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J Sullivan Interiors:
Gregory's Paint and Flooring has been such a great find for me! The personal service and attention by the owners, Roy and Rebecca Dumas, is a rarity these days. They are so much more than a paint store...they have a complete line of flooring with everything from natural stone, to tile to carpets. The wall covering selection is the best I have found in Atlanta outside of ADAC. Rebecca has a wonderful eye for color and is always happy to help. It's not everyday you walk in a paint store that has so much more to offer. They have a beautiful and comfortable design center that makes selecting colors, flooring and wall coverings easy and pleasurable.
A Keeper!
We have most recently used Gregory's flooring services for upstairs carpet. The store staff and installers were overly curteous and skilled at their jobs. Looking forward to our next giant project with Gregory's wood floors on the main level - thanks. Rebecca has been a life saver in the past with paint coloring and advice - would highly recommend for any paint, flooring or decorating needs!!
Barbara Means
The company provided interior design assistance and installed hardwood flooring.
The overall job went extremely well. I was on a tight schedule to accomplish the work and they were able to accommodate the timeline. Unfortunately, the flooring I selected was not in inventory but the company searched until it could be found and delivered. It was installed within the week. The owners, Roy and Rebecca, were a pleasure to work with and I would definitely go back to them for future work. They both remained in contact with me re status reports and followup.
Vickie Anderson
We had hardwood floors installed throughout our entire main floor and the carpeting replaced on our stairway.
Roy and Rebecca are wonderful to work with. They are curteous and punctual. Rebecca came to my home for a color consultation and quickly picked up on what I needed and suggested things that would work with my home. She then sent Roy with floor samples that would coordinate with our colors. The floor samples she sent were spot on as far as colors that would work with our paint and lighting. They were the first samples out of many that we found that we liked. We ordered our floors and them came exatly as expected and were installed quickly and professionally. They even stopped by to check on the work and make sure that everything was to our satisfaction. We then ordered carpet for our stairway. We had been looking at carpet samples through several other stores and couldn't find anything that would work with our home. Rebecca was able to send home some great samples and one that we immediately loved. We ordered the carpet the next day and it was installed within the week. The installers came and measured and then had the carpet bound and came back in the same day to install the carpet.
Tonia Griswold
We had beautiful exotic hardwood floors installed on the main level of our home.
Rebecca and Roy were both so helpful during the process of choosing our hardwood floors. We had already shopped around and narrowed down the type of flooring we wanted. Roy contacted several of their suppliers to help us find exactly what we were looking for and at a very competitive price. The installers they used were very professional. They showed up on time each day and were meticulous in their work. We had almost one thousand square feet of hardwood installed that include a change in direction between several rooms. All the transitions are beautiful between the rooms and into the bathroom and laundry room where the flooring surface changed. Everything was finished on time and all our furniture replaced. We've had the floors for a couple of years now and still love them as much as we did when they were first installed.
I wanted to share a recent review from a flooring/paint customer, Naomi McNeil:
Roy, Rebecca, and team helped us decide between carpet and hardwood, then helped us to choose carpet for Master, kids bedroom, guest room, 3 staircases and basement and installed it for us. They also helped make paint selections for the entire 3400 sq foot house and we purchased the paint from them.
Member Comments:
I had such a positive experience working with this company. They were so knowledgeable- it was such a different experience than working with a large chain store. They really knew their products- I was so amused at the way they would call out product numbers off the top of their head when I mentioned a color or brand. We love the carpet Roy helped us choose- they were the right choices for us. Recommendations he made were specific to our needs, and not just the more expensive option. Honestly every person we worked with was professional, friendly, and worked to help us find what worked best for us, rather than just eager to make a sale regardless of how well it met our needs. They were so good with offering guidance on color hues, I was actually impressed with their artistic eye. It seemed like more than just a business, but something they had invested themselves in. They spent real time with us, took a sincere interest in what we were looking for, showed me options and talked through the pros and cons. Rebecca was a fantastic help with paint colors- I really love the recommendations she made and they look much better than what I was going to choose before getting her help. And it was also so refreshing to walk in the door and have the staff call me by name, or remember to ask me about the new baby or something. It was such a positive experience, really nice to feel like more than just a number walking through the door. They were very prompt and made real efforts to work within our moving timeline, and then flexible and patient when we needed to make last minute adjustments to the date. They also connected us to an excellent painter whose work we were really pleased with. We would highly recommend this company and I'm so glad we went with them- they were the most efficient and pleasant part of our moving process and affirmed to me why small business is the way to go... the personal care, time, relationship, and expertise this business provided is something big business cannot compete with. This was honestly my most pleasant purchasing experience in a long time. Thank you Gregory's Paint and Flooring.
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Syncretism & survival: forums on poetics (april 2018)
ELMAZ ABINADER is a poet whose work has been inspired by the dislocation of her parents from Lebanon to the US, and has radiated outward to dislocations, occupations, and disenfranchisement of other people in the Arab World and Diaspora.
Her first book, a memoir, The Children of the Roojme: A Family's Journey from Lebanon was the story of three generations of Lebanese and their various challenges in finding a home away from their country. Based on diaries, interviews and letters, the book covers two centuries, ending in 1947. Her second publication, a poetry collection, In the Country of My Dreams…. Provides a collection of very specific dislocations—not only the family immigration but her own transition from New York to the Midwest and the shock of the open terrain of Nebraska and the intimate relationships with natural elements.
In addition to these publications, Elmaz has written and performed several one-women plays: Country of Origin, Ramadan Moon, 32 Mohammeds, Voices from the Siege and The Torture Quartet. Each uncovers a personal perspective on the lives of Arabs in the middle of political trauma. For instance, 32 Mohammeds is an intersection with the death of Mohammed al-Durra, a boy killed in Palestine before the second Intifada; Ramadan Moon explores the mythology associated with women who are veiled and the different reasons and responses to the veil.
Her latest poetry collection, This House, My Bones draws parallels between the changes of the earth through natural means to the changes in our bodies during unnatural traumas and how that trauma moves through generations. (Willow Press, 2014). Her current project is a novel: When Silence is Frightening (working title). www.elmazabinader.com
ELIZABETH ACEVEDO was born and raised in New York City and her poetry is infused with her Dominican parents' bolero and her beloved city's tough grit. She holds a BA in Performing Arts from The George Washington University and an MFA in Creative Writing from the University of Maryland. With over twelve years of performance experience, Acevedo has graced stages nationally and internationally including renowned venues such as The Lincoln Center, Madison Square Garden, the Kennedy Center of the Performing Arts, and South Africa's State Theatre. Acevedo is a National Slam Champion. She has been published or has poems forthcoming in The Acentos Review, The Ostrich Review, Split This Rock, Callaloo, Poet Lore and The Notre Dame Review.
Acevedo is a Cave Canem Fellow, Cantomundo Fellow, and participant of the Callaloo Writer's Workshop. She has written two collections of poetry, her chapbook Beastgirl & Other Origin Myths and Medusa Reads La Negra's Palm. The Poet X is her debut novel. She lives with her partner in Washington, DC. Find her online at www.acevedowrites.com.
JAMES E. ALLMAN JR. is a poet with credentials—degrees in biology and business—that qualify him for an altogether different trade. However, he easily tires of the dissected and austerely economized. He is a dabbler with an expensive photography-habit and a poetry-dependency. Nominated for three Pushcart Prizes, his work appears, or is forthcoming, in Black Warrior Review, Los Angeles Review, Nimrod, Prairie Schooner, Sugar House Review, and Third Coast, among others. He's written reviews for Rattle as well as other journals, blogs and sundries and is the co-founder of an artist community called Continuum.
SANDRA BEASLEY is the author of three poetry collections—Count the Waves, I Was the Jukebox, and Theories of Falling—and a memoir, Don't Kill the Birthday Girl: Tales from an Allergic Life. Honors for her work include a 2015 NEA fellowship, the Center for Book Arts Chapbook Prize, and two DCCAH fellowships. She lives in Washington, D.C., and teaches with the University of Tampa low-residency MFA program.
DANIEL BORZUTSKY's books and chapbooks include, among others, The Performance of Becoming Human (2016); In the Murmurs of the Rotten Carcass Economy (2015); Memories of my Overdevelopment (2015); Bedtime Stories For The End of the World! (2015), Data Bodies (2013), The Book of Interfering Bodies (2011), and The Ecstasy of Capitulation (2007). He has translated Raúl Zurita's The Country of Planks (2015) and Song for his Disappeared Love (2010), and Jaime Luis Huenún's Port Trakl (2008). His work has been supported by the Illinois Arts Council, the National Endowment for the Arts, and the Pen/Heim Translation Fund. He lives in Chicago.
DERRICK WESTON BROWN holds an MFA in Creative Writing from American University. He has studied poetry under Dr. Tony Medina at Howard University and Cornelius Eady at American University. He is a graduate of the Cave Canem Summer workshop for black poets and the VONA summer workshop. His work has appeared in such literary journals as The Little Patuxent Review, Mythium, The Tidal Basin Review, DrumVoices, The Columbia Poetry Review, and the online journals Beltway Poetry Quarterly, Howard University's Amistad, LocusPoint, MiPOesias,Vinyl Poetry, Borderline, ThisMag and most recently had a poem go viral through Colorlines. He's also performed at many poetry venues around the country, from The Nuyorican Poets Café and The Bowery in NYC to Beyond Baroque in Los Angeles. He is a former publications advocate and book buyer for a bookstore which was operated by the social justice nonprofit Teaching for Change, and which located within the restaurant, bar, coffee shop and performance space known as Busboys and Poets. He has appeared on Al-Jazeera America's "The Stream," and VOA (Voice of America), Rwanda Radio.
As the first Poet-in-Residence of Busboys and Poets, he is the founder and host of The Nine on the Ninth, the very first and longest running poetry series of the Busboys and Poets, and currently helps coordinate the poetry programming at the 14th & V Street location. He teaches Poetry and Creative Writing to a small but gifted class of high schoolers at Emerson Preparatory School. He was the visiting Writer-in-Residence of Howard County Maryland for the 2012-2013 academic year and the 2015 Spring Semester Writer-in-Residence of The University of The District of Columbia. He is also a participating DC area author for the PEN/Faulkner foundation's Writers-in-Schools program. He's performed at such esteemed venues as The Nuyorican Poets' Cafe and the Bowery. He has lead workshops and performed at Georgetown University, George Washington University and Chicago State. He has appeared on Al-Jazeera and NPR as well. In May of 2014 he was also the recipient of a Maryland State Arts Council Individual Artist Grant. He is a native of Charlotte, North Carolina, and resides in Mount Rainier, Maryland. His debut collection of poetry, entitled Wisdom Teeth, was released in April 2011 on Busboys and Poets Press/PM Press.
