text:
Advancing Kids Twitter
ADVANCING KIDS
Promoting children's optimal health, development and well-being
Measures & Metrics
A Pound of Cure… How Might We Pay For an Ounce of Prevention?
By advancingkids on May 22, 2018 • ( Leave a comment )
By: Jesse Chandna and Scott Orsey
Social determinants of health, the circumstances in which people live and work, have a profound impact on the overall outcomes of children and their families. That is why Connecticut Children's Medical Center places a priority not only on addressing the medical and surgical needs of young patients, but also on addressing factors, such as healthy housing, transportation, and adverse childhood experiences, that impact children and youth outside of our hospital walls. As society increasingly recognizes this same connection, we will be able to further develop the means to embed social determinants of health and innovative interventions in everything we do.
We are encouraged by an annual report recently published by the PwC Health Research Institute that identifies key topics that will have the most impact on the health care industry in 2018. This year's report focuses on how health care providers and insurers can increase enterprise resilience, which is the ability for organizations to adapt to short- and long-term change, in an industry that's undergoing considerable transformation from a variety of factors including, but not limited to: political uncertainty; business model uncertainty due to efforts to reform how providers are reimbursed for care; new entrants into the industry, such as the Amazon-Berkshire Hathaway-JP Morgan Chase joint venture to improve health care for their employees; and the consumerization of health care.
In these uncertain times, we are pleased to see that the report identified addressing social determinants of health as a risk-mitigation strategy for health care providers. This is significant because treating social determinants of health like other risk mitigation strategies, such as infection prevention and emergency preparedness, allows the sector to place a value on upstream interventions and thus offers an impetus to fund them. The report also identified social determinants of health as an important strategy that health systems can leverage to create efficiencies that will facilitate adaptation to an uncertain environment as payment reform efforts escalate. We are excited that insurers and providers appear increasingly ready to embrace shared-risk payment models that reward providers for the value of care they provide to patients, and the extent to which they keep patients healthy, rather than paying them simply for the volume of patient care they provide.
On our journey to be at the forefront of population health management, Connecticut Children's has incorporated social determinants of health into its operations for many years. This stems from a realization by care providers and hospital leadership that many of the delays and disorders treated at our facility could have been more efficiently addressed through early identification and intervention, as well and by connecting families to community-based resources at the earliest opportunity.
In 2012, Connecticut Children's formed Connecticut Children's Office for Community Child Health (Office) to promote children's optimal healthy development. One way the Office does that is through addressing the social determinants of health by increasing partnerships and collaboration between internal community-oriented programs and external community-based efforts across all sectors influencing child health and well-being. Now, Office programs and initiatives are being implemented across Connecticut and in more than 28 states, with targeted support from public and private sources including federal and state agencies, corporations, and foundations.
Now that the Office's infrastructure is established, we are working to quantify the cost savings and associated return on investment, and the impact of our work on children and families in order to strengthen our competitive position as conversations regarding pediatric payment reform intensify. There is much work to be done to pinpoint these metrics, largely because the long-term outcomes we seek are difficult to measure since the benefits of our work often fall in sectors outside child health services. For example, helping a young, at-risk child obtain early intervention for mild developmental or behavioral concerns likely yields significant future savings not only in the child health services sector, but also in special education expenses or even juvenile justice. Similarly, early intervention with public safety, food insecurity, housing and other social factors yields savings across a multitude of sectors.
As we work to calculate the specific return on investment for our work through Connecticut Children's Office for Community Child Health, we will continue to build the programs that will successfully deliver the outcomes we seek.
Both Connecticut Children's Medical Center and Connecticut Children's Office for Community Child Health are excited to embrace pediatric payment reform models that support a shift towards value-based care. We are confident our work to address social determinants of health in a cross-sector manner will be the standard of care to achieve population health for generations of children to come.
Jesse Chandna is a strategic finance manager for Connecticut Children's Medical Center.
Scott Orsey is the associate director for operations, business strategy and institutional engagement for Connecticut Children's Office for Community Child Health.
To sign up to receive E-Updates from Connecticut Children's Office for Community Child Health, click here.
Categories: Measures & Metrics
Tagged as: Health, Health Promotion, Jesse Chandna, Scott Orsey, Social Determinants of Health, Value Based Care
Manchester Embraces Healthy Homes Support
Social Innovation Spotlight: Hartford Promise Integrated College Success Model
Addressing Asthma Disparities
At Our Core
Community Benefit Reporting
Healthy Housing
Insights for Change
Preventing Childhood Obesity
Strengthening Clinical Care Delivery
Training Future Child Health Leaders
Follow Advancing Kids by Email
Follow Advancing Kids on Twitter
Top categories: Insights for Change


text:
Radio Stations/Broadcasting
Green River, WY 82935-5321
A little history...
The idea of an AM station began in William (Bill) Simms' mind in the 1960's, however with an extended freeze for new AM licenses by the FCC, KUGR would not be born until 1976. … read more
The idea of an AM station began in William (Bill) Simms' mind in the 1960's, however with an extended freeze for new AM licenses by the FCC, KUGR would not be born until 1976. Bill applied, received the licensing and hired Al Harris to build and manage the station, as he was unable to move to Green River. Bill knew he had to start the call letters with a ''K'' and wanted to incorporate GR for Green River, so his daughter came up with KUGR (Cougar) and so it is now.
Al put the station on the air in June of '76 and bought Bill's ownership of KUGR in 1978. He also hired Julio Delgadillo to do a Sunday Spanish show in '78. Julio retired in 2010.
The Radio Network's General Manager/Sports Director, Steve Core, joined the staff in December of 1985. Al's wife, Faith, joined as Office Manager in March of 1986.
Ten years after KUGR was put on the air, a second station, KYCS, was born and the two became known as The Broadcast House. KYCS signed on October 1st 1986.
In September 1998, two stations became three and KFRZ the Freeze was put on the air. Shortly after the Freeze signed on, the Broadcast House moniker was replaced by The Radio Network.
As if Al and Faith didn't have enough on their plate, they decided to adopt another baby and KZWB The Big Dog signed on with The Radio Network in June of 2005.
In the summer of 2008 KUGR could be heard not only at 1490 AM, but on the FM dial at 104.9 as well.
? So here we are, The Radio Network family...still going strong and still accumulating projects.
Check out our website!

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


text:
18th-century map of South Carolina and a part of Georgia is acquired by the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation
Two versions of the map—one made in 1757 and the other in 1780—show growth
and westward expansion between the French and Indian War and the American Revolution.
WILLIAMSBURG, VA.- The Colonial Williamsburg Foundation has recently acquired a very rare copy of A Map of South Carolina and a Part of Georgia published in 1780 by William Faden based on a 1757 version made by the cartographers William Gerard De Brahm and published by Thomas Jefferys. Although other copies are known to exist, this example, which is in pristine condition with vibrant original color, is the first known to have become available in several decades. The large-scale map (about 4½ feet tall by 4 feet wide) is a significantly revised version of the 1757 document by De Brahm, and when paired with this earlier version of the map (a copy already exists in the Colonial Williamsburg collection) the two maps tell a compelling story. Together they show a visual comparison about the extent to which the South Carolinians and Georgians settled the western frontiers of their colonies during the period between the French and Indian War and the American Revolution.
"Colonial Williamsburg collects objects such as the Faden map not only for their inherent beauty, but for their intrinsic value as documents of past peoples, places and events," said Ronald L. Hurst, the Foundation's Carlisle H. Humelsine Chief Curator and Vice President for Collections, Conservation, and Museums. "Remarkably well preserved, the Faden map will be used with other cartographic documents and three-dimensional objects to illustrate the movement of cultural groups from the seacoast to the southern backcountry on the eve of the Revolution."
To best understand why this map is so extraordinary beyond its scarcity, one needs to first understand who made it, how it was originally intended for use and how it came to be revised over time, beginning with the original 1757 version. The story begins with the map's cartographer, William Gerard De Brahm (1717-1798). Born in southern Germany, he served as a military engineer in the Bavarian army until 1748 and thereafter was expelled from Bavaria for renouncing his Catholic faith in favor of Protestantism. With the encouragement of the Bishop of Augsburg, Samuel Urlsperger, he led a group of 156 German Protestants to settle in the Salzberger community of Ebenezer, Georgia, in 1751. Shortly after his arrival, his skills as a trained surveyor and engineer were recognized in both Georgia and South Carolina, and by 1752 De Brahm was selected by Governor James Glen of South Carolina to design and construct a system of fortifications for Charleston. Two years later, De Brahm was appointed Surveyor General of South Carolina. Realizing that there would be a war with France, the British Board of Trade requested that each colony supply maps of their topographical surveys, the resulting map depicted geography that was vastly superior to any previous map of the region.
