text:
Links to chapters:
Chapter 02: The Learning Years
Chapter 03: An Officer & a Gentleman
Chapter 04: A Flumine Impugnamus
Chapter 07: The Fighting Cocks
Chapter 08: North Devon Flying Club
On this page: Sat or Sitting, Few or Fewer, The Queen's Diamond Jubilee,
Moving to France,
Lots of stuff to get on with in this chapter. But first a load of old bollocks that's been getting on my nerves.
Sat or Sitting?
It's time to get something straight. Something that's been going on too long and has to stop. That is the improper use of the word 'sat'. If you ever say, 'I was sat...' then you mark yourself out as a person not to be taken seriously. Here's why you are wrong.
The progressive form of a verb indicates something that was happening, is happening or will be happening. Used in the past, it suggests an activity that was left unfinished or still happening at the time in question. So 'I polished my shoes' suggests that it's done and over, whereas 'I was polishing my shoes' leads one think that in this context that shoe polishing wasn't finished and the sentence is about to move to something else that happened whilst the polishing was going on.
English active progressive verb forms are constructed with the present participle (-ing ending) and not the past participle (-ed ending). Now, the verb 'to sit' is irregular in that its past participle does not end in -ed, it is 'sat'. In other words, you say 'I sat' rather than 'I sitted'. But we use the present participle 'sitting' to construct a progressive verb - 'I was sitting', not 'I was sat'. Similarly, in the present tense don't say 'I am sat'. In the future don't say 'I'll be sat'.
'I was sat' doesn't even sound right, it's affected and it's wrong. What's even worse is that people that should know better are starting to do it, even people on the BBC. I shall be writing a stiff letter (see, a nice progressive verb).
Less or Fewer?
Oh, and another thing. This is a simple rule of English grammar. If you can count the number of items being referred to and there are not as many of them, you use 'fewer'. If you cannot count them, use 'less'. So, 'less water', but 'fewer drops of water'.
Another way to look at it is less stuff, fewer things. The checkout in your local supermarket marked 'Ten Items or Less' is incorrect and is the Tesco way of telling you they don't care about you enough to communicate in proper English and that you should start shopping in Waitrose instead.
Some say that the exceptions to this rule (it's English so there are always exceptions) refer to money, distance and time, where 'less' is, apparently, acceptable.
Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II
Her Royal Highness Princess Elizabeth was born on 21st April 1926 in Mayfair, London. She was married to Prince Philip of Greece and Denmark on 20th November 1947 at Westminster Abbey. On On 6th February 1952, her father, King George VI, died and Elizabeth acceded the throne at the age of 25 and her coronation took place on 2nd June 1953.
So, 2012 marked the 60th anniversary (Diamond) of the accession of Queen Elizabeth II to the thrones of the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, Ceylon, and Pakistan, as well as taking on the role of Head of the Commonwealth and the constitutional titles of Supreme Governor of the Church of England and Defender of the Faith. In 2012 she became the second longest-serving British monarch, Victoria having reigned for 63 years. [Since 2015 she is the longest reigning monarch in the World.]
The first weekend in June 2012 was extended by a double bank holiday in the UK, filled with Diamond Jubilee celebrations. A truly wonderful time to commemorate the remarkable reign of a wonderful and dedicated monarch. Long may she reign!
The Milton Keynes concrete cows, not in their usual field.
Istres le Tube Air Base, France
Moving to France
OK, it's high time we got on with the story. Just to be clear, we are now in 2013, Carol and I are living in Buckingham, I'm working at the Open University and Carol works for a major commercial law firm in Milton Keynes. Some of these are good things, some are not so good. Buckingham, for example, is very nice and we have good friends there. Our jobs, on the other hand, are starting to suck a bit. Milton Keynes has a lot going for it, but it doesnt really have a lot going for me. It feels like time for a change.
[LONG SENTENCE ALERT]Dear old Blighty, the Sceptred Isle, Albion, Limeyland was becoming a bit of a bore; too crowded, too busy, too many unpleasant people, too many benefits scroungers, politicians driven by appeasing minorities at the expense of 'Middle England', a society more concerned about voting on X Factor than at a general election, the cost of living (including the most expensive diesel in Europe), football (soccer) hooligans, an economy based on the speculative trading of fictional money, an ever-rising retirement age, the weather, uncontrolled immigration, a tax authority that has given me a negative tax code, unaffordable houses, a generation that is more interested in winning a football match on PlayStation than on a small piece of waste ground, a population that lives its life on Facebook or a mobile phone and that is more likely to shout about its 'Human Rights' than contribute to any semblance of communal or national improvement, some bloody dreadful newspapers, neo-liberal politics and weak leadership, the destruction of the state education system, the price of everything and the value of nothing, the apparent impossibility of finding anyone that can run a department properly (NHS and MoD are just two examples), a legal system that is so crippled by cost-cutting and political correctness that serious criminals are more likely to get a stiff bollocking or 'community service than a real sentence and is more likely to go after members of the Armed Forces for doing their job than a Somalian that has committed rape and murder, questions on Question Time that are now so dumb that I could almost tell you what will happen before the programme even starts and the daily trial of just getting to work on overcrowded roads with arrogant idiots that cut you up on really poorly maintained surfaces that make us both wonder why we even bother.[AT 306 WORDS THIS SENTENCE EXCEEDED THE EU MANDATED WORD LIMIT BY OVER 147% AND IS NOW THE SUBJECT OF AN INDEPENDENT ENQUIRY, BUT WHICH ALSO QUALIFIES FOR AN EU GRANT FOR LITERARY EXPANSIONISM]
We'd had enough and we are not the sort of folk that just complain about something and then do nothing about it. The idea of selling up and moving to somewhere nice had turned into a decision to go as soon as possible; the "somewhere nice" is France. The conversation went like this:
"Shall we go and live in France?"
Initially we rather fancied Brittany on the grounds that it would be easy to stay in touch with family and friends and the fact that it looked rather nice. Now, in all my fifty-something years, I had only ever been to France twice; once to land and refuel a Phantom FGR2 at Istres le Tube Air Base (just west of Marseille) in 1985 on my way back to the UK from Cyprus and once to land at Nice Airport for an overnight stop in a Hawk on my way back to the UK from Cyprus. So I thought it might be a good idea to go and see France before actually moving there to live. We booked ferry tickets from Poole to St Malo with Condor Ferries. Our ship was called the Condor Express and very smart it looked too! She's an 86m high-speed catamaran, built in Australia in 1996, boasting electronic ride control, 34 knots, a Club Class lounge and all mod cons. We were looking forward to a very comfortable crossing with full English breakfast and a couple of glasses of wine.
The English Channel is a fickle beast even in June and on the day of our crossing she was especially malicious. Once beyond the Poole harbour wall the sea started to chop up a bit. Then it started to chop up a lot. Half an hour into the crossing to Guernsey, we were in a massive storm. The waves were so high that the bottom of the structure that connects the hulls was smashing into the water causing the most alarming jolt (it's actually called bridgedeck slamming). Did I say jolt? Crash perhaps. Crashes so hard that bottles were smashed in the bars, items thrown from shelves in the shops and large areas of ceiling slammed to the floor. Apart from the crew and a dozen of us passengers, everyone was vomiting. Over 700 people vomiting. For five hours! 'Nuff said.
Carol in St Malo with a statue of Robert Surcouf (French privateer)
Phyllis Courtnage
Nigel Kitson
We rented a car and a small cottage for a couple of weeks and set about exploring and enjoying ourselves. We fell in love with Brittany a decided that we would very much like to live there.
Carol's Dad, Nigel, living in Yorkshire, was diagnosed with terminal cancer. No one would even make an estimate of how long he had to live, or if they did, they certainly didn't share it with us. Whilst he was still in relatively good health, he was definitely slowing down a bit so Carol decided to go and look after him. A wonderful thing to do and genrously supported by her employers. I carried on at work and commuted up to Yorkshire at weekends to be with Carol and Nigel and to help out a bit there.
Around the same time, my Mum started to have her own health problems and was in and out of hospitals having treatment for another cancer; treatment that was doing a good job of keeping her in pretty good shape. Again, there were no promises how long that would go on, but things were looking reasonable at the time.
As Nigel's health started to deteriorate, we called in some health care professionals, and, Goodness, were they good. The local Council, the NHS, Macmillan Cancer Support and the Mary Curie Nursing Service were all outstanding; I cannot start to tell you how wonderful these people are. Thanks to them and Carol's care, Nigel was able to stay at home, but still receive the care, medication and pain relief he needed as well as a good deal of emotional and practical support for him and Carol.
Mum was well cared for in her retirement home, but in early October, she started to decline rapidly. I made my excuses from work and dashed down to Dorchester to see her. She was clearly fading and she passed away at 6:15 on 8th October 2013.
Exactly one week to the minute after my Mum, Carol's Dad, Nigel, passed away peacefully in his own bed; I was by his side.
There followed the cremations and memorial services, all of which were beautifully done, but there was left behind a sense of emptiness and a realisation that there was much less to keep us in the UK now than there had been a few months before. Our last duty would be Nigel's interment, which was planned for March, to coincide with Carol's Mum's birthday. So we decided to start planning our exit.
Our very good friends in Buckingham, Chris and Laura, had decided to get married and wanted to move to a bigger house, but still in the same part of Buckingham. They decided, very enthusiastically, that they would be buying our house and that they had a requirement to complete the purchase of our place by 10th April 2014 so that, effectively, gave us our timeline. After that we would be homeless so we'd better be on our way.
Dr Soraia Pirfo Barroso
The Open University
South of France showing The Lot and Tarn-et-Garonne
At this point I should cut a long story short, but I've chosen not to; not just yet because there are some rather interesting sub-plots to mention. Mainly, we have my work at the Open University. I was (and mostly remain) a great fan of the OU because of their excellent courses, superb course material and dedicated tutors. Although the place is best known for its distance learning, that is not all it does; it also does research, like any other good university, and takes on research students who work there to gain their PhDs. I was working in the Faculty of Maths, Computing and Technology and, more specifically, in the Department of Design, Development, Environment and Materials (DDEM for short, but later on "Engineering and Innovation" - branding, it seems, is everything). I was the Department's Research Secretary, responsible for the recruitment and administration of our research students from around the world - Japan, Brazil, USA, Mauritius, Iran, Iraq, Europe, India and Africa, to name but a few. This was good. However, I worked in the Department's support office (for want of a better name). This too was fine - I had some great colleagues and made some good friends. The problem was that the management in the place was appalling. Managers were simply secretaries that had been promoted and given titles such as 'Department Office Managers' who substituted bullying and shouting for proper management and leadership skills. For the most part this didn't really affect me too much, but after six years of this it did start to become very wearing and rather unpleasant. In fact, I have never worked nor seen a place where so many people were so discontented with the way a place is run. Fortunately, the academics that actually carry out the University's business of writing and running courses for distance-learners and those running the research and supervising the PhD students tended to be so engrossed in their work that they carried on regardless.
When I left work to race down to my dying mother, I explained that I would be away for a while, but I did not know how long, obviously. When I then had to rush straight to Yorkshire for Carol's Dad, I started getting very nasty texts from my "line manager" demanding to know when I would be back as she had a department to run. No support, no kindness, just plain mean.
After that my decision to leave was made.
News travels fast and it wasn't long before old friends got to hear about our plan to move to Brittany and wrote to us to talk us out of it. For example,
It actually sounded like good advice from those that know so we amended our plan, which then necessitated a visit to The Lot in order to see how we might like it. So, come late January (2014), we arrived in The Lot. Perhaps I should explain that The Lot is a department in the south-western region of Midi Pyrenees. Like most departments down here, it is named for its main river, which, as we arrived, was in full flood. It was in this state because it was raining; it had been raining for weeks and continued to do so throughout our stay – apart from just one day. The area is very rural with lots of wooded hills and numerous, small farms producing wine, fruit and livestock and noted for its lovely, fortified medieval villages, known as Bastides. It is tranquil and irresistible. English people seem to move here in droves, thankfully more so to The Dordogne next door, which we know as "Dordogneshire" for this very reason. But we weren't here to find a Little England; what would be the point? If you want to mix exclusively with English people, go to England; the place is full of them - although maybe slightly less so than it used to be. Anyway, this part of France is known locally as Quercy, the name of the ancient department, which includes the Lot and parts of the surrounding departments.
We stayed in the most charming little gîte down by the river in Puy-l'Évêque, a stone's throw from a fabulous auberge (pub/restaurant/bar/café), which we'll come back to later. Actually, we came back to it many times. Before leaving the UK, we'd contacted an estate agent so that we could fix up a few days viewing houses; again I say we were definately not here to buy. Our agent was a bit of a disaster and I rather took a dislike to her when she kindly came to our place to talk about what we wanted to see. I deliberately used the term "came to our place to talk" because that's what she did. She most certainly did not listen to anything we might have to say about what we might like to see. And so the places she took us to were very much what she wanted to show us, not necessarily what we wanted to see. So we quietly ditched her and found our own agent locally. Her name is Natashja, a Belgian lady who allowed us to choose what we saw.
Puy-l'Eveque, The Lot
