons with disabilities.


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How to Install NGINX
NGINX (pronounced "Engine X") is a free, open-source web server and reverse proxy which is tuned for high performance and stability, and designed to be easy to use. NGINX uses a scalable, event-driven architecture, which makes it much less resource-intensive than web servers like Apache. NGINX is used by some of the highest-traffic sites on the internet, but also scales down well to the smallest servers.
Use NGINX as a Proxy Server
Learn use cases for deploying NGINX as a reverse proxy server. A reverse proxy server takes client requests and routes them to one or more backend servers. In the case of NGINX deployments, the back-end servers will typically be web servers or application servers which generate content.
Use NGINX as a High Performance Web Server
Read use cases for deploying NGINX as a high-performance web server. NGINX is open-source software which can be configured to act as a web server, proxy server, load balancer, and more. Learn how NGINX can be set up as a high-performance web server for high-demand websites and web applications.
How to secure a NGINX Server
Read use cases for deploying NGINX in order to increase security for one or more web or application servers. NGINX is a free, open-source software package which can act as a web server, reverse proxy server, and load balancer. In addition to security improvements, NGINX has been designed for high performance, even under heavy traffic loads.
Set Up Password Authentication With NGINX
Learn how to set up a basic HTTP authentication system. This will allow you to password protect particular directories on your website, so that they can only be accessed after logging in with a username and password. This form of password protection is a fast and easy way to provide a basic level of security via access authorization to a website.
Solve an NGINX "403 Forbidden" Error
The "403 Forbidden" browser error is the most common error encountered when working with NGINX. Learn more about what causes this NGINX error, how to locate the source of the error, and how to correct the underlying problem.
NGINX vs Apache: Advantages and Disadvantages
Curious about NGINX? Wondering why you should switch from Apache to NGINX - or why you shouldn't? Most Linux servers come with Apache pre-installed. Why go to the trouble of installing an entirely different web server, when Apache is right there?


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At Atlantic Westchester, we are truly committed to our customers and the ongoing success of their business. Every day and at every level we strive to offer the highest levels of customer satisfaction, service quality, and the best-trained, most professional team in the business.
Read on to learn more about some of our past projects.
Churchill School and Center, New York, NY
Working with Atlantic Westchester reminds me of the 3 letters you see on the side of police cars:
'CPR...Courtesy, Professionalism and Respect'.
- Mitsubishi Ductless Heat Pump Air Conditioner installation
- Energy efficiency system and optimization services
- Operational assessment and full system check
- Regular commercial HVAC maintenance program
Building & HVAC System Profile:
- Manhattan 11-story building, originally constructed 1932, 2 upper floors and additional infrastructure added in 2000
- 29 Mammoth® units providing heating & cooling
- 47 ductless units, Sanyo and Mitsubishi
- Auxiliary heating coil capability
The Churchill School and Center is a private K–12 school for promising and exceptional students that have been diagnosed with specific learning disabilities. We offer our students a smaller, more individualized and supportive learning environment. The students can be distracted by interruptions and the Atlantic Westchester team is always respectful of our unique learning environment.
Whether it's installation of new equipment or servicing our existing systems, my experience with them over the years has been outstanding and the quality of their work is first-rate.
Bud Hammer and his team really work on the customer service side of the business, and that's very important to me. I'm always looking for companies who will partner with us and be proactive and professional… not just at the beginning, but years into our working relationship. I have had some bad experiences with other companies dropping the ball, not getting the work completed, not doing the work correctly, confusion in the paper work and what I'm being billed for. Just a lot of hassles.
I cannot say enough about the professionalism and quality of the Atlantic Westchester team, and I look forward to working with them for many years to come.
Steve Palermo
Facilities / Security Director
The Churchill School and Center
Reformed Church of Tarrytown, Tarrytown, NY
The Reformed Church of Tarrytown is more than just a church for worship, they hold school programs and facility events. One fundraiser that the church holds is a soup dumpling fund raiser. They invite guests to the church and cook soup dumplings for everyone to enjoy. The church always ran out of soup dumplings before the event ended, due to the fact that the existing domestic hot water equipment could not keep up with the church's hot water needs.
Atlantic Westchester met with the facility manager and investigated the equipment that supplied the domestic hot water. The Reformed Church of Tarrytown was using two different gas fired domestic hot water heaters that were 8+ years old and were standard efficiency. The water heaters weren't sufficient enough for the church's peak hot water demand. We sized the equipment to match the building's needs and worked with the church to move towards more energy conscious choices. This was executed by removing the existing equipment and installing new high efficiency, condensing style, hot water heaters.
Atlantic Westchester was able to execute the domestic hot water heater replacement before the up and coming soup dumpling fund raiser. The fund raiser was a hit and the church was able to make as many soup dumplings as they liked, without running out of hot water in the process.
With the help from Atlantic Westchester, The Reformed Church of Tarrytown was able to be make more energy conscious choices and have a domestic hot water system that matched their needs.
Drum Hill Senior Living Community, Peekskill, NY
Drum Hill energy efficiency retrofit project evaluated energy use, costs and maintenance issues of the aging infrastructure and made updates to the building's heating, cooling and lighting systems.
Building & HVAC Profile:
Located in Peekskill, NY and built in 1909 as a beautiful K-12 school. Named for the hill where it is located and where the sound of the Continental Army, marching through the Hudson Valley, reverberated from the hill like a drum. In 1999 the old abandoned historic building was converted into Drum Hill Senior Living Community, a 120 unit independent living residence for seniors.
Recently the building was experiencing costly repairs to its HVAC system due to the end of life cycle of the equipment. Sections of the boiler had previous been repaired and were leaking. Repairs to the chillers were increasing, and the controls on the pumps were in need of replacement.
Project Overview:
Atlantic Westchester's energy team evaluated energy usage, costs and maintenance issues of the aging infrastructure and proposed a plan to retrofit the facility with new high efficient equipment. The heat/load calculations of the facility determined that the chillers were oversized and the new replacement chillers would be smaller. The plan also included replacing the leaking boiler with two new high efficiency condensing style gas boilers. Variable frequency drive technology would be applied to existing pumps to reduce energy usage and to extend the motor life within the HVAC system.
Atlantic Westchester's lighting partner, Bright Energy Services, conducted a lighting audit, preformed an energy analysis and specified a lighting solution that was eligible for a financial incentive from Con Edison.
Energy Savings Assessment:
The project was completed in December of 2016 and included a total of $429,000 in energy efficiency upgrades. The project was financed through the Energize NY PACE program which offered a low interest rate of 3.14% and is paid back through the property tax bill funded by the energy savings. Atlantic Westchester and Bright Energy Services also collaborated with Con Edison's energy engineers to calculate the energy savings from all the metrics and helped procure approximately $72,000 in incentive money to help supplement the cost of the upgrades for Drum Hill. Combined, the HVAC and lighting upgrades are estimated to save Drum Hill approximately $28,633 per year in operating costs.
Congregation Kol Ami, White Plains, NY
Congregation Kol Ami Energy Efficiency Project included updates to HVAC System
Local Hospital Cooling Tower Replacement, Putnam County
Replacement of aging cooling tower
- Aged BAC Cooling Tower leaked and required replacing. New Tower was completed Fall of 2019. See before and after photos
Old Cooling Tower which provided Air Conditioning to Operating Room required replacement due to leaks. Replacement had to be done during period when no surgeries were scheduled. To avoid any disruption in surgery schedules, the team at Atlantic Westchester planned, prepped and coordinated an exact replacement to be executed over a weekend. Work started on Friday afternoon and was completed on Sunday without complication. Surgeries went on as scheduled Monday morning.


