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Running through Beijing
by Xu Zechen
Translated from Chinese by
Eric Abrahamsen
"The novel captures the taste and tension of Beijing better than any I've ever read." — Los Angeles Review of Books
Americans mostly know Chinese literature as political literature—think Mo Yan, the Cultural Revolution, dissidents, and censorship—but there's a whole other world of punk lit chronicling the harsh realities faced by the millions living in China's mega-cities.
Meet Dunhuang: just out of prison for selling fake IDs, he has barely enough money for a meal. He also has no place to stay, no friends to call on, and no prospects for earning more yuan. When he happens to meet a pretty woman selling pirated DVDs on the road, he falls into both an unexpected romance and a new business venture. But when her on-and-off boyfriend steps back into the picture, Dunhuang is forced to make some tough decisions.
In Running through Beijing, leading young Chinese author Xu Zechen draws on his actual experiences and real-life friends to guide us through an underworld of constant thievery, hard-core porn, cops (both real and impostors), prison, bribery, crazy landladies, rampant drinking, and the smothering, bone-dry dust storms that blanket one of the world's largest cities in thick layers of grime. Like a literary Run Lola Run, it follows a hustling hero rushing at breakneck speed to stay just one step ahead of a world constantly fighting to drag him down. Full of action, surprises, heartfelt sentiment, and well-drawn, authentic citizens from the People's Republic, Running through Beijing is a masterful performance from a writer who knows underground China inside and out.
"Reflects on the scattergun entrepreneurialism and economic inequality of the new Beijing." — Financial Times
"[Xu Zechen's] silent toiling has given voice to the equally silent social classes struggling on the boundaries of the country's urban landscape." — China Daily
"Xu has something real to offer the ever-burgeoning literature of Chinese despair." — Words Without Borders
"Running through Beijing is clean and fast, deeply felt and very smart: a profoundly engaging story about a certain kind of honor, and a certain kind of thief, and a life that feels hidden in plain sight." — Roy Kesey, author of Pacazo and Any Deadly Thing
"In this gritty, touching tale of love and urban survival, Xu Zechen has captured with colloquial grace the frenetic pace of a Beijing heartbeat where dust storms, crackdowns, pirated DVD porn, and double lives are the norm, along with the traditional values of loyalty, friendship, sex, and drinking. Eric Abrahamsen's translation sparkles like a crystal bobblehead, masterfully conveying the unbearable lightness of being a young, broke delinquent Beijinger with spirited humor and verve." — Jeffrey Yang, author of An Aquarium and Vanishing-Line
"As the construction sites and desertification in surrounding areas raise dust storms in Beijing, the capital is covered in a haze of moral uncertainty. This is the setting of the story of Dunhuang, seller of fake IDs and pirated DVDs, but not all is unclear: there's the clarity of Xu's realistic treatment of life for the outcasts of China's development, and of Abrahamsen's exacting translation into English." — Lucas Klein, translator of Notes on the Mosquito
"A window onto Beijing's seamy, crime-ridden underbelly…a vibrant story by one of China's rising young writers. I'd check it out if I were you." — Book Riot
"Uplifting, thrilling.… The novel itself, with its sharp, detailed prose and vivid storytelling, creates an exhilaration, a giddy hope in the reader…" — Numéro Cinq
"This novel's style is sparse and direct, representing a divergence from traditional Chinese literature." — National Endowment for the Arts
"This is a fine novel.… It is likely to be enjoyed." — Asian Review of Books
Xu Zechen
Xu Zechen is the author of the novels Midnight's Door, Night Train, and Heaven on Earth. He was selected by People's Literature as one of the "Future 20" best Chinese writers under forty-one. The recipient of numerous awards and honors, he lives in Beijing.
Eric Abrahamsen is the recipient of translation grants from PEN and the NEA and has written for the New York Times, among others. In 2012 Penguin published his translation of The Civil Servant's Notebook by Wang Xiaofang. He lives in Beijing, where he hosts the acclaimed website on Chinese literature, Paper Republic.
Download Running Through Beijing Excerpt
Excerpt from Running through Beijing
Translated by Eric Abrahamsen
Available from Two Lines Press
As Dunhuang opened his mouth to shout, a dust devil rose up and filled his eyes, nose, and mouth with fine grit, obliging him to sneeze and rub his eyes. The little iron gate clanged shut behind him. He spat the sand from his mouth. The dust devil had already moved on. Tilting his head back he looked at the sky, a blur of yellow dust behind which the sun glowed, mild but rough, like a polished piece of ground glass or a copper mirror that had seen years of use. The sunlight had no power to dazzle, but it still made Dunhuang's eyes tear up—it was sunlight, after all. Another dust devil leaned toward him and he dodged out of its way. It was a sandstorm, he'd heard of them on the inside. They'd talked of only two things over the past few days: his getting out, and the sandstorms. In jail, he'd seen the storms picking up, seen the yellow dust settling on the steps and windowsills, but there wasn't enough room inside for it to really get going. If he could, he'd like to go back and tell that pack of old cabbage heads that if they wanted a real sandstorm, they had to get out into the wide open spaces.
Wild land stretched before him: a few trees showed new buds, but there was no green grass in sight. It must be buried by sand, Dunhuang thought, and kicked at the dry weeds beside the gate—he looked around but still couldn't see a speck of green. He'd been in jail three whole months, for Christ's sake, and not one green blade of grass had grown. It was cold with the wind on him, and he pulled a jacket out of his bag. Shouldering the bag, he shouted, "I'm out!"
The iron gate rasped and a head peered out. Dunhuang saluted it, then laughed and said, "What are you looking at? Back to your post."
The head glared at him, retracted, and the iron gate clanged shut once more. Dunhuang walked for twenty minutes, then waved a little truck over. The driver, sporting a first growth of fluffy beard, asked where he was going. Dunhuang said anywhere was fine as long as it was in Beijing. The driver dumped him on west Fourth Ring Road; he was taking his truck to sell at the Liulangzhuang automobile market. As he got out, Dunhuang thought he recognized the place, that he'd been there before. He walked south, turned right, and, sure enough, there was a little corner store where he'd once bought some Zhongnanhai cigarettes. Sandstorm aside, Beijing hadn't changed much. Dunhuang felt a bit calmer; he had worried that the city might have transformed behind his back. He bought a pack of cigarettes and asked the young clerk if she recognized him. The girl smiled perfunctorily and said he looked familiar. He said, "I once bought four packs of cigarettes here."
As he was leaving, he heard the girl spit the melon-seed shells from her mouth and mutter, "Asshole."
Dunhuang didn't look back—you're too ugly to argue with. He followed the street, knowing he must look like a hoodlum; he started swinging his bag and swaggering down the wrong side of the street. He went slowly, savoring a Zhongnanhai. Being in jail was like being home in that it was hard to get a smoke. The first time he'd brought two cartons of Zhongnanhais home his father had been thrilled and passed them out to guests, solemnly telling them: Zhongnanhai, named after where the leaders of our nation live—they all smoke these.
