The client lies slumped across my shoulders. I have an arm around his thigh, another around his upper arm. His immaculately tailored silk pajamas are soft against my hand. They must feel amazing on his body. Right now, the client may as well be a loaded barbell, except his body gives and his weight shifts more as I walk toward the bed. The company seems to assign me only the heaviest clients. Not only do the ultra-rich not appreciate being bruised, though, once they're conscious again, they have the means to make sure you don't appreciate it either. There's a conversation drifting past on the side of the door, but the room is dark and silent. Slowly, I lower him then tuck him into the bed.
I do one final sweep of the hotel room to make sure everything is in order. His wallet, phone, and fountain pen are in the nightstand drawer. Check. His clothes have been unpacked and stowed in the dresser drawers or hanging in the closet. Check. His briefcase and business documents are sitting on the desk. Check. The hotel room is surprisingly small, but functional and tasteful. The wall art is abstract and modern. The furniture is all clean lines and rounded corners. The most garish thing in the room is the basket of champagne and caviar on the desk next to the briefcase. Whoever this client is, he came to work.
My job is to make sure that once he falls asleep in his bed in New York, he wakes up the next morning in this bed in Zurich. No airport security. No border security. No trace of travel at all. At no point does anyone produce a passport or have anything inspected. Whether bypassing all those layers of security is a necessity—say, he no longer has a passport and no other way to leave the country—or just a convenience is none of my business. Someone else in the company gets to make sure he wakes up in his own bed in New York after he falls asleep here in Zurich however many days from now. There are no short cuts here, just private jets and a lot of impeccably trained teammates doing the impossible. The company doesn't really have a name. Internally, we've always called ourselves BedEx. I'm sure someone found that funny once and it stuck.
I peel the patches off his temple then tuck them into my pants pocket. They've been keeping him in REM sleep and adjusting his circadian rhythms. He'll wake up in the morning—a few hours from now—already adjusted to UTC+1. I tap my earpiece and indicate the client has been installed. While I wait for the all-clear, I collapse the luggage bags—can't expect the ultra-rich to pack for themselves—for ease of carry. The room's key card slides under the door into the room. The process is more efficient if my teammates rectify the hotel's records while I'm installing the client and I've been trained to break into places way tougher to crack than hotel rooms. The process is also more efficient if we hack into the hotel's computers. So much faster than waiting for a hotel employee. Besides, our clients don't always stay under their own names and, this way, not only do they not need a passport, they don't need any ID at all. I place the key in the nightstand drawer next to the wallet, phone, and fountain pen. The all-clear arrives a matter of moments later and I dissolve into the night.
No one notices me sneaking out of the hotel and into a van in the parking lot. My two teammates nod at me as I enter then slide the door shut. Like me, they're dressed in work blacks. There's no substitute for actual physical access to computer systems when possible and we pride ourselves on making the impossible possible.
Our van speeds away. Of the three of us, one of us is going back to base for some sleep before her Zurich-Dublin job tonight. One of us has a few days off and he's taking it in Zurich. I have re-arranged my work schedule so that I can be in Boston tonight to catch Ayckbourn's Intimate Exchanges with Thom. Our first stop is the airport.
We do not wear our gear off-site off-duty. That violates our NDA. I need to be in normal clothes before they drop me off at the airport. Stripping out of my work blacks and changing into a pair of jeans and a T-shirt in the van is always a special experience. There's not a whole lot of room. It's a lot of twisting and writhing to wrestle the work blacks off me. All things considered, I'd rather not be naked in front my co-workers so it's sweater off, shirt off, T-shirt on, pants off, jeans on as quickly as possible. Nevertheless, the instant I pull off shirt or a pair of pants, someone always wolf whistles or cat calls.
Tonight, I get plenty of both from both of them. Since I'm going to Boston through Brussels then Toronto, there's even the predictable unfunny rhyme about "hauling Charlie's muscles to Brussels." That said, I never get anything like say, "sending Charlie back to Chinatown" even though my name is Charlie—Tsai, not Chan, my parents were strict, not intentionally evil—and, in this case, Toronto actually has a Chinatown. A vaguely racist joke is always right there but no one ever goes for it.
If one of my teammates on a job is a big, muscular guy—and the male teammates tend to be—he'll quip about my arms. Tonight's no exception. The guy staying in Zurich goes on about how he'd like to build a set like mine and asks me about what I do in the gym. Since the guys who do this are invariably the sleeve-busting sort—more so than I am as far as I can tell—it took me months before I realized they were complimenting me, not mocking me. Their questions are genuine not sarcastic. Now, I just squirm and mutter something about curling with a full range of motion.
My body apparently deserves this sort of reaction now. I'm still not used to it. It's not an exaggeration to say that I literally grew into this job. But the magic lightning that will change me into who I want to be hasn't struck me yet. I'm still waiting. Maybe after, some guy can compliment me on my body and I won't want to dissolve into the earth.
The only nice thing about the airport first thing in the morning is the lines are short. I always request the pat-down. Ironically, considering what I do for a living, what the company has done to my body means I will never make it through a body scan. The company does helpfully supply a note from a doctor should airport security somehow detect the pumps and other nanomachinery implanted in my body. Having some airport security guy get all handsy with me is annoying, but they do ask before they touch anything and none of them have ever prevented me from getting on a plane.
After that, my tiny backpack and I wait then sit in a plane whose seat is a little too narrow and has no leg room. I used to be the right size for airplane seats. It's only when I have to sit in one again that I remember that I'm not anymore. Still, I never put the seat back. It doesn't help me as much as it annoys whoever is behind me. Lather. Rinse. Repeat. Some fourteen hours or so later, I'm at Logan and still waiting. This time for the Silver Line, then the Red Line.
It'd all be easier if I could fall asleep in Zurich and wake up in my bed in Boston. No lines, no waiting, and no convincing US Customs that I'm a US citizen even as the Customs official has my US passport in hand. Magically, I'd cross international boundaries without Customs even noticing. Someone ought to come up with a service that does that. The rich, of course, play by different rules than you and me.
Thom is waiting for me just outside the theater. I see him as I sprint down Mass Ave., past the fish place, ducking and weaving around the sidewalk crowd. The flight arrived in Boston with just enough time for me to get home, pound down thirty-two ounces of protein shake, change into a belted pair of chinos and the dress shirt that fits, then get back onto the T to Central Square. The sophisticated technology inside me is playing all sorts of interesting games to keep me awake and alert. It'll be fine as long as I get some rest after the play.
He waves when he spots me. We met in grad school. In the university weight room, actually. I was the guy trapped between a loaded bar and the bench. He was the guy who set the bar on the rack then, rather than laughing, quoted Kander and Ebb at me. We may have bonded over the distinction between a cast album and a soundtrack. He showed me how to lift properly. We saw shows together. Sometimes, his boyfriend of the moment joined us. We kept in touch through texts after graduation. He moved here about a year ago for a residency at Mass General. Since I'm not in town a lot, we still text each other all the time.
Thom is this walking shard of sunshine, all warm and golden even on this winter night. He's rocking the grizzled face, cargo pants, and broken-in leather work boots. Even the bulky winter coat looks good on him. It's hard not to despair a little when I look at him. It's hard to remember the rest of the world exists when he smiles. All of that company training must be good for something because even as I see nothing but him, I don't crash into anyone. It's only when I reach him that I realize he's waiting by himself.
He hugs me. It's still weird be able to look at him eye-to-eye. He's never pointed out that I do that now. Maybe a few years apart are enough for him to forget that I used to be shorter than him.
"Where's Andy?" I ask. Thom doesn't have a type, as far as I can tell, except male. Short, tall, hulking, gaunt, light, dark, I've seen him date them all.
The theater is a flight of stairs up from the entrance. The usher at the door scans our tickets.
"You don't think I'm dangerous, do you?" If anything, I think of myself as more cuddly than dangerous.
The lights go down and the play starts. Alan Ayckbourn's Intimate Exchanges doesn't get produced much. It's a cycle of eight plays, each of which have two endings, or one play with four junctures where a character's choice causes the play to go in one of two directions. Doing all eight plays in repertory would take up an entire theater season. In this production, five seconds into the play, Celia always decides to smoke the cigarette. Whether Lionel goes on a date with Sylvie depends on which performance you catch. The production makes the next choice itself then polls the audience to decide which of the two possible endings they perform. Not even the actors know which ending they're heading towards until the end of the penultimate scene when dialogue from the ending they're about to perform plays over the sound system. It's not what Ayckbourn intended but this production has only a two-week run. Rehearsing and performing all the possibilities is impractical. As the audience applauds, I wonder about the choices we could have made and the choices we never had a chance to make.
We don't hit any bars after the play. Thom hugs me and we go our separate ways. It's weird how easily my arms reach around him now. Still not used to it.
On my days off, I eat, rest, work out, text Thom, and not much else. The three workouts and nine meals a day it takes to maintain my current shape doesn't leave much time for anything else. And I want to be fitter than I am now. Stronger. Tougher. More muscular. When I'm not in Boston, I inevitably spend the whole day on base. Eating, resting, working out, and texting fills the days until the company needs me again.
I've been lifting since college, but it didn't change my body the way the company did. It's not that I didn't get stronger in college. It's just that I lifted believing it would transform me into someone else. The truth, of course, is that if you are short and slight and you don't want to be, lifting doesn't actually help. It may fill out your frame, but your frame is still short and slight. The company recruited me in part because I worked out so hard at the gym, but not Thom, even though he worked just as hard and was literally standing right over there making me look all of twelve years old in comparison. Then again, Thom wouldn't have found the offer the company made to me appealing. He has probably never wanted to make his body anything other than what it already is.
They rebuilt me from the inside out. Molecular biologists rewrote my DNA. Surgeons cracked then extended most of my bones. They pulled out my shoulders, expanded my rib cage, stretched out my limbs to build me a taller, broader frame. I spent months of agony enduring metal frames jutting out of me, holding cracked halves of bone apart so they could knit together millimeter by millimeter. I looked like some sort of high tech porcupine. The nanomachinery implanted in me constructed and distributed chemicals through my body that sped my recovery and packed on mass. Over time, a flat chest began to bulge. Stick-like limbs thickened with sharp curves.
While the body was healing, they attached my mind to a virtual reality and taught me to fight. With my skeleton being stretched out, I could barely move in the real world, but, in the virtual world, my body was fluid, agile, and strong. Or it became that. At first, as in actual reality some months later, I spent a lot of time falling on my face. Time in the virtual world patterned my responses. They trained me in hand-to-hand combat and I lost count of how many weapons. I'm not the greatest fighter but I'm good enough. Or at least I hold my own sparring my workmates. I've never had to fight or use a weapon on a job yet, but I'm so prepared to do so.
I joined the company with the body I was born with but work for the company with the impossible body I was promised. As it turns out, this is not quite the body I want. Despite all the changes, I still feel like me, the scrawny grad student trapped under the bar. And the changes were drastic. Nothing the company did to build my body was approved for use on humans or even published as research. Laws, even the ones on what they can do to other people, don't really apply to the rich.
It's a few weeks later when, as Thom and I are texting each other, he asks when I'm free for coffee. There's nothing he can't say to me in a text, but I'll always rearrange my work schedule to see him in person. I'm in Hong Kong but, of course, he doesn't know that. A quick search of flights says I can fly home, have coffee with Thom, then fly back in time for my next job. Of course, if I could afford that, I wouldn't need this job. I managed Zurich to Boston only because I arranged for my following job to start there. The company covered part of the flight cost. Anyone with a lifestyle where they can fly from Hong Kong to Boston just for the afternoon can afford and can pull the strings to have his body reconstructed.
Asking around on the base, I work out some job trades that get me to Boston in a couple days. We just need our supervisors' approval. Mine agrees with a cryptic "Sure. You're ready for those sorts of jobs now," before she breaks the encrypted connection. The first job in the sequence that will take me back to Boston is innocuous. It's the one I was already assigned to. I go into the briefing during the flight out for the next one wondering what I've gotten myself into.
This extraction is like all the other ones I've done, except the client doesn't know we're coming. And the site isn't some expensive hotel or other piece of overpriced real estate. It's a camp site in the middle of nowhere. And it turns out we're not extracting the client. She's a worried and, apparently, fabulously wealthy mother in California. She's paid for a large crew of us to extract her teenage son. By the time the briefing is over, this extraction is nothing like any of the others I've done. Change a few of the details and we could be the kidnappers rather than the rescuers. Depending on the details of custody that we, the crew, aren't privy to, we may still be the kidnappers.
We unlock and drive through the camp's gate. I recognize the sign overhead and the buildings on the grounds. Conversion camps stay around as long as there are parents who want to make their son a Real Man, I guess.
The barracks are cold and dark. It stinks of sweat and urine. The kid is chained to his bed. Welts cover his body. The camp's techniques haven't changed and he's apparently as bad at being a Real Man as I am. It's hard to look at the rows of sleeping teenagers without being reminded that they are me when I was their age. A teammate hands me a set of keys and I snap to.
The patches that will keep him in REM sleep fit snugly against his temples. The manacles unlock with a soft click. I move the chains out of the way slowly to avoid making any more noise than I have to. He is too light. His body is a tree in winter, all thin and angular. I barely feel it across my shoulders. Several more of him wouldn't weigh me down and there are a couple dozen here. I don't free any more of them, though. It's not in the plan. I tell myself that maybe they all have one rich parent who can steal them away from the machinations of the other rich parent. I know it's not true.
His bedroom in his mother's house is ostentatiously comfortable. The air is thick and warm. An overstuffed bed sits against one wall. Shelves of books line another. Dance gear litters the floor. It's going to be a while before his body is tough enough and strong enough to dance again. He should be in a hospital, but I'm sure we advised against it when we booked the job. Her house has more layers of security should anyone want to steal her son back.
The next job is much more typical. High Powered Executive is extracted from her elegant high-rise condo. High Powered Executive is installed in her discreet but absurdly tasteful hotel suite. The hotel's bottled water is thawing ice from a hundred thousand year old glacier. When you open the bottle, trapped air from a distant age attacks your senses. Or so I gather.
Several more flights and I'm headed to a coffee shop in Davis Square running on too little sleep. When the plane lands it's such that I can hit Davis Square within a few minutes of when Thom says he's free for lunch. This is either perfect or perfectly awful. I don't get to choose how well flight schedules and Thom's schedule play with each other or, rather, don't play with each other. The nanomachinery inside me manufactures chemicals that force me awake. I've barely rested since the briefing for the conversion camp job. To line up jobs to get you where you need to be when you need to be there, something generally has to give. It'll be all right as long as I rest eventually.
Thom hugs me when we meet. Somehow, I always manage to let go when he lets go. He orders some drink that takes a minute to describe. The clerk repeats it back to him perfectly. I stare at the drinks board for what feels like a millennium before I give up and order the gigantic herbal ice tea. There are already enough stimulants racing inside me. We get our drinks and go to a table next to the shop's giant street side window. He seems to grow as he takes off his denim jacket. It obscured the way his chest and arms bulge, depriving the world of his perfection.
"How's Jamal?" I sit across from him and clutch my iced tea like a giant sippy cup.
The question punches the air out of my lungs. Thom won't believe the truth. He's not rich enough to have heard of the secretive company that specializes in extracting and installing people. Half of what they did to me are things no one outside the company know are even possible.
His eyebrows rise. His face writhes trying to stifle a laugh.
He tries to put me into a joint lock. I slip out of it before I've even thought about what I'm doing. We're not really sparring. There's no follow through and I just manage to keep myself still rather than fight back. He's just hugging me now, his grip like a drowning man on water-soaked shard of deadwood. Eventually, he pulls back, his hands still around my shoulders. His gaze narrows. We both know my reactions aren't what they would have been when I was in grad school.
The idea of lying to him makes me sick so I violate my NDA for him and risk some of the truth. I don't tell him about the gene resequencing but I do tell him about the surgery to stretch out my skeleton. Distraction osteogenesis. What they did to me is more involved than that, but close enough. I tell him about the cocktail of drugs rushing through me, but I leave out the implanted nanomachinery and I don't mention my job at all. Throughout all of this, Thom just nods.
Thom can't understand. He's wrestled all his life. All-American in college. When I first met him, even now, he's always been on the deadly side of handsome. He doesn't know what it's like to be towered over.
"What's it to you, Thom? Just let me do what I want." I'm still waiting for the magic lightning to strike. I'm still waiting to feel big, brave, and strong.
He puts on his coat. It's like watching a superhero bury himself in his mortal disguise. He nods at me, then leaves.
I text Thom between jobs. He never answers. The man goes through boyfriends like he changes shirts but we've been friends for over a decade so I hoped we'd be different. Guess not. I know what I have to text him to get him to text me back. All I have to do is tell him he's right and that I'll stop with the chemicals and I'll quit this job. My hands freeze, my heart pounds too hard, and I can't breathe whenever I try to text him the lie. I stop texting him instead. Not being able to talk to him tears me to pieces, though, and I can feel my life ebbing out through the wounds.
The next few months grind on. I pick people up. I set them back down. I pick up heavy weights. I set them back down. My body is its usual never not sore. I date a guy from work. Bad idea. I'll never do that again. So little in my life has changed but everything is different. Thom is this palpable lack, a void that nothing can fill. The only thing pushing me from one day to the next is a concert production of The Golden Apple in New York City in May. I'm counting down the days. The show is almost never produced and who knows when I'll have another chance to see it.
The company is assigning me to fewer hotels now and more campsites, hole-in-the-walls, and odd shacks in the middle of nowhere. Sometimes, we are chased extracting or installing the client. Most of the time, we aren't. The job I swap into so that I can be in NYC in time for The Golden Apple almost doesn't surprise me.
As with all of our operations, it's the middle of the night. This one will take literally two dozen of us. In addition to mics and earpieces, we are outfitted with combat armor and a wide variety of weapons. It's one thing to know the company has military-grade weaponry. It's another to have it issued to you for a job. The nano-scale chemical factory inside me keeps my mind focused and my heart from pounding through my chest. We go through our obligatory checks then we load into the helicopters.
The helicopters have a stealth mode. They whisper towards the compound. High walls surround a two-story building. One helicopter lands just outside. My workmates stream out to secure the perimeter. The other hovers just inside the walls. Ropes drop. We slide into courtyard. One after another, we rush out of the way of the one above us as we hit the ground.
Unlike most of our operations, there's no sneaking in and out of this one. Explosives blow out a house wall and door. We rush in then fan out through the house, looking for the hostage. Plan A, as always, is to find her and whisk her away before anyone can mount a response.
My partner and I sweep room by room down a hall on the second floor. The first few rooms are empty. The door to the next is blocked by something on the other side. I step back, aim just below the doorknob, then kick as hard as I can. The door splinters off its hinges. Something skids, thuds then crashes. Screams tear through the air. Except for the noise, that worked much better than I expected.
We get the signal to leave over our earpieces as we examine the people on the bed. They're neither dangerous at the moment or, obviously, the hostage, not that anyone expected to find the hostage just sitting in a bedroom. On the way back to the helicopter, the hostage is asleep, wrapped in a blanket. She's a string draped over the woman carrying her. We all load into the helicopters with breathless precision. They take off. Dust bursts in silent plumes from the ground.
The client has obtained a bed for the hostage at a military hospital in the States. Again, the rules for the rich are different from the rest of us. You don't even need to change any of the details of this job for us to be the ones taking her hostage rather than the ones rescuing her. We install her then the team breaks up, most of us headed off to the nearest base. In my case, I change my clothes in the van to the usual jeers and compliments then they drop me off at the bus station. It's still the middle of the night and the bus to New York City won't be for a few more hours.
Sleep isn't really something I do any more. Too many drills where someone comes at me with a knife while I'm in bed means I rest but I don't know that I ever really sleep. Right now, though, I can't even rest. Knocking myself out or taking a little something to just to relax me is always an option. After all, there's a complex and sophisticated chemical factory installed in my body essentially at my command. At the bus station, though, the former is a bad idea and I never do the latter. Maybe it's odd considering the chemicals I do pump through my body, but there are lines I don't cross.
While I wait for the bus, I close my eyes and the job replays in my imagination. It's stupid what weighs my mind. Maybe I over-estimated how solid the door was. Or maybe assuming I always need to hit as hard as I can is not a good idea anymore. Mostly, though, my imagination is stuck on the faces of those huddled on the bed. Not that they were the epitome of calm before, but a couple shifted to panic and the rest to a flinty stoicism as I stepped into the room. Maybe strangers have been shifting to their "This is how I meet Death" face when they first see me for a while now, but I've only just noticed. There are too many scenarios where we all meet Death together. That is, if the chemicals that make me who I am don't kill me first.
Is it even possible to quit this job? In theory, yes. They've always made it clear that I can hand in my resignation and walk away at any time. But do I want to? The company specializes in stealth extraction and installation. If I quit, I'll wake up one day with a few days unaccounted for and mysterious scars across my body. They don't need to leave scars but they will to make sure I know. The nano-scale chemical plant that makes me me or at least gives me the chance to become who I want to be will be gone.
Who I was in grad school is just a bad memory never to return. They've lengthened my limbs, pulled out my shoulders and expanded my rib cage. None of that will go away. If I survive the sudden, drastic shift removing the nanomachinery will inflict on body chemistry, I won't regress to my old self. My chance to become who I want, though, will be gone. I'll become this tallish, gaunt figure instead. Plenty of amazing people are tall and gaunt but, after years of being whatever I am now, it's not what I want for myself. And I can't make myself want that.
That's why the company recruited me in the first place, I realize. And why they never recruited Thom. They spent who knows how much money on this body certain they'd make their investment back. Because, even if my rational mind understands becoming ever harder and more muscular won't make the magic lightning strike me, I'd still rather die than quit.
I stare at my sent message for who knows how long. People start to line up for the bus to New York and I join them.
Every city has its own tempo. New York City's is allegro. It is so easy to become one with the crowds on the sidewalks of Manhattan. In short, swift steps, I dodge and weave around the pedestrians, a Quickstep against the Mambo of the city. I don't know why I'm in such a hurry. When I get to City Center, Thom won't be there. His empty seat next to mine is going to be this visible reminder of the gaping maw in my life. Maybe I'm rushing to that doom because almost no one ever produces The Golden Apple, a folk opera re-telling of The Iliad and The Odyssey re-set to the turn of 20th-century America. I can easily die before I have another chance to see it.
The usher hands me a program then points me to my seat. It's empty, which is good. A broad, solid, ostentatiously grizzled man is in the seat next to mine, which is not. I recognize him instantly. There's a hard elegance to him that's obvious even when he's seated a dozen feet away. The person behind me in line has to push at my back before I stumble down the aisle. The remaining steps to my seat feel like city blocks. Falling out of helicopter then charging into building to face the unknown was easier.
Thom smiles at me. Not a "well, how awkward is this?" smile but the real thing. If he keeps it up, this concert production won't be able to go on because the house will be too bright. He doesn't offer me a hug and I'm too scared he'll refuse to spread my arms to ask for one. I just take the seat next to his.
I have no idea who he's dating now. It's been months since we last talked. He rolls his eyes.
The program is now this tightly wound, twisted stick in my hand. I've squeezed it so hard as we were talking, its pages are now crinkled and tattered. Slowly, I force my hand open and the program falls into my lap.
"Oh, I see." Actually, I have no idea what he means, but I wonder at his faith in me.
My hand slides down to cover his on the arm rest. I want to feel a shock, as though his faith that I'll eventually come around is enough to jolt me into strength and bravery. Life isn't that simple though. His hand doesn't turn to clasp mine, but it doesn't pull away either.
"Yeah, if I could, it would be." He shrugs and smiles.
The house lights go down. The stage lights and curtain go up. The conductor walks onto the stage to the applause of the crowd. He raises his hands. The applause ends and the overture starts.


