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CityCode Mortgage Bank Limited is a duly registered Primary Mortgage Bank that has remained healthy since inception in 1992. We are set up for the purpose of providing mortgage loans and assisting customers in accessing National Housing Fund Loan through Federal Mortgage Bank of Nigeria.
CityCode Mortgage Bank Limited is recruiting to fill the position below:
Job Title: Marketing/Treasury Manager
Location: Lagos
Job Description
- To assess, monitor, plan and manage the efficient utilization of cash and financial services in a manner consistent with the objectives of the Company as well as market mortgage banking products and generation of good business development products.
Essential Functions
- Understand, manage, and supervise all aspects of cash flow.
- Forecast daily cash requirements and execute daily financing decisions.
- Manage all aspects of In-house investment portfolios.
- Evaluate, develop and implement cash management systems to optimize efficiencies.
- Understand and manage appropriate accounting procedures and processes.
- Manage relationships with financial service providers.
- Monitor bank service fees and address quality issues.
- Conduct benchmark studies of banks and their services to evaluate whether it fits Granite's requirements.
- Meet with cash management banks to plan cash management vs. Granite's needs.
- Evaluate alternative long-term borrowing strategies and make recommendations in accordance with the capital structure guidelines.
- Manage, direct, and develop Cash Management staff.
- Recommend, implement and maintain process improvements.
- Provide technical and other support for mergers and acquisitions and other projects as needed.
- Support and participate in Granite's Strategic Plan activities.
- Direct, monitor and trade investment portfolios including Working capital, High-Yield, Escrow, and other portfolios.
- Manage long-term and short-term investment strategies.
- Determine the Company's goals and risk tolerance.
- Assess risk/return trade offs in guidelines.
- Assess performance benchmarks and recommend changes when warranted.
- Review and recommend changes to the investment policies based on the market conditions.
- Prepare or monitor company's various cash flow forecasts and perform financial modeling.
- Additional duties as directed by supervisor.
Required Education & Experience
- Bachelor's Degree in Marketing/Finance.
- MBA desired.
- Advanced analytical, organization, and interpersonal skills.
- Excellent collaboration, verbal and written communication skills.
- Able to break down problems into meaningful parts and come to rational and well-thought out conclusions.
- Demonstrated strong project management skills.
- Attention to detail and accuracy.
- Interested in process improvement.
- Willing to adapt quickly to quick changes in direction.
- Internally motivated to seek out answers, generate ideas, and develop new skills.
- Extensive experience in marketing banking role(minimum of 5years)
- Experience in presenting and preparing proposals to recommend new products/services.
- Experience leading, coaching and developing staff.
- Required Skills, Knowledge & Competencies:
- Knowledge of investment portfolio strategy, banking, and financial instruments.
- Knowledge of treasury software expertise a plus.
How to Apply
Interested and qualified candidates should send their CV's and application letter to: [email protected]
Note: CV's sent later than stipulated deadline will not be considered.
Application Deadline 5th August, 2016.

subset: commoncrawl


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Wednesday, June 9, 2010
Everybody loves..
I wanna get this shirt, lol!
So school's almost over! Yay! Many are already done with school and i'm still stressing out the final weeks of my junior year. I really hate the fact that I get out later than most people, but it's okay because school can be fun sometimes...HA HA! Okay well hopefully summer will be very productive. Lots more blogging and promoting etsy, and not to mention more funventures with friends ;D But of course that's not until after my sister's wedding. Family from Australia are coming here! "Welcome to SDeezy baby."
Hollywood/Universal Studios, Seaworld, Disneyland, Bay Area, Vegas, and wherever else. Oh, the places we will go. I can't wait! Finally some excitement. I also can't wait for my sister's wedding! PHOTOBOOTH FUN yay! And being part of the bridal entourage (maid of honor, tyvm) we'll be making our entrance to the reception to the bubbly words and beats of Katy Perry's "California Gurls." Thas how we do it in CALI.. Mhmm ;)
I'm still finishing up her cake topper (it's love birds) so i'll show that in the next post.
Man, i really need to make a list of THINGS TO DO - summer style.
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Over fashion week, I was posed with the irritating dilemma of which nail colour to go for. I came to the decision to bring my plethora of Barry M colours with me and change it as often as I liked, wild huh? I love Barry M nail polish, it's really thick without being gloopy, meaning you sometimes only have to put one coat on, and whilst I've been in London I forgot to bring my bottom/top coat, and with this brand you don't even need it. If I wasn't so indecisive then it would have lasted for around a week, insted I took it off each evening to swap it for another sorbet shade!
Here are my two favourites that got me some attention on the street:


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DVD Review: Sweeney Todd
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This review was written for the theatrical release of "Sweeney Todd."
Stephen Sondheim's award-winning musical "Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street," a savage tale of cannibalism, madness and serial murder, is now Tim Burton's "Sweeney Todd." The show couldn't have fallen into better hands. With realistic gore replacing the stylistic bloodletting in the stage version, "Sweeney" loses some of its darkly comic tone -- not a lot of laughs here except the nervous kind.
More akin to Burton's "Sleepy Hollow," where heads rolled like so many bowling balls, his "Sweeney Todd" places its emphasis on Grand Guignol and the deeply human story of twice-lost love and the horrifying destructiveness of revenge.
It took two studios, DreamWorks and Warner Bros., to share the considerable risk of making and marketing this tragic tale that defies so many conventions of the American musical. It will be a significant challenge to find a substantial audience despite the advantage of the Burton and Sondheim brands along with a cast that includes Johnny Depp, Helena Bonham Carter and Sacha Baron Cohen.
"Sweeney Todd" comes from an obscure British melodrama -- which might or might not have been based on true 18th century events -- about a deranged barber who slit the throats of customers and his landlady who served the victims up in meatpies.
Sondheim's 1979 show took place within the context of the Industrial Revolution and its rampant corruption and avarice. More satiric opera than musical, "Sweeney Todd" blended together a number of theatrical and literary modes, making the show at once Brechtian, Dickensian and Jacobean. Sondheim acknowledges the influence of the film music of Bernard Herrmann even as he throws in a Viennese waltz or music hall burlesque.
Burton and writer John Logan take all this as a gift, which is then filtered through Burton's own unrepentant sense of the macabre. Except for imaginary sequences or flashbacks to happier days, the film has a monochromatic look with color drained from cityscape. Depp and Carter dress mostly in stark dark clothes with black circles around the eyes, almost as if the figures in Burton's "Corpse Bride" served as models.
In choosing actors who can carry a tune as opposed to singing-actors, Burton has wisely gone for the tragic, emotional heart of the story, narrowing the focus to Sweeney; Mrs. Lovett, the meatpie lady, plagued by unrequited love for Sweeney; and Toby (Edward Sanders, who has a striking voice), the street urchin who assists but is innocent of the pie's ingredients.
Depp is the movie's heart and guts. His Sweeney, nee Benjamin Barker -- having escaped false imprisonment in Australia after 15 years -- is ruled by revenge upon his return to London. Presented with his razors, which Mrs. Lovett (Carter) has lovingly guarded all these years, he grasps a blade with his firm right hand. "At last, my arm is complete again," he thunders.
His homicidal rage centers on Judge Turpin (a dour Alan Rickman), a vile sexual predator who had Benjamin arrested by henchman Beadle Bamford (a smarmy Timothy Spall) so he can steal Benjamin's wife (Laura Michelle Kelly) and baby daughter. Sweeney learns that his wife poisoned herself and Turpin, who took the baby as his ward, lusts after the now grown woman Johanna (a wan Jayne Wisener). Anthony (Jamie Campbell Bower), a young sailor who rescued Sweeney at sea, now longs to do likewise for Johanna on land.
Thus, a triangle of obsessed characters emerges. Depp plays Sweeney as a man so focused on death, so committed to blood, that he has lost all touch with life. Carter's amoral Nellie Lovett, her hair apparently combed with an egg beater, is herself obsessed with Sweeney. She imagines an impossible life with him without realizing he is unmoored from any reality in which this might take place.
The judge, hungering after young women, is the film's major disappointment. Onstage, the tormented man struggled with his obsession, longing to regain his goodness. Here he is a stock melodramatic villain who lacks any ideals other than those of self-interest, though Rickman uses all the tricks in his actor's bag to coax a human being out of the caricature.
Sanders' Toby is a street kid who turns out to possess a moral compass the adults so sorely lack. Baron Cohen as Pirelli, the barber's first victim, is surprisingly muted. Perhaps the requirement to sing has neutralized Cohen's usual outrageousness. Burton doesn't seem to know what to do with film's ingenues, Wisener's Johanna and Bower's Anthony, so they are largely ignored.
The musical numbers ooze with Sondheim's audacious wit and scathing lyrics. A lullaby conveys menace. A waltz celebrates conspiracy. Cynicism runs through all the songs' social critique.
The blood juxtaposed to the music is highly unsettling. It runs contrary to expectations. Burton pushes this gore into his audiences' faces so as to feel the madness and the destructive fury of Sweeney's obsession. Teaming with Depp, his long-time alter ego, Burton makes Sweeney a smoldering dark pit of fury and hate that consumes itself. With his sturdy acting and surprisingly good voice, Depp is a Sweeney Todd for the ages.


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'Taliban trusts US more than Karzai'
By Gordon Duff and Press TV
— [youtube VcCTMNwbBXY&feature=share&list=UUaMH8-gD-ZYyC93vY6GlnCQ]
"Certainly they have their people within the United States, they'd rather deal with the United States than the government in Kabul," Duff told Press TV on Tuesday. "They trust the United States considerably more than they trust Karzai and they look at the United States as a potential investment partner," he added.
"Taliban representatives are very concerned about Karzai cozying up to the Chinese who will be moving into Taliban areas and seizing resources."
Reports suggest that the Afghan National Army has ceded control of three checkpoints in Helmand province to the Taliban in return for an end to their attacks.