De Brahm used his training as an engineer to create a map that aimed to assist colonists in settling the vast wilderness of the region. He meticulously and scientifically represented details, such as settlements, land quality, climate, coastlines, waterways and the suitability of soil for agricultural growth. The map delineates plantation landscapes belonging to European settlers, while the cartouche depicts the enslaved Africans who would be forced to work the land. Native Americans' lands in the interior of the Colonies are mentioned sporadically, but much of the map was left blank, suggesting endless possibilities for European settlement. Once all the information was compiled, De Brahm sent the map to the Board of Trade in England, which then approved it and commissioned cartographer, engraver and map seller Thomas Jeffreys, who served as Geographer to King George III, to publish it. The resulting map (shown at left), published in London on October 20, 1757 (during the French and Indian War), illustrates the progress as well as the potential of the area.
The second version of the map was published at the height of the Revolution. By 1778, the British had taken Savannah, and in April 1780, once Charleston fell to the British, the focus of the war shifted to the Southern Colonies. Given the contemporary interest in the region, Thomas Jeffreys' successor, William Faden, altered the 1757 copperplates with updated information on the region, publishing it in June 1780. The revisions were so major that some scholars consider the result to be virtually a new map. This new version included county names, roadways, new place names and settlements across the entire map, revealing the amount of new information that was gathered over a span of less than 20 years during a time when Britain was focused on expanding and populating its empire in North America and the backcountry of South Carolina was opened up for English settlement. The alterations were largely based on the surveys gathered by John Stuart, the Superintendent of Indian Affairs for the Southern District from the 1760s to his death in 1779. Stuart frequently complained to royal officials in Britain that he lacked accurate maps of the backcountry to conduct his work, which frequently involved boundary disputes between Native Americans and settlers. He provided his findings to the Board of Trade, who, in turn, hired Faden to publish the updated version. The 1780 edition of the map reflects the westward movement of the population.
"De Brahm's map of South Carolina and Georgia was viewed in the period, as it is today, as a remarkable achievement of eighteenth-century cartography," said Katie McKinney, Colonial Williamsburg's assistant curator of maps and prints. "The blank space on the 1757 map is one of its most striking features, which never aimed to detail the backcountry landscape. It makes sense that when looking to publish a map on the region that Faden would use De Brahm's map as a template to incorporate new information about these Southern colonies. Compared to the earlier version, this map will allow us to better interpret the westward movement of people and objects in the region throughout the eighteenth century."
The Georgetown Precinct reflects the extensive revisions made to the 1757 map (above left) on the 1780 map (above right). The original map primarily illustrated topography and land use as evidenced by the detail, whereas the 1780 map focused on roadways, waterways, landowners and settlement. The 1780 map shows the intricate rivers and streams that made up the Pee Dee River. Georgetown Precinct thrived financially in the eighteenth century as home to some of the wealthiest indigo and rice planting operations in the low country, which relied on the work of enslaved laborers.
Vermeer's 'Girl Reading a Letter at an Open Window' presented in Dresden
Gutted and broke: Brazil's National Museum pleads for money
Exhibition at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art features 9 works by Frank Stella
Board committee approves architect for new and expanded University Art Museum
In-depth exhibition features over 40 modern and contemporary tapestries
Modern and historical jewels and gemstones highlight Phillips Hong Kong Jewels and Jadeite Spring Sale
Phi presents: Renata Morales and Marina Abramović at Ca' Rezzonico Gallery
Modern sculpture meets ancient Greece in unique island exhibition
DYSFUNCTIONAL opens in Venice and invites visitors to rethink boundaries between art and design
Chile's Valparaiso, an open air graffiti and mural art gallery
Vanja Malloy named to lead Syracuse University Art Galleries
Phillips sale features a selection of exceptional timepieces encompassing vintage and modern sports watches
Gallery Hyundai announces new Executive Director
Phillips announces highlights included in the Hong Kong Watch Auction: EIGHT
New exhibition examines the relationship between contemporary art and the rural
Exhibition features twenty-five new sculptures and ten related drawings by Ron Nagle
Blanton Museum permanently endows Spanish Americas curatorship
Austria hands over MiG 'symbol' of Croatian independence war
The Glass House announces 70th anniversary celebration, summer party and auction
Portland Art Museum and Northwest Film Center announce new Director and Curator, Film & New Media
Exhibition explores the extent to which artists avail artificial intelligence in their artistic practice
Strauss & Co sale includes important artworks by African moderns
Leading artists come together for United Artists for Europe
Artistic Glass Bong Creator: Empire Glassworks
The benefits of using FB video download free can help you in fast sharing


text:
Whooping cranes in flight at Cheyenne Bottoms Preserve, Kansas. © Dan Witt
Stories in Wisconsin
Top Three Must-See Spring Migrations
Spring means that the animals of the world are in motion to their summer homes and breeding grounds.
It's spring! And in Wisconsin that means it's time to shed our winter coats and get outside. The coming of spring also means that many of the birds that spend their summers in Wisconsin are winging their way back here from their wintering grounds farther south.
Many of these birds must make the 600-mile non-stop trip across the Gulf of Mexico to get here. They include such jewels as the ruby-throated hummingbird, scarlet tanager and indigo bunting. Waterfowl like blue-winged teal and waders like spotted sandpiper also migrate over or around the Gulf on their way back to Wisconsin.
The Nature Conservancy is protecting the forests, wetlands and other habitats that these birds need to rest and refuel during their arduous journey.
"The journeys of wild animals are a source of inspiration and remind us that we need to protect nature both locally and globally," said Elizabeth Koehler, director of The Nature Conservancy in Wisconsin. "There are many excellent bird-watching locations throughout the state, and we'd like to share a few of the best places we know of in Wisconsin to see different species of waterfowl, waders and songbirds."
Prothonotary Warbler These brightly colored songbirds sing from high in the trees. During the mating season, females will fill nest cavities with moss, dry leaves, twigs and bark. © Steve S. Meyer
Green Heron These wading birds return to Wisconsin in the spring, and can be seen near the water's edge waiting for small fish or other prey. © Steve S. Meyer
Sandhill Cranes A flock takes flight in the misty morning light. © Steve S. Meyer
Sandhill Cranes Chicks leave the nest within a day after hatching to learn to feed themselves. Young remain with parents for 9-10 months, until migration. © Steve S. Meyer
Male Red Breasted Merganser This slim, crested duck forages by diving and swimming underwater to hunt small fish. © Gary S. Meredith
To celebrate spring and the return of our migratory birds, TNC has created a list of the Top Three Must-See Migrations in Wisconsin.
1. Waterfowl
Ducks and geese are among the earliest of Wisconsin's spring migrants, and their numbers can be impressive. Wisconsin's Green Bay is one of the largest freshwater estuaries in the world and is critical habitat for migrating waterfowl particularly the diving ducks like greater and lesser scaup and redheads. Good waterfowl viewing spots along the bay include Barkhausen Waterfowl Preserve, Sensiba State Wildlife Area and the Peshtigo River State Wildlife Area.
Another good place to see these birds and other migrating waterfowl is at the wetlands of the Mink River, protected and managed by The Nature Conservancy, and in adjoining Rowley's Bay at the northern end of the Door Peninsula. Redhead, scaup (both greater and lesser), bufflehead, red-breasted merganser and goldeneye are just some of the ducks that visit this area in March and April.
A good location to see ducks in southern Wisconsin is Lulu Lake, a Conservancy preserve protecting a pristine kettle lake that attracts waterfowl.
To the west, along the border with Minnesota, is the Upper Mississippi River National Wildlife and Fish Refuge that provides important habitat for migrating canvasback in the spring. Nearly one-third of their North American population — 75,000 to 100,000 birds — use Lake Onalaska, a backwater of the Mississippi north of La Crosse, as a springtime staging area.
2. Waders
Ducks and geese are not the only water birds that return to Wisconsin in the spring. Several wetland preserves provide excellent opportunities for watching wading birds, including the largest and rarest in North America: whooping cranes. Whooping cranes were reintroduced at Necedah National Wildlife Refuge in central Wisconsin in 2001 as part of a national effort to establish additional flocks of these critically endangered birds within their historic range. Cranes raised at Necedah were guided on their first migration to wintering grounds in Florida by biologists piloting an ultralight aircraft alongside the birds. The cranes now return to Wisconsin from Florida every April and May.
