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May 4, 2020 — Pat Bertram
Since I finished reading all my emergency books, I'm reduced to reading the books in my Nook, books I've already read. Although I don't generally like rereading books, Robert Jordan's massive Wheel of Time series seems to be the perfect place to go to hide from The Bob.
The books in the series are not stand alone books — you cannot understand one book without the previous books — which means that in effect the WOT series is single novel of over four million words broken up into fifteen parts. In fact, the series itself is not stand alone — there are all sorts of books, blogs, discussion forums comprising billions of words where readers try to figure out the truth of the story.
Not only is the scope of WOT almost impossible to fathom, but Jordan had a bad habit of putting in bits of deus ex machina that he refused to elucidate in the work itself, companion books, or even interviews. Perhaps he himself did not know what those bits meant or maybe he simply wanted to be mysterious for mysterious's sake, to create a legacy of people debating worthless points. Which they do. Ad infinitum. Jordan also refused to explain what to him were obvious story points, such as who killed a certain bad-guy-turned-maybe-good-guy, but again, dozens of forums present various theories because that obvious point was obvious only to he who created it. At least in this particular case, the murderer was revealed in an appendix several books after the fact. Jordan also spent thousands upon thousands of words on red herrings and subplots that go nowhere, but sometimes used a single sentence buried in huge blocks of description to bring out a major point. Yikes.
And wow, is there description. Tons of description. Whenever food is mentioned, I find myself skipping a paragraph or two. When clothes are mentioned, I skip a couple of pages. And sometimes, when there is zero action or character development, such as in a few very clean bathing scenes, I skip the whole dang chapter.
I also tend to skip over some of the women's parts. Although Jordan mostly develops his three main male characters into individual heroes, each with his own mythic journey, he turns his three main women characters into insufferable caricatures, indistinguishable from one another except for a few annoying character tics. At first I thought he had a problem with women, but his secondary and tertiary female characters are often well-defined or at least not brats and prigs who believe, without giving a single shred of thought to the forces the other characters face, that they know the best for everyone.
Even after investing so much time in reading and rereading the books, I'm still not sure I like the series — although the theme seems to be about the importance of having choices, most of the characters, both good and evil, go out of their way to force others to their will. Too much torture and punishment for my taste. It seems to me that in a world where everyone is free to choose (or at least what the pattern created by the wheel of time allows them to choose), it's just as easy to find someone to willingly do your bidding as to waste the effort forcing someone to do it. (Oddly, the three main males do turn others to their will, but without wanting to or without even trying.)
But despite my ambivalence, I keep rereading. The scope of the story is utterly astounding. In the story, during the so-called age of legends, people wielding the power that turns the wheel of time, broke the world. Mountains grew where no mountains had been, waters flooded lands, green spaces became deserts. And humans started over. Again.
Interestingly, breaking the world is exactly what Robert Jordon did when he wrote his series — he smashed our world into bits, mixed it all up — legends and traditions; countries and races, clothes and customs; myths and mysteries, religions and philosophies — and put it all back together into his own creation.
I wonder what it would be like to create such a massive fiction world, a world that reflects our world but not. A world that reflects our values but not. A world that exists only in our minds but not. Or, rather, maybe not. If it exists in our minds, it's possible Jordan's world exists for real, sort of dream world we all created together, just as philosophers and physicists say we do with the real world.
Assuming there is a real world.
Maybe we're all writing the story of our world as we live it, creating with our hive mind the very fact of our existence. If we all stopped believing in it, would it disappear as if we were closing the cover of a novel? Would we disappear if we stopped believing all the things we see and hear except with our own eyes or ears? Would we be different if we simply refused to accept the role that has been forced on us?
Maybe, as I study Jordan's world, I'll learn how to help build a better version of our own — how to write it or right it, either one.
Meanwhile, the wheels of time keeps turning . . .
Pat Bertram is the author of Grief: The Inside Story – A Guide to Surviving the Loss of a Loved One. "Grief: The Inside Story is perfect and that is not hyperbole! It is exactly what folk who are grieving need to read." –Leesa Healy, RN, GDAS GDAT, Emotional/Mental Health Therapist & Educator.
Posted in books, fiction, writing. Tags: age of legends, breaking the world, fantasy fiction fan, Robert Jordan, the wheel of time, world building, writing the world. 6 Comments »
October 6, 2017 — Pat Bertram
Over the past several months, I've been reading (and rereading) Robert Jordan's massive Wheel of Time series. The books in the series are not stand alone books — you cannot understand one book without the previous books — which means that in effect the WOT series is single novel of over four million words broken up into fifteen parts. In fact, the series itself is not stand alone — there are all sorts of books, blogs, discussion forums comprising billions of words where readers try to figure out the truth of the story.
Not only is the scope of WOT almost impossible to fathom, but Jordan had a bad habit of putting in bits of deus ex machina that he refused to elucidate in the work itself, companion books, or even interviews. Perhaps he himself did not know what those bits meant or maybe he simply wanted to be mysterious for mysterious's sake, to create a legacy of people debating worthless points. Which they do. Ad infinitum. Jordan also refused to explain what to him are obvious story points, such as who killed a certain bad-guy-turned-maybe-good-guy, but again, dozens of forums present various theories because that obvious point was obvious only to he who created it. At least in this particular case, the murderer was revealed in an appendix several books after the fact. Jordan also spent thousands upon thousands of words on red herrings and subplots that go nowhere, but sometimes used a single sentence buried in huge blocks of description to bring out a major point. Yikes.
And wow, is there description. Tons of description. Whenever food was mentioned, I found myself skipping a paragraph or two. When clothes were mentioned, I'd skip a couple of pages. And sometimes, when there was zero action or character development, such as in a few very clean bathing scenes, I'd skip the whole dang chapter.
I also tended to skip over some of the women's parts. Although Jordan mostly develops his three main male characters into individual heroes, he turns his three main women characters into insufferable caricatures, indistinguishable from one another except for a few annoying character tics. At first I thought he had a problem with women, but his secondary and tertiary female characters are often well-defined or at least not brats and prigs who believe, without giving a single shred of thought to the forces the other characters face, that they know the best for everyone.
I am not a fan of fantasy fiction, especially not one man vs. the powers of darkness stories, but when I was house bound for all those months, I needed something to do, and a massive read seemed to fill that need. Though I'd tried to get immersed into other such series, books that start with a war in a bizarre place with an incomprehensible name fought by characters with equally tongue-twisting names for a goal that seemed completely alien hold no interest for me. Luckily, the first Wheel of Time book began in an earthly place with understandable actions by understandable people with simple names.
Even after investing all this time in reading the books, I'm still not sure I like the series — although the theme seems to be about the importance of having choices, most of the characters, both good and evil, go out of their way to force others to their will. Too much torture and punishment for my taste. It seems to me that in a world where everyone is free to choose, it's just as easy to find someone to willingly do your bidding as to waste the effort forcing someone to do it. (Oddly, the three main males do turn others to their will, but without wanting to or without even trying.)
But despite my ambivalence, I keep rereading. The scope to the story is utterly astounding. In the story, during the so-called age of legends, people wielding the power that turns the wheel of time, broke the world. Mountains grew where no mountains had been, waters flooded lands, green spaces became deserts. And humans started over. Again.
Interestingly, breaking the world is exactly what Robert Jordon did — he mashed our world into bits, mixed it all up — legends and traditions; countries and races, clothes and customs; myths and mysteries, religions and philosophies — and put it all back together into his own creation.
Pat Bertram is the author of the suspense novels Unfinished, Madame ZeeZee's Nightmare, Light Bringer, More Deaths Than One, A Spark of Heavenly Fire, and Daughter Am I. Bertram is also the author of Grief: The Great Yearning, "an exquisite book, wrenching to read, and at the same time full of profound truths." Connect with Pat on Google+. Like Pat on Facebook.
Posted in culture, fiction. Tags: age of legends, breaking the world, fantasy fiction fan, Robert Jordan, the wheel of time, world building, writing the world. Leave a Comment »

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


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You are here: Home / Publications / New modal wave-front sensor: application to adaptive confocal fluorescence microscopy and two-photon excitation fluorescence microscopy
New modal wave-front sensor: application to adaptive confocal fluorescence microscopy and two-photon excitation fluorescence microscopy
J. Opt. Soc. Am. A, Vol. 19, No. 10, October 2002, 2112-2120. M. J. Booth, M. A. A. Neil, & T. Wilson
Confocal and multiphoton microscopes are particularly sensitive to specimen- or system-induced aberrations,which result in decreased resolution and signal-to-noise ratio. The inclusion of an adaptive optics correctionsystem could help overcome this limitation and restore diffraction-limited performance, but such a system requires a suitable method of wave-front measurement. By extending the concept of a modal wave-front sensorpreviously described by Neil et al. [J. Opt. Soc. Am. A 17, 1098–1107 (2000)], we present a new sensor capableof measuring directly the Zernike aberration modes introduced by a specimen. This modal sensor is particularly suited to applications in three-dimensional microscopy because of its inherent axial selectivity; only thosewave fronts originating in the focal region contribute to the measured signal. Four wave-front sensor con-figurations are presented and their input response is characterized. Sensitivity matrices and axial responsesare presented.
som_2002_3.PDF — PDF document, 415Kb


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redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaGithub


If you're looking to be more adventurous this year in your choice of restaurants and cuisine, there's no better choice than JJ Bistro & French Pastry, located in Kaimuki on Waialae Avenue. The restaurant, which first opened in Aiea in 1995 and moved to its current location in 1999, is known for its unique assortment of entrees and pastries, according to owner and chef JJ Luangkhot.
Luangkhot recalls that, prior to Sept. 11, 2001, the eatery sold more pastries. However, after 9-11, he decided to start serving more entrees at the restaurant. Since then, the menu has continued to evolve, as Luangkhot added dishes that were initially unfamiliar to locals but have since grown to be customer favorites.
The signature at JJ Bistro & French Pastry is Fisherman Pot Pie ($12.95), an assortment of scallops, salmon, shrimp, bamboo, eggplant, red bell pepper and zucchini with green curry sauce, and served on a puff pastry shell. Other customer favorites include Asian Classic ($9.95) — a mix of scallops, salmon, shrimp and rice pasta with shiitake mushrooms and roasted garlic sauce — and Seafood Brioche ($9.95), an assortment of salmon, scallops, shrimp, leeks, shiitake mushrooms, red bell peppers and the chef's special black pepper cream sauce.
Baked Salmon ($9.95), served with French bread, and Cheese Ravioli with Lobster ($12.95) — one of the newest additions to the restaurant's menu — also are frequently-ordered entrees. But the unique menu doesn't just stop with entrees. For dessert, customers can find a plethora of elegant and delicious choices. The eatery is known for its Chocolate Pyramid ($5.25), a structure of dark chocolate mousse comprising a combination of three different types of chocolate. Other popular desserts include those with fruity flavors.
"The Chocolate Pyramid is our signature dessert," Luangkhot says, "but since we are in Hawaii, we created new dishes with Hawaiian flair.
Last year, because of limited seating at his restaurant, Luangkhot decided to open another bistro right down the street. He explains that the sister restaurant, Le Cacao Bistro, is based on the same concept as JJ Bistro but features a completely different menu.
Le Cacao Bistro also differs from JJ Bistro in that it offers a menu for "De Afternoon Tea" ($14.95 person, 11 a.m.-4:30 p.m. daily), including delicacies such as a Trio of French Macaroons and mini croissant sandwiches. From Jan. 15, Le Cacao Bistro also will introduce a brunch option.
"'De Afternoon Tea' has its own menu, and brunch will be from 10:30 a.m. to 2 p.m. every day," adds Luangkhot.
As far as goals for 2012, Luangkhot is trying to focus more on Le Cacao Bistro and introduce new items to its ever-expanding menu.
"We want to create a new menu for our sister restaurant to make it more affordable and make it a more simple, bistro style," he says.


Note: I am not teaching much, because I'm focused on my new career-path in physical therapy. However, I'm happy to make referrals. I am very familiar with the yoga-community, on and off the Island.
I may see you at Stanwood Swim & Fitness, where I occasionally sub classes.
Information: what brings you to yoga?


The new smart fitness watch from Fitbit is a perfect companion for your workout in the gym or outdoors. It will help you get the maximum out of yourself every day. The advanced technology can track your workouts, monitor your performance, and keep record of your progress. The PurePulse feature will continuously monitor your pulse and heart rate automatically, while the built-in GPS will track your routes, pace and duration stats. With FitStar, you can have your very own personal trainer, with step-by-step instructions. During the day, the Fitbit Blaze will measure the steps and distance you made, calories burned, active minutes and more. Over the night, it will track your sleeping habits and will help you to get the best out of your sleep. You can customize your watch to match your style with interchangeable bands and extra clock faces. You won't have to worry about battery life either, as the watch can operate up to 5 days on a single charge. Get call, message and calendar alerts on your screen, without having to reach for your phone.


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Q: Two kids go back in time by accident There's this book I remember reading this like 2 or 3 years ago about two kids that accidentally time traveled back in time due to some mistake in a time machine. They just happened to be near the machine at the worst time. I remember the story smoothly going back in forth between the present and the past that the kids were in.
I didn't get to read much of the book but when the kids were in the past they met some sort of wanderer or merchant maybe. And that person thought they were crazy cause of the way they were dressed and the way they were speaking. Obviously they were foreign.
Scene changes and we're back with the father and I think they're panicking wondering where the kids are and they call the cops I think and they get reported missing. All while (well not while but you get what I mean) the kids are traveling with the stranger to the nearest town.
I think this was a trilogy and one of the critique quotes I think compared it to Harry Potter. The cover was a nice art animation style cartoonish, friendly (nice to look at).

A: The Gideon the Cutpurse trilogy by Linda Buckley-Archer.

Gideon Seymour, cutpurse and gentleman, hides from the villainous Tar Man. Suddenly the sky peels away like fabric and from the gaping hole fall two curious-looking children. Peter Schock and Kate Dyer have fallen straight from the twenty-first century, thanks to an experiment with an antigravity machine. Before Gideon and the children have a chance to gather their wits, the Tar Man takes off with the machine -- and Kate and Peter's only chance of getting home. Soon Gideon, Kate, and Peter are swept into a journey through eighteenth-century London and form a bond that, they hope, will stand strong in the face of unfathomable treachery.

As for the comparisons with Harry Potter, the second books boasts on its cover:

and the third:

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


Traditional style homestay, where your hosts are there when you need them, but otherwise melt into background.
The guest area of our house consists of 3 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, and a breakfast room.
Prepared for you each morning is a substantial continental breakfast , including a freshly made plunger of coffee.
All rooms open directly to verandah, thus enabling private access to your room. Car parking is also very conveniently situated just a few steps from your room.
If you enjoy bushwalking, the Timberline trail to Barrabup Pool is 11 km, and easily done in one day; this trail starts from the house.
Margaret River - take Mowen Road/Rosa Brook Road directly to Margaret River be there in 45 minutes.
There are many options for day drives....Nannup is central to them all. Stay a few days and discover the south west of Australia.
Your hosts have plenty of maps and day trip suggestions, so why not take advantage of their local knowledge.


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Q: How to know which views (or view controllers) are on stack? As far as I know, when the app is launched the first view controller gets loaded and his view gets presented. Then you navigate to the next view controller and the previous view controller remains on stack. Therefore if you want to go back you have to dismiss the current view controller, so that the current VC gets cleared out of stack.
I'd like to check my views on stack since my storyboard is getting a little more complex and want to make sure I'm doing everything right. I'm looking for a solution for views that are presented modally as well as views that are presented inside a navigation controller.
How to check which view controllers are on stack?
I've made a longer intro since I'm not sure if I've used the appropriate terminology, I'm willing to correct mistakes.

A: Assuming you are in the topmost (or any) UIViewController and that you are using UINavigationController (the one with the navigation bar on top of the screen) then
self.navigationController.viewControllers

gives you an array of all view controllers on stack.
If you present modally then you would need to iterate over self.presentingViewController and its presentingViewController and so forth until presentingViewController is null and create the array yourelf.
However, don't mess up with the stack of view controllers! You are most probalby on the wrong track when you think of this as solution for your problem. Better re-visit your problem and your app's navigation architecture.

A: You can check the property viewControllers at your UINavigationControllers. The viewController is an array of View Controllers - you can access each ones of these elements.
 UIViewController *viewController = self.navigationController.viewControllers[i];


Heavy Trash Pick up 832 356 9014 Clean Up Conroe, Texas.
Welcome to Texas Salvage and Surplus Buyers, Conroe trash hauling service. We do home and garage clean out, heavy trash pick up, property clean up,construction clean up. We also provide 20, 30, 40, yard dumpsters for large trash hauls, large heavy haul dump trailers, roll of boxes, clean up crews, and heavy equipment if need. It does not matter what type of trash you have, we can get it out of there . We have been in the trash hauling and clean up business for the past ten years . Small jobs a OK . We are Conroe small job trash hauling specialist . Serving residential and commercial, home owners, contractors, business, Realtor's, property management company's in Houston, Texas with excellent service. If you have any trash, dirt, brush, concrete, junk or debris that needs to be haul off. Please give me a call for a free quote and same day service in Spring, Tomball, Willowbrook, Cypress, Kingwood, Humble, Conroe, The Woodlands, Texas.