"The idea of giving the Taliban a region of their own … is a poor government practice," Duff said. The US and its allies invaded Afghanistan on October 7, 2001 as part of Washington's so-called war on terror.
The offensive removed the Taliban from power, but after more than 12 years, the Taliban is resurging in the war-torn country.
The government of President Hamid Karzai has not yet signed a controversial security pact with the United States which would determine the presence of US soldiers in Afghanistan beyond the planned 2014 withdrawal.
The pact would also grant legal immunity to those American soldiers who remain in Afghanistan – something that has turned into a sticking point.
On December 14 however, the Afghan president said he no longer trusts the United States, accusing the US administration of saying one thing and doing another.
He added he would not be "intimidated" into signing the deal. Washington says if Karzai does not sign the deal before the end of the year, the US-led forces will leave Afghanistan completely.


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Whether you're a native or just touring the heartland, there's enough adventure to be had in Iowa to warrant weeks (or a lifetime) of exploration. If you're pressed for time, however, Iowa's got more-than-enough fun to pack a memorable trip into three days of RV adventuring. Of course, take your time if you can. Most of my favorite Iowa destinations are worth more than just a breeze through.
For a three-day run based out of Des Moines, start by heading east on Interstate 80. The first 'can't miss' destination on your route is just two hours away, at the Amana Colonies. These seven villages were formed by German Pietist migrants from New York, who lived communally here from 1855 until the 1930s. Their self-sufficient spirit lives on today, as the Colonies have grown into one of the country's most impressive collections of artisans, creating everything from furniture to clothing to gifts on-site. Days could be spent watching craftsmen, browsing for mementos, and enjoying traditional Colonial-era cuisine (there are several impressive campgrounds, as well), but we've got an adventure on a time schedule!
Continue east another hour to Le Claire, directly on the Mississippi River, outside Davenport. Here we'll get a taste of the old Wild West, touring the Buffalo Bill Museum, honoring Iowa's famous frontiersman, "Buffalo Bill" Cody. At the museum see Native American artifacts, a Civil War encampment, and visit the Lone Star Steamer, a wooden steamship that worked the river for 99 years, three times longer than the average working vessel (they usually caught fire!).
For a late afternoon treat (for the adults!), drop into the Mississippi River Distilling Company for a tour, and pick up a carefully handcrafted spirit like their River Rose Gin to enjoy when you get to your campground.
It's just over an hour up the river to your last stop today in Dubuque. If you leave yourself time, visit the Mines of Spain, a National Historic Landmark. In addition to a monument marking the Spanish-controlled lead mines here in the 18th century, it's a fantastic place to spot wildlife along the Mississippi River. The E.B. Lyons Interpretive Center offers a jumping off point to spot bald eagles, deer, wild turkey, and bobcats in the wetlands, creeks, and prairies around the river's bluffs.
Begin day two by continuing up the Mississippi to Effigy Mounds National Monument. These prehistoric sites date back to 500 BC, featuring 206 earthen mounds built by Native Americans, some in the shape of animals. The hilly bluffs here provide fantastic views of the Mississippi at its wildest.
Keep your hiking shoes on, because the rest of your day will be spent at Yellow River State Forest, where the 25-mile "Backpack Trail" offers a rare opportunity to hike into heartland wilderness. Hike as short or long a section of trail as you please, but as you head up steep, wooden hillsides, relish in the "I can't believe I'm in Iowa!" moments and remember what a diverse state it truly is.
It's time to head west again. For a glimpse at the history of farming (and possibly the future!), stop by the Seed Savers Exchange near Decorah, just half an hour from Yellow River. This impressive organization catalogs and saves heirloom seeds from around the country, preserving varieties of apples, vegetables, grapes, and other treasures that might otherwise fade into the past. Their gardens and historic orchard are well worth a visit.
Less then an hour west is the Hayden Prairie State Preserve, a perfect spot for a picnic. Sadly, 99 percent of Iowa's tall grass prairie has gone the way of the Dodo. At Hayden Prairie's 240-acres, you can catch a glimpse of what the entire state once looked like, with over 100 species of wildflowers growing free on the tiny tract.
From Hayden, it's a quick three hours back to Des Moines. Stop on the city's western outskirts at Living History Farms, an interactive outdoor museum that lets people play and engage on a 1700 Ioway Indian Farm, an 1850 Pioneer Farm, and a 1900 Horse-Powered Farm. Live demonstrations explain how Iowa transformed from prairie land into world's most productive farmland.
After touring a large portion of the state, Living History Farms sheds an invaluable light on Iowa's history and its relevance to the country and the world.
Conclude your Iowa tour with an evening stroll through the East Village of Des Moines, admiring the State Capital and taking your pick of eateries and shops that rival the hippest metropolitan districts in the country.
Still have more time? From Des Moines, it's just four hours heading northwest to the lakes of the Okoboji region, a one-stop destination with enough family fun and natural beauty to fill an entire week-long vacation. Have just one extra day? Elk Rock State Park is just half-an-hour away, with plenty of swimming, boating, and horseback riding to please the whole family, and a small campground with electric hookups.
Whichever direction you steer, there's no reason to head out of Iowa! And with gas prices where they're at, we're lucky the heartland offers so much fun for RV adventurers right around Des Moines.


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c++ K-means clustering algorithm1
Budget $10-30 USD
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Chef Glenn's Menu Planning & Food Drying Workbook provides printable worksheets and recipe cards that will help you review and customize recipes, plan a menu, and estimate how much food to purchase and dry for your trips.
Your reward for spending a little time at the kitchen table making notes and adding things up will be a delicious variety of meals that you will thoroughly enjoy on the trail.
A great planning tool to go along with Recipes for Adventure!
Only $2.95 for the workbook when you purchase together.
Click to View Instruction Pages & Sample Food Drying Worksheets
8 Steps to Successfully Plan & Dry Your Backpacking Meals
Get the Workbook for only $2.95
when you also purchase Recipes for Adventure.
How to Order:
To purchase the Workbook by itself for $7.95, click "Add to Cart" below:
To purchase Recipes for Adventure (E-book Edition) together with the Workbook for $17.90 ($14.95 + $2.95 = $17.90, Save $5), click "Add to Cart" below:
To purchase the Print Edition of Recipes for Adventure and then get the Workbook for $2.95, follow these steps:
First, purchase the Print Edition of Recipes for Adventure directly from Amazon using the link on the Recipes for Adventure page.
Second, when you receive the book, turn to page 95. There is one photo caption on that page. Make a note of the first word in the photo caption.
Third, return to this page and purchase the workbook by itself using the first "Add to Cart" link on this page. Enter the first word from the photo caption on page 95 as the discount code and you will get the workbook for $2.95, a $5 savings.
Note from Chef Glenn: Sorry for the extra steps to get the workbook for $2.95 when you buy the print edition of Recipes for Adventure. I am not able to bundle the two together through Amazon, but Amazon is still the most efficient way to order the print edition. Plus, you will save money because they sell the book at a discount off the list price.
Return to the Recipes for Adventure order page.


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Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, since as members of one body you were called to peace. Colossians 3:13
You were called to peace.
Did you know that you were called to be peaceful?
Do you feel at peace today?
The world encourages activity, striving, pushing, trying to fix all our problems, being better and getting better, pulling yourself up by your own boot straps.
And the church buys into that –just look at all the Christian self-help books out there!
But, the Bible encourages us to slow down, live peaceful lives, and be content with what we have and where we are.
This is in stark contrast to the way that the world views life.
Every church women's group advice I've heard is "try harder," "push harder," and "do more."
They act like if you really trust God, you'll be able to get it all done; if you do things the "right" way, it will be easy and everything will just fall into place — usually backed up by a Bible passage taken out of context.
Unfortunately, that is not the way life is nor what the Bible says.
The Bible says that we will have struggles and trials: it doesn't say to try to make all those trials go away.
I have said these things to you, that in me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation. But take heart; I have overcome the world." John 16:33
Jesus warns us that we will have troubles –in the context of the passage, we will have troubles until Jesus returns, but ultimately everything is in His power so that we can have peace now.
When a young mom is struggling, why do we say, "try harder," or "schedule better," or "be more organized"?
Why don't we say that maybe this is part of the trials that God puts us through to grow us?
Why don't we recommend that they surrender their situation to God and say "His will be done" just like the pattern in Jesus' prayer?
Why are we surprised that we face trials when Scripture repeatedly says we will have them?
Why do we act like the trials are something wrong?
Why do we never encourage people to rest in God and be content?
To be at peace?
Beloved, do not be surprised at the fiery trial when it comes upon you to test you, as though something strange were happening to you. But rejoice insofar as you share Christ's sufferings, that you may also rejoice and be glad when his glory is revealed. 1 Peter 4:12-13
We suffer now, but it will be worth it because someday we will be with Him in heaven.
We always seem to think that God needs to fix our situation when sometimes– often times– the thing He is trying to change is us and the method He is using is our trial.
We lack peace because we fight the trail and blame the struggle instead of learning to be peaceful and content in spite of the trial.
Peace brings hope and joy —if you don't have hope and joy, seek peace.
Sometimes He calms the storm
With a whispered peace be still
He can settle any sea
But it doesn't mean He will
Sometimes He holds us close
And lets the wind and waves go wild
Sometimes He calms the storm
And other times He calms His child
— Scott Krippayne
We expect Him to fix the situation when that may not be His plan.
Often, He wants us to learn to be content in the storm if that is where He has put us.
What if God doesn't want us to figure it all out?
What if God's goal for us is to not succeed at everything?
What if God doesn't need us to fix everything and be perfect at everything?
What if God doesn't want us to try harder –He just wants us to turn to Him sooner?
What if He wants us to be weak and unable to do it all because that is where He can use us and where we are most dependant on Him?
What if He wants us to be content without having everything perfect?
What if He wants us to seek peace in spite of the storm raging around us?
Be content — like Paul said– in all things.