Other notable wading birds that return to Wisconsin in the spring include sandhill cranes, close cousins to the whoopers, and many kinds of herons. Horicon Marsh in Dodge and Fond du Lac counties is the largest freshwater cattail marsh in the United States and provides important nesting habitat for these birds. Horicon is also well-known for its large numbers of migrating Canada geese in the fall.
3. Songbirds
Spring means migrating songbirds for many birdwatchers. Among the earliest grassland songbirds to arrive in the state are eastern meadowlarks at preserves like the Conservancy's Military Ridge Prairie Heritage Area in southwestern Wisconsin. Grassland birds that arrive later in the spring include bobolink, dickcissel and upland sandpiper.
Warblers are perhaps the most colorful and varied of Wisconsin's spring songbird migrants. When and where to look for warblers varies with the timing of the season — warblers eat insects and so depend upon the warm weather that makes their prey abundant. Wooded areas are the best locations for warblers and isolated patches of forest in agricultural areas can concentrate the birds. Baxter's Hollow is an extensive tract of deep forest in Wisconsin's Baraboo Hills that provides important nesting habitat and attracts birds that are rare elsewhere in the state, such as worm-eating and hooded warblers.
Another good location for watching warblers is Wyalusing State Park that overlooks the confluence of the Mississippi and Wisconsin Rivers. The songbird migration here can be outstanding in May — look for many kinds of warblers, vireos, flycatchers, and others.
The journeys of wild animals are a source of inspiration and remind us that we need to protect nature both locally and globally.
Elizabeth Koehler Director of The Nature Conservancy in Wisconsin
Visit A Preserve
Baxter's Hollow
Baxter's Hollow is TNC's largest preserve in Wisconsin. Spring is an especially good time to visit to see migratory songbirds and wildflowers.
Lulu Lake Preserve
Home to wetlands, oak openings and rare fish and mussels. Birders can see Cooper's hawks, migrating ospreys and nesting pairs of sandhill cranes.
Mink River Estuary
Waters from the Mink River and Lake Michigan combine to form this freshwater estuary. Visitors will find great opportunities for bird watching.


text:
Watch Dogs 2 in Development According to Ubisoft Employee's CV – Report
Senior gameplay programmer Julien Risse may have accidentally leaked the sequel.
Posted By Ravi Sinha | On 30th, Apr. 2015 Under News
Ubisoft's Watch Dogs may not have been the greatest game in the history of all things great but it was a roaring success, especially considering its status as a new IP. Though the publisher has talked about plans for building a franchise around Watch Dogs, an employee's slip-up may be the first sign that Watch Dogs 2 is actually in development.
As reported by Videogamer, senior gameplay programmer Julien Risse listed Watch Dogs 2 as one of the current projects he's working on via his LinkedIn profile. Risse began working from December 2013 and Watch Dogs came out in May 2014, which is interesting when you consider that the first game was supposed to originally release in November 2013.
This doesn't necessarily mean that Ubisoft will reveal Watch Dogs 2 at E3 2015, though given its track record with the first game it's not unreasonable to expect a teaser of sorts. Stay tuned for more information and let us know what you think about a sequel to Watch Dogs in, say, the next two years.
Tagged With: e3 2015, Ubisoft, ubisoft montreal, Watch Dogs, Watch Dogs 2
Platforms: PS4, Xbox One, PC
Crash Team Racing Nitro-Fueled And NBA 2K19 Top June EU And US PlayStation Store Charts
Rebellion CEO Says Money Biggest Factor In Epic Games Store Exclusive Deals
Madden NFL 20 Gets Four New Inductees Into The "99 Club"
Gears 5 Will Eliminate Depictions Of Smoking


text:
Last cigarette to EVER be smoked in England 'will be in Derby in 2050'
By Chop Tang on April 02, 2019
The life of cigarettes will one day come to an end. There will be no cigarettes on the streets and in shops, and maybe the tobacco tree will have found other users. This is according to researchers who have predicted that the last smoker to ever be seen in England will be in Derby in the year 2050. Cigarettes only have 30 years to exist.
According to Frontier Economics, the current 7.4 million smokers will have quit their bad habits in 30 years. This is affirmed by the quitting trends which have indicated a reducing number of smokers since the 1990s.
Cigarette smoking is estimated to kill about 200 people every day. Whether this is the motivation behind quitting, the research suggests that the rate of quitting varies from one city to another.
Bristol is estimated to host the last smoker in 2024, all the other having quit the smoke. York and Wokingham, the Berks, will closely follow York with both housing the last smoker in 2026.
In 2027, the number of smokers will have reduced to zero in Yorkshire's East Riding, Portsmouth, Blackburn and Darwen (Lancashire), and Reading. In 2028, Bournemouth, Buckinghamshire, and Milton Keynes will see the last smoker quit. Southampton will be among the last cities to see the last smoker; the city will hold on to the smoke until 2049.
From the study, the last cigarette and the last smoker will be seen in Derby in 2050. Philip Morris, a tobacco manufacturer, commissioned this study that predicted the unprecedented end to tobacco smoking. The researchers based their analysis on employment, income, health, and education. They analysed the factors that lead to quitting and how fast each of the factors results in halting.
National Health Services (NHS) cessation services have been used increasingly in the past few years, and so have heated tobacco and e-cigs, and this has accounted for quitting behaviour. According to Public Health England, the use of e-cigs is levelling, and the harm caused by tobacco can be reduced if more smokers are encouraged to use vaporisers instead of smoking tobacco.
According to Mark McGregor from Philip Morris, there are tens of alternatives to smoking. If explored, these alternatives can see more people giving up cigarettes for good. Among these alternatives is vaping.
Philip Morris plans to produce smoke-free products instead of cigarettes. While the reducing number of smokers might influence the decision, it is also the firm's contribution towards a smoking-free world. By producing smoke-free products, such as vaporisers, the company estimates that the last cigarette might be seen earlier than 2050.
Cigarettes are not only for the wealthy as smokers are spread across all cities. About 20 percent of people living in deprived areas are smokers. Averagely, 22 percent of people in Kingston, upon North Lincolnshire and Hull, Blackpool, are still smokers.
The number of smokers has been reducing since 1990. In 1990, 33 percent of adults in the UK were smokers, but today, only 15 percent of adults smoke. While the population in the country has increased, it is undoubted that the number of smokers has gone down. Not everyone has believed that cigarette smoking will reduce to zero with some saying that unless cigarettes are not produced at all, smokers will always be there. Some critics say that it is not possible to tell the future based on employment, income and health data.
Content Source: https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/last-cigarette-ever-smoked-derby-14177441
What to Know About The History of...
by owen Li on October 15, 2020
What Happens When Your Nicotine Salts Get...
Vaping 101: A Comprehensive Guide to E-Liquids
Adding Flavour Concentrate to Salt-Based e-Liquid: Our...
by owen Li on September 24, 2020
Cannabis CBD CBD oil E-liquid
Turn on comments in the store settings!
Beyond-basic Women's Sheakers
Women's Sheakers


text:
H-Man
I always wanted to make a "full length" comic. A normal Belgian comic is about 48 pages long. I took
several shots at achieving this. My 1993 effort stopped at 6 pages, after which the inspiration had
completely disappeared. In 1999, I tried again and had to stop after 15 pages.
In 2004, I started a project that would eventually lead to my 48 pages-goal : H-Man. H-Man, the name,
is courtesy of Anthony Vanraes, a big fan of American comic strips and superheroes. Starting from this
name, I have made up the characters and the unimpressive plot points.
The first full-length H-Man comic was finished in early 2005, but the results left me insecure and unhappy.
Whenever I get excited about something - such as : 'making a full-length comic' - I tend to get too sloppy.
I draw and draw at an ever increasing speed, just to see it completed. Results are mediocre at best.
In October 2006, after much consideration, I began to redraw every single page of my first H-Man comic.
In May 2007, this second version of the first H-Man, entitled "Ye Intruders Beware" (a subtle nod to one of
my favourite movies The Goonies) was done and dusted and ready to be printed. The expression 'special
edition' is used too often since the arrival of DVD, but I do believe it is an apt saying this time around.
You can consider it the veritable "redux" edit of the first, very crappy comic.
