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That classic sentiment of a mid-twentieth century liberal is now almost quaint given where we have now arrived. In the age of the internet, the strict separation between a public and private world is increasingly untenable.
A case in point: a report today on NPR's "Morning Edition" noted that the wildly popular youth "networking" website, "Facebook," will be opening up its pages to advertisers who are hungrily licking their lips to get at the treasure trove of information about students on the site. Students post a wealth of information about
themselves on the site - including, at times, some rather compromising information that has hurt them when they have applied for jobs! - such as favorite music, sexual orientation, political orientation, links to all their "friends" - and all this information is going to save advertisers immense amounts of research, effort and money in providing a whole range of advertising profiles. ...
A student once asked me what kind of social life we could possibly have had in college before the advent of Facebook (hell, he was surprised that I'm old enough to remember the days before the internet and even the personal computer - and I'm not that old...). I replied that we would hang out in dorm rooms shooting the breeze until odd hours of the morning. Perhaps our communication was less efficient - we had fewer "friends," as the word is promiscuously used in the Facebook networking world (in which making friends with someone consists of sending an electronic invitation) - but our conversations were meandering, leisurely, and ongoing.
Facebook has enabled users to get at personal information volunteered by its users since its inception in early 2004. That the company will now be facilitating advertisers in doing so is more the continuation of an expected progression than something surprisingly scandalous. Admonitions against treating the most public of publicly accessible places as though they were the pages in a personal diary are hardly novel. Social networking sites amplify public exposure, but they do not create it.
Facebook easily allows users to hide their information--even the knowledge of their very existences--from those they do not specifically 'grant the right' of viewership to. There is no betrayal of privacy, as users must consciously allow for marketers to have access to the information they put on their profiles. Filling out sweepstakes entries or responding to snail mail and e-mail surveys are more surreptitious ways of obtaining the information these marketers are after. Allowing publicly-volunteered marketing data to be effortlessly obtained allows for more efficiency and possibly even less intrusion into the lives of those who are especially protective of their corporate anonymity.
As a caveat, I should say that this praise for such effortless privacy is a contemporary one. The staggering success of Mark Zuckerberg's company is accompanied by its seeming directionlessness.
I first used the service after spending an hour going through an elementary school yearbook from when I'd lived in the Northwest. Pining for contact, I remembered hearing it mentioned by an accounting professor in class (that's how out of the social loop I am, apparently) a few days before. At that time, it boasted that, unlike MySpace, it maintained authenticity by only allowing people with college or university email accounts to join and provided a genuine local feel by restricting 'group' memberships to people from the college or university from which the group's creator originated.
Those conditions have now all disappeared. If I wanted to, say, create separate profiles for all of my favorite RPG characters, I could... well, if I really started slipping, having run completely out of ideas for posts and life more generally.
Instead of cheapening friendship, the service (potentially) enhances it. Personally, it has allowed past friendships I'd thought lost to time to be resurrected, and has allowed for the creation of bonds that otherwise would never have been forged.
Rather than drowning in frivolous friendships, it has caused pangs of regret in having not gotten to know many of the people from high school who I keep in contact with today but whom I was scarcely aware of then (I primarily hung with the sports crowd). The pool of people with whom I can share a conversation in a summer evening's gloam has expanded, and consequently so has the quality of person I end up conversing with.
Additionally, the message forum provided is like email without having to keep an address book or worry about delivery failures. It facilitates meandering textual conversations by keeping a log of the dialogue that has taken place.
The legions of youngsters who are intent on living their lives as open books are going to be made even easier pickings for marketers than ever before. But in a free society, protecting the careless from themselves is an impossible undertaking.
More unsettling than the providing of information about willing parties to other willing parties is the narcissism social networking sites engender. Never has it been easier to look at yourself from a thousand angles, or to witness how others look at you from ten thousand angles. Fortunately for me, the site has become so cluttered with applications, 'information' streams, and action trackers that I now use it exclusively as email 2.0 and occasionally to hunt for people I once knew.