pH in the Aquarium - Is there any "recommended pH" or "normal" value?
One of the most common questions asked by fish keepers new to the hobby is what should the pH be in my aquarium. The correct answer to this question is"there is no correct answer". All aquariums will run at different pH levels and the same species of fish are often kept in different tanks at different pH levels, keepers browsing through the internet or reference books will see the suggested pH in the fish profiles and start panicking if their aquarium doesn't match this.
Nowadays most specimens of fish are tank bred, they too have developed over generations of breeding to adapt to a wider range of water parameters including the pH. Most community set ups will have a pH that suits all of the species of fish that inhabit the tank, of course there are some species of fish that do require alkaline water conditions and some that will require soft, acidic water. In this case if you cannot meet their requirements it is often best to look elsewhere at different species of fish more suited to the water that you are adding to your tank.
The most important point to keep in your head about the pH is that it must be constant in the tank, if it is a little high or too low this may not affect the health of the fish as long as it doesn't swing from one end of the scale to the other. The pH will alter slightly over a 24 hour period, it is quite common for the pH to drop at night-time and then rise again in the daytime but these swings are very small and should not affect your fish.
When first considering which fish to add to your aquarium it is a good idea to check the pH of your mains water, trying to alter the pH to suit the fish can be hard work and a constant chore to keeping your aquarium inhabitants healthy, it is much better to settle for the pH level that your water is naturally.
Basically the pH (power of Hydrogen) is the amount of free hydrogen ions that are present in the water, the higher the pH, the more acidic the water is. A reading of 7.0 with your test kit means that your water is neutral, there is an equal number of hydrogen ions in the water as there are hydroxide ions (HO). The more hydroxide ions that are present, the more alkaline the water ( a reading higher than 7.0). It is important to know this information as there may be time when you do need to actually alter the pH of your water by buffering it to keep it stable. Well buffered water will be more likely to give you constant test results when you are checking the pH level so what do you do if the water is not buffered enough.
Don't panic, if the hardness of the water is very low there are ways to resolve this, the hardness and pH of the water are indirectly linked, affecting one will have an effect on the other.
As mentioned above the hardness of the water is the buffering agent that keeps your pH at a constant level, the hardness of the water is determined by the amount of minerals in the water. The more concentrated level of minerals, the harder the water. If this level of minerals drops then the hardness drops thus resulting in the water becoming more acidic and the pH will drop. In this instance the only way to get the pH back to the original level and hold it there is to artificially add more minerals to the water. This can be done by using commercial pH adjusters such as pH UP but these tend to be fine short term and then the pH will drop again, a much more secure method is to add a buffering agent either into your filtration system or directly into the water. Coral sand can be placed inside a mesh bag and then placed into the filter, this will slowly dissolve into the water and raise the mineral level or you can use the method that I normally use by adding Sodium Bicarbonate to the aquarium water. This should be done slowly and keep testing the water but once it has been done a few times you will soon work out exactly how much is required to buffer the water to suit the pH level that you require.
This can be more difficult than raising the pH. There are also commercial products that serve this purpose but yet again they are only a short term solution. Adding peat to your filters is a good remedy, the peat will extract some of the minerals in the water thus making it more soft and acidic which will lower the pH, adding tannins or bog wood to the tank will have the same effect but on a smaller scale.
The most dramatic effect is achieved by using a water purifier, if you are using a Reverse Osmosis unit this will strip the water of most of the minerals present, in this state the water is useless for your aquarium and will not support long term life for your fish. The minerals are then replaced by re-mineralising products that will keep your pH at the required level.
If your aquarium water is buffered correctly by a level amount of mineral content, the pH level should remain constant. The pH should be checked at least once a week and always at the same time of day, remember that the pH does change over a 24 hour period.