Several big names (e.g. Lectrr, Steve Van Bael, Jeff Broeckx) from the Belgian comic scene have read my
work and they weren't very enthusiastic. Serge Baeken called it "the ugliest comic book I have ever read".
Several Belgian indie comic book artists absolutely hated it, calling it "very chaotic and very ugly" and asking
"what crack the author was smoking", amongst other compliments.
!!! Copies of H-Man I - Ye Intruders Beware (48 black & white pages) can be shipped worldwide. Just contact
me and we'll work out the cheapest sending and/or postal solutions.
The press on H-Man (15 December 2009)
The first 9 pages [2005 version] (14 December 2009)
1 | 2 | 3 | 4 [2004 concept art] (14 December 2009)


text:
Prayers of the People February 2
By Dot Hall
Lord God, thank you for the opportunity to gather in this beautiful church tonight to worship you. While we are here, calm our minds, focus our thoughts on your word, and open our hearts to feel your love.
Lord, as we reflect on this week, it would be so easy to be angry about so many things. A prolonged government shutdown that seemed to play jeopardy with innocent people's lives, brutally cold winter weather that made it unsafe for many in our homeless community, the sad and senseless shooting of a 14 year old girl in nearby Syracuse. All one has to do some days is look at the news and our blood pressure rises! Remind us that you are present in all these situations, working to turn them into something good. Help us to manage our anger by turning to you for peace and understanding when we get frustrated and upset. Remind us that when our neighbors act like sandpaper: when they rub us the wrong way, or act a little rough, or have a scratchy personality, that you call us to love our neighbors as ourselves.
Let us start tonight by changing our mindset. Help our first thoughts be about loving and caring. There are many in our congregation that need our love and prayers: Hugh, Edward, Bobby, Kevin, Carol, Rick, and Betsey. We also hold up the family of Marlene Chappell. Bless each of these people and their families. And hear us too, right now, as we bring our own silent prayers of need and celebrations to you.
Prayers of the People from February 23
by Nic MacLane "For I am the LORD, I do not change;" "Jesus Christ is…
By Kim Buchanan: Dear Heavenly Father, We thank You for the many blessings you provide…
Prayers of the People November 4
By Dot Hall, Loving God, we come to you in thanksgiving, knowing that all we…
Prayers of the People from September 23
By Dot Hall Heavenly Father, we come to you today a little bit afraid. We…
Prayers of the People August 19
By Rachel Roney Dear Gracious and loving Father We pause this morning to appreciate the…
A prayer for good news
By Dot Hall… Lord God, You show us you are with us in so many…
July 29 Prayers of the People
By Dot Hall Heavenly Father, Good Shepherd, Thank you for the gift of today. Thank…
Prayers of the People from May 6
By Dot Hall Father, you sent Christ to earth and He followed Your will wholeheartedly,…


text:
Toward a more humble Middle East policy: a post-uprising update from Dr. Robert Malley
Jacob Goldberg
May 20, 2013 — When told by the student introducing the event that he would be expected to offer his thoughts on the aftermath of the Arab Spring, Dr. Robert Malley retorted that the events to which she referred were…
Elliott Abrams, national security official to two presidents, comes to UCLA
Lea L.
Wearing a red tie, Elliott Abrams, the renowned American diplomat who served under Presidents Ronald Reagan and George W. Bush — most recently as Deputy National Security Advisor for Global Democracy Strategy — could be seen talking with a friend…
Hussein Ibish offers post-election analysis of Israeli-Palestinian stalemate at UCLA
This past Thursday afternoon, Professor David Myers — chair of UCLA's Department of History and scholar of modern Jewish intellectual history — hosted an informal discussion with Dr. Hussein Ibish, bringing together a diverse group of graduate and undergraduate students…
War on campus: Gaza rocket disaster brought to UCLA
Tessa Nath
Free free Palestine. Long live the intifada. Intifada. Intifada. Thursday, November 15 witnessed these slogans ring forth from the mouths of students on the lawn in front of Kerckhoff Hall. About 30 students gathered with signs declaring "Free Palestine," "Stop…
J Street Director Comes to UCLA
On Monday, J Street U at UCLA kicked off the quarter with a discussion with Jeremy Ben-Ami — former presidential adviser and president of J Street. The presentation consisted of a summary of J Street's policies and a Q&A session with students,…


text:
Quotes (11/8): Coughlin, Rolle, Hankins
Head Coach Tom Coughlin**
Q: No limitations on Victor Cruz?
A: None today.
Q: Is he good for Sunday?
A: I hope so, we'll see.
Q: Come on Tom. You've got to give us that one.
A: And don't quote me. Where's Tom (Rock)?
Q: Your defense hasn't allowed a touchdown in 10 quarters. Why is that?
A: Well, we've done a pretty good job of stopping the run all year. We are contesting better and we're getting turnovers, so we're denying opportunities and we're playing better. We're playing harder. We're more synchronized. I hope it just does nothing but get better.
RE: Coming off the bye week
A: I'm excited to play. It seems like a long time, but it's coming fast.
Q: Did Jacobs have a setback?
A: Not really. Were you here yesterday?
Q: I was not.
A: I thought so. He didn't work (much) yesterday either.
Q: It looks like Terrelle Pryor may be faster than some of the other running quarterbacks you've faced.
A: He is faster. He's bigger. He's just as big, anyway. That's part of the reason, but he's a gifted runner and he will run under whatever circumstance. If he doesn't like what he sees in the secondary, he pulls it down and runs and he does have designed running plays for him to keep the ball as well.
Q: It looks like when he runs with the ball it looks like he's a receiver.
A: That's your opinion. He looks like a quarterback to me when he throws it.
Q: What did you see from your guys this week off the bye?
A: They had good energy. We're excited about going forward. We're looking forward to the rest of the season. They practiced well.
Q: Do you view this as a must-win home stand?
A: The most important game of the year is the next one and that's this one.
Q: Do you have an appreciation for how resilient Andre Brown has been through injuries and cuts?
A: It's obvious how important it is to him and he did everything he could to get back out here and he's had three really good weeks of practice where he's gotten better each day out here. I mean he hasn't played in a while, but hopefully… You always think, number one, you've got to take care of the ball. He hasn't been hit and he hasn't been tackled, so you've got to take care of the ball. But hopefully he'll be able to do that.
Q: How careful do you have to be with the fact he hasn't played in a year?
A: First of all, he's in good shape. He's in excellent condition. You're talking about a day that's in the 50's, so I don't think there will be any conditioning issue, but we'll keep our eye on that part of it.
Q: How much can you expect from Adrien Robinson and what kind of role can he have?
A: He's working his way back. It's a shame that he's lost as much time as he did because obviously he had a chance to improve and help us, so now it's a tough role but he's got a good attitude about it.
Q: Oakland put up a lot of yardage against Philly. What did you see when you saw the tape?
A: Ninety-seven snaps. 560 yards, a lot of yardage, a lot of plays, but they, for whatever reason, weren't able to always put the ball in the end zone and, of course, Philadelphia had such a large margin that they prevailed.
CB Trumaine McBride
Q: Was there anything you were limited in that you couldn't do?
A: I feel good right now. I went out there today and I felt good running. I felt good turning. I felt good playing, so I'm ready to go for Sunday.
Q: Is Terrelle Pryor about as quick a quarterback as you guys are going to have to deal with?
A: He's pretty fast. He very well could be because he… I saw on film where he'll basically start out one way, turn around across the field and he'll still beat guys. He's fast.
Q: Have the coaches been talking about trying to contain Terrelle Pryor?
A: If you watch film, he's a huge part of the offense. He makes a lot of plays with his legs, so we definitely have to be aware of that and we definitely have a plan in place for that.
Q: What's the primary challenge for you guys in the secondary in stopping a guy like Pryor?
A: That's the biggest thing with us. He's going to scramble and he may get loose, so we have to make sure we're on our guys tight.
Q: How are you feeling?
A: I'm good. I'm ready to go.
DT Johnathan Hankins
RE: Possibly suiting up on Sunday
A: Hopefully, if I get the shot. If they call my name, I'm going to be out there ready to go. If they call my name, I'm going to be ready to go.
Q: You've talked from the very beginning about how much of a mentor Shaun Rogers has been for you. How tough was it to hear that news and to see him get banged up the last couple of weeks?
A: It was real tough. I was surprised. I didn't hear about it until later on in the day. It was definitely a blow to the D-line, he was definitely an impact player out there. I hope he can get healthy and get back, but if not, my prayers and my spirits go out to him. Hopefully I can learn from him and contribute that on the field.