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Celebrate Good Times… C'mon!Posted: June 1, 2015 Filed under: breast cancer, crossword, depression, depression procession, oncologist, zolodex | Tags: menopause 5 Comments This month, after pelvic surgery, I was put into menopause via a big arsed Zolodex injection and my pelvic pain of 14 months has now ceased. I could hug my oncologist and gynaecologist but that might not be appropriate.
Equally riveting, just this week I was officially diagnosed with clinical depression, so it's been quite productive. It's taken a lot for me to finally get here. But I have arrived. Woo hoo!
Remember back in the day of junior school when the most difficult thing you had to deal with was when some pre-pubescent, pimply kid, you were crushing on actually liked your friend instead of you? Or your socks didn't quite match your 1980's flouro jumper? Remember the joy you felt when you danced to "Celebration" by Kool & The Gang? Remember when the cool teachers gave you wordfinds or crosswords at the end of the day instead of work? I loved that shit!
So to celebrate these momentous achievements, here's a crossword I made. Enjoy!
**Click on the crossword images to print. Answers can be published if anyone on this earth actually wants them. You're welcome!
The Red Balloon from the Blue ChairPosted: June 12, 2013 Filed under: breast cancer, chemotherapy, depression procession, FEC -D, psychologist | Tags: blue chair, mental-health, Red balloon 15 Comments
In January I was laying in a rolling green field. The slight breeze moved my hair across my brow. I was enjoying the warmth of the sun as it licked my skin and was listening to the birds. I marvelled at the peace and beauty around me. I was blissfully unaware of what laid ahead. I was right where I wanted to be in my life. I had exciting plans. Life was great!
Then, out of nowhere, a big red balloon drifted into my view and crash landed in my field. Incredibly, the greatest people came running from all directions to help. For months, they held on with me for dear life.
Then came the moment where they had to let go.
Now I am left dangling from my red balloon, floating away with it, being moved wherever the breeze decides to blow. A bit like this…
Luckily, I live with an amazing family and have lots of great friends and an exceptional psychologist. Although this psychologist doesn't have coffee and biscotti waiting when I visit as I once hoped for. This is just as well, because since last weeks chemo I feel like I drank a pilcher of broken glass. My love affair with good coffee and cafe baked-goods is over. Well, most foods and even now water actually.
Instead, when I visit my psychologist, there is this incredible blue velour chair from the 1970's that I get to rest in. And for those moments and for days after I leave, holding onto the red balloon is not so bad. I am reminded that people can't hold on for me. I need to ride it myself.
These visits are allowing me to float with that red balloon. It is true, I am gripping tight to the rope, but I am not fighting it. I am going where the balloon takes me. Travelling though all of the emotion, the grief, the anger, the loss of control, and the rapid change that is currently occurring in my life though this experience of cancer. I am letting the depression procession catch me. It's okay to stop running from it now. It's okay to move through each natural process. Being aware of when I am looking at the world through this depressive lens can help me to climb free of it. It's just a perspective after all. Thankfully visits to the comfortable blue velour 1970's chair are helping.
This chemo round has not been pleasant. On Saturday I spent the day in hospital. Thankfully not neutropenic, but physically and emotionally bankrupt. Four days after my fourth round of chemo (my first dose of Taxotere) and I required some antibiotics and 6 litres of IV fluid. Some serious pain meds were given to subdue the men with spears that have been stabbing my bones in surprising places; my ankles, my jaw and molars, my kneecaps. These men were silenced by my old friend Endone. And then, ten hours of sleep saw me well enough to rejoin my family at home.
In the depths and despair of the effects of chemotherapy, I am learning to cope. I am learning to acknowledge my feelings. I am learning to go easy on myself. I am learning to turn off the noise and relax. I am learning to survive in this new state of normal and learning not to have expectations. I am learning to take one day at a time and not look too far ahead. It much easier this way and in doing this I am feeling better already.
There are some difficult times ahead. This red balloon will be taking me for a ride for quite a while yet.
Everyone has a big red balloon enter into their field at some point. Some people will unfortunately experience quite a few through the passage of their life. Relationships break up, we lose people we love, houses burn down, we lose jobs, we get cancer. There are the near misses too. But we are all presented at some point with difficult circumstances that result in our own internal struggles.
These red balloons come crashing into our existence when we least expect it. But they don't last forever.
Down, but not staying downPosted: May 25, 2013 Filed under: breast cancer, chemotherapy, depression procession, FEC -D, psychologist 12 Comments
I always intended to write honestly. So here I am.
I am now half way through chemo and there has been surprisingly a full week of nausea this time. There are mouth ulcers. They come and go. Chemo really is an accumulation of detriment on the body and mind. The immune system, the digestive system, the emotional system. I have had thoughts about not being able to go the distance with this treatment. The dread of three more rounds and the unknown of a new drug Taxotere for the next cycle. Then some new days brings a more positive attitude and I get on with it.
I have lost interest in food. Lost interest in handling it, purchasing it and preparing it which makes the task of running a household interesting. I could be served cardboard or raw oats for the rest of the year and I don't think it would phase me. Part of me wants to go to the finest restaurants and conquer this disinterest. But it might be a waste of time at the moment.
The "Depression Procession" is rapidly marching my way. Some days I feel like I'm at a blues festival in New Orleans trapped in the crowd, trying to get away from the sombre marching band that is approaching. But no matter where I turn, the music just keeps getting louder and louder. And it's out of tune.
Something has changed in me. I can't quite put my finger on it. Four months has passed since my life took a turn in a different direction. When I face people now and interact with them in everyday conversation there are tears welling behind my eyes but thankfully they don't spill out.
I am sleeping longer. There are moments when I am less interested in being with my family. Yet when I am given solitude I just feel isolated. I am having loads of thoughts about this disease and about the changes in me since Christmas. There are some irrational doubts about whether I will ever get over it. It's very easy to be swept away with the tide of chemo induced nausea. Let the negative thoughts creep in. I have found myself thinking thoughts such as … I'm such a burden, sometimes it would be easier for my family if I wasn't here. I'm not working. I'm not productive. I'm getting left behind in life. Irrational thoughts I know. This must be the cancer experience. Four months in and the wheels have stopped moving. The survival mode of running with it has switched off and you are just left to get on with it. With reality or this 'new normal'.
At a prep info school night I started to cry. Bam! Out of nowhere! Waves of emotion flood in like a tsunami when you least are expecting it. It occurred to me that it is possible I might not see my boys finish their primary schooling. See their sports days or see them come home exhausted from camps. I had to look at my partner and stop this train of thought. And when the prep teachers where delivering their Powerpoint Presentation of the school to new parents, I wasn't listening to their words, I was looking at their breasts. Wondering it those breasts would always be healthy for them. The triggers are surprising.
I am lamenting all the things I have lost this year. Yet I am conscious of all the things I have gained. It's just the mind has been wandering towards the deficits a little more often this week.
I have been thinking about these oceans of distance that have emerged with friends that were once part of my everyday life, friends I used to have weekly contact with. People I have not even received a text message from since I was diagnosed. Funny how this disease scares people so much. It is hard on everyone, friends, family, workmates. Staying away is the worst thing anyone can do to someone diagnosed with cancer. I read about this alot and I understand it now.
I've got a bucket load to talk about with the hospital psychologist. Four months of stuff in fact. The appointment can't come soon enough!
All of this is part of a process. The mental perspective is taking a beating. I am acutely aware of this. I will continue to move my body through walking and running when I can and talk to people and even let myself cry when the context is right. Just not at prep info nights.
I will bounce up again. I always do. It might be tomorrow or it might be in the springtime. But bounce I will.
The Giant and the BeautyPosted: March 6, 2013 Filed under: breast cancer, breast surgeon, children, depression procession, future self, genetic testing, plastic surgeon, psychologist | Tags: mother in-law, Nanny, Pink Hope, red lips, red lipstick, sister in-law, the Beauty, the giant 3 Comments
Since Sunday, I have spent time with three very important women in my life and I have broken down in tears with each of them. There has been a mental shift since the weekend of wonderful experiences with my awesome Melbourne friends.
I visited my dear Nanny who turns 90 in April. She never ceases to amaze me. She was 52 when I was born. There was so much living that went on in her life before I even met her and she is still with us. She has experienced her fair share of loss from cancer in recent years. But she is a strong and upbeat lady. Her sunny disposition and genetic luck has allowed her to live a long life, much of it without teeth. In the late 50's she had a dentist in London remove her ailing teeth to prepare for dentures, except she immigrated to Australia on a ship earlier than anticipated and the dentures never became a reality. Her sweet sunken cheeks have always been the vision of the perfect Nanny to me.
I had a visit from my awesome sister in-law who played lifeguards with my children for hours, rescuing imaginary swimmers from imaginary sharks in our garden. With credit to "The Octonauts" children's television program, the species of sharks were diverse. From the surf lifesaving tower on the deck they took turns at the command post talking into pretend walkie-talkies. This was to the delight of my eldest son who had not removed his lifeguard cap for three days prior. She cooked us dinner and cleaned our bathrooms before she raced back to the airport for her return flight to Queensland. My brother chose for himself an amazing life partner and mother for his children.
I also had a pop in visit from my wonderful mother in-law yesterday as I frequently do to see how we all are. She has the knack at turning up at the most perfect of moments. She has a kind of sixth sense of sorts which I am eternally grateful for.
There is something very powerful about embracing another woman that you care for when you have breast cancer. The disease is taken very personally. It sniggers at the qualities that make us mothers, daughters, sisters, aunties, nieces, grandmothers and granddaughters. It attempts to sabotage a bond between women. But cancer can never get in the way at that. An experience like this just draws people even closer.
Even as I type this the tears are welling a little behind my eyes. I'm thinking this may be the start of the depression procession of sorts, or it might not be. I just have to watch where this goes and act quickly. The breast care nurse told me not to wait, but to see my GP for some anti-depressant medication. I have never dallied with anti-depressants in my life, but I was given some post diagnosis and one of the side effects made me anorexic. So I understandably have some trepidation. I first would like to try my own 'walk and talk therapy'. This is where I walk for an hour daily, and talk to as many people as possible about how I am feeling. I am now fit enough three weeks post mastectomy to get out and move again. I can't yet run as I am still healing and the tissue expander is settling. But exercise has been so beneficial to my moods in the past. I think this might help me immensely. I might also see a psychologist to have a chat, though I think psychologists should have really great coffee machines in their rooms. Maybe even some biscotti or something. That might help too.
Part of me is wanting to rebel against the predictable pathway of the breast cancer experience. I am seeing this common journey that women take on forums and blogs and in the knowing looks of women sitting in hospital waiting rooms. Doctors and nurses are quick to try and solve the problems for you. Often with medication. But it is just going to take time. Emotionally I will fall apart. It is a given. But I will put the pieces of myself back together again. Of course it is easy for me to articulate this at present, as I haven't yet been gripped by the effects of chemotherapy. But this needs to be 'MY' journey. I don't want to be told I will get depressed. Or my hair will definitely fall out. Or my nails will turn black and fall off. Or my bowel will never be the same. A self fulfilling prophecy effect will have no part in this. I need to let the experience unravel itself.
It has been two months since this cancer wheel started spinning. It has been a bit like being on a spinning ride and the Royal Show. The Gravitron ride was a favourite when I was younger. It looks like a spaceship and you enter and lean against the wall. You are propelled round and round with such force that you just grip on as tight as you can. You can't really move as the force is too great. And then as it slows and gravity takes hold, you see the people opposite pulling their dresses back down to a respectable place and wiping saliva from their faces. Slowly but surely, everyone is back in the land of gravity, or should I say reality and the dance music stops. Then everyone gets off and gets on with things. Suddenly, since the surgeon, plastic surgeon and breast care nurses dumped me, I have all of this time on my hands to think about what has actually occurred in the last eight weeks.
To add to this reality, today I met the geneticists from the Peter Mac Familial Cancer Clinic. There were two people. Geneticist One was nearly seven feet tall and wore glasses. He was an enormous graceful giant. His height may have instilled in him an interest in how genetics worked and this may have been motivation enough to follow this career path. He reached out with his gigantic hand and softly shook mine. We walked the corridor side by side and went into a consult room. As he stooped through the doorway to enter the room I expected to see a beanstalk and a golden goose. But there waiting behind the door was a genetics counsellor. A stunningly beautiful girl, fresh from university and dressed impeccably. She presented a set of perfectly pursed lips painted with a deep red lipstick. I so wanted to get out my iPhone and take a picture. A new obsession perhaps? For a while I found it hard to absorb what she was saying because of her lips. I kept focusing on how they moved. Then how her wonderfully styled brunette hair framed her face.
I had gone prepared with all of the dates and as much as I knew going back four generations. The information covered relatives from both Australia and the United Kingdom, many of which I have never even met before. Much of this information I compiled by trawling though the work my eldest brother had done on the Ancestry.com website. I am really grateful for his interest in genealogy. I also contacted distant relatives via Facebook, and got some information from my Mum. Armed with these pages of causes and dates of death and existing illnesses I marched confidently into the room. Impressed with the research data, the gorgeous red lips asked me if I was from a research background. I told the lips that I used to be a teacher and lecturer and I love to research. I thought I was just going to supply them with information about my family cancer tree today. Easy.