Rdella needed a new logo design and created a contest on 99designs.
Former Sports Medicine Physical Therapist/Strength & Conditioning Specialist and Trainer putting together a New Site that Teaches Innovative Exercise approaches through text, audio, video to specific target market. Cutting Edge and time efficient exercise and lifestyle training to inspire, educate, and transform customers in a unique and integrative online approach and experience. Many, many years in health, fitness, and medicine, establishing authority of the brand and providing an individualistic and targeted approach for specific market. Many facets to business approach, but my background and experience is central to the brand. Also, will be collaborating with other fitness experts on future products and services.
Target audience are "busy moms and dads" that are roughly between the ages of 25-55. This is an established market, and a somewhat established niche. Prospects seeking information on time efficient fitness programs and nutrition/lifestyle information and education. Will be offering products and 'systems' to this market, complete approaches to getting fit and keeping fit. Market is seeking proven information from a trusted source, proven methods, no gimmicks, and solutions to their challenges. Main advantage is time efficient and proven programs that can be done conveniently at home in an innovative approach.
Looking for a clean, but strong visual appeal logo with SmartHomeFitness.com Color scheme is blue/grey, thinking maybe having "Smart" bolded or emphasized, as well as "Fitness" emphasized. The word "Home" may be unbolded or different color, so that the Smart Fitness is what stands out. Possibly a design/logo of the 3 letters "SHF", in front of Smart HomeFitness.com, surrounded with a border box, may look decent.
If there is room for a tag line, it would be "Get Fit in Less Time", which is what Smart Home Fitness is, a time challenge solution for fitness.