We are constantly trying to fix our lives and make all those problems go away.
We rebuke those problems believing they're Satan keeping us from the happiness and success God wants for us.
But, what if God doesn't define success the same way we do?
We keep trying to fix all our problems, but what if God is using our problems to change our hearts?
We are constantly trying to do away with the very situations God uses to mature us and make us more like Jesus.
Peace days allow us to stop fighting, stop struggling, stop trying to fix every last problem in our lives.
It teaches us to be peaceful in the chaos, in spite of the chaos. God can use that chaos for our good.
I will write more about Peace Days in coming posts.
We like to say things like: "God often takes people through a hard time before He does something great with their lives" and cite Joseph as an example.
I dare say that Joseph needed to go through those trials to be refined into the kind of man God wanted him to be.
I would also say that these trials happen to all of us regardless of if God ever does anything "great" with our lives.
This is the case because God is far more interested in bringing Himself glory than making us look good by putting us in a high position.
We tend to forget that Lord chastens whom He loves and has the right to do with any lump of clay as He wills –and it's not always for "great things."
For who can resist His will? But who are you, O man, to talk back to God? Shall what is formed say to Him who formed it, "Why have you made me like this?" Does not the potter have the right to make from the same lump of clay one vessel for special occasions and another for common use? Romans 9:19-21
Maybe He called you to die to yourself a little bit every day to show His love to your children.
That doesn't seem like a great and awesome thing, but it is perhaps the way that God will get glory from your life, the way that He will use you.
I always wanted to be a hero –to sacrifice my life in a big way one time– and yet, God has required of me thousands of days, over many years, with one more kiss, one more meal. –Sally Clarkson
I wish I had learned to do this a decade ago instead of constantly fighting over and resenting where God put me and what He was doing with my life.
You know what changed my mind?
Once upon a time, a 10-year-old boy put his hand on my shoulder when I was driving and completely stressing out and said, "Mama, it will be okay. None of this is a surprise to God. If it's happening, there's a good reason that we don't know."
Out of the mouth of babes, indeed.
This child has definitely been holy sandpaper to my soul.
We spend so much of our energy fighting against things, trying to fix things, trying to make ourselves do and be better about things that aren't even sin issues –like not getting dinner on time, not being able to keep a tight budget, or not having an effective cleaning schedule, basically all the things women's groups are often about– when we could be being peaceful instead of stressed out, content instead of struggling.
Peace doesn't come from fixing all the problems around us; it comes from learning to calm ourselves and be content in the storm where God put us.
Godliness with contentment is great gain. 1 Timothy 6:6
Are you content?
When's the last time you heard any Bible speaker encourage you to be content where you were?
Are you content where God has put you?
Contentment does not mean that you cease to try to improve; it means that you have a mindset that "Even if my situation never improves, I'll be happy where God put me."
Paul said he had learned to be content in all things, even horrible things like beatings and shipwrecks.
I know what it is to be in need, and I know what it is to have plenty. I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want. Philippians 4:11
Job lay in the dirt with his body covered in boils, his family –except his unhelpful, bitter wife– dead, his wealth completely gone, and his friends making horrible accusations, and what was his response?
Job said that even if God killed him, Job would not stop praising Him.
Though he slay me, yet will I trust in him. Job 13:15
Do we have that kind of peace?
That kind of contentment?
Are we so steadfast in God, so content, so trusting, so peace-filled, that no matter what happens we will still praise God?
In my opinion and experience, the try-harder-push-harder mentality rarely comes from God.
God doesn't want us to push harder; He wants us to turn to Him sooner.
And, turning to God does not guarantee that He'll fix those burdens.
Remember what God said to Paul when he asked to have his burden fixed?
God told him no.
Sometimes, it's not God will to fix it.
That's okay because He's not the great genie in the sky who grants us wishes.
He's a holy, entirely good God who bought us with His blood and has the right to do with your and my life as He sees fit.
If what He does seems wrong, that's because we have a misunderstanding of right, not because He's wrong –He's never wrong.
Remember the story of Mary and Martha?
Martha was stressing out; Mary was at peace at Jesus' feet.
Jesus said Mary had chosen the better.
In the one story in the New Testament about housekeeping, Jesus chided the woman who was functioning like a busy, "godly" women today —or rather what many people teach is godly today.
We glorify the type A woman in our Christian culture and act like she's the key to being godly.
Being type A go-getter isn't necessarily peaceful which is the command we are focusing on today.
Jesus did not tell Martha "well done" for managing her home –she was stressed out and not peaceful.
So, maybe there's more to being godly than having your whole life organized, right?
If Jesus didn't glorify her for managing her home, being stressed out, and being type A, then why do we glorify it?
I'm not saying that there's anything wrong with being type A, only that being type A doesn't make you more godly.
It has to do with your personality, not to do with your spiritual state.
Contrary to popular belief.
So, we should stop glorifying type A people as more godly and stop glorifying type A behavior as godly behavior.
Make every effort to live in peace with everyone and to be holy; without holiness no one will see the Lord. See to it that no one falls short of the grace of God and that no bitter root grows up to cause trouble and defile many. Hebrews 12:l4-15
Lack of peace and grace can cause us to get bitter.
According to that verse above, our bitterness affects those around us!
So practice peace.
In coming posts, we'll talk about my experience with practicing peace, the Peace Day Challenge and how to implement it.
Sarah Forbes
Here are the posts in this series. I will add the links as I publish the posts.
Here are the posts in this series. I will add the links as I publish the posts.
Peace Day Challenge, Part 1: We are Called to Peace
Peace Day Challenge, Part 2: Even If the Healing Never Comes: Choosing Contentment
Peace Day Challenge, Part 3: Scriptures Verses About Living in Peace
Peace Day Challenge, Part 4: The Actual Peace Day Challenge
Peace Day Challenge, Part 5: Yes, I Still Lose My Cool Sometimes
Peace Day Challenge, Part 6: Peace Day Challenge Reflections
If you enjoyed this post, perhaps you would enjoy these as well.


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And, the results are in:
Maya Angelou for the win! My second favorite is Toni Morrison followed by Langston Hughes. Don't forget to vote in this week's poll about shopping at TpT!
Thanks for reading!
The adventures of Ms. F as she teaches English to kids in grades 7-12 and adults pursuing associate's and bachelor's degrees!


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--Edward Abbey
"I believe in the power of words, the heat that whiskey settles into my being, and that god willing there is a man out there that will love all the good and bad that is inside me."
--Kat Keegan
"What on earth can you do on this earth but catch at whatever comes near you, with both your hands, until your fingers are broken?"
--Tennessee Williams
"Never go on trips with anyone you do not love."
--Ernest Hemmingway
"It doesn't interest me what you do for a living, I want to know what you ache for. It doesn't interest me how old you are, I want to know if you are willing to risk looking like a fool for love, for your dreams, for the adventure of being alive. I want to know if you can live with failure, yours and mine. It doesn't interest me where you live or how rich you are, I want to know if you can get up after a night of grief and despair, weary and bruised to the bone, and be sweet to the ones you love. I want to know if you can be alone with yourself and truly like the company you keep in the empty moments of your life."
--Jon Blais
"I know it sounds a little fussy and a little ridiculous, but finding your own rhythm is one of the most important things you can discover about yourself. And you have to observe it. As actors, we're all encouraged to feel that each job is the last job. They plant some little electrode in your head at an early stage and you think, Be grateful, be grateful, be grateful. So, it's not without a sense of gratitude that I work. But I couldn't do this work at all unless I did it in my own rhythm. It became a choice between stopping and taking the time I needed."
--Daniel Day-Lewis
"It's not hard to decide what you want your life to be about. What's hard, she said, is figuring out what you're willing to give up in order to do the things you really care about."
--Shauna Niequist, 'Bittersweet'
"You'll open me up like an orange, leaving a mess of pulp and sticky peels everywhere. Certain parts of my personality will be extracted and I'll find myself feeling stuff I never knew was possible. It's strange to think how many things we're capable of without really knowing it until we have a proper catalyst — something or someone to bring it to the surface. Dig, dig, dig. No, you might need to dig a little deeper. I have a lot of crap sticking on top of the good stuff."
--I want to know you, thought catalog
"Good taste, I am convinced, can be acquired through environment and education; the eye can be disciplined to differentiate between good and bad by a constant looking process."
--Stanley Marcus
"She had not simply assured him that she loved him, but had gone so far—in answer to his question, what she loved him for—as to explain what for. She told him that she loved him because she understood him completely, because she knew what he would like, and because everything he liked was good. And this seemed to him perfectly clear."
--Leo Tolstoy, 'Anna Karenina'
""Think how you love me," she whispered. "I don't ask you to love me always like this, but I ask you to remember." "You'll always be like this to me." "Oh no; but promise me you'll remember." Her tears were falling. "I'll be different, but somewhere lost inside me there'll always be the person I am tonight.""
--F. Scott Fitzgerald, 'Tender is the Night'
"Pay attention, don't let life go by you. Fall in love with the back of your cereal box."
--Jerry Seinfeld
"We are very good at preparing to live, but not very good at living. We know how to sacrifice ten years for a diploma, and we are willing to work very hard to get a job, a car, a house, and so on. But we have difficulty remembering that we are alive in the present moment, the only moment there is for us to be alive."
--Thich Nhat Hanh
"The most important thing in life, is to do what you love -- and what makes you happy. At the end of the day, your actions should reflect your -- Your business, your music, your photography, your friends -- your life."
--Andre Supa


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Every Hidden Thing is based on the the decades long feud between American two paleontologists, Edward Drinkwater Cope and Othniel Charles Marsh which took place in the middle of the 19th century. Their feud which became known as the "Bone Wars" saw both men attempt to outwit the other in the hunt for dinosaur fossils in the American Midwest. Their rivalry new no bounds and lasted until Cope's death in 1897. Canadian author Kenneth Oppel has used Marsh and Cope's rivalry as the basis for his story in Every Hidden Thing.