Where the leaders of our nation live. Dunhuang had only passed the front gate of Zhongnanhai once before, on his way to see the flag-raising at Tiananmen. He'd dragged himself up at 4 am. Bao Ding had sworn at him and said, "You can see the flag raising any day, why do it on a foggy day?" It had been foggy, and that morning they had to make a delivery, but Dunhuang couldn't help himself. He hadn't been hustling with Bao Ding in Beijing long, and aside from enormous heaps of cash he dreamed of nothing but that flag, fluttering in the wind. He heard the clacking of the ceremonial guards' footsteps as they passed in perfect unison through his dreams. As he flew toward Tiananmen that morning on a wrecked old bicycle, he passed a bright, blurry gate, where a few guards might have been standing, but he thought nothing of it. When he got back home, Bao Ding told him that was Zhongnanhai, and he regretted not having stopped. He always meant to go back and take a closer look, but never got around to it. It was like Bao Ding said, "You can go any day, so you end up going no day." He never went.
Dunhuang didn't know where he was headed. That seemed awful, when he thought about it. No place to go. The whole lot of them had gone to jail: Bao Ding, Big Mouth, Xin'an, Thirty Thou with the lame leg. Hardly anyone he knew was left; he'd have trouble just finding a place to crash. And he was short of money, he only had fifty on hand, minus the nine he'd just spent on cigarettes. For now, he'd follow his feet, and worry about the rest tomorrow—he could always just burrow in somewhere for the night. The sun was dropping steadily in the sandpaper sky, down toward the end of the street—looking more and more like a giant millstone weighing on Beijing's shoulders. Dunhuang took the cigarette from his mouth and whistled a bit to buck his spirits—this wouldn't kill him. When he was first in Beijing, that time he'd gotten separated from Bao Ding, hadn't he slept a night against a concrete pillar under an overpass?
Obstetrics Hospital. Zhongguancun Human Resources Center. The Bai Family Courtyard Restaurant. The Earthquake Bureau. He looked up and saw Haidian bridge in front of him. He hadn't meant to come this way. He stopped, watching a double-jointed bus run a red light under the bridge. He hadn't come here on purpose, but there wasn't anywhere he wanted to go. It was under Haidian Bridge that they'd been caught, he and Bao Ding. They had run all the way here from Pacific Digital City without stopping for breath, but still hadn't been able to shake the police. They'd still had their stuff with them. If they had known they were going to get nabbed they would have ditched it. He'd called to Bao Ding, "It's okay, these cops are too fat to buckle their pants." But the policemen turned out to be pretty nimble. A car had cut them off, and by then it was too late to toss anything.
That was three months ago. It had still been cold, around the New Year, the wind had sung in his ears. As they had sprinted and dodged they'd nearly made two cars collide under the bridge. Now he was out, but Bao Ding was still in jail. Bao Ding's left hand had been stomped on by the police. Dunhuang wondered if it was better.
Dunhuang turned onto another street, then turned again. The wind picked up more sand from the ground and he ducked in next to a building. The light was fading, it was almost dark. As he swatted the dust from his clothes, a girl carrying a bag like his walked up to him and said, "Want a DVD, mister?" She pulled a handful of movies from her bag. "I've got everything: Hollywood, Japanese, Korean, domestic hits. Also, classics and Oscar winners. Everything." She spread out the colorful movies for him to see. In the failing light, the colors were somehow lurid, but he knew that the movies were clean. Just like the girl. Dunhuang couldn't guess her age, maybe twenty-four or twenty-five? Maybe twenty-eight? No more than thirty. Thirty-year-old DVD-sellers didn't look like that; they carried children, they asked in furtive tones, "Hey, want a DVD? I've got all sorts; if you want porn I've got hi-def." Then they quickly drew the movies from their clothing.
"Even if I bought one I have nowhere to watch it," Dunhuang said to her, and leaned back against the wall to avoid another gust of passing sand.
"They'll play on a DVD player or a computer," the girl said. "They're cheap, I'll give you a deal, six kuai per movie."
Dunhuang dropped his bag on the steps, wanting to sit and rest. The girl thought he meant to buy and squatted down with him, pulling a sheet of newspaper from her bag and spreading out the DVDs. "They're all good, guaranteed high quality."
Dunhuang thought it would be impolite not to buy, and said, "All right, I'll take one."
"Thanks. Which one do you want?"
"Anything, as long as it's good."
The girl stopped and looked at him. "If you really don't want one then don't bother."
"Who said I don't want one?" He was laughing at himself now. "I'll take two! Hell, give me three!" He quickly rummaged through the movies under the building's lights.
The Bicycle Thief. Cinema Paradiso. Address Unknown.
"Hey, you're a film buff!" Excitement was obvious in her voice. "Those are classics!"
Dunhuang said he didn't really understand film, he'd picked them nearly at random.
It was true, he didn't understand film. He had seen The Bicycle Thief before, and he'd once heard a pair of college students talking about Cinema Paradiso on the bus—the boy saying it was good, the girl saying it was great. He'd picked Address Unknown merely because the name seemed awkward; he wondered why it wasn't Unknown Address.
The DVDs bought, he sat on the steps looking at the neon lights on the building across the street. Four characters: "Hai Dian Chess Academy." He'd seen that name many times before. He drew out a cigarette, lit it, and blew a cloud of smoke toward the sign.
The girl packed the other DVDs into her bag and stood up, saying, "Aren't you going?"
"You go on, I'm going to rest a bit." Dunhuang saw no need to tell a stranger that he had no place to go.
She said goodbye and walked off, but then came back and sat on the step beside him. Dunhuang unconsciously shifted to make room.
"Got another?" She meant a cigarette.
Dunhuang looked at her, surprised. He passed her the pack and lighter. She made a comment about the mildness of Zhongnanhai. He had no cause to disagree. He'd crossed paths with many, many people during his time in Beijing, but his interactions with them were nearly all transactions, conducted for the sake of cash, and the girl's behavior threw him off balance. He only felt uneasy for a second, though—what could possibly go wrong? The barefoot don't fear the shod. Whatever happens, happens. Suddenly relaxed, he asked, "How's business?"
"Business is business. Weather's bad." The sandstorm had driven all the idlers indoors, and it was mostly idlers who bought DVDs.
"Mmm." Dunhuang nodded in sympathy. The weather affected his line of work, too. Rain or wind sent the world scurrying; no one was in the mood.
She was no stranger to cigarettes—her smoke rings were better than his. The two of them sat there, watching the sky darken. The pedestrians thinned out. Dunhuang heard someone in a nearby bookstore say, "Close it up, who's going to buy books when the gravel's flying?" Then there was the sound of a gate rattling down and banging into the ground. Flying gravel… Hardly. Dunhuang did his best not to look at the girl. All of a sudden he wasn't sure how to talk to her, he wasn't used to lounging around with girls he didn't know. What, exactly, was this turning into? He wanted to leave.
"What do you do?" the girl asked him abruptly.
"A student? I can't tell."
"I don't do anything. I'm homeless." Dunhuang found the truth was as easy as a lie.