I was so naive.
I had not prepared for the level of emotional and intellectual drain this meeting would entail. The beautiful woman in front of me was full of information. But there was a deliberate tilt of her head which revealed a kind of pity to me. She obviously thought she knew where my journey was heading. Like she has access to a crystal ball or she has seen this journey many times before. Talking with the broken about their potential mutant genes as they are gripped by this disease, as they search for an explanation as to why they are afflicted. So I decided not to focus on the head tilt anymore.
After looking through the details of my family cancer history, there was discussion about gene faults that if found would put me at a higher risk of developing breast cancer in my other breast. Then they pre-empted a discussion that I might be having with my oncologist in weeks to come, this time about my ovaries. If I test positive for one of the BRCA 1/2 genes, breast cancer women under forty are advised to have their ovaries removed. There was also discussion about multiple potential gene faults merging to have created some crazy mutant genes that can cause young women under 40 to get breast cancer. I don't really need to know about this. I can't prevent what is done.
What does all of this mean?
The reality is that only 5 to 10 percent of tests come back positive for some genetic link. Many responsible genes and genetic mutations have not been discovered yet. Though there is certainly a chance that in 15 years researchers will have discovered more genes at work with this breast cancer disease, if genes are even a factor. It is such a complicated matter how diseases occur in some individuals and not others. The 'nature versus nurture' theorists are still pointing their fingers and arguing on the sidelines.
I am informed that my blood sample will be stored and will be used in the future by genetic researchers. I enthusiastically offered up litres of blood for this purpose and this drew some laughs from the Giant and the Beauty. One vial is enough. But I find this research to be positive. After all, this process is how the BRCA 1/2 gene faults were discovered and this has benefited many.
Today, genetic testing might assist some breast cancer women and their practitioners to make decisions about whether they will undergo particular treatments in favour of others. It is also a process high risk women (such as those with one or more close relatives having had breast cancer) might explore to assist them to make decisions to prevent breast and ovarian cancer from occurring. There are many women in Australia and around the world who have spent much of their lives worrying about the risk of getting this disease. There is a whole network of women supporting one another through a great organisation called Pink Hope. It can be found at http://www.pinkhope.org.au. These women cling to the results of their genetics tests. I feel quite guilty given I had never given breast cancer a thought and have been free of the worry these women have had to endure, and yet the disease found me anyway. Here I am, today, with a genetics counsellor talking about breast cancer genetics.
In my case, the decision has been made, given my cancer is multifocal and aggressive there will be a second mastectomy, so I don't need the results of a genetic test to tell me what I should do. There will be post mastectomy radiotherapy and genetic testing is not a useful indicator for whether to do this. But it might clarify the ovarian issue down the track. If I am negative for BRCA 1/2, it is unlikely the ovaries will need to be removed. This is a really important decision, as removing ovaries prior to menopause can lead to a whole array of health issues in young women such as osteoporosis and heart disease. But if faced with having a BRCA 1/2 gene with a hormone receptor positive breast cancer and preventing ovarian cancer I know what I would chose.
After almost two hours of discussion about genetic testing, information, privacy issues, disclosures, pros and cons, ramifications of it moving forward, etc, I am clear that genetic testing will be a good thing for me and my immediate family, but I will talk at length with Mr Cool about this. I also like the idea that I am contributing to a research data bank.
There is just one small matter to be sorted. Before I can sign on the dotted line, I have to see what the ramifications on my existing life insurance policy are of genetic testing, as it can substantially alter or even void some policies. So I have to look into this before the signing and supplying of a blood sample. Some types of insurers don't like the risk associated with someone who has tested positive for some genetic predisposition. Bastards! Luckily my 'future self' told me to take out a life insurance policy a year ago as I had no current coverage through my superannuation as a stay at home mum. I would be "up shit creek without a paddle" if I wanted to take out a new policy now. Thank you again future self.
Down the track, my family might like to know the results of this test. There is no urgency for any of them now. But if I have any genes responsible for this cancer, it might be beneficial for one of my brothers to be tested. If he has the same gene then as parents, they may impart such information to allow their children to make a decision to be tested when they are adults. Likewise, all of this applies to our own children, my cousins, and my cousins children. This is all irrelevant at the moment but it is worth giving some thought to future possibilities.
Genetic testing is a highly sensitive and deeply personal issue. It does have quite large ramifications for the future. People can use the knowledge about genetic predispositions in many ways. Some might live proactively and live a healthy lifestyle and be screened. Some might live in fear of developing a disease they have a gene mutation for. Some might chose a route of cowardly defeat and live a lifestyle detrimental to health as if they are saying "whats the point?" Some might not ever give their genetics a thought. Of course, there is also the possibility that one could have a genetic mutation for a particular disease and it is never activated in their lifetime. There are no guarantees with anything.
I was glad I had the opportunity to sit with the Giant and the Beauty for two hours. I look forward to my next meeting as it feels like I'm back in the dating game.
HomecomingPosted: February 18, 2013 Filed under: breast cancer, children, depression procession, ironman triathlon, lumpectomy, mastectomy, Mr Cool, results | Tags: breast cancer, cancer, friends, homecoming, mental-health, Mothers guilt, reality, stranger, support, waiting cycle 4 Comments
I am home.
Mother's guilt has been quietly bubbling away in the back laboratory. It started with the diagnosis six weeks ago. First it appeared as grief from the impact of my lost health on my children. A kind of lost opportunity cost is to be paid for all of the wonderful experiences in 2013 that won't go ahead. It is not what I would ever have wanted for my kids and husband, or their grandparents. What was to be a year of healthy misadventures including play, travel, athletic conquests, my first time snow camping and skiing with my oldest boy, has been replaced with the possibility of 5 surgeries in Melbourne, 3-10 months of chemotherapy, maybe some radiotherapy for good measure, fatigue, pain, laying around and telling them Daddy will help, or Nanna can do that, or maybe my friends will do that when they visit. They will see me be sick, see me cry, see Mummy lose her hair, see Mum and Dad argue as they juggle the altered dynamics of home and parenting roles.
I might have to miss going to Port Macquarie in May to support hubby in his tenth Ironman triathlon finish. He proposed to me when he crossed the finish line of his first Ironman back in 2004. My Mum just happened to be there that moment. All day, he struggled through cramping and vomiting and every time he saw us he asked me if I would make sure I had his bag at the finish line. I never knew I had carried round the engagement ring with me all day. I have been at every one since and as our family has grown, so too have our children.
More annoying to me than the possibility of being unable to support him in this race, is the thought of missing the week of camping we had planned for our children. A week camping with their uncle and aunt and their three cousins in Northern NSW. I will make sure it does go ahead. I hope I can go, but the thought of me not being part of the experience is playing on my mind. Don't worry about things too far ahead I keep telling myself. One day at a time remember.
To add to the dose of mother's guilt, both children developed a bad throat and cough last week. Of course it was the night before I went to Melbourne for surgery. So not only did I leave, I left when they were sick. There have been nights when they haven't slept. Coughing wakes them and they cry. Our youngest just wants to be held, so he has spent every night in bed, one night between Nanna and Grandad, and then the rest of the week between his Dad and his brother. He is not happy sleeping unless he is the filling between two pieces of sleeping pumpkin sourdough.
When I returned home five days later, my eldest son took it in his stride. My youngest not so much. It has been a week since he cuddled me with his usual affection. There are the physical barriers of ghastly drainage tubes that I carry round in a bag and the mental barriers as well. When the honest toddler came to visit me in hospital three days after I left him at home sick, he would not look at me, he did not want to be put near me. There was a bit of punishment for mum to be dealt out. She abandoned us last week and left us home.
Since arriving home there has been more of the same, Dad is the one he goes to for everything (Which at this point isn't such a bad thing). Dad is the one to console him. I am like a stranger. I have been moved to the spare room as the marital bed has been taken over by two sick children and a squashed on the edge, contorted husband. Too much noise and movement in there for my liking. So the spare room it is for me.
Hubby is at times buckling under the weight of all this new found pressure of kids wanting him 24/7. As much as Mr Cool can buckle I suppose. I am sure he is also worried about the things he isn't able to achieve at work. Then there is the missed sessions of training for the Ironman triathlon that is just eleven short weeks away. Training for these events normally keeps him in tip top shape emotionally and physically. He doesn't know it yet, but I think we might benefit from some couples counselling once the impact of this journey becomes clearer. (I can feel his eyes rolling from another room as I type this!) What is it with men and their dislike for communicating about their feelings?
The flip side of the negative opportunity costs of cancer are some wonderful gains. There will be lots of positives in this experience. Though hard to see now, we might come out the other side of this much closer as a family, we might be grateful for what we have, the small things will mean a lot, we will cherish our time together. Other positive experiences will open up. It's not what I wanted for my children and family, but it is what it is. We will try and make the best of it.
The other day in hospital I got a visit from a dear friend who I went to university with 14 to 17 years ago. In that time we shared a miners cottage for a while. It was built in the Goldrush days of the 1880's. Back in this time men grew on average to 5'4″ in height. The door frames and ceilings were just above our heads. I remember us living off a student diet and I used to laugh at him when he used to eat a five bulk pack of two minute noodles out of a large bowl in one sitting. Across all of that passing time, our humour and conversations have not changed, racing along without even a second to catch a breath. He happens to now be a firefighter at one of the largest metropolitan fire stations and as a fluke, it was just two blocks from my hospital. So with schedules on our side, he was able to show my boys around the trucks and station. Something they will cherish for a long time.
Had cancer not happened to me and my family, I wouldn't have seen him for another five years at least and my boys would not have had this awesome opportunity. So cancer initiates some wonderful opportunities and learning experiences as well. Then there was a visit from a student I taught when I was a lecturer 11 years ago. On her visit, she stole my children's hearts and then told me some of her internet dating stories. Last week also brought my closest, long term friends in to see me as well. Very special moments.
The events of the last six weeks have opened my heart to just how many wonderfully supportive family and friends I have. Our doorstep has seen the arrival of not one, but two juicers weeks apart from the same people, (incredibly the first to try, and the second, a gift to keep) and I have been given my own pre-purchase intimate iPad demonstration. There have been so many flowers delivered our house feels like a florist. There has been an array of home cooked gourmet meals, get well cards, gifts, and lego mini-figurines for our children. There have been lots of gentle hugs, messages of support, offers to mind the kids (which is the most important job of all). A whole community has opened up that I shamefully never took the time to tune into before. Of course this also includes the hundreds of keyboard warriors who are following me and pulling me out of any dark places I might be heading towards in the coming months.
I am acutely aware of depression sneaking up on me. When it comes, it will be a 'depression procession' of sorts. I am also on guard for signs of it in my partner and loved ones. What is surprising about having cancer is once you are okay with it, you begin to tune in to how it effects other people. I was surprised to see one of my dearest long term friends upset when she visited me in hospital the other day, this is a friend who visits hospitals all the time for her profession. She said it was different when it is someone you know. It made me feel like I had been a little selfish holding onto it as only my experience or journey. The impacts are far reaching.
We have entered another cycle of waiting for results. There has been the waiting for diagnosis, waiting for the results of lumpectomy and sentinal node biopsy, waiting for the results of the bone and organ scans (which came back as ALL CLEAR, so nothing major lurking elsewhere at this moment!) and now the waiting for the results of the mastectomy, nodes and nipple scrape and freeze. In all of this you just want to have an idea of the treatment that lays ahead, especially with respect to the chemo regime. It has been one and half months and I, we are still waiting.
Friday. Friday will tell us.
As I type this, my youngest has come into my room to give me a cuddle because they are going out. Day seven and I am back in the 'need to cuddle Mummy' books. The oldest is very excited he is off to bush kinder this morning after missing the week with his cold. I have asked him to try and remember some of the details so he can tell me all about it when he gets home. Always, he has a great time, but he often says "I can't remember what happened" whenever I ask him how it went.
Before leaving he took a photo of me on the iPhone. A portrait of me in these homecoming days. Drains, pillow and the little expander that couldn't. The breast you can see is the unaltered version. The pillow is needed to alleviate any pressure on my chest or armpit.
When the oldest returned from kinder, he told me about the kid that pushed him over today. Last week, this would have been upsetting. But today, he thought it was funny. This afternoon, he asked Daddy to give him a haircut. He asked for a mowhawk style and Daddy obliged. He is growing up.