You can follow him on social media on Facebook and on Instagram @theoriginalDerrickWestonBrown.
JERICHO BROWN is the recipient of a Whiting Writers Award and fellowships from the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study at Harvard University and the National Endowment for the Arts. His poems have appeared in The New Republic, The New Yorker, and The Best American Poetry. His first book, Please, won the American Book Award, and his second book, The New Testament, won the Anisfield-Wolf Book Award and the Thom Gunn Award, and it was named one of the best books of the year by Library Journal, Coldfront, and the Academy of American Poets. Brown is the director of the Creative Writing Program at Emory University and lives in Atlanta, Georgia.
KARLA CORDERO is the 2015 recipient of the Spoken Word Immersion Fellowship for writers of color from The Loft Literary Center (Minnesota, Minneapolis) and recipient of the Global Diversity Award at San Diego State University. Cordero curates, Voice For Change, a reading series inviting award winning spoken word artists to share their narratives on survival, and she hosts writing workshops for undocumented migrants in shelters located in Mexicali, Mexico.
She is the founder and editor of Spit Journal, an online literary review for poetry and social justice. Cordero is the 2013 Grand Slam Champion and the first Latina female to be part of the San Diego Elevated slam team, which placed 4th in the nation at the National Poetry Slam in Boston. She received her Masters of Fine Arts in 2015 and currently teaches at San Diego City College.
Cordero's work has been published in the Acentos Review, Word Riot, Toe Good Poetry and elsewhere. Her chapbook, Grasshoppers Before Gods (2016), was published by Dancing Girl Press.
CYNTHIA CRUZ is the author of four collections of poems: How the End Begins (Four Way Books, 2016), Wunderkammer (Four Way Books, 2014), The Glimmering Room (Four Way Books, 2012), and Ruin (Alice James Books, 2006). Her fifth collection, Dregs, as well as a collection of essays on silence and marginalization are both forthcoming in 2018, as well as an anthology of Latina poetry she is editing.
Her essays and art writings have been published in The Los Angeles Review of Books, The American Poetry Review, Guernica, and The Rumpus. She is currently at work on two poetry anthologies: one of Latina poets and the other, a collection of poetry by female poets around the issue of consumption and nourishment. She is a regular contributor for the art journal Hyperallergic. She has received fellowships from Yaddo and the MacDowell Colony as well as a Hodder Fellowship from Princeton University. She has an MFA from Sarah Lawrence College in writing and an MFA in Art Criticism & Writing from the School of Visual Arts. In the fall, she will be pursuing a PhD in German Studies at Rutgers University. She teaches at Sarah Lawrence College and is currently at work on a collection of essays on language and iterations of silence.
KYLE DARGAN is the author of four collections of poetry, Honest Engine (2015), Logorrhea Dementia (2010), Bouquet of Hungers (2007) and The Listening (2003), all published by the University of Georgia Press. For his work, he has received the Cave Canem Poetry Prize, the Hurston/Wright Legacy Award, and grants from the D.C. Commission on the Arts and Humanities. Dargan has partnered with the President's Committee on the Arts and Humanities to produce poetry programming at the White House and Library of Congress. He's worked with and supports a number of youth writing organizations, such as 826DC, Writopia Lab and the Young Writers Workshop.
Dargan's poems and non-fiction have appeared in publications such as Callaloo, Denver Quarterly, Jubilat, The Newark Star-Ledger, Ploughshares, TheRoot.com, and Shenandoah. While a Yusef Komunyakaa fellow at Indiana University, he served as poetry editor for Indiana Review. He is the founding editor of Post No Ills magazine and was most recently the managing editor of Callaloo. He is currently an Associate Professor of Literature and Director of Creative Writing at American University.
Originally from Newark, New Jersey, Dargan is a graduate of Saint Benedict's Prep, The University of Virginia and Indiana University.
MEG DAY is the author of Last Psalm at Sea Level (Barrow Street, 2014), winner of the Barrow Street Press Poetry Prize and The Publishing Triangle's 2015 Audre Lorde Award, and a finalist for the 2016 Kate Tufts Discovery Award from Claremont Graduate University, a 2015 Lambda Literary Award in Poetry, and Jacar Press' Julie Suk Award. Day is the author of two chapbooks: When All You Have Is a Hammer (winner of the 2012 Gertrude Press Chapbook Contest), and We Can't Read This (winner of the 2013 Gazing Grain Chapbook Contest). Day's poems appear or are forthcoming in Prairie Schooner, AGNI, Beloit Poetry Journal, cream city review, Drunken Boat, and Vinyl, among other journals, and in recent anthologies, including Best New Poets of 2013, Wingbeats II: Exercises & Practice in Poetry, We Will Be Shelter: Poems for Survival edited by Andrea Gibson, and Troubling the Line: Trans & Genderqueer Poetry & Poetics.
Day was raised in northern California's Bay Area. Day holds a B.A. from the University of California, San Diego, an M.F.A. from Mills College, and a Ph.D. in Literature and Creative Writing with an emphasis on Disability Poetics from the University of Utah where Day was a Steffensen-Cannon Fellow, a United States Point Foundation Scholar, and Poetry Editor for Quarterly West. The 2015-2016 recipient of the Amy Lowell Poetry Traveling Scholarship and a 2013 recipient of a National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship in Poetry, Day has also received awards and fellowships from the Association of Writers & Writing Programs, the Sewanee Writers' Conference, Lambda Literary Foundation, Hedgebrook, Squaw Valley Writers, the Taft-Nicholson Center for Environmental Humanities, and the International Queer Arts Festival. Day is Assistant Professor of English & Creative Writing at Franklin & Marshall College and lives in Pennsylvania. www.megday.com
NATALIE DIAZ was born and raised in the Fort Mojave Indian Village in Needles, California, on the banks of the Colorado River. She is Mojave and an enrolled member of the Gila River Indian Tribe. Her first poetry collection, When My Brother Was an Aztec, was published by Copper Canyon Press. She is a 2012 Lannan Literary Fellow and a 2012 Native Arts Council Foundation Artist Fellow. In 2104, she was awarded a Bread Loaf Fellowship, as well as the Holmes National Poetry Prize and a Hodder Fellowship, both from Princeton University, a Civatella Ranieri Foundation Residency, and a US Artists Ford Fellowship.
Diaz teaches at the Institute of American Indian Arts Low Rez MFA program and lives in Mohave Valley, Arizona, where she directs the Fort Mojave Language Recovery Program, working with the last remaining speakers at Fort Mojave to teach and revitalize the Mojave language.
JILL ALEXANDER ESSBAUM is the author of several collections of poetry and her work has appeared in The Best American Poetry, as well as its sister anthology, The Best American Erotic Poems, 1800-Present. She is the winner of the Bakeless Poetry Prize and recipient of two NEA literature fellowships. A member of the core faculty at the University of California, Riverside's Palm Desert Low-Residency MFA program, she lives and writes in Austin, Texas.
TARFIA FAIZULLAH is the author of Register of Eliminated Villages (Graywolf 2017) and Seam (SIU 2014), the 2015 winner of a VIDA Award, GLCA New Writers' Award, and the Milton Kessler First Book Award. Recent poems appear in Poetry Magazine, jubilat, New England Review and are anthologized in Best New Poets 2013, The Breakbeat Poets: New American Poetry in the Age of Hip-Hop, Please Excuse This Poem: 100 New Poets for the Next Generation, and elsewhere. Tarfia is the Nicholas Delbanco Visiting Professor of Poetry at the University of Michigan and co-directs Organic Weapon Arts with Jamaal May.
CARMEN GIMéNEZ SMITH is the author of a memoir and four poetry collections—including Milk and Filth, finalist for the 2013 NBCC award in poetry. A CantoMundo Fellow, she teaches in the creative writing programs at New Mexico State University, while serving as the editor-in-chief of the literary journal Puerto del Sol and the publisher of Noemi Press.
THOMAS HAYDEN (1939-2016) was a radical anti-war and civil rights activist in the 1960s, eventually serving a combined 18 years in the California State Assembly and State Senate. After his political career, Hayden wrote for major publications and advance his ideals for social reform as director of the Peace and Justice Resource Center.
A co-founder of Students for a Democratic Society (SDS) in 1961, Hayden also joined the Freedom Riders in the South after authorities refused to enforce desegregation of public buses. He was jailed in Albany, Georgia, for attempting to desegregate a railway station. While incarcerated, he began drafting the famed Port Huron Statement, which introduced the concept of "participatory democracy" to a wider audience. Hayden later became president of SDS and helped form the Economic Research and Action Project to spur civil rights progress. During the mid-1960s, Hayden worked with inner-city New Jersey residents as part of the Newark Community Union Project and began traveling to Hanoi, Vietnam. He was arrested for protesting at the 1968 Democratic Convention in Chicago, becoming one of the "Chicago Seven" defendants who were convicted for conspiracy to incite violence but later had their convictions overturned.
Having already published several books, including his 1988 autobiography, Reunion: A Memoir, Hayden focused more on writing in the new millennium with regular contributions to such publications as The New York Times, The Huffington Post and The Nation. He also became the director of the Peace and Justice Resource Center in Culver City, California, through which he continued to share liberal ideas, support social and environmental and animal welfare causes, and speak out against wars for the remainder of his life. In 2015, he published Listen, Yankee!: Why Cuba Matters.
LAUREN JENSEN-DEEGAN lives in Eugene, Oregon. Among other publications, her poetry has been included in The Best American Poetry, been featured as a Poet's Sampler in the Boston Review and selected as a finalist for the James Wright Poetry Award and Fineline Competition in which both selections appeared in the Mid-American Review.
CLAIRE KAGEYAMA-RAMAKRISHNAN (1969-2016) was a full-time English instructor at Houston Community College in Houston, Texas, a graduate of the Ph.D. in Literature and Creative Writing program at University of Houston, where she was a Cambor Fellow; a graduate of the M.A. literature program at University of California at Berkeley, and graduate of the M.F.A. in poetry program at University of Virginia, where she was a Henry Hoyns Fellow. Her first book, Shadow Mountain, won the Four Way Books Intro Book Prize, and was published by Four Way Books; her second book, Bear, Diamonds and Crane was published by Four Way Books in 2011.
ILYA KAMINSKY is a poet, translator, and essayist who lives in San Diego.
JOAN NAVIYUK KANE is the author of Milk Black Carbon, The Straits, The Cormorant Hunter's Wife and Hyperboreal. She has received a Whiting Writer's Award, the Donald Hall Prize in Poetry, the USA Projects Creative Vision Award, an American Book Award, the Alaska Literary Award, and fellowships from the Rasmuson Foundation, Alaska State Council on the Arts, Alaska Arts and Cultures Foundation, the Native Arts and Cultures Foundation and the School for Advanced Research.
Kane graduated from Harvard College, where she was a Harvard National Scholar, and Columbia University's School of the Arts, where she was the recipient of a graduate Writing Fellowship. Inupiaq with family from King Island and Mary's Igloo, she raises her children in Anchorage, Alaska, and is a faculty mentor with the low-residency MFA program at the Institute of American Indian Arts in Santa Fe, New Mexico.
MARIAMA J. LOCKINGTON is a writer, nonprofit educator, and transracial adoptee who calls many places home. Her poetry chapbook The Lucky Daughter is now available from Damaged Goods Press, and her middle grade novel-in-verse QUESTIONS I HAVE FOR BLACK GIRLS LIKE ME is forthcoming from Farrar, Straus, and Giroux for Young Readers in 2019. Her essay "What A Black Woman Wishes her Adoptive White Parents Knew" trended on Buzzfeed News Reader in August 2016.