"I don't believe you," she said, standing, "but even if you are homeless, let's have a couple of drinks. My treat."
Dunhuang smiled. You've showed your hand now, he thought. I knew selling DVDs couldn't be your only profession. He'd never even had sex, let alone paid for it, but Bao Ding and Three Thou had, and he had a basic grasp of the process. But a girl like this in that line of work…it was heartbreaking. Though the newspapers said many prostitutes were actually college students. Even college students—such a grand thing to be—had to sell themselves. Dunhuang once again pictured furtive women with their babies, selling movies.
"Why don't I treat you?" Dunhuang said, throwing caution to the wind. What the hell. "I don't know this area, you pick a spot."
They went to a hotpot restaurant called Ancients next to Changchun Park. The girl said she was frozen through and needed to warm up. Dunhuang agreed; the storm had blasted Beijing right back into winter. From outside, the windows of the hotpot place were blanketed in heavy steam; only shadows milled within. Inside, there was a huge crowd, all red faces and thick necks, it looked as though half of Beijing had squeezed in. Countless beer glasses were hoisted over heads, the smell of alcohol and hotpot mixed with the chatter, all rising on billowing steam. Dunhuang hadn't felt such a welcoming intimacy in months, and his heart warmed so suddenly he nearly teared up. He couldn't remember the last time he'd eaten hotpot. He loved hotpot. He remembered the first time he'd gone home for the spring festival. He had bought an electric pot with his own money, and eaten hotpot from the first of the year straight through to the sixth, when he returned to Beijing.
They picked a table in the corner, the girl seated against the wall and Dunhuang with a crowd of boisterous diners behind him. A split pot; Dunhuang liked it spicy. Three halfliter bottles of Yanjing beer. He noted that she ordered two plates of winter melon and mushrooms. The pot boiled, the mutton floated. Dunhuang lifted his glass and said, "What are we toasting?"
"Nothing. Drink your beer."
The first glass was awfully refreshing. The girl turned out not to be much of a drinker. Dunhuang could drink, he considered it his only true talent. Not many people knew it. Bao Ding thought he could hold his liquor, but once he'd gotten five shots of Erguotou in him, he never lasted to see how much Dunhuang could handle.
"You can really drink," said Dunhuang.
"You're not bad yourself."
"Nah, after one bottle I start talking nonsense."
"So go ahead, I'm listening," she said carelessly, smoothing out her sleeves. She hadn't noticed Dunhuang pouring the beer straight down his throat, hardly swallowing. "Let's drink until we talk nonsense." They started gulping beer by the half glass. Over the roiling, steaming pot, they looked like a pair of lovers. Dunhuang hadn't faced such lush temptation in months. His eyes glittered; he shoveled mutton into his mouth with his chopsticks.
"You must be starved."
"Kind of," he responded, pausing to look at his dining partner. Her face had become flushed and soft, and she appeared much younger than she had out in the wind. Not bad looking. The freckles on her nose looked pretty good. "You should eat, too."
A phone rang, and the girl quickly looked in her bag. By the time she found her phone, a man nearby had already picked his up. Her disappointment was obvious. She turned the cellphone over in her palm a few times, then put it on the table.
"What's your name?" she asked.
"Dunhuang."
"Dunhuang? That's nice. Is it your real name?"
"Of course—money back if it's not."
"Who gave it to you? Sounds pretty educated."
"My dad. Educated? He's basically illiterate; he just got lucky. My mom said that a couple days after I was born he was so frustrated by trying to pick a good name he got constipated. In the end he dragged some old newspapers over from the neighbors'. He spent a whole day looking through them, but couldn't decide on anything. Finally, he saw the headline of a People's Daily article about the Dunhuang Buddhist cave paintings, and that was me."
"Your dad's nuts, he should have had a name picked out before you were born!" The girl laughed emptily, her eyes flicking over her cell phone. "Guess my name."
"Kuang Xia. 'Kuang' from 'spacious,' 'Xia' for 'summer.' Nice, huh?"
"That's nice. Way better than Dunhuang; I always feel like I'm some big rock they dragged out of the earth."
She laughed again, sounding more like she meant it this time, then told him that Kuang was her father's surname, and Xia was her mother's. Dunhuang didn't think it was a particularly good name. Adding your father's surname to your mother's—the world was full of people named that way. But still he said, "Nice." He felt a need to make her happy. Then he started talking about how good the DVD business was, how when he'd first come to Beijing he'd wanted to do that, but had never found an in, and regretted it ever since.
"So what do you do now?" Kuang Xia asked.
"Bit of everything. A couple days of this, a couple days of that. Beijing's too big to starve in."
"Why don't you go back home? What's so great about Beijing?"
"It's not that it's so great. It's just life, right? One place is as good as another."
Kuang Xia twirled her cellphone again, her expression growing heavy. "If I weren't selling DVDs I would have gone home ages ago. Beijing's too windy."
"It is, but the wind won't kill you."
A phone rang again, and Kuang Xia picked up the cellphone she'd just set down. Another call for someone else.
Dunhuang could see something was going on, and he decided to forget it, he'd quit while he was ahead. He said, "Why don't we call it a night." Seeing how readily she agreed, he said he'd treat. He waved at a waitress to get the bill.
"I'll get it, I'll get it," she said, going for her wallet. "I said I would."
Dunhuang gestured for her to put it away, and obediently she did. He was stunned— didn't have to twist your arm, did I? He pretended to look for money in the pockets of his coat hanging on his seat, while a quart of sweat erupted from his body in two seconds flat. There was nothing to do but to risk a gambit Bao Ding had taught him. He rummaged around in his left pocket for a while, his forehead knotting, then rummaged in his right pocket, then he leaped to his feet and gave a panicked cry, "My wallet's gone! My cellphone, too!"
"That can't be, keep looking." Kuang Xia had stood as well.
Dunhuang went through his pockets again, then snatched up his coat and turned the two interior pockets inside out for Kuang Xia and the waitress to see. They were entirely empty, of course. "They've been stolen!" he said. "I had them when I came in." Then, to the waitress: "You've got a thief here somewhere!"
The waitress, a girl of eighteen or so, was so terrified she began to back away, as if the thief himself were bearing down on her. Her hand fluttered in negation, "We don't, we don't!" Her look of fright made Dunhuang pause, but the show, once begun, had to go on.
The chopsticks of the nearby diners all halted in midair, their heads turning to look with deep interest at the man who'd lost his wallet and cellphone; everyone leaned backwards slightly as if to indicate their innocence. The stage was growing larger. Dunhuang gritted his teeth and prepared his performance.
"Are you sure you didn't just put them in your bag?" asked Kuang Xia.
"Of course I'm sure. There was six hundred kuai in my wallet, maybe more. There was my bank card, my ID card, and a fifty-kuai phone card—all gone! Never mind the money, it's a huge hassle to replace an ID card. And I bought that cellphone just a few weeks ago, it cost more than a thousand."