The story begins with Samuel Bolt's father, Professor Michael Bolt presenting his latest find at a meeting of the Academy of Natural Sciences in Philadelphia. Bolt is a gentleman scientist without a university education but well respected as a self-taught paleontologist. Professor Bolt was the second to discover a dinosaur in America - a partial skeleton but enough that he could name it.
Also in attendance at this meeting is Professor Cartland from Yale. The self-taught Bolt is seen as an amateur by Cartland whose connections to Yale give him important status. It is at this meeting that Samuel meets the homely but highly intelligent Rachel Cartland, Professor Cartland's daughter, whom he finds most captivating. They spend a short time conversing, neither aware that the other is the child of their father's rival.
Bolt had been sent crates of bones by a dentist, Dr. Hawthorn of Kansas. From these bones, Bolt was able to reconstruct a skeleton of a large sea creature he named Elasmosaurus. However, during his presentation, Cartland informs Bolt and the audience that Bolt has erred in his reconstruction of the creature. He has placed the head of the Elasmosaurus on the wrong end, mistaking the long length of vertebrae as the tail when in fact it is the neck. Cartland picks up the skull and clicks it into place on the other end of the skeleton stating, "Which would indicate to me, Professor Bolt, that the tail is in fact the neck, and you have built your dinosaur backward, sir." This outrage leads to the two men brawling at the meeting.
The next morning Samuel discovers an unopened crate in his father's office. In the crate, Samuel and his father find the largest tooth they have ever seen as well as a note written nine weeks earlier by a fossil hunter named Edward (Ned) Plaskett. Plaskett writes that he located the large tooth northeast of Fort Crowe and is offering his services to help find the rest of the fossil. Samuel's father determines that a creature with such a large tooth would be bipedal and "of some fifty feet in length, whose height measured from the ground, would be in the area of thirty feet." Samuel believing this would be the king of dinosaurs leads his father to partially name it rex.
Professor Bolt wants to simply telegraph Plaskett that he is hired but Samuel argues they should travel to Fort Crowe to find the rex themselves. However, lack of money is a huge problem because Samuel's father has used up all the capital from the sale of his inheritance. Samuel takes the initiative and at a Quaker's meeting tells the men he feels called to find God's creatures buried in the ground. The men take up a collection and raise enough for the Bolts to launch an expedition.
Meanwhile Professor Cartland and Rachel are on their summer expedition to the Western Territories. The Cartlands will have an army escort, twelve paying Yale students as well as free rail passes from Union Pacific. At first Professor Cartland decided that Rachel would stay in New Haven with her Aunt Berton attending picnics, church socials and a debutante ball. Rachel wanted none of it; she wants to attend university and hunt fossils and the expedition offers her a chance to work towards that goal. When she's sent to her aunt, Rachel releases a snake in her aunt's bed and is sent home. With her father having no other alternative, Rachel joins him on the expedition.
Unbelievably Samuel and Rachel meet up at Omaha Station to take the Union Pacific train heading out west, although neither party knows the exact destination of the other. Samuel continues to be completely enamored with Rachel. Their fathers set them both to spying on one another to try to determine their plans. One of the Yale students appears to reveal to Professor Bolt that the Cartland's expedition is traveling to North Platte. This leads Samuel to tell Rachel about the tooth they have been sent by Plaskett. However the Bolts soon discover that the Cartland's destination is the same when they get off the train in Crowe. To the frustration of the Bolts they discover that Cartland has bought up almost all the supplies. When they finally meet up with Plaskett, his rough appearance at first worries Professor Bolt but he is determined to help them get to the badlands. While the Cartland's are burdened with their thirty soldiers and the Yale students, Samuel and his father along with Plaskett and a driver named Hitch Powers set out for the badlands. Samuel and his father set up camp and begin exploring. But when Bolt discovers Cartland's expedition camped on the banks of the nearby river, he is furious and confronts Cartland. The two men agree that whoever finds a bone first owns the site which will be staked with a flag. The two men race to find the rex of dinosaurs against the backdrop of hostile Indians bent on recovering what was stolen from them. Meanwhile, Samuel and Rachel become increasingly infatuated with one another, leading them to make an outlandish choice to control their own destinies.
Every Hidden Thing is a story loosely based on the intense rivalry between two American paleontologists in the mid to late 19th century. In the novel the rivalry is between two fictitious paleontologists, Professor Bolt and Professor Cartland, who are also loosely based on the real paleontologists, Edward Cope and O.C. Marsh. Other than their determination to find dinosaur fossils before the other and to quickly name them, Oppel's story is very much different. In the novel Professor Bolt's son Samuel is portrayed as having discovered the Tyrannosaurus rex skeleton after having a vision resulting from a rattlesnake bite. In fact, both Cope and Marsh did discover pieces of the Tyrannosaurus rex skeleton in the late 1890's but these pieces were not identified until much later in the 20th century. Although Cope married and had a child, Marsh never did.
Instead Oppel re-imagines the feud from the point of view of the two paleontologists' teenage children who form an alliance and eventually run off to get married. Samuel and Rachel share the storytelling in alternating narratives. The main strength of Oppel's story is the characters who are well drawn. Professor Bolt is described as a man who isn't "afraid to talk with his fists." Samuel describes his father as having a deranged look about him due to "his left eye had a slightly awkward angle to it..." Compared to Cartland, Bolt is a man with a bit more integrity who is deeply angered by Cartland's dishonest methods to obtain fossils. He appears more willing to respect the Indians than his rival.
Cartland is the most vile of the characters, stealing from just about anyone he can. He is described as short and "solid as a potbellied stove" with "sparse hair" and a mustache. Rachel mentions that her father has a "rather unfortunate verbal tic of saying 'yes yes' in the midst of his sentences. And it rarely meant he agreed with you." He doesn't support Rachel's ambition to attend university and become a scientist. He's bought off his rivals so they can supply him with information on fossil finds and has blocked Bolt's papers from being published. Cartland shows profound disrespect for the indigenous people of the plains when he desecrates an Indian burial site, chopping the heads off the bodies to take back for research. Thoroughly in a rage when he discovers his daughter has married Samuel Bolt, Cartland attempts to kidnap his daughter.
Samuel is portrayed as an awkward teen definitely not comfortable with his changing body. He is determined to make Rachel both trust and like him so he tells her about the large tooth fossil. Rachel describes Samuel as being "tall, with a mop of wavy, coarse hair. He looked like one of those puppies that hadn't grown into its body yet but gave all the signs of its full size to come..." Samuel sees Rachel as a potential wife and partner, working together to hunt fossils and do research but he's confused by her lack of feeling towards him.
Rachel is not considered attractive and she knows it, often focusing on how she is rarely complimented about her appearance. "But without a mother I was never told I had lovely hair or a pleasing figure or striking eyebrows..." Samuel's compliment that she has "the most extraordinary eyes." make her feel special. She's also described by Samuel as being unromantic, "She was like a fortress. Impenetrable." Rachel is determined to attend university even marrying Samuel in the hopes of achieving this goal despite not wanting to marry.
Having a background in geology, this novel initially seemed very intriguing. However as the story progressed I found Samuel's description of how his body responds to Rachel offputting. Samuel Bolt unabashedly narrates what happens to his body in a way that most readers really don't want to know. When he first meets Rachel Cartland, despite her being somewhat unattractive Samuel narrates how he becomes aroused. Why we have to know this I'm not sure. When the two elope and end up in a hotel room on their wedding night, the reader is subjected to a three page detailed account of their struggles and awkwardness, again probably something most teens really don't want to read about. Their blossoming romance in spite of the violent rivalry between their fathers plays on the much used Romeo and Juliet trope.
In contrast, Oppel's descriptions of the badlands welcome and colourful. "The steep slopes showed all their ancient layers -- tawny, black, gray, red -- like the diagrams in Father's geology books...Some of the stepped buttes looked like Mayan temples. There were gaunt castles. Archways and spires of a great Gothic cathedral..." When they arrive in the badlands Samuel narrates, "It was surprisingly lush along the brown, slow-curving river lined with cottonwoods and tall grass and flowers. In the sun's low evening light, the stone was rich yellow and peach and purple. The wind made a pleasant dry rustle in the cottonwoods." The ravines are described with equal eloquence: "The ground was scattered with rocks of all shapes and sizes, gray basalt and pink granite and yellowy limestone and great speckled silver hunks and creamy pebbles, all broken and crushed by glaciers and rounded and smoothed by rivers over thousands of years. There were green sage and spiky cactus and clumps of perfectly spherical deer droppings."
I'd love to recommend this novel which would probably be of interest to younger teens but I feel Samuel's wedding night narrative and the whole elopement subplot really distracts from the overall story. If you are interested in Tyrannosaurus rex and the rivalry between Cope and Marsh check out the resources listed below and spare yourself the unsavory descriptions that mar what would otherwise have been a really good novel. Hopefully another author will make an attempt to portray this interesting rivalry in a way that will be more informative and less sensational than Every Hidden Thing.
Paleontology: The Truth About T. Rex
This talk is about Tyrannosaurus rex held at Alberta's Tyrell Museum.
You can learn much more about the real Bone Wars by watching the short documentary, Dinosaur Wars on the PBS show, American Experience. The PBS website has detailed information on the rivalry between Cope and Marsh as well as information about viewing the documentary.
Book Details:
Every Hidden Thing by Kenneth Oppel
Toronto: HarperCollins Publishers Ltd. 2016
361 pp.


text:
Awesome info. about Time Attack and Siege, the sources (links) are at the end. Enjoy!
There are two parts to the Dungeon Siege system:
* The Raid Time Attack
* The Dungeon Siege
Both portions MUST be completed before your guild can own the Dungeon.
By winning both of these parts your guild will claim ownership of the Dungeon and will gain all benefits associated with ownership.