1 of 2 side-by-side adjacent 0.23 acre buildable lot available in Port Malabar Unit 32 of Palm Bay. The residential lots are on 449 and 457 Falls Church. Located near Bayside Lakes in the southwest section, this lot is just 3.7 miles - 9 minutes from Winn-Dixie Shopping Market, 1.0 mile - 2 minutes to Bayside High School, 12.9 miles - 28 minutes to Melbourne International Airport, and 14.7 miles - 29 minutes to the beaches of Indialantic. From exit 176 of I-95, go west on Palm Bay Road NE for .7 miles, turn left onto Minton Road for 3.3 miles, right on Jupiter Blvd. SW for .1 mile, left on DeGroodt Rd. SW for 1.9 miles, and right on Falls Church St. SW. The property will be on your right. You can purchase both lots for more privacy and room, or just a larger home.


text:
Livingbridge's Strategic Advisory Board brings together an experienced group of senior figures from international business, politics and finance.
The board provides counsel on political, economic, social, regulatory and technological matters and offers informed perspectives on how these might impact Livingbridge's business and investment strategy.
Dame Alison Carnwath, Chair
Following nine years as chairman of Landsec, the UK's largest listed property developer, Alison currently holds non-executive positions at BP, Zurich Insurance Group, and PACCAR Inc, one of the largest manufacturers of medium and heavy-duty trucks in the world. Alison was made a Dame for Services to Business in 2014.
She is senior advisor to independent investment banking advisory firm Evercore Partners, supervisory board member and audit committee chairman of BASF, the world's largest chemical producer, and independent non-executive director of BP.
Alison is also a member of the Advisory Council of the St George's Society of New York and advisor to the University of Exeter Business School. She was been a non-executive director of Livingbridge from 2001-2016.
Edward Bonham Carter
Edward is Director of Stewardship and Corporate Responsibility at Jupiter Asset Management, supporting the work of the CIO office and the Governance and Sustainability team. Edward was Vice Chairman of Jupiter Fund Management plc from March 2014 to May 2021, when he stepped down from the Jupiter Board. Prior to that he was Chief Executive Officer of the Company from June 2007. During his time as CEO, Edward steered the Company through an MBO in 2007 and its successful IPO in June 2010.
Edward is Senior Independent Director at both Land Securities Group plc and ITV plc; Chairman of Netwealth Investments; a Trustee of the Esmée Fairbairn Foundation; and a Director of The Investor Forum.
Edward has a degree in Economics and Politics from Manchester University. He started his career at Schroders (1982-1986), followed by eight years at Electra Investment Trust before joining Jupiter. He has over 35 years' experience in the investment market and has extensive knowledge of the fund management business.
Amee Chande
Independent director since June 2020
Amee Chande is a corporate director and strategy consultant. Ms. Chande sits on the boards of Air Canada, Algonquin Power and Utilities Corp, and Thumbtack. She is also a senior advisor to leading companies in the mobility sector such as ChargePoint.
In 2019, Ms. Chande was Chief Commercial Officer for Waymo, Google's self-driving car project, where she was responsible for defining the overall strategy and laying the foundation for a strong commercial business. From 2015 to 2018, she was a Managing Director at Alibaba Group where she was the first senior executive hired to lead globalization. Ms. Chande has also held divisional Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer roles at global retailers including Tesco, Staples and Walmart in both Europe and the United States. She began her career as a strategy consultant with McKinsey & Company.
Ms. Chande holds a Bachelor of Business Administration degree from Simon Fraser University, a Master of Science degree from the London School of Economics and a Master of Business Administration from Harvard Business School.
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Andy Harrison
Andy became chairman of Dunelm plc in 2015 having joined the board as a non-executive director the previous year. Prior to this, Andy was CEO of three public companies: Whitbread plc (2010-2015), easyJet plc (2005-2010) and Lex/RAC plc (1996 – 2005).
Whilst at Whitbread Andy led a programme of rapid organic growth, tripling the company's market capitalisation to £9bn, making it a FTSE 50 company. Andy also spent 9 years at Courtaulds Textiles, firstly as CFO, during its IPO in 1990, and then MD of Courtaulds International Fabrics and Home Furnishings.
Andy has an MBA (and is a Distinguished Alumnus of) Cranfield School of Management and an MA from Pembroke College, Cambridge University. He is a mentor for J&A Mentoring Partners.
Lord Livingston of Parkhead
Ian served as Minister of State for Trade and Investment from 2013 to 2015. Prior to this, he was Group CEO at BT Group plc from 2008 to 2013, having previously been CEO at BT Retail, and Group CFO. Previous roles also include chairman of Man Group plc, and non-executive director of Celtic plc and Belmond Ltd.
From 1996 to 2002 Ian held the position of CFO at Dixons Group plc, after holding a number of roles over more than a decade in the company. Ian is currently a chairman of Dixons Carphone plc, a serving member of the House of Lords and a trustee on the board of Jewish Care.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