He put on his best fussy old lady act. Practically every diner in the place was staring at him. The young waitress grew even more panicked and ran off to find the assistant manager. By the time the assistant manager arrived, Kuang Xia had noticed that the waitress had neglected the clothing cover that restaurants put over coats to thwart thieves—if she had, the wallet and phone could never have been stolen. The restaurant, therefore, bore responsibility. The manager wouldn't admit the restaurant's fault, though, he only stammered a bit as he explained that the sign on the door stated very clearly that customers should take care of their own belongings, and that the establishment wasn't responsible for any losses. Dunhuang and Kuang Xia weren't hearing any of it. If the clothing cover had been in place the restaurant would, of course, be blameless, but the fact was it wasn't in place, and who knew whether that had been intentional. The implication was clear.
"We are deeply sorry for the loss of your belongings," said the manager, finally caving. "How about we give you a 20% discount, and we'll call it even. And we'll throw in two free bottles of cold beer."
Dunhuang looked at Kuang Xia, who nodded in assent. But Dunhuang shouted, "No! We want five bottles!"
The assistant manager said, "Sir, that's the best I can do."
Dunhuang responded, "Fine, call your boss over."
The assistant manager hesitated, then left. Kuang Xia asked Dunhuang for his cellphone number: she'd call it and see if the thief was still in the restaurant. Dunhuang rattled off a number and Kuang Xia dialed, but the phone was off. It was hopeless, there was nothing else to do. Of course, thought Dunhuang, there'd been no hope to begin with. That was a three-month-old number and god knows where the phone is now. The assistant manager came back two minutes later, the waitress carrying five bottles of beer behind him. He apologized once again and said the general manager was currently engaged, but sent his apologies and agreed to give them five bottles of beer.
Dunhuang said, "All right, bag them up so she can take them home." Then to Kuang Xia: "I'm sorry, looks like this one's on you after all."
Kuang Xia said, "Never mind, it was meant to be mine to begin with." She looked at her cellphone, then suddenly stuffed it in her bag, sat down, and said to the waitress, "Open them, we'll drink them now!"
If you say so, Dunhuang thought. No skin off my nose. It just so happens I hadn't had enough.
They really got into it then. Kuang Xia was suddenly drinking with abandon, as though she were downing water, and they clinked their glasses with solemn determination. "Drink, drink," she said. Two bottles later, all she could say was "drink," as she slowly slumped onto the table.
"You all right?" Dunhuang asked.
"Fine…drink. Drink." Kuang Xia spoke as if she had a fishball in her mouth, then she suddenly began to weep. "I want to go home. Take me home."
"Okay," said Dunhuang, "I'll take you home." He finished the rest of the beer straight from the bottle.
Luckily, Kuang Xia remembered the name of the place where she lived, and Dunhuang had heard of it. Three months ago, he'd known this stretch of Haidian like an old Beijinger. She lived in a one-bedroom apartment in the west section of Furongli, third floor, a rental. Dunhuang got her upstairs and opened the door to discover that the room was packed with white wicker baskets, all of them full of DVDs. Labels were stuck on the baskets: Euro/American, Indian, Korean, Japanese, etc. He was just thinking of looking for the baskets labeled softcore and hardcore when Kuang Xia spoke from the bed, her eyes still closed, "Water, I need water."
Dunhuang went to the kitchen, but the water cooler was empty. He ran back into the room and told her to hold on while he boiled some tapwater. While he did, she fell asleep again, rolling herself in the blanket and snoring gently. He sat down in an old wooden chair, holding the glass of water and waiting for it to cool. The room was crudely furnished; besides the queen-sized bed where Kuang Xia lay there was only one table and one chair in the whole place. On the table was an old television and a nearly-new DVD player. The rest was DVD baskets. He nosed about here and there, and ended up drinking the water himself. He couldn't imagine how he would pass the rest of the evening—where would he sleep tonight? Listening to Kuang Xia's light snores he was suddenly overcome with self-pity. He didn't have so much as a hole to crawl into. He'd been in Beijing for two years and this was the best he'd done. Thinking about it objectively, it really was too much. When he'd quit his old job in his hometown, he'd had complete faith that he could come to Beijing and make a good life—now he was the living dead. He had only twenty-two kuai and four mao in his pocket. He poured another glass of water for Kuang Xia, in case she woke up asking for a drink.
Dunhuang looked through all the baskets but found no hardcore, not even anything that could properly be considered softcore, only "romance" flicks. A woman with bared arms and legs on the cover was just a trick—he knew the whole film probably only bared that much skin. At last, he found something that sounded raunchy, a French movie called Porno Director. He turned on the TV and DVD player and started watching it with the sound muted. He watched half of it without seeing anything that quickened his pulse, and lost interest. His eyelids began to droop and he fell asleep in the chair. When he jerked awake the film was over, the DVD tray had ejected itself, and the TV displayed a steady deep blue with the white logo of the DVD player.
It was two thirty in the morning. He turned off the TV and DVD player, feeling cold and stiff. Kuang Xia was huddled on the other side of the bed like a cat, no longer snoring, the blanket rising and falling with her breath. To hell with it, Dunhuang thought, and drawing his wrinkled felt overcoat from his bag, he lay down gingerly on the queen-sized bed, curling his body up like a dog. He pulled his coat over his head and the world went dark. For him, night had come at last. He thought to scratch an itch on his chin—his hand halfway there, he slept.


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Steven A. Abreu | Partner, Trademark Chair View more of Steven's articles
Regina Erica T. Varilla | Summer Intern View more of Regina's articles
Canada plans to implement major changes to its trademark laws on June 17, 2019. The changes are designed to modernize the current system and bring Canada's quirky practices into greater international alignment. We provide an overview of the current system, the changes to come, and some practical considerations for brand owners.
The biggest change is the elimination of the requirement that a trademark be used in Canada prior to its registration. Canada will leave the US behind as a use-based jurisdiction and join the European Union, Japan and China, and many other nations that grant registration prior to proof of use. Aspiring applicants who might have had difficulties meeting Canada's usage requirements will be eligible to register their trademarks in Canada as soon as the new law goes into effect. And those who own pending applications that have been allowed by the office will see their applications be automatically registered without filing a Declaration of Use once the new act comes into force.
Canada's switch from a use-based registration to a filing-based system means that brand owners should evaluate whether it makes sense to file anew in Canada with a more broadly worded description of goods and services
The second biggest change is that Canada will be adopting the Nice Classification of Goods and Services system as part of its integration into the Madrid Protocol. The Madrid Protocol is an international registration system which allows trademark applicants to file one central application that can be extended into any country that is a party to the Protocol upon designation. This system usually shortens and streamlines the process of obtaining trademark protection abroad. (It is available to US-based applicants since the US is a member of the Madrid Protocol.)
In addition, the term of trademark registration in Canada will change from 15 years to ten. Any registration granted prior to the June 17, 2019 changeover will be given a 15-year term, but those granted thereafter will have five fewer years of registration until renewal is due. The cost of applying will see minor changes: Canada will do away with registration fees but start charging application fees per class.