Q: How excited are you for that opportunity?
A: I wouldn't say I'm really excited because a guy went down and he was hurt but the opportunity is there and it's there for me to take, so I'm going to take full advantage of it.
Q: How frustrating has it been here these last few weeks? You had that game and you maybe thought you kind of opened the coaches' eyes a little bit.
A: It's been tough. I've been talking to coach and the guys. It's not always going to be handed to you or given to you, so you have to learn how to work for it. I've been practicing my butt off every single week as if I'm going to go out there and play, so this week If my name is called, which I think it may be, I'm just going to go out there and give it my all.
Q: What do you think you can bring?
A: Well, of course, stopping the run. That's what they brought me here for. Doing that and getting a push up the middle and hopefully I'll get a sack on Terrelle if I can catch him.
Q: I would imagine you would have a better chance of catching him if he was going backwards.
A: Yeah. I don't have time to be chasing him unless JPP gets him tired and I can get the little slack off of it. It's going to be a challenge. I'm pretty excited to go up against him. I never really got the chance to hit him so if I get the chance, I'm definitely going to let him know I'm there.
Q: Were you guys friends at Ohio State?
A: We were cool. He was older than me and used to hang out with the older guys but he was a great teammate. You never could really touch him in practice, though. This is going to be the first time I really get a chance to hit him.
S Antrel Rolle
Q: When you watch Terrelle Pryor on film, is he about as fast a quarterback as you guys are going to deal with?
A: Absolutely. I think Pryor, he's a big guy. He's very, very athletic and he can hurt you with his legs as well as his arm so he's definitely a double threat. We understand what we have coming at us.
Q: Obviously you've had a lot of guys banged up in the secondary. With Jayron coming back and McBride is out there practicing, how important is it to get those guys back in there?
A: It's always important to have all your weapons intact. It allows you to build that chemistry, allows you to have that comfort zone and more importantly, it allows you to go out there and work with the guys that you will be working with throughout the course of the game.
Q: What's the key to the 10 quarters without a touchdown?
A: Everyone just flying around making plays. Coaches and players being on the same page at the same time and players just going out there and executing the game plan effectively.
Q: What's the mindset for this team going forward? You're coming off a bye halfway through the season, you have a three-game home stand here. Is this a must-win game?
A: Every game is a must-win game for us so that's going to be our mentality – win at all costs. Not every win is going to be the way you expected it to be, not every battle is going to be the way you expected it to be, but you just have to go out there and win at any costs.
Q: What have you seen from Hankins this year?
A: To be honest with you, I really don't focus on those big guys too much, but Hankins, I know when Shaun Rogers went down, he stepped in, he filled in quite well. He was plugging up those gaps, he was getting off the blocks, making tackles and just being effective. That's something that we ask him to do and he's stepped right in and he's been effective for us.
Q: Do you feel like your defense is just starting to hit its stride of late?
A: Yeah, I think so. I think our defense is coming together quite well at this point. I think we're on the same page at the same time and having Jon Beason here at the middle linebacker has definitely helped us out a lot. It clears up a lot of grey areas for us. He's the voice of the defense so we pretty much just rally behind him and everyone just takes


text:
The swedish prince Episode 21 & 22
Oluwafolakemi March 4, 2021 The swedish prince 0 Comments
🌹🌹The Swedish Prince 🌹🌹
🌸🌸(ROYAL [email protected]ç£) 🌸🌸
🌹Chapter 21🌹
Maggie's P.O.V❤
He looks at it and squints. "You call that a castle?"
"Hey, when am I ever going to have an actual prince in this situation after this?"
He shrugs. "I'd hope never."
He takes my hand and we walk over the bridge, the castle getting a lot smaller the closer we get.
"My mother would like it," he muses, looking around as we go throu-gh the entrance and into a courtyard full of shops and children running everywhere, most of them in little princess costumes.
"Oh," I [email protected] "I want one. Do you think they have adult sizes?"
He gives me a funny look. "You want to be a princess?"
"What girl doesn't want to be a princess?" I ask and then I realize the question probably holds some real meaning to him.
"I mean, growing up, of course you do. It's a fantasy."
"Am I a fantasy?"
I look him up and down, looking impossibly handsome as he always is. "You're my fantasy, yes. Definitely."
He seems to think that over as we head into one of the shops. "You know, if you [email protected]£ back with me to Sweden, and married me, then you could be a real princess."
Oh my god.
I st©p dead in my tracks.
My heart lurching to a st©p.
"You do not joke about that," I manage to say, my blood thrumming h0t throu-gh my veins.
What if he isn't joking?
But I see the sly glint in his eyes, the hint of a smile and he is joking.
Thank god I didn't take him up on it.
"Hey, I'm not desperate to be a princess, thank you very much," I tell him, picking up a crown from a displa-y. "Why should I be when I have all that I nee-d to be one right here."
I can feel his eyes on me, watching me intently. "I think we should buy you a crown," he says after a moment.
I smile at him sweetly. "You're really hell bent on ma-king me a princess."
"Actually I have a better idea." He ducks around the corner and comes back holding a stuffed version of the reindeer from Frozen.
"Sven the reindeer?" I ask as he puts the plush toy in my hands.
"No," he says, almost annoyed. "It's a moose. Viktor the moose."
"But it's a reindeer," I tell him and show him his name tag. "And his name is Sven."
Viktor takes the animal from me and rips the fabric nametag off his collar, hiding it between a pile of Olaf sli-ppers.
"Now it's Viktor. The moose." He shoves it back in my hands. "Now when I'm gone, you'll still have a Viktor of your own."
Well, fv¢k. If this isn't one of the cutest things ever.
Even though he just vandalized a Disney toy at Disneyland.
I look down into the reindeer's big eyes and will myself to think of it as Viktor the moose.
After we buy the reindeer–moose–and the clerk wanted to double check with us that we were okay with buying a defective toy, we head over to Splash Mountain, because the wait times seemed somewhat reasonable.
That was a lie, of course. There are no reasonable wait times in the park, so Viktor and I are yet again stuck in a long line.
But I guess stuck is too strong of a word.
The thing is, I'm positively delighted with just standing beside Viktor and doing nothing but waiting. We talk, about everything we can without getting too personal, because who wants to get personal surrounded by a bunch of strangers.
I lean back against his che-st and he wra-ps his big arms around me and we shuffle forward, not wanting to be [email protected]
He tells me about his pet rabbits he had while growing up, how he was so obsessed with Watersh!pDown at the time that he named them after the characters and was convinced they were going to have an uprising when he wasn't looking.
I tell him about my family's tradition of giving weird names. Rosemary and Thyme, and Pike have always gotten the brunt of it, but Callum's middle name is actually Danger, April has two, May and June, and my full name is Margaret Mayhem.
"Margaret Mayhem?" Viktor laughs loudly, the sound soaring over the crowd and ma-king a few people in line turn their heads. "I'm sorry but mayhem means…"
"Mayhem means a little chaotic and crazy" I say with a sigh. "Apparently both me and Callum were handfuls when we were born."
"Or perhaps you both grew into your names like, what is it called again? A self-fulfilling prophecy."
"That might be true for Callum but I am not chaotic or crazy."
He raises his brow at me. "Well…"
I punch his che-st. "Hey."
He gr-abs my fist and k!sses my knuckles. "You were a little chaotic and crazy last night," he says in a low, silken voice.
I immediately blush and my b©dy knows all too well. I've felt the ache of him between my legs all day and I know I'm walking a little differently.
Even though we end up boarding the log flume ten minutes later, my b©dy is still feeling a bit h0t and nee-dy, especially as we end up sitting squished at the very back of the log and my as-s is pressed into his crotch.
I glance at him over my shoulder, my eyes turning sly. "You comfortable?" I ask, wiggling my as-s into him.
He just shakes his head, his jaw growing tense in pla-yful warning.
As it turns out though, a lot of the ride is in the dark.
Now, I know that the dark in Disneyland is only dark to you. The place is famous for the amount of [email protected]£ras they have set up, eyes on you at all times. They can always see you clearly, no matter what.
But from the way we're sitting at the back, so squished together with his long legs [email protected] mine, it's almost natural for Viktor's hand to be in my [email protected]
un-bu-ttoning the t©p of my jean shorts.
Sli-pping his f!ngersinto my un-derwear.
"We could get caught" I turn my head and hiss at him, hoping all the singing from the animatronic animals drowns out my voice from the other people in the log.
Thankfully they are all adults.