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The Celebrity Books You Need To Read
Running out of books? Have plenty of books you have yet to read but still have the itch to buy a new one? Haven't actually read a book in a while and feel like you probably should? Keep reading. We at Bombshell love books almost as much as we love pop culture. So we combined the two to give you a list of the books written by celebs that are total must reads!
We're Going to Need More Wine – By Gabrielle Union
Ever the overachiever, Gabrielle Union's book was a New York Times Bestseller, was nominated for the NAACP award for outstanding literary work, and was chosen by Emily Staub as the best new celebrity memoir.
Union published the book in 2017 to rave reviews. We're Going to Need More Wine is a collection of powerful essays covering her life and the issues that impact it. From race reactions to sexual assault to bullying to the strain of beauty standards, no stone is left unturned.
Born A Crime – Trevor Noah
Unlike many celebrity autobiographies, Trevor Noah's is strictly about the time before he became famous. Born A Crime is a coming-of-age story with a difference. Noah was born to a white Swiss father and a black Xhosa mother in a time when their union was a crime that could lead to 5 years behind bars. The book follows Noah's attempts to protect himself from the ever-present danger that the government could take him away. And how his life changed after South Africa's liberation.
Year Of Yes- Shonda Rhimes
In Year of Yes TV legend Shonda Rhimes chronicles the transformative year in which she started saying yes to everything. Despite her mega-stardom Rhimes is an introvert who would say no to invitations constantly until her sister called her out on it. It was that specific challenge that set the book in motion. Given her background in writing, it's probably unsurprising that her book would be great.
I am Iman– Iman Mohamed Abdulmajid
This book is not a typical autobiography. Its blurb describes it as "a gloriously entertaining hybrid essay on the cultural-cum-political power of good looks". I am Iman is a collaborative work with a number of celebrity contributors and 25 years' worth of Iman's photos. The book has words from Bell Hooks, Tyra Banks, Naomi Campbell and more. Of course, the subject herself also has her say on her career, impact and the place of Black women in the fashion industry. A brief but fascinating read.


Too Much Mulch: It Can Kill Your Tree!
It's been a chilly winter and we are so glad to see Dallas residents and businesses applying mulch in their landscapes and around their trees. However, we're seeing that many homeowners or landscapers have applied too much mulch around the base of their trees. Sometimes too much of a good thing can be a bad thing!
When you apply mulch as seen in the photo below, moisture gets trapped against the bark of the tree, softening it and allowing for pests and pathogens to easily pass through under the bark. Over time, this can lead to disease, decline and eventually death. During that time, the tree can become week and hazardous to your family and home.
Rather than pile mulch around the base of your tree, instead put down an inch of much around the base of the tree then create a taller "donut" of mulch a couple of feet out from the base of the trunk. This is generally referred to as a "berm".
In essence, you create a moat that catches water and allows it to be better absorbed by feeder roots, rather than trapping it against the trunk.
Have more questions about using mulch properly? Email us through our Contact Page or ask us directly on Facebook or Twitter.


There are currently 2 homes available in Chapel Ridge Estates with an average price of $435,200. For availability or more information about homes for sale in Chapel Ridge Estates call Ron Chastain at 770-744-3488 .
Chapel Ridge Estates is located in Ellenwood GA, Henry County. There are currently 2 homes active and for sale inside the neighborhood with the average price being $435,200. The number of homes for sale in Chapel Ridge Estates is always changing so if you see a home you like and you would like to schedule a time to take a look please give me a call at 770-744-3488.


In order to be a successful DB2 pureScale DBA, one has to learn how to diagnose and fix TSA. Though, this is not necessary but it will help to fix cluster in case you run into situation when you get messages like "SQL1517N db2start failed because the cluster manager resource states are inconsistent." or something like "Cluster manager resource states for the DB2 instance are inconsistent. Refer to the db2diag.log for more information on inconsistencies." When you try to repair resources using command db2cluster -cm -repair -resources and you may receive an error stating that repair resources failed and "Refer to the db2cluster command log file. This log file can be found in /tmp/ibm.db2.cluster.*."
If repair resources fail which was supposed to get you out of trouble, it becomes an issue for how to fix the error. The first course of action to open a PMR and get through all procedures to be done before an exact cause is found.
Fixing a db2 pureScale cluster is nothing but knowing something about TSA. DB2 has provided all necessary commands to rebuild all resources. This should be done when you have all DB2 member hosts and CF hosts are available and online. Do not attempt to drop and try to rebuild resources if any of the hosts in your pureScale topology is down.
Note: Two very important files needed in pureScale recovery or rebuilding of resources are: 1. global.reg – which is normally in /var/db2 folder. Each host has its local registry file and you should make efforts to regularly backup /var/db2/global.reg from each hosts. 2. instancedef.reg – which is a shared file common to all hosts and it is in shared instance directory. For example, if your shared instance mount point is /db2sd, then this file should be in /db2sd/db2psc/sqllib_shared/cfg/instancedef.reg. When you run db2greg – dump, you get the output from /var/db2/global.reg and db2hareg -dump output comes from /sqllib_shared/cfg/instancedef.reg. These files are managed by db2.
I have been working in DB2 pureScale since original version DB2 9.8. Billions of gallons of water has flown since in river Hudson. DB2 pureScale is one of the best IBM technologies and I am very passionate about this. Not a week passes by, when I am not involved in some kind of pureScale work. The technology is getting newer functionality through new fix packs or new release.
You should test information given in this article in your test environment to gain an experience first. It is not a good idea to experiment this in your production cluster, if you encounter an error and need to fix it. No matter how clearer I can be in my instructions, you should always take things with a grain of salt and not trust it unless you do your own test. May be, I am that way and I like to test things out before making a judgement if this would work or not.
Assume that your db2start is failing or one of the member is not starting and you need a quick fix.
The quick fix assumes that you have all hosts up and running and you have a last good working copy of global.reg, instancedef.reg and netmon.cf. Since you are going to rebuild the cluster TSA resources, an outage will be required and follow this procedure.
All commands prefixed with # assumes to be run as root and $ with instance owner.
Save files /var/ct/cfg/netmon.cf and /var/ct/cfg/trace.conf as the following command will reset all RSCT configuration.
And, repeat above command on all hosts before running the following command.
Restore netmon.cf and trace.conf files. Repeat following on all hosts.
Reboot all hosts. –> Do not ignore this.
Run this on all hosts to exchange keys for communication assuming that you have names of nodes as node02 and node03.
Make sure that you wait for lsrpnode to show all nodes online on all hosts.
When you run command, db2instance -list, it will result into an error since no resources are defined.
Use same domain name that was found using lsrpdomain name. And add all other hosts.
Please note: When you run /usr/sbin/rsct/install/bin/recfgct on all hosts, it will wipe out existing RSCT configuration. The critical file for successful CF start is /var/ct/cfg/netmon.cf and save this file before running this recfgct command on each host.
Did you notice that we changed the peer domain name from db2domain_20160419233240 to just db2domain? This change won't affect starting the db2 but adding / dropping a member or updating the instance will fail since we changed the name of the domain. To fix this, you need to update the name of the peer domain to the correct one that we used.
The following steps are only required if you change the name of the RSCT domain name.
Repeat this on all hosts that are part of the peer domain so that the update of the instance using db2iupdt does not fail.
If for some reason, tie-breaker disk needs to be changed. Get 1 GB disk provisioned to all hosts through your SAN admin. Run lspv command on each hosts to check if it has a PVID or not, which should be same. If the lspv command does not show a PVID, follow the procedure.
Run this command on first host.
Run the following commands on all other hosts.
After RSCT domain is created, now it is time to rebuild the resources.
Please note that in order to repair resources correctly, we should have a known working copy of global.reg and db2instance.reg as outlined above. If due to any reason whatsoever, if these files are damaged or updated with some wrong entries, restore these files from you last good file system backup. This will save you lots of time and energy.
After resources are repaired successfully, you can check the output of lssam and match it with the last known output.
When you change the RSCT domain name, the entry in global.reg PEER_DOMAIN must be updated to the new name on each host through db2greg command so that future db2iupdt commands to make any change does not fail.
Check the network adapter settings before changing the host failure detection time .
Change host failure detection time.
Check the network adapter settings after changing the host failure detection time.
pureScale runs better on POWER.
DB2 pureScale is much more than DB2. It is a combination of 4 IBM technologies.
If someone says to you that you do not have to worry about GPFS, TSA and RSCT as they are tightly integrated, do not believe it. You have to know enough so that you can recover from failovers.
Every DBA who likes to call themselves as DB2 pureScale DBA must pass through these tests before saying boldly to their management that they are ready to go in production. If you gain experience in the following, I can guarantee you that your market value will increase by 30-50% and you will have unquestionable job security.
Tests that a DBA must perform after a DB2 pureScale instance is created and your first database is created.
Create second database and see if you can successfully activate it. You will need DB2_DATABASE_CF_MEMORY knowledge.
Ask your application folks to run an application. Check if you are getting workload balancing or not. If not, your WLB is not working. The easiest is to check the connections at each member. If a member does not show any connection, WLB did not work. Check enableSysplexWLB connection parameter for Java application and enableWLB for CLI in your db2dsdriver.cfg file.
While an application is running and getting its workload balanced across all members. Run the following tests for continuous availability. Open a command line window on any of the member and run db2instance -list in a loop to check the state of the cluster.
Kill ca-server process on primary CF and check if other CF became primary or not.
Run OS shutdown command on any host and it should get a reboot instead of the shutdown. You can't shutdown a machine from OS in pureScale.
Power back on db2 member and check if it integrates automatically in the cluster or not.
Shutdown network interface by using ifdown eth0 command and watch what happens.
Put back both the SAN cables to both ports and watch the cluster recovery. It should be all automatic.
If you have 2 switch configuration for private and public network, power down one switch and it should not affect anything.
If you have two switch for SAN, power down one and it should not impact anything.
Power down any of CF and it should not impact anything.
Run online backup from any DB2 member and while backup is happening, power down other db2 member and it should come back up automatically.
Power up whole system again including network, SAN and hosts and db2 pureScale should come up automatically including starting of the db2 instance.
How to commit the online update.
If you are using RDMA, how to switch to socket communication. Tip: Use registry variable DB2_CA_TRANSPORT_METHOD=SOCKETS even if DBM CFG CF_TRANSPORT_METHOD is set to RDMA.
Once you do all of the above tests and procedures, you can then have your job security. Do not mess with your job and put your foot down before you say that you are ready unless you have done above in your own and company's good interests.
I have worked with thousands of customers and I used to think that POWER is no different than Intel platform and I really did not believe that db2 on POWER takes less number of CPU than other databases until I did this test myself with a customer. We replaced famous RED database with DB2 and we were using 1/2 vCPU using same workload without sacrificing the performance. Since then, I am working on POWER more than ever before after realizing its strengths. Of course, it feels better when you drive a premium car.
IBM DB2 pureScale career is much more rewarding than any other DBA career. I say this due to my experience. You get paid well and once you know it well, you can't be replaced.