THERE'S AN EASY WAY TO TURN A DINNER PARTY INTO SOMETHING BEAUTIFUL WITHOUT THE SPENDING STRESS.
A Spring dinner party menu is one of my favourite seasons to work with in the kitchen next to summer because of the vast amount of produce available. If you have a green thumb picking herbs and vegetables from your garden also adds to the fun of preparing delicious meals.
Whether you are hosting a dinner party for 20 or a small group of people the number one thing you need is a list. The dreaded list BUT trust me when I say putting the list together is the easy part when creating a menu for your guests.
If you think you are going to wing it the night before or even a couple of days before you'll find you spend more money on your dinner party dishes then had you have planned in advance. Why? Because you are rushing to get it done and the last thing on your mind is- Savings.
How long should I plan for a dinner party?
That depends on how confident you are to complete the process.
If you're just inviting a few friends over for a casual dinner then sure you could pull that off in a day or two but if you're hosting a large dinner party give yourself at least 2 weeks. Life gets in the way sometimes so having a window of opportunity is better than having nothing at all.
I received an email from a fan who is under pressure to host a large Spring garden party. This is her first outdoor event and she was hoping to get some tips and ideas on budget-friendly dinner party dishes to serve to her guests. She also wondered if she should cater to anyone who has food allergies or special diets.
The party is a 40 year wedding anniversary celebration for her parents. Since her siblings live out-of-town, she is on her own to plan and execute this party. Her siblings will arrive the day before and offer any help they can then.
Last year I shared some of my secrets about "How to host a casual budget-friendly dinner party" and although this might sound similar they are very different.
A casual party is something you can whip up last-minute if you had to. Grab some burgers, hotdogs and sausages, pre-made salads, chips and dip, veggies and you're good to go.
Consider the season and event type when creating a menu plan for your dinner party dishes as this will set the stage to get the ball rolling. Each season in Canada offers different menu options plus costs will differ as well depending on where you live.
You'll also want to think about how many guests you have, portion sizes per person and the budget you're working with. I like to serve at least 2-4 starters per person so I make sure to buy enough plus extras for the hungry party-goers.
Hosting a Spring dinner party is fairly easy as long as you get ahead of the process. Help with your party planning also goes a long way in keeping your sanity alive. If you find that you are alone planning a large event maybe see if a friend or relative can help out.
The good news is that Spring is the perfect light jacket weather for an outdoor dinner party, even for the kids. Lucky for us we have an sun-room which is where we hosted a casual Spring dinner party. On the menu were finger foods, salads and a couple of homemade desserts.
Should you accommodate food needs?
If you're planning the dinner party then you should accommodate those who need something special to a reasonable extent. If what they are asking for is out of your league you may have to ask for expert advice or get suggestions from the person about what they can and can't eat.
Aside from planning keep the menu simple especially if you're a first-time dinner party host. The name of the party game is to party with your guests and stay away from the kitchen as much as possible unless you're bringing food out. No one likes to be stuck in the kitchen while everyone is having fun.
I found a really cool idea over at I Heart Naptime for these Fabric Covered Spring Vases.
You can find all your supplies at Michael's Craft Store or the Dollar Store in Canada.
Set a few of these around your table and you're sure to have a center-piece the guests will talk about. Being creative is fun especially when it doesn't cost much to do so.
Alternatively you can add a fresh bouquet of Spring flowers to the table which you can get at Zehrs for $10 in the floral department. Just about every grocery store sells some form of flowers for cheap.
If you want to decorate your space further I'd suggest a trip to the Dollar store or second-hand shops for Spring linens and decor. You can't go wrong, really it's the best way to save money and still look like you spent a fortune on your party. Share your money-saving secrets with your friends, they'll thank you.
Let's have a look at some of the most mouth-watering Spring Dinner Party Dishes that I know I want to try and I hope you do to. I'm sure our friends would never turn down an invite again if our party food looked anything like these beautiful dishes.
The obvious here would be a vegetable and dip tray, deviled eggs, olives and cheese, crackers and cheese trays especially for a casual party. Add some Tortillas and other healthy types of snacks to bulk up the app table to go along with these two simple dinner party dishes below and you're all set.
The Vietnamese Vegan Spring Rolls over at Watch What You eat are the perfect Spring recipe you should add to your Dinner party starters menu. This is a wonderful meatless option that is not heavy before the main dinner.
Sesame Chicken Pot Stickers are a wonderful deep-fried starter idea for your Spring dinner party. They're stuffed with chicken, elegant shiitake mushrooms, garlic, ginger and just a full-flavoured app. This recipes offers a nice balance with the spring rolls in texture and flavours.
Serve your pot stickers with a side of dipping sauce. The cool part- You can batch make this recipe and freeze them in advance for your party.
Pot-stickers are unbelievably easy to make. Best of all, they're freezer-friendly, perfect for those busy weeknights!
Would you just look at the beauty on that plate!
Cucumber Feta Rolls are PERFECT starters and you can find cucumbers for under a buck in the Spring which means this recipe makes the menu cut.
Fire up the grill and prep this amazing looking Garlic and Paprika Chicken.
What I loved about this recipe is that we're using inexpensive poultry cuts but adding tonnes of flavour. Your guests will appreciate that you went the extra mile to flavour and season your chicken so it's not bland or dry.
The colour also adds depth to the other dishes you will serve plus it keeps the menu lighter. I often find beef can be heavy especially if accompanied by bread products.
For the vegetarian dish you could make this beautiful Asparagus Lemon Risotto from the Garlic Matters website. I love asparagus and am a huge fan of lemon so I know I'd love this recipe and hopefully our guests will too.
The Spring months is when you will start to see asparagus come down in price. During the months of May, June and July asparagus are in season and priced as low as $1.99lb or free if you know where to forage for them.
Add all the colour you can in your salads. Salads have become the new party meal with more and more people experimenting with flavours and textures. I love to add pumpkin seeds to my salad for a bit of crunch and ditch the croutons. The options are endless which is why hosting a salad bar Spring dinner party is a popular menu.
Beetroot and Feta Cheese Salad by Scrambled Chefs is colourful with a full-depth of flavour from the feta cheese. Buy the good feta as a little goes a long way. Money Savings…remember?
Frugal Spring dinner party dishes don't have to include an abundance of ingredients to be successful. Keeping it simple also means lowered costs.
The Recipe Critic won me over with their Thai Cashew Chopped Salad with a Peanut Sauce dressing. The colours are vibrant and loaded with in-season produce. This is one of those salads that could eat like a meal. Add some salmon, chicken, beef or pork and you've got a match made in heaven.
One more… couldn't resist this Southern Style Mustard Potato Salad. So simple and pairing mustard with potatoes is a perfect idea. If you're cutting the carbs substitute the potatoes for radishes and you've got yourself a low-carb mustard radish salad.
Thai Pea Soup is a recipe that your guests will rave about especially if it looks like the photo above. Not only can it be served at room temperature or hot you make this wonderful soup in the blender. Talk about Kaboom with freshness.
The other Spring soup recipe that I would definitely add to a party menu is this Spring Minestrone with Chicken Meatballs.
Not only is it cheap to make but it's bursting with flavour and is a broth based soup. The Spring is still a bit nippy in the evening so a nice bowl of soup will hit the spot for your guests. Keep it warm in the crock-pot and serve the entire dish outdoors.
I'd also offer a seasonal fruit parfait with a sugar-free whipped cream for those guests that want something sweet but without all the calories. How can your guests say no to a lovely Sugar-free Strawberry Jello Parfait?
In the Spring you can also find great deals on blueberries, blackberries and raspberries. Mix them all up or try different variations. Simple and very inexpensive for dessert.
A skinny coconut margarita is a perfect Spring drink to serve with your meal or as the guests arrive to your dinner party. Keeping the drinks simple and light won't fill your guests up before the appetizers and main meal.
Over at This Lil Piglet their non-alcoholic Shirley Temple drink is a colourful beverage that your guests will love. What I like about having two options for mixed drinks is that you get to choose whether you want alcohol or not. Obviously non-alcoholic drinks will cost less.
Offering your guests other options such as water, pop, fruit juice, sodas, beer and wine are also suggested since not everyone drinks alcohol.
You don't have to hire a band for entertainment at your party simply turn the radio on and offer your guests some light party music. Another fun option is to host a Spring karaoke party to involve all of your guests. Cost $0.
Budgeting for any kind of dinner party can be tough especially if you haven't saved the money up. Saving by watching sales flyers in advance will help to cut costs as long as you've got that window to do so.
Hosting parties any time of the year will cost you money but for most people they enjoy the company of others and can do so without spending more than they need to. Plus, eating out is far more expensive.
P.S- Test your recipes in advance if they are new to you because you don't want to be learning how to make your Spring Party Dishes the day of the party.
I hope these recipes and tips help my reader and other CBB fans who are looking for Spring inspirational dishes for their party menu.
What are some of your favourite budget-friendly Spring Dinner party Dishes?
After our son fell and bopped his head on Monday we made a pit-stop for food from Zehrs as there was no time to cook our menu plan when we got home. We did find some great deals but now we're really done for the month. Those pink stickers on the meat were hard to resist.
In the event we run short of something the last week which we shouldn't I still have a $50 PC gift card from Christmas or plenty of PC points.
Weekly Overview (your final thoughts): Posting the month-to-date all at once, didn't get a chance to post mid-month. So far, on target. I have been buying at PC to get the points, focusing on what is on their points list, sometimes I pay full price. I earned $20 in points this month, so theoretically that could be deducted from my total?
We've been shopping PC lots lately as well as we love the PC points. It could be deducted IF you want the choice is yours how you want to document it. We just take it off as we spend it. Some of us use points in other ways. I think Mary can better explain that as she does it differently.
THe first item… impulse buy. Did you feel guilty about the purchase so you put it first on the list to get it off your chest? I know what that's like we go through it EVERY week but mostly with 50% off deals that are hard to pass up. What do you use the SILK coconut milk for? Do you buy coconut milk in the can as well? You can apparently make whipped cream with it too. I might try that.
Mmm Smoked hams and Bacon! Was that a bulk package deal? What did you get for it?
What are you making with the blueberries for your dinner party?
It's always nice to see a full month in one view. You have some great deals this month especially the meat! Well done. What have you learned so far about your shopping habits in 2017?
Not important but wanted to offer that Lantic of BS from Independent receipt is the brown sugar. Had the same thing on my receipt and it took me a while to recall what in heck that was.
Overview: Nothing new as it's a quiet week. Was able to make another payment on the debt so it slowly dwindles down.
YES for debt repayment! That's great news DEE. I love your updates.
Our son is made about raisin toast and toast now so hopefully we can find some bread with pink stickers this week. How's your year been going so far with your grocery budget? Spending more or less than you'd like? Changes? It's interesting to notice the change now that we document it. You get ballot #8. Mr.CBB Have a great week.
The grocery budget is okay. Any money that I use for debt or such is deducted so it makes the ending balance more realistic. I wouldn't say that I've changed much since I've started recording the purchases.
Have you found it easier to track the expenses though or were you doing that all before?
I've always had some form of budget but didn't really track the expenses before, just what needed to be paid and when. It's easier to see where the money is going now, especially now that my co-worker helped me with making my budget more intuitive.
Brilliant that's great!! What did you find difficult about the budget you were using? Did you make your own budget?
I did make my own budget and it has evolved over time to include different categories that I want/need to see. The previous budget had all the values for the different purchases in one cell but no details, so I didn't always know if I included everything.
Now the budget is much more detailed and is set-up to have an "input" sheet and with the use of a formula, will take those values in a "sum" factor and add it to my "output" sheet. If I need to add a new category, it's very simple process. I have looked at doing pivot tables for my output but they didn't have the layout that I wanted.
The best part is that because I was part of the process of the new budget format, I can take the 1st stab of debugging any errors before going back to my co-worker for assistance.
Once again, I am thankful for this site! Paying attention to one's money is so important, and I had not been paying attention. Cheers!
Thanks for the kinds words about CBB. 🙂 I'm glad you like it here. There are so many readers out there and I love to get their feedback. I'm guessing Anne is your daughter. So every once in a while you jump in and help her out with groceries which is what you did in your first GGC post. 🙂 Have you found the price of cauliflower going up again? We have which is why we haven't bought it in a couple of months. I hope it comes down a bit as we use it for so many things low carb.
What have you learned so far in the past 2 GGC posts?
Keep at it…. you'll be a whiz in no time.
Hubby and I had a great 4-day Easter weekend together just chilling out at home but now it's time to get back to the everyday grind. It's okay though…our vacation days are coming. This year hubby has 5 weeks + Stat. holidays to use because he gets an extra week on each of his 5th anniversary years at work. Next year we'll be back to 4 weeks of vacation again but hey…that can feel like lots if you plan them right.
It's a NO SHOP WEEK for us this week.
I hire a gardener to do the fertilizing & weed control on the lawn, moss removal, the spring clean out of the garden beds and planting the 50+ annuals out front & in our cedar planters out back, cutting back all the bushes, trees, perennials and hedges and every 2nd year they power wash and stain the fence and planters. I save the weekly grass cutting and the annual staining of one side of the house for hubby.
I have a maintenance contract with Orkin Pest Control to deal with any ants, wasps or woodpecker issues so hubby doesn't have to. Pests are fine but keep them outdoors and get rid of the wasp nests please! The pest control contract is a must have because we seem to have an abundance of wild life in our yard…last night it was a big fat racoon and two nights ago it was a heron. Over the years, you'd be surprised what has been in our yard…coyotes, a fox, a cougar just to name a few. We are close-ish to the river and the mountains so it quite the menagerie! One year we had to call them to get a squirrel out of the rafters before it did any damage.
I get hubby to change the furnace filter every 3 months but the regular maintenance and servicing of the furnace and heat pump are contracted out to Sears. I am in charge of the cleaning of the washer, dryer and dishwasher but hubby cleans the out the lint from the outdoor duct, as it requires a ladder. I also have a service contract with a plumber but fortunately we don't have to call him in very often.
Even when hubby retires, I don't really…I still handle all of our finances and run our company from home 7 days a week. That isn't going to change. It runs in my family though – Dad's 86 and he still works full time 7 days a week. 🙂 Hubby just won't have to spring out of bed quite so early in the morning. What I will do though is teach him all that is involved in maintaining all of our assets and records, when he has the time & energy to learn, so that he can have a seamless transition if I happen to go first.
I am taking into consideration his age though – so the next time we replace the roof, I will also have the gutters re-done with the low maintenance variety that don't require as much cleaning. I would prefer that he not be swinging off a ladder any more than absolutely necessary. Eventually, I will contract out the staining of the house and get him off those two story ladders completely.
No you don't need to report when you are going to be away to the insurance company but check your policy about how long you can be away without hiring someone to monitor the place. All they have to do is check with the neighbors as to how long you have been gone and the insurance company could feasibly deny a claim if you had one while you were absent for an excessive period. I've never had a claim but it's better to be safe than sorry.
The next door neighbor is a "Snowbird" but they have a son living in town that comes once a week to check on their home when they are vacationing. As we don't have children, we'd have to hire a management company to do the job.
Our Travel Medical insurance specifies coverage is for a maximum 30 day trip, for as many trips as we want, over the course of a year but we must return to Canada in between our trips. You can buy additional coverage to extend your stay if you need/want to but we've never found it necessary. The time I would want to be away for longer would be Jan-Apr during the lousy weather but that's my busiest time of year what with the corporate year-end, personal & corporate taxes, RRSP and TFSA contributions.
It is also worth noting, it's important not to exceed the maximum number of days outside Canada…required to maintain your residency status for the sake of medical coverage and income tax. I keep records of all our annual travels and can support my claims including date, time and location of any border crossings..