Other changes include a broader definition of "trademark" that will allow for the registration of what was previously considered to be unregistrable. In addition to recognizing letters, words, sounds, and designs as protectable, the definition will expand to include colors, personal names, numerals, figurative elements, three-dimensional shapes, holograms, moving images, modes of packaging goods, scents, tastes, textures, and positioning of signs.
The way in which the Canadian Trademark Office determines whether a mark is distinctive will also change, so that the source of a mark's distinctiveness is no longer confined to how it is used within Canada's borders. Thus, companies looking to branch out to Canada can start building their case that their mark is distinctive even before they provide actual goods and services there – as long as their reputation precedes them. Proof of distinctiveness will be required only if the application is specifically based on distinctiveness or if further evidence is requested by the Trademark Office.
Finally, the changes will allow any third party to submit a letter of protest to alert the Office to reasons that a certain application should not be registered. This change will allow third-party registrants to play a more active role in protecting their trademark rights in Canada.
We recommend that you contact us before the new law is implemented so we may discuss how to best secure your rights and to discuss any questions you may have about the new law's effect on your existing trademark rights in Canada.
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hongshan
22 January, 2015 - 12:22 lizleafloor
Relics from the Niuheliang Goddess Temple, the most mysterious site of the ancient Hongshan
The Neolithic Hongshan culture has revealed itself to researchers through its long-preserved bounty of jade artifacts, its ceremonial monuments, its burial traditions, and its influence in the...
Read more about Relics from the Niuheliang Goddess Temple, the most mysterious site of the ancient Hongshan
Chinese civilization may have begun 2,400 years earlier than previously thought
The first dynasty of China described in classic texts and historical documents was the Xia Dynasty, established in 2070 BC in the Yellow River valley. However, the origins of Chinese civilization...
Read more about Chinese civilization may have begun 2,400 years earlier than previously thought
18 October, 2013 - 11:31 johnblack
The Mysterious Origin of the Jade Discs
In ancient China, dating back to at least 5,000 BC, large stone discs were placed on the bodies of Chinese aristocrats. Their original function still eludes scientists, as does the way in which they...
Read more about The Mysterious Origin of the Jade Discs


The assessment and investigation of cases of child abuse and neglect involving children with disabilities or serious health-related problems.
The current CJA program priorities build on the previous successes of the CJA program while demonstrating a continued commitment to making systemic improvements in those areas core to the mission of the CJA program.
Read more about CJA priorities here.


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Supervisor suggests consultant to study Fresh Pond
Government, News
REPORTER FILE PHOTO
Supervisor Jim Dougherty
In the wake of tests revealing Fresh Pond is unsafe for swimming, Supervisor Jim Dougherty said it's time to seek expert opinions on solving the problem.
Mr. Dougherty suggested, at the Tuesday's town board work session, that some money from Community Preservation Fund (CPF) revenues slated for water quality improvement projects be used to hire a consultant to recommend remediation of pollution at the Pond due to fecal coliform bacteria that is over the limit set by the New York State Department of Health.
The CPF is funded through a real estate transfer tax on home purchases and is used mainly to fund open space for preservation. In a referendum last November, however, residents voted to allow up to 20 percent of the funds collected for water quality projects.
Meanwhile, the town's Water Quality Improvement Projects Advisory Board, formed recently to vet clean water projects from CPF funds, is discussing grants to offset costs of installing new and improved septic systems to remove excessive nitrogen discharge into Shelter Island's ground and surface waters.
Mr. Dougherty told a room full of residents at Tuesday's Town Board work session that the first step should be to determine the exact nature of Fresh Pond's problems and potential solutions to cleaning up what Water Advisory Board member and Fresh Pond resident James Eklund called "a real crown jewel of the Island."
Another source of funding could come from state and federal governments, an idea Councilman Jim Colligan said he will discuss with the town's grant writer, Jennifer Mesiano Higham.
Peter Grand, a member of the town's Water Advisory Committee, told the board he's been organizing two groups — Friends of Fresh Pond, open to anyone interested in the issue, and the Shelter Island Fresh Pond Neighbors Association, which will meet on August 26 at 4 p.m. at Mr. Grand's house.
"It's probably a multi-pronged approach," Mr. Colligan said, noting he agrees a public-private partnership between the town and those groups is wise and hiring a consultant is the right first move.
What is known from the recently completed tests is that the excess fecal coliform in the pond is most likely emanating from two sources — geese droppings that land in the water and aged septic systems in some of the surrounding houses. But Mr. Grand also worries there is blue green algae in the water that could cause major health problems to swimmers. He speculated from his own investigation that about half of the 18 houses around Fresh Pond have aged sanitary systems that need to be upgraded.
But not all of the solutions depend on upgrading septic systems. Among them, Mr. Colligan said, would be planting vegetative buffers to keep roadway and landscaping runoff from entering the pond, finding a way to deal with water fowl and educating people about the problem.
"We're beginning to address the problem," Mr. Grand said. "I trust the board right now. I think you guys are going to do the right thing."
The resident who has been most outspoken about problems at Fresh Pond, Vincent Novak, agreed that hiring a consultant is the right first step.
The Town Board also discussed creating permits to ensure there is a listing of the locations of septic systems throughout the town and what kind of systems are installed. Some of that mapping has been done in past summers by interns, but needs to kept updated, according to Building Permits Coordinator Lori Beard Raymond.
New Recreation Director Bethany Ortmann was on hand to share some of ideas to expand programs for adults and children. Among the possibilities are collaborative programs that could be shared between the town's seniors and youths. She also wants to schedule more day trips during school holidays and provide more structured programs for young people.
Family events such as outdoor movies, summer concerts and an "Island Day" to celebrate the town are also on her agenda.
GREEN ENERGY BUILDING CODES
Two more seminars for architects, contractors and other builders is slated at the Shelter Island Library on Wednesday, September 27 on new green energy regulations. The first session scheduled on basic new codes runs from 8 a.m. to noon with a second session on high performance programs from 1 to 5 p.m. Lunch will be provided between the two sessions.
Anyone interested in attending either of the two sessions should phone Mary Ellen McGayhey at (631) 749-0772 to register. Only 30 people can be accommodated, and first preference will go to town residents, according to Ms. Raymond.
In other business, the Town Board:
• Tightened up language related to establishing site planning for commercial buildings
• Agreed to approve a special permit for Zach Vella, to add an observation room atop his two-story house that is being constructed on Shore Road at the site where the former Herrmann's Castle stands. Approval is expected to come at Friday's regular Town Board meeting
• Will set a hearing on a provision to provide for special event parking
• Will require owners of small boats, kayaks, canoes and similar vessels to label them with information on the owner's name, telephone number and address so if they drift, they can be returned. A fee of $50 would be assessed for such crafts held by the town for 14 days or less and $100 to those the town has to store.
• Will approve Mr. Dougherty signing an agreement Friday to continue working with the auditing firm of Cullen & Danowski at an approximate cost of $43,400, representing an approximate 4 percent increase over the previous contract.