After five days of viewing we'd seen some great places in the Lot and reckoned we would easily find somewhere to buy in the summer. Viewing over then. Well, no, as it happened. That evening Carol found a place for sale on our agent's website, actually not in The Lot, but the next department south, Tarn et Garonne. It looked rather special and so we called Natashja and asked if she could arrange a look the next day. No problem. We drove south in the morning and suddenly realised that Tarn et Garonne was even more beautiful than the Lot – rather more open and rolling with a more Mediterranean feel to it.
That evening over a glass or two of wine we resolved that we had to live there and if we didn't put in an offer, we could lose the place and regret it forever. So, we put our heads together, did some difficult sums on the back of an envelope and decided to put in an offer, which the sellers accepted. I should, at this point, explain how the French house buying system works. Buyers make an offer, sellers accept, diagnostics are done on the house, the Notaire draws up the contract (called the Compromis de Vente), everyone signs, the buyers handover a wadge of cash (sometimes called a depisit) and everyone is locked into the deal - there is no going back. So the wheels of French bureaucracy were set in motion and we were on our way to being French landowners. Exciting stuff.
Returning to the UK, Carol and I both handed in our notices at work stating that we would retire on 13th March. Handing in my notice went down like a bucket of cold sick with my "boss". But, hey, I had one month to go and it felt very liberating.
I think the concept I was trying to convey is better described by the French term Va te faire foutre! Don't bother trying that one on Google Translate, it will lie to you as it usually does.
A couple of weeks later, the Compromis de Vente arrived from France, which we duly signed and dispatched back to our Notaire. We were committed now, no turning back. It would normally take a couple of months from signing the Compromis to signing the final Acte de Vente, the point at which the house becomes the legal property of the buyer - "completion" in English terms. In this instance, however, our sellers needed the house until September. We had already booked ourselves a place to rent for the summer (when we were actually supposed to be looking for and buying a house before we got all ahead of ourselves) so this presented no real problem, we'd just be on holiday for five months. So, we sold the house in Buckingham, all our stuff went into storage and we disappeared down to Dorset to spend a couple of weeks with our friends, Terence and Brian. We even found a way to get a free lift to Heathrow Airport when time came to go to France; we gave our car to a friend on the grounds that he drove us to Terminal 5. Clever, huh?
A few Random Pictures of our Last Days in England
Dave Moss and Carol Courtnage
at Prego in Buckingham
Carol Courtnage in Dorset, whilst staying with Terence and Brian
Brian Ash and wonderful little Millie, East Morden, Dorset April 2014
Courtney in the Lot
Come 'migration day', we decided to treat ourselves to a pair of Club Class tickets to Toulouse, based on the feeble reasoning that the baggage allowance is better. Well, you don't move to France every day, do you? In reality, as we both intended unreservedly to make full use of the various sources of complimentary drinks in the magnificent British Airways lounge and on board our flight, it was a sensible strategy to book into a hotel in Toulouse for the night rather than driving straight to our holiday pad.
Lots of people had warned us to expect all sorts of folk to want to come and stay once we located ourselves here in the South of France. And they were right. We arrived on 10th April, our first guests didn't arrive until 11th April! Actually, this was a good thing as it was Carol's brother, Peter, and his wife, Bridgett, who came to share our first couple of weeks in France. Excellent fun.
Our summer in the Lot was wonderful. We were staying just north of Catus, a charming little market town between Puy-l'Évêque and the department capital, Cahors. We made some great friends there and really got into French living. Everything was superb. Well, everything except the state of the place we were staying. Lovely spot and everything, but the owners' lack of maintenance and interest in their customers' well-being led to one disaster after another. Whilst I would love to vent my spleen by giving you a blow-by-blow account, we'd be here all day, so I shall content myself with a brief sentence of some examples. The septic tank (fosse septique) stank and overflowed (for five months), the hot water heater stopped working so the owner had a local friend bypass the thermostat causing it to overheat and explode in the night, gas cooker leaked gas and supply pipe was found to be 14 years out of date, the showers poured water through the kitchen ceiling every morning and their log burner belched smoke into the room and kept setting of the carbon monoxide alarm in the night. Our landlord lived in England and relied on calling local friends to patch things up; I doubt any of them were remotely qualified to do the work.
Still, we didn't let that spoil our summer and shared great times with friends and family who came to stay throughout the summer.
One pressing job that needed doing was to buy a car. We decided to get something strong, room for stuff and a dog, capable of dealing with rough tracks, diesel, automatic and smart. We decided to go for a Land Rover Freelander. We visited our local Landy dealer in Montauban who was extremely helpful and pleasant and ordered our vehicle. That was on Friday.
On Monday they called me to explain, most apologetically that the exact model/colour/extras we wanted was no longer available because Land Rover no longer make them. However, no need to worry because he would find us the same model or better and it shouldn't take more than a few days.
After a few days we went to collect it and were presented with the next model up at the same price as the one we wanted. Cool. Once all the papers were signed (there are always lots of papers to sign in France) Carol is presented with a bouquet of roses and I get a special bottle of Champagne. Then our dealer insists that have our photo taken with the car (below) - perhaps he thought it was going to be last time it was ever going to be seen in that condition.
Even more important than buying a house and all that, we found ourselves a wonderful rescue dog to adopt. We called him Jacques and he immediately became the centre of our family here in France. Jacques arrived with us just before his fifth birthday. He's an English Setter, Brittany cross and he is a lovely dog. He was rescued from gypsies by Poor Paws and hadn't had a terribly nice life. He had lived outside on the end of a chain, the pads on his paws were pink and soft through malnutrition, he was not trained and he was thin and nervous. But now he had a new home with much happiness for him and us. Given his past, he is an amazingly trusting, loving dog.
Come September we needed to sign the final documents for the house and move in. Now, in France the signing of the Acte de Vente is a big occasion; it's not like just collecting the keys in the UK. Everyone goes to the Notaire's office at the appointed hour and sits around the table for an hour or so and chats, produces paperwork, signs stuff (lots and lots of stuff) and the transfer of title magically occurs.
On this occasion the sellers (which we shall call Mr and Mrs Scott - because that's their name) met us at a lovely restaurant and bought us lunch. They had now become good friends of ours and they did so much to help us and to make sure the place was absolutely tip-top. They even had the liner of the swimming pool replaced as they felt it was getting on a bit, redecorated the place and left us a few vital items (such as a fridge) to see us through our early days. Kind and lovely people who now live only a few kilometres away.
After lunch, accompanied by their son and his girlfriend, we followed the Scotts to Sarlat and the Notaire's office to be greeted by our agent - it has to be a gathering. The Notaire produced his pièce de résistance, the Acte de Vente itself - a massive 120 page document containing everything one could possibly imagine to do with the house. The Gallic reputation for bureaucracy is not without just cause. He placed it carefully in front of him with considerable pride and briefly turned a few pages to examine his masterpiece whilst we awaited coffee - small, strong and very sweet, of course. After a pause he looked up at us all and casually remarked that buying a house in France was such a complicated process. This seemed odd, because it had all seemed rather simple and easy to me, but he was the expert. Sensing my English miscomprehension he decided to elucidate and embarked on a 45 minute explanation of Napoleonic Law and its history, starting at the very beginning. Fascinating stuff and, fortunately, he speaks French without the local Quercy accent that is moderately incomprehensible without a bit of time to adjust to it. Determining that we now understood the gravity of la loi, he fixed me with a serious gaze.
Both sides of every single page of the document has to be signed by all parties. This takes a long time. Afterwards everyone shakes hands and kisses and we walk away as the very proud and excessively happy owners of our own piece of France.
A day later our removals people turned up with all our stuff from storage in the UK. There was quite a lot of stuff even though we had previously lived in a pretty small house and had tried to be quite determined in our attempt not to bring too much with us. This was compounded by the arrival of a truck load of white goods from Montauban and the delivery of two more beds, sofas, lamps, a tapestry (why wouldn't we?) and numerous pieces of bulky equipment for my new studio, which was going to be built on one of the lawns somewhere. The next few days are now a bit of a blur and, frankly, I'm happy to leave them that way.
We needed a wood burner for our sitting room and the only one to have in France is a Godin; they are old fashioned, but very highly regarded. We found the Godin shop and chose the model and colour we wanted, but being so popular you have to wait a while. It was only September and we certainly didn't need one for the few weeks we had to wait. It arrived one sunny morning accompanied by a slightly grumpy bloke who told us he had come to fit it. Now, pretty much everything that anyone does to your house here has to come with a certificate to say the work undertaken conforms to all the regulations. There are many regulations. So, our grumpy Frenchman cannot simply fit the Godin to the end of the existing flue where recently stood a near identical Godin only two months previously. Everything had to be measured and inspected to check for conformity. There followed an hour or so of muttering, measuring, examining, staring up the flue, climbing on the roof, more muttering and a fair number of french words that we had not yet learned - these were not good words.
He announced to us that the distance between the flue and a massive wooden beam was too small and that the flue would need to be replaced before he could install the Godin. I was now imagining weeks of work and expense and trying to find various tradesmen to get this all done before we could call Guillaume back to install the fire. Visions of English workmen that "Don't do brickwork", "Don't go on roofs", "Can't replace flues, that's John's department, Guvnor" and "You need a decorator to redo the plaster." No. Not at all. Pas du tout. Guillaume announced that he would now chisel the beam out of the wall, add some bricks and rebuild the mantelpiece before going to town to find the materials for the new flue, which he would fit, and would then install everything. And, "by the way, would you like me to remodel the top of the chimney while I'm up on the roof?"
"Er, how long will this all take?"
"Je vais finir vers quatre heures" - (I'll be finished by about 4 p.m.)
And he was good to his word. What a great job.
So, here we are. France, La République, The Hexagon or, to us, Home.
First impressions are great. Was this a courageous move? Not really; it's not what everyone would choose to do, I know. I think I'd been to France once before all this and that was to land at Orange Air Base in a Phantom to refuel on the way back to the UK from somewhere, but so far we know the following: rural here means rural, the weather is so much better than the UK without being just plain hot all year, we still have seasons, the people here are so friendly, the scenery is gorgeous and we love it.
Early days, but we ain't moving again.
© Project Ocean Vision 2006 - ΩV
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5 Things You Should Take Away From the BET Awards
The 2014 edition of the BET Awards is in the books now. Year after year it proves to be a night full of great and awful performances, great and awful clothes, and a resurgence of "black twitter" in all its great and awful glory. A night full of praise for artists, whether well-deserved or not, and the occasional toss of shade in someone's general direction.
Each year we see something different. We walk away learning something. For today's post, let's take a moment to revisit five things that we will walk away knowing:
- Is there no one other than John Legend and Yolanda Adams to call on when a tribute performance is going to take place? I'm not saying either is bad. I like John Legend, and Yolanda has one of the best voices ever. They're both good. But why does it seem that every tribute to an artist on every award show involves one or both of these two? It's like they don't do anything else.
- The future state of music seems to be in a rough place, jack. Despite the fact that saying this makes me feel like an old curmudgeon, some of these new artists seem bad for music. I've mentioned my thoughts on Jhene Aiko and August Alsina before, so I won't revisit them. Iggy Azalea, though… Really? She sounds like she's trying so hard to sound like she has some soul. She can rap, but I can't stand her voice. Clearly, my opinion on what is good music is beginning to part ways with "the kids". It was bound to happen at some point, I just imagined it holding off for another 20 years… With that being said, this Gabi Wilson girl is incredible.Seventeen years old and crazy talented. It'll be interesting to see what the industry does with someone who actually has, ya know, talent.
- Robin Thicke has fully turned down for Paula, right? No more being surrounded in videos by bare-chested coeds or being groped on stage by that chick who Columbus'd the twerk. Nope those days are done. Today's Robin Thicke is all the way turned down. He sits behind a piano and sings the most pitiful songs imaginable. And who can blame him? Paula Patton is freakin fine. But does it seem a little disingenuous to anybody else that he's selling his apology to her to the masses? No thanks, bruh. I don't want your boring apology music.
- Chris Rock still isn't funny, but he did a good job as host. The thing about Chris Rock is that he is a good speaker. He speaks a lot of truth. And while I don't mind listening to him every once in a while, he's not at all funny. He didn't suck, though, so there's that.
- Jay Z and Beyoncé clearly don't have time for the BET Awards, and neither does Lupita Nyang'o. I mean, did anyone really expect Jay and Beyoncé to be there? I didn't. I don't know that I expected them to send in a YouTube clip of their tour, though. That was hilarious to me. And Lupita is way too classy to be seen at any event that has a Lil' Wayne performance on the program. Not happening.
Honorable mentions:
I'm not usually the one to comment on dresses, but Keke Palmer's joint with the ovary windows was bad. She's too pretty to make that kinda mistake. She looked like she was trying to look like Cleopatra, if Cleopatra was trying to look a little prostitute-ish. Do better, Keke.
- Usher can still move. But I worried he was gonna try to slide on the wrong part of the stage, and one of those rabid fans was gonna trip him up, causing him to fall… At which point I probably would've laughed. Also… that hat… Bruh… No.
- Gugu Mbatha-Raw can have all $12 in my checking account. Today. She's incredible.
I'll catch you next time…
-Erik (@WalkSays)