"So?" he says lazily, sliding his f!ngersaround and around.
My eyes close briefly.
This is so wrong.
But, god, it feels so good.
"So we could get banned for life."
"That's okay," he says. "I live in Sweden."
I'm about to tell him to st©p, that it's wrong, that we're in public and we're violating laws and probably Disneyland's innocence but then the log starts to climb up the final hill and the gravity thrû-sts me further back into him.
And Viktor has skills.
He keeps his f!ngersgoing, ru-bbing me expertly and with the tick tick tick [email protected] of the log as it's cranked up the hill.
I'm coming just as the log flume hits the crescendo.
The world is open and bright in front of my eyes, all of the park in front of me, and my mouth is open, crying out his name.
And then we're dropping straight down, down, down into the water.
Nothing like a cold splash hitting you in the face to bring you back on track.
After the ride we're both soa-ked, me in more ways than one, and we pick up the large ph0to of us they took during the final fall.
Viktor is grinning like an idiot in it.
It looks like I'm screaming from fear.
Only the two of us know the truth about that ph0to.
That thing is going up on my wall.
When we finally get back to the h0tel from Disneyland, we're both exhausted.
The traffic from Anaheim to Hollywood ensnared us for hours, so bad that even the Waze app on his phone couldn't shortcut us out of there.
Our h0tel room is freshly cleaned and pas-ses my inspection (a housekeeper always knows what to look for) though I'm sad that the last signs of the lavender flowers have been swept away. I still detect a hint of it in the air, or maybe I'm forever smelling it like a memory that won't go away.
"Get n-ked," Viktor says, taking his shi-t off over his head, displa-ying that [email protected], ba-re torso of his.
"You aren't tired?" I ask him, my f!ngersalre-ady obeying his commands before my mind has a chance to argue.
I take off my tank t©p, one that says Hakuna Matata that he bought for me in the park and I couldn't wait to change into, then start un-bu-ttoning my jean shorts. He strides over to the curtains that have been left open and pu-lls them shut just as the shorts fall to my feet.
"I don't care if people see" I tell him.
After what happened on the ride, I feel like I've di-pped my toe into the life of someone else, someone footloose and fancy free. I want to live like I don't give any fv¢ks. I want to get into a fv¢k bankruptcy
I want to do that with Viktor, live this whole other life in this h0tel room.
But when I lie down on the be-d, n-ked, and he joins me, the exhaustion takes over the both of us. Viktor wra-ps me in his arms and pu-lls me toward him, his leg hooking over mine, so that we are a tangle of lim-bs and warm skin.
"Just a nap," he whispers into my ear, even though it's nearly midnight alre-ady. I didn't think I would feel as comfortable just lying here n-ked with him as I am when I'm fv¢king him, but in seconds my mind and b©dy start to drift away.
I'm awakened by the [email protected]£ of a lighter, a puff of smoke filling the air.
I open my eyes to see Viktor sitting up in be-d, smoking.
It's cinematic, with the light coming in throu-gh the crack in the curtains like a spear, lighting the edges of him up.
There's another light coming from the bathroom but the main one is off and we're mostly in darkness. I don't remember turning it off before I fell asleep.
"What time is it?" I ask.
"Sorry," he says to me, glancing over his shoulder with a warm smile.
"I didn't want to wake you. But I knew if I went on the balcony, someone would see me. There's been a [email protected] out by the pool all night."
It's only then that I notice the dull thump of music and the occasional laughter.
"I couldn't sleep," he explains, lying back down on the be-d, facing me. "I thought this would help."
He holds it out to me in offering and this time I take it, looking up at the ceiling as I do so. "Won't this set off the smoke detector?"
He bites back a grin. "No."
"But we could get in trouble, I don't think they allow smoking of any kind."
He studies me for a moment, his expression soft, amused, content. "We'll be okay."
I shrug at that, trusting him. After we gave new meaning to the word Splash Mountain this afternoon, smoking in a h0tel room shouldn't have me so worried.
I have a puff. Hold the smoke in my mouth, probably for a bit too long, probably because I'm trying to show off in front of him, and he has to take the joint back from my f!ngers.
"And for a moment there I didn't think you smoked," he muses.
"I don't," I tell him and then start coughing violently. Point proven. "Honestly. Very rarely. Sometimes Pike has some but that's about it."
He nods, puffing back. "I un-derstand," he says, smoke falling from his mouth. "You have a lot to worry about, a lot to be re-ady for."
I pu-ll the edge of the blanket over my che-st, tucking it un-der me. I like the whole lying around n-ked thing but a girl has her hang ups.
"To be honest, I rarely drink. I can't afford the hangover for one, not when I have to work so early, and I feel like I have to always been on. Like, with my parents, they were always drinking. I mean, not in a bad way, but it was a common sight. I think back now and I'm like how did you do that? How did you let yourself be loose and relaxed and just know that everything was going to be fine?"
I catch myself and then reach out and gr-ab the joint from him as a way to start blurring memories. "Of course, it wasn't fine in the end, was it?"
"It will get easier, Maggie," he tells me as I inhale. "I promise."
I take a moment before I exhale. "How would you know?" I cough.
"I don't know. That's what people tell me. I suppose becoming a king and becoming a parent are similar in a lot of ways."
"I guess," I say. "But with you, you have a system in place. You have, like presidents or prime ministers or something to actually pas-s rules and do all the dirty business. If you're a parent, all that dirty business is on you."
"You're right," he says, taking the joint back. "I can't pretend to know. I can only say I un-derstand."
I know he does. We're in such similar situations. Very different situations, mind you, but similar all the same. Saddled with responsibilities that are bigger than we are, overwhelmed by the change in our lives, gra-ppling with loss.
I sigh and fall back on the be-d. The pot is starting to affect me alre-ady and I hope things don't get weird. "Tell me about your brother, Alex."
Viktor exhales sharply throu-gh his nose and I can feel him tense up.
"I don't mean anything bad" I say.
"Let's just forget, just for tonight, that we've lost them. Pretend they're still here. Pretend we're at a [email protected] and people want anecdotes about them. What would you tell them? What are some of your best memories?"
The room has grown silent except for the sound of my beating heart and the dull thud of the music outside. Viktor then lies back on the be-d beside me and we both stare up at the ceiling.
"Alex was always a bit of a weirdo," he begins. "But I never had a problem with it. He was totally fascinated by the strangest things. Things like trains, for example. He loved trains. He was obsessed for years. I know it sounds silly, but being my parents and all, we had a mas-sive pla-yroom for all of our toys and at the end of it was his train collection."
He takes another hit of the joint and lets the smoke float above us like fog.
"He'd spend hours in there, even when I got to an age where toys no longer interested me, he was still fascinated. But it wasn't the locomotives or the tracks or the ro-mantic quality of trains that kept him going. It was just the wheels. Of all things, there was something he found comforting about the wheels turning. Give him a train without a track and he didn't care for it. Give him a track and he would spend hours and hours watching it make the rounds around the room. Even now the sound of a toy train brings me back."
"Sounds like a nice memory."
He looks at me in surprise, as if it hadn't crossed his mind. Then a small smile tilts the corner of his mouth. "Yeah. It is a nice memory. It was something about him that I found peculiar but so ess£ntially Alex."
"What else is a nice memory?" I ask, wanting to know more.
"Christmas," he says. "Christmas is a big deal in Sweden. As you know, Santa comes from [email protected] We also [email protected] Christmas Eve instead of morning."
"So when do you open your pres£nts? I mean, how does Santa get them to you without you seeing him?"
He smiles. "Well that's the thing. You have to have a pretty sneaky Santa. And we did. You'd never see him. Until one day I rigged a tra-p."
"A tra-p? You set a tra-p for Santa?"
He shrugs and then puts the joint out on the notepad beside the be-d.
"I was curious. Anyway, I made it so that he would trip over a wire which would then s£nd all these metal things, like the fireplace poker and an ashtray and a tin box, stuff that was [email protected] and noisy, onto the floor. We had [email protected] floors in the living area where the tree was, so you would hear it. And I knew that we were always sequestered for some convenient reason in another room the same time the pres£nts would appear."
"I see where this is going." I can't help but smile at the thought of a super curious and devious Viktor rigging a tra-p for Santa. It reminds me of Callum for some reason.
He nods, still staring up at the ceiling with a dreamy look on his face.