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COLLEGE STATION – Texas Task Force 1 (TX-TF1) Water Rescue Teams were activated by the Texas Division of Emergency Management on March 8 and prepositioned for severe weather and widespread flooding in East Texas.
The deployment included nine boat squads, two water managers, two Situation Status (SITSTAT) personnel, four logistics specialists and two communications specialists with the Task Force communication trailer. Also deployed were three Agency Liaison Officers (LNOs) in the State Operations Center in Austin, an Agency LNO supporting Orange County, an Agency LNO in the Jasper Emergency Operations Center, and the SAR (Search and Rescue) Overhead Team in College Station.
The Sabine River rose to historic levels, displacing thousands of Texas and Louisiana residents. In Orange County alone, approximately 9,100 people were affected. Texas Gov. Greg Abbott issued disaster declarations for 21 counties.
TX-TF1 made a total of 15 water rescues, assisted 12 people out of water, and evacuated 200 residents to a safer location. Additionally, they were geo-marking the location of over 165 residents choosing to shelter-in-place. In support of the Federal PETS Act, TX-TF1 also rescued, assisted or evacuated a large number of cats, dogs and rabbits in the affected area.
TX-TF1 was demobilized on March 19.
About Texas Task Force 1
TX-TF1 is sponsored by the Texas A&M Engineering Extension Service (TEEX) and has deployed over 90 times since 1997, including the Space Shuttle Columbia tragedy, Sept. 11th World Trade Center attack, and Hurricanes Katrina, Rita and Ike. TX-TF1 can be activated by the Texas Division of Emergency Management or as one of the Federal Emergency Management Agency's (FEMA) 28 sanctioned urban search and rescue teams.
Texas Task Force 1 Website: www.texastaskforce1.org/
Facebook: www.facebook.com/txtf1


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Makeup Revolution has been circling the beauty blogger world for quite a while now. I've seen so many great reviews that I just had to see what the fuss was about. Not only are their product appealing to the eye, the prices too; make us smile all the way to the tills! This fairly new brand only launched this year and their products are sold online and in-store at Superdrug. So, I ended up picking up these gems last week and I just had to share what I think!
The first product I was curious to try was the Anti-Bacterial Hygiene brush cleaner. This nifty product is so easy to use, you simple spray a couple of times onto your brush and use a bit of tissue to get the used makeup off. Leaving them clean and free from bacteria. This is the first brush cleaning product I've bought so I wasn't sure what to expect. For £5 this will last me a long while and it's made the task of cleaning brushes so much easier and quicker!
Now i'm a sucker for dark lipstick colors so when I saw these two online for just £1 each, yes you read right only a pound! I couldn't help but pick up two red shades. As Halloween is slowly upon us, I thought i'd try out the Vamp Shade in 'Rebel with Cause'. This dark purple lipstick on the swatch below it looks more of a fuchsia on the skin, but on the lips it's deep red purple and it's such a lovely color. Very vampire looking.
I wasn't sure what to expect with these only being a pound but the quality is really surprising. I wore the red lipstick in 'Lady' all day at University, having food and drink and the lipstick still was present. They are so long lasting. Definitely an all day wear lipstick for me, non sticky and even when the lipstick had come off, my lips still felt soft and moisturized like I had some on.
The other item I purchased was the Matte Effect cover and conceal in medium. I was so desperate for another concealer, I prefer these type of concealers than liquid ones. I didn't know what to make of this product, as I bought online I wasn't sure if the color was too dark. But it blends in so well! I use it under my dark circles, my forehead and over pimples and it does exactly what its meant to.
True to the naming, it sets well to the face and isn't too sticky like other concealers. It actually highlighted my cheeks a little bit which was great, this again was only £1.
My favourite item out of the haul! I love eye shadow palettes and I come across this one in Superdrug in the Metro Centre. This 'Run Boy Run Salvation' palette comes in a collection of seven so you can imagine how long it took for me to pick one. I would of bought all 5 if I had my way.
This 18 piece exclusive palette features 12 shimmer and 6 matte shades. The colors go from light peach/pinks to dark purples and greys. I swatched a few of my favourite shades below. from left to right; 'another day' , 'Don't have to hide away' , 'Break out from society' and 'Hide behind me'. It has to be one of my favourite palettes for the quality, and the price at just £6. Can't compliment it enough.
You can check out their entire range on their website here.
First Birthday today!