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DPF Team
California Death Penalty Facts
Women on Death Row
The Death Penalty Worldwide
Voices: Kirk Bloodsworth
"You're talking about a person who was basically saved by half of one cell. A cell the size of a mustard seed saved my life. I always think of the Bible and how Jesus said, 'If you have faith as small as a mustard seed, nothing will be impossible for you.' I knew I was an innocent man, and that trumped everything for me."
Posted by: information@deathpenalty.org
"I feel very lucky."
That's the answer you get when you ask Kirk Bloodsworth how he feels about having been wrongly convicted of the rape and murder of a nine-year-old girl in 1984 when he was 22. He was the first American sentenced to death row who was exonerated by DNA, although his death sentence had already been commuted to two consecutive life sentences by the time the DNA evidence proved his innocence.
Bloodsworth, who is 55, was released from prison in 1993, after having served almost nineyears, two on death row. For the past 22 years, he has worked to change the U.S. justice system, lobbying for the abolition of the death penalty, and stressing the importance of DNA testing. He was instrumental in getting Maryland to abolish its death penalty, and in 2004, President George W. Bush signed into law the Kirk Noble Bloodsworth Post Conviction DNA Testing Program, which provides block grants to states to pay for DNA testing for convicts.
"I never expected to be an activist," Bloodsworth says. "I thought I was going to be a fisherman. We each have our own destiny somehow."
152 people have been exonerated from America's death row since 1973, according to the Death Penalty Information Center. This, combined with his own personal experience, are the reasons Bloodsworth keeps working to reform the system.
"I just want to show the country how dangerous the death penalty is. Life without parole is the best option. At least that way, if you're found innocent, we can get you out."
A documentary about Bloodsworth's case, "Bloodsworth – An Innocent Man," is scheduled for worldwide release early next month. Three years in the making, the film was partially financed by a Kickstarter campaign.
In October, Catholic University of America partnered with the European Union (EU) Delegation to the United States to host the premiere of the film in Washington, D.C. Part of the European Union's Rendez-Vous series, which features senior EU and U.S. leaders discussing significant current issues, the event was held in conjunction with World and European Day Against the Death Penalty, which took place on October 10. According to a joint resolution released on that day, the European Union and its 28 member states are strongly opposed to the death penalty under any circumstances: "The death penalty is inhuman and degrading treatment, does not have any proven significant deterrent effect, and allows judicial errors to become irreversible and fatal," the resolution read.
As Bloodsworth knows all too well, the risk is too great that those judicial errors mean innocent people will be executed. "I lived to tell the tale," he says. "You never know what kind of intestinal fortitude you have until you'reforced into an impossible situation. It left an indelible mark on my life, but there's no sense in being bitter. Bitterness is not going to help me regainthose years. I'd rather laugh than cry."
And he'd rather work at reforming a system that stole nine years of his life. "I've been doing this work a long time, educating the general public, telling my story. I would suggest to everyone I know that the death penalty will end in our lifetime. I do believe that it will end in mine; at least I hope I can live to see that. My motto is never give up."
Blog, Headlines, Voices
Blog Headlines The Focus Updates
Oklahoma delays seven execution dates, including Richard Glossip's
The Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals granted a motion filed by newly-elected Oklahoma Attorney General Gentner Drummond to slow down...
Report reveals Tennessee's appalling execution protocol
2022 was the "year of the botched execution," according to the Death Penalty Information Center. And now, a 166-page report...
CA Supreme Court to give 18-25-year-olds sentenced to lwop a second look
The California Supreme Court granted review earlier this month on whether people serving life-without-parole sentences for crimes committed when they...
Together we can end the death penalty
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Jerusalem bombing: Officials condemn 'terrorist attack' after young Canadian killed
Aaron D'Andrea GlobalNews.ca
WATCH: Two bomb blasts at bus stops in Jerusalem have killed an Israeli-Canadian teenager and wounded at least 18 people, in what Canadian officials are calling a terror attack. Crystal Goomansingh reports.
Canadian officials condemned a "terrorist attack" in Jerusalem on Wednesday after a young Canadian was killed in a series of explosions.
Two blasts went off near bus stops in the city at the height of morning rush hour, killing the Canadian and injuring at least 18, officials said. The first explosion happened at a bus stop on the edge of Jerusalem, while the second went off about a half-hour later in Ramot, a settlement in the city's north.
The Associated Press reported that the victim was identified as Aryeh Shechopek, a Canadian-Israeli teenager who was heading to a Jewish seminary when the blast went off. Canada's ambassador to Israel, Lisa Stadelbauer, also confirmed the death on Twitter. There were conflicting reports over Shechopek's exact age.
Heartbroken to confirm that a young Canadian lost his life in this morning's reprehensible terror attack in Jerusalem. Our sincere condolences to his family and friends, and to others wounded in this attack. Canada continues to condemn all forms of terror.
— Lisa Stadelbauer (@LisaStadelbauer) November 23, 2022
"Incredibly saddened to learn about the death of a young Canadian in the terrorist attack in Jerusalem. I'm sending his family and friends my deepest condolences," Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said in a tweet Wednesday morning.
"I'm also thinking of those who were injured. Canada condemns this violence in the strongest possible terms."
Incredibly saddened to learn about the death of a young Canadian in the terrorist attack in Jerusalem. I'm sending his family and friends my deepest condolences. I'm also thinking of those who were injured. Canada condemns this violence in the strongest possible terms.
— Justin Trudeau (@JustinTrudeau) November 23, 2022
Foreign Affairs Minister Mélanie Joly called the explosions a "heinous terrorist attack" in a tweet, adding Canada "stands with the people of Israel."
"Canada strongly condemns the heinous terrorist attack in Jerusalem that claimed the life of a young Canadian and injured many others," she said.
"My heart is with the victims' family, friends, Jewish communities, and those affected by this tragic attack."
Canada strongly condemns the heinous terrorist attack in Jerusalem that claimed the life of a young Canadian and injured many others. My heart is with the victims' family, friends, Jewish communities, & those affected by this tragic attack. 🇨🇦 stands with the people of Israel.
— Mélanie Joly (@melaniejoly) November 23, 2022
Security camera footage showed the moment of the first explosion with a sudden cloud of smoke billowing from the bus stop. Television images showed debris strewn around the site, cordoned off by emergency services.
Police said their initial findings showed that shrapnel-laden explosive devices were placed at the two sites. According to Israeli public broadcaster Kan Radio, the bombs were hidden in bags and appeared to have been detonated remotely by mobile phone.
The United Nations, the European Union and the United States also condemned the attacks. Benjamin Netanyahu, now negotiating with allies from religious and right-wing parties to form a new government after elections, said he would do everything to restore security.
Israeli police inspect the scene of an explosion at a bus stop in Jerusalem on Nov. 23. Two blasts went off near bus stops in Jerusalem on Wednesday, injuring several people in what police said were suspected attacks by Palestinians.
Ohad Zwigenberg/AP
Outgoing Israeli Prime Minister Yair Lapid said Israel would find the attackers.
"They can run, they can hide — it won't help them," he said in a statement.
"We will punish them to the fullest extent of the law."
Mourners attend the funeral of 16-year-old Aryeh Shechopek, a dual Israeli-Canadian citzen, who was killed in an explosion near a bus stop in Jerusalem on Nov. 23. Two blasts have gone off near bus stops in Jerusalem, killing Shechopek and injuring at least 18, in what Israeli police said were suspected attacks by Palestinians.
Maya Alleruzzo/AP
A spokesperson for Palestinian militant group Hamas praised the Jerusalem explosions, but did not claim responsibility. They linked the blasts to "crimes conducted by the (Israeli) occupation and the settlers."
Israel said that in response to the blasts, it was closing two West Bank crossings to Palestinians near the West Bank city of Jenin, a militant stronghold.
Tensions between Israelis and Palestinians have been surging for months. Israel has been conducting night raids in the occupied West Bank that were prompted by a series of attacks against Israelis that killed 19 people in the spring. In recent weeks, there has been an uptick in Palestinian attacks, AP reported.
More than 130 Palestinians have been killed in Israeli-Palestinian fighting in the West Bank and east Jerusalem this year. The Israeli army has said most of the Palestinians killed have been militants, but stone-throwing youths protesting Israeli army incursions and others not involved in confrontations have also been killed.
At least eight Israelis have been killed in the most recent wave of Palestinian attacks.
The Israeli military said Wednesday that Palestinian gunmen opened fire on forces escorting worshippers to a shrine in Nablus, a West Bank city. The troops shot back and a 16-year-old was killed, the Palestinian Health Ministry said.
Israel captured the West Bank in the 1967 Mideast war, along with east Jerusalem and Gaza. The Palestinians seek the territories for their hoped-for independent state.
— with files from The Associated Press and Reuters


Bio Big Daddy. Might be years down the track but you will love it like the first game.
The powerful morality issues and genius story will keep you on the edge of your seat all through. Literally.
This game is very good. BUT!!! This game should be called Bioshock 1.5 I have already played this and it was 1 year ago.


This floor is designed by Style Timber Floor to satisfy architects and other clients floor finish preference. The unfinished floor surface can let you choose the color and finish of your floor. They are exactly same material, size and structure as other Euro Oak floor boards. After installation, you can simply polish the floor and apply clear vanish on floor surface to achieve the natural beauty of Euro Oak Floor. Additionally, we can stain the floor according to your requirement. This is a great flooring product for people have special taste.


The global goal of NatiVita is to improve and prolong the lives of people by providing effective and safe medicines. In this regard, the company pays special attention to the control of the safety of medicines. To monitor the safety and efficacy of our medicines, a pharmacovigilance system has been established.