subset: commoncrawl


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Convergence applications bear some of the direct and indirect responsibility for the massive increase in demand for Internet addresses. The situation is getting critical, and one of the doyens of the Internet -- Vint Cert -- is worried.
Currently, the Internet uses an addressing scheme called Internet Protocol version 4 (IPv4). For years, experts have been treating address exhaustion like the IT version of global warming. ("Things seem fine now. But once the crisis hits, you'll all be sorry that you didn't listen.") Adoption of the next addressing scheme, IPv6, has been slow.
Cerf, who is the outgoing chairman of the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) and the chief technology evangelist for Google, says that the address cupboard will be bare by 2010 or 2011. He was somewhat reassuring, however: Exhaustion of the available supply doesn't mean that the Internet will grind to a halt. It simply means that new addresses won't be available.
The answer is IPv6, which will make available a trillion trillion trillion discreet addresses (IPv4 offers a paltry 4 billion). Ars Technica both shines light on a related issue and highlights how complex the overall field is. The story says that organizations controlling address distribution in North America and Europe, The American Registry for Internet Numbers (ARIN) and the Rseaux IP Europens (RIPE), respectively, have come out in favor of a move to IPv6.
That's the easy part. The complexity of the addressing sector is illustrated by the fate of the class E space addresses in IPv4. The story says that this block of licenses -- which start with the numbers 240 to 255 -- were reserved for future use. Combining these with the still available standard IPv4 addresses, the story says, could buy the older standard an extra year.
The key takeaway isn't what happens to the E space addresses. The key is the realization that anything involving a change as basic and labor-intensive as tweaking millions of routers and other devices is prone to get a wee bit contentious.
This level of uncertainty isn't likely to be resolved soon. For instance, Johna Till Johnson goes a long way to deconstructing the common wisdom that we are running out of IPv4 addresses. She adds that there is a price in switching to IPv6, since the longer addresses (necessary to get from 4 billion to multi-trillions of possibilities) requires more bandwidth and could be a problem in lower capacity connectivity scenarios.
In cases in which there is uncertainty over whether or not to deploy a technology, it is a good idea to see what vendors are doing. These are business folks who certainly won't invest in something that they don't feel will happen. Last week, Agilent introduced N2X multiservices test gear. The company says that it is the first product geared to validating Internet protocol television (IPTV) over IPv6 networks. The release provides a tremendous amount of information on the attributes of the N2X. The bottom line is that a major test and measurement equipment vendor considers such an offering worthwhile.
EMC Corp. also is at least hedging its IPv6 bets. In September, the company unveiled the Smart IPv6 Availability Manager. The software, EMC says, offers network discovery, mapping, monitoring and root-cause analysis for IPv6 as well as IPv4 and hybred infrastructures. The product meets U.S. government requirements for IPv6 support and has been submitted for Ready v6 Logo testing. The release provides details about the product, which is positioned as a way to achieve visibility and control in complex IP environments.
IPv6 seems to be a matter of when, not if. The fundamentals are clear: There is an insatiable appetite for slapping an IP address on just about everything. The challenge is getting network operators to do something that is expensive, troublesome and revenue-neutral before it becomes a crisis. Calls like those from an expert such as Vint Cerf certainly will help. Whether it will be enough to finally get IPv6 over the hump remains top be seen.
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Are you a First Home Buyer? Are you looking to invest in property? Or are you simply looking for more information about a particular property?
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NAB on George will have a Mobile Interactive Panel at the branch which you can interact with and find out more about the property you are interested in. A few simple questions which will only take a few minutes, will lead to a full report being generated for your property. This report can then be sent to you either by SMS or email.
Come in and visit us during trading hours and obtain a free NAB Property Report now!
To find out more about NAB on George visit nab.com.au/nabongeorge


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Facebook posts are a tricky thing. At any given time, you could post an update that seems perfectly innocent to you, but somehow your joke manages to rub someone the wrong way, or you reveal something you weren't supposed to about someone else, or you post something vague that someone somehow takes to be about them. Believe me, I've done it all -- and I've seen it all. But one thing I try never to do is those attention-seeking, passive-aggressive updates that beg for a response, but don't spell out what exactly is going on. Sometimes Facebook is like a book that you randomly open to pages and only get a tiny bit of the story -- since you're not going to see a person's updates every time -- and I get that. But then there are those who seem to do it on purpose.
Here are 10 Facebook updates that are really just annoyingly passive-aggressive cries for attention.
1. "Please send prayers/good thoughts." Nothing worse than this type of update. Am I supposed to take a moment out of my day to pray for your recovery from an accident -- or pray that you win the lottery? Because one I might do, the other probably not.
2. "I can't believe that just happened! What is WRONG with people?!" Exactly. What is wrong with people who decry what is wrong with people without saying what went wrong.
3. "I normally hate pictures of myself, I look so fat and ugly, but this one didn't come out too bad." So you want compliments. Just ask for one!
More from The Stir: 10 Surefire Ways to Be That Obnoxious Facebook Friend
4. "I know everyone thinks my life is perfect, but it's not." First off, I hadn't thought your life was perfect. Secondly, if it's not, then say why not! You know, on second thought, don't.
5. "Just left the hospital." Were you visiting? Were you injured? Are you really going to make me ask?
6. "I wasn't going to say this because I normally don't post things like this on Facebook, but ..." Oh for god's sake, just post it without the disclaimer.
7. "Thanks to God/the universe/the fates for this wonderful news!!!" And you're not sharing what that news is. Of course. You know what? I don't want to know.
8. "What's a good diet?" Why don't you just say you want people to tell you that you don't need to diet?
9. "Stop posting on my wall. You know who you are." Actually, I don't. Should I stop posting? Have I ever posted? Could you have sent this privately so as not to confuse people?
10. "I won't be on Facebook for the foreseeable future. If you need to reach me, you have my number." Nooooooo, don't goooooo. Okay, go.
Have you seen any passive-aggressive cries for attention on Facebook?
Image via English 106/Flickr


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Mindfulness for Introverts
Mindfulness doesn't necessarily come easily to the busy introvert mind.
Everybody's talkin' 'bout mindfulness these days. It's all the rage, from meditation to mindful eating. I'm 100 percent on board with this. All sorts of research is coming out about the benefits--emotional, mental, and physical--of staying present and aware in the moment.Easier said than done.
You'd think that introverts, who spend a lot of time in their own minds, would be mindfulness gurus. But when you think about it further, maybe not.
After all, if your mind is spinning with interesting thoughts, you're not paying attention to what is actually going on around you.
Do you ever find that when you have something churning in your head--especially a worry--allowing yourself to just fall into the whirlpool of thoughts is easier than fighting them? That keeping thoughts at bay requires huge exertion?
Introverts may be quiet people in a noisy world, but we're also internally noisy, and that's not mindfulness. More like full-mindedness.
I've been practicing yoga for several years. At the end of every class is a five-minute relaxation, savasana. You lie on your back, in what some people call corpse pose, and let yourself completely relax.
Easy, right?
Yeah, except relaxing my mind. More often than not, my brain starts whirring furiously the moment we lie down, and the savasana ends before I'm even aware it's going on. In one class, my teacher leads us through a relaxation, but sometimes I can barely hear her over my own thoughts.
That's not mindfulness.
Same thing when I walk my dog. The trees are green, the birds are singing, and I'm looking at the ground, furiously thinking about whatever it is I'm thinking about.
I usually catch myself at some point during the walk. I'll take a breath, look around, feel the sun, try to be present in the moment.
It lasts for a few minutes. Then, before I know it, I'm back in my busy brain.
Letting your own thoughts interfere with being in the present is no better than letting outside noise intrude on your peace. In fact, it's a lot easier to turn off the TV or close the door on noise than it is to turn down the volume in your head.
No mystery why meditation is considered a discipline.
Actually, in loud, busy places, introverts often need to retreat inside our heads. It can be more peaceful there and less overwhelming. But spending too much time listening to our own thoughts yammering at us can be as exhausting as cocktail party chitchat. As proud as we are of our busy brains, we don't need to listen to them all the time.
I took a meditation lesson once and the instructor gave me some tips for dealing with my monkey mind. My favorite was her suggestion that I think of my thoughts as kids in a playground--running, shouting, jumping, laughing, yelling--while I am sitting still and quiet nearby. This separates my quiet mind from my busy thoughts, and I've found it works pretty well for a while.
As we become more aware of how busy our introvert minds are, we also need to think about managing that energy--harnessing the power for our own good, and calming it when it gets too frenetic. And yes, you can be frenetic even sitting alone and silent in a quiet room. (Especially if you're also in front of a computer, which is the biggest yammerhead in the world. It never shuts up.)
So. Right now. Stop reading. Look up. Look around you. See what you see, hear what you hear, and get out of your own head for a bit. Be mindful instead of mind full. It feels good.


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TV interview about me and my work in the series "Artistas", TV program Canal 4tv Mallorca / Spain
A painting for Gaimersheim – Posted in Publications
When paintings happen
Conveying the deep feelings of the inner imagination is the start of her painting's creative process–which always has the people at its center.
Momentary impressions, which have memorized and which are the basis for the painting process. Layer by layer sensed, elaborated, viewed, but also rejected and re-developed. Every layer, even if it seems hidden, remains an important part of the painting, strengthens the expressiveness, conveys profundity, and always opens up new, not yet discovered.
(Dr. Olaf Willett, cultural historian)
- … read more
Catalog Gisela Hammer " Speak to me "
intrinsically expressive painting
- Exhibition / Stein am Rhein (CH)
- International Artist's Work in Big Apple – digital exhibition
Participation in the 4th International Art Festival in Korea from September 1, 2018 to October 30, 2018!
- Another video is online now
- Video | My stand with some of my new works at the Kreativvitty fair
1st prize at the Int. Egon Schiele competition November 2016. Schiele Center Krumenau/Budweis
- ARTE & FAMA art project with 25 international artists in Mallorca
- current – archives