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Hospitals are energy gluttons. With 24/7/365 operating schedules and stringent requirements for air quality in ORs and other clinical areas, an acute-care hospital will gobble up about twice the energy per square foot of, say, a commercial office building.
It is an achievement worth noting, therefore, when a major hospital achieves LEED Platinum status, especially when that hospital attains 14 of a possible 17 points for Energy & Atmosphere and 11 of 15 for Indoor Environment Quality.
Kudos, therefore, to Dell Children's Medical Center of Central Texas, a 169-bed, 503,000-sf children's hospital and trauma center in Austin, which gained the coveted top spot in green certification (under LEED-NC 2.1) in early 2009, making it the first LEED Platinum hospital in the U.S.
Phil Risner, PE, LEED AP, the owner's project manager and building systems network engineer, said LEED Platinum was the hospital's goal from the outset because "being green" would have "real, positive effects on both the environment and our healthcare delivery capability."
Wishing is one thing; executing is another. How the Building Team tackled the difficult energy and IEQ problems of such a facility may provide valuable instruction to AEC professionals facing similarly complex situations.
"We had three guiding principles," recalls Joseph F. Kuspan, AIA, SVP and design director at Karlsberger, the Columbus, Ohio, firm that did the master plan and design for Dell Children's. "One, don't do dumb things to get LEED points. Two, anything less than a 12% return on investment is dumb. And three, we had to know if we were being dumb." That is, before rejecting any strategy—roof-mounted wind turbines, for example—the team had to weigh it seriously to see whether or not it was truly viable.
A boon from Austin Energy
Dell Children's sits on 32 acres within a 700-acre brownfield redevelopment site that was once home to Austin's municipal airport. To provide power to the new facility, the local utility, Austin Energy, built an $18 million combined cooling/heating power (CCHP) plant. This increased the energy efficiency of the primary fuel conversion for the project from roughly 29% in a conventional power service model, to 75% efficiency.
The CCHP also saved $6.8 million in capital costs that would have gone to boilers, emergency generators, cooling towers, chillers, and the space necessary to house them. The bulk of the savings, $5.8 million, was plowed back into energy-conservation measures and other LEED initiatives.
Equally important to the sustainability of the project was its use of courtyards, which not only opened up the building massing (and played nicely into the project's pace-setting daylighting strategy), but also led to an interesting approach to the hospital's air handling units.
"The owner wanted the AHUs to be in enclosed spaces, not on the roof," to simplify maintenance and extend their life expectancy, says Kuspan. Instead of doing the usual 10% space gross-up for the mechanical system, the designers put the air handling units in 2,000-sf "rooms" distributed across 15 locations. "We stacked those rooms and put five heat recovery rooms on the roof, because we didn't want to lose that 70° air on a 100° day in Texas," he says. "That allowed some of the floors below to use that 70° air."
Each "stack" of AHU rooms was also right-sized to meet the needs of the hospital department it served. One stack might serve a cardio OR, where the room temperature has to be jacked up from 60°F to 90°F in a matter of minutes following surgery, while another stack might serve administrative offices, where the room temperature would be fairly constant.
This innovation produced further benefits and cost savings, says Kuspan. It allowed for shorter duct runs, which enabled the Building Team to overscale the ducts to reduce air velocity and noise. "That kind of background noise can be a stress factor for patients, families, and staff in a hospital setting," says Kuspan. The designers were also able to reduce the size of fan motors, thereby saving on initial cost as well as operating expenses.
The project's glazing also had to be fine-tuned to achieve a delicate balance between achieving energy savings in the hot Texas sun and not distorting the view to the outdoors. "The grid that was established in the [master] plan was on a 37-degree angle, which was great for some things but tough for sun control," says Kuspan. Seton Healthcare Network wanted to avoid any hint of a "techy" look on the exterior; therefore, no applied exterior shading devices, no sunshades, no vertical blades, and definitely no motorized systems.
The team solve this problem by using high-efficiency, double-e coated glass high up on the walls and clearer glass, with low-level coatings, in what Kuspan calls "the sweet spot" from three to seven feet above the floor, where greater transparency was called for.
Perhaps the most commendable aspect of Dell Children's, though, is what the Building Team and hospital board didn't do. They stuck to their principles and didn't go overboard to look super-green. Design elements that could have added LEED EA or IEQ points but failed the "don't do anything dumb" rule or fell below 12% ROI didn't make the cut—things like active photovoltaics, roof-mounted wind turbines, vegetative roofs, natural ventilation in the lobby, charging stations for electric vehicles, and a biofuel fueling station for fleet vehicles.
Many other non-energy-related design elements were also scratched, things like denim wall insulation, waterless urinals, an on-site tertiary water treatment plant, pervious pavement and bioswales in the parking lot, a 500,000-gallon rainwater cistern, and recycled gypsum board. All were struck from the program, even though they might have added LEED points.
In some cases, otherwise popular sustainable design elements were ruled out by the owner. For example, interior light shelves were vetoed by the hospital because they were seen as dust collectors and a potential infection control threat. Even without light shelves, however, the Building Team was able to use the open spaces in the courtyards to daylight more than 80% of occupied administrative and nonclinical spaces. Perhaps more remarkable was their ability to get daylight into 35% of diagnostic and treatment areas. By using the LEED "alternative compliance path," the project was able to earn the first LEED point for daylighting by a hospital.
Of course, not everything worked as planned. Motion sensors were used extensively to control lighting use, but this went a bit too far when the motion sensors in the on-call room kept turning the lights on every time the residents rolled over in their sleep. These motion sensors were quickly removed. Seton Healthcare's Risner and his staff also had to do a lot of fine-tuning to optimize all the mechanical systems.
By sticking to their guiding principles, however, the owner and the Building Team were able to produce a BMW project at a KIA price. "A lot of people think we must have had an $800 per square foot budget, that's just not true," says Kuspan. The construction cost was somewhere between $280/sf and $305/sf, depending on whether the $18 million for the cogeneration plant is included in the calculation.
"That's not an exorbitant cost per square foot for a project like this," says Kuspan. Not when you get the kinds of bragging rights Dell Children's Medical Center has earned.


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Associate Research Professor of Biostatistics, Academic Institute
Associate Research Member, Research Institute
Houston Methodist
Weill Cornell Medical College
After serving as a Research Assistant in the Department of Statistics and Actuarial Science at the University of Waterloo, Dr. Xu received her academic appointment in 2003 as an Assistant Professor in the Center of American Indian Health Research of the College of Public Health at the University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. She joined Houston Methodist Research Institute in 2007.
Dr. Xu's biostatistics work has primarily focused on diabetes, heart disease, and kidney disease in medically underserved populations. She was the biostatistician for the NIH-funded Strong Heart Study, the largest and longest longitudinal study of cardiovascular disease and its risk factors in American Indians.
Dr. Xu's current biostatistics studies include industry-funded chemotherapy trials for her2neu negative breast cancer patients.


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According to Stewart M. Patrick, writing in The Atlantic, almost everyone agrees that the United States should ratify the law of the Sea Treaty. After all, says, Patrick, "the Reagan administration signed the treaty." At least 162 other countries belong to the treaty as well, and most respectable people favor it. Patrick laments, however, that the treaty is opposed by "a vocal conservative minority of purported defenders of U.S. sovereignty, still trotting out long-discredited talking points." The author of these remarks, Stewart Patrick, is a senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations and Director of the Program on International Institutions and Global Governance. Unlike the opponents of the treaty, he could never be mistaken for a defender of U.S. sovereignty.
We might ask if Stewart Patrick is right. Contradicting his claim, the National Center for Public Policy Research says that the Reagan administration – far from signing the treaty – rejected the Law of the Sea Treaty because of its "redistributionist" provisions. Explaining the reason for this, U.S. Attorney General Edwin Meese has said the treaty "was out of step with the concepts of economic liberty and free enterprise…." In fact, the treaty puts forward the concept of resources "vested in mankind as a whole…." According to David A. Ridenour, in an article on ratification of the treaty, "The Law of the Sea Treaty calls for technology transfers and wealth transfers from developed to undeveloped nations. It also requires parties to the treaty to adopt regulations and laws to control pollution of the marine environment."
In fact, Article 69 of the Treaty says, "Land-locked States shall have the right to participate, on an equitable basis, in the exploitation of an appropriate part of the surplus of the living resources of the exclusive economic zones of coastal States…." Article 124 also gives land-locked states the right of access to and from the sea. There are also provisions empowering the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea (ITLOS), which presently sits in Hamburg, Germany. According to Ridenour, "If the U.S. chose to act on intelligence information that a foreign-flagged ship … was carrying terrorists and boarded the ship, the U.S. could expect to have to answer to ITLOS."
In an interview with Ginni Thomas at the Daily Caller, the Center for Security Policy's Frank Gaffney said the treaty "was all about a socialist enterprise to convert the world's oceans as a new way to redistribute wealth." Far from being in the interest of the oil and gas industry, Gaffney says "its mandatory dispute resolution mechanisms and its stacked deck arbitration panels" are even against the interests of the U.S. Navy and the American people. "It will be the EPA on steroids. It won't be our EPA, it will be an international EPA," Gaffney explained. "And suddenly there isn't a part of our society, our economy, our industrial capacity, that isn't at the mercy of people who again are unaccountable to us."
How can there be redress of grievances when your livelihood is destroyed by orders from the ITLOS in Hamburg? It is hard enough coping with regulations from domestic agencies. Already America has taken incalculable economic damage from bad legislation and regulation. Entire industries have been ruined – like the timber industry in the Pacific Northwest. Through regulation it is possible to ruin a country's economy. Why add another layer of regulation to the mix? Of course, there are always arguments to justify a treaty or a set of regulations; but a regulatory regime can hurt people, especially if that regime can pronounce verdicts without considering local interests. The Law of the Sea Treaty has an undoubted negative potential. If certain environmental groups are clever enough to make use of the treaty to achieve their goals, then entire industries could suffer – with the loss of many jobs. If President Reagan opposed the Law of the Sea Treaty in the 1980s, we should consider the logic of his opposition. More than that, there is a nation's right to use its own territory. "This is a question of sovereignty," noted Gaffney.
Sovereignty, of course, is not as valued as it once was. We have supposedly moved beyond sovereignty. But as the world economy shrinks, as conflicts grow sharper, sovereignty will return. This is what history teaches us. In the meantime, the push for international tribunals will continue – and mischief will be done. The free economy is less and less free over time.