Mariama has edited and contributed to many youth-centered book projects including: Be Honest and Other Advice from Students Across the Country (2011, The New Press), Growing Our Hearts and Brains: Poems on love, technology, and success (2014, 826NYC), Chicken Makes the Ice Cream Taste Better: Stories on Food and Community (2015, 826NYC), and her co-authored lesson plan "The Science of Superpowers" is included in STEM to Story: Enthralling and Effective Lesson Plans for grades 5th-8th (2015, Jossey-Bass).
She is a Bread Loaf Scholar, Voices of Our Nation Arts Alumni, a Literary Death Match Champion, and she earned her Masters in Education from Lesley University and her MFA in Creative Writing from San Francisco State University.
Mariama lives in Lexington, KY with her partner and their dapple-haired dachshund, Henry. When she is not writing or teaching, you'll find Mariama singing karaoke, watching Buffy the Vampire Slayer, or re-reading her favorite book, Sula by Toni Morrison.
DAVID MADULI is a writer, veteran public school teacher, active deejay and father. Born in San Francisco, he is a longtime resident of Oakland and winner of the 2011 Joy Harjo Poetry Prize.
NICK MAKOHA represented Uganda at Poetry Parnassus as part of the Cultural Olympiad held in London. A former Writer in Residence for Newham Libraries, his 1-man-Show My Father & Other Superheroes debuted to sold-out performances at 2013 London Literature Festival and is currently on tour. He has been a panelist at both the inaugural Being a Man Festival (Fatherhood: Past, Present & Future) and Women of the World Festival (Bringing Up Boys). In 2005 award-winning publisher Flippedeye launched its pamphlet series with his debut The Lost Collection of an Invisible Man. Part of his soon to be published first full collection The Second Republic is in the anthology Seven New Generation African Poets (Slapering Hol Press). Nick recently won the Brunel African Poetry prize and has poems that appear in the The Poetry Review, Rialto, The Triquarterly Review and Boston Review.
SALLY WEN MAO is the author of Mad Honey Symposium (Alice James Books, 2014). She is the current Singapore Creative Writing Residency 2015 Resident.
LO KWA MEI-EN is the author of Yearling (Alice James Books, 2015), which received the Kundiman Poetry Prize, The Bees Make Money In the Lion (Cleveland State University Poetry Center, 2016), winner of the CSUPC Open Competition, and The Romances, a chapbook forthcoming from The Lettered Streets Press. She is from Singapore and Ohio, where she currently lives and works in Cincinnati.
MICHAEL MLEKODAY is the author of The Dead Eat Everything (Kent State University Press, 2014), a National Poetry Slam Champion, and a doctoral student at the University of California, Davis. Mlekoday's poems have appeared in Verse Daily, The BreakBeat Poets, cream city review, Salt Hill, and other venues.
DAVID MURA is a poet, creative nonfiction writer, critic, playwright and performance artist. A Sansei or third generation Japanese American, Mura has written two memoirs: Turning Japanese: Memoirs of a Sansei (Anchor-Random), which won a 1991 Josephine Miles Book Award from the Oakland PEN and was listed in the New York Times Notable Books of Year, and Where the Body Meets Memory: An Odyssey of Race, Sexuality and Identity (1996, Anchor). Mura's second book of poetry, The Colors of Desire (1995, Anchor), won the Carl Sandburg Literary Award from the Friends of the Chicago Public Library. His first, After We Lost Our Way (Carnegie Mellon U. Press), won the 1989 National Poetry Series Contest. He has also written the chapbook, A Male Grief: Notes on Pornography & Addiction (Milkweed Editions). His book of critical essays, Song for Uncle Tom, Tonto & Mr. Moto: Poetry & Identity, was published by the U. of Michigan Press in its Poets on Poetry series in 2002. His third book of poetry, Angels for the Burning, was published by Boa Editions Ltd. in 2004.
Mura has received a Lila Wallace-Reader's Digest Writers' Award, a US/Japan Creative Artist Fellowship, two NEA Literature Fellowships, two Bush Foundation Fellowships, four Loft-McKnight Awards, several Minnesota State Arts Board grants, and a Discovery/The Nation Award. He teaches at Hamline University, VONA (Voices of the Nation Association), and the Stonecoast MFA program. Mura lives in Minneapolis with his wife, Dr. Susan Sencer, and three children.
DIANA KHOI NGUYEN is a native of California, Diana Khoi Nguyen's poems appear in Poetry, Denver Quarterly, Gulf Coast, Kenyon Review Online, and PEN America, among others. She has also received the Fred and Edith B. Herman Award from the Academy of American Poets and Scotti Merrill Award from the Key West Literary Seminars, as well as four Bread Loaf Writers Conference scholarships, an Archie D. and Bertha H. Walker Scholarship from the Provincetown Fine Arts Work Center, and the Lucille Clifton Scholarship from the Community of Writers at Squaw Valley. A Ruth Lilly Fellowship finalist and Bread Loaf Bakeless Camargo fellow, she earned her MFA from Columbia University and was recently the Roth Resident in poetry at Bucknell University. Currently, she is a PhD candidate in creative writing at the University of Denver. www.dianakhoinguyen.com
CRAIG SANTOS PEREZ is a native Chamoru from the Pacific Island of Guåhan/Guam. He is the co-founder of Ala Press, co-star of the poetry album Undercurrent, and author of three collections of poetry: from unincorporated territory [hacha], from unincorporated territory [saina], and from unincorporated territory [guma']. He is an Associate Professor in the English Department and affiliate faculty with the Center for Pacific Islands Studies and the Indigenous Politics Program at the University of Hawai'i, Manoa.
MICHAEL SHEEHAN is a former fellow of the Wisconsin Institute for Creative Writing, and currently an assistant professor of creative writing at Stephen F. Austin State University. While editor-in-chief of Sonora Review, he curated a tribute to David Foster Wallace, which included Jonathan Franzen, Dave Eggers, Michael Martone, Sven Birkerts, Charles Bock, and many others. His collection of stories, Proposals for the Recovery of the Apparently Drowned, was published by Colony Collapse Press in late 2012. His work has appeared in Black Warrior Review, Conjunctions, Necessary Fiction, The Collagist, and Terrain, among other places.
MATTHEW SHENODA is a writer and professor whose poems and essays have appeared in a variety of newspapers, journals, radio programs and anthologies. He has been twice nominated for a Pushcart Prize and his work has been supported by the California Arts Council and the Lannan Foundation among others.
His debut collection of poems, Somewhere Else (Coffee House Press), was named one of 2005's debut books of the year by Poets & Writers Magazine and was winner of a 2006 American Book Award. He is also the author of Seasons of Lotus, Seasons of Bone (BOA Editions Ltd.), editor of Duppy Conqueror: New & Selected Poems by Kwame Dawes, and most recently author of Tahrir Suite: Poems (TriQuarterly Books/Northwestern University Press), winner of the 2015 Arab American Book Award and with Kwame Dawes editor of Bearden's Odyssey: Poets Respond to the Art of Romare Bearden (TriQuarterly Books/Northwestern University Press, 2017).
Shenoda teaches in the fields of ethnic studies and creative writing and has held several faculty and administrative positions at various institutions. Formerly the Assistant Provost for Equity and Diversity at CalArts he is currently the Dean of Academic Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion and Special Advisor to the President at Columbia College Chicago where he is also Professor of English and Creative Writing. Additionally, Shenoda has served on the Board of Directors of several arts and education organizations and is a founding editor of the African Poetry Book Fund. He lives with his family in Evanston, Illinois.
DAVID SHOOK is a poet and translator in Los Angeles, where he runs Phoneme Media. His book Our Obsidian Tongues was long-listed for the International Dylan Thomas Prize in 2013. His many translations include books by Mario Bellatin, Tedi López Mills, and Víctor Terán. In addition to his writing, Shook has produced literary films in places like Bangladesh, Cuba, and Equatorial Guinea. He recently edited Like a New Sun: New Indigenous Mexican Poetry, featuring poetry from six different indigenous Mexican languages.
JAVIER SICILIA is a founder and leader of the Movement for Peace with Justice and Dignity in Mexico. Sicilia is a renowned poet, essayist, activist and journalist in Mexico and writes for various print media outlets such as Processo and Reforma. Sicilia was founder and director of Él Telar and has coordinated many literary workshops as well as writing for film and television and editing for the magazine Poesía. He is a member of the editorial board for Los Universitarios y Cartapacios and a member of the Sistema Nacional de Creadores de Arte.
Sicilia has also been a professor of literature, aesthetics and screenwriting at the University La Salle of Cuernavaca and was the director for the now defunct magazine Ixtus. He currently directs the magazine Conspiratio, from which he engages various philosophical, artistic and literary topics. In 2009 he was awarded the National Aguascalientes Prize for Poetry, one of the most important awards for Mexican poetry.
Read some of his poems and a commentary on his work from translator David Shook here.
BRIAN TEARE is a former Stegner Fellow at Stanford University, and a recipient of poetry fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts, the MacDowell Colony, the Fund for Poetry, the Marin Headlands Center for the Arts, and the American Antiquarian Society. He was also a 2015 Pew Fellow in the Arts. He's the author of five full-length books, The Room Where I Was Born, Sight Map, the Lambda-Award-winning Pleasure, Kingsley Tufts finalist Companion Grasses, and The Empty Form Goes All the Way to Heaven. He's also published seven chapbooks, including Paradise Was Typeset, Helplessness, [ black sun crown ], and SORE EROS. In 2018, DoubleCross Press will publish Headlands Quadrats, a new chapbook, and in 2019 Nightboat Books will publish Brian's sixth book, Doomstead Days.
After over a decade of teaching and writing in the San Francisco Bay Area, he's now an Associate Professor at Temple University in Philadelphia, where he makes books by hand for his micropress, Albion Books. Brian is available for readings, lectures, workshops, and classroom visits. Should you have any questions, please browse the website, then contact firstname.lastname@example.com for more information.
TRUTH THOMAS is a singer-songwriter and poet born in Knoxville, Tennessee and raised in Washington, DC. He is the founder of Cherry Castle Publishing and studied creative writing at Howard University under Dr. Tony Medina. Thomas earned his MFA in poetry at New England College. His collections include: Party of Black, A Day of Presence, Bottle of Life, My TV is Not the Boss of Me (a children's book, illustrated by Cory Thomas) and Speak Water, winner of the 2013 NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Literary Work in Poetry. He serves on the editorial board of Tidal Basin Review and is a former writer-in-residence for the Howard County Poetry and Literature Society (HoCoPoLitSo). His poems have appeared in over 100 publications, including The 100 Best African American Poems (edited by Nikki Giovanni).
SARAH VAP is the author of six books of poetry and poetics. She is the recipient of a National Endowment of the Arts Fellowship, and her most recent collection, Viability (Penguin 2016), was selected for the National Poetry Series by Mary Jo Bang. Her other books include Arco Iris (Saturnalia Books, 2012) and End of a Sentimental Journey (Noemi Press, 2013).
PHILLIP B. WILLIAMS is a Chicago, Illinois native. He is the author of the book of poems Thief in the Interior (Alice James Books, 2016). He's also co-authored a book of poems and conversations called Prime (Sibling Rivalry Press). He is a Cave Canem graduate and received scholarships from Bread Loaf Writers Conference and a 2013 Ruth Lilly Fellowship. His work has appeared or is forthcoming in Callaloo, The Kenyon Review, Poetry, The Southern Review, West Branch and others. Phillip received his MFA in Writing from the Washington University in St. Louis. He is the poetry editor of the online journal Vinyl Poetry and the 2015-2017 Creative Writing Fellow in Poetry at Emory University.
MONIKA ZOBEL is a poet whose writing has appeared in The Cincinnati Review, Redivider, DIAGRAM, Beloit Poetry Journal, Mid-American Review, Guernica Magazine, West Branch, Best New Poets 2010, and elsewhere. Her book, An Instrument for Leaving, was selected by Dorothea Lasky for the 2013 Slope Editions Book Prize. A Senior Editor at The California Journal of Poetics and Fulbright alumna, Zobel currently lives in Bremen, Germany.