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Here the vulgar eye will see nothing but Obscurity and will despair considerably.
Scrying is a technique of divination and revelation, of producing visions, perhaps of the future, through prolonged gaze at an object, usually of crystal or liquid nature. Scrying was famously practiced by the 16th century astronomer, mathematician and alchemist John Dee with the assistance of presumed impostor Edward Kelley, using a mirror of obsidian amongst other devices.
The scrying project presents itself as a generic, modular platform for artists and theorists working with both code and electromagnetic phenomena. Of central concern is some kind of intervention within often complex spectral ecologies; for example, measurement of the strength of EM fields, transmission and reception amongst mobile networks of devices, large-scale intervention through the production of high field strength emissions, mapping of intensities and blind city flaneur.
The core platform has been under development for around 18 months, and the hardware is reasonably mature. The focus is on mobility, low power consumption and flexibility. The development of scrying has been driven both by a perceived need for an independent radio and computational platform, for example operating by solar power, and by several artistic projects which will make use of the platform. In the latter case, a focus on code transmission, allowing mobile software modules to interact with spectral ecologies in unforeseen manner, has driven the development of a Scheme programming language interpreter running on the platform. This allows both for interactive development of highly readable code on the core module (comprising microcontroller, memory and power management), in contrast to the usual compile and upload model for most microcontroller platforms, and for code segments to migrate across radio networks.
The platform is currently comprised of a core computational module, outlined above, powered by three AA batteries which can be charged by USB or solar panel. Further working modules, which stack up on the main board, cover 100MHz to 2.5GHz detection and amplification [RSSI], 2.4GHz spectral analysis, GPS measurement and high power, low frequency emission. Projected modules will enable low and high power, high frequency transmission and reception for local networking, FM transmission, and white noise generation. At present the main board has one SMA connection for shared antenna, power connections and off-board serial-USB connection for computer to scrying connection (uploading/downloading software and data). Software for the platform can easily be divided up into three repositories: a core library abstracting access to hardware such as memory, SPI and serial ports, the Scheme interpreter using this library, and an early logging/terminal command application used below. All hardware designs and implementations, and software is published under the GPL.
In the context of the scrying Gijon walk, the platform was used with a simple logging software to map broad spectrum EM field strength within the centre of (old) Gijon surrounding the Pelayo statue. An attempt was made to access both the past and future of this site through speculative appropriation of the techniques of geophysical archaeology and a relation to Burrough's cut up/Hugh Everett's theory of Many Worlds. In practical terms a broadband log periodic antenna was attached to a scrying board equipped with GPS and wide spectrum signal strength board. The platform was attached to the laptop and minicom serial communication software was used to issue logging commands and to make sure the GPS had locked to a signal. The laptop was detached and the board and both local and GPS antenna was carried in a spiral walk around the main square in the rain for around twenty minutes. At this point the laptop was re-attached and minicom again used to download the logged data (position and field strength) to the laptop. The data was cleaned up or massaged, to match a format suiting the gnuplot analysis software and a 2D representational graph of field strength against position was constructed using both GNU Emacs and gnuplot. Rough correlations between the perceived physical structures (a large fountain) and environmental issues (presence of cars surrounding the fountain), as well as possible discovery of several underground fish salting and farming chambers (from Roman times) were also discussed.
See: http://www.scrying.org
Further references:
walk documentation
The scrying platform is supported by Arts Council England.
see also schematics, atmegascheme, cpu, lispcpu


text: https://www.instagram.com/p/BOuSbwEh1Dc Happy January 1 - the day of cliches, nostalgic look-backs, and often empty promises. That said, here's my contribution to the new year. 2016 was quite a different year than I expected. December of 2015, I sat down and wrote this big list of goals for the following year. I couldn't shake the fact… Continue reading I've already decided that 2017 is going to be ridiculously amazing.


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A colleague has revealed that an Irish photographer living in the South of France was commissioned by the French glossy magazine to take the topless shots of Duchess Catherine.
Celebrity photographer Pascal Rostain said the Irish photographer, who has not been named, was commissioned directly from the magazine and could have made a fortune selling them.
Rostain said identifying the photographer in questions wasn't difficult. He said "In our small paparazzi world, we know who it is but obviously don't say anything.
"I can just say it is an Irish national who lives in the south of France."
Speaking to BBC Radio Rostain said "The only thing I can tell you is that he's from south of Dublin and he had red hair, but of course I will never, never, never say his name."
Duchess Catherine (Kate Middleton) was snapped without her bikini top on while vacationing at a family chateau in Provence. Some reports say that the photos were taken at an opportune moment when the Princess was changing. The Royal family are "furious" and the legal cogs are already fully in motion.
The French courts have now banned Closer from reselling or using the photos in question again.
However the magazine said they only bought the rights for first use of the photos and do not own the original images.
Rostain told the Associated Press that when a publication "commissions a photographer or an agency ... the price is fixed in advance, it can be €1,000 ($1,245) for every working day plus expenses and a few thousand euros for the snaps."
However, because the photographer only sold the first use he could stand to earn "a few thousand euros" for the photos.
The British tabloids have already dubbed this photographer as "Le Rat" and say he will be hunted down and sent to jail.
The topless photos of the Princess have since appeared in magazines in Denmark and Sweden, Ireland's Daily Star and Italy's Chi, which like Closer is owned by former Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi's Mondari media group.
The editor of Ireland's Daily Star Michael O'Kane was suspended last week after he made the decision to re-publish the images last weekend.
Rostain also commented on the hypocritical nature of the British tabloids who are now attacking the unnamed photographer in question they have named "Le Rat". He commented on the fact that last year they had published photographs of French former first lady Carla Bruni on the eve of a state visit she and her husband Nicolas Sarkozy made to Britain early last year.


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Home » Columns »
The Employee Ownership Update
Corey Rosen
July 15, 2005
Deloitte Survey Shows a Third of Companies Dropping Broad-Based OptionsIn its new 2005 Stock Compensation Survey, Deloitte Consulting LLP reports that 75% of responding companies plan to reduce, or had already reduced, the number of options they grant. Public companies were more likely to reduce options than private companies, by an 83% to 53% margin. The survey included 343 companies, 69% of which were public and 31% private. The biggest impact will be on lower-level employees, although it is worth noting that about two-thirds of the companies with broad-based equity award plans will keep them in some form, and around two-thirds of companies with ESPPs will either keep the plans as they are or make changes that keep the plans very attractive to employees. The survey was conducted in the second quarter of 2005. Just over half (52%) of the companies were in technology, media, and telecommunications. Company size varied from very small to very large.
The changes are much less a reaction to new rules on options expensing than to shareholder pressure. Eighty-three percent of the respondents say that they do not think expensing will affect stock prices, and only 20% of the private companies say that expensing will affect their plans to go public. Shareholder pressure to put a lid on dilution is a much more compelling factor. Seventy-three percent of public companies and 64% of private companies said they would try to keep dilution under 15% or less. Run rates (the percentage of shares made available for awards each year) are generally targeted at 2% or less.
Reductions in options are coming mostly at the non-executive level, with 46% of public and 45% of private companies following this path. One-third of the public and one-fourth of the private companies plan cuts across the board. Only 6% of respondents are dropping executive options, and only 11% are reducing the size of the grants to this group. By contrast, 36% of the companies say had reduced or eliminated option eligibility for exempt employees, and 33% are doing the same for non-exempt employees. The size of the grants at these levels was being reduced in 41% of the cases. In fact, 32% of the public and 23% of the private companies are eliminating grants for all non-exempt employees. The results did not differ significantly by broad industry grouping. Where equity awards were being eliminated for a group of employees, 42% of public and 31% of private companies will not replace them with any other kind of benefit.
ESPPsEmployee stock purchase plans have raised little shareholder ire, but a number of companies seem to be taking advantage of the new expensing rules to pare back or eliminate these plans. While ESPPs are very popular at some companies, at others they attract relatively low participation and investment, partly because some companies make little effort to promote or explain them. Of the 60% of public companies in the survey with ESPPs, 28% anticipate making changes, 43% will make no changes, and 29% have not decided. Reducing the discount or look-back period (the time period during which an employee can "look back" to a previous date's stock price to make a purchase) are the most popular alternatives, with about half the companies making changes favoring these approaches. About 30% of the companies making changes, however, will simply offer a 5% discount on the shares, with no look-back (the accounting "safe harbor" that incurs no expense), while 8% will eliminate the plan. Most experts agree that offering such a small discount effectively kills the program.
Global ESPPs are even more vulnerable. Of the 53 companies with these plans, a quarter will eliminate them and another 24% will conform to the safe harbor. Still, 42% plan to at least keep the 15% discount.
Alternative PlansAmong the 79% of companies considering changes, 45% said they would be increasing their use of time-vested restricted stock or restricted stock units, 36% performance-vested restricted stock or restricted stock units, 25% performance-vested options, 24% performance-granted restricted stock or units, and 18% stock appreciation rights, with smaller support for other strategies.
Valuation ModelsDespite all the discussion of alternative valuation models, 41% of the companies plan to use the Black-Scholes model, compared to 11% choosing a lattice model. Other companies have not decided.
SignificanceThe data are very much in line with other surveys. Overall, they reach several key conclusions:
- Although much of the impetus for option reform was to reduce the amount of equity grants to top executives, there is no reason to think this will happen.
- Outright awards to a broad base of employees will be reduced, but a significant majority of companies with these plans will keep many of their essential features, albeit some of these will reduce the size of the awards.
- ESPPs will be significantly reduced or eliminated in perhaps a quarter to third of the companies, but the remaining companies will continue a commitment to the basic outline of these plans.
Publix Supermarkets Tops Employee Ownership 100 ListPublix Supermarkets continues to be the largest majority employee-owned company in the U.S. and, almost certainly, the world. It employs over 120,000 employees in over 800 stores in five Southern states. It consistently shows up on lists of the most admired companies and best places to work, and, year after year, has the highest customer satisfaction scores of any supermarket (and sometimes of any kind of business, period). Publix was started with one store in Florida in 1930. Employee ownership goes back to 1945, when founder George Jenkins created a share bonus and stock purchase plan for all full-time employees. In 1980, an ESOP was set up, with annual contributions around 10% of pay. Employees can also buy stock in the 401(k) plan and, since 1959, a stock purchase plan. Only Publix employees can buy stock, and 100% of Publix is owned by the various plans. The company's stock has far outperformed the market, and a typical associate would earn twice one year's pay over 10 years in the ESOP. The Publix culture is very focused on extraordinary customer service, as its awards would suggest. Anecdotes about some of the more remarkable examples of devotion to customer service can be found in a new book, The Story of Customer Service at Publix, by Joe Carvin, former HR manager at the company.
The updated list of the 100 largest majority employee-owned companies will appear in the next issue of the NCEO newsletter.
Last Chance for ESOP Executive Compensation SurveyThe NCEO is currently conducting a survey on executive compensation in ESOP companies. Those filling out the survey will get free access to the results. The survey deadline is July 29. To fill out the survey, go to this link.
Author biography and other columns in this series


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He is well known around the world by many and if you have an inner calling to awaken, then this seminar is a must do. Yashwant's unique approach brings about amazing transformation for individuals, families, groups and organizations while his engaging manner is highly informative, philosophical and practical served with a generous sprinkling of humour.
"...Yashwant is the one person in my life to have made such a big difference to me mentally and physically." Jamie Baulch - Olympic Silver Medalist
This 'must see' seminar needs to be on the top of your To Do list.
Know Good, Be Good, Do AMAZING!