text: New Option Parts for the TLR Ten-SCTE Posted by AParsons on April 14, 2014 Posted in: Radio Control, Team Losi Racing. Tagged: New Releases, Racing, RC, Upgrades. Team Losi Racing announced two new option parts for the Ten-SCTE today. TLR Ft Spindle Carrier Aluminum 15 Deg Front Spindle Carrier, 15 Deg. Part# TLR334017. MSRP $49.99 Aluminum Wide Rear Hex Aluminum Wide Rear Hex. Add +0.5mm in Width. Part# TLR332014. MSRP $19.99 Share this:TwitterFacebookMoreEmailLike this:Like Loading... Related Posts navigation ← One More Lap. April 6th-12th Lexan Spray Paint from Duratrax? →


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FAC Demo Doomed To Fail
However that is only if fans do not bother to turn up. It is vitally important that as many supporters as possible make it to the square for 12.00 on Saturday. Many supporters have a bit of travelling to do in order to attend Celtic games but it would be great if these fellow supporters could leave home a bit earlier if at all possible to help fill the square.
If we can get 10,000 + in the square that would send out a clear message that the current harassment of football fans must end and the Offensive behavior at football part of the Bill must be repealed. The other benefit of a large turnout would be to ensure the demo makes the national UK mainstream news shows. We know we will be well represented on the web by our bloggers etc but making the national news would be a great bonus and help heap more pressure on the Scottish government to scrap this useless and undemocratic piece of legislation.
So please if you can make it come and stand with your fellow supporters and help bring an end to the harassment of football supporters.
Thank You
PS. Sorry about the tabloid type headline we just want to catch as many fans attention as possible 🙂


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Because of you
Our Moment Campaign: July 1, 2010 – June 30, 2017
Our Moment: The Next Century Campaign for Providence College began quietly, as most campaigns do, in the summer of 2010. It gained momentum with the 2011 announcement of the leadership gift, from Michael A. Ruane '71 & '13Hon. and his wife, Elizabeth, that made possible the Ruane Center for the Humanities — a magnificent and meaningful structure if ever there was one — signifying for all to see that Providence College was on the move.
By the time of the campaign's public launch in 2014, virtually everybody in the College community was aware of its importance and feeling its impact. New buildings, new programs, and new enthusiasm fueled even more generosity. Once the centennial celebration began in the fall of 2016 and the campaign hurtled toward its conclusion, it was clear that the result would be a success beyond imagining seven years earlier. The final total, $185 million, dwarfed the $140 million stated goal and proclaimed that Providence College, all the while remaining true to its precious core values, had turned a corner toward a future full of promise untold.
In this report, we highlight some of the most significant outcomes, contributions, stories, and moments of this historic campaign — the most successful in College history.
"Each donor is the human face of divine Providence. May God continue to bless you."
— Rev. Brian J. Shanley, O.P. '80
College President
Take a look at the full listing of the more than 35,000 benefactors who made the success of Our Moment possible.Donor Honor Roll
Four priority areas helped define the Our Moment campaign. PC's benefactors responded accordingly, providing meaningful support to help the College address needs and pursue goals outlined in its Strategic Plan.
Our Moment Campaign: July 1, 2010 – June 30, 2017


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Lucky on Purpose
[frame align="left"]
[/frame]I have heard this many times "you are so lucky to have your music played by live musicians. That is my dream."
During the recording of the score for "Primary", my friend Brian Campbell ( recording engineer) said he understood why composers use samples rather than live players: perfect intonation, no microphone bleed, no noises from chairs, clothes, breathing, papers or noisy instruments etc…I will tell you now, luck has nothing to do with it.
Using live musicians is a lot more work. And costs money. And takes more time.
Low budget productions don't even consider live players these days. When I offered it for "Primary" the answer was "really? We would love to but there is no money." I explained the costs and options and it became a possibility. The director was on board and we made it happen we what we had. Same exact scenario on "Comforting Skin."
But it wasn't luck.
[list style="green-bullet"]
- I found viable options to make it happen in terms of players, engineer and studio space. I have built some great contacts here over the years, so it's possible.
- I sold the idea to the producer and he found a bit of extra money that I could budget with. The point is that most film makers want live music, it adds to the film; live is production value that goes on the screen.
- It was low budget so I did all writing, orchestrating, part and score prep. So that was a ton of work that meant I had to work twice as much.
- Using live musicians on a low budget means a lot of careful planning because of fewer options. More things to keep track and more can go wrong.
- The reality is that using live musicians I sacrificed time and money. I could have kept more of the money and had less work.
The other argument against live musician is a tight post production schedule, which happens a lot. I had to deliver an entire feature film score in a month, which is not the shortest schedule ever, but pretty short when doing it on your own. It broke down like this.
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- Week 1: sketches and concepts for the score. Discuss with director and find direction. Choose instrumentation and start making phone calls.
- Week 2-3: Write the score. Send mockups and get approved.
- Week 4: Orchestrate. Score and part prep. Send MIDI/tempo map and time stamped pre-records to mixer to prep ProTools. (Note: I also had some orchestration work on a major feature during this time, so it was very busy and I had to pace myself well to make it all fit.)
- Record score.
- Week 5: edit and mix. Deliver.
The bottom line is: You want live musicians? I know I do. So do it.
For me, having been writing for real musicians for so long, I can't stand being limited by samples. I don't want to write down to samples. There are many moments while recording "Primary" that it was clear why live was vastly superior to samples.
While I was in the studio, listening to my expressive cello lines and tender clarinet tunes coming to life through great players, all the hard work was worth it. I did feel lucky then.
PS: A side benefit of stubbornly using live musicians on my own scores is that it led directly to my gig orchestrating on "Elysium" and "Ender's Game".