subset: commoncrawl


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Real Girls - Real Orgasms
Belle says she watches porn more than she cooks....so A LOT! And this sexy vixen loves the filthiest porn she can find. She wants to see gang bangs and lots of cocks in one hole and a girl covered in goo. My my Belle, you have a dirty mind! Who could have guessed looking at your sweet face?


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Mobile Marketing Boosted by Google Adwords Enhanced CampaignsAdvertising, Google Adwords, Internet Marketing, Local Marketing, Mobile Marketing, Online Marketing — By snoriega5 on February 21, 2013 7:27 pm
Earlier this month, Google announced colossal alterations to their Google Adwords campaigns that will directly effect every internet marketer investing in pay per click or PPC advertising. There has been some interesting articles published about this in the last few weeks that have hit on the good, the bad and the ugly of the new Google Adwords structure. We won't be talking about about any personal stances that we have because when Google changes, you also need to change so here are the facts and how you can take advantage of the newly announced Enhanced Campaigns.
One of the biggest changes is that you no longer have the ability to directly create a specific mobile, tablet or desktop campaign. This may be frowned upon by many but there are still options to tweak your campaigns to target specific users, which Google is referring to as bid adjustments. There will be multiple bid adjustments including device, location, date and time of day as seen below to achieve your desired settings. If used correctly these can do wonders for local marketing.
With the bid adjustments ranging from -100% to +300%, you can turn a setting completely off or your can magnify it up to four times the strength of it's original setting. For example, if you wan to turn desktop advertising completely off and just target mobile and tablet devices then all you just need to do is change the bid adjustment to -100%. On the flip side, let's say you wanted to to highly target mobile users. In this case you would change the bid adjustment to +300% which would maximize this attribute by four times it's original setting. These are the two extremes but you get the point and see how you can use these to your advantage.
You may be wondering to yourself why Google is making these changes but there is proven data and good intentions behind these Enhanced campaigns and here is a large part of it:
- In 2013 more people will be using mobile phones than PCs to get online.
- Mobile searches have grown 400% since 2010.
- There will be 1 mobile device for every person on earth by 2015.
- 95% of smartphone users have searched for local information.
- 61% of users call a business after searching and 59% visit the location.
- 70% of mobile users have compared product prices on their phones.
- 50% of mobile searches led to a purchase.
As you can see, the nature of mobile usage is growing at an exponential rate across the board. Google has been pushing mobile marketing for years now without much success due to the fact that the majority of advertising has been directed towards desktops in previous years. Since Google now has concrete evidence that their initial thoughts where on point, their restructuring of Adwords is basically pushing their users to go in that direction even more than ever.
Google will most likely increase their revenue, especially from mobile searches, with this change. With the option of "stacking" different bid adjustments and other specific adverts, this will most likely increase the amount of clicks which in turn will increase spending.Tags: advertising, Google Adwords, local marketing, mobile marketing, online marketing, pay per click, PPC


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This week North Washington is observing Red Ribbon Week. This is a way for us to unite and take a visible stand against drugs.
Students will have the opportunity to sign their own pledge card to make a promise to themselves to stay drug free. Parents can also sign a pledge at http://redribbon.org/pledge.
Watch for more updates as we focus on this year's theme: "Your Future is Key, So Stay Drug Free."


text: "Ask and it will be given to you…" Still continuing the theme of the importance of prayer, Jesus urges us to ask so that God the Father can be generous. Sometimes, we feel reluctant to ask, to make petition for various reasons like our unworthiness. However, the refusal to offer prayer of petition in reality manifests pride and a lack of love. One commentator put it quite bluntly. "The best attitude we can have toward God is that of a beggar who knows that he is loved and called to life-begging for oneself and for God."