Whether you call it outsourcing or contracting or privatization, there are many benefits that come from partnering with Petermann for your student transportation needs. We have assembled the most highly trained team of experts encompassing the best processes and protocols in the industry in order to deliver the results your specific school district needs.
Q: How do we know that a Petermann operation will be as safe as the one the school district provides?
A: Petermann must adhere to the same rules and regulations governing the operation of school buses as your school district. As a private company, there are additional requirements we must meet that a school district does not have to worry about. For example, State inspectors and State authorities are more rigorous in their examination of our employees and in the inspection of our buses. We must meet higher standards than most school districts.
A: Current transportation employees are an important concern for us too. It is in our best interest to retain as many of these employees who meet our employment standards as possible. Because they are familiar with the community, the parents, and the children, it's a win-win scenario to be able to hire current staff. These employees receive first consideration for all available positions. The drivers who come to work for Petermann will receive a competitive wage package as agreed to by the school district.
All drivers will be required to pass a drug and alcohol screening, a criminal background check, and a driving evaluation. This will ensure they meet the high standards both the school district and Petermann agree are necessary to run a safe and efficient school transportation program.
Q: How can Petermann provide equal service at a lower cost and still make a profit?
First, the public sector operates in a monopolistic environment, while the private sector functions in a competitive environment. In other words, a company like Petermann has competition; a school district has no one to compete with but itself. Private company managers are constantly faced with the challenge of providing quality service at a competitive price. We must compete for your business not only within our own industry, but also with you.
Second, Petermann's general managers—the people responsible for operating the day-to-day transportation program —are backed by a Corporate staff of individuals with expertise in each area of the operations, i.e., safety, training, maintenance, operations and cost control. When a Petermann manager is confronted with a new or unique issue, they are not in it alone or in the position of having to "reinvent the wheel" to find a solution. Petermann's years of experience provide a wealth of information. This allows our Corporate staff to provide the local manager with solutions and support that will be safe and cost effective.


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Jef Rouner
American Horror Story: Born in Blood
Jef Rouner | December 15, 2011 | 2:57pm
Over the course of our coverage of American Horror Story we've been sort of dismissive of the ongoing story arch involving Viven's Connie Britton) pregnancy. They've done their level best to interest us in the story, what with adding ghost rape, prophecies of the Anti-Christ, and just your typical horror film weirdness, but it has never really grabbed us. To put it simply, we just didn't think that there was likely to be anything new the series could do, and we'd already seen old school done better than it's likely to ever be done again in the film Grace.
And the series did not really break any new ground this week. Let's be clear on that. OK, we've never seen a dead abortionist deliver a live baby. That was new, but otherwise there was precious little innovation. Having said that, we'd like to take back all the pseudo-aloof bullshit we did spew in regards to how truly horrifying the culmination of the pregnancy storyline would be.
We can't think of how this episode affected people who haven't gone through the birthing process. We've done it once, and that's all we're planning on. It took three years of heartbreak, bankruptcy, and an infertility doctor with all the human warmth of cobra to get into the delivery room, and American Horror Story managed to masterfully bring back every mercifully forgotten fear that accompanied the birth of our beautiful daughter.
Your mind works differently during the birthing process. Every single piece of half-thought out nonsense becomes perfectly plausible as you bear through an experience that is so determined by basic biology that any control you have over it is almost illusionary. Maybe your child will be born with the head of an animal because your wife looked at the dog during sex. They wouldn't tell those stories if they didn't have some basis in fact, right? That's how you're thinking, in addition to more typical fears about losing someone or unforeseen defects.
American Horror Story summed up the experience so brutally that it literally gave us a panic attack. That helplessness you feel, that was the nerve they wanted to touch and they danced on it like it was the floor at a damned tap recital.
Vivien tries as hard as she can to escape the Murder House, but she goes into labor in the driveway and is dragged inside. The power goes out, and two ghostly children disable the car with baseball bats and knives so there is literally no escape. Lit only by candles, Vivien is attended by Ben (Dylan McDermott) and the dead, most of whom want to claim her twins for their own.
One is stillborn. One simple sentence, one small form passed away quickly. The moment is so brief, so frightening, and so incredibly painful that the only experience comparable is the last moments of consciousness someone must feel after a beheading.
She delivers the other baby alive before she bleeds to death, and is reunited with Violet who can't conceal her ghostly existence anymore. Whether or not the live bay is the progeny of Ben or the ghost is likely to be answered in next week's season finale.
Don't get us wrong, the birth of a child is a beautiful thing, but it is also frightening, bloody, and once you've gone a certain distance down the road there is simply no going back. That scares a lot of people. It certainly scared us, and when a show like American Horror Story takes full rein of those emotions and filters them through the desolate, terrifying lens they have ground to perfection then the experience was almost too much to bear.
American Horror Story airs 8 p.m./9 central on FX.