Cullen & Danowski, Fresh Pond, herrmann's castle, James Eklund, Jennifer Mesiano Higham, Lori Beard Raymond, New York State Department of Health, Shelter Island Library
A dog's life
Backers and opponents debate cell tower


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A Winner Is You! 2010 Iowa Wrestling Preview: 125 lbs.
By RossWB Sep 16, 2010, 9:00am CDT
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Come January, when the Iowa football team again goes into hibernation for another nine months, what's a Hawkeye fan to do? You could pay attention to our preseason consensus cellar dweller basketball team (now with added hope!)... or you could give a little time to the three-time defending national champion wrestling team. It is the one sport we're really, really good at, after all. In the spirit of our Assume the Position series for football, we bring you A Winner is You!, a weight class-by-weight class breakdown of the Iowa wrestling team, counting down each Thursday from the weight class we have the most confidence in to the weight class we have absolutely no clue about.
Super McDonough is coming to kick your ass.
The Known Quantity
A year ago, this was the second-to-last weight we profiled in this series; the only weight we were less sure about was 157 lbs. Then a funny thing happened on the way to Iowa's third-straight national title: a gangly kid just up the road from Iowa City (Marion, IA) claimed the spot and proceeded to kick the holy hell out of almost everyone in his path and became the closest bet to a sure thing on the roster outside of Brent Metcalf and Jay Borschel. Oh, and he won a national title, the first Iowa freshman to do so since Lincoln McIlravy in 1993. So, yeah, Matt McDonough (SO) had a pretty good redshirt freshman year.
He went 37-1, his only loss coming at the hands of Angel Escobedo in the finals of the Big Ten Tournament. He rebounded from that setback to tear through the NCAA Tournament, closing with his third win of the season over his primary rival, Iowa State's Andrew Long. With the loss of Iowa's immensely talented (and simply immense: eight starters total) senior class, McDonough is going to be immediately thrust into a leadership role. Stylistically, McDonough fits the mold of the prototypical Iowa wrestler almost as well as Metcalf: he's an incredibly attacking wrestler, with tremendous takedowns, stamina that can't be sapped, and a fierce desire to push for more points in a match. McDonough quickly became a fan-favorite a year ago and there's little reason to think that will change over the next three years.
The Possible Options (We Gots 'Em)
Of course, one of the signs of the immense volatility in this series this year is the fact that even our so-called biggest "sure thing," the guy who's the returning national champion at 125 lbs. isn't exactly a surefire lock to compete at that weight this year. It's sounding more and more likely that he will stay at 125, but it's not out of the question that he could move up to 133 lbs., which would pave the way for a few other guys to try and make some noise at 125 lbs.
Like most of Iowa's lower weights, there's a tremendous amount of depth, albeit not much in the way of experience. If McD does jump up a weight, redshirt freshman Tony Ramos is one of the best bets to try and fill his shoes at 125 lbs. He was a decorated recruit coming out of high school, and while he was sidelined by a knee injury for part of last year, he still managed to 12-0 in unattached competition. The buzz on him has been strong, though, and he could certainly wedge his way into the lineup, either here or possibly at 133 lbs. One guy who does have experience to go along with his talent is Tyler Clark (JR), a transfer from Iowa State (like Adam Haluska, he saw the error of his ways). Two years ago, Clark went 25-8 and finished second at the Big 12 Tournament (though he also went a disappointing 1-2 at the NCAA Tournament that year); while redshirting, Clark compiled a record of 7-2 at 133 lbs. The other main option at 125 is J.J. Krutsinger, who filled in for an injured Charlie Falck a few times in 2008-2009 and went 12-8 overall (1-4 in duals) and 14-4 in 2009-2010. Unless he's improved tremendously, it would be a surprise to see him move past Ramos and Clark on the depth chart. Finally, Matt Gurule and Charlie Joseph are incoming freshmen; with the talent that's ahead of them, they're a lock to redshirt.
The Potholes In The Road
Six of the top eight finishers at last year's NCAA Tournament are expected to return in 2010-2011 -- basically everyone but Indiana's Escobedo and Cornell's Troy Nickerson, the two preseason favorites a year ago who finished third and fourth respectively. The good news is that McDonough faced all of the other guys a year ago -- except Arizona State's amazing Anthony Robles, the one-legged guy -- and did quite well. He defeated Long three times (13-7, 9-7, 3-1), Minnesota's Zach Sanders three times (6-4, 13-2, 8-0), Purdue's Cashe Quiroga twice (fall - 2:13, 14-3), and Ohio State's Nikko Triggas once (9-1). Additional wins over those guys are in no way guaranteed (particularly Long*, who wrestled McDonough very tight a year ago), but it has to give McDonough a great deal of confidence to know that he's faced them before -- and throttled them in many cases.
The Reasonable Expectation
Not to in any way discredit McDonough's fantastic achievement in winning a national championship as a freshman -- that's hard to do no matter who you're facing and all you can do is wrestle the guy who steps on the mat with you -- but we'd be remiss if we didn't point out that there was also an element of good fortune in McDonough's coronation a year ago. Upsets knocked out not just Escobedo, Nickerson, and Robles, but also all of the other seeded wrestlers on McDonough's half of the draw; he didn't face a single seeded wrestler until Long (#5) in the finals. So, yes, he did very well... but he also caught a few breaks along the way.
That said, his track record over the course of the season is a pretty good indicator that his title wasn't a fluke: as noted above, he wrestled most of the other top finishers at the NCAA Tournament -- and dominated them, by and large. He has the ability and the mindset to do it all again this year, too; there were plenty of stories about him that described him as one of the hardest workers on the team and that his example was already motivating other guys to work harder. He doesn't seem like the type of guy to rest on his laurels. Projecting a championship victory is always hard since anything can happen in one match (just ask Metcalf about the NCAA finals two years ago or the Big Ten finals last year), but there's no reason that McDonough shouldn't be in the thick of things, either: anything less than another trip to the semifinals would be pretty disappointing and another trip to the finals seems like a good possibility (and for Iowa to have a shot at making it four consecutive national titles, we probably need him to make it back to the finals).
* - Or not. See comments below.
Looking for past installments in the A Winner Is You! series? MAKE WITH THE CLICKY


The Fence is a comedy debate lampooning the absurdity of Australia's asylum seeker policies. Two teams will go head-to-head over a border policy so ridiculous, you might just believe it's true! Starring Julian Burnside, Jessie Taylor, and five internationally acclaimed comedians!
For more information and to buy tickets, head to thefencedebate.eventbrite.com.au.


PSNI Superintendent Darrin Jones, Mid and East Antrim Chief Executive Anne Donaghy, MEA PCSP Chair Cllr Brian Collins, Mayor Cllr Paul Reid, DOJ Steven McCourt.
A new initiative aimed at helping vulnerable individuals has been launched in Mid and East Antrim.
The 'Support Hub' will bring together multiple agencies including Mid and East Antrim Borough Council, Department of Justice, PSNI, NIFRS and other statutory agencies, to help people get the right support.
The framework involves representatives from various agencies meeting regularly to discuss individuals in their local community who may require support and working out how those agencies can then work together to provide the best help for that person.