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2019 Sailing Calendar
Useful Information
Sailing Instructions
Results 2018
Results 2017
Results 2016
Club News
Learn to Sail
Push the Boat Out 2018
Youth Learn to Sail
Adult Learn to Sail
2019 Llandudno Open Event
2019 Championship Details
LLSC Open Results 2018
NRO – Paul Moreton
About the Club
Our Club History
Officers & Committee
Membership Fees
Data Privacy Policy
Equality & Diversity Policy
Operating Procedures
Croeso i Clwb Hwylio LLandudno Sailing Club Welcomes you.
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Hotels Trophy
Llandudno sailing club last Sunday competed over three races for the Hotels Trophy. Club juniors and adult members from other boat classes were attending championships running around the country. These absences meant that the fleet was reduced for this challenge, however, competition would be extremely close as the ...
Paul Moreton Trophy 2018
A change in the weather accompanied the change of racing on Sunday from series races to the annual competition for the Paul Moreton Trophy. It had been hoped that this Trophy would be competed over three races but unfortunately the fickle wind conditions meant that after nearly three hours on the water results would be ...
William Series 2018
'Sunday witnessed the start of the delayed Williams Series which will now run until the end of the summer sailing season on most Sunday's. Bright blue skies and a gentle breeze welcomed a much reduced fleet to that normally present on a Sunday. However, this reduced fleet enjoyed the barmy conditions and a reasonable ...
2019 Championships
Dates for your Diaries in 2019.............. we are going to need member support for both but obviously the Scorpions will be the main event. Llandudno Open 28/29 April 2019. This is a 2 day Open with Scorpions, Solutions, GP's, Solo's all showing interest.... But in 2019 we are opening to all. Scorpion National ...
Salisbury Series Update
'The draw of England's World Cup game against Panama together with the glorious summer weather severely reduced the number of sailors for this week's rounds eleven and twelve in the Salisbury Series. As it turned out the main competition would be between the talented Farrell family who contributed three of the five ...
2018 Llandudno CYRC Update
Saturday 9th Showcased Llandudno Sailing Club at its best....... Fantastic weather, great sailing, almost 40 juniors from the region on the water. The volunteer base excelled in the clubhouse, particularly the ladies that maned the catering & bar, on the beach and on the water. Many thanks to all involved ...
2018 Llandudno CYRC
The 2018 Llandudno Open Championship will be held at Llandudno Sailing Club on Saturday 9th June Date: Saturday 9th June Cost: £10 single hander £15 double hander Notice of Race The Notice of Race can be viewed here Sailing Instructions The Sailing instructions can be viewed here
Llandudno Open (Scorpion Report)
Salisbury Series (R9 & R10)
The bright blue skies of the bank holiday weekend continued last Sunday in Llandudno Bay accompanying the Salisbury Series which reached rounds nine and ten. The bright sunshine on this occasion brought with it a stronger breeze than last weekend, just flicking around the head of the Great Orme and across the Bay. Sailors ...


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Welcome to The Curious Child Montessori PreSchool - GretnaAges: 6 weeks - 6 years
At all of our Montessori Educational Centers, it is our goal to inspire. We are passionately committed to exceptional child care helping develop independent, self-motivated, and confident children who are committed to a lifelong pursuit of knowledge.
We foster this love for learning by providing an age-appropriate, child-sized environment that encourages exploration and allows for kids to learn at their own pace, ultimately guiding them on their chosen path of success.
What Makes Our Gretna Daycare And Preschool Unique:
- Full Montessori education experience preparing your child for success in school
- This location services: Gretna, Omaha. and Millard
- Extensive programs such as KinderYoga, Spanish and Music
- Nature Certified Playground with natural wood and earth play areas
- Extensive garden the kids help tend and cultivate
- Close to Chalco Hills Recreation Area
- Extensive 5* reviews on Yelp, Google, and Facebook
- Phenomenal staff with extensive experience and education consistently going above and beyond
- And so much more you have to experience... just come for a visit and discover this location for yourself
Our preschool and daycare programs are not for everyone; but for parents that really value school readiness, safety, and development of social emotional skills, then we are the school for you.
For more information on our nursery, preschool, and elementary school Montessori programs, please visit our Infant, Preschool, and Elementary pages.
Phone: 402.393.1311
Principal: Jordan Steger
School Hours: 7:00am - 6:00pm
MEC Main Office Hours: 8:00am - 4:30pm
Parents/Guardians are asked to report any absences or late arrivals by 9:00am.
Visit Our Classrooms
Virtual Classroom Images will be available shortly. Please keep checking our website to see when they are available.


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My 7-year-old said "shum" for "thumb" for a really, really long time. My now-5-year-old called it a "fum." I don't know why I loved these mispronunciations so much, but I did. SHUM. FUM. It was weirdly sad when they stopped -- I almost wanted to encourage them to go back to their slushy babytalk versions.
I was thinking about verbal kid-isms recently when my youngest expressed his frustration with a U.S. map jigsaw puzzle. The pieces didn't fit together very well, and he got mad about halfway through when he bumped it and all the states slid apart, earthquake-style. "I don't even like Nopelahoma!" he said, storming off.
Sadly, my kids are flying past the biffed-word stage -- who approved this "growing up" business? Where can I file a complaint? -- but I have fond memories of some of my very favorite mispronunciations.
First, there was "fire truck." I don't know if all kids go through a period of slurring "fire" and "truck" together so it sounds like a very bad word, but both my boys did as toddlers. We probably shouldn't have encouraged them as much as we did. ("Say 'fire truck,' honey! HAHAHAHAHAHAHAA. Let's get Grandma on the phone!")
Then, the mythical animals. I remember a hippoblotamus. A buffalope. Elemphant. Crockerdile. Woofs (wolves). Wooster (rooster). And totles, pronounced exactly like the "I Like Turtles" kid:
Body parts were interesting for a while, since they all ended in "ee" sounds. There was, of course, the aforementioned shum/fum, but also beebees for breasts. ("Why you gots dose beebees, Mommy?") My youngest called his elbow an elbee for a while. My now-7-year-old referred to his little toe as a "wee wee wee" -- as in, wee wee wee, all the way home.
An elevator was an elebator. Library was liberry (and actually, it still is). Envelope was embelope, balloons were bawoons, and for a very long time the thing I typed on for work was a picuter. Picuter! COULD YOU DIE. Man, I'm so going to miss these kid-isms when they're all gone.
I asked my Twitter pals to share some of their own kids' funniest/cutest mispronunciations, and here are some of the fantastic examples:
Lorelai says "feetball" instead of "football". I die every time. -- Erin
"Private seat" for privacy. As in, "I'm going potty. Can I get a little private seat?" -- Celinda
My son thinks "movie theaters" are "movie see-you-laters." I've yet to correct him. -- Valerie
My son used to say "momotamus" for hippopotamus. My husband adopted it as his band name. -- Robyn
My youngest is 6 and we still say we are having pant-cakes for breakfast. -- Snoopymom
My 5-year-old calls breakfast "breptist" and only recently realized that goggles aren't "googles". I blame my oldest for ruining that one. -- Nonsoccermom
Grocery cart = grocery carpet. Adele = Madell. We've corrected him many times but secretly still glad he says them. -- Jessie
My 6-year-old tells me that things are "ridick-lee-ous." She also calls her favorite candy "Reese's penis butter cups." -- Cindy
Cait calls mozzarella "monsterella". And I will cut anyone who corrects her. -- Caly
Habidopter (my now-10-year-old) and helihopter (4-year-old). We were sad when those went away. -- Chelle
Cutest: daughter's "sundle" for snuggle. Funniest: son couldn't pronounce frog and therefore called Kermit a "silly fuck." -- Juliloquy
Current fave: parentheses are "the C's", eg, "I wrote my name & then put my room number in the C's." Makes more sense, actually. -- Scott
When Rowan was about 1.5-year-old, he called sandwiches "sumbitches." Man, I wish that one stuck. -- Jen
Gobbles. "I need my gobbles to see under water!" -- Crystal
My favorites are "Lightning the Queen" instead of Lightning McQueen. And of course, lollypops are "rollypops." -- Courtney
My 4-year-old mispronounced the name of his classroom assistant spectacularly the other day. Poor Mr. Cant. -- Amy
My 2-year-old daughter said thank you as 'F you' clear as a bell. Hand her a French fry? F-ck you! -- J Anne
The girl uses "nake-nake" for naked. May she never stop. We recently stayed in an RV which the boy insisted on calling the "Harvey." -- Cherie
My 4-year-old pronounces pistachios "mustachioes" and we've started calling him Mr. Mustachio because we're loving parents. -- Marcoda
What are some of the pronunciation goofs you remember your own kids doing? Do you miss the days of creative wordplay?
Image via Linda Sharps


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I had just gone for 25 mile bike ride whatever turned home and so Newsday special report plastered on the front cover. It described how New York has the worst bicycle fatality statistics in the tri-state area. This is definitely not a good statistic to own.
In the video I mention that had I known about this special report, I would not have gone for a 25 mile bike ride.
Watch the video to learn why motorists need to share the road and pay attention to things besides cars. You'll also learn why some bicyclists may be at fault for causing their own accidents.