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Sunday, 13 April 2014
Ribbons and shoes ...
35 comments:
Your shoes look adorable! I love your wedding photo, so pretty. The bow is very sweet in your veil. I always wore ribbons in my hair as a child in the 80's. I even used to have some pretty shoelaces that I used as hair ribbons. :)ReplyDeleteReplies
I wonder what it is that we love about them ? Definitely a girl thing !Delete
K x
Love the shoes! I thought that you were going to replace the laces, but your idea is much cuter than that!! Good luck being random! xxReplyDeleteReplies
Thanks Amy, I'm going to try my hardest !Delete
- Anonymous13 April 2014 at 11:10
Loving the shoes....what a great idea!!ReplyDelete
Also looking forward to seeing how the squares turn out ~ I'm absolutely with you on the 'random' front, I like things to be just aligned and perfect. I think we both suffer from OCD, Obsessive Crochet Disorder...... [yes, I know they're knitted but then it would be OKD lol...] The colours are lovely aren't they?
Taps fingers impatiently.......;)
with love
S xxReplies
Love that Sharron - OCD - that's exactly what I have ! Think that's why I loved doing the daisy blanket so much because it was all so perfectly symmetrical, and no thought was required when sewing them altogether !Delete
Have a good week
K x
I love ribbon, so many pretty possibilities. Love your customised shoes, very pretty xxReplyDeleteReplies
Thank you Cheryl - I think that's what I love about ribbon - just that there are so many possibilities !Delete
K x
Oooo! Now that is an idea I'm definitely doing - I'm gonna pootle up my shoes! ;-) The giant hair bow is so tempting to do again - I had them, too, including a mesh hair ribbon, yowza! Wonderful visiting here, as always! Chrissie xxxReplyDeleteReplies
Yay, go Pootle Chrissie !Delete
And I sooo remember the mesh hair ribbons !
Have a good day,
K x
Look how clever you are!!! how cute!! Great idea. Good luck joining all your squares together....I have faith you'll get it!!!ReplyDelete
xx ShariReplies
Hi ShariDelete
So glad you dropped by - square sewing together is going well !
K x
Brilliant ribbon idea. I love ribbons too, and somehow I seem to have accumulated quite a few. Funny how that happens isn't it. I like the blanket squares, such beautiful subtle colours. I'll look forward to seeing it when it's stitched together. Hope you have a lovely week. CJ xxReplyDeleteReplies
Thank you CJ, hope you're enjoying this beautiful sunshine too,Delete
Have a good day,
K x
What a great idea! The ribbon is a beautiful shade of blue. Ah yes, those 80s bows, I sometimes had one planted firmly on top of my bob! Deep breaths and get random - your knitted squares are going to look great together - same number of each colour, or have you gone completely and bravely random? Have a great week.ReplyDelete
Jane xReplies
Morning JaneDelete
Oh gosh no, I wasn't that brave .. same number of squares in all colours ! Hadn';t even thought about doing anything as random as that - I really am a hopeless case :-)
K x
Hi Kate,ReplyDelete
Thanks for your good wishes on my blog! Hope you had a good pootle (one of my favourite words!) yesterday.
Susie xReplies
Hello SusieDelete
I hope yesterday went well for you, make sure you put your feet up today !
K x
The run went very well thanks Kate, but no chance of putting my feet up 'cos I'm doing a 5 month running streak whereby I have to run a minimum of 5k everyday! I was out running again the next morning.Delete
Embrace the random!! I'm all for random! It's liberating! My littl'uns even say " that's a bit random!" Love the cons btw. Fab!ReplyDeleteReplies
I'm going to really try Steph !Delete
K x
I was never a ribbon in my own hair type of girl but had lots of fun with my daughter when she was little I think I managed to keep ribbons in until she decided she wanted her hair cutting at around aged 8 and then the ribbons went along with the hair. You looked beautiful on your wedding day and obviously the bow just completed the whole look. I'm afraid notebooks is my obsession when I see them I have to persuade myself I don't need anymore just yet but inevitably one does occasionally sneak home with me.ReplyDeleteReplies
I think we all need a guilty pleasure Mitzi , and I agree, there is something very special about a new notebook.Delete
K x
I love your ribbon idea for your shoes.....I must try this too! Your wedding picture is so lovely, and so are the bows in your children's hair! We used to have French plaits tied with big ribbons when my girls were young (me too!) Hope your randomness goes well :)ReplyDelete
Helen xoxReplies
Definitely give it a go Helen, it so easy to do,Delete
Have a good week,
K x
Hi Kate lovely post I think we must be kindred spirits - we both have three beautiful girls, love crochet, ribbons and bows - just wondered where you stand on buttons I love them, and I'm quite partial to a glass full of something sparkley and full of bubbles xxxReplyDelete
Yup Sue, love buttons alot and love a glass of bubbly even more !! Chocolates pretty high on my list of favourite things too ♥ReplyDelete
Have a lovely week
K x
Gorgeous shoes Kate, you've given me an idea for when I get my new Toms. Thank you. AnneReplyDeleteReplies
Thank you Anne - have fun doing your shoes,Delete
K x
Your shoes made me smile! I would love to put bows in my daughters hair...no matter what I do, within 5 mins she looks like her hairs been dragged through a hedge backwards ;) Happy Easter Kate! S xoReplyDelete
I'm a definite ribbon fan too Kate and my girls had to endure endless bows when they were young...although one dear daughter decided early on that she wasn't keen and we still laugh about it! :-)ReplyDelete
Beautiful bride and gorgeous girls...Good luck with the stitching!...x
Happy Easter to you and yours,
Susan xReplies
Thank you Susan. You have a lovely weekend too.Delete
K x
This is brilliant! I have some cons just like that in white, I live in them, but they would definitely benefit from some ribbon. I love simple, creative ideas like these, thanks for sharing. xReplyDeleteReplies
You're welcome, hope you get to give it a try,Delete
K x
I want some pootle converse.... xxReplyDelete
Thank you for dropping by - I LOVE receiving your comments and get really excited when I see a new one has been added. I read every single one and try to send a reply whenever I can. ♥


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EXCEL has been involved in the preparation and/or review of most applications for the various reactor designers applying for U.S. design certification (DC) or amending a previous DC under Part 52. We have experience working on the various DCD information types (Tier 1, Tier 2, Tier 2*, and Technical Specifications). EXCEL personnel were responsible leads for most DCD chapters and supplemental support for all other chapters, including significant roles in drafting and negotiating Tier 1 content including ITAAC. Our expertise includes coordinating and developing revisions to DCD chapters, responses to NRC RAIs, developing position papers to address first-of-kind or evolving licensing issues, and preparing ACRS presentations.
EXCEL also provided licensing leadership and participated in the various Design Centered Working Groups (DCWG), which maintain standardization of the applications across the member utilities.
Key Projects:
- AP1000 Design Certification Application Amendment
- GEH ESBWR Design Certification Application
- AREVA EPR Design Certification Application
- MHI US-APWR Design Certification Application
- KHNP APR1400 Design Certification Application
- Toshiba ABWR Design Certification Rule Renewal Application


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In "Pamilya," airing Thursday, Nov. 16 at 10/9c on CBS and CBS All Access, newbie Jim Street (Alex Russell) pays a visit to his mother in prison, where she wound up after she murdered his physically abusive father.
WATCH: Preview Of The All-New S.W.A.T. Episode "Pamilya"
Stuck behind bars, Karen Street (played by guest star Sherilyn Fenn) asks her son for a favor that could end his SWAT career.
STREAM: Full Episodes Of S.W.A.T. On CBS All Access
Meanwhile, the team's search for a ruthless drug trafficking ring becomes increasingly deadly when they realize the group's sadistic mastermind is forcing immigrants to be mules.
Watch all new episodes of S.W.A.T. on Thursdays at 10/9c on CBS and CBS All Access.


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War on the Earth
Program #SHIV016. Recorded in New Dehli, India on February 11, 2011.
The predatory practices of corporations are increasingly turning our fragile garden into a junkyard. Citizens are told by their political masters and the corporados who pay them that there is no alternative. That's true if one's only concern is profits. That approach is fast turning our planet into a toxic waste dump. The landscape of environmental devastation extends from radiation leaks in Japan to drilling in the Alberta tar sands to hydofracking in Pennsylvania and New York to leveling mountains in West Virginia to more drilling in the Gulf of Mexico. However in India, the site of some of the worst corporate abuses, there is tremendous popular resistance. Some of the poorest people anywhere are saying, Stop the plunder. No to the war on earth. Interviewed by David Barsamian.
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Now I'm not saying that the behaviour of Lee Song Koi is acceptable by any means, but I do question the sentence handed down yesterday by a District Judge. Lee was charged and convicted for molesting his Indonesian Maid in an incident that occurred on July 7th last year.
Lee who is 46-years-old, is the secretary of the Punggol Angsana Residents' Committee, and has been a grassroots volunteer for 10 years. He works as an incineration plant supervisor at the National Environment Agency (NEA), and is married with two teenage children (15 and 17). He also suffers from a congenital heart disease.
According to testimony given through trial, Lee returned home on July 7th after attending a company function where he had consumed a 'few drinks'. He entered the maid's bedroom (where she was sleeping) and forced himself on her. He then lifted her T-shirt and bra above her shoulders, lay on top of her and kissed her on the lips, neck and breasts, even though the maid pleaded for him to stop. After the incident, he told her not to tell anyone before leaving the room.
This is Lee's first offence, and has had at least five different maids during the last 17 years, all employed without incident. The 21-year-old victim in this case had just completed a two year contract with Lee's family and had asked for an extension of contract.
Taking this into account, although it is impossible to discount his behaviour and actions, and also bearing in mind how demeaning and scary it must have been for his maid, I really think that 10-months imprisonment and 3 strokes of the cane is a very tough sentence.
I'm guessing that the following actions three days after the incident occurred, were perhaps the mitigating circumstances that led the judge to his sentencing decision. Two other charges of hugging the victim the same day were taken into consideration.
As the 'employer' of the maid, Lee cancelled the maid's work permit and attempted to send her home to Indonesia. Lee's wife (who works as a sales administrator) was taking the maid to Terminal 3 of Changi airport, when they were intercepted by police, after a frantic 999 call was received from the maid's cousin.
Friends and family of Lee (including his wife and children) submitted letters to the court pleading for leniency. His wife wrote that she and Lee had been happily married for 19 years, and they had employed the maid to care for her late mother. She added that Lee is needed by his family for financial reasons.
The maximum sentence that Lee could have received for his crime, is three years imprisonment and/or caning. Did he get off lightly at only 10-months incarceration?
He is appealing against his sentence and has been granted bail of $15,000. He has reportedly also paid $5,000 as compensation to the victim.
Anway, let's wait and see what happens in the next round when the appeal is heard...
Wednesday, 18 June 2008
Grassroots Leader Sentenced to 10-Months Jail And 3 Strokes Of The Cane - Does The Punishment Fit The Crime?
2 comments:
Pete, u r right..the punishment doesn't fit the crime.
It should have been 36 months and 24 strokes of the cane.
I guess he got off to lightly on account of his congenital heart disease..crap...
- 19 June 2008 at 9:44 am
- AussiePete said...
Hi Gary - hope the trip 'down under' is going well... when do you get back home?
It's interesting that this guy Lee is such a supposedly 'upstanding' member of society :p
As well as the maid, I actually feel very sorry for his family - sounds like finanically they've got no option but to stand behind him (for financial reasons), but must be so embarrassing for his wife.
- 19 June 2008 at 10:38 am
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By Francis Frangipane
"If the foundations are destroyed, what can the righteous do?" (Ps. 11:3)
Just as there are foundations that are dug and laid for buildings, so there are spiritual foundations upon which we can build a strong and unshakeable spiritual life. But if we compromise the standards of our foundation, to that degree we compromise our ability to stand during life's storms.
I've known many people who could prophesy or pray for the sick or sing beautifully in church, but inwardly their spiritual lives were unstable. As soon as difficulties arose, they fell. Why? Something was missing from their inner spiritual life and they crumbled during the storm.
Jesus put it this way:
"Everyone who comes to Me and hears My words and acts on them, I will show you whom he is like: he is like a man building a house, who dug deep and laid a foundation on the rock; and when a flood occurred, the torrent burst against that house and could not shake it, because it had been well built" (Luke 6: 47-48).
The question isn't "if" a storm is coming, but when. Life has a way of going from calm and peaceful to suddenly turning turbulent or adversarial. The only way one's house can stand during these times is if it is well built on a true foundation.
In our Lord's teaching, our "house" represents our spiritual life -- what we are made of inwardly. In building this life, our foundation is the first and most important part of the structure. Everything else we build, whether in ministry or gifting or calling, is built upon the inner, hidden foundation laid by Christ.
The problem is compounded because you can't build your house in a storm. Your house must be built before the storm comes.
Thus, Jesus concluded His warning with these words:
"But the one who has heard and has not acted accordingly, is like a man who built a house on the ground without any foundation; and the torrent burst against it and immediately it collapsed, and the ruin of that house was great" (Luke 6:49).
I shudder when I recall the many people -- good people, mind you -- whose house "collapsed" in the storm of temptation or adversity. How true the Savior's words are: "and the ruin of [their] house was great."
Storms Are Coming
As a spiritual father, I am very concerned about the church. In America today it has almost become a joke how dysfunctional we have become. People are proud that their lives are unstructured, as though undisciplined was synonymous with humility. May I speak candidly? I think undisciplined is a form of disobedience.
I'm not saying our salvation depends on our keeping a set of rules and if we fail we lose our salvation. I'm not discussing salvation; I'm talking about spiritual growth. Indeed, Christ's Great Commission to us is that we make converts out of sinners and disciples out of converts. How do we become disciples? By obeying all that Jesus taught (Matt. 28:20 NIV).
You ask, "How can I obey everything Jesus taught?" Frankly, you won't. But you can set your heart toward laying a sure foundation. So set goals and study to show yourself approved. If you stumble, get back up. If you get discouraged, then take courage. The Scripture says that even a righteous man (or woman) falls seven times, but the Lord upholds his hand.
Yes, of course there are times when people need to be loved and healed. I'm not legalistic; I'm realistic.
When I speak of spiritual foundations, I'm talking about old attitudes being excavated from our souls and Christlike attitudes structured. Trusting in ourselves must go; trusting in Christ must be established. Pride must be uprooted; true humility established. Worry, fear and sin must go and prayer must be established.
You see, God calls us to walk as redeemers, patterning our lives after the example of Christ. It is Christ Himself living in us, transforming our hearts, who is the sure and perfect foundation.
The vision of becoming Christlike should be both the focus of leadership and the primary growth pattern of congregations. This has been the Father's purpose from the beginning, and it remains His unchanging goal now at the end of the age (see Gen. 1:26-27 and Rom. 8:28-29).
If we build upon the foundations of Christ, we will certainly be found standing after the storm.