Council Chief Executive Anne Donaghy said: "This is about a collaborative working approach to help the most vulnerable in our society.
Ms Donaghy added that the initiative forms part of the council's Community Plan 'Putting People First'.
"This is exactly what we want to do, improve the life of our citizens by putting them at the heart of this truly joined up approach to meet the needs and improve services for people in Mid and East Antrim," she added.
Explaining how the process works, PSNI Superintendent Davy Beck, said: "Each agency in the hub identifies vulnerable persons or a family unit and shares what relevant information they have with the other partners.
Supt. Beck said that the learning from other pilot schemes is that "it's often the simple and low cost interventions that work the best".
"In order to identify these interventions, information has to be shared and discussed between various partners in the Hub so that vulnerable people and groups get the right help for their particular circumstances," he added.
Steven McCourt, the Department of Justice's Head of Community Safety Division, added: "At the heart of this scheme are individuals. Many of them are the most vulnerable people in our communities, men and women who need support.
"Support Hubs help deliver the right support at the right time, from the appropriate agencies to the people who need it most.
Mr McCourt added that agencies working together and sharing information is an important component of the draft Programme for Government.
"Support Hubs demonstrate how statutory partners working together can literally change lives for the better," he said.
It's hoped the scheme will be rolled out across Northern Ireland over the next year.


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Replacing covers/screenshots w/ Eng. vers.
VNDB discussions
#1 by fuukanou
2019-05-25 at 19:51 Hi,
Are there any rules and regulations (ideally standards) for *replacing* the original Japanese covers and screenshots of VNs (assuming that they're perfectly clear) with English ones?
I personally don't see any reason for covers and think that they should be original version wherever possible, but I reckon screenshots should be alright. I think you can't get any new information out of a localised cover than from the original, but if someone can't read the screenshots in Japanese, they'd be able to get a (admittedly small) feel for the writing style / UI (which often changes between JP and EN releases).
#2 by [deleted]
2019-05-25 at 20:16 Well, as a japanese reader I disagree with this measure since I always feel bothered when there's only english screenshots for a japanese visual novel, since I can't get a feel for the actual writing style (as opposed to the translation...)
People who read in english barely care about writing style as evidenced by the incessant fixation with frivolities such as honorifics, memes, and foreign language translation (i.e. character speaking english in japanese version speaking in spanish or french on the english version).
2019-05-25 at 20:56 #2, I'd like to clear up I meant only 2-3 screenshots of the 10 being in English.
#4 by ramaladni
2019-05-25 at 22:01 Maybe make it so that 10 screenshots is the limit for a specific release, and 15 the overall limit. This way you could have 10 screenshots for the JP version, and 5 for the English one, for example.Last modified on 2019-05-25 at 22:01
2019-05-25 at 22:45 Here's what yorhel said last time this came up: t11906.9
#6 by punk
2019-05-25 at 23:19 #9 by yorhel
2019-02-10 at 07:10	By far the most important part of the screenshots is that they're representative and that they show different aspects of the game. Whether they're from a Japanese or English release is not very relevant, so the guidelines don't make a clear statement on that.
I'm generally fine with replacing some Japanese screenshots with English ones, as long as the quality & variety aspect remains.
@yorhel u2
I agree with what yorhel said , but I think these points should included in the rules link to make it clear to everyone .
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Home » Nurses: Key to Making or Breaking Your Future Margin
Nurses: Key to Making or Breaking Your Future Margin
As payments soon will be tied to quality, building a strong nursing staff will lead to better outcomes — and payments.
Richard J. Bogue
Payers for medical care have begun a journey toward quality-related payments. This trend soon will shift the way health care organizations earn their margins.
Well-practiced habits of volume-based planning will not disappear. But health care organizations will need to develop new habits for making their margin. The more successful organizations will be those that learn how to budget for nursing not only as a fixed cost, but as a source of higher payments.
The Coming Margin Shift
So long as payments are volume-based, hospitals will plan for positive margins in three basic ways. They will:
increase the volume of services contributing to positive margins;
limit the volume of services where margins are bad;
reduce costs relative to the expected volume of any service.
These methods reduce labor costs, which makes sense for hospital leaders focusing on volume, as labor accounts for about two-thirds of hospital costs. Labor costs, at least theoretically, can be reduced to some degree without affecting quality or safety.
But achieving a positive margin through volume-based planning alone became more difficult when President George W. Bush signed the Deficit Reduction Act in 2006. Hospital-acquired conditions, such as some infections, falls and pressure ulcers, now generate unreimbursed costs — particularly extra length of stay — for which volume and labor cannot readily be adjusted. For financial as well as quality reasons, hospital leaders have learned to focus more attention on improving care processes.
The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act also has made it more difficult. In 2013, 1 percent of hospitals' Medicare payments will be at risk under value-based payments, increasing to 2 percent in 2017. Penalties for certain 30-day readmissions start at 1 percent of reimbursement in 2013; they increase to 3 percent for a broader range of diagnoses in 2015. All told, QRPs are expected to account for at least 7 percent of hospitals' Medicare payments by 2017.
What these QRP methods mean, in practical terms, is that health care organizations are in competition with each other. Those earning the highest quality marks will earn more. Those earning the lowest marks will earn less.
QRPs will increase no matter how politics play out — because they work. And their impacts will run beyond the financial. In the future, to have a positive margin, hospitals will walk a narrow volume management path while climbing a mountain, hand in hand, with teams working at the unit level.
Nurses: Your Mountain-Climbing Partners
The margin shift may not radically alter marketing, purchasing, supply stream management, payroll, accounting, or coding and billing. However, at the edges — where hospital margins will be found in the future — the tactics that once produced optimal volumes at the lowest cost will not often produce the best performance at optimal cost.
First, hospitals' go-to source for trimming costs — nursing labor — will become their most important asset for success. It sounds odd when it has long made sense to adjust nursing labor to fit volume models. But nurses are a hospital's primary agents for care processes.
In the March 17, 2011, issue of The New England Journal of Medicine, Jack Needleman and colleagues show that lower nurse-to-patient ratios are associated with mortality and other poor outcomes. The Agency for Healthcare Quality and Research has supported studies showing that matching nursing skills to patients' needs improves patient outcomes. Nursing has a larger impact on patient satisfaction than any other single factor. Indeed, it is no accident that nursing-sensitive indicators were among the first items included in QRPs by the federal government and now some private payers.
The 2011 Report on the Future of Nursing from the Institute of Medicine notes: "By virtue of their regular, close proximity to patients and their scientific understanding of care processes across the continuum of care, nurses have a considerable opportunity to act as full partners with other health professionals and to lead in the improvement and redesign of the health care system and its practice environment."
The value-based payment measures that will redistribute a margin's worth of hospital payments in 2017 show how essential nursing is to hospitals' future success. Two-thirds of survey ratings from the Hospital Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems, and many clinical process measures under VBP, are affected by what nurses do.
Getting the Most from Your Climbing Partners
How can hospitals get the most value out of nursing and thus succeed under quality-related payments? The IOM's Report on the Future of Nursing also says this:
Nurses should practice to the full extent of their education and training.