The Raid:
The first part of the Dungeon Siege. This event is only available Monday ~ Thursday. At 12:01am PST on Friday the Raid Time Attack will be closed and the guild with the fastest time will be declared the winner of the Raid Time Attack.
To apply for The Raid guildmasters should seek out the Dungeon Stones outside of the entrance to the Dungeon they wish to compete for. Guild Masters must be of the appropriate level. To determine the appropriate level take the Dungeon Level (listed on the Dungeon Stone) and subtract 20. So if the Dungeon Level is 70 the guild master must be Lvl 50 to apply.
Once there click on the Dungeon Stone to open the Raid Time Attack window. Click on the Apply button to sign up for the Time Attack. Remember that the Raid must be completed between Monday and Thursday.
To start The Raid Time Attack the guild master must create the siege party. To do so the guild master should type: /screate TEAMNAME. They can then invite additional Party leaders using the /sinvite_gp GUILDMEMBER. Then each Party leader forms each party in the siege just like any other party. (/pinvite PLAYERNAME).
Once the Siege Team is formed the Guild Master enters the dungeon. This will create a private isntance of the dungeon for the Guild. The timer starts as soon as the Guild Master enters the dungeon. Once all members of the siege team are inside the dungeon it is purely a matter of killing the 2 bosses inside the dungeon. Players must kill both bosses for the Raid Time Attack to end.
The guild with the fastest time will move on to The Siege event. There will only be 1 winner per dungeon.
Remember these important points:
* Guild Masters MUST be present during the Raid Time Attack.
* Guild Masters need to be at least as high as the Dungeon Level - 20 Levels
(If Dungeon Level = 70; Guild Masters level must be at least 50 or higher).
* Only members of the applied guild may participate in the Raid.
* Use /screate NAME to create a Siege Team.
* Use /sinvite_gp NAME to invite a member of your guild as a Siege Team Party Leader.
* Each party leader uses /pinvite to invite members to their party.
* The maximum number of players for the Raid is:
o 8 characters for Moonlight (1 party of 8).
o 16 characters for Lost Mines (2 parties of 8).
o 24 characters for Crystal valley (3 parties of 8).
o 32 characters for palmir plateau (4 parties of 8).
* The timer starts as soon as the Guild Master enters the dungeon.
* The timer ends as soon as both bosses are killed.
* Bosses will drop items during the Raid Time Attack.
* If a character dies they can revive at the start point for the Raid.
* Users do not need to pay taxes during the Raid Time Attack.
* There can only be 1 winner.
* A guild may only sign up for 1 Dungeon per week.
* A guild may apply for a Raid Time Attack 1 time a day.
* Members of a Siege Team may talk to the entire team by putting ' (apostrophe) in front of their messages.
* Players will NOT lose lak, experience, drop items, or gain immorality points during the Dungeon Siege.
The Siege:
This is the second part of the Dungeon Siege system. Please be advised this part is purely Player vs Player!
The objective of this event is simple: control the Dungeon Stone. Under normal circumstances where a Dungeon is owned by a guild there will be 2 teams. One team will be defending (the owners of the dungeon) while the other team is attacking (the team that won the Raid Time Attack).
Please note that the owners of the dungeon do NOT need to complete the Raid Time Attack each week.
The commands for the Dungeon Siege are very similar. Once the event is announced in yellow text players from each guild should head to the dungeon. Teams for the Dungeon Siege can be created immediately after the Raid Time Attack is won or before entering the dungeon. If the teams are already created the Guild Master does not need to be present during the Siege.
If the teams are not already created Guild Masters need to use the /screate NAME command to create the name of their team. They can then invite members of their guild to be party leaders by using the /sinvite_gp NAME command. Guild Masters can also invite members of other guilds by using the /sinvite_hp NAME command.
Please note that only the teams involved (the attacking guild and defending guild) can take control of a dungeon.
Once the team is created and all parties have a party leader the party leaders use the /pinvite NAME command to invite players to their party.
Once the final announcement that the Dungeon Siege is starting is made both parties may enter the dungeon. Once inside they will notice that the dungeon is completely devoid of monsters other than the guardians of each control point.
As mentioned earlier the objective is to control the Dungeon Core. To do so they must reach the core, kill the guardians, and left click on the Core. There will be a cast time where the player who clicked on the core can be attacked and killed so protect your teamates well.
There are also strategic control points in between each Core. these points, if captured, allow players to respawn at a control point instead of at the entrance to the Dungeon. To take control of a control point users must kill the guardians around the control point and then left click on the control point. Again users will be vulnerable during the cast time to take over the control point. Once taken over guardians for that team will be spawned to protect the control point.
How to Win:
If you are the attacking team (the guild that owns the Dungeon before the Dungeon Siege) you must destroy the attacking teams Dungeon Stone. Once destroyed the Siege will be lifted and the defending team will win regardless of how much time is left.
If you are the defending team you must hold the Dungeon Core. Once you gain control of the Dungeon Core both teams will reset and their roles will be shifted. It will now be the attacking team's turn to protect the Dungeon Core. All players will be reset to the appropriate entrance and the Dungeon Stone for the attacking team will be reset. Whoever owns the Core at the end will be the winners.
Key Concepts
• Rappelz can become very laggy in sieges. Lag is responsible for the defeat more often than you'd think. Therefore, to reduce lag is to increase probability of success
• Ambush is the appearance of being small while actually being big. This leads enemies to underestimate you, and make a mistake in distributing forces.
• Intelligence of the enemy's location, strengths, and defence tactic will let you know which direction to attack in, with how many people. Gathering intelligence can be tricky though.
• Positioning is important in any team effort. The ability to maximize fluidity has to be balanced with minimizing internal conflict.
• Morale is what keeps your troops fighting. Some sieges are long, others are short, some seem hopeless, others not even worth a challenge. No matter what, high morale is a prerequisite to even attending a siege
Minimizing Lag
Alright, so you've turned down all settings, shut off all other programs, made sure nobody else is on your network, you are ready to siege, right? No. There are some details in siege that are often ignored or overlooked.
Lesson one – let the enemy come to you. By moving, you are forcing the game to show more information, to process more information, which on many systems will lag you, and people around you.
Let the enemy come to you.
Lesson two – small teams are more efficient than large clusters. A small team is capable of moving around with less lag because there are less things on the screen for them. As a result, they are capable of attacking enemy side-lines effectively, and cut off reinforcements with certain ambush strategies.
Lesson three – use AoEs together. Sometimes lags are inevitable, but they are made worse when somebody is using AoE (Area of Effect) attacks. As a group, if you must use AoEs, use them at the same time! This will offer your group quick recovery from lag, as well as panic enemies (more on psychological warfare later)
Lesson four – Turn off the numbers. While it may be fun to see how much damage you're dealing to an enemy, this will severely lag you when you cast an AoE, or someone mass heals, or someone uses a mass DoT.
Lesson five – Loot pets should be put away. They are extra graphics to render and don't make much sense in siege. Actually, by keeping your pet out and on auto loot puts you at a disadvantage (someone could drop a whole bunch of arrows in a room, so that your loot pet will be busy moving around, causing lag for you).
Lesson six – avoid being in the center of a room (unless it's a large room where the boss typically is). The center of the room requires your computer to generate more graphics, and at the same time makes you an easier target. Ambush Frequently, ambushes are not used even when they could and should be.
Lesson four – Use controller rooms for ambush. Other than the island dungeons, where controller guards are responsible for killing off entire parties, the regular dungeon controller guards really aren't that strong compared to people in the siege. So why bother protecting a controller room if that controller room isn't vital? It can be used for ambush. You hide a party in a side room of the controller (if the map allows), wait for the enemy to capture the controller with little conflict (have one or two people protecting it). Once they capture the controller and main forces start moving, attack the controller guardians and the people guarding the controller from the side. This should be a quick victory because typically the controller guards are spawn buffer/healers. The enemy's advanced forces now face a sandwich of your troops (your defending line, and the party that took the controller).
Lesson five – Using portals as ambushes. A tricky part of siege in Palmir Plateau dungeon is the portals. Frequently there are rooms with multiple portals. Controlling a portal room is very important because portal camping is a powerful technique. Remember ambush is an illusion; you want to lead your enemies with something small into something large and hidden.
- Camps are hard to break, but if it's a room with 3 portals, could be possible. First I set up my large forces on the entry-point, to prevent enemies from advancing without running into my ambush. Then I send a small force in – 3 or 4 people at most. Their speed is more important than anything else. They just have to go in, then 2 of them run to the opposite side of the room, drawing attention, the other two goes into the portals that would lead to the ambush. Typically, the portal that leads to the ambush is not the one they just came in from. The point of this is to lead their camp away from their original distribution. Once they are in the room, the ambush has to enter the enemy's ambush, by going into the enemy's camp, and NOT ATTACK. Instead, use only crowd control skills on nearby people, and then spread out around the walls of the room. Staying close to the wall and away from the cluster accomplishes two things: less lag for you, gets you to set up two or three parties in the room to attack any enemy who comes after you. Yes, they will attack you if you are in the room, and their exits are blocked.
- Setting up a camp and leading enemies into the camp can be difficult. What I do is have people who can do crowd control: stun, fear, petrify, seal, etc. nearby the gates, everyone else who have range attacks further out, and then the melee attackers are going to be the pullers. When enemies come into the gate, the first thing is to use up stuns, and then snares, petrifies, and lastly seals. This order is important, because remember we are trying to get the enemy into a crowd to maximize lag for them and minimize lag for us. Once they are in a crowd, it is easy to kill off most of them within a minute, thereby slowing down the enemy attacks. Use ambushes with care though, while powerful tools, they are slow to deploy, and difficult to manoeuvre. Always be aware of your surroundings, before running through a dungeon, take a good look, do a few practice runs, to see at what point are you expected to meet your enemy if both are taking the same route to get to the other side. After the point of contact, if you enter an important portal room or controller with ease, take time to test your surroundings for ambush. It's not uncommon to ambush the ambusher.