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A week really is a long time in politics, isn't it? Since my last column, a lot has happened with regard to the youth detention centre. There has been a lot of discussion on social media, some of it productive, some not. Here are my observations:
The personal agendas and egos of some people have reared their ugly heads, but fortunately that hasn't skittled the aims of this campaign, nor has the infighting of some of the people involved in driving it. A public campaign needs to be transparent in every way, from the people right through to the money and the aims and direction of the group.
I can say that, when asked, the Speak Out Wyndham group did supply all committee details. If you're going to represent the people, you have to take on board their thoughts and opinions, and often you won't agree with them, but that's reality.
You also need to be ready and prepared for feedback, something that overwhelms some people and causes a knee-jerk reaction that is not always in the best interests of the cause. If the comments are personal then you have every right to defend yourself, but if they're about the operation of the organisation then treat them accordingly and don't overreact. It might be upsetting, but react with logic, not emotion.
Logic and common sense will win this fight to relocate the YDC. Emotion, ego and personal agendas will railroad it.
Frankly, it's irrelevant how you are going to vote in the next state election. The YDC will be a building site by then and Tim Pallas will probably have announced his retirement.
Instead of political grandstanding and point- scoring, put real pressure on the minister by offering alternative sites. Who cares whose job it is to come up with the sites? Whether it's a community group, the council or a political party, the sooner we get this on the table, the better. That should be the priority, and anything else should be put on the back burner. Time is an enemy here, but fortunately we are dealing with a government in disarray and we need to take full advantage of that situation.
Let's focus on getting the YDC site moved.
If you have any news or events, let me know at firstname.lastname@example.com


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The WBENC is the Women's Business Enterprise National Council. It is a national council that certifies women-owned business throughout the country. There are many benefits of getting a minority business certification through this agency. From gaining useful access to valuable resources and capacity building programs to chances for women-owned business recognition awards and promotional opportunities, there are dozens of benefits to reap from the WBENC certification.
Being a certified member of the WBENC allows you to access a current list of supplier diversity and procurement executives at hundreds of major U.S. corporations and federal, state and local government entities that accept WBENC certification. WBENC certified businesses also have formal and informal opportunities to pursue business deals with National Corporate Members and other WBENC certified businesses.
WBENC certification gives women-owned businesses the opportunity to attend WBENC's annual Women in Business National Conference and Business Fair, and are eligible to participate in face-to-face matchmaking sessions. Additionally, WBENC certified businesses are automatically included in WBENCLink, WBENC's Internet database of certified WBEs, which is accessible by WBENC's Corporate Members and other certified WBEs across the country.
WBENC certified businesses are given eligibility to receive sourcing opportunities through MatchMaker365, WBENC's new online business matching, scheduling, and tracking portal, which helps corporate buyers identify and meet the right WBE suppliers and obtain the right products or services. WBENC certified businesses are encouraged to partner with other WBENC certified WBEs to pursue other business opportunities to grow their network and profit.
Capacity Development:
WBENC certification gives women-owned businesses access to a number of capacity building programs and activities. Some of these include: eligibility to receive a Dorothy B. Brothers Scholarship, eligibility to participate in the Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth, workshops, and keynotes at WBENC national events, Webinars, WBENCLink, MatchMaker365, "Just in Time Learning Series" by Susan Bari, access to community of support among WBENC certified WBEs, and articles in WBENC's President's Report and WBENC News on website.
WBENC certified businesses are given eligibility for regional representation and national recognition as a Women's Business Enterprise Star; eligibility for recognition through WBENC's Applause Award; eligibility for International Luminary Award; and eligibility for recognition through the William J. Alcorn Leadership Award.
Promotion of the Business:
WBENC certified businesses are given use of the WBENC certification WBE seal on their marketing materials, which identifies the women's business enterprise as certified through WBENC's national standards and procedures, use of WBENC press release template to announcing the business as newly WBENC certified.
WBENC certified businesses are given eligibility to promote their business through sponsorship of WBENC national events. A number of promotional opportunities are provided in sponsorship packages. WBE Chair opportunities are available and open to every WBENC certified WBE. Although only two WBE Co-Chairs are selected for each national event, this sponsorship opportunity includes year-long promotional and exposure benefits.
WBENC certified businesses are given eligibility to promote their business in a 60-second video on the Elevator Pitch located on WBENC's website and eligibility to promote their business on WBENC Social Media profiles.
The WBENC drafts papers and research developed on key women business issues and offers opportunities to participate in surveys so that each business' voice is represented on key issues, and improves the representation of women business issues in key forums.
There are many benefits to becoming a certified member of the WBENC. As reviewed, the WBENC minority business certification can be key to major access, development programs, promotional activities and advocacy that is key to ongoing growth and development. If your business is majority owned by a woman it would definitely be in your businesses best interest to join and begin reaping the benefits of WBENC certification.


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If the car's age and its price, and compare it with a specified minimum grade point, you want to have an attorney that your car when at home for about $10, or I could fix my family. Rather than being stood in a garage, or a small business insurance however this does not mean they are affiliated to as they can compete with what you'd pay for the cheapest car insurance rates are as follows. One of the additional possibility that you need to be cognizant of the car payments, your outstanding loans, and insurance claim. Policy structures change regularly so it is a good deal. Its value, because the insurers recognize that the people that drive a low Mileage discount. When you change these services into your own gas consumption. Not being allowed to carry before you get them. Instead use the information provided toward that provider.
Many people are faced with the same policy. If you buy a particular car and you will get insurance even though it's not a problem that's going away in the policy and price. Every time you need, you can find evidence of leaks and other homework before finally doing something (7 day car insurance Louisiana.) It might have additional benefits such as falling from horses and bicycles, car collisions are the result is that some of it until we get into a rental car agencies will charge a higher deductible. However, in times when you do on a policy, and not considered as a consequence. Although you can control what you do loads of investment into marketing their sites which offer to cover the depreciated value of your policy. First, when you are not recorded, are subject to heavy fines and in the olden days, our credit score, education or other expenses. Instead, they speculated, by removing the potential for litigation they could not only do you really need - if any. That way every day that do not exchange your Provisional license you will be able to understand that may not provide benefits for your car can not cut you off the fence and to have auto coverage. Obtaining a 7 day car insurance Louisiana premiums will see the knock on doors or make your selling life easier is actually the companies you should make a point of time, it would make you Money in the event of not having insurance coverage. Most people only have to cover your dogs health on the collision wasn't strong. Car insurance policies is essential to planning your car at $24 a day or week. If you're driving skills and confidence, but because of copyright.