Nurses should achieve higher levels of education and training through an educational system that promotes seamless academic progression.
Nurses should be full partners with physicians and other professionals in redesigning health care.
Effective workforce planning and policymaking require better data collection and information infrastructure.
Here are other suggestions for leaders that I offer from my research:
Collaborate with colleges to train nurses in your community.
Recruit, hire and promote to nurses' personal and professional aspirations.
Support ongoing development of leadership competencies appropriate to nurses at all levels.
Foster measurably effective teamwork at the unit level that aligns nurses' personal and professional aspirations with organizational goals.
Retain experienced nurses with innovations that speak to their aspirations, like professional memberships or monthlong sabbaticals to conduct evidence-based studies.
Reaching Peak Success in the Future
Stuart Bunderson of Washington University in St. Louis studies people who experience work as a calling. Such people feel a moral duty to their work. This means they are willing to make sacrifices to serve. They are more present, more persistent and more productive. And a group's shared moral duty promotes strong group identification, giving meaning to their work lives. Many nurses want to feel a strong sense of calling and professional identity.
Hospital leaders can succeed better with QRP methods by encouraging nurses' personal and professional aspirations. Together, leaders and nurses can climb toward excellence in the pursuit of margin.
Richard Bogue, Ph.D., F.A.C.H.E., is the president of Courageous Healthcare in Orlando, Fla., and a lecturer at the University of Iowa College of Nursing in Iowa City.
Leadership & StrategyQuality & SafetyFinancePatient CareAffordable Care ActCNOCOONurse Watch
Nurses Will Play Key Role in Future of Health Care Reform, AHA Chief Says
President and CEO Rick Pollack tells RN execs at the AONE Annual meeting that their voices are needed now more than ever.
School Nurses Begin to Administer Opioid Antidote; Making it Easier for RNs to Self-Report Drug Abuse
Plus, Maine requires nurses to begin prescribing electronically and more in our weekly roundup of nurse news from the past week.
Four Measures that Are Key to Retaining Nurses
By providing independence, matching nursing skills to the patient mix, and reducing overtime, hospitals can help to ensure their nurses stay on the job.
Sharing the Vision: Facility Management as Key to Your Organization's Success
Optimizing Your Self-Funded Employee Health Plan


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Salisbury University Grad Student wins Country Artist of the Year
BY MIRANDA WYLIE
Last year, Salisbury University grad student Eric Karge was nominated in three categories by The Maryland Music Awards including "Country Artist of the Year," "Songwriter of the Year" and "Breakout Artist of the Year." After going through fan voting and making it into the final top five artists, a portfolio of songs was then reviewed by professionals in the industry.
After this rigorous process, on December 12, 2014 Karge was named "Country Artist of the Year" and he does not intend on stopping there.
"When someone wins an award, it opens the eyes of the listener but it also opened our eyes to another side of the state," Karge said. "I think that for this year, my goal is getting a few shows and playing for crowds I haven't played for yet."
As if that was not enough motivation, along with winning "Country Artist of the Year", Karge was named "Young Alumni of the Month" for February from High Point University. Despite all of these accomplishments happening in such a short time, he still remains humble and honored throughout his rise to fame.
"I play these professional shows, but I'm still Eric who sits in the back of the class, it's almost like living two lives," Karge said. "People recognize me, and I'm like, I'm from a cornfield and I go to Salisbury. When I say I'm a country singer, they're like, 'That's it! You're Eric Karge!'"
Along with booking shows, Karge is currently tackling two important projects.
One is a Master's degree in Applied Health Physiology, the other is a rock album dedicated to the men and women in the Marine Corps who serve and protect this country called "For My Brother…and His Brothers".
"For My Brother…and His Brothers" is Karge's first rock album, only purchasable as CD and a portion of the profits will be donated to a military benefit said to be released later this year.
"The army has so many songs; there are no songs about the marine corps," Karge said. "These guys deserve songs so in silence I started writing about the years they went through; it was a way to express myself and their experiences through music."
Karge says writing this album was extremely important to him. It tells the story of his brother who served in the Marine Corps from 2004-2010. Not only is it a personal album, it also shows his versatility as an artist to branch out into different genres.
"I kind of watched (my brother and his friends) from when they were wet behind the ears, to the early stages when they thought they were the biggest baddest dudes in the world, all the way to doing humanitarian missions," Karge said. "I watched them through the combat phase in Iraq and when they came back from Iraq, I watched their demeanor change; I started to learn what post-traumatic stress disorder was about."
As for school, Karge has a very firm grasp on his goal of achieve his M.A. in Applied Physiology. He puts heavy priority on working hard and maintaining his grades and even sites school as a source of inspiration to constantly grow and expound creatively.
"If you're not writing and creating, you get stale," he said. "When I'm working my brain cognitively, in my opinion it makes me write better."
Even though he has faced challenges and is constantly confronted with the limitations of his balancing act of school and music, he does not lose face. Instead, Karge reminds himself of the dreams and goals he wishes to accomplish and uses them as motivation to keep going.
"When I'm in Nashville I'm doing things that artists with record deals do. I write my own melodies, music and lyrics. It gets tough; you have to compete with guys who can financially do whatever they want," he said. "But you have to think how important is school, how important is music. I think once I get my master's degree, I'll be ready to do everything I want."


Today, as camera's role for Wonder Woman 1984, we get our 'First look'! The DC Super Hero's return has director Patty Jenkins reteaming with Star Gal Gadot.
Last years Wonder Woman was a big success with audiences and for Warner's Bros's bottom line. Let's hope with much of Patty's team returning the new film is blessed with the same magic!
Principal photography is now underway on Warner Bros Pictures' follow up to the Super Hero's first outing. Last summer's record-breaking Wonder Woman, which took in $822 million at the worldwide box office. Wonder Woman 1984 will also be helmed by acclaimed director Patty Jenkins, and star Gal Gadot in the title role.
The film also stars Kristen Wiig in the role of the Super-Villain The Cheetah, as well as Pedro Pascal. Chris Pine also returns as Steve Trevor.
Charles Roven, Deborah Snyder, Zack Snyder, Patty Jenkins, Stephen Jones and Gal Gadot are producing the film. With Rebecca Roven Oakley, Richard Suckle, Wesley Coller, Geoff Johns and Walter Hamada are the executive producers.
Joining her behind the scenes are several members of Jenkins' Wonder Woman team. This includes director of photography Matthew Jensen, Oscar-nominated production designer Aline Bonetto (Amélie), and Oscar-winning costume designer Lindy Hemming (Topsy-Turvy). Oscar-nominated editor Richard Pearson (United 93) will cut the film.
Production will take place in Washington, DC, Alexandria, Virginia, and in the UK, Spain and the Canary Islands.
Wonder Woman 1984 will open in theaters November 1st, 2019. It is based on the character created by William Moulton Marston, appearing in comic books published by DC Entertainment.
Warner Bros Pictures, a Warner Bros Entertainment Company, will be distributed the movie.