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|Cerner Analyst
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- Must be experienced in Cerner with design, build, testing and support
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- Good communication skills
- Travel on-site Mon-Thurs required
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Pivot Point has earned a number of industry and workplace quality awards, including:#1 in KLAS for Epic Consulting 2016, Select Category, #3 Best in KLAS for HIT Implementation Support & Staffing report 2015/2016/2017, #9 Modern Healthcare's Best Places to Work, and #4 Fastest Growing Firm by Consulting Magazine in 2015. For more information about Pivot Point Consulting, visit us at http://www.pivotpointconsulting.com or call 800.381.9681.
Alternatively, you can apply to this job using your profile on one of the following sites:


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11 things the Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild trailer tells us
The reveal trailer, though short and sweet, reveals lots of new information about The Legend of Zelda: Breath of The Wild.
Nintendo has just dropped the latest trailer for The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild before diving into a lengthy hands-on. But you don't have to wait to learn a thing or two about the latest Zelda. Here is everything the trailer tells us about Link's new adventure.
The parachute is more like a hang glider
When we first witnessed this back in December 2017, it seemed just like another substitute for the Deku Leaf or Sailcloth, but the latest trailer paints it as a pointed hang glider capable of picking up speed.
Uncharted: A Vandal's End
This gameplay feature was alluded to a couple of days ago when Amazon leaked some promo art of Link hanging from the side of a cliff. However, the trailer shows multiple sequences of Link channelling his inner Nathan Drake.
Link can break other horses
Keeping with the "wild" theme, Link can break in wild steads to use as his own. That noted, our heart containers will always belong to the ever-faithful Epona.
In one part of the trailer, Link strips down to his unmentionables and dives headfirst into the ocean. Keen-eyed observers would have noticed the spear slung over his shoulder. This isn't the only allusion made to hunting.
Realistic fire propagation
Another (and slightly more cruel) instance of Link hunting in the trailer shows Link smoking out an unseen enemy or prey. This could lend itself to some interesting puzzle-solving mechanics later in the game.
Hunting with a bow
In one of the more shocking moments from the trailer, our courageous mute straight-up murders a boar with a bow and arrow. Aonuma has said survival is a big part of Breath of the Wild and a later clip shows Link cooking up a storm, but jeez.
Environment kills
It's not just food that this new cold-hearted Hylian hunts, we also see him systematically hunting down his enemies. Using parts of his environment, like bee hives or boulders, Link assassinates unsuspecting enemies.
Link Martell: The Green Viper
It's been confirmed that Link will be able to utilise enemy weapons, so there's no telling whether the spear is a mainstay in Link's pouch. But man does he know how to swing it.
And my axe...
Though it's hard to see in the image below, Link is swinging a massive axe at that horned beast. Again, this could be an enemy pick-up or it could have a permanent fixture on Link's belt. It would make sense considering you spend some time chopping wood, likely another key to surviving Breath of the Wild.
The Ice Rod is back, along with more unique puzzle-solving items
I can't say for sure that the image below shows Link using the Ice Rod, but it works in the exact same way and the LoZ series has a habit of rotating recurring items between games. More interesting is the rad, neon magnet gizmo. Link has had magnet gloves before (Oracle of Seasons) but the trailer shows our (increasingly psychopathic) hero lifting huge metal beams from the water to crush his enemies with. UPDATE: This item has been confirmed as the Magnesis Rune, a sweet add-on Link can add to his Shiekah Rune.
Link has some badass armour
Probably one of the most striking moments in trailer, for me personally, was seeing Link don that ornate suit of armour. What kind of perks do you get from armour? How far does the customisation go? Is this Dark Souls: Prepare to Hy-rule? I need to know, and I need to know now.
The road to The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild
The wait for this news has been an especially long one, as The Legend of Zelda for Wii U was first announced way back in January 2013. Then over a year later, fans finally got their eyes on the new Zelda at the 2013 E3 presentation and it was game on. Well, not quite. The original trailer – while visually stunning in all its cel-shaded glory – showed no gameplay and didn't really set a precedent for what players could expect when they finally got their hands on the egame. Luckily, a recent build of the upcoming game was shown by Shigeru Miyamoto and Eiji Aonuma later that year at The Game Awards in Las Vegas.


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HORSEHEADS � The Blue Raiders played a nearly flawless first six minutes of Thursday�s game, leading Horseheads to a 61-31 girls basketball win against STAC West rival Corning.
Horseheads (12-2) held Corning to just two field goal attempts, created seven turnovers and shot 7-for-10 from the field in an opening salvo that resulted in a 16-0 lead. The Blue Raiders continued stingy play through the rest of the first half for a 34-12 lead at halftime.
�The girls have been doing that well, the starters come out and set the tone, which has been one of our trademarks in the last few games. It�s a balance, too,� said Horseheads coach Andy Scott. �Abbey Benesh must have had five steals to open the game and LaViola was scoring � it wasn�t a Leszyk and Schiefen show today. They played hard and they were ready to go. I told them we have to play 62 minutes in two days, so let�s go out and get everyone some minutes.�
To start the third quarter, Horseheads connect on its first six shots during a 14-2 run, ;ed by Ellie Leszyk�s six points. Meanwhile, the Raiders were able to stifle any progress Corning made by stealing the ball and quickly converting.
Entering the game, Horseheads� goal was to take away Corning�s dangerous outside shooting, but when the Hawks (5-8) tried to go inside, someone wearing white and blue was disrupting the play.
�They�re going to be really good down the road, so we have to keep an eye on them all the time because they can stick one in your eye,� Scott said of Corning. �With a little time, I think they could be a force to be reckoned with.�
Horseheads, which will play Cicero-North Syracuse today at Onondaga Community College, was led by Leszyk�s 14 points, Jen LaViola scored 12 points � seven in the first quarter � Abbey Benesh netted 11 points and Amanda Schiefen finished with eight points. Corning got a game-high 16 points from Olivia LeBaron and Gillian McGannon netted five points off the bench.
Corning will visit Vestal on Tuesday with three games left in the regular season.


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Whose the crudest?
Men or women. Who can gross me out the most (It doesn't take much mind)
But please restraint on the predjudiced front.
I would not
be crude just for the sake of this thread. Come online around 2am tomorrow night. Then you'll see.
How do you get a gay gay to shag your girlfriend?
Shit in her cunt.
(nicked from B3ta)
that joke had me in fits
so there.
You had to go and ruin
it for Chris_Budget didn't you?
this could become awkward.
I thought
shitting in the cunt was the 'done' thing. Oh dear.
Neither but men are more into gross out owing to women being encouraged to have an idea of etiquette and being a lady. Archaic stuff.
you're gay, gay.
Actually you can stop now
Darcys joke has already grossed me out enough, thank you, OK this was a stupid thread to start. It was just cos of the chris budget porn thing...I feel so foolish
the thing that springs to mind in the gross-out stakes...
A friend years ago who worked at an old peoples home was grumbling about how he had to spend New Year's eve pushing back in an Octogenarian's prolasped rectum.
Another friend asked "What - did you use your fingers?"
To which he replied "of course I did! How else am I supposed to do it?"
The friend later confessed to me that it was a lie - he was supposed to do it with his (gloved) hand but actually he used the end of a broomstick 'cos he said is was so disgusting.
Isn't it..
somehow it seems more disgusting that he used a broom handle than his own hand - weird eh..
There is
a very crude guy in my halls called Pete the Meat, he walks into a room and just starts going on about farting, anal sex, "getting some wet" etc.
The other day he walked into my room, farted, and then proclaimed "OOh I better wipe my arse now!"
or even better
take a broom handle to his arse.
thats better thats the sort of crude humour that makes me smile...
.I am shocked at you darcy what would Mrs Darcy think of you saying things like you did with youre opening gambit on this thread?
It was his chat up line
She's cruder than he is.
Matthew Kelly
hey thats how it goes
hes forever in children
explorin their holes
you better be told
he'll even fuck a coalhead
like yr brutha Calzone
<sung to osbournes song>
a difference between crude and insulting.
I did request at the beginning
that the predjudice be withheld
yeh, was just about to make a retraction. just read it. oh well.
just dont say im racist.
I have
been quite polite this week. I am detoxing basically because I got myself into alot of trouble last week.
But I'm FUCKING BORED with drinknig bloody water, and these cigarette patches are hurting my wee blonde arm hair :( Someone be crude and cheer me up. Please!
who send dirty notes shall cometh forward and proclaim their dirty, pondering minds, and display them for the world to see! Expose yourselves!
do you mean me?
I only asked how you slung your bass
Even your photo is funny.
not like
you look weird or owt. Oh dammit we've had this conversation...
you still havn't told me
how you have it.
Yeha you kind of encouraged people to do what you didn't want hence comedie racist posts and people who should use abandon reply not doing so. I despair of this site sometimes.
sometimes I am stupid
because you
are comfortable with your body?
I am a bit stupid...I say lots of nice things in the god thread and overdose on niceness so I start a stupid crude thread and flirt a bit because I'm not really that nice, and want you all to know it but that is stupid.
Stupid stupid stupid stupid.
(Bangs head on wall repeatedly)
Oh is that blood?
Sorry I've lost count
but still banging away, down to the bone now, euphoria is just 42 bangs away
(gay gay = very gay)
I dont want anything to do with this
lowly excuse for a thread!
I was really STARVING
at Reading, and my mate Andy was preparing our dinner in the tent. He opened the flap and said "Dinner is served". And on the plate was a runny shat that he had shit on in the tent...actually on the plate. Oh and I drank my own piss at Reading, and it took me about five swigs to realise that it was not White Lighting that was in the bottle.
That's not crude though really. That's just humans doing human things. I have lots of cum stories. But I need a drink first.
a drink of cum?
The other week I was in Co-Op with the girlfriend. There was a member of staff stocking the shelf. I picked up 2 items, and loudly asked my Girlfriend "what would you rather? A Muffin or some Cheesy Baps?"
When I was in Africa we used to have arse hour, where we'd all discuss how our respective faeces had been that day. It's how we bonded.