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"On this day you shall explain to your son, 'This is because of what the LORD did for me when I came out of Egypt."
Recipes in this Post
- Grapefruit and Candied Walnut Salad
- Candied Walnuts
- Lamb with Balsamic Wine Sauce
- Couscous from Alisia at Favorite Place
- Balsamic Rose Strawberries with Angel Food Cake
- Recommended Products
I am a practicing Catholic. What does that mean? It means I go to Mass every Sunday where I have Communion , I try to go to Confession once a month (and definitely before a Holy day), and I share the Good Word with others. When I was growing up I heard about the Passover Seder, and my mother had friends who were Jewish, but we never went to one. It was not until a year after I went through RCIA (Rite of Christian Initiation for Adults) that I went to any form of Seder, and that was put on by a lovely Catholic couple. I thought it was such a nice way to help celebrate what God has given us, that I decided that I was going to have my own Seder. Last night was that first attempt, and was the start of a new tradition in our small family. I did not do a full Seder, I just presented a Seder plate, said some words of explanation where we all participated, and then I served a great dinner that brought it all together. I will share that with you here.
On this day, Thursday of Holy Week, April 1, 2010, we are celebrating the Passover service, which we were asked in Exodus Chapter 13, verse 8-10:
"On this day you shall explain to your son, 'This is because of what the LORD did for me when I came out of Egypt.' It shall be as a sign on your hand and as a reminder on your forehead; thus the law of the LORD will ever be on your lips, because with a strong hand the LORD brought you out of Egypt. Therefore, you shall keep this prescribed rite at its appointed time from year to year."
This is not by any means a complete Seder, it is a much shortened version, but I wanted to at least note the meanings of the items on the Seder plate in the center of our table:
The Decorations
Since Spane is always wanting to do some kind of craft project, I thought it would be fun to find some interesting Passover craft projects. We made a Moses with the cardboard tube left over from paper towels, a brown wash cloth, and some real lambs wool that I found at Christmas time that I used for the hair and beard. You can find the directions at Kaboose. We also made an Arc of the Covenant out of a clear plastic strawberry box that we covered with gold stars, and put the contents of the arc inside. Spane made a pyramid out of legos, and we made placemats with the 10 plagues on construction paper.
Update: April, 2011 – We finally got pictures of Moses and the Ark (well, the ark is a little worse for ware).
The Seder Plate
I used a large round plate and put the various ingredients into Wilton Silicon Baking Cups. They come in pastel colors, so they looked very nice on my table.
- Karpas (vegetable) – we used Romain. We dipped it in salt water to represent the humble beginnings of Jewish people and the food they ate in Egypt as slaves. Salt water is perceived as tears their Jewish ancestors shed because of hardships of slavery.
- Maror (bitter vegetable) – I used creamy horshradish and was very careful to look at the ingredient list. It seemed fine, and no one had it but I left it out for the lamb. This vegetable symbolizes the bitter harsh living of Jewish people in Egypt.
- Charoset – Charoset is a paste made from tart apples, dates, nuts, honey, wine or grape juice and spices such as cinnamon and ginger. The mixture looks like clay and represents the mortar which Jewish people used to build cities for Pharaoh. I made a bunch of this as I knew this tasted really good and would be nice to have with yogurt in the morning.
- Beitzah. – Beitzah is a boiled or roasted egg. Egg represents the reminder about festive sacrifice brought to the Temple in Jerusalem and then eaten. Since Temple was destroyed egg serves as a reminder about this loss. It also symbolizes the eternal life, which is fine for a Catholic Seder. I thought it was important to use an organic brown egg. So is this how the Easter Egg tradition started?
- Zeroah – Zeroah is a piece of roasted shank bone of a lamb (sometimes chicken wing) and represents the helping hand of God and the traditional sacrifice of a lamb before Exodus from Egypt as well as following sacrifices at the Temple until it was destroyed. Zeroah is usually not eaten but serves as a reminder of the Passover miracle and liberation from slavery. I did not have a lamb shank, but I was going to be serving lamb, and I did not have a chicken wing, so I used a chicken wishbone, and a turkey wishbone as stand ins.
- Matza – we did not have Matza, I used Carr's Water Table crackers, they are basically the same thing, unleaved bread, but I since I did not have a large gathering, I did not want to buy three boxes of Matza to sit around my house and go bad.
The Menu
Since I had used romain for my Seder plate, I decided that a salad would be a good accompaniment for the lamb, and the perfect one would be one my friend Helen Reeves Pearson gave me the recipe for, Grapefruit and Candied Walnut Salad.
Recipe: Grapefruit and Candied Walnut Salad
- 1 head Romaine torn
- 1 Grapefruit sectioned
- Candied Walnuts
- Girard's Raspberry Salad Dressing
- Make sure the romain is in small pieces. Section the grapefruit making sure there is no pith. Add the romain, grapefruit and candied walnuts to a large bowl. Chill. While the salad is chilling, put a pretty salad bowl in the freezer for at least twenty minutes. When you are ready to serve, toss with raspberry dressing, then transfer to the chilled salad bowl.
You can use praline pecans instead of candied walnuts.
Preparation time: 5 minute(s)
Cooking time: 5 minute(s)
Diet type: Vegetarian
Number of servings (yield): 4
Culinary tradition: USA (Traditional)
My rating
Copyright © The Good Plate – Adrienne Boswell.
Recipe by Adrienne Boswell.
Microformatting by hRecipe.
Recipe: Candied Walnuts
- 1/2 cup sugar
- 1 1/2 cups raw walnut halves
- 1/8 teaspoon Coarse salt
- 1 Preheat oven to 350F. Use middle rack in oven. Lay walnuts out on a baking sheet in a single layer. Bake for 5 minutes. Test for doneness. If not quite toasted enough, toast for 1 or 2 more minutes. Be careful not to burn. Remove from oven and let cool in pan on a rack. They should be cool enough by the time the sugar is ready in step 2.
- 2 Pour sugar into a medium non-reactive saucepan with a thick bottom. Have walnuts nearby, ready to quickly add to the pan at the right time. Cook sugar on medium heat, stirring with a wooden spoon as soon as the sugar begins to melt. Keep stirring until all the sugar has melted and the color is a medium amber. As soon as sugar is melted and the color is a medium amber, add the walnuts to the pan, quickly stirring and coating each piece with the sugar mixture. Do not let the sugar get more cooked than this, because then it will start to burn and you will have a sour tasting product.
- 3 As soon as the walnuts are coated with the sugar mixture, spread them out on a rimmed baking sheet, lined either with a Silpat non-stick mat, or with wax paper or parchment paper. Use two forks to separate the walnuts from each other, working very quickly. You may sprinkle the nuts with the salt. Let cool completely.
- 4. Immediately immerse the pan in water (it will make a LOT of noise), but this will make cleaning the pan much easier later.
Preparation time: 10 minute(s)
Cooking time: 10 minute(s)
Diet type: Vegan
Diet tags: Gluten free
Number of servings (yield): 4
Culinary tradition: USA (Southern)
My rating
Copyright © The Good Plate – Adrienne Boswell.
Recipe by Adrienne Boswell.
Microformatting by hRecipe.
Recipe: Lamb with Balsamic Wine Sauce
- 1 rack Lamb loin chops separated
- 1 Garlic clove
- 6 sprigs Fresh rosemary
- 1 teaspoon Black pepper freshly ground
- 1 teaspoon Sea salt
- 1 teaspoon Olive oil
- 1 Shallot minced
- 1 glass Red wine
- 1 tablespoon Balsamic Vinegar
- 2 tablespoons Butter
- Remove the leaves from the rosemay sprigs. Remove the skin from the garlic. Crush both with the salt and pepper. When all has been crushed almost to a paste, push this paste into each side of each lamb chop. Refrigerate for about 30 minutes to let the seasonings set in.
- Preheat the oven to 200. Have ready a large skillet, with lid, that can hold all the lamb and is able to go into the oven. Have ready a large serving platter that can hold all the chops.
- Heat the pan and add the olive oil. Put in the chops and sear them on both sides, about 3 minutes each.
- Put the pan in the oven, covered for about 10 minutes. Check that the meat is cooked to at least 125 degrees for rare.
- Remove the pan from the oven and put the chops on the serving platter. Cover to keep warm.
- If there is a lot of liquid in the pan, pour most of it off. Return the pan to the stove and add the shallots.
- Sauté until they are translucent, then deglaze the pan with the red wine, scraping the bottom to get all the good bits up.
- Add the balsamic vinegar and let that cook down to about half.
- Add the butter and whisk it in, the sauce will thicken and take on a shiny appearance.
- Dip and roll each chop in the sauce and return it to the platter.
- Pour the remaining sauce over the chops. Garnish with parsley and sprigs of rosemary if desired.
Preparation time: 10 minute(s)
Cooking time: 10 minute(s)
Diet tags: Gluten free
Dietary restriction: Kosher
Number of servings (yield): 4
Culinary tradition: French
My rating
Copyright © The Good Plate – Adrienne Boswell.
Recipe by Adrienne Boswell.
Microformatting by hRecipe.
Couscous from Alicia at Favorite Place
My friend, and owner of Favorite Place Restaurant in Glendale, Alisia Asmarian, does not give up her recipes, but this one was pretty easy to recreate. This dish goes very well with the lamb above, but also accompanies chicken and pork nicely as well.
Recipe: Couscous From Alicia
- 1 cup Couscous
- 1 1/4 cup Water
- 2 Green onion chopped
- 1 tablespoon Pine nuts
- 1 tablespoon Raisins
- 2 tablespoon Butter
- 1/4 teaspoon Salt
- Bring the salt and water to a boil. Add the couscous and other ingredients. Remove from the heat and let sit until all the water is absorbed, about 5 minutes.
Quick notes
Keep left over pine nuts in the refrigerator. They are expensive, so you don't want to have to throw them away!
You can substitute chopped walnuts for the pine nuts, but it will not be quite as good.
Preparation time: 5 minute(s)
Cooking time: 5 minute(s)
Number of servings (yield): 4
Culinary tradition: Middle Eastern
My rating
Copyright © The Good Plate – Adrienne Boswell.
Recipe by Adrienne Boswell.
Microformatting by hRecipe.
No dinner is complete without some dessert. I wanted something light and simple. My solution was Balsamic Rose Strawberries with Angelfood Cake. Balsamic vinegar and strawberries you ask in shock. Well, they are truly made for each other. The vinegar makes the strawberries more "strawberryeee", and the rose syrup kicks it up a notch. You can usually find rose syrup in Armenian and Mediterranean stores.
Recipe: Balsamic Rose Strawberries with Angel Food Cake
- 1 cup Strawberries sliced
- 1 tablespoon Sugar
- 1 teaspoon Rose Syrup
- 1 teaspoon Balsamic Vinegar
- 1 tablespoon Sour cream
- 4 slices Angel food cake
- Put the sliced strawberries in a non-reactive bowl, and add the rose syrup, sugar and vinegar. Macerate for at least 20 minutes. Put strawberries on each slice of cake, then top with a dollop of sour cream.
You can slice the angle food cake, and put it into a low oven for a few minutes to dry it out a little.
Preparation time: 20 minute(s)
Cooking time: 3 minute(s)
Number of servings (yield): 4
Culinary tradition: French
My rating
Copyright © The Good Plate – Adrienne Boswell.
Recipe by Adrienne Boswell.
Microformatting by hRecipe.
Final Thoughts
We had this with Armenian coffee. It was lovely. I am drinking some now as I post this. I hope that this post has inspired you to have your own Passover Seder, no matter what your view of God (or lack thereof). This was a great way to share a meal with friends.
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Charles Smiley Presents
Format: DVD (factory pressed)
Length: 1 hour 30 minutes + previews
Time Period: 1985- 1997
Locations: Tehachapi, Santa Cruz, Tucson, Benson, Stockton, Coast Line, Vesona Branch, Ione Branch, Surf and much more..
Sources: Gino Pagliaro, Charles Smiley, and Jim Escalante
Charles Smiley showcases Southern Pacific Railroad. Arizona and California in the 1990's, along with earlier 1985 footage. Scrapbook is a fitting title selection.
Many locations are visited. Famous ones such as Tehachapi Loop. Branchlines that are not often seen in this timeframe, and southern Arizona action. An array of train types. Sugar beets, oil cans, double stacks,manifests, coal, locals, and helpers. Passenger trains, SP and Amtrak.
It is interesting to note, this is an older release from CSP. The benchmarks of his productions are here, albeit in sometimes an earlier incarnation. There are plenty of custom maps to sort out the locations. A simplified version compared to recent years visually, they are equally effective in function.
Another notable inclusion. Charles Smiley has plenty of his own camerawork in this production. You can have fun and try to discern a number of his shots. Well composed, detailed and with a unique, often artistic viewpoint. This alone makes this show worth seeing.
Hint: watch Donner Pass Thunder, as that Donner video was shot by Gino. You will notice the two styles from the cameramen. Both are excellent!
Tehachapi Loop is visited. Southern pacific circa 1994.
Another Charles Smiley standard. Multiple viewpoints that add to the railfan's delight.
California features a plethora of colorful scenes. Santa Cruz street running.
Arizona landscape is a contrast to most of California. The Sonoran Desert is different than the Mohave. Fine looking and varied, graphics are interspersed through the show.
The Lordsburg district is in Arizona. Vast deserts combine with mountain backdrops here. Tucson has some vintage locomotives. SP's mainline is a busy one.
A remote bridge, in Arizona, provides some great trainwatching.
Stockton Junction has a classic ATSF tower, with a nice long visit. Besides SP, Union Pacific and Santa Fe have trackage here.
Check these three GP9's on an intermodal move!
The older film, from 1985, fills out the story. Here a Coast starlight is paced near Sea Cliff behind a pair of SDP-45 locomotives.
Charles has conveyed the scarcity of rail traffic at some locations. This show was filmed over a period of years. It is an intriguing assortment, of trains and locales.
Territory from the Pacific Ocean to the Mohave Desert gives viewers a variety of landscapes.
Lompoc Branch that begins at Surf.
A little cab ride footage from one of the best seats on a US railroad!
Southern Pacific Scrapbook contains the vision of any Charles Smiley Presents. A wealth of fine cinematography and great audio, that creates one highlight after another. History, contemporary action and inside stories, that give viewers an entertaining, and informative program.
Rating: 5 Stars