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iBone
Are you feeling the urgent need to hump someone in the general vicinity in the next seventeen minutes? No problem! Thanks to an ingenious GPS-based app called Grindr, gay men have been hooking up with other guys by whipping out their phones when they're horny. Now the tech visionary who founded Grindr is launching a version for straight people. Will this change the world? Or totally fail for basic Mars-Venus reasons? In an effort to divine the answer, Marshall Sella wades into the new world of "location-based" love
By Marshall Sella
I was cruising for men on my iPhone. I'd been doing this for more weeks than I could count.
The mechanics of it were simple. I'd be milling around a trendy Sunset Boulevard dive, or lounging in a French Roast restaurant about a block from where I live in Manhattan. I'd take out my device and tap on the black-and-yellow tribal-mask logo of Grindr, an app that lets guys use GPS to meet other guys who are ten steps away or a hundred. The screen would blink into a checkerboard of guys' pictures—whole armies of men who were within a mile of me, many right next door, and I could know those distances, for I was the Lord. Thirty-eight feet away. Ninety-six feet away. Four hundred forty-seven feet away. The photos came in a few varieties: guys trying hard to look really bored though super-cool; nude, hirsute torsos; guys doing that ridiculous bathroom-mirror self-portrait in which the subject always looks surprised even though he himself has just snapped the shot. Guys calling themselves "Hard" and "Hung 2 Hang" offered cheery requests pertaining to the act of love: "Top bunk, don't be a fuckin' girl, 420-friendly."
The Chat, too, was of the highest quality. Someone would message "Sup." Without even missing a beat, I'd come back with "How are you?" (I spelled it all out, eschewing the "R U," because, you know, classy.) This spare, Pinteresque dialogue—it's all in what's not being said!—would often die in a quick and merciful way, but many Chats ended with an agreed-to meeting place, which was unusually convenient for both of us since, by the very nature of this whole game, we lived within a block of each other.
Grindr would also let me stare at a tiny blue dot (which represented me) sliding here and there on a map of my neighborhood. When an interesting fellow was kind enough to send me his exact location, I could see him on a map, too, in the shape of a red pushpin. I knew to expect only one thing when our dot and pushpin met: that the guy wouldn't look much like his tiny picture. So a whole dumb show would ensue, in which we silently gestured at each other across the café or bar—first quizzically, then in some weird, fake recognition, as if, oh, how we went back, such memories, and things like that. Then I would get to the point and ask him what in the hell this app really was.
Full disclosure: As it happens, I'm straight. No one's fault. That's just me. But the Grindr team, in September, was launching a new app, Blendr—which was not just for gay guys but for Everybody. It's a mad ambition, and I had no idea if Blendr would work. Is this the way straight men and women—especially straight women—want to meet and mate? The ladies certainly wouldn't treat Chat the same way; they'd be euphemistic and vaguely lyrical (I hoped) while the males were doing something close to grunting. But hooking up with strangers via GPS? From a female standpoint, that might be seen as one romantic step away from being spirited into a van. Less darkly, what happened to the good old dinner party, the comically bad set-up date, the meet-cute fender bender?
And so I stepped into the long night of the soul that was Grindr. I wanted to see what the rest of us could expect—hope for— from Blendr. I'd soon learn that grinders weren't always bathroom-trysting and Rusty Tromboning and doing Japanese nose-torture on each other. Some grinders were as genteel as the ladies at a book club; some wanted true love, others new friendship. This subculture was populated with all sorts of people—like any community. Together the sex-crazed and lonely hearts and the rest were building a digital neighborhood on top of their physical one. Maybe, with Blendr, it really could grow to include Everybody.
To be a grinder, unlike with Match.com or eHarmony or OkCupid or any of the other doddering old iDate sites, you need register no name, no password—not even a screen name. Those other sites are proud of asking for massive detail. They actually market themselves on the thoroughness of their interrogations: What are your favorite sports, your taste in movies, your eye color? They have it all down to a science, selling their sites on that old adage, "Similars attract." On Grindr, you are permitted to write a 120-character profile and upload a photo, and that's pretty much all you get to spark that digital First Look Across the Room. To ensure that no user of Grindr ever felt hoodwinked, I took the name "GQ Magazine" and used as my icon a collage of covers, though I was slightly worried that grinders would think I was hawking subscriptions in some kind of seedy jailhouse telemarketing scheme.
But guys did drop me a line, at all hours and in great numbers.
Chat is the gateway drug on Grindr. Though it is 96 percent inane, it's not all sexting and Weinering pics to people. Many guys started a conversation with the aforementioned "Sup?" or the even more unforgivable "Wassup?" I admit, I looked down on them, as one would on "mole people" or Michael "The Situation" Sorrentino. My deep misunderstanding of Chat was that it was meant to be witty, an actual conversation. But eventually I realized that the "Sup" people were not cavemen. They were efficient. They were men in a rush to achieve, and that's what men like to think they do.
@Dieworkwear, Twitter's 'Menswear Guy,' Is Just as Perplexed as You Are
By Gabriella Paiella
Grinding is less a pastime than a palm-sized addiction. It is iHeroin. Grinders spend an average of ninety minutes on the app every day—and not just in one session. They're online eight or nine times. In my experience, that's an unrealistic number. It should be ten times that. I never wanted to get to the neurotic stage where I logged on while walking around, so I made a point of doing less walking around. And I checked in on my boys several times an hour. What were they up to, or at least where? The iPhone simply had to be checked.
Over the months, I learned the mysteries of this strange realm: its customs, its argot, and its social hierarchies. For instance, in my countless conversations with countless guys, only one man who ever identified himself on his page as a Bottom ever responded to me; Tops almost always did. My theory was that Tops took it as a challenge, whereas Bottoms seemed to feel they'd already come up short in our imagined duel of wits, and that was good enough for them.
It is also standard practice among grinders to steer clear of certain red flags. As any grinder knows, someone who doesn't supply even a fake or a ridiculously old pic is to be shunned at all costs. And whoever hooks up with a guy who spends his 120 profile characters praising his own hunky looks or demanding "Whites only" gets what he deserves.
The Grindr users I knew and know had impeccable straight-dar. Even in Chats, almost everyone eventually asked me if I was gay. I was honest, yet some men still treated me like a trespasser. One guy spent a pleasant half hour at a restaurant regaling me with stories—then, learning I wasn't gay, very politely stood, silently folded his cloth napkin, and exited the building. Another took the time to text just one remark: "My bf will beat the shit out of me if he knows I'm talking to you." Which I found refreshingly concise, if vaguely unnecessary. Others offered interviews in exchange for a quaint variety of carnal favors, which I graciously declined, as far as you know.
I met my fellow grinders in restaurants, in bars, in coffee shops, and on park benches; we had drinks in sunshine, tea at night. There were the bland guys; the guys who made endless plans, then stood me up; the guys who met up with me just to see if I really was a reporter, then stared as if I were a penguin at the Central Park Zoo. (You know who you are.) The whole thing was confusing, mainly because one's brain isn't built to process hundreds of stories in a few months. I have to say, it is genuinely unnerving to wake up in a Los Angeles hotel room at 3 A.M. and read that a man calling himself "Bear 4 U" is eleven feet away from you right now, when even the walls aren't eleven feet away.
The first time I met Joel Simkhai, the 35-year-old founder of Grindr and Blendr, he had kindly offered to pick me up at my L.A. hotel, take me to breakfast somewhere. He strolled into the lobby and swiveled his head twice quickly. This place had a perfectly fine restaurant—why move?—so we walked a few steps to a table. "I like things that are close," he explained to me, pointedly. "Why do we drive ourselves crazy, getting in a car, doing all this travel? There are so many good things near us. Better things. We just don't know about them."
Get this image out of your head: that Simkhai is some kind of tech-geek recluse, spurred to create software in order to find make-believe friends who loved _Star Trek _as much as he did. He is not any of those things. He's sleek and sociable. In the realm of iDating, he's a bit of a rock star. At the NYC Pride pier dance, everyone seemed to know him, and he strode through the crowd turning heads; Grindr T-shirts, in their instantly recognizable taxicab yellow, mingled all around him.
Life wasn't always so sunny. Simkhai was an isolated boy in Mamaroneck, New York, still halfheartedly dating girls when he started using CompuServe's lone gay channel. It was a revelation: "I could type that I was gay! And that was part of my acceptance."
In June 2008, when Apple unveiled the iPhone 3G, it blew the mind of every techie in this country. The app store meant that there was suddenly a new industry out there—a thousand new industries. Simkhai, then selling online magazine subscriptions, had long thought there had to be a way to use GPS to help people meet each other. "Maybe I was just selfish,"he says. "Maybe_ I_ just wanted to meet guys this way."
Grindr launched in March 2009, with an initial investment of $5,000. At any given moment, there are now an average of 52,000 guys grinding in every country on earth except for the island nations of Nauru and Tuvalu. ("We have at least one user in North Korea," Simkhai notes.) The app racked up its 2-millionth user in early June.
My iPhone, that neat little divining rod, led me to all sorts of guys, a whole spectrum, from the casual users to those as compulsive as I was fast becoming. One day I met Patrick, a saxophonist in Manhattan. His profile pic showed him in a tudo, brilliant, standing on a New York street. He had the rare distinction of being better looking than his photo. Patrick loved to flirt online—that was his hobby. "When this came out, it was the greatest revolution in gay sites," he recalled, "and you could hold it in your hand." Patrick started spending more time on Grindr than was prudent. But you know, he could quit anytime. I pictured him huddled over an iPad late some night, jonesing for a log-in, his hands shivering as he fumbled for his grind fix. It got so bad he forced himself to stay off Grindr for an entire year. But he came back. They all come back.
On a splinteringly sunny day, at the Pride dance in Manhattan, I met Tim and Steve. Coincidentally, the dance was held two days after the New York State legislature had approved same-sex marriage, and the whole pier was mad with joy, pure joy. Tim and Steve occupied a place of honor, on a platform overlooking most of the pier, and in their modest way, they held court. For they are Grindr's star marriage. They'd gotten together one night on the app when Steve was vacationing in Sydney from the UK. One thing led to et cetera.
Many grinders speak of them as nameless ideals, and in one Chat I heard that Tim and Steve had somehow "gotten married on Grindr." Perhaps they'd stood side by side, dressed to the nines, with formal-black phones in hand, and slowly, solemnly tapped out their vows. This sounded doubtful, but I didn't correct anyone. Every community needs its lore.
Finally I met the King of His Kind, a 27-year-old waiter named Jon. We linked up in my French Roast. I was taking lots of guys there suddenly—more than one, many nights—and the staff, who'd been seeing me there for years, were baffled by this sudden turn of events.
Sporting sandals and a shaved head, Jon is the Johnny Appleseed of reckless, anonymous sex. He was born in Missouri but, as soon as he hit 18, had the sense to step lively out of that backwater and eventually make his way to New York for what he called "the fun." He is conservative America's ultimate nightmare of what a grinder does, because if you can worry about it, he's done it.
Jon guessed he's had about one hundred sexual encounters off Grindr and other hookup apps in the past year and a half. "The thing about Grindr is, you hardly ever know the guy's name!" he said, elated. "Yesterday I was Chatting to this guy a few blocks away. I had to be at work in Times Square in twenty-five minutes, but he wanted to give head. I got there, but when he came to the door, he looked nothing like his pic. I've probably walked away because of something like that three or four times out of a hundred. So I went ahead and did it with him anyway. For three or four minutes, I guess."
Such stories, to Jon, are mundane. He prided himself that, in a dazzling understatement, he is "not very shy about sex." Besides, he said, "people I know in Missouri don't read GQ." (Jon's mom, please put down the magazine now.)
On Grindr, nothing seemed to put him off. "This guy and I talked for five minutes, and we agreed he was only gonna suck me off," Jon told me. "It turned out he was way older than his picture—not even close—and I said, 'I can't do this.' It was the principle of the thing. Well, also, I knew I had more time later in the day and could take care of things then.