subset: commoncrawl


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InovaSys had its first InovaSys Juniper Academy session along with its educational partner Xtensors in October 2016. The event was attended by more than 100 Network Egineers, IT Managers, CIOs and CTOs from the several companies in Egypt.
Along with the theoritical information given in the event, InovaSys offered a practical lab in its premises to help the particpants apply what they have studied earlier in the event.
Event Coverage by the media: http://www.masrawy.com/news/Tech-Electronics/details/2016/10/29/959404/


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As far as wedding anniversaries go, pacing around London for four hours while your daughter has life-changing surgery is not anyone's idea of a way to celebrate.
But for Fran and Tim Heriot this year's anniversary will be remembered as a special day, as it was the moment that their four-year-old daughter Halle began the long journey to taking her first independent steps.
Halle, of Fenside Drive, Newborough, went under the knife at Great Ormond Street Hospital on Wednesday last week for selective dorsal rhizotomy surgery following a six month whirlwind £55,000 fundraising campaign for treatment which is unavaible on the NHS.
Halle has cerebral palsy, bilateral spastic diplegia, and the surgery and months of intensive physiotherapy will enable her to walk for the first time. Fran said: "She's doing really well. There's a dramatic difference after the major operation.
"Day-by-day she's getting stronger and stronger.
"It's about a year until you really see the benefits.
"She said her legs feel very different, but they are extremely weak at the moment. Surgery took away the underlying issues, but she's never really used her legs before.
"The idea is that come three to four months she should supersede where she was at originally. By a year she should be totally past anything we've seen before.
"Two years is when we will see optimum returns. Her first steps will be from a year to two years."
Halle has two hours of physio in the morning and two hours in the afternoon, and uses a standing frame for 15 minutes a day.
When the family returns home from Great Ormond Street in London she will continue to receive daily physio both privately and from the NHS.
Fran said: "I'm pleased and have no regrets whatsoever. It's been hard and emotional work and so tiring, but absolutely 100 per cent worth it."
However, waiting to hear how their daughter's surgery had gone was a horrible experience.
She added: "It was horrific. I went down to theatre with her, watched her being anaesthetised. It was mine and Tim's wedding anniversary. It was an emotional moment for us. We walked around London for four hours and I do not remember what we did.
"We kept walking and walking to keep ourselves occupied. When we heard she was in recovery we ran back to hospital."
The final fundraising event begins on Sunday, September 3 at 4am, with around 30 people taking part in a 27-mile walk along the Green Wheel, starting and finishing at The Bull in Newborough with a celebration at the pub afterwards.