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Over a span of 8 days in December 2005, a team of Optimizaré instructors had the opportunity to share the gospel with 2,500 Paraguayan leaders in the capital city of Asuncion.
They held an additional meeting with 600 top ranking police officers, with the help of National Police sub-commander Nestor Alveranga Morales and his assistant, who are both Christians. Of these, 400 indicated decisions to accept Christ.
Optimizaré, or Maximizers, is a pre-evangelistic tool developed by Cru in Bolivia to target the influencers and core leaders of society with Christ-centered training skills.
Jose Luis Eduardo, executive assistant in South America, contends, "We have discovered that this is a very powerful tool to get to the leadership in our countries. It has opened up a lot of doors among social leaders and businessmen and political leaders."
These leaders are intrigued when Cru staff members approach them with the opportunity to excel among their elite peers. Many, Eduardo says, have become Christians after going through the Optimizaré course.
By reaching the political and social leaders, staff members have access to those who wield tremendous influence in society. If they commit to being servants of the Lord, these leaders command unique opportunities not only to witness to others, but to transform their nations.
Paraguayan President Nicanor Duarte Frutos and his wife, both believers, often encourage other government officials to take the Optimizaré course. As a committed Christian, President Frutos has demonstrated his willingness to stand up for his beliefs, unpopular though they may be.
While the Optimizaré team was in Asuncion, the President and his family received criticism for not attending the national celebration of the virgin patroness of Paraguay, a popular festivity that receives an attendance of 2.5 to 4 million people a year. Despite the risk of losing political support, the president and first lady refused to go, deeming it a "completely pagan festival."
Despite a storm of media frenzy, God calmed the uproar through 2 new ministers of state who also professed faith in Christ and fully endorsed the president's decision. Such uncompromising faith, as demonstrated by President Frutos and his ministers, proves an encouragement to Optimizaré team members, who know that this is the type of leader that can truly generate change in society.
As a result of these and other Optimizaré events throughout Latin America, that October thousands amassed at EXPOLIDER, the largest-ever gathering of continental leaders. There, 5 national and 12 international speakers had the opportunity to share life-changing leadership strategies, as well as the gospel with an estimated 200,000 Latin American leaders.
©1994-2020 Cru. All Rights Reserved.