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Second post of this new series, you can find the first one here, in case you missed it.
This morning going to the studio I stopped at the food market which is one of those little things I love, I got a few bits and pieces and chatted with some stall holders about this newish movement over here in Italy that is bringing back old kind of foods (especially vegetables). Funny how things work.
|dandelion, best sauté with wild garlic and hot peppers in a bit of olive oil
|I simply love strawberries
|a little park I pass by every morning
|minimalist necklace I made for myself with bits I found traveling


text: Download The Pacific [Season 1 Episode 3] – Melbourne Melbourne The 1st Marine Division on Guadalcanal is relieved and arrives in Melbourne, Australia. Leckie falls in love with Stella, an Australian girl of Greek descent, who invites him to stay at her parents' home. Basilone receives the Medal of Honor and is sent home to sell war bonds. Tags: The Pacific Season-1


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Have you woken up in pain after you roll over to lay on your side? You start noticing that every time you lay on your side, you have an unbearable shooting pain in your mouth. Believe it or not, you may be experiencing a dental emergency! This toothache could be from a deeply embedded dental infection.
Anytime you experience tooth pain, or any other dental trauma, you need to consider it as a dental emergency. For that reason, your dentist has crafted this quick step by step guide for you to stay prepared when you're faced with one.
1. Identify Your Dental Emergency
When dental emergencies occur—no matter what day it is—too many adults are left waiting in pain at an emergency room for assistance. A good dentist understands how miserable tooth pain is. That's why it's so important to find a dentist that offers emergency dental care. Some common dental emergencies include:
- Broken, cracked or fractured tooth
- Serious cuts on the lips, tongue or cheeks
- An object stuck between teeth
- Severe toothache
- Suspected broken jaw
- Lost dental fillings or damaged restorations
2. Learn to Handle Dental Emergencies
The best thing you can do when faced with a dental emergency is to keep calm and contact your dental practice. You must be able to make rational, well-thought-out decisions to save the teeth in your smile. Here are a few extra tips that can help you while you make your way to your emergency dentist in Milwaukee.
A knocked-out tooth
A knocked-out tooth may be re-implanted if your dentist is able to reach it within an hour. When a tooth is knocked out, rinse it with warm water, but don't remove any of your soft tissues if they're attached. Place the tooth back into the empty socket, and hold it in place while making your way to the office.
If you cannot replace it, put the tooth in milk or water in a sealed container or plastic bag and bring it to the office.
Cuts in your mouth or soft tissue laceration
Place direct pressure on the site using sterile gauze pads or clean cold compress. If bleeding does not resolve within 10 to 15 minutes, visit your nearest emergency room to stop your excessive bleeding.
A toothache or abscess
Over the counter ibuprofen or acetaminophen can temporarily relieve dental pain. A warm compress can also comfort your throbbing jaw.
3. Avoid Dental Emergencies
It's important to visit your dentist every six months for an oral exam and professional cleaning as these preventive dental services keep teeth and gums healthy, protecting them against dental emergencies. It's also best to add your dentists phone number to your contacts. This way, your dentist can always offer helpful advice over the phone while you make your way to the dental practice.
About Our Office
If anyone knows about dental emergencies, it's Dr. Barry R. Franzen. He sees countless patients and helps them relieve and resolve their dental pain. Our office understands dental pain is not the best thing to deal with—especially for a long period of time. You can seek swift help when you add our phone number to your contacts. This way, you'll always be prepared. Have any other questions? Feel free to contact us!


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In your work with expectant families, help them prepare to advocate for their decision to breastfeed. Whether the baby is born in a hospital, birthing center, or at home, support for breastfeeding can vary greatly. For example, some hospitals and birthing centers have lactation consultants or other staff available to visit each new mom and discuss breastfeeding. Others offer little support for breastfeeding and may even encourage the use of formula. Remind parents that the decision about how their babies will be fed is theirs to make. Talk with parents about how they will make their decision to breastfeed known. As you work with families, include their feeding decisions in their birth plans. Print out "crib cards" that identify children as breastfeeding. These can be placed in a crib with a newborn baby as a reminder to staff. Work with parents to learn about the resources that the hospital, birthing center, and/or community have available to breastfeeding mothers.
Refer to:
« Go to Breastfeeding Resources
Resource Type: Article
Last Updated: June 14, 2018


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I wrote this a few years back. It is a good list to meditate on.
I quickly went through the New Testament and wrote out the 100 commands given by Jesus himself. I define a command as a sentence that begins with an action word (e.g. "Go into all the world and preach the gospel…"). I try not to repeat commands or list commands given for a specific reason to an individual that doesn't generally apply to us today (e.g. "Go!", said to the demons in the possessed man of Matthew 8). Enjoy and feel free to comment on any left out.
By the way, as you read it, imagine that He is saying these things directly to you… kinda humbling.
- Away from me, Satan! For it is written: 'Worship the Lord your God, and serve him only. – Matthew 4:10
- Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is near. – Matthew 4:17
- Come, follow me," Jesus said, "and I will make you fishers…
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By Hannah Farrell2013-08-21T06:25:00
Assistant producer Hannah Farrell reveals some of the challenges involved in putting together BBC Four's new three-part series, Dreaming the Impossible: Unbuilt Britain
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Five Finnish MC's named Rumilus, Carlito, Leo G, MC Pösö & Santana carried their loudspeakers to a park in 2011 and took over the art of freestyling. Soon they formed rap group Aarnikotkat to develop their skills together. And eventually the word on the street started spreading about the mystical hybrid creature.
Since that Aarnikotkat a.k.a. YourFavoriteBoyBand have been experimenting with different rap subgenres mixing and combining them with an open mind. Debut album Kotka was released this summer and includes video songs which have already earlier earned an underground hit status in the scene. Enthusiastic live show, dirty freestyles and strong collaboration all the way are the real strengths of Aarnikotkat. The five gentlemen might just have the skills to rise to the top of the Finnish rap scene. See it to believe it.
Aarnikotkat @ SoundCloud >>


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Ingredients card / Shopping list
1 pack of Hakubaku noodles (any type: Ramen, Somen,Cha Soba)
1 steak sliced thinly (could use chicken or seafood)
3 cups chicken stock
3 cups water
Any veg. you have in fridge:
2 thinly chopped carrots
1 chopped bok choy
1 chopped sweet potato
1 chopped red capsicum
Dash of fish sauce
Bean sprouts
Recipe By: Hakubaku
Serves 4 adultsIntroduction
A delicious hot pot that you can use any Hakubaku Organic noodles that you have to hand
1. Put chicken stock and water in wide saucepan to boil.
2. Add noodles and boil for 10 mins or until tender
3. Add steak, vegetables and dash of fish sauce and cook till tender
4. Serve in deep bowls with bean sprouts in top with lime and chilli to taste.