Frequently in siege I see people going solo, parties scattered all over the place, people not listening to orders and just going out to be "the hero". You can have many heroes, but none of them are invincible, and so one-by-one they can be taken out without a fight. In this section I explain the importance of good communication between players, and tactics on finding out information about the enemy. Each party needs orders from central command – somebody who gives the orders for formations, attacks, ambushes, etc. However, a party is not useful if they are separated. Rappelz has the unfortunate bug of showing the HP bar of everyone in your party, as well as everyone in your guild that's in the siege. This leads to a lot of confusion. My suggestion is for everyone to pay attention to the little green dots. Your party should be clustered! Run as a group, if in a group of 8 and 2 is disconnected, go on. Otherwise, wait for having at least a good number of people before pressing on. It is also up to the strategist to take into account these mishaps. Anyways, the importance of staying with your party is so that central command knows where you are on the map, and able to coordinate two or more parties at the same time effectively. While it is important to know where your own troops are, it is also important to know what the enemy's strengths and weaknesses are, where the enemy has set up ambushes and camps, and what their distribution of forces are. A few tactics I use:
1) Arrive early – be at the dungeon waiting ahead of time, so you can do a head count of all enemies showing up, as they show up.
2) Scouts – Send scouts: fully buffed sin/SH to run ahead of everyone else to test which direction the enemy is attacking from. This is also useful for advanced attacks to slow the enemy momentum, giving you time to set up defences.
3) The dead spy – somebody who has tears of gaia on runs into enemy camp and dies in the middle. This gives you an inside look at distribution of forces. When the enemy moves ahead, they will leave at least one or two people behind to keep an eye on the dead spy (because he can jump up with tears of gaia), this wastes enemy forces, although it does mean you have one less person to help with defence.
4) Insider – somebody you know inside the opponent's guild/alliance. They can provide valuable information like if a party has no healer, who is in what party, etc. Formations Before you start thinking of Roman columns and Greek Phalanxes, I will tell you right now, I do not use either, as neither is effective in a game where people run through each other easily. Many already use some variation of formations: tanks in front, mage and healers in back. A simple one, works effectively, but ultimately this formation is no different from a human-wave tactic (Superior numbers and power decides the outcome). I like to be a little smarter than that, I know very little in ways of combat in real life, but I've learned a couple of things from a lot of sieges in Rappelz. My design for formations is based on achieving several goals: Setting up ambush, making it difficult for enemy to run past, and to reduce movement on my side (to reduce lag). My favourite formation (defending controller 7 in PP) – Wall hugging and Line: In the vanguard, one or two parties hugging the both walls of the hallway. In the back, a cluster formation (wedge, line, you pick, as long as it covers a large area). This will a) reduce the effect of meteor shower b) allow them to use ranged attacks in slowing down enemies, but give them a chance to run through. This is an important concept – always give enemies the illusion of being able to charge in instead of fight. Roughly 1 minute after the first person has run through the vanguard, the vanguard becomes a line formation, 3 or 4 ranks deep to encourage fighting. Meanwhile, the charging enemies were wounded by the line are now facing another formation and are forced to fight it, because running through would be pretty much impossible. My estimation for the efficiency of this formation is that with equal levels, the defenders need only half as many people as attackers to successfully defend con7. My favourite attacking formation – double line cluster: In the vanguard we have the weakest of the team – someone of low level, as a scout/meatshield. The reason for this is so that the enemy's defense will use their strongest attacks on the weakest, giving the attackers a slight upper hand. The reason for double line cluster is because most of the travelling is done in hallways for all dungeons, but a double line cluster can easily surround a room, which as mentioned earlier, is less laggy, and gives an upper hand in confusing enemy defences. This formation is better known as the pincer formation in real life. Keep thinking up your own formations! There are many to use for special situations, just remember that wave after wave of brute force attacks are very ineffective.
Some guidelines for making formations:
- Keep in mind that people aren't always able to stay in formation
- Create ways for enemies to come to you
- Give the enemies illusion of weaknesses in your design
- Barricades don't exist in Rappelz, but you can slow down their ability to click, and use snare/stun/petrify skills to stop enemies
- Every formation does have its weakness
Morale / Psychological warfare
Fidelity is always a problem for doing siege. A person who isn't having fun in a siege will probably not attend the siege. A guild forever losing sieges will also have low morale, and not be too interested in next siege. A terrible defeat can also lower morale, and cut people's interest in siege. A long siege that is looking more and more hopeless with each moment is especially a kick to morale. If the leader, or someone thought was invincible dies, boom, there goes morale. Morale is so important, because it makes people want to follow orders, it gives them the energy to forget about lag and do their part in siege. Creating positive morale is pretty simple: lots of encouragements, lots of hurrahs, lots of laughing, keeping spirits high, and looking united. How do you lower enemy's morale? This bit is tricky.
Tactic 1 – panic them. People hate getting hit, getting chipped, getting their pet killed, or seeing a bunch of red letters floating across their screen. It panics them. A lot of guilds I know say they only bring r5+ people to sieges, or r4+ people... personally, I think that is silly, even an r1 can use an r7 luna chip on an r7, causing that r7 a moment of panic.
Tactic 2 – Ambush them a lot. By leading an enemy into an ambush over and over again, they will hesitate an attack, or if they do attack, do so with very little morale. Speaking of morale and ambushes, it is an even bigger kick to their morale if you let them achieve a milestone easily, then quickly destroy their recent victory (If you are on the defensive side, let them get into the last controller room, or the final room, then quickly destroy them and retake it easily).
Tactic 3 – Talk calmly with the fallen enemies, joke with them, have some laughs. Even if you are losing,tell them to step up the challenge a little bit. This unnerves them.
Tactic 4 – Battlecry something absurd: like BOOOOOOOOOOOBS!!!! (MythicalHeroes battlecry), it makes them wonder.
A soldier in the battlefield has some motivation to fight: protecting his country, serving his general, earning money, and in the case of games: because you want to kill people. However, being a game, there are many real-life distractions: food, sex, and other media, that can take away the motivation to feel lag, get killed, and waste chips. Protect your own troops from these distractions by always giving them something to do – an important mission such as capturing a controller, defending a choke point, or reinforcing an advancing team. Demoralize your enemies by talking about these distractions in front of them. Remind them that they're hungry, or sleepy, or that their partner is waiting in bed, or that there's a great movie out right now. A little unconventional, but this method of psychological attack can disarmmany people – especially those who are getting a lot of lag. Fighters, and holy warriors have a skill called provoke, which draws a mob's attention to attacking the tank. Now while the skill does not work on people, real provoking does. A general who is insecure, or facing tremendous stress, are more likely to respond to provocation, and make a mistake. Provoking the people at the front of a choke point barricade can get them to come out and face challenge away from the group. Provoking the healer will cause the healer to strike instead of heal; provoking the mightiestwarrior of the enemy will cause him to hunt you down, which in turn you can lead him away from his group.
A very powerful technique quite frequently overlooked is the tactic of waiting. Waiting makes the enemies restless, you know when to launch the attack, they don't know when you will attack, keeping them constantly on guard. Waiting can destroy a perfectly built formation. Building Troops Can't go into a siege without people to fight... so, how do you build an army? In this section we look atthe process of training people to fight as a unit, gathering people to fight as a unit, creating alliances to increase shared manpower, and getting mercenaries. With increasing amount of soloers – people with high level pets generally, there has been general decrease in party cohesion. As we all should know by now, poor party cohesion is quite hellish. I have some tips for creating party cohesion:
1) Get the party to DP together more. Encourage people who will be in a siege party together
to be together for as much as possible.
2) At the beginning of siege, give each party simple tasks – running to a spot together, buffing
each other, and killing controller guards together – then reward them with encouragement and compliments
3) Similar guild icons – make an alliance icon of some sort, and make every guild in the alliance
use that icon. This creates a powerful feeling of unity. This would also help everyone pool together manpower, instead of having different parties each consisting only of their guild members.
Start gathering people for a siege from the moment you know somebody is going to be a siege. Gathering people, making sure they will make it on time, and getting confirmation notices take time. Many people may not want to come (time conflicts, family matters, upcoming exam, work, etc) so it will be up to the leader to motivate them to come. People are driven by a few simple things: Basic Needs (food, water, shelter, social interaction), Sexual needs, and feeling of importance. Since this is a game, the previous two cannot be offered, but people play games to feel important. Let the person you want to come know how important they are to the siege effort. Let them know how fun and meaningful it will be. Don't forget to reward them by letting them know how happy you are that they do decide to come. If your guild is small, you may not be able to win sieges on your own. Even larger guilds, with over 150 people, may have merely 20 capable of going to a siege when they are called for. This is where forming an alliance is useful. Creating an alliance means going to the guild leader of the other guild and convincing him or her that you have a common goal, and by forming an alliance, can reach it. Typicallythis goal is to kick stronger opponents out of their dungeon. When building a trustworthy army to siege, you may come across problems regarding motivation. Usually, people are willing to siege – they want to have the exhilarating experience, however there are time zone differences, real life distractions, and there's the problem of getting people to work together. I've noticed something that happens repeatedly in siege: people are excited for siege, they come in, and they want to be the hero. They run out, not following orders, not staying coordinated. They quickly get lagged out and die, or get disconnected, or are unable to do anything for such a long time that they get frustrated and start to resent siege. Sound familiar? What happened is that there was high motivation to siege, but low motivation to siege as a group. Each person wants to be the hero so they can brag to their friends about how many people they killed in the siege; however, what most people fail to see is that siege is a group effort. So, how do you get people to perform as a group? Unfortunately, I don't have the answer. I've tried countless things: motivational speeches, warning about being separated from group, and tried to have some organizational structure. Looking at real life industry, there are monetary motivation techniques that I haven't really tested in game to know if it works well or not:
1) Piece-wise pay: most prominent for factory jobs – workers get paid a certain amount for each item they produce/process. Unfortunately I can't see any use for piece-wise payment in siege; however that doesn't mean there isn't any use. Perhaps you can think of a way to use this strategy effectively.