"Oh, yes. So we were all in the study because my mother had to show us something, who knows what, and then CRASH. There was a hvge ban-g and commotion from the other room. So I raced out of there first and my mother managed to hold back Alex, or maybe Alex alre-ady figured it out by then and he didn't care. Either way, I ran into the room to see my father dressed as Santa, a sack of pres£nts at his feet, along with all the other cra-p I had set up scattered on the floor. Do you know what I did?"
"I looked into my father's eyes and for once I saw a father. I know that sounds silly, of course he's my father. But he's also the king and he often has that mentality first, father second. The fact that he dressed as Santa himself and didn't have a palace worker or butler do it, that meant the world to me. Meant that he actually cared. So I looked at my father and I said, 'So sorry to disturb you Santa, thank you for the pres£nts.' And then I ran out of the room. To this day my father still thinks he had me fooled but the thing is, I wanted to be fooled. I never wanted him to know that I knew, it would take all the magic away."
"That's actually really sweet," I tell him, running my f!ngersover his che-st.
"What about you?" he asks. "What do you remember from your childhood that was good?"
"Honestly? Everything." I don't have to think too [email protected]
"Even though we grew up fairly poor, you know, and yeah I was upset that I didn't get to go to Disneyland like other kids did, or I didn't have the toys everyone else had or I didn't have new clothes, my childhood was pretty happy. I don't know, it wasn't until I was much older that I realized we lacked. Even so, I loved my parents and they loved me, I know they loved me, you could feel it, they showed it, you knew, we all knew their love and…"
The tears hit me like a [email protected] in the face. I thought I was going to be fine talking about this. I should be fine by now.
Viktor reaches out and pu-lls me to him, holding me ti-ght.
"I'm fine," I say, but I'm not fine. I can't even find the words to go on, the tears just keep flowing and flowing. "I…I'm…"
"It's okay," Viktor says. "I'm here."
I know you're here. You're here for me. And then you'll be gone. They were here for me and they're gone. Everyone I love leaves me.
Everyone I love leaves me.
"I miss them so much," I cry out, sobbing so loudly that it hurts my che-st. My mouth is open, gaping as the choked, silent wails try and escape me. "Oh god, oh god. I miss them so much. It hurts, Viktor, it hurts me."
"My Maggie," he whispers, k!ss!ngthe t©p of my head over and over again. "I hate to see you hurt. I wish I could take this pain from you, I would give anything to do so."
I dig my f!ngersinto his shoulders, hanging on ti-ght, afraid to let go. If I hold on ti-ght enough, maybe I won't have to be alone.
"I just want to see them again," I whimper, my words garbled. My heart is so heavy I'm afraid it might pu-ll me down so low that I'll never get back up.
"I just want to tell them how much I love them. How much they meant to me. How much I nee-d them. I don't think I'll ever st©p nee-ding them."
I try and hold my breath, try to supress the sobs but it doesn't work.
I cry and I cry, feeling like I'll never be free of this.
"I don't think we're supposed to st©p nee-ding our parents," he says softly, smoothing my hair with his palm.
"I think that's what love is, always nee-ding someone. nee-ding doesn't have to be a bad thing or a weak thing. It's just [email protected] of living. We nee-d air to breathe and food to eat. We nee-d certain people in the same way. In the end it's what keeps us alive."
I nod, sniffling in to him.
"Hey, it's okay," he tells me softly. "I'm here and I'm not going anywhere."
"But you are," I manage to say. "You're leaving me too. And I nee-d you, Viktor, I nee-d you."
He exhales, long and shaking.
"I know, Maggie, I know."
Silence pas-ses between us and the dark of the room seems to press in on us. The crying has dragged the life out of me and suddenly I'm so tired I feel I could sleep forever. Every [email protected] of me feels poured in concrete.
I've almost completely drifted off to sleep when I hear Viktor whisper into the dark.
"I nee-d you too."
🌄🌄🌄
There's something different about the way you wake up when it's a day you don't want to face.
Even if your first thoughts upon waking are jumbled from sleep, you still know, de-ep down, that something is going to happen.
It's like sadness hangs in the air above you, a heavy hand that holds you down and reminds you that you will nee-d all the strength you have to get throu-gh the day.
Even though I'm wra-pped un-der sheets, with Viktor's strong leg hooked over mine, the back of my head resting in the crook of his arm, I'm immediately hit with a pang of sorrow. Any other day and I would wake up blissful after these two beautiful days we've had with each other, the fact that I fell asleep, entangled in his arms.
But as safe as I feel with him like this, he won't be able to protect me from the pain that will come later, a pain that will make this anticipatory one seem like nothing more than a scratch.
"God morgon," he says to me in Swedish, his breath warm on the t©p of my head.
There's something so beautiful and peaceful about his voice in the mornings. Normally it's so de-ep and strong and polished. Refined. As it should be. He has a lifetime of public speaking ahead of him.
But in the mornings it's ragged, raw, groggy with sleep. It makes him seem less of a prince, more of a young man.
"How did you sleep?" he asks. "I pas-sed right out I think."
"I sle-pt like a baby," I tell him, turning over on my stomach and facing him.
Yesterday was our last day and we were so exhausted from Disneyland the day before, that we literally stayed in the h0tel room and by the pool, only venturing out to Sunset to gr-ab a meal at a trendy restaurant.
The rest of the time, well, let's just say there was a lot of S-x. I am thor0ûghly worn out but in the best way possible.
"Good." He gives me a soft smile, his eyes warm as he stares at me, and reaches over, gently brushing my hair off my face.
We stare at each other for a few moments, the moments you know you will remember, the moments that become scenes that become memories. To just stare openly at someone like this, to have them stare at you, to not nee-d words to say, I like this. I like you.
I'm falling for you.
I've fallen for you.
plea-se, plea-se don't go.
But those might just be in my head. I close my eyes, scared for a moment that he'll see those thoughts, that they won't match his.
"Breakfast," he suddenly says.
"I think we nee-d breakfast." He sits up and I see him look at the clock.
He doesn't say anything about the time but we did sleep in a bit longer than we should have. He does have a plane to catch.
"What would you like?" he says, getting up and walking over to the desk.
My eyes are draw to that ti-ght round as-s of his, looking extra taut with his slight tan lines. I wonder where he got tanned, where he tans.
Being a prince in Europe, he probably spends winter in the Mediterranean, sunning on giant super yachts .
There's so much more that I don't know about him and there's no more time to find out.
I think I'm going to be sick. My appetite is completely gone.
And when my appetite is gone, then you know it's serious.
"I'll just have toast," I tell him.
He glances at me over his shoulder, picking up the phone. "You sure?"
I nod. "And coffee."
"Well naturally," he says then says into the phone.
"Ah, yes, good morning. This is Vik…this is Mr. Andersson in room 219, I would like to order room service. A pot of coffee," he looks at me and mouths cream? I nod.
"With cream. Some toast with jam and all those fixings and I'll have two soft boiled eggs and a side of bacon."
"Soft boiled eggs?" I ask him. "Interesting choice."
"Very common breakfast at home," he says as he hangs up the phone. "Served alongside some crisp bre-ad, ham, and of course, pickled herring."
I scrunch up my nose. "No."
"Oh yes. Quite good," he says. "You'd grow to love it."
I swallow the lump in my throat. I won't have the chance to.
It's not long before there's a knock at the door. Viktor quic-kly sli-ps on a robe and throws me one and once we're covered, opens the door for the room attendant.
"I hope you ti-pped him well," I say to him after the guy leaves, closing the door behind him.
"What am I, an animal?"
Viktor looks offended.
"No, it's just, well in Europe you don't ti-p, do you? And also no one ever ti-ps h0tel staff enough. And also, yes. You are a moose."
He grins at that. "All of that is true, except that most of us in Europe know how ti-pping works over here. Do you want to sit on the balcony?" he asks, as he picks up the tray from the room service cart.
I look throu-gh the curtains at the bright sunshine, hear the faint splash of people in the pool right below.
I shake my head. "I'd rather eat in here."
Out there I know I'd be sharing him with the world. We have hours, minutes, left with each other and I can't bear to not have him all to myself in this beautiful dark world we've created in this h0tel room.
"Me too," he says, wincing at the beam of white light coming in throu-gh the curtains. "I think I've had enough of the California sunshine."
But have you had enough of me?
He places the tray in front of me and gets on the be-d, both of us sitting cross-legged on the messy sheets. He pours me a cu-p of coffee, then adds a splash of cream.
"That enough?" he asks.
This isn't enough.
But I nod. "Yes, thank you." I clear my throat as he hands me my cu-p and pours himself one, black. "You don't put cream in yours?" I ask.