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Mephisto 'HELEN' Ladies Thong Sandal in Black Leather
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Material: Smooth Leather
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Andrew Gibba
- Award:Sexual Health Advocator Of The Year 2015Awarding Organization:Gambia Family Planning AssociationDate Awarded:July 28, 2015
- Award:Women Deliver Youth ScholarAwarding Organization:Women DeliverDate Awarded:May 15, 2016
- Award:Global Youth AmbassadorAwarding Organization:A world at SchoolDate Awarded:April 5, 2017
As nformation officer for your change for a change (YCFaC) I worked with communities in helping them develop life transforming self-led programs having lasting impacts in the lives of many. Key among the numerous initiatives includes the mobilization and distribution of over 3000 bed nets and a free health fair for under five children and pregnant mothers across the country under the End to Malaria Campaign Project Scheme. i also host and coordinated all radio programs for UNFPA The Gambia Family planning campaign in Central River Region (CRR) in 2016 and Upper River Region (URR) in 2017 respectively. This give me the opportunity to attend the women deliver conference 2016 in Denmark to join the global community in the advocacy for women health and right.
In the Gambia, young people were not privileged to freely express themselves on SRHR issues; this motivated me to dedicate my time advocating for youth to use the media as a channel to express themselves and break the culture of silence against SRHR in Gambia. As the Chair Person for Youth Action Movement under The Gambia family Planning Association this have gave him the opportunity to host the "All Girl Day" from 2015 to 2016 to give young people the opportunity to make and inform choice.
With over five years experience as an Activist and radio presenter I currently provide a nation wide platform ONAIR for youth in a talk show called "Youth Show" that is on radio every Saturday sponsored by UNFPA The Gambia to discuss about pertinent issues such as Education, child right, sexual and reproductive health, Gender based violence, violence again women, women empowerment etc. In 2014 through Youth Action Movement i was able to mobilizes over 850 youth to be train on SRHR through GFPA.
I will engage young people through YCFaC Sexual and reproductive health fair project to increase more family planning acceptors in rural and urban Gambia. this will advocate for policies that give opportunities to youth to be able to become agents of change in The Gambia. further more, i will use my radio show and different community radio to engage law makers, feminist, Activist, youth leaders, women and girl for the advancement of sex education in Gambia and women health in general.


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Two Harbors Poncho KAL
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This was Michele's favorite find at the Pittsburgh Knit and Crochet Show. Stitched sideways in two panels and seamed up the center, Two Harbors is fast and fun to knit, and truly flatters every figure. Knit in Extra from Blue Sky Alpacas, this light and lofty poncho will be your new absolute favorite. Pre-order your yarn by Saturday, March 12 and receive the fifth hank FREE! KAL begins the week of March 21st - choose to meet on Tuesdays at 10am, or Thursdays at 6pm, or both!
Experience: Advanced Beginner
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Friday, June 15, 2018
Then & Now
I don't scrap many pictures of just myself but I wanted to enter the challenge #54 at
"SCRAP CHALLENGE YOURSELF" which was to use a present picture and a childhood picture of yourself. But first I wanted to wait and find the right sketch to use with it. Today the newest challenge came out at "SKETCH N SCRAP" Sketch #155 was perfect for the pictures I had already picked out.
I wanted to use yellow patterned paper to go with the short set I had on in my Then picture, it was by far my favorite summer outfit for many years. I wore that till it was all but thread bare. But then I also wanted to incorporate some blue to go with the blue water from my now picture. So I tore the edges of the yellow, hopefully to look like little waves on the lake and then backed it with blue patterned paper. I added the bright blue scalloped card stock and some bling and a yellow flower for the touch of yellow again. Plus this sketch had me using washi tape that I rarely used.
It was so fun to put these two challenges together and to look back at an old picture of me and document about it.
Here are the links and challenge info.
11 comments:
- Sharon Fritchman said...
Hi Barbara! Your layout is absolutely fabulous and so fun! I love the yellow hues here and your beautiful take on the sketch, too. And the photos are wonderful!!!! Thanks so much for joining us at Challenge YOUrself this month! We are all very happy that you did! YAY!!!!!
- June 16, 2018 at 4:50 AM
- Lisa in Texas said...
This is amazing Barbara! I love the torn paper and your fun frame!! You did an awesome job with this sketch! Thanks for joining us at Sketch N Scrap!
- June 16, 2018 at 7:12 AM
- StacyLee said...
What a fantastic use of the sketch! I really like how you pulled the colors of your pictures into your design (especially that beautiful yellow!). Your handwritten journaling is a really nice touch, too. Thanks for joining us at Sketch N Scrap!
- June 16, 2018 at 6:29 PM
- Sharon Fontenot said...
Love the way you worked the torned paper on this one. Thank you for entering your creation at Sketch N Scrap.
Sharon Fontenot -
- June 19, 2018 at 6:26 AM
- Lori said...
This is a great layout, Barbara! The then and now photos are always so fun and I, too, love the torn paper! Thanks so much for sharing with us at Sketch N Scrap!
- June 22, 2018 at 8:39 PM
- ÅsaJ said...
Beautiful page with lovely colours and pics! Thanks for joining Challenge YOUrself! Hugs Åsa
- June 26, 2018 at 1:29 PM
- Patries said...
Great layout and all that journalling, good pics!
- June 30, 2018 at 12:08 AM
- Diana Soling said...
Beautiful layout. Good job scrapping yourself. Sometimes that's the hardest thing to do. Thanks for joining us at Sketch~N~Scrap
- June 30, 2018 at 1:47 PM
- Carmen Crosseti Cohen-Henriquez said...
Beautiful layout, love the torn paper! Thanks for playing along with us at Challenge YOUrself this month.
- July 3, 2018 at 6:38 AM
- Sherri Caramico said...
Just Beautiful! -Thanks for joining us at the Challenge YOUrself Blog!
- July 3, 2018 at 3:50 PM
- María Cecilia Hernández Herrera said...
Hermoso diseño, los colores que eligió me gustan mucho, su foto es preciosa. Gracias por participar con nosotras en Challenge YOUrself. Besos. Cecilia.-
- July 3, 2018 at 9:33 PM


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Morning all. You know when you sleep for like a pretty long time and you really shouldn't be tired but you're tired all the same? That's how I am right now. I'm also in the mood to eat some Subway, but that's another story entirely.
So on to the news. What news you might say? Well it seems Sergio "El Kun" Aguero has been linked with Arsenal after some quotes from his agent.
"I can't say more until I've spoken to the club about the offer. All I can tell you is that it's one of the best teams in Europe and it's not Chelsea"
Interesting quote that is. These days agents usually tell you every club that is interested by name to try to work up more speculation and to try and draw other parties into the mix. I don't know exactly why everyone thinks it's Arsenal after such a broad statement but we have been linked with him in the past. He's a player with absolutely astounding skill on the ball that could certainly help out Arsenal, as long as he could handle the physical nature of the English game. We just saw how Alexander Hleb got sick of the physicality after only three years and Aguero is even smaller than Hleb. He is a brilliant player though and any team would love to have him. So keep your fingers crossed and maybe, just maybe, we'll sign him.
Arsenal Legend Nigel Winterburn has joined Blackburn's coaching staff as a defensive coach. I guess Arsene Wenger didn't think he could help out our defense or surely we would have given him a job. Winterburn is class. I hope Blackburn is still shite though.
Gilberto Silva looks to be on his way for 1.2 million pounds to Panthinaikos in Greece. Arsenal Analysis reports that the papers have been signed and sent to Athens for everything to be finalized and Gilberto is having his medical on Wednesday. I'm sad to see him go. You were a good player for us Gilberto, good luck to you mate.
Here's a picture of Cesc in our new away kit. I'm not sure what to think of it. I don't think I'm a fan though. It is definitely a lot more Arsenal than the white one last year for sure.
The Arsenal interest in Gareth Barry was very real indeed. According to Martin O'Neil, Pat Rice called Villa to ask how the transfer to Liverpool was going because Arsenal "might be interested." When Villa told Rice how it was going, Pat (according to O'Neil) said "That's fine, we'll let you know." So it seems that Arsenal were interested but it doesn't look like are going to follow up on it with a bid. Villa want about 17 million for him and Wenger will never pay that for him. Interesting to see that we did make the call about him though.
That's about all I have. Discussion is good, so get on the forums and chat it up. What do you think about Aguero and the Barry situation? On a scale of 1-10 how sick are you of the Adebayor and Hleb stories? I'm at a 10. Cheers all!