2) Profit sharing: many guild leaders use this, sharing the tax money earned with their guild members who attended the siege. Personally, I split tax money evenly among the alliance guilds, and have each guild leader do what they want with their share.
3) Merit-based pay: in real life, this would be paying employees based on how many positive behaviours they have applied in the workplace. In siege, this could be compared to paying people based on how many missions they take on and succeed. Again, you can think of other ways to apply these motivational techniques
4) Skill-based pay: a form of payment that has a base pay, and then additional pay for each skill learned and applied in the workplace. In siege, this can be something like level-based pay, higher levels get paid more. In general, I am somewhat opposed to monetary rewards. My reasoning is that in a siege, there can be many, often 50+ people attending, yet each week on average a dungeon makes roughly 50mil. So that means each person on average is going to get about 1million rupees. That is something like two hours of DPing, or half an hour of farming moonlight dungeon with a high level pet. Also, by the time people arehigh level enough to siege effectively, 1million rupees is not a substantial amount. Personally, I favour intrinsic rewards, which are rewards that make people feel good, but cannot be bought, and have to be earned (sincere compliment, sense of camaraderie, feeling of importance, bragging rights, etc.).
Sticky Situations
There's no doubt you will sometimes be under sticky situations, I have this section here as a first hand advice on how to minimize or make best use of the problematic state. You're getting spawn killed in the core/lobby – I must say this one is the absolute worst. It means you are pretty much incapable of combat because as soon as you respawn, you will be killed again. However, depending on the classes you have around you, and number of attackers, you can have a decent chance of getting back up. Everybody should understand by now that the key to winning anything is teamwork and timing. You'll want to all get up at exactly the same time, so have a sort of counter.. 3... 2... 1. As soon as you're all up, the priest, the druid, the battle huna must all use their AOE heals.
Priest : Mass heal, touch of goddess, then miracle. Druid: spirit of restoration. Battle Huna: Rain of Spirits. This combo should give everyone around you roughly 4 – 5k of hp.
CMs and warlocks have to cast their meteor shower and fear traps around the perimeter of the spawn area to keep attackers away while everyone is rebuffed. Yes, a lot of things can go wrong in this move, and you probably won't get it right the first time either, but it's always worth a shot. You're getting spawn killed at a controller room – If there's no chance of rescue, then just relog. The thing is you've already lost the controller room, but if the enemy doesn't take the controller room (so that you'll spawn there later), then you want to relog to get back to where you started off. While this could be a pain in the ass for PP, for all other dungeons it's relatively easy to find your way back to the action.
Server goes boom – Unfortunately there's nothing you can do during the siege, however this complication can be reduced earlier on through smart planning. When a server goes down, only the parties that were created by members of the alliance lead guild will remain in the siege. So, that means all other parties are destroyed and people are out. A simple way to defend against this is to make sure that every party is led by someone in the guild of the lead. However, if this option does not apply, then you'll need some pretty good communication off game, and remember who's in your party, etc. What I normally do is stay in touch with everyone via msn if I suspect server instability (msn causes lag on my laptop). You're lost in PP – What can I say, get a map... It's easy to get lost in PP because of all the crazy portals, so don't blame yourself. Best thing you can do is try to figure out where you are and how to get to your party as quickly as you can. If you're absolutely lost and have no clue how to get to your party, then relog and help defend your core/stone.
Real Life events – Understandably, people may have to leave during the siege. The truth is, you can't really do anything about it, except make sure they know to partition the time ahead of schedule and have backup plans for when people leave. Making sure that people know about a siege 2 days ahead of time is crucial to making sure you have a good turn-out.
Classes in Siege
Here I have just some of my thoughts on different classes in a siege. These are all my opinion and what I've seen work, they are not solid facts, and depending on who you talk to, they may have very different views. Keep in mind this is only my opinion, what I've seen.
Classification of jobs in Siege:
Crowd Control: Druid, Archer, Warlock, CM, Battle Kahuna, Bishop
Damage Dealers: Soldier, Warlock, CM, Champ, BS, Evoker, Archer, SH, SB, Assassin, Knight, Battle Kahuna
AoEs: CM, Warlock, Druid, Soldier, Battle Kahuna, Archer, SH
Healers: Priest, Bishop, SB, Druid, Battle Kahuna
Scouts: Assassin, SH, Evoker*
1) Archer – One of the least utilized classes in siege, Archers are powerful choke-point guardians. Their superior skill attacks and ensnaring abilities make them great for slowing down any melee attackers. In addition, Archers can detect invisible assassins; preventing people from sneaking past choke points.
2) Assassin – When used well, a powerful force for ambush and causing chaos within enemy's ranks. Assassins also have enough stuns to keep a caster from doing anything and often able to kill someone within their combo. Their ability to stay hidden indefinitely also makes them excellent for resurrecting dead party members.
3) Battle Kahuna – A well rounded attacker, can pull off extremely deadly combo when the need arises to kill an enemy mage. Their healing and AoE abilities make them very useful in large battles (their AoE Heal/Damage heals every person and pet in the alliance within range). Battle kahuna using Recklessness of Earth makes them quite capable of breaking portal camps and running through blockades.
4) Battle Summoner – A multi-capable class in siege, able to use range attacks with fire arrow and other magic spells until the enemy is within melee range. Their auras are very useful in siege, it's always a good idea to have a battle summoner in a party of mostly pet classes.
5) Bishop – Powerful DD, decent disabler, it's very difficult to kill a bishop in siege, as they are often heavily protected and fully buffed, and capable of healing themselves more than most hits can hurt them for. Being extremely powerful with attack spells, bishops make great DD against soldiers and knights
6) Champion – Straight out berserker DD. Essence of invincibility makes them a primary forward attacker, also has many ranged/bow skills at their disposal for badly hurting an enemy before finishing them off with a combo. Ideal for targeting opponent casters such as druids, cm, warlock, bishop
7) Chaos Magician – Meteor Shower, Dark Spiral, Fireblast, all powerful spells on the arena, and in siege. Chaos Magicians also have at their disposal a variety of area stuns, slows, and fears. A must-have for advancing parties to break enemy defences.
8) Druid – often overlooked in siege for their lack of DDing abilities, however druids have an extraordinary number of ways to disable an opponent: Mass petrify, mass ensnare, move speed debuff, petrification, yak-transformation, seal, and mass silence. In addition, they also have a wide-area heal that works similar to the battle kahuna's. Druid AoE abilities are less powerful admittedly, but they are strong in offering indirect damage (Buffing allies with reflection skills, using support of gust on a powerful DDer)
9) Evoker – Similar to champ, they have the ability to be very powerful DDs, furthermore though, they are capable of transforming into their pet. With this comes the advantage of being less targeted, and thus excellent in vanguard. After all, how many of us are going to try to click on the scurrying little evo 1 sala? Whether solo or in a group, Evokers are deadly when using their combos, Evokers are well suited versus other melee attackers. In addition, evokers are fairly well suited versus magical attacks, being a pet class they have higher m def than warriors.
*In above, evokers were listed under scouts. While they are capable of scouting due to their speed and less targeting, and natural difficulty to kill, they are better suited to fight with a group.
10) Knight – if anyone is going to get the award for taking hits, it will have to be the knight. Knights are blessed with extra HP, their handy shield, an array of debuff spams, and seemingly endless HP. Knights are good for pretty much all occasions, however they are most useful in breaking camps by being a distraction. Knights also work well in the vanguard
11) Shadow Hunter – a true squishy-defender, meaning they defend squishies. Shadow Hunters have a number of knock-back skills that keeps the nasty assassin away from healers. Shadow Hunters also have a variety of skills aimed to killing opponents slowly but surely. Did I mention shadow hunters have the best accuracy? Yep, a level 115 shadow hunter has a greater chance at hitting a level 150 than a level 130 knight. The speed at which a shadow hunter moves also makes them excellent scouts. It's too bad there isn't too many shadow hunters in the game. Shadow Hunters are excellent for mid- guard or hindguard in static formations.
12) Soldier – knights get the award for taking hits, soldiers get the award for dealing hits. Soldiers can dish out enough damage to bring a fully buffed assassin from full to half within the first spam wave. Imagine that kind of damage on a squishy! In addition, soldiers command the ability to catch up to enemies with little effort, and demolishing them within seconds. In a siege, I like having soldiers go after pet classes.Soldiers are a must in offensives.
13) Soul Breeder – a healer, a DD, and a class whose BP never ever runs out of mana. Soul Breeders, likeBattle Summoners, can use ranged as well as melee combat. However I think the strength of a soul breeder lies in his or her pets. SBs are great for cluster formation and cluster defence. Because of the extraordinary amount of HP their pets have, SBs are also one of the few classes that can survive a Dark Spiral combo relatively unscathed. In siege, SBs are better off using Energy Beat for damage than melee
14) Warlock – the underdog of sieges, Warlock skills are often overlooked because their corpse skills do not work in siege. Warlocks still have at their disposal their traps, their mass nightmare, mass stun, and their ability to dish out more damage with spams over a longer period of time. Warlocks are excellent against all classes. Typically in a siege, I would put warlock in an ambushing party, or defence party.
Pets in Siege
This section is on its own because the pet people use is typically what they would use in a DP, and therefore difficult to manage. People severely underestimate the power of pets in siege. A player-pet fit pretty much tells you what that person's job should be. Therefore it is difficult to specifically say what pet a player should have in siege. However, I have divided pets into a few groups, and from the groups it follows what suits what job.