So what if I told you that could could start investing a little bit every day starting today, and I mean right now today, without even missing the money? Enter Acorns. Acorns is a tool for automatic investing using your spare change. Really, your spare change. In amounts so small that some people can't even be bothered to pick up a few coins off the sidewalk.
Here's how it works. You create an account on Acorns and link it to your credit or debit card. Then every time you make a purchase with your linked card(s), Acorns will invest the spare change up to the next dollar. So if you went to the grocery store and spent $23.47 and then stopped on the way home for a coffee that was $3.59, Acorns would automatically invest $.53 and $.41 into your account. Once you set it up it's completely ambient and you do absolutely nothing. And since it's just a few cents at a time, you don't really miss the money at all.
To learn more, check out this 1-minute informational video.
Where Does Acorns Invest My Money?
Acorns will automatically allocate a fund of stocks and bonds to invest your money in based on your age and your tolerance for risk. It will recommend a fund for you, but you are able to make changes if you'd like. For beginners, I would recommend keeping your money in the fund they suggest for you. Want to know more about what kind of funds Acorns invests your money in? Check out this video on where your money goes and how Acorns uses something called fractional share investing to invest pennies to get you small fractions of more expensive stocks.
Acorns keeps fees to a minimum and at zero if you're a student. For accounts under $5,000, you pay just $1 a month, which they automatically deduct from your account. Students who have a .edu email account are able to use the service for free up to four years.
If you follow this link to sign up, Acorns will start you out with an extra $5 in your account and I'll get a few dollars too. You know, as a thank you to me for telling you about this painless way to start investing.
In an upcoming post, I'll tell you about a way to get even more free money for your Acorns account.


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Sat, 25 Jan 2014 08:21:00 PST
We are happy to share some especially good news about the environment! It's important to celebrate the victories as we navigate this long road to a thriving world.
Download the audio file (right click and choose Download or Save As…)
Read a transcript of the audio (to translate the transcript, choose your language at the top of this page)
Foster: Here's a quick Good News Tuesday summarizing a few breakthroughs in the area of the Environment.
First of all, Kaua'i has won their legal battle to regulate toxic spraying of pesticides as well as banning new GMO crops.
Newfoundland…their government has announced a moratorium on the practice of fracking.
And, when I was in Australia last year, doing a Thrive tour, the two biggest issues that I was asked about wherever I went (the two big issues that were going on over there), were fracking as well as the carbon tax because Australia is kind of a guinea pig for this move toward a global carbon tax right now. The new Prime Minister of Australia, who has just come into his position, has announced that he is going to get rid of the carbon tax. Virtually every small business owner that I talk to in Australia was suffering under the burden of the carbon tax. Some of them had had their taxes double and triple. It was basically running them out of business, leaving only the great big players. But, from a larger perspective, the big threat of the carbon tax is that it is planned and has been well documented to create the legal basis as well as the tax basis for a one-world government. This was started at the Copenhagen Conference in 2009 under the guise of stopping global pollution. The attempt was being made to try to create this law which would gather money from all over the world and then give it to the World Bank to run this new one-world government with a new set of laws. I was thrilled to see that in Australia this hasn't worked and they're getting rid of it.
In Boulder, CO, a recent vote shortly after Goa and I were there at the Breakthrough Energy Movement Conference, the citizens there voted to reject the domination of this company called Xcel Corporation who has had a monopoly on their utility. With what they've passed with their recent vote, they basically secured for their community the opportunity to access energy from a whole variety of alternative and renewable sources. This battle is being fought in cities and counties all across the country.
Finally, Israel has committed to ending their water fluoridation in 2014, citing health concerns, because they have begun to look at the studies and look at the results and they're seeing that people are getting sick from having fluoride in their water. So that, too, can be a model to communities all over the world to not let toxic waste be put in your water under false pretenses.
So that's it for now on the Environmental Good News update. Thanks. Bye.
Kauai County Council overrides veto of Bill 2491 — Hawaii News Now
Moratorium on fracking announced by Newfoundland government — The Telegram
Aussie PM: carbon tax is 'socialism' — The Daily Caller
Boulder utility clears hurdle as voters reject Xcel-backed Question 310 — Boulder Daily Camera
Israel commits to ending water fluoridation by 2014, citing major health concerns — Natural News


Why does Arrow use the boxy, see through supports, When B&M use the long tubular ones? Does one provide more structural support than the other? I think the Arrow supports are an eye-sore.
If FoF got that great of a makeover than why can't I?
yeah, i think the B&M supports look cool. they look more modern. i'd guess they both give about the same amount of support, probably.
Nee,Bigkirby geen lol.haha.ze begrijpen er niks van.
I think B&M's suports cost a little more than arrows because of it's a larger amount of steel. With arrow, they use a smaller amount of steel, but combine much more of it. So I'm not really sure which costs more, but when I look at a B&M, it just looks a little more expensive to me.
I like Intamin's over both of theirs. The separate structure towers supporting the hyper/giga lift. Except Expedition G-Force. That has the long, tubular ones.
Lynch, about that.... I saw a picture of the Pepsi Max Big One at night, and it has a really amazing lighting system. WOW! It looked stunning! Kind of like MF when it's lit with just white light. When lit right, those supports that can be an eyesore are beautiful!
Raging Bull looks awesome in the B&M supports. Personally, I think the B&M supports make Bull seem less than 202 feet.
I think its all about design. Even the tracks are different. B&M just chooses to use a different style of support.
IT is weird though because they have there roots connected somehow. thats probably why they split off, they all had different tastes for things.