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Director of the project "Valencia Tennis Academy".
He began his career as a tennis player and won over 50 national tournaments. As a coach, he worked in several competition academies, taking an active part in their growth and development.
He personally coached several successful players such as Ernests Gulbis, Igor Andreev, and Alisa Kleybanova. He coached Yaroslava Shvedova, (who reached ranking of 4th in the world in doubles and won two Grand Slam tournaments) for two years and helped her reach a WTA ranking of 71st.
RPT Europe Nivel Professional Tennis Director. Nº Reg. 5823
USPTA Professional ONE. Membership Nº 63194
Certificate of International Coaches Institute. Nº Reg. ST4200
Certificate of Asociation de Professionals of Tenis teaching of Spain. Nº Licencia RPT3200


text:
Complaint Review: LegalZoom - Internet
- LegalZoom
101 N. Brand Blvd., 11th Floor
United States of America
- Phone: (800) 773-0888
- Web: www.legalzoom.com
- Category: Attorneys & Legal Services
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This report was posted on Ripoff Report on 08/08/2012 09:27 AM and is a permanent record located here: https://www.ripoffreport.com/reports/legalzoom/internet/legalzoom-dont-use-legalzoom-deceptive-practices-alert-steal-your-money-internet-924190. The posting time indicated is Arizona local time. Arizona does not observe daylight savings so the post time may be Mountain or Pacific depending on the time of year. Ripoff Report has an exclusive license to this report. It may not be copied without the written permission of Ripoff Report. READ: Foreign websites steal our content
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LegalZoom Complaint
AUTHOR: LegalZoom - (United States of America)
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Last Saturday was the annual Heart to Heart Brunch. Heart to Heart is a ladies' discipleship program that is lead by my dear friend and birthday buddy, Gladys Wilson. Our speaker, Debbie Daniels, is married to the pastor of the First Church of the Nazarene in Pasadena. She made a very interesting point at the beginning of her message. She is always introduced as "the pastor's wife." She pointed out that no other women in the world is introduced that way, you don't hear, "this is my plumber's wife" or "this is the mailman's wife."
Needless to say, she was a very enjoyable speaker. One of the things she talked about was "silencing the crowd." As a mother of four who is also involved in ministry she understands how hard it is to get away from everything and spend time alone with God. She reminded us several times, we have to silence the crowd. Not an easy task, but one well worth the investment.
The second thing that stuck was the reminder that God only gives us what we need today. Just like the people of Israel when they were in the wilderness, he supplied manna for that day. Afterwards, my discipleship girl, Susan and I were talking about that. (That's her in the picture with me, in case you didn't guess that) We can't get all caught up in the future and whether or not this relationship will work out or the whatever that consumes our thoughts. One day at a time God gives us what we need. Something to that song… "One day at a time, Sweet Jesus"


text: Simplifying the Lives of Web Users By rscapin on August 27, 2010 in DawsonITE A new service called OpenDNS is faster and more reliable than your Internet provider's. And it's free. http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/19/technology/personaltech/19pogue.html Related Posts: Plagiarism Lines Blur for Students in Digital Age Hooked on Gadgets, and Paying a Mental Price On Facebook, Telling Teachers How Much They Meant The Web Means the End of Forgetting Flavorsme – Create Your Own Free Personalized Webpage dns, internet, opendns


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Name: Morvran, Sydney
Gender: Male
Age: 15
Grade: 10th Grade
Extra Curricular Activity: Basketball; Point Guard.
School: Aberthol Highschool
Appearance: Syd has an all-around childish look to him. He's not that tall, and his bright green eyes are always filled with the look of an innocent child, curious to discover the rest of the world. To complete his child-ish look, he often wears a light-hearted grin on his face. Rarely is there a time that Syd actually looks mean, or angry, mainly because of his parents teaching him to ALWAYS have a positive look on things, and that there is ALWAYS a reason to why someone is "evil".
Biography: Sydney was brought up in a good family, which explains his light-heartedness. He was taught to always look at the good side of things, and know that there is always a reason for someone to be evil. Sydney was taught loss and the fact that someone's life can just end at any moment at an early age. His older brother, 16 at the time, and a star basketball player at his high school, illegally bought a weapon and went on a shooting spree at his school, Aberthol Highschool, for reasons unknown. Sydney's older brother was shot down by law enforcements, who were called just in the nick of time by a kid fortunate enough to have smuggled in a cell phone that day. Sydney became depressed at the loss of his brother (who wouldn't?), and would often lock himself up in his room immediately afterschool. His parents coaxed him out of that habit...telling him that Dwayne (Sydney's older brother) wouldn't want Sydney to just lock himself up in his room. He'd want Sydney to be active, and do something with his life.
Sydney, age 9, tried out for his Elementary School's basketball team. When he was accepted, he slowly started to get a more positive look on things. Of course, once and a while, he'd plead with his parents for him to switch school systems, but his parents refused that, saying that there was nothing wrong with the school system. Syd, mainly, didn't want to go to Aberthol Highschool. Funny thing is...if his parents had actually listened to him, he wouldn't have even participated in this whole SOTF ACT, most likely, as Aberthol Highschool was one of the first schools targeted for the SOTF ACT.... During his junior high and high school years, Sydney was a great basketball player. Well, great, except for the fact that he couldn't shoot. He was reduced to simply just passing the ball to his teammates. He didn't mind...he had to think positive, that's all. But, through it all, he was hoping for his one day in the spotlight...where he'd be the one to shoot.
Other: Sydney, even with his positive attitude, doesn't have many friends. Mainly thanks to his brother Dwayne's little Highschool shooting spree all those years ago. Kids fear Sydney mainly because of Dwayne Morvran, but once people get to know Syd, he's actually quite the nice guy to know.
Number: Male Student No. 13.
The above biography is as written by Kaishi. No edits or alterations to the author's original work have been made.
Designated Weapon(s): Flashbang Grenades x8, & Protective Goggles
Conclusions: His light-heartedness might prove fatal to him during the game. Probably won't kill due to his philosophy of no one being evil (pfft...). Will die early on, most likely, because he will probably be unwilling to kill a soul.
WARNING! B13's file is out of date! You are viewing the old, un-updated file. B13 has played the SOTF ACT, and has successfully survived. Unfortunately for B13, some new groups of students (such as the students from Barry Coleson High) have arrived, so he hasn't tasted victory for long. File to be updated at a later time, once sufficient has been gathered.
Game Evaluations Edit
Kills: None
Killed by: Tayli E. Vreeland
Collected Weapons: Flashbang Grenades and Protective Goggles (issued weapon, to Mason Lucien), Glock 9mm (from Tayli E. Vreeland, back to Tayli), MAC-10 (from Gabrielle Minase, back to Minase)
Allies: Xian Chun, Tayli E. Vreeland, to a lesser extent Anya Vendvmagli and Gabrielle Minase were also his allies.
Enemies: Niniko Kishinawa
Mid-Game Evaluation: Sydney's first encounter in Barry Coleson's Survival of the Fittest was that of Xian Chun, who he ran into at the bamboo coppice. He first noticed the Asian girl crawling through the bamboo stalks, and had followed her from there. When she stopped, Syd took the opportunity and pounced upon her. Upon talking to the girl, however, Syd's maniacal demeanor vanished, and he told Xian that he only wanted to be friends. It was then that Tayli Vreeland arrived on the scene, pointing a gun in their direction. Without hesitation, Syd threw a flashbang at her and took off with Xian. With a little persuasion from Xian, however, the two returned to their previous location long enough to retrieve the blinded Tayli. Xian expressed her wishes to head toward the school building, and Syd offered to lead the way. With that, the trio was off.
Before the group made it to the school building, however, they encountered their first foe in the form of Niniko Kishinawa. Sydney instructed the girls to run and prepared himself to fight Niniko. However, when Niniko went chasing through the coppice after them, Syd changed his mind, eventually throwing another (faulty) flashbang grenade at the deranged boy before taking off with the girls in a beeline for the school building.
At the school building, Syd revealed that he'd been in this place once before... with his old friends. It was during this startling revelation that everyone realized that Sydney had been the survivor of the original SOTF. Before Syd could elaborate more, however, Anya Vendvmagli arrived at the school building, requesting entry. Syd tried to play it safe, but was reprimanded by Xian and Tayli for turning a gun on Anya. Syd reluctantly let Anya in, and everyone settled down into an uneasy calmness... for the moment. They were quickly thrown back into chaos as Gabrielle Minase burst onto the scene, toting a gun. Boasting confidence, Syd threatened the menace with a grenade, hoping to get inside his head. Minase had some mindgames of his own, however, and his words sent Sydney into a rave about the accident that had happened in the school building with his old friends. At the climax of his story, Syd threw a grenade (pin still in tact) at Minase, hoping to knock the gun from his hands. However, Xian intervened, and it hit her instead.
In the fit of panic that followed, Syd grabbed Minase's dropped weapon and ordered him to get away from Xian. He followed Xian out of the room to check on her, mortified that he'd hit one of his friends instead of the enemy. In a fit of rage, Xian retrieved her corkscrew, determined to attack Syd with it. Syd tried to convince her that he wasn't a "liar" like everyone else, but Xian refused to budge. As Syd tried to reason with her, Tayli burst into the room with a grand bit of news... and that was when it happened. Tayli tripped, and in a freak series of accidents, the glock she had been toting went off and pierced Syd directly in the lung. Syd blamed the accident on Xian, and she ran off in a bout of insanity. In the few painstaking moments that followed, Sydney Morvran, survivor of the original SOTF, could survive no longer.
Post-Game Evaluation: Sydney "Survivor" Morvran bit the bullet awfully early in this game after surviving the horrors of the first one. You'd think that he'd have learned that alliances and friends had no place in SOTF, especially after the catastrophe which resulted in his win. However, he didn't, and in the end, his friends killed him.
Memorable Quotes: "No...no, no! It wasn't all my fault!! I didn't mean to do it! It wasn't supposed to happen, it really wasn't...it wasn't, it wasn't. I didn't mean to drop the flashbang...the pin wasn't even out. But, then he...Eugene shot it. The flash went off! And then everyone started to shoot, okay? Jess had the blade...some kind of knife, or something. She cut me bad. I grabbed her, okay, I used her as a shield! I didn't want to die, all I wanted to do was stop it all, stop her from killing me. And when it was over, everyone was dead but me! I killed my friends, I killed them... Ralphie, Eugene, Jess, and Harvey. All dead. And I had used Jess as a shield! I used her to live!" - Syd's story of the first SOTF
Other/Trivia Edit
- Even though Sydney was the 'winner' of SOTF v0, he didn't kill any of the other students in his first SOTF ACT. This makes him the only winner in either the main games or the test runs to win with no kills, which also caused Danya to leave him on the island.
- Sydney is the only winner to have not had his number retired.
- Sydney sustained a number of injuries during his first round of the SOTF ACT. Ones that we are informed about include a large cut under his eye (it is unknown what caused this), and a missing pinky and ring finger (supposedly cut off during a fight).
- Sydney was the first character in SOTF to be killed by accident.
- Sydney was the first character to be rolled in SOTF history.
Threads Edit
Below is a list of threads that contain Syd, in chronological order.
Your Thoughts Edit
Whether you were a fellow handler in SOTF or just an avid reader of the site, we'd like to know what you thought about Sydney Morvran. What did you like, or dislike, about the character? Let us know here!
I was so disappointed that Syd got rolled so early. Even though I joined the site later, I read his bio and thought "Wow, he's sort of like Kawada"... well, ya know, except that he never escaped. I think that's the part that really piqued my curiosity about Sydney. In a way, not knowing why sort of gives you a sense of foreboding, though. It's like... is that what will happen to the next winner at the end of version 1? Since we don't know the circumstances surrounding Syd being left behind, it gives us something to look forward to at the end, and might actually be foreshadowing it. - Megami
It might be foreshadowing for you guys, but I have a general idea on what happened thanks to a friend of mine (classified information, don't ask). :) Anyway, I agree he was an interesting character, too bad he died so early. It didn't even help with the development of any characters.- Slayer
I've gotta say, it kinda sucked that Sydney got rolled as early as he did, mainly because I was lookng forward on getting info about the last SOTF, about Danya, on...just general stuff. Sadly, it wasn't elaborated upon, because he was the first to die. Interesting, though, that the last game essentially completed itself in that he didn't really 'win', per se. -d0ddi0slave
I disagree on the whole Kawada thing. Kawada had the highest kill count in his school's Program, Syd got lucky. But it is sad that he died so early. I'd have liked to see him do a bit more. - Zabriel
Sydney could have been pretty interesting but he skewed a little too far on the side of one-note for me, at least in his presentation. That said, it's pretty ballsy to have your super important Kawada-analogy able to be rolled and die in the very first set of rolls. - Brackie
So, uh, I really don't have much to say about Sydney that hasn't already been said, so I'll keep it short. For me, Syd was a middle of the road character; his main problem being his reverted-to-a-small-child personality. I don't know if reverting to a child-like state in response to trauma is a real thing that happens in the real world, but in the context of a character readthrough, it can get a bit annoying at times. My favourite thing about Syd, by far, would be his death scene. While his death only really had a lasting effect on one character, it wrapped up his story in a nice little way in that he forgave himself for his actions during the events of the previous game. His death, at least from a narrative standpoint, came right out of the blue. If I hadn't known it was happening, I'd have been like "whaaaaat?" when he got shot. I thought I'd said I would keep this short. Oh well. - Kermit