text: Below is a link to several youtube performances of the musical. While choreography may be different than our show, all students will be singing all of the songs listed, so if you have a first grade student, you are encouraged to listen and practice with them . As with any links, material does change on the internet and while I have viewed several of the links and feel they are appropriate, it is always possible that inappropriate material may be in ads or pop-ups, so please do monitor your child's use of the sites if they practice.


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What are Proteins
What are Proteins
Self Sabotage Control
What exactly is Self-Sabotage?
Crohn's Disease
What's Crohn's disease? Crohn's disease is a long-term, or long lasting, disease that causes inflammation-aggravation or swelling-in the gastrointestinal (GI) tract. Most commonly, Crohn's affects the start of the large intestine
Fat Malabsorption
What Is Malabsorption Syndrome?
Malabsorption syndrome refers to a number of disorders when the intestine's ability to absorb certain nutrients, including iron and vitamin B12, into the bloodstream is adversely changed.
Eight Thing for Protecting The Aging Brain
Protecting The Aging Brain
Brain well-being is the second most important element in keeping a lifestyle that is healthy according to an 2014 AARP study. As people age they could experience a range of cognitive dilemmas from decreased critical thinking to dementia and Alzheimer's disease.
1. Cocoa Flavanols: preliminary research reveals a
What is TIA?
What is TIA?
These symptoms appear and last less than 24 hours before vanishing. While TIAs usually do not cause irreversible brain damage, they can be a serious warning sign a stroke
Ischemic Stroke
Ischemic Stroke
Ischemic stroke occurs when a blood clot blocks a blood vessel carrying blood to the mind. This causes blood to not reach the brain. High blood pressure is the main risk factor for this type of stroke. Ischemic
Hemorrhagic stroke
Hemorrhagic stroke You can find two types of stroke, hemorrhagic and ischemic. A hemorrhagic stroke is either a brain aneurism blast or a weakened blood vessel leak. Blood spills into or


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Good teaching comes directly from the mind, heart, and spirit of a teacher who is fully alive, engaged, and using all their senses; it is about creative risk-taking. An expressive teacher is one who uses the arts as a tool for awakening creativity, drawing upon sources from within, affirming talents and finding words, movement, sounds or images to illustrate experiences. When "doing art," something happens that is both inexplicable and touches upon both the inner and outer worlds of the person involved in the act of art making. The expressive teacher discovers and strengthens vocation in both inner and outer world simultaneously by awakening the creative spirit through the arts and reflection. Kincheloe and Steinberg (1998) described teaching creatively in educational terms as "pedagogical magic", a quality found in teachers who are creative, imaginative, innovative, playful and joyful and for whom the romance of teaching is alive. A teacher navigates several worlds—the inner realm of his/her personal life and the outer worlds of his/her classroom, students, and school. How to successfully navigate these worlds in today's educational climate can be challenging.
As a teacher, I know my inner life is rich and essential to the work I do in the classroom and it is important that I attend to both worlds to remain vital, engaged and awake. Art is much more than artistic expression but holds the potential for a connection with inner wisdom that can provide guidance, soothe emotional pain, and revitalize your well-
being. This blog is for teachers who want to express and explore their inner life through writing and acts of creative expression with the aim of deepening understanding of their inner and outer worlds through artistic expression. Annie Lamont's advice to those who want to write (and to that I add create) is this, "write what you would like to come upon, because that's information from your soul that is very alive and attentive." This is a community blog, a type of call and response that will allow each of us to access the material to be found inside–the rich inner life of the teacher of all grades, all disciplines and age level. I hope that many of you will join along–sharing words, visual images and poetry.
Join the conversation!
Kincheloe, J & Steinberg, S (1998) Students as researchers: Creating classrooms that matter. London: Falmer Press


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Father's Day is celebrated every year on the third Sunday of the June. This is a day dedicated to the fathers, paternal bonds, and the role of fathers in the society. Children celebrate this day with their father by making the day special for them. And since the day is around the corner, children have already started planning for how to make the day special for their father. Most have already decided the best Father's Day cake that their dad will cut on that day. But, cakes are not the only way to celebrate the day. So how else would you make the Father's Day celebration different this year? Well, here's how you can do that:
- Watch a Movie
One way to celebrate the Father's Day is to watch a movie with your dad. This time, let your dad pick the movie, book the tickets, and watch it together. Amidst the busy schedule that we have, rarely do we get to spend quality time with your loved ones. And going for the movie is the best way to do that. If your dad doesn't like any of the movies released that week, then you can also watch a movie at home. What is important is that you spend time with each other.
- Go for a Weekend Getaway
If a movie does not sound like something you or your dad would be interested in watching, then perhaps you can go on a weekend getaway. We all live a routine lifestyle. We go to office on weekdays and come back home. And on weekends, we are home most of the times, which make life redundant and boring. So why not step out this routine and go for a weekend getaway on the weekend?! It will be a good break for you as well as your dad. In fact, take your whole family with you. Everybody will enjoy it.
- Have Lunch with your Dad in a Good Restaurant
Another option is to take your dad for lunch in a good restaurant. Good food is something everybody appreciates. So take your dad out for lunch to a fancy restaurant, or maybe even a café that your dad always wanted to visit for a long time. This will be a good surprise for your dad. And if the this café that you are planning to go to is slightly far from the city, then you also got yourself a long drive, and an opportunity to talk to your father and an honest conversation. What more do you need to celebrate the Father's Day?!
Father's Day is as special for a child as it is for a dad. A father spends almost all his life being there for his children, family, and give them emotional as well as financial support. In every child's life, their father is their first superhero. And like every superhero, they are always there for their child. And we get so less opportunities to be there for (and with) our dad. So, this is the day, make the most of it. While you do that, don't forget to celebrate it with the best Father's Day cake.