"Another time, I was in the East Village," he added, just skipping along. "I met this kid, but I had to pee. Suddenly he sticks his face right in the stream of my pee and starts drinking. Pretty bold! I thought that took a lot of guts. He picked the right guy. I blew him in his building's lobby and went home." "Adorable," I replied flatly.
Grindr, Jon said, is in the moment. "It cuts through a lot of the small-talk bullshit," he said. "I want quick, mechanical sex, to get sucked off, and there are a lot of guys who'll do it."
Jon is a pure unadulterated crazy kid. He wants what he wants this instant. That's the thing of it, the madness and the danger of it—that first step into a dark bedroom or, possibly, into a hallway or waiting automobile. I found myself wondering if, in the evolution of things, we might one day all become the kid named Jonny, craving the rush of staring into a dark room and not even knowing what sort of room it was. Jon himself was certainly hooked. "I find God, and I find Him four or five times a week," he said, laughing. "Think of the anonymity—the now-ness. It's very exciting! You have no clue what the situation will be. And it's a thousand feet away."
As the doting godchildren of Apple, the Blendr team fetishized confidentiality. Joel Simkhai was so consumed by secrecy that he'd never have told any outsider that name before the grand unveiling. He wouldn't have whispered it to a grandparent's grave. Instead, everyone called it by its top-secret code name, Project Amicus.
When I went out to see the company, the office was Simkhai's old, well-appointed house in the Hollywood Hills. It was a very small space for eight or nine people to work in—1,500 square feet on a good day. There was a tall, ancient bougainvillea clinging to the dark wood of the house, and a postage-stamp lawn that nevertheless brought a gardener once a week. In the hazy distance, you could just make out the first half of the famous sign: HOLLY
Inside, most everyone was online and wearing headphones, so all you heard was the sound of typing and the relentless jangle of ringtones. When they spoke to one another, whether it was because there was an outsider here or because they're just bewilderingly technical people, they spoke in cryptic combinations of abbreviations and numbers; for all I knew, they were communicating in binary. Simkhai himself prefers to work outside on a huge Mac, where he can keep an eye on his Yorkshire terrier, Coco—"the boy dog with the girl's name," he wryly said. He sometimes likes to set the tiny Coco in his lap and pet him as he theorizes, which makes him look like the polar opposite of a James Bond villain.
In the office, I kept calling the new app "Grindr for straights" but was unfailingly corrected: "Amicus," a team member would sternly remind me, "is for Everybody!" Simkhai's ambitions were no less grandiose than those of Apple. He viewed Blendr not as a seamy hookup app or even a dating service but as something vast—a new century's gathering place. "Amicus will change the way people meet people," he often says. "It can change the world."
But amid all the laid-back bustle and the hope for glorious innovation that filled the office, there was always one question looming. Would Blendr truly appeal to Everybody—or more precisely, would Blendr truly appeal to straight women? Actually, such questions only seemed to loom when I was on the premises. The Blendr team treated this as a settled matter. "We talked to lots of people, all kinds of people," Simkhai said. "Besides—" here he tapped his heart—"I have instinct." Scott Lewallen, a former creative director at a gay-cruise line and the app's co-founder and senior vice-president, said he'd immersed himself in the opinions of friends and of his sisters, who declared the idea "cool." I pointed out that Grindr serves a cohesive niche market, but Lewallen invoked a greater humanity. "People are social creatures," he said. "They want to interact and meet new people. We're hoping we'll find the same traction when Sally and her friends want to go to a bar and meet others there—girlfriends or guys or whoever." He envisions the app—which the team refers to as "location-based," though more lyrical types on the Net are pleased to use the term geosocial—as a social network where suburban soccer moms learn the kids' coach is also into crochet, and where their husbands discover that the new guy on the block could help fill the evening's poker game.
Compared with other dating sites and apps, Grindr is like something out of 1950s Disney. The most risqué word on your "Looking For" list is "Dates." (The other four are Chat, Friends, Networking, and Relationship.) I asked Lewallen for an example of language used on Blendr that would not have been used on Grindr—in the main, what differences they perceive in the lingoes of gay men and of Everybody. He paused. "Well," he said brightly, "instead of saying 'guys,' we say 'people'! But we don't want to get caught up in the guys-versus-girls question."
Actually, I did want to get caught up in that question, loudly and with great enthusiasm. For one thing, most of the women I asked (in an unscientific way) about the broad concept of Blendr seemed appalled. My sisters, evidently, hadn't been hanging out much with Scott Lewallen's sisters. To them, this all sounded like the opening scene of a Law Order: SVU. (On-app women will be able to obscure their location if they so choose. But if you're not being geosociable, what's the point?) I harangued Joel Simkhai without mercy about this important issue, which led to conversations in restaurants that left our fellow patrons frightened and confused.
"As a gay man, I probably understand straight women more than straight guys do," Simkhai said. "I'm halfway between... Well, maybe not halfway. But look—I'm somewhere in between."
"So you can also think like a straight man?" I asked, a little too curtly.
"I am a man," he said. "This goes beyond gender and sexuality—it is more basic. I know sex is sexy, but this isn't about that. I can tell you with a straight face, I want my mom on this app! I want my dad on it. Amicus is about when two people meet. I can't help what happens next."
I had mid feelings about what would happen next. I certainly wanted my phone to introduce me to girls who were pretty and in proximity and who would kiss me and let me kiss them. But there was no way to know whether, in the wild, Blendr would become as banal and domesticated as Facebook, which is a tame enough party to include that elderly aunt from Ireland and most of your ex-girlfriends in your News Feed. Or it could devolve into the multiple-crime scene that is Craigslist. Grinders themselves were divided, too. Half of my cohorts thought Blendr could be "the greatest dating platform in history." The other half bluntly said that "women don't fuck like this." "Men get stupider as they approach orgasms," said Patrick, the sax player. "Women take a slower process toward sex. Men want to stick it in."
After using Grindr for months, it was starting to get on my nerves. The battering monotony, the guys who told their event-free stories in Proustian detail, the constant misunderstandings in Chat. I gave up on semicolons entirely, since no matter what the topic—famine, murdered children—the reader thought I was winking about something.
But there are things in life—moments, people—that truly do restore your faith in the stuff that you've lost faith in. In my case, it was a photographer I'll call Peter, who made me remember why I'd liked Grindr in the first place (as a junkie "likes" meth). Peter had a mild, faraway quality and a shaved, perfectly shaped head. Within minutes of meeting me, he did something I'd never seen: With a slight lean forward, he quietly admitted, "My profile says I'm 41. But actually I'm 44!" It was the Grindr equivalent of seeing Bigfoot; I had believed that that sort of truthfulness simply didn't exist. And from everything I saw and heard, his honesty never wavered. "I've had six months of back-and-forths for two quick bang-'em-ups," he said in an abruptly Raymond Chandler way, before adding, with a distant and wistful look, "It was probably only oral sex.
"Even so," he added, "Grindr reminds me of Facebook. It was a way of just not feeling so...so isolated. I still use it to talk to someone in my building. He'll be at our neighborhood bar, and I can tell where he is, then lovingly say, 'Come home!' "
Then Peter told me about a GPS-perfect meeting on Grindr. Most days it's easier to just type "French Roast in 20?" But this time, after Chatting with some guy in Central Park, Peter switched on the map; and as he walked, the blue dot (Peter) fluttered, as balletically as little dots can, until it touched the red pushpin (Some Guy). I liked that story. Because the coolest part of Grindr, everyone knows, isn't anonymous sex or that Simkhaian dream of a fine friendship. It's that locator. Maybe someday you'll be able to watch your friends' little blue dots loping around a map of your city, town, or borough with almost no margin of error. No one has figured out quite yet if that would be fun or creepy, but everyone wants to see it. And in that community of familiar moving dots, Everybody might feel a lot less...isolated.
It was always the promise of technology, especially of the Net, to make the world more controllable even while exposing us to more of it—Son, this big ol' world is now a small town. The Internet has achieved a funhouse-mirror version of that goal, but it does quite the opposite, too.
Contrary to the plan, technology has limited our choices. When you check bos that define your preference in a date—say, Latina, between 24 and 27, loves birds, is a Unitarian, oh, and also should have hazel eyes—you're narrowing your world quite a bit there. We no longer "happen across" anything; we Google. We don't flip through TV channels; we look at the cable menu and choose by title—or watch things you've chosen in advance, then recorded. Don't answer the phone without that caller ID. Don't bother listening to that whole CD—you want to hear that one song you already like. In every corner of this newest of new worlds, very little happens that isn't planned out. Technology has trumped serendipity.
Think of the loves and lusts of your life. Did they satisfy your little checklist? Or is the person you're most attracted to the one who at first seems all wrong? Or maybe you were at a real-life party that bored you and you saw someone tilt their head back and laugh in a way that just killed you, and then that was that. In large part, human interaction is irrational or it is nothing. This is especially true with dumb sex. Dumb sex makes a fool of logic. If you're the man who has a "type" in romance, you probably also have a "system" at cards. Blendr is built on these insights into our silliness and our strangeness, and instead of finding you the person you think you're looking for, the software opens your eyes to the people around you.
Unlike Grindr, Blendr will be available as a Facebook app. But to fulfill Simkhai's vision, Blendr will have to invert the Facebook model, which is a bridge to all those you already know and already like (though if anyone actively likes his or her 592 "friends," something is really wrong). People who know each other need to share whole garbage skiffs of information—how Frank is now an assistant manager, and how Todd, if you can believe it, just turned 3! Blendr does offer the option of including more personal data than Grindr—hometowns, say, or tastes. But it is still careful not to offer so much, Simkhai maintained, to cause the whole thing to become a jumble. Or to get in the way of your meeting that gorgeous creature, who maybe you'll love or screw or go bowling with, standing just a few feet away.
That's the lure of it. That a lack of too much information, of too much complication, can create a social network that is as simple as real life: When you meet someone, you needn't already know that, the daughter of carnies, she graduated from Virginia Tech. So Grindr and Blendr share a restraint, a deliberate act of withholding, all of which builds in the possibilities that are born of accident. They want to give you just enough to make that Look Across the Room mean something without swiping away the mystery.
Long after I was finished with interviews, I still looked at Grindr all the time. I still look at it all the time. These are my neighborhood guys. I'll see a pic and think, "Oh, that's the guy who did the crazy Elizabeth Banks laugh." Or I'll notice that Jonny evidently hooked up last night and is now making a tiny digitized walk of shame back home at 6 A.M. here on my iPhone. Or I'll just think, "Chad, you prick."
Even people I don't know—the Sup guys—have become recognizable characters in my little phone pageant:_ "Tex"! Why would you change your profile description to that? Now you sound like a whore. Oh, "G"! Another torso picture? Seriously?_
Certainly there is no unsubscribing from it. A smartphone is everywhere, in reach, right now. You become that goldfish who, every lap around the glass bowl, thinks, "Hey! A little castle!" Surely, you think, something has happened on my app in the past six minutes. So you end up thinking, "Hey! I should check Grindr! Hey! I should check Grindr!" And you do have to. I do have to.
Very late one night, the reality of Blendr, of blending, at long last hit me. Suddenly I wouldn't be a journalist above the fray. Blendr might lead to real lust, real pain. I used to be above all that. This is the chaos and the "accident" that was supposed to be so fucking poetic. Would I again confuse the French Roast waitstaff by now showing up at all hours with different women? Would there be good dumb sex in every bathroom stall and office stairwell—sex involving me? Would I hit it off with some girl whose politics I hate and who owns a cat but who, one fateful day, happened to be only twelve feet away? Would I fall in love with that idiot-voting, cat-loving girl, and would my dot forever overlap her pushpin? What were we getting ourselves into?
Still, as I fretted over all this, I realized it had been half an hour, so I logged on to see what was up with everybody.
Marshall Sella writes regularly for GQ.
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