text:
On January 23, 24, and 27th, 2018 Broward County will conduct the 2018 Point-In-Time Count. This is a county wide count of all people experiencing homelessness. The count will include both sheltered and unsheltered individuals.
Additionally, on January 27, 2018, a Youth Event will be held at Delevoe Park to facilitate the homeless youth count. Our goal is to engage homeless youth and bring awareness to many faces and ages that homelessness impacts Broward County. For the youth event we need volunteers to help count , as well as venders (youth oriented) and food trucks to help feed all participants. Visit: http://pit.brhpc.org/ to find out more and register as a volunteer.


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CAM Mobile not syncing with Desktop All PC OFF
CAM Mobile always showing my PC is OFF even if it's ON.
16 votes
Yui Zen shared this idea
2 comments
imsparticus commented
i was having the same problem until i switched my phone from mobile data to my home wifi
Jimbaco commented
Having same issue with CAM Mobile on Win10 and Android on Galaxy S8. Any fix or suggestions on this yet?


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On Sunday , 15th February 2015 at six-thirty in the morning a group of enthusiastic Malla residents eagerly waited to board a bus for an enjoyable journey to Dongri. The occasion was their annual picnic and from the start the group was pulsating with good humor and repartee. Everyone was right on time which gave us a good start – a sign that the day would turn out to be most enjoyable.
Our destination was LEISURE GARDENS, Dongri, an elevated picnic spot that provided exclusive privacy for a relaxed day of fun and games. It began with a sumptuous four course breakfast to which the hungry crowd did absolute justice. This was followed by a number of games creatively designed by Evelyn Mendonca & Marie Mendonca . The treasure hunt had every team scampering to find the required articles while running against the clock. Although Seniors made up the majority of the crowd the happy excitement and screaming displayed the joy of youthful participation.
We even managed to throw in a welcomed slot for 'spirited' potation and time for a sing-along with Bunty D'Cruz giving us his rendition of La Bamba a la Trini Lopez. 'Memories of the Malla Seekers Treasure Hunt' a hilarious game concocted by Michele Lawrence was the highlight of the day.It brought back pleasant memories of the Treasure Hunt held last year and kept all entertained.
The heavy lunch that followed served to energize the group, both physically and mentally, preparing them for a sit-down quiz ingeniously crafted by Felicity Rodrigues. As a substitute for Housie, Marie introduced a novel card game with many cash prizes that helped the winners make up some of their expenses; in this the members of Kalpana Society were the lucky ones lapping up prize after prize. During a break in the program while some took a dip in the mini pool, the adventurous ones climbed higher up the hill for a panoramic view of the glorious scenery.
All through the day we were on candid camera deftly operated by our ace photographer Francis Dias who captured every moment in digital format. When tea was announced everyone reluctantly came in for a cuppa and biscuits, sad that the splendid day of fun and camaraderie had come to an end. Here's looking forward to our next outing!
~ Melville Mendonca


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Brought up in Somerset, Edward came to Birmingham to study at the Conservatoire in 2007. During his studies he had many opportunities with the major ensembles, playing a wide range of repertoire. In 2009 he was awarded a place to study in Italy with Giancarlo Parodi. During the term spent there Edward played both the Vivaldi double trumpet concerto with Sergio Luchetta and also the Torelli Trumpet concerto, accompanied by the Baroque Orchestra of Ferrara. He was a finalist in several competitions at the college, including the Corfield Trumpet Prize and the Brass Prize, he was also awarded the Post graduate certificate course prize for 2011/12. During his postgraduate studies Edward was awarded a place on the CBSO orchestral training scheme in which he took part in a number of orchestral rehearsals.
Away from his studies, Edward was a founder member of the Thumb contemporary music ensemble, with whom he plays regularly. Edward has also played with several other ensembles in the Birmingham area, including the Birmingham Philharmonic Orchestra, the CBSO Youth Orchestra and the Sinfonia of Birmingham.


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She had a bad habit. Well people said it was bad but she never thought so. She talked a lot. Always going on and on, spilling all the beans, telling all the secrets, talking about everything without thinking much. She just didn't adopt the 'think before you speak' behavior. When going to a family gathering, her mother would say, "don't talk much!" Or "don't talk about him or her!" On coming back home, her father would say "Why
did you tell?"Or "I told you not to.." She was always confused. Every one used to scold her all the time. She never understood them. Why care for others' opinions or hide your heart when you're clear and mean no harm? She was blamed for saying wrong stuff at the wrong time. Always receiving stares from one of her parents or older siblings. . Then years passed and after 10-12 years, she was mature, quiet, thinking before speaking. Now she was the one who used to make people quiet with her stares. SHE changed. People changed her. Time changed her. Her earlier attitude," having a clear heart and trusting everyone, brought her lots of betrayals but despite being so, she misses the times when she was unaware of the true nature of the people and thus, remained happy. She still wants to trust people, stay carefree, and talk without thinking but the reality of
the world and its livers compelled her not to. She is not SHE anymore.