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Board Games for Christmas & New Years
December and January bring Christmas, New Years and vacations – both from school and work.
What are you going to do with all that time on your hands?
In our family, we love a good Board Game. If you are looking for something fun to do with your family here is a list of our favorites.
Our Top 5 Favorite Board Game Picks
Ticket to Ride by Days of Wonder
"Ticket to Ride is a cross-country train adventure where players collect cards of various types of train cars that enable them to claim railway routes connecting cities in various countries around the world."
This was one of our first "Euro-games." We have played it so many times we have just about worn the cards out. As a mother I like that you are building rails all over the United States. Anytime we can add something like Geography into a game I am sold. That combined with collecting colored train cards to make sets makes this game a winner. If you get tired of the United States Map, there are multiple expansions: Switzerland, Africa, Nordic Countries to name a few. Recently, they released a version for younger kids called Ticket to Ride First Journey for ages 6+.
Dominion by Rio Grande Games
Great playability is what we love about Dominion.
A quality Board Game is an investment, so when I can get a variety of combinations out of it, I feel like I am getting a better value.
This game plays like it is a deck building game where you buy cards and add them to your deck buying victory point cards until game end. The last time I counted there were over 14 expansions to this game making it a versatile asset for maximum playability.
Pandemic by Z-Man Games
I'll admit this first time I played this cooperative game I wasn't impressed. Then I played it again with our kids and I figured out the game. You take on different roles such as a Scientist or Operations Specialist to prevent the Outbreak of plagues.
We really like being on the same team to complete this game. It is so popular, that there are several expansions. Z-Man Games even created Legacy Editions, which means that you get the same friends together and play through the game 12-24 times before the game is put away for the last time as a keepsake.
Codenames by Czech Games Edition
"Codenames is a social word game with a simple premise and challenging game play. Two rival spymasters know the secret identities of 25 agents. Their teammates know the agents only by their codenames. The teams compete to see who can make contact with all of their agents first. Spymasters give one-word clues that can point to multiple words on the table. Their teammates try to guess words of their color while avoiding those that belong to the opposing team. And everyone wants to avoid the assassin." per Vlaada Chvatil
This game makes for tons of laughter and works great boys against girls or cousin against cousin. Our teenage son enjoys this game a lot and with quick play time we all end up loving it as well. This game has gotten so popular there is now Codename pictures, Codename Marvel, Codename Disney and more. Santa might be making a delivery to our house with one of these.
Orleans by Tasty Minstrel Games
I have saved the BEST for last.
This is my All-Time Favorite game.
The first time I played it I instantly knew I had to have it. I seriously started shopping for it within hours.
"Grow your economic reach and gather followers in this bag-building game. A game for 2 to 4 players. In medieval Orleans, you will gather followers, establish trade stations, and collect goods and money to gain supremacy."
This game is great for up to 4 players but if you really like this game the expansion turns it into a cooperative game. Orleans Invasion creatively uses the same board to have an all new game. Again, I like replay-ability and this game delivers.
As much as we like playing games, what we really like is time to slow down and visit with friends and family across the table. May your Holiday break be full of time to unplug and unwind.
Let us know if your family and friends enjoy board games and give us your favorites! We'd love to hear them.


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Kobe Bryant: No More Tweeting During Lakers Games
Kobe Bryant, NBA superstar and recent master of the social media arts, did a pretty cool thing this weekend.
His Lakers played their first playoff game of the season on Sunday, against the San Antonio Spurs. Bryant couldn't play — he's recovering from a ruptured achilles that will have him sidelined until at least the beginning of next season.
But the injured future Hall of Famer gave fans the next-best treat after watching him on the court. How? by live-tweeting his thoughts and reactions about the game.
For sports fans, that's a pretty good deal. Live, unfiltered commentary from one of the NBA's all-time greats about two teams he knows well. Here's a taste from Sunday:
Gotta keep the spurs offense in front of our d. They r great at penetrating and pitching to their shooters
— Kobe Bryant (@kobebryant) April 21, 2013
What I would say if I was there right now? "Pau get ur ass on the block and don't move till u get it" #realtalk
— Kobe Bryant (@kobebryant) April 21, 2013
Nothing worse then watching your bothers struggle and u can't do crap about it #realtalk
— Kobe Bryant (@kobebryant) April 21, 2013
Predictably, Bryant's tweeting gained a lot of attention online. Some lauded it as being a new, innovative use of Twitter for an active player. Others criticized it as attention-whoring. Still others criticized Bryant's critiques of his teammates. But most everyone who noticed had something to say, good or bad.
For Bryant, the attention seems to have been too much. Here's a message he posted on Sunday afternoon, a couple hours after the game ended:
I see my tweeting during the game is being talked about as much as the game itself. Not my intention , just bored as I guess #notagain
— Kobe Bryant (@kobebryant) April 21, 2013
He followed that up with this slightly cryptic Monday tweet:
To tweet or not to tweet.. I CHOOSE not 2. Focus should be on the team not my insight. @georgelopez voice "Can't DO nothin!"#vinospeare
— Kobe Bryant (@kobebryant) April 22, 2013
Not quite sure what all that means, but it's safe to assume we won't see Bryant live-tweeting any more Lakers games soon.
Do you think Bryant's tweets on Sunday were cool, or an unnecessary distraction for his teammates? Let us know in the comments.
30 Must-Follow Twitter Accounts This NBA Season
Image courtesy Flickr, Keith Allison


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ID - Pleasure (500 ml, 17.6 fl/oz)
Brand: ID
Code: FREE4029
Price: £20.99
Ginkgo Biloba extract is taken from the leaves of the Ginkgo biloba tree and has been a popular ingredient in Chinese medicine for thousands years. Studies show that Ginkgo is effective at treating a range of conditions which include improving blood flow and aiding circulation problems. Red clover flowers and menthol have similarly both been used for years to treat a very wide range of conditions and various studies document their effectiveness. Together, the three ingredients work together to boost the blood flow, resulting in a firmer feeling erection for men and a sensational tingling feeling for women.
ID Pleasure lubricant can be used either on your own or with your partner, during masturbation or intercourse - and it works brilliantly with both latex and silicone toys too. Increase your fun in the bedroom by heightening sensations for both you and your partner, improving your overall sexual experience.
ID Pleasure lubricant is both pleasurable and practical, it will not stain and can be easily removed from fabrics with a machine wash. It has a pleasant non-sticky formula which is long lasting. The water based formula makes it gentle enough for use, even if you have skin that is sensitive or prone to reacting.
ID Pleasure comes in a generous 500ml container which is sufficient for at least 50 uses. We also sell this product in 130ml and 57ml travel sizes. As with all of our products, ID Pleasure is delivered to you discreetly in plain packaging to protect your confidentiality.


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Andreadis Talent Agency (NY)
(212) 315-0303
Hanns Wolters Theatrical Agency (NY)
(212) 714-0100
Karen Lynn is best known as the romantic star of SATURDAY NIGHT FEVER: the girl (Stephanie) who said "no" to John Travolta after winning a dance contest with him; and the legendary TARA MARTIN on ABC's ALL MY CHILDREN. She is a winner of the People's Choice and European Bravo Awards. She holds a BFA from Carnegie Mellon and an MFA from Brandeis University.
In New York City, as member of famed Irish Rep. Company, Karen Lynn garnered raves as "Mrs. Dandy McCabe" in The Field; as "Sister" in Late Night Catechism at Theatre at St. Lukes; and as "Miss Ophelia St. Clare" in Uncle Tom's Cabin at the Mint Theatre.
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