His head shakes. "No. We drink it black in Sweden. Puts hair on our che-st." He pounds a fist against his pecs in a mocking gesture. "Apparently it works."
Viktor does have hair on his che-st but it's the perfect amount, just enough to make him look like some Nordic Viking god, not so much that looks like a caveman.
We both fall silent and sip our coffees and the room seems to hum with this energy of all the things we aren't saying to each other, of all the goodbyes that loom on the horizon.
"What is it?" he asks me after studying my face for a good minute.
I give a small shrug. "I was just thinking."
"I can tell," he says. He brings his brows together until a de-ep line forms between them and runs his f!nger along it. "You get this."
"It's called resting bit-ch face here in America," I tell him.
"I've heard about this face," he muses. "Sounds too harsh for you."
"What would you call it then?"
He takes an easy sip of his coffee and seems to think about it. "Thinking S-xy face."
"S-xy face?" I laugh. "How is that S-xy?"
"Because it's S-xy when you're all mean looking. Makes me think I did something wrong and you're going to punish me."
I roll my eyes. "St©p."
"It's true. But I think all your faces are S-xy. Especially the ones when you're calling out my name. Your mouth drops open like a ripe peach. It reminds me of other places. You know what we call a peach in Swedish? Persika. I'm very much in love with your sweet persika."
I'm blu-shing. Oh yeah, I'm blu-shing, probably the shade of a persika. I think he even called me min lilla persika the other night.
Did he just use the L word? It was just to describe a b©dy [email protected]–or two–but even so.
I look at him with big eyes but he only smiles at me. If he said something he didn't mean to, he's not showing it.
I swallow. "Is that so?" I manage to say.
He leans forward, and with one swift move, pu-lls the sash around my robe so it opens and my brea-sts are expo-sed, and since I'm sitting cross-legged, my persika.
His eyes rest between my legs and I can practically see his mouth watering which makes me we-t in return. "If you take a picture it will last longer," I try to joke, feeling so ba-re and expo-sed. Vulnerable. Yet there's no fear in being this way with Viktor. It's natural.
"That must be a saying," he murmurs, his eyes trailing up my stomach now to my brea-sts and I swear my skin burns in their wake. He moves the tray to the side. "I would love to take many pictures."
I stiffen at the thought and he smiles gently at the worry on my face. "I'm also taking pictures in my mind. They will be there forever. You know how couples carve their name in the bark of a tree? The sight of you, the smell of you, the sound of you, the taste of you, it's all etched in my head. It won't be smoothed away with time."
My heart swells in my che-st, pressing against my ribs.
I won't be smoothed away.
I won't be forgotten.
"You know I can't get enough and I won't get enough of you," he tells me, taking the cu-p of coffee from my hands and setting it down on the tray. "Not with the time we have left, not with all the time left in the world. But I will take my time now, enjoying every inch of your sweet skin while I can." He then picks up the small pitcher of cream. "Lie back."
I raise my brows, stare at the cream. What?
He gives me a look that says, just do it, and so I do. I'll do anything he tells me to.
Apparently even if it involves cream.
He breaks into a car-nal grin and takes his time slowly tilting the pitcher, so the cream splashes out delicately onto my brea-sts.
I [email protected]
"Is it cold?" he asks, amused.
"No." I just think most people would [email protected] in this situation. I stare at him curiously. "What are you doing?"
🌸T. B. C🌸
plea-se rate and comment 🤗🤗🤗😊😊
Previous Previous post: The swedish prince Episode 20
Next Next post: The swedish prince Episode 23
Please solve the "You are not a bot" exercise: 7 + 11 + 8 =


text:
News Sports Opinion Magnolia Mississippi State Obituaries E-Edition Legals
Judging the judges: Misconduct isn't swept under the rug in Mississippi
Jimmie E. Gates
Mississippi Clarion Ledger
The state's judicial watchdog group received 264 complaints against judges in 2018.
In 2018, three judges were publicly reprimanded and two of those were also fined.
Disciplinary action in Mississippi is not kept secret. That is not the case in many states.
Judges are supposed to get it right. But when they don't, there are consequences, and Mississippians aren't kept in the dark.
In 2018, three justice court judges were publicly reprimanded and two of the three were ordered to pay a fine.
A judge presided over a case involving a relative, dismissed domestic abuse petitions without a proper hearing and retaliated against a complaining party.
Another judge rescinded an arrest warrant for his ex-girlfriend.
And a third failed to issue rulings in more than two dozen cases in a timely manner, including one that had lingered for seven years.
Last year, the state's judicial watchdog group — the Mississippi Commission on Judicial Performance — received 264 complaints against judges. Of those, 54 required an investigation, nine were subject to formal review and three were acted upon by the Mississippi Supreme Court, which makes the final decision on disciplinary action.
Largest number in modern times:40 new judges take the bench in January in Mississippi
The other 29 complaints — due to budget constraints, the commission said — were pushed to 2019 for further review.
While judicial disciplinary action is kept secret in many states, Mississippi is one of four states that provides detailed public access to disciplinary statistics of judges, according to a report in April by ProPublica.
"We do what we can," Commission Executive Director Darlene Ballard said of her five-member staff. "I think we do a lot with a little."
Ballard's wish list includes an additional investigator since she has only one now to cover judicial complaints statewide.
Who were the reprimanded judges in 2018?
Justice Court Judge Mary Curry
The Claiborne County judge signed warrants based on affidavits by her relatives, dismissed domestic abuse petitions without proper hearings, presided over cases involving a relative, waived an expungement fee, ordered a clerk to void receipts and retaliated against a complaining party.
The commission recommended a public reprimand. Curry, who took office in 2016, accepted responsibility and agreed to the recommended punishment.
Justice Court Judge Jesse Burton
On July 17, 2017, the Coahoma judge filed an affidavit claiming his former girlfriend had stolen money and personal property from him. Based on this affidavit, another justice court judge issued an arrest warrant for her.
However, before the warrant was served, Burton changed his mind and instructed the clerk's office to rescind the warrant the other judge had issued.
The commission said the judge inserted himself into the case.
Not getting involved:Judges recuse themselves from Jackson vs Siemens case
It recommended that Burton be publicly reprimanded and fined $500.The state Supreme Court agreed.
Burton also agreed. It was his first disciplinary action in 27 years as a justice court judge.
Justice Court Judge Jimmy McGee
The Alcorn County judge took 28 cases under advisement, but didn't issue rulings in those cases, including one that had lingered for seven years. The commission recommended he be publicly reprimand and fined $1,683.34, the equivalent of two weeks' salary.
The Supreme Court agreed.
Removal, disagreement
While these most recent cases ended in public reprimands and fines, the state Supreme Court has gone further than that in past years. It also has, at times, disagreed with the commission's recommendations.
In 2015, the state Supreme Court removed then-Lee County Justice Court Judge Rickey Thompson from office on a 2013 recommendation of the commission.
The commission recommended Thompson's removal for lending the prestige of his office to advance the private interests of others, denying a defendant her right to the counsel of her choosing and keeping several participants in the drug court program past the two-year limit allowed by state law. It also said he jailed participants for unspecified violations or failure to comply with drug court.
In 2017, the state Supreme Court suspended Lee County Justice Court Judge John Sheffield for 120 days without pay for ordering a man to serve six months in a work center for a 17-year-old case that had been resolved in 1997.
In another case in 2017, however, the court ruled in favor of Forrest County Justice Court Judge Gay Polk-Payton. The commission had accused her of using her position as a judge to promote sales of her book and to further her music career.
The court issued a one-paragraph statement in which the judges said they could find no wrongdoing on Polk-Payton's part.
Judicial conduct: Voters approved oversight 40 years ago
The Mississippi Commission of Judicial Performance was created in 1979 by the Mississippi Legislature and voters approved it through a constitutional amendment.
Since the commission was created, about 9,500 complaints have been made against judges with the majority coming from litigants.
Any citizen, litigant, attorney, law enforcement official, judge, public official, or other individual who has knowledge of possible judicial misconduct may file a complaint with the commission. All complaints must be submitted to the commission in writing.
If you fail the Mississippi bar exam 3 times, it's back to law school Lawsuit: Black student robbed of salutatorian because district feared white flight Mississippi lawmakers funneled $1.5 million in education money to Weight Watchers Report: Mississippi foster care children still abused, neglected. Feds may take over
Contact Jimmie E. Gates at 601-961-7212 or jgates@gannett.com. Follow @jgatesnews on Twitter.