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DAVAO CITY, Philippines (The Adobo Chronicles, Manila Bureau) – Retired entertainer and yellow activist Cynthia Patag got an unexpected message from someone she claimed was training to become the next president of the Philippines: Davao City Mayor Sara 'Inday' Duterte, daughter of President Duterte.
In her social media account, Patag boasted that she had an "unassailable" source that the mayor had begun training for the role of president in 2020, when her father finishes his 6-year term. Patag cried, "political dynasty!"
Apparently, either this unassailable source or Patag herself needed a civics lesson.
Duterte's term as president doesn't end until 2022.
Mayor Sara sent Patag an Instagram message, asking the entertainer if she was high on drugs. Or just dumb.


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Like a Car With No Breaks
Hear we go again down that winedy road, which no one wants to admits it's there. A little push was all it took and slowly but surely my old car is speeding down this road over
miles an hour now, with out any breaks. Know-one knows I don't have any anymore, nor do they see how fast I'm going.
I can't tell them for what would they think of my car?
Sure some will say "That's nice."
What didn't you hear me!
Is my reality so immense that you can't possibly under stand it, or worse do you really not care
Some might feel bad for this old car, but will they help fix it? . No .
My hands desperately reach-out and try to grab on to a branch to stop my descent. To no avale they slip though my grasp ripping apart and bruising my small fingers. And now the upcoming strong branchs that I see pull away as I reach out, and back off from me as I cry.
So down it goes the winedy road. Its too dark to see were it exactly goes .
Oh by the way, the head lights on this old peice of work don't work ether.
I don't know, I don't know , All I do is that I can hear the crash of cold steel up ahead on this dark steep winedy road.
Brady Smith
cc Thursday, April 17, 1997


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Lets get over hump day with some weekend thoughts! Specifically, thoughts about my outfits from the weekend, of which I have two to share. First one is from Saturday night, when Harry and I were going for some drinks with friends - we stepped out, looked at the sunset, and I marched back in to get the camera. This was too good of an opportunity to miss! Just look at the colours!
For the evening I was wearing my new Topshop blazer which I am loving, and also my Tibi sandals which I have been putting on at every possible opportunity. And let me tell you the honest truth about that little mark on this top..
My WORST EVER job is ironing. I very rarely do it, and Harry has taught me his lazy and fabulous method of getting out the crinkles with a hairdryer. You just shove it up your top, it sort of helps with the creases - it does a good job on cotton t-shirts, but with this top it just make the material go a bit melty and funny. What a fail! It serves me right for being lazy!
JACKET: TOPSHOP | JEANS: ASOS | SHOES: TIBI | TOP: c/o JIGSAW | BAG: WHISTLES c/o ZALANDO
Here we have my Sunday look. Harry and I went out for Sunday dinner so I got a little dolled up for it (although Harry just asked me 'who died?' when I came downstairs... apparently I could have also attended a funeral in this look!) The morning was a belter of a day, with gorgeous weather. SO I shaved AND tanned my legs to wear this dress, only to have it rain as soon as we stepped outside.
Anyway I still liked my outfit, I loveeee how these shoes look with bare legs and is deffo going to be a thing for me this Summer. And longline blazer with short dresses is also going to be a thaaaang too. Anyway, despite the rain slightly ruining things it was still an outfit I loved, and was worth the leg shaving/tanning effort (also let me add, yep this is my legs with tan on, they are glowing white normally, it's quite impressive!)
DRESS: COS (old, similar style here) | BLAZER: COS | SHOES: GUCCI | BAG: LOEWE


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DETROIT - Jimmy Howard is eight years older than Petr Mrazek, but he appears to be the goaltender they want to keep moving forward.
The Red Wings opted to protect Howard and expose Mrazek for the expansion draft.
The NHL released every team's protected list Sunday morning.
In addition to Howard, Detroit protected forwards Justin Abdelkader, Andreas Athanasiou, Anthony Mantha, Gustav Nyquist, Tomas Tatar, Henrik Zetterberg and Frans Nielsen, who must be on the list due to his no-movement clause.
The Red Wings also protected defensemen Danny DeKeyser, Mike Green and Nick Jensen.
This leaves exposed forwards Riley Sheahan, Helm, Luke Glendening and prospect Tomas Nosek. Dylan Larkin and prospects Tyler Bertuzzi and Evgeny Svechnikov are exempt because they have two years or less of pro experience (NHL or AHL).
On defense, young Xavier Ouellet and Ryan Sproul were exposed, as were veterans Niklas Kronwall and Jonathan Ericsson, who won't be taken due to their age, hefty contracts and declining performance.
In addition to Mrazek, Jared Coreau, the goalie who led the Grand Rapids Griffins to the Calder Cup championship, was exposed.
General manager Ken Holland declared long ago that he would protect seven forwards, three defensemen and a goalie as opposed to the second option (eight skaters regardless of position and a goalie).
Teams can still make deals with Vegas, offering assets to ensure the Golden Knights don't select a certain player, until 8 a.m. Wednesday. Several deals are reportedly in place already but can't be announced until after Vegas' selections (30 players - one from each team) are revealed Wednesday during the NHL Awards (8-10 p.m., NBCSN).
Mrazek, 25, has struggled the past year and a half. He was 18-21-9 last season with a 3.04 goals-against average and .901 save percentage. Howard, 33, meanwhile, excelled, despite a 10-11-1 record due in large part to lack of offensive support. He posted a 2.10 GAA and .927 save percentage.
Mrazek won't necessarily be claimed, since Vegas has more attractive options, including Marc-Andre Fleury of Pittsburgh and Antti Raanta of the New York Rangers.
Coreau might not appeal to the Golden Knights because he's unproven at the NHL level (he had some good outings and poor performances last season with the Red Wings).
Howard has two years remaining on his contract at a $5.3 million cap hit. Mrazek has one year left at $4 million and will be a restricted free agent in 2018.
Sheahan is a candidate to be selected. Despite going 79 games without a goal before scoring twice in the season finale, he's big (6-3, 222), young (25), has a manageable contract (one year remaining at $2.075 million) and remains under club control in 2018 as a restricted free agent. Many believe 2016-17 was a fluke, since he was productive for a third-line player the previous three seasons.
Ouellet also could appeal to the Golden Knights. He turns 24 next month, moves the puck well and plays with a bit of an edge, though he's not projected to provide a lot of offense. Sproul is intriguing because he's big (6-4, 215), has a booming right shot and offensive upside. But he has struggled defensively as a pro. He might not be ready for the start of the season after surgery to repair a torn ACL.


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Unavailable $350 Per month - Apartment
A very attractive 2-bedroom apartment for lease in Svay Dangkum commune, Siem Reap city. The property comes with fully furnished, tiny piece of leafy tropical garden and a parking space. Each bedroom unit equipped with fully features and facilities such as air-con unit, a wardrobe, bedside table and an en-suite bathroom with water heater. Furthermore, the living room area is installed a nice sofa set with a flat screen television and air-conditioning. The kitchen is medium with an ample space for cooking and comes complete with fridge freezer, shared washing machine, top gas cooker, dining table and chairs. The surrounding environment is secured and the road condition is good. @ 1 year contract will be asked $350 per month and 2 months deposit.
Additional Details
- Minimum Rental Period: 6 months
- Deposit Required: 2 months/year
- Air-con Unit: 3
- Negotiable: Yes
- Building Orientation: North
- Garden: Yes
- Electricity per KW: 1,000 KHR
- Water: $10
- Internet: Free
- Cable TV: Free
- Waste Collection: Free
- Hot Water: Yes
- Fans: Yes
- Fridge: 1
- Washing Machine: Shared (1)
- Sofa Set: Yes
- Dining Table and Chairs: Yes
- Wardrobe: Yes
- Gas Cooker: Yes
- Bedside Table: Yes


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Salam and Hello 🙂
Q: Do we need to get any sort of vaccination here first in Malaysia before registering there (I thought I saw something about Meningitis Vaccination in the University's websites).
A: Nope. You can get all those vaccinations once you have arrived. Don't worry about it. I, myself didn't take any vaccinations but took it once I arrived (through appointments and all).
Q: Are they free?
A:Yes, they're totally free. But please ensure to register yourselves with NHS (National Health Service) during fresher's week.
Q: Do I really need to buy health insurance since the cost of medicine or health treatment in the UK is expensive? Is there any special discount for student?
A: If I'm not mistaken, that is valid only in the US, not the UK. In the UK, you just have to come and register and insyaAllah everything will be free.
link: http://www.avert. org/freenhs. htm


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Audi Erie, formerly known as Roth Audi has had a long standing relationship in the community. Providing years of customer service, quality automobiles crossing generations. We proudly sell New Audi's, Certified Pre-Owned Audi's and other pre-owned vehicles in the Greater Erie area, Meadville, Willoughby Ohio and State College.
When you purchase a New, CPO or pre-owned Audi from Roth Audi you will feel confident coming back in for service, accessories and parts. Our staff is dedicated to prove to you we value your patronage and would love to have you as a customer for life. From our state of the art facilities, collision center, friendly atmosphere, professional salespersons and Audi Certified Service Technicians you experience a small town dealership that will exceed your expectations.
Feel free to browse our inventory online, request more information about vehicles, set up a test drive or inquire about financing!
If you don't see what you are looking for, click on CarFinder, fill out the form, and we will let you know when vehicles arrive that match your search! Or if you would rather discuss your options with our friendly sales staff, click on Directions for interactive driving directions and other contact information. We look forward to serving you!