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Brighton Billing Specialist's Zion Adventure Sparks Creativity
Nancy Hallahan
"I believe that the confidence and focus I find in the Wild West will come home with me to make me a more creative, focused, and thoughtful individual."
Danielle Westfall, Brighton billing specialist, shared this sentiment, along with a description of her "bucket list" national park adventure, in her winning 2022 sabbatical entry. She submitted the essay in answer to CEO Tina VonderHaar's biannual question, "What would you do with an extra week of vacation and $1,500 spending cash to help you become a better Brightonian?"
"I would like to spend time disconnected from technology and be able to reflect on what is truly important in life," Danielle wrote. "I think this will allow me to focus better and bring more enthusiasm and creativity to my work at Brighton. If chosen for this trip, I would love to take the chance to see Zion National Park in Utah. I would stay in a cabin to spend a few days exploring, hiking, photographing and journaling my way through the trails within the park. After exploring and taking in what nature has to offer during the day, I plan to sit near a campfire to transcribe my thoughts and reflect on what is around me and what I want to create ahead in my life."
Danielle recently returned from her sabbatical, and she certainly made the most of it. She logged 3,574 travel miles, climbed 869 feet and walked/hiked 74,650 steps – more than 35 miles.
She has more than memories of the excursion; she sharpened her photography skills and captured dozens of beautiful landscape and wildlife images. Below are a few of our favorites.
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Crowley & co. may be able to turn this communication between merchant and loyal customer into a product they can monetize that won't anger anyone.
Foursquare recently redesigned its app to focus less on the act of checking in and more on an activity feed of what is going on around you. The goal is to be the best, most personalized guide to any city or neighborhood. Today it's giving the nearly one million merchants who have claimed their venues on Foursquare a way to communicate with their best customers in real time, by letting them post what is calls local updates into the feeds of their loyal patrons.


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Euroleague: CSKA hands Madrid third straight
As the Euroleague Top 16 round began, it was clear that Real Madrid was going to end up somewhere at the top Group E after they went 6-0 before losing their first match to Anadolu Efes. Three consecutive wins later they sported a 9-1 record and a two game lead on CSKA Moscow, who was 7-3. On Thursday, CSKA came out of their most recent game with Madrid on top of the group after taking down the Spanish club, 81:72, and also winning any tie-breaker with them by a single point. The loss for Madrid is their third straight in Euroleague Top 16 play, having previously fallen to Unicaja Malaga and Panathinaikos Athens. CSKA has unfinished business in the Euroleague having lost the Final against Olympiacos last year, their current five game win streak in the Top 16 is a solid indication that they are ready to take on all comers to avenge that loss.
Further shaking up the top half of the group, this season's surprise club, Anadolu Efes, lost a tough contest to Unicaja Malaga, 64:70 at home. The two came into their Week 13 match-up tied in the standings with CSKA Moscow at 9-3, after CSKA's win over Madrid and Unicaja's defeat of Efes, CSKA moves to the top of the group at 10-4, while Efes and Madrid move into a tie for the No. 2 spot tied with Panathinaikos, who beat winless Brose Baskets, 60:82, to grab the final playoff spot from Group E, locking out Unicaja. Efes currently leads Madrid by two points in their series, having been the first club to take down the Madrid in Top 16 play this season. The two will wrap up this round with a Week 14 contest in Madrid. CSKA concludes with Panathinaikos, a club they defeated at home by 17 points in the first round of play in the Top 16. The final game of the day was a Maccabi Electra's 43-point beating they handed Besiktas JK in Tel Aviv.
CSKA Moscow – Real Madrid, 81:72
CSKA Moscow was able to easily handle struggling Real Madrid on Thursday with an 81:72 win at home to take over the top spot in Group E. The hosts were able to build a lead that peaked at 18 points before Madrid was able to reel them back in the fourth, cutting off seven from their deficit. Real Madrid drops their third Top 16 game in a row and has gone from two games up on CSKA at the end of the Week 10 with a 9-1 record to 9-4 and tied for second with Efes and Panathinaikos. Sonny Weems led CSKA with 21 points, while Rudy Fernandez dropped in 24 for Madrid (30 PIR).
The hosts set the tone early, jumping out to a 24:15 lead after the first 10. The Russian club came in with a new look line-up, swinging Weems to point to put more size at the top along with Milos Teodosic. Between the two, they dropped in six points on their first three trips down the court. CSKA was up 17:6 seven minutes into the quarter, before Fernandez dropped in a triple and then hit a pair of singles, while Felipe Reyes connected on a deuce to cut the CSKA lead from 11 to 7. Weems then dropped in a jumper at the buzzer to put the lead back to nine heading into the second.
Madrid scored first to open the second, but Weems hit two consecutive jumpers to give CSKA a double-digit lead again. Slaughter picked up a dunk to cut the lead to nine again, then the hosts ran off eight straight to build their advantage to 17. At the end of the half CSKA was up 16, 44:28.
Weems got the first points of the second half when he sliced the cords with a triple, extending the CSKA margin to 19. Fernandez countered with a three-ball of his own, starting an eight point run by Madrid to pull to within 10, 47:37. To finish the third CSKA went on an 8:2 run to keep the lead at 16, 63:47.
Madrid opened with the first three points, then the clubs went through a rapid fire exchange where they alternately hit six straight shots between them. It was to Madrid's advantage as the knocked down two triples in the exchange and ended up cutting their deficit to 12. Shortly after they went on a 2:9 run to pull to within seven, 74:67, with just over a minute to play. CSKA then hit four straight and closed the door on any full comeback and giving the Russians the top spot in Group E.
Weems led the way for CSKA with 21 points and 4 assists. Teodosic added 17 points, 4 rebounds, and 7 assists. Nenad Krstic hit 16 points and grabbed 4 rebounds.
Fernandez was game high with 24 points, 6 rebounds, 3 assists, and a PIR of 30. Reyes added 10 points, 4 rebounds, and 2 steals.
Anadolu Efes Istanbul – Unicaja Malaga, 64:70
Unicaja Malaga did what they needed to do to keep their playoff hopes alive with a 64:70 road win over Anadolu Efes, pending the results of the Panathinaikos-Brose Baskets contest. The win for Unicaja was their fifth straight, while Efes was handed their second straight loss. Unfortunately for Unicaja, Panathinaikos defeated Brose 60:82 in Germany and locked up the final Group E playoff slot and shutting the door on Malaga.
The contest was close after the first quarter with the guests getting a slim three-point lead, 16:19. Efes took over in the second quarter on the strength of a 12:1 scoring run to open the quarter, getting up 27:20. Shortly after the guests ran off six unanswered to pull to within one, 29:28. Efes connected on the last four points of the half with a pair of singles and a buzzer-beater by Jamon Lucas, to head into the break with a 33:28 advantage.
Unicaja opened the second half with a 0:9 run to go up 33:37. Jordan Farmer broke the Efes scoring drought four minutes into the frame with a triple, which was countered by Marcus Williams. The clubs exchanged baskets through the rest of the frame, with Sasha Vujacic connecting on a triple just before the horn sounded, cutting the margin to three, 47:50.
Efes took the lead back four minutes deep in the quarter by hitting four straight to go up 53:52. Unicaja tied it up with a free throw and then the hosts hit five straight to get up 58:53. Shortly after Unicaja got a pair of free throws from Txemi Urtasun and then a driving layup from Luka Zoric to pull to within one, 60:59 with just over three minutes to play. The game turned around when Zoric had his layup blocked, but he got his own rebound and dropped in the follow-up, then the next trip down the court Williams hit a layup. Efes missed on two free throws and Williams took advantage with a fast-break layup to complete a 0:6 run that put the guests up five, 63:68. The last points were tallied on free throws to give Unicaja their much needed win, 64:70.
Williams was game high for Malaga with 22 points, 7 rebounds, 7 assists, and a PIR of 26. Zoric added 21 points, 8 rebounds, and a PIR of 20. Urtasun contributed 12 points, and 6 rebounds.
Farmar led Efes with 13 points, 4 rebounds, and 5 assists. Kerem Gonlum added 11 points and 7 rebounds.
Brose Baskets – Panathinaikos Athens, 60:82
Panathinaikos secured the final playoff spot from Group E with a sound win over the still winless Brose Baskets, 60:82. The win prevents Unicaja from sneaking in the back door by keeping them two games down on the three clubs tied for second place behind group leader CSKA Moscow. Jonas Maciulis led the way for the Greens with 24 points and a PIR of 26.
The guests lead tip to buzzer with the exception of at 3:2 on a Casey Jacobsen triple. By the end of the first quarter they led 16:26 and at the end of the first half the margin was 15, 27:42. The Greek club cruised to the win in the second half, while adding three points to the lead in the third and four in the fourth to end up with a 22-point winning margin and their invitation to the quarterfinals.
Maciulis was game high with 24 points, while Stephane Lasme (5 rebounds) and James Gist (7 rebounds) added 11 points each. Sofoklis Schortsanitis contributed 10 points to the win.
Bostjan Nachbar was high man for Brose with 15 points. Matt Walsh added 12 points, 8 rebounds, and 5 assists. Sharrod Ford dropped in 11 points and grabbed 4 rebounds on the night.
Maccabi Electra – Besiktas JK, 101:58
As Week 13 began, four clubs in Group F were tied for the No. 2 spot in the group with 7-5 records. Maccabi Electra, playing the only Group F game on Thursday against group cellar-dweller Besiktas, sent a message the other three clubs that they aren't going to leave their fate up to anyone else and destroyed the now 1-12 Turkish club, 101:58.
Electra put five players in double figures, including 16 points and 9 rebounds from Devin Smith to accumulate a PIR of 27 and take the lead in the Top 16 Week 13 MVP race. Teammate Ricky Hickman also accounted for 16 points, as well as 3 rebounds, 5 assists, and 2 steals, which gave him a PIR of 25 on the week.
The hosts got up 29:11 at the end of the first and 61:27 at the intermission. The third quarter is when Electra did the most damage, outscoring their guests 30:8, to head into the fourth quarter up 91:35. Besiktas won the fourth quarter with a 10:23 score, to wrap the match up with a 101:58 score.
Nik Caner-Medley added 16 points, Darko Planinic contributed 14, and Sylven Landesberg scored 10, grabbed 5 rebounds, and dished off 3 assists.
Besiktas got 12 points, 7 rebounds, 4 assists, and 3 steals from Ricky Minard.
Euroleague Group E
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Euroleague Group F
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Next Week's Matches[matches league_id=20 match_day=14 group=F template=sumnoscore dateformat="M. j, Y"]
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Over and above the meal and companionship enjoyed by the Brethren at the conclusion of every Lodge meeting, other opportunities exist to meet socially.
Visiting other Lodges happens regularly and we often invite friends and members of other Lodges to our meetings.
The highlight of the Master's year in office is a Ladies Festival giving everyone the opportunity to dine together and dance the night away!
Other social events happen throughout the year and occasionally the Ladies will join us for the meal on a Lodge night.
A great deal of fund raising takes place for the Albert Edward Prince of Wales Court in the form of a Christmas Fayre, Summer Fayre, Race Evenings and other social gatherings.