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The Dressing Room Blue opened tonight and there is a brand new collection of designer fashions, 70 lindens and under including this gorgeous olive dress from Baiastice.
Find the dress here along with many other fashion finds. I've paired it with these stilettos, just 25 lindens this weekend only here, and the new subscribo gift skin from The Sea Hole.
Here's a better look at the skin. I love the light, pretty colors, perfect for summer.


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Cost of living (Luxembourg)
Hi Internations,
We are an Australian couple looking at relocating to Luxembourg for work.
Is anyone able to tell us about cost of living. Specifically, we are keen to know costs of:
Dinner for two in a good restaurant
Internet/Pay TV/Telephone charges (mobile and landline)
Utilitiy costs: Power, heating, Gas
Food staples: chicken, beef, bread, mineral water
Movie tickets
Thank you very much.
Daniel and Andrea


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After reading the first three verses as a class, Sister J., who was sitting right next to me, raised her hand and drew attention to a rather interesting turn of phrase in the first verse: "For more are the children of the desolate than the children of the married wife, saith the Lord."
Sister J. expressed -- in a rather round about way -- the sentiment that this verse suggested the need for us to be open to, and attentive to the needs of, the "desolate," the less fortunate. She immediately had my attention, as I was still wrestling with the whole experience this past week of having my marriage voted away, and my family denied and condemned in another slew of state referenda.
Another member of the class, Brother M., raised his hand and offered his interpretation of this verse. "The married wife" clearly referred to the sacred, everlasting covenant of eternal marriage. This verse was simply highlighting the fact that very few have entered into the everlasting covenant -- that for this reason, there are far more "children of the desolate" than children of the covenant. Other members of the class seized on this, commenting on how the world has little regard for marriage, and then to the need for missionary work to help convert the "children of the desolate."
But here's the text in its entire context:
1 And then shall that which is written come to pass: Sing, O barren, thou that didst not bear; break forth into singing, and cry aloud, thou that didst not travail with child; for more are the children of the desolate than the children of the married wife, saith the Lord.
2 Enlarge the place of thy tent, and let them stretch forth the curtains of thy habitations; spare not, lengthen thy cords and strengthen thy stakes;
3 For thou shalt break forth on the right hand and on the left, and thy seed shall inherit the Gentiles and make the desolate cities to be inhabited.
4 Fear not, for thou shalt not be ashamed; neither be thou confounded, for thou shalt not be put to shame; for thou shalt forget the shame of thy youth, and shalt not remember the reproach of thy youth, and shalt not remember the reproach of thy widowhood any more.
5 For thy maker, thy husband, the Lord of Hosts is his name; and thy Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel—the God of the whole earth shall he be called.
6 For the Lord hath called thee as a woman forsaken and grieved in spirit, and a wife of youth, when thou wast refused, saith thy God.
7 For a small moment have I forsaken thee, but with great mercies will I gather thee.
8 In a little wrath I hid my face from thee for a moment, but with everlasting kindness will I have mercy on thee, saith the Lord thy Redeemer.
9 For this, the waters of Noah unto me, for as I have sworn that the waters of Noah should no more go over the earth, so have I sworn that I would not be wroth with thee.
10 For the mountains shall depart and the hills be removed, but my kindness shall not depart from thee, neither shall the covenant of my peace be removed, saith the Lord that hath mercy on thee.
11 O thou afflicted, tossed with tempest, and not comforted! Behold, I will lay thy stones with fair colors, and lay thy foundations with sapphires.
12 And I will make thy windows of agates, and thy gates of carbuncles, and all thy borders of pleasant stones.
13 And all thy children shall be taught of the Lord; and great shall be the peace of thy children.
14 In righteousness shalt thou be established; thou shalt be far from oppression for thou shalt not fear, and from terror for it shall not come near thee.
15 Behold, they shall surely gather together against thee, not by me; whosoever shall gather together against thee shall fall for thy sake.
16 Behold, I have created the smith that bloweth the coals in the fire, and that bringeth forth an instrument for his work; and I have created the waster to destroy.
17 No weapon that is formed against thee shall prosper; and every tongue that shall revile against thee in judgment thou shalt condemn. This is the heritage of the servants of the Lord, and their righteousness is of me, saith the Lord.
Here, the Lord is not commenting on the benighted state of the barren and the unmarried, speaking about them to the married. He is speaking lovingly and reassuringly to the barren and unmarried, promising them hope, promising them offspring greater than the powerful and respectable -- who are symbolized in this text by "the married wife": "Sing, O barren, thou that didst not bear; break forth into singing... for more are the children of the desolate than the children of the married wife, saith the Lord"! This text could be cross-referenced with Isaiah chapter 56, where the Lord promises "the eunuchs that keep my sabbaths": "Even unto them will I give in mine house and within my walls a place and a name better than of sons and of daughters: I will give them an everlasting name, that shall not be cut off" (Isaiah 56:5).
This text, it dawned on me, was not for all the respectable married, fertile people sitting around me, it was for me, for the one in the room who had been "ashamed" and "confounded," the one in the room under "reproach" because he was unmarried, because he was "barren." "For thy maker, thy Husband, the Lord of Hosts is his name.... For a small moment have I forsaken thee, but with great mercies will I gather thee."
I understand that this text was originally written to the captive children of Israel, reminding them that despite their desperate, powerless and scattered state, the Lord was watching over them and would protect them, and that this would not always be their state. It was a promise to them to give them hope. And this would undoubtedly have been Christ's reason for quoting the text to the gathered Nephites and Lamanites in the account in 3 Nephi which provided our context for reading it. But I was also reading the text as Christ himself has commanded us to read: likening the scriptures unto me, seeing myself there in those verses. And the Spirit was there to comfort and confirm my reading.
The good Saints gathered in that Sunday School room were so preoccupied with "defending marriage," they had actually read this text in exactly the opposite sense it was clearly intended. What might have been a lesson about humility and love toward those whom the world does not value, turned into something quite different.
I didn't say a word... I let the Saints have their way with the text, though I was grateful for Sister J., who had done her part to point the class in a different, slightly less self-congratulatory direction.


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Prem Ratan Dhan payo 4th Day Box Office Collection
Salman Khan's film "Prem Ratan Dhan Payo (PRDP)" has become Bollywood's fourth-fastest Rs 100-crore grosser. The film has joined the list of the fastest grossers, along with Shah Rukh Khan's "Happy New Year" and Aamir Khan's "Dhoom 3". "Prem Ratan Dhan Payo" is smashing records at the overseas box office as well. The family drama directed by Sooraj Barjatya has crossed the Rs 100-crore mark at the domestic box office within just three days of its release. Interestingly, the film entered the century club without the addition of the Sunday box office collection. Prem Ratan Dhan Payo Thu 40.35 cr, Fri 31.05 cr, Sat 30.07 cr. Total: Rs 101.47 cr. Hindi version. Salman's film is now the fourth-fastest Rs 100-crore earner, after "Bajrangi Bhaijaan", "Dhoom 3" and "Happy New Year". With its third day (Saturday) box office collection, Salman's film has shattered the lifetime box office collection records of movies like "Singh Is Bliing", "Welcome Back", "Gabbar Is Back", "Baby", "Dil Dhadakne Do" and "Piku". "Prem Ratan Dhan Payo" is also the fifth Rs 100-crore earner of 2015. "Bajrangi Bhaijaan", "Tanu Weds Manu Returns", "ABCD 2" and "Baahubali" (Hindi version) have earned more than Rs 100 crore this year.
Prem Ratan Dhan Payo Sunday Box Office Report
"Prem Ratan Dhan Payo" had one of the widest release in Indian as well as overseas markets. The film had earned a record breaking amount on first day due to holiday and also due to the huge hype. As the movie was the biggest attraction for the family audience, hence so much of the families went for a delightful quality time with their kids and all. In many of the cinema halls, the movie was houseful. All this may result in big favor for the film and result in immaculate business on its third day of release. Total expected box office collection by Prem Ratan Dhan Payo movie on Sunday seems to be revolving outstandingly. It may rise to 35+ Crore* if the night shows does not gets affected. As Sunday is always known to be highest grossing day among the lifetime of any film so for Prem Ratan Dhan Payo this case might repeat. "PRDP" had the widest release — in more than 4,500 screens — in India and overseas — 1,100 screens — this year, and thus recorded the highest box office numbers right from the opening day. The worldwide box office collection of Salman's film stands at Rs 127.05 crore. The film should cross Rs 150 crore mark at the worldwide box office in its opening weekend.
More from my site


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The MGP24X is a 24-channel mixing console with iPhone®/iPod® connectivity, compression and digital effects. This mixer is appropriate to a wide range of professional applications from portable P.A. to fixed installation. The MGP24X features: 16 Mic Inputs with 48V Phantom Power and HPF per Channel, 24 Line Inputs (16 mono and 4 stereo), 6 AUX Sends + 2 FX Sends, 4 GROUP Buses + ST Bus, 2 Matrix out, and 1 Mono out. Great sounding microphone preamps, detailed EQ, quality digital effects and broad digital connectivity.
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Related Information for Radio Moscow Radio Moscow is an American psychedelic rock band from Story City, Iowa.Formed in 2003 by vocalist and multi-instrumentalist Parker Griggs, the band currently calls San Diego home and features bassist Anthony Meier and drummer Paul Marrone. The band is heading back to Europe in September 2013 and plans to begin recording their 4th studio album shorly after. -3 and 3 quarters DEMOS (2003 re-released 2012) -S/T (2007) -Brain Cycles (2009) -The Great Escape of Leslie Magnafuzz (2011) -Ranch.. read more