Physical DD: Cerebrus, Koala, Hawkman, Harpy, Salamander, Orc, Yeti, Skeleton, Pantera, Tortus, Poultry, Genie, Wolf, Octopus
Magic DD: White Dragon, Red Pixie, Angel, Salamander, Naga
Healer: Blue Pixie, Angel, Octopus*
Debuffer: Siren, Naga
Accuracy Buffer: Siren, Cerebrus
Defense Buffer: White Dragon, Angel, Hawkman, Yeti, Orc, Tortus
Remember these important points:
* The Siege team can be created as soon as the Raid Time Attack is won.
* If the team was created prior to the Siege announcement the guild leader does not need to participate.
* Guild Masters may invite players from other guilds as Party Leaders or members of the siege parties.
* Use /screate NAME to create a Siege Team.
* Use /sinvite_gp NAME to invite a member of your guild as a Siege Team Party Leader.
* Use /sinvite_hp NAME to invite a member of another guild or a guildle s player as a Siege Team Party Leader.
* Each party leader uses /pinvite to invite members to their party.
* The maximum number of players for the Siege is:
o 16 characters for Moonlight (2 parties of 8).
o 32 characters for Lost Mines (4 parties of 8).
o 48 characters for Crystal valley (6 parties of 8).
o 64 characters for Palmir Plateau (8 parties of 8).
* If a character dies they can revive at the start point for the Siege or at one of the control points.
* Teams can take over control points by killing the guardians at each control point and then left clicking on the control point.
* There can only be 1 winner.
* The Attacking Team must gain and keep control of the Dungeon Core.
* Once control of the Dungeon Core is shifted the teams swap sides and all players are reset to their appopriate starting points (the attacking teams Dungeon Stone is also reset to full power).
* If the Defending Team destroys the Dungeon Stone at any time the Siege is lifted and the Attacking Team loses.
* Members of a Siege Team may talk to the entire team by putting ' (apostrophe) in front of their messages.
* Players will NOT lose lak, experience, drop items, or gain immorality points during the Dungeon Siege.
The Schedule (all times are in Pacific):
Ruins of Arid Moonlight 1: 1pm ~ 3pm Saturday
Ruins of Arid Moonlight 2: 1pm ~ 3pm Sunday
Lost Mines 1: 2pm ~ 4pm Saturday
Lost Mines 2: 2pm ~ 4pm Sunday
Crystal Valley 1: 3pm ~ 5pm Saturday
Crystal Valley 2: 3pm ~ 5pm Sunday
Palmir Remains 1: 4pm ~ 6pm Saturday
Palmir Remains 2: 4pm ~ 6pm Sunday
The Sanctuary: 12pm ~ 2pm Sunday
The Rewards: Controlling a dungeon entitles you to certain rewards. You will be able to set the tax rate of the dungeon (maximum of 10% and minimum of 1%). This will reward you with 10% of all lak and rupee drops within the dungeon.
All rewards can be gathered from the Dungeon Master. They can only be claimed by the Guild Master. The Guild Master may only claim as much as he/she can hold at any given time.
Here you can find a great guide to win Siege:
Here you can download a PDF version of this guide:
Additional Rules:
* Please remember that guilds may only control 1 dungeon at any given time.
* Guilds may not participate in The Raid Time Attack if they control a dungeon.
* Guilds that do not control a dungeon may only apply for 1 Dungeon per week.
* All events are run automatically. There is no GM intervention.
This isnt writen by me, I copy and Paste fromhttp://mythicalheroes.wdfiles.com/local--files/illdirrey/Art%20of%20Siege.pdf


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Every child with autism needs a guardian - we are blessed to have one furry guardian and one plastic transmitter "guardian." Here is one of our stories about the wandering we deal with and think about every day.
I don't know if I have posted before about Mr. O's tracking bracelet from Project Lifesaver, but I have been thinking a lot about it lately. Mainly for two reasons.
First of all, and mainly because of the Avonte story. If you don't know about Avonte, he was a 14 year old boy with autism who went missing and died - they found his remains months later. Poor sweet baby boy. The other reason is because my boy broke his tracking bracelet and so he hasn't been wearing it. His running has been limited lately, but since he is the master of surprises, this is not the best situation. We've been waiting to hear about getting it fixed, but tick tock, the clock is ticking.
This past weekend, my anxieties were realized when Mr. O took off. He went out in the snow to play with his siblings, and they all came in after a bit - but he tricked me and ran right back out the door and headed for the woods. These are the woods, and while we are not talking about a deep, scary forest, there's still the water to worry about, and the fact that it was freezing and snowing added to the fun.
Of course I grabbed my coat, had my boots on already (moms with runners know that shoes should be on at all times, just in case) and ran out the door after him, but he was out of sight by the time I got out the door. I didn't even take time to grab hat and mittens, but he is 12 years old and just that fast, stinker.
My awesome middle son and I headed into the woods and saw that since it was snowing, Mr. O left fresh tracks for us to follow. Thank goodness, at least we knew which way to run. As we got out of our yard and away from the hodge podge of other footprints, I noticed another set of footprints next to Mr. O's tracks. Paw prints. We followed the tracks through the woods, past the park, into the other side of our neighborhood and then right past our own street and into the next neighborhood. I was FREEZING and snowing hard. My boy was dressed for the weather, but still, this was not the kind of weather for a kid to be lost in.
Then my 15 year old took off running - and I saw them. Sweet relief flooded my senses.
Our dog had slipped out the door without anyone even noticing. She stayed by his side the whole way. As soon as she saw us, she came bounding forward, smiling her dog smile because she knew Mr. O would be safe. We almost didn't get a dog, because Mr. O had a deathly fear of them (and still does fear other dogs). On this day, I felt such gratitude for the rescue that shared this wonderful guardian with us, and such gratitude to my good girl who kept the boy safe while he was running away in the snow.
Good dog!
The moral of the story? There are a few morals of this story, the way I see it.
1. Kids with autism often "wander" - which sounds like a peaceful stroll, but can actually be a full speed chase, can happen when you least expect it, and they are not dumb so they will fool you, unlock doors, sneak away when you aren't looking or duck out a window. Sometimes you do everything right and they still get away. Tracking bracelets are MUST. Avonte's law needs to pass! Every child who might wander away should have a tracking device available. I don't understand why this is even a question.
2. Dogs are great. Rescue dogs are the best. If you can find a way for your child with autism to have a pet, I think you should do it. We opted for a young dog instead of a puppy because she was already trained and we could see her temperament - puppies are adorable but they are too much work for this autism mama, and with so many older dogs in shelters, why not look there first? You will hit the jackpot - we did.
3. I really need to get Mr. O's tracking bracelet fixed. I should know by now that just because he hasn't wandered in months, it doesn't mean he won't surprise me a run right out the door. Yes, we found him quickly and yes he was safe, but what happens next time? Time to put a little pressure on the people who have promised to fix it for the last few months. I'm not good at that, but the time has come.
My thoughts continue to be with Avonte's family. My heart hurts for them, and at the same time my admiration for them grows. Only twenty four hours after Avonte's funeral, his mother and grandmother stood with Senator Charles Schumer as he proposed the new law that would provide children with autism the tracking bracelets. They know all too well how important this is. If Avonte had a bracelet, could they have saved him? It pains me to think - what a different outcome if Avonte had this device that costs under $100 and then a few dollars a month to maintain. How much money was spent hunting for him? How much money is spent looking for other kids with autism who wander away? Why doesn't every at risk kid (or adult) have a bracelet? It is time for this to happen.
Not every child is blessed like my son, with teenage brothers to chase him and a furry guardian to follow him through the snow and keep him from harm. But every child deserves a way to stay safe and be found. Big thanks to Project Lifesaver for our tracking bracelet, and to Puppies & More Rescue and Angela at The Animal Orphanage of Voorhees, for providing us with an amazing guardian. I hope Avonte's Law passes and we never lose another child in this way. What are we waiting for?


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If you aren't bringing joy to other people, what are you doing?
What's the point of living?
Isn't there enough negativity and toxicity in the world? Why add to that? What good could it possibly do? All you do is reinforce the idea of a crappy world.
Be the agent of change.
Resolve to be bring positivity to those around you.
Instead of thinking the whole world is against you (it's not), believe that the world is full of opportunity to make a difference for the better (it is).
Believe that what you do now–how you treat people today–can potentially make your home, employer, community, organization, state, country, and earth, a happier place.
It's so easy to start. Just be nice to people.
How hard can that be?(although, it's easier when you love yourself)
Don't lash out, criticize, belittle.
Don't be the equivalent of an internet troll.
Instead, say hello to strangers. Smile at people. Give compliments. Thank them. Show gratitude for anyone that helps you even the slightest bit.
This begins the process of training your mind for happiness.
No one grows up thinking: "gee, I want to be an anxiety ridden, negative, unhappy person when I get older".
So stop being one!
But to stop being negative, you have to change your thought patterns.
Neuroscience confirms what Buddhism has been saying for over 2,000 years: that our thoughts can change our brains.
What you focus on will wire your brain to reinforce whatever it is you focus on.
In a real sense, practice makes perfect.
Focus on negativity, and your brain will wire itself accordingly. You'll be amazingly efficient at being negative and unhappy.
Unhappy will be your habitual state.
Focus on positive things, and your brain will reinforce that. Develop habits of thought and actions that produce happiness.
Happy will become your habitual state.
But to be happy, you actually have to engage in practices that produce real happiness.
Is it a coincidence that all the world's religions and philosophies have at their core a Golden Rule?
Is it a coincidence that helping others is considered essential to a well-lived life?
Is it a coincidence that all the world's religions and philosophies warn followers about the illusion of finding happiness in the material/sensual world?
I don't think so.
I'm fortunate in that what I love to do–teaching, training, and writing–are also things that help other people. When I started doing what I loved to do, my happiness levels increased dramatically.
Help others/be happier.
Such a win/win situation is quite rare in life.
So when life gets challenging and I start to focus on myself a little bit too much, I say "May I Bring Joy to Others" and it brings me back to reality and sets me straight.
That's why "May I Bring Joy to Others" is #3 on my daily mediation.
Get Happy
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