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Screening: Caramel
Mon, January 28, 2008 8:00 pm at IFC Center
Caramel by Nadine Labak/ Lebanon/France/ 2007/ 95 min./ 35 mm.
In Beirut, five women meet regularly in a beauty salon, a colorful and
sensual microcosm of the city where several generations mix, talk and
confide in each other. In the salon, the women's intimate and liberated
conversations revolve around men, sex and motherhood, in between
haircuts and sugar waxing with caramel. Nisrine (Yasmine Al Masri) is a
spirited bombshell on the verge of marrying a conservative Muslim even
though she is no longer a virgin. Jamale (Gisele Aouad), an aging actress and divorced mother of two, goes to absurd lengths to hold back time. Rima (Joanna Moukarzel) suppresses her attraction to women, until her own dream girl walks through the door. Seamstress Rose (Siham Haddad) deflects the attentions of a gentleman suitor to care for her older sister. And Layale (played by the stunning Labaki), the owner and lifeblood of the salon, carries on a hopeless affair with a married man. When her lover beeps his car horn outside the shop, the other women roll their eyes, but they let her go.
Born in Lebanon in 1974, Nadine Labaki studied media at Saint-Joseph University in Beirut. Her school film project was awarded in Paris in 1998. She went on to directing commercials and musical clips for well known Middle-Eastern artists. In 2004, she attended the Résidence du Festival de Cannes to write Caramel.
Co-sponsored by Roadside Attractions and MEMEAC
IFC Center
323 Sixth Avenue at W 3rd Street


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Students in Appalachian's Honors College spend a 'Day at the Farm'
Leah Barnes, a first-year elementary education major at Appalachian, holds a chicken at the Livestock station. "I've always loved being in nature and I think it's really cool being able to make new friendships and meet new people while being in this really beautiful place," she said. Photo by Chase Reynolds
By Alex Jansen
Posted Sep. 26, 2018 at 11:33 a.m.
BOONE, N.C. — When choosing Appalachian State University, students new to the university's Honors College likely didn't imagine that, before classes began, they would be bonding over how best to hold chickens.
On Aug. 16, these new students joined faculty, staff and other students in Appalachian's Goodnight Family Department of Sustainable Development and the Honors College for "Honors College Day at the Farm," which took place at Appalachian's Sustainable Development Teaching and Research Farm. And for some, the day's activities included learning proper hen-holding technique.
The event provided the students an opportunity to meet and interact with Honors College staff and faculty, as well as learn about sustainable farming and sustainability at Appalachian by visiting different sustainability-themed stations set up around the farm, such as the Making Plant Medicine station, which taught students about making salves and tinctures. Additionally, the Livestock station provided students the opportunity to interact with and learn more about grazing animals, such as cows and chickens.
As part of the Sustainable Development Overview and Appalachian Environmental History station at "Honors College Day at the Farm," Cody Miller, lecturer in the Department of Sustainable Development, tells students about Appalachian's history. Photo by Chase Reynolds
Dr. Jefford Vahlbusch, dean of the Honors College at Appalachian. Photo by Chase Reynolds
Solar power provides the energy to the electric fence around the historic garden at the Sustainable Development Teaching and Research Farm. In the background, students participate in the Historic Vegetable Garden and Seed Saving station. Photo by Chase Reynolds
At the Livestock station, Dr. Anne Fanatico, associate professor in Appalachian's Department of Sustainable Development, explains the logistics of the research farm's chicken coop to Honors College students. Photo by Chase Reynolds
Miranda Lowery, a first-year biology major at Appalachian from Chicago. She is a 2018 Chancellor's Scholar, and cows are her favorite animal, she said. Photo by Chase Reynolds
Eloisa Sanchez, a first-year mathematics major from Zebulon and a 2018 Chancellor's Scholar. Photo by Chase Reynolds
Michaela Grantham, a senior sustainable development major at Appalachian, leads the Making Plant Medicine station, which teaches students about making salves and tinctures. She is showing students a salve known as Boo Boo Goo, which helps heal cuts, burns and insect bites. Photo by Chase Reynolds
Students pass around the herb comfrey leaf at the Making Plant Medicine station. It is one of the ingredients — along with the plantain leaf and yarrow leaf — used to make the salve known as Boo Boo Goo. Photo by Chase Reynolds
Honors College students learn about the historic garden at the research farm and how to save tomato seeds at the Historic Vegetable Garden and Seed Saving station. Photo by Chase Reynolds
Cielo Murillo-Gomez, a first-year psychology major at Appalachian, holds a chicken at the Livestock station. Murillo-Gomez is a 2018 Chancellor's Scholar. Photo by Chase Reynolds
During "Honors College Day at the Farm," Elloree Brown, a first-year interior design major at Appalachian, holds a chicken at the Livestock station. Photo by Chase Reynolds
Abraham "Abe" Krell, a first-year geography major from Clemmons. Krell, a 2018 Chancellor's Scholar, said he enjoys learning how the environment is being used sustainably. "It's really neat seeing how all of the land is allocated and how all of the areas and hills work together," he said. Photo by Chase Reynolds
Kate Keane, a first-year English major from Parkland, Florida. A 2018 Chancellor's Scholar, Keane said the day at the farm gave her "more of a feel for how people live here and an understanding of where people are coming from when they write about the Appalachian Mountains." Photo by Chase Reynolds
Ian Snider, an adjunct instructor in the Department of Sustainable Development, tells students about the research farm's forested area, which actually makes up a majority of the property. Photo by Chase Reynolds
At the Forestry and Forest Products station, students learn about the farm's sawmill. Photo by Chase Reynolds
Barnes at the Forestry and Forest Products station. "I didn't know much about the farm and Appalachian culture, so it's nice to learn about it while meeting new people," she said. Photo by Chase Reynolds
At the Making Plant Medicine station, students are shown where the different plants used to make salves and tinctures are grown and how to identify them. Photo by Chase Reynolds
"The goal is to build community in the Honors College," said Dr. Jefford Vahlbusch, dean of the Honors College. "We have 122 new students coming in, and we want them to see themselves as part of a larger unit, part of a group of really extraordinary students who are here to get a terrific education in Honors and at Appalachian."
The Department of Sustainable Development is part of the College of Fine and Applied Arts. Its Sustainable Development Teaching and Research Farm is located at Appalachian's Blackburn Vannoy property in Ashe County.
About the Honors College
More than 500 students are enrolled in Appalachian State University's Honors College, which serves a diverse group of high-achieving, high-potential, highly motivated students from all majors. The Honors College helps students develop independent and creative thinking and high-level research skills; promotes interdisciplinary inquiry; and nurtures cultured and caring exchanges of ideas. The college's enhanced academic experience prepares students for success in graduate or professional school and for leadership roles in their lives, communities and careers. Learn more at https://honors.appstate.edu.
About the College of Fine and Applied Arts
Appalachian State University's College of Fine and Applied Arts is a dynamic and innovative group of seven academic departments, bringing together a variety of perspectives, experiences and real-world education to provide unique opportunities for student success. The college has more than 3,000 undergraduate and graduate majors. Its departments are Applied Design, Art, Communication, Military Science and Leadership, Sustainable Development, Sustainable Technology and the Built Environment, and Theatre and Dance. Learn more at https://faa.appstate.edu.
About the Goodnight Family Department of Sustainable Development
One of seven departments housed in the College of Fine and Applied Arts, the Goodnight Family Department of Sustainable Development at Appalachian State University prepares students to thoughtfully analyze human development while focusing on the applied practice of pursuing transformative, community-driven development and social change. It offers a Bachelor of Science degree in sustainable development with concentrations in agroecology and sustainable agriculture; community, regional and global development; and environmental studies; as well as a Bachelor of Arts and minor in sustainable development. Learn more at https://sd.appstate.edu.


MIACH Orthopaedics closed a US $22.5MM round of Series A financing. Funds will support accelerated manufacturing and continued clinical trials for the company's first implant, Bridge-Enhanced® ACL Repair (BEAR®), designed to stimulate healing of torn anterior cruciate ligaments (ACL).
The round was co-led by Amzak Health Investors LLC and DSM Venturing, with participation from the NFL Players Association and additional investors.
MIACH Orthopaedics is a privately-held company that develops implants for connective tissue repair. The company's initial focus is on BEAR technology—a proprietary bio-engineered sponge used as a bridging scaffold to stimulate healing of a torn ACL. Unlike traditional ACL reconstruction, the BEAR procedure does not require taking grafts from healthy parts of the leg.
Preclinical studies, according to MIACH, suggest that knees treated with BEAR have a significantly lower rate of arthritis than those treated with traditional ACL reconstruction. The company has initiated an IDE clinical trial using ~100 human patients in order to generate sufficient data for a PMA.
BEAR technology was pioneered by Martha Murray, M.D., at the Boston Children's Hospital Department of Orthopaedic Surgery. Initial research funding was provided by the NFL Players Association, Boston Children's Hospital and the National Institutes of Health.