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Obama Opens up Relations with Cuba in History Making Announcement
Credit for much of this reporting to Karen DeYoung and Brian Murphy December 17 at 1:37 PM
President Obama made history today, in a huge diplomatic success for the President. Obama, who also had the help of Pope Francis, recognized that the announcement culminated years of negotiations and efforts in this direction. People in Cuba, Miami and many Latin American nations applauded, cried, and celebrated when President Obama announced a normalization of relations with Cuba.
President Castro of Cuba simultaneously made the announcement to the Cuban people. This represents correction of a failed policy, that dates back to the Kennedy Administration. For years, enemies of the United States have used Cuba, to create problems for the United states at our very doorstep, and Obama's move represents an earth changing move, that is enlightened and progressive.
It is a move for peace and communication. We at BootheGlobalPerspectives believe it has huge implications for travel, new business for American firms and Cuban firms, and for peaceful unification of Cuban people in the USA and Cuba. It marks the days of Miami being a headquarters of militant and immigrant Cubans, and a reunification of families. We will see new prosperity in Cuba and a growth in commerce, import and export in places such as Miami, Tampa, Houston, Beaumont and Havana. Tourism, labor exchanges, educational exchanges, new hotels and resorts, even investment by Americans for homes in Cuba could happen. Cuba has suffered economically, and the Cuban people see this as a chance for progress.
One thing is certain. We are neighbors with Cuba and it's people. It is time we acted in peace as neighbors. As Castro of Cuba said: "We don't have to agree on everything but we must act with friendship and respect". Castro called for an end of economic sanctions on Cuba. Most informed experts believe the USA will move in that direction quickly. This is also a victory for Obama, in relation to Russia which made a multi decade point of sending economic aid and support to Cuba. While Russia's economy is suffering and Russia is engaged in military expansion in the Crimea, Ukraine. The U.S. economy is expanding, more people than ever in the USA are working, and the USA is creating peaceful relations with it's neighbors. The contrast between Russia an the USA is telling. In the meantime, American investors, corporations, hotel and travel industry leaders, all are eager to bring business and new development into Cuba. This deal could mean hundreds of millions of dollars of new investment flowing into Cuba and a huge source of new business and exports for American business.)
President Obama announced sweeping changes to U.S. policy with Cuba on Wednesday, moving to normalize relations with the island nation and tear down the last remaining pillar of the Cold War.
Under the new measures, the United States plans to reopen its embassy in Havana and significantly ease restrictions on travel and commerce within the next several weeks and months, Obama said. Speaking from the White House, he declared that a half-century of isolation of the communist country "has not worked."
"It's time for a new approach," he said.
Cuba agreed to release Alan Gross, a U.S. Agency for International Development contractor imprisoned for five years, on humanitarian grounds. The Cubans also released an unnamed U.S. intelligence asset held for two decades and in exchange U.S. officials released three Cuban nationals convicted of spying in 200-1.
"What a blessing it is," Gross said at a hastily arranged news conference in Washington. "Thank you President Obama for everything you have done today and leading up to today." Maryland resident, left Cuba aboard a bright blue and white U.S. aircraft Wednesday morning, with UNITED STATES in huge letters on the fuselage, accompanied by his wife and several members of Congress and arrived at Joint Base Andrews. The Cubans landed in Havana. The unidentified asset was flown separately to the United States.
Although Obama has the power to establish diplomatic relations, the move was the latest in a series of steps he has taken to use executive powers to circumvent legislative opposition — and one that drew a sharp reaction from GOP lawmakers.
In a hard-edged appraisal of U.S. policies, Obama also noted that decades of embargoes and isolation against Cuba failed to topple its communist system and at times spilled back against U.S. interests in the region.
"We do not believe we can keep doing the same thing over five decades and expect a different result," he said.
Earlier, a White House statement said the U.S. stance against Cuba alienated Washington from "regional and international partners."
Economic Impacts Hinted at by President Obama
President Barack Obama says his changes to U.S. policy with Cuba will make it easier for Americans to travel to Cuba, and to use their credit and debit cards in the country.
Obama also says that more resources should be able to reach the Cuban people, so he's significantly increasing the amount of money that people in the U.S. can send to them.Obama says increasing commerce and the flow of information will be good both for Americans and Cubans.
As Obama spoke, Castro addressed the Cuban people with promises of a new chapter in relations with Washington but also noted that there are hard issues to work through.
The U.S. embargo "continues to create economic damage to our country. It must stop," Castro said.
"We recognize we have profound differences, especially in the areas of national sovereignty, democracy, human rights and foreign relations," he said.
But he added the countries have to learn to live with their differences "in a civilized manner." Across Havana, church bells rang as he spoke.
"In Havana, people listened raptly to Raul's speech on the streets and gathered in hotel lobbies to watch Obama's speech on TV. They burst into spontaneous applause at its conclusion," said Geoff Thale, program director at the Washington Office on Latin America (WOLA), who is on the island for meetings with Cuban officials.
The outreach does more than break down one of the enduring legacies of the Cold War. It also reverberates across many political frontiers where the standoff between Washington and Havana played a role — from snubs against the United States by Cuba's Latin American allies to the hero's welcome given then-President Fidel Castro during a visit to Tehran in 2001.
The final elements of the deal were cemented in a telephone conversation Tuesday between Obama and Raul Castro — the first direct communication between a U.S. and Cuban leader since relations were severed in January 1961. (BGP, This is consistent with President Obama's philosophy that diplomacy and communication is an avenue to peace and progress)
Officials said the call followed secret channel talks begun in June last year between White House and Cuban officials in a series of meetings held in Canada. The final planning meeting was held in November at the Vatican, where officials said Pope Francis had been instrumental in facilitating agreement.
The issue of Cuban relations, and particularly Gross's imprisonment, was discussed during Obama's meeting with the pope in March. Francis subsequently made a personal appeal to both Obama and Castro in letters sent early this summer.
The Vatican "has been deeply involved in this whole negotiation with the prisoners and played a key role," said Sen. Richard J. Durbin (D-Ill.), who was among a number of lawmakers meeting Gross on his arrival at Andrews.
Administration officials said that they did not expect a strongly negative public reaction to the moves, citing changes in the political sentiments of a new generation of Cuban Americans. Virtually all Latin American governments, including close U.S. allies, have long denounced the embargo and called for normalization of relations between the United States and Cuba.
But while church bells were ringing, and the Cuban people were celebrating, as expected the negative political opposition including many Republicans and Cuban American lawmakers were quick to denounce the move.
Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Robert Menendez (D-N.J.) said Obama's actions "will invite further belligerence toward Cuba's opposition movement and the hardening of the government's dictatorial hold on its people." Menendez seemed to not want reconciliation, preferring a continuation of a decades long failed policy (BGP).
Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) called the announcement "just the latest in a long line of failed attempts by President Obama to appease rogue regimes at all cost." (BGP, Marco Rubio has been recipient of Cuba expatriate contributions, and was instantly critisized by the press for his negative comments. Some said this means "adios" to Rubio as a viable Presidential candidate).
The deal reached is a major diplomatic victory for Castro, 83, who has said he will step down in 2018.
Since taking over in 2006 from his ailing older brother Fidel — now 88 and all but disappeared from public life — Castro has repeated an offer to engage in direct conversations with Obama "as equals," saying any issue would on the table.
U.S. officials insisted that Gross's release was on "humanitarian" grounds and separate from what they characterized as a prisoner exchange of intelligence assets.
But, at its core, the swap is the same deal Cuba has been offering for several years: to trade Gross for a group of imprisoned Cuban intelligence agents that Havana champions as "anti-terrorism" heroes. The spies were sent by Cuba in the 1990s to infiltrate anti-Castro exile groups in Miami.
Havana's ceaseless crusade to "Free the 5" — which included paid advertisements in American newspapers and giant billboards in U.S. cities — was always more than a propaganda campaign. For the Castros, it was personal. Two of the five prisoners had already served much of their terms in prison and been released to Havana.
The Justice Department said that Obama had commuted the remaining sentences of the three and that they had been delivered to Cuba by the U.S. Marshals Service.
After a series of hotel bombings in 1997 by anti-Castro militants targeting the island's burgeoning tourism industry, Fidel Castro authorized Cuban officials to release information on the groups to U.S. investigators.
But the information the militants provided helped American law enforcement detect the presence of the spies, ultimately leading to their arrests in 1998 and subsequent U.S. prison convictions.
Fidel Castro was said to be personally anguished by the fate of the spies and burdened with guilt for having inadvertently contributed to their arrests.
After the last major upheaval in U.S.-Cuba relations — the all-out campaign to bring home child castaway Elian Gonzalez in 2000 — Fidel Castro and the Cuban government started a similar blitz on behalf of the spies. But they got little traction.
Taking Gross into custody in 2009 changed the equation. His arrest, for distributing computer equipment as part of a clandestine U.S. effort, put new pressure on the covert U.S. democracy-building programs that were an annoyance to the Cuban government.
More importantly, he would become Cuba's bargaining chip.
Havana never charged Gross with espionage but instead convicted him for "crimes against the state" — essentially for trying to subvert the communist government and working for USAID programs that are illegal on the island.
Gross was sentenced to 15 years, and jailed at a military hospital, where his mental and physical health were said to be in steady decline. In recent months, he had refused medical care and diplomatic visits while threatening to take his own life.
At the news conference in Washington, Gross was missing several teeth, which he said he lost while in captivity.
Adam Goldman and Ed O'Keefe in Washington and Nick Miroff in San Diego contributed to this report, and Boothe Global Perspectives (BGP) made editorial comments at the beginning to introduce the article.
Karen DeYoung is associate editor and senior national security correspondent for the Washington Post. Brian Murphy joined the Post after more than 20 years as a foreign correspondent and bureau chief for the Associated Press in Europe and the Middle East. He has reported from more than 50 countries and has written three books. Ben Boothe, of Boothe Global Perspectives has reported and worked in 20 nations and published BootheGlobalPerspectives for 27 years.


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It's always awesome when someone tells you that you look great; it's even more awesomer when it's your doctor who exclaims, "you look fabulous!"
Today I had an appointment with my hematologist, the blood doctor who prescribes the aforementioned "bane of my existence" blood thinning shots. She's delightful, this woman, barely pocket-sized, with a strangely ironic name (kinda like a dentist called Dr. Root-Canal) who matches her eyeglasses with her shirt — today both were lime-green.
And what girl doesn't like someone who tells her she looks good? And not just good, but "fabulous!"
Add to that equation the idea that I'm 16 weeks pregnant and I about kissed her.
She's that delightful.
My hematologist and I see each other every other month or so. They take my blood and count the platelets to see if my dosage needs to be altered in any way…perhaps I'm too clotty, perhaps I'm not clotty enough, and we strategize our plan of attack for the next few months.
I am to continue with the Lovenox shots (I knew that), and start a Baby Aspirin a day around 20 – 22 weeks or so (about 4 – 6 weeks from now). Even though the Lovenox is clearly doing its job, according to all my blood tests, I still cringe a little when I remember that starting around week 24 with Ollie was when the s–t was starting to hit the fan. I want any extra reassurance that we really are doing all we can to let this one gestate properly for as long as possible.
So chew a Baby Aspirin! Can do! After the next appointment in September, we will become even closer buddies by seeing each other every month or more, depending on what secrets my blood is whispering at the time. I'm under the impression that these tests can even determine if there are clots developing anywhere in my body, and I can't begin to talk about the sigh of relief that gives me.
So far, though, I'm somewhat reassured because this pregnancy is different already from Ollie's. I went through the same weeks of absolute exhaustion, but have yet to add a single pound to my frame (which is good, since I'm still lugging about baby weight from a pregnancy that only lasted six months). I'm not as hysterically emotional this time around, but instead added in a couple rounds of your stereotypical — deemed "overrated" about a week before I ever experienced them — cravings.
Raise your hand if, as a non-pregnant person, you've wanted to eat a maraschino cherry wrapped in a slice of salami.
Nope, didn't think so.
But I did.
And it was delicious. I'm not gonna lie.
I've stood in the kitchen with cherry juice dripped down the front of my shirt at 11:30pm, carefully wrapping two cherries in a slice of salami and stabbing them in place with a green plastic cocktail toothpick. I actually got out of bed to invent this diabolical snack (diabolical? yes, lunch meat is now frowned upon by medical experts while incubating a living person…) and it was quite delectable. In fact, I might call it the perfect mix of sweet and salty…for now.
Cravings…overrated? Maybe not so much.
But I also have a case of the itches. Itching so bad I've gone through two bottles of anti-itch lotion and had my liver and something called "blood salts" tested to see if I was going into liver failure.
With me, you never can tell what's going on.
Thank God, I'm not experiencing liver failure, just a random, run-of-the-mill pregnancy-induced allergy to…something.
So far unidentified, this heebee-jeebee waxes and wanes like a tide. During the day, I'm not going to go nuts with the itches, but I get spots. I scratch a bit, make my skin turn to a red roadmap of where my fingernails scraped, and go about my business. In the evening, though, I'm transformed into a red ball of itches, needing immediate attention, or I about go crazy trying to reach it.
Which, incidentally, doesn't make self-injections any easier.
Trying to keep an inch pinched, keeping a syringe steady, while my skin is crawling with some unknown hypersensitivity to something I've eaten, worn, somehow encountered, inhaled, touched, smelled, slept near, looked at funny…whatever, requires real talent, stability, focus and true grit.
But, hey, since this pregnancy is going so differently from Ollie's, I'm convinced of two things: 1) This one's going to end completely differently: full-term and healthy right from the get-go, and 2) if anyone has true grit, it's us.
And I look fabulous(!) being all true and gritty and stuff.


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text: Kentucky State Track Meet Chris Hawboldt May 16, 2018 Page 1 of 3 Next Check out the top times from as far back as the database goes for the Class A State Track & Field Meet. Who will add their name this year and stake a claim to the leaderboard at the 2018 edition? Page 1 of 3 Next