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9 Extraordinary Bassett Baby Cribs Photograph
Cribs Ideas - 9 Extraordinary Bassett Baby Cribs Photograph
How have you been all, I hope you will be great, today I am just delighted i can talk about details once more for many my visitors. Within this time I actually have a topic about baby baby cribs layout, numerous mother or father request to offer the info about how to create the baby baby cribs perfectly. Mom or dad generally give the perfect for their baby even for their maternity. Every little thing should be prior to the time of infants given birth to then baby baby cribs get to be the important a part of your child. When you want to develop your child baby cribs but you get lack of idea, I am going to try and give some suggestion and knowledge that has regards to baby baby cribs layout in 9 Extraordinary Bassett Baby Cribs Photograph.
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You will find alternatives of your own baby layout, now your work is creating your child baby cribs can display your adore. It implies your layout should be exhibiting your adore. you may acquire your preference within your layout. Therefore, embellish baby baby cribs will not be tough you can do it one by one. Remembers you should browse much information, though it is not necessary using room designer. There is lots of data that make your layout is perfectly for example article, YouTube and image.
Finally, I have done explain about baby cribs ideas hopefully all my reader get benefits information then you create baby cribs as good as possible. Then you could see your baby delighted due to your center to him/her. Before I give you gallery about baby cribs ideas; you can open one of our photos, i think I can't let you.


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Geometric Distortion
Notes on rectilinear lens distortions and fisheye* (update)
2 June 2017
In September 2014 Samyang released stereographic projection UWA for 135 format that is part of fisheye lens family. The stereographic diagonal fisheye maintains principle of fisheye projection where the linear geometry is bent but unlike the classic fisheyes, it leaves objects shapes in original form. The regular projection fisheye lenses deform shape of objects at the periphery beyond recognition. This is especially apparent in the corners where the fisheye effect naturally draws attention of a viewer (due to the compression). This doesn't have to be a negative effect but it distinctly separates rendition of a stereographic UWA from typical equisolid angle and equidistant fisheye lenses.
As there are no elements of extreme rendition with stereographic projection, it creates its own category among the UWA lenses.
Another projection useful and intuitive for object recognition (in the entire image) is perspective projection of corrected UWA. The shapes of objects are deformed but easily recognisable and intuitively correct (though exaggerated) while the linear geometry in the image does not change.
It is debatable which projection produces more natural representation of the scene. The stereographic projection preserves shapes of objects locally in remarkably truthful representation and virtually unchanged but it curves the whole space. It exaggerates "its sense" in often intuitively correct way that is in line with our natural perception.
This makes both of these projection types closely related and fit for realistic representation and distinct from non-stereographic projection fisheye.
The fact, however remarkable, has obviously no a priori bearings on artistic, photographic or aesthetic choice and preferences as apparent from the subjective nature of most applications.
26 November 2014
Most rectilinear lenses add some kind of geometric distortion to the picture as they project capture of a subject. One of the most prominent distortions is changed perspective and it is particularly noticeable with the wide and ultra wide angles. It is a kind of distortion that influences remarkably well transition from our own perception of the scene based on our brain and two lenses cooperation to a one lens capture. Prominent changes in perspective and its exaggeration are also extending the tools for a richer expression.
Another kind of geometric distortion of a lens is barrel distortion. Unlike the regular and predictable changes in perspective, this kind of radial distortions are often seen as an optical flaw of a lens and that because it is much less necessary for the design and thus more changeable from lens to lens.
Because the barrel distortion is also a perspective distortion of a sort we can see these two interacting. We will notice that the barrel distortion works its own way towards offsetting the perspective distortion effects by compressing the near corner geometry while making the central area visually more apparent by enlarging it. A mild degree of the barrel distortion in particular can be then often viewed as a beneficial and desirable effect for the overall projection of the scene. It is fine that it is retaining its reputation of a flaw as it is a matter of degree, and it is also less useful universally as a tool. I myself tune my corrections for barrel distortion for each image separately and with some care. Correction that I apply is often partial and many times I am leaving it without any correction whereas sometimes I will choose to correct it fully.
Geometric distortion working in opposite direction of the barrel is pincushion distortion. This curves of the space in the image I correct often fully and in some instances almost always, for example, when typical wildlife is the subject. For other subjects, this I again tend to weight individually.
Moustache types of distortions that are less symmetrical work towards the elongated corner geometry and similar (compression) less effectively but even they can be found beneficial for rendering characteristics of a lens by a photographer. Their irregular curves though often command a default correction.
Observing meaningful details when processing a photograph can make a difference. And just as, e.g. careful framing where the each millimeter plays its role, the symmetrical distortions can help in creating a photograph that conveys its content precisely the way we want. Realising this can also change our view of excessive distortions that inhere in the design of affected lenses because the partial corrections using suitable software have only minimal negative impact on the rendering and resolution quality. And it can, on the other hand, add to the means for a thoughtful processing of digital images using mild distortions optimally for the intent of the final execution.
© HSunway


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Minutemen, Pray with Jesus's name, for His bride has taken His name and prays with all strength and power.
Our children are our guarantee that the independent nature, morality and virtue of our red states (States covered by the blood) people will go on. They are the assurance that the character of our people will be seen in the times to come. God will yet reign in our lands. Pray for our red state children. The deceiver has beguiled them. They have been drawn away from their parents and from God. They have been drawn into a new righteousness of self-righteousness. They have been overrun by the multitudes of vial spirits of unnatural affections. They have been entranced by a new morality of immorality. Their ancestors call out from the balcony of heaven for their seed that they shall have none to bestow their spiritual inheritance upon. I hear the cries, "Save our children," yet I am comforted. God has not deserted us and the red states will not fall, but are chosen as the Kingdoms of our Lord. We shall yet rejoice and swell with pleasure in the honor of our red state children. I say to you now for I have seen it with this prayer going up, stepping with one step and shouting with one voice. Our children shall turn and be the strength and joy of these states and lands of our Lord.


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In this new video, I lay out 10 Factors to Consider before Launching a Political Campaign, based on my political memoir of my underdog, uphill attempt to win election to public office, Don't Knock, He's Dead: A Longshot Candidate Gets Schooled in the Unseemly Underbelly of American Campaign Politics.
You may believe you can do the job better than the deadwood who's been in office for eons. But it's no simple feat to get there. A political campaign can take a toll on your life, health, well-being, family, job, finances and other aspects. And if you're not extremely organized, confident and committed, you may be doomed to failure from the beginning.
Discover the 10 factors — among many more — that I found must be strategically evaluated and planned in advance to increase chances of an Everyman achieving electoral success here, from a presentation I made to the Western Howard County (MD) Democratic Club. I know if I had been better prepared with these factors in mind, I would have performed better.


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The festival includes performances, processions, workshops and other activities that involve death and its relationship to life
, photo: Courtesy of Alex Contreras
28 of October 2016 12:45:33
For the fifth consecutive year La Calaca (The Skeleton) Festival is taking place in the picturesque colonial central Mexico town of San Miguel de Allende, beginning Oct. 28 and ending on Nov. 2, the Day of the Dead.[caption id="attachment_39805" align="alignleft" width="200"] Photo: Courtesy of Alex Contreras[/caption]The fest includes — besides the traditional offerings — performances, processions, workshops, conferences in both English and Spanish and other art manifestations that involve death and its relationship to life.Most of the events will take place at the Obraje Cultural Center which boasts indoor and outdoor theaters, as well as a chapel.This year the festival will honor famous popular Mexican iconic composers Juan Gabriel and José Alfredo Jiménez in an extravagant fiesta to be hosted by international DJs.A special feature will be a set designed by international photographer Spencer Tunick, who will be doing at least one of his famous photography shoots with nude subjects. Tunick has made San Miguel de Allende his summer residence.Returning this year will be sculptor Robert Bose's "Balloon Chain," an ephemeral work made with helium balloons, as well as the "Pyramid of the Dead," a community made altar made of 60 tin niches individually decorated by a local artist.The event was announced Thursday by festival founder and organizer Klaudia Oliver as well as Spencer Tunick, Favianna Rodriguez, Jesus Alexandre and Jesús Valenzuela, all of them proponents of the concept of making San Miguel de Allende "a place of peace and art."[caption id="attachment_39807" align="alignleft" width="1024"] Photo: Courtesy of Alex Contreras[/caption]There will also be shorts selected from the Guanajuato International Film Festival, a pool party in thermal waters called Hot Springs Pool Party and an enormous array of events.A complete guide of La Calaca Festival as well other Day of the Dead activities is available at the Tourist Council offices right across the street from the main plaza.For more info can be found online.


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