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"Broken Ones" is a pop song written by Dana Parish, Andrew Hollander and Andy Love, and performed by American recording artist Jacquie Lee. It was released on May 13, 2014 as her debut single after placing second on The Voice, and the lead single of her EP, also titled Broken Ones (2014). "Broken Ones" impacted American hot adult contemporary radio in June 2014.

Background
Lee describes the song by saying "part of the human experience is the imperfection that goes with it." Also she states "everyone of us is broken in some way, shape or form. Even if you don't want to admit it, you have to be real with yourself. If you don't admit it, maybe you internalize it, maybe I am a little bit broken."

Critical reception
Lyndsey Parker of Rolling Stone gave the song a favorable review, saying "Broken Ones is a mature-beyond-Jacquie's-years piano power ballad, very Sarah McLachlan/Christina Perri in feel, with tastefully spare production that places the prodigy's voice (of course) front and center." Similarly, Chris Jordan of Asbury Park Press (part of the USA Today Network) gave Lee a positive review, saying "powerful but not overblown and serene but not sappy, "Broken Ones" frames Lee's voice around a strong melody, a sweeping chorus and uplifting, yet vulnerable, lyrics." Lucas Villa of AXS TV also cited stylistic similarities to Christina Perri and wrote that "Lee's vocals soar to new heights" and proves that "there is still life beyond [The Voice]" for Lee.

Track listing

Music video
An accompanying music video was directed by Max Nichols and follows a group of "down-on-their-luck teenage girls" as they discover their creative identities in an abandoned building. The video premiered October 24, 2014.

Chart performance

Release history

References

2014 songs
2014 singles
Pop ballads
Songs written by Dana Parish
Atlantic Records singles

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


Research shows that children that read over the summer months do better in school. Children with ADHD often have difficulty or fall behind in their schoolwork. They often struggle to keep up with class work. Developing a reading program can provide your child with an advantage during the next school year.
Many parents may cringe at the idea of forcing their child to complete work over the summer (who can blame them, children with ADHD often require so much monitoring from parents during the school year, parents need a summer break as much as children.) But a summer reading program doesn't have to be about completing work or be formal. Parents can develop a program that fits into their lifestyle, their summer plans, their child's interests and their daily schedule. By making the reading program personalized to the needs of your child, you will help to create successes and increase their self-esteem as well.
Most children will benefit from as little as 15 to 30 minutes of reading per day. If your child has problems with reading comprehension you can add in writing a sentence or paragraph about what they have read, or having them give you an oral summary. Younger children can draw pictures or cut pictures from magazines to create a collage of the books they read over the summer.
Talk with your child's teacher. Find out what their reading level is currently. Ask about the books they have been reading in school and take some time to look through them. If possible, talk with a teacher in the next grade level to find out more about what will be expected of them the following year. Ask if the school provides a summer reading list.
List your child's interests. Do they like sports, cars, dancing, or animals? Is there a specific collection or series of books they have found interesting? Are there television shows they like that may have books to go along with the series?
Visit the library without your child. Discuss with the librarian your child's reading level and interests. They will be able to show you the section your child should be reading from. Write down some of the books you find that you think your child may like. Choose some books that are on their current reading level and some that are one level ahead.
Ask about summer reading programs at the library. Many libraries offer weekly story time or have other activities going on during the summer to encourage reading. Find out if there are any that will fit into your schedule.
Schedule time each week or every other week to visit the library with your child. You can create a weekly outing, where you stop at the park or stop for ice cream after choosing books.
At the library monitor the books your children choose. Guide them to the section the librarian suggested to you earlier. Limit the number of books your children pick out. Make sure they will be able to complete the books before going back. If they choose too many books, they will likely get overwhelmed and not read any, if they choose too few, they will likely finish and have nothing to read way ahead of your next scheduled visit to the library.
Check the books your child chooses for reading levels. If they continually choose books below their reading level, they may be unsure or lack confidence in their reading skills. If they choose books above the level, be encouraging, but guide them to choose one or two at their level as well. You may want to have your child choose a few books at level and one book above their level to encourage growth in their reading skills.
Choose a book for yourself each time you visit the library.
At home, spend some time looking at the books. Read the back covers or look through at the pictures. Discuss what the book might be like and why your child chose that particular book.
Pick a time of day for reading. Set aside between 15 and 30 minutes for "reading time." If your child is younger, this will be a time you spend reading together. As they get improve, they should be reading some of the time by themselves and some with you.
Let your child see you read. If your child knows that you enjoy reading, they will find more enjoyment in it as well.
Use your library time and reading time to enjoy just being with your child.


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Trinidad and Tobago Carnival – Calypso, Masquerade and Steel Pan
By Earnell Brown
(Photo at left of "Pacific Tsunami, King of Carnival " courtesy of National Carnival Commission of Trinidad and Tobago)
This was my seventh Carnival in Trinidad and Tobago and the experience was still euphoric! For some, one Carnival is enough, but for me it's addictive, bringing me back to Sweet T&T again and again. This Carnival season was a long one. It began on December 26 (Boxing Day) and ended on March 7 (Carnival Tuesday), proving that Carnival in the Caribbean island nation is so much more than the big Monday and Tuesday parades. It's nearly two months of total immersion into all that is Trinidad and Tobago – the food, the music, live calypso shows, the sound of steel pan and the legendary fetes.
In Trinidad, a fete is a party, but a Carnival fete is no ordinary party. Jam-packed with people and lasting half the day and into the night, revelers are surrounded by the sounds of soca (soul calypso), live music, laughing, joking, dancing, drinking, and the back-slapping, gregarious greeting of friends. Everybody comes to the fete: the store clerk, the taxi driver and even the President chip (dance) together. It's a smorgasbord of local Caribbean delights – the famous bake and shark, corn soup, doubles, curried chicken, rice and peas dotted with homemade pepper sauce and washed down with an ice cold beer or Black Label rum.
"Dis is Carnival!" Photo by Earnell Brown.
Every night the entertainment was plentiful and in the true Caribbean carnival tradition, it was non-stop. We heard live music at one of the many calypso tents around town. In the early years of calypso these shows were held on outdoor stages covered with tents. Some traditional tents still exist but many of today's calypsonians offer up their songs for the Carnival season inside a hall or auditorium. Nearly everywhere we went we heard the sound of steel. Steel bands practice late into the night in their "pan yards" in preparation for Panorama competition when the champion steel band is crowned. The atmosphere was electric. You couldn't help but move your body to the beat.
All of this momentum – the months of anticipation, laughter, the fetes, competitions and the adorable Kiddies' Carnival – is simply a prelude to the grand finale that begins on Carnival Sunday night. Trinidadians call it Dimanche Gras. Literally translated, it means "big Sunday" and what a big night it was! This year the theme was "Back to De Savannah" when Carnival returned to the Queens Park Savannah, that immense 296 acre circle of grass that's as much a part of Trinidad as steel band and calypso. It's The Big Yard, where the heart of Carnival beats loud and long. For masqueraders, there is nothing like the buildup, the anticipation, the adrenaline rush and finally the thrill of crossing the Savannah stage.
Playin' Mas'! Photo by Earnell Brown.
Carnival Monday was a wave of color and splendor as the masqueraders or mas' bands took to the streets in costumes made from sequins, feathers and colorful, glorious fabrics of orange, yellow, pink, purple and green stretched over bent wire. Others wore nothing but bikini bras and thongs. On Carnival Tuesday we threw ourselves into the spectacular grand finale, chipping for more than eight hours through the streets accompanied by deafening soca music blasted from huge 18 wheel trucks. Later that day we grabbed the chance for our 15 minutes of glory when we finally crossed the Savannah stage.
Carnival 2011 was wonderful – dancing through the streets, beer flowing, crowds on every corner lining the streets, young and old, no sleep, uncontrollable rhythm in your hips and feet. "Ain't dis de greatest show on earth?" It was. And the countdown for Trinidad and Tobago's Carnival 2012 has already begun!
For more information on Carnival in Trinidad and Tobago, past and present, click on the links below:
http://www.nalis.gov.tt/carnival/carnival.htm
http://www.trinisoca.com
About Earnell Brown: Earnell Brown is an author and international traveler who was born and raised in Washington, DC. Earnell is a retired United States Government Internal Revenue Service employee. She ended her career as the IRS Section Head with the U.S. Embassy in Port of Spain, Republic of Trinidad and Tobago (T&T) as the management consultant to the T&T Ministry of Finance. Her journeys have taken her across the continents of Africa, Asia, Europe, North America and South America, but she especially loves the Caribbean, snorkeling, its beaches, and savoring its sunsets. Visit Earnell at www.travelerstreepublishing.com
Calypso, Caribbean, Carnival, costumes, dance, masquerade, steel pans, Trinidad and Tobago


What are the most annoying things professionals worldwide do? Gum-chewing? Listening to loud music without headphones? Not refilling the coffee maker? We have it all.
What are people's dream job perks? Spoiler alert: cloning is one of them (a bit unconventional but to each is own).
What office gadgets that are commonplace nowadays will disappear in the next few years?
Finally, what are the most popular CEO names? You can treat this one as a executive recruiting tips sheet. Next time you are looking for an exec just search for the top names on that list (kidding).