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Summary of Summit Meeting, February 25, 2015
P March 18, 2015 , by	Rajeshwari Godbole
Members of the School Committee, Board of Selectmen, Capital Expenditures Committee and Appropriation Committee met to discuss the school capital projects.
The group reviewed the latest draft of the "School Building Project Consensus Plan," which outlines the consensus position of the boards and committees on school capital projects. Comments included:
the wording of the motion for Town Meeting will be important
the proposed date for a debt exclusion vote of end of 2015/early 2106 may be too early.
how exactly will the SC and BoS work together during the initial planning process?
MSBA should be mentioned in the document.
Margaret Coppe presented a slide deck outlining the elements of the school capital projects. She noted that on February 24, the SC voted to request funding at the 3/23 Special Town Meeting related to the following projects:
a new stand-alone or attached pre-K (at Hastings or Harrington)
prefabricated classrooms at Bridge and Bowman
Hastings replacement
study brick and mortar at Fiske and Harrington
She then described each of the elements. She noted that the SC had not voted on whether to pursue standard modulars or pre-fabricated classrooms at Fiske.
She noted that the SC investigated possible additions at Estabrook. Building on the roof garden is not feasible. Modulars on the south side of the school are possible with great difficulty.
On redistricting, she proposed putting together a staff study group to look at enrollment statistics and provide data to the SC. Next, a task force would be established to address immediate and long-term redistricting needs. SC would develop policy based on information gathered. This will not be complete in time for Special Town Meeting on 3/23.
Under Article 2 at Special Town Meeting #1, the SC will request $4,080,000 for various parts of the various projects. See discussion of Jon Himmel's presentation below.
A member of the CEC asked whether the Fiske ILP program could be moved. Jessie Steigerwald explained that it cannot because state law requires that all ILP students have time in which they are included in a general education classroom. Also, given the high needs of the students in the ILP program at Fiske, transitions to new settings are extremely challenging and could set those students months behind.
Jessie also explained that because Fiske has four classrooms devoted to the ILP program, it is not a 4-section school, i.e., there are not enough classrooms for each grade to have 4 general ed classes.
Jon Himmel, a member of the Permanent Building Committee, presented a chart of softcost budget items, broken down by project. He described that if the SC requests $4,080,000, the SC will initially have access to $1,414,000 to pursue concept confirmation on all proposed projects, and schematics at Diamond (bricks and prefab), Clarke, Bridge, Bowman, and Fiske, and pre-schematics and programming at the pre-K. After consultation with the finance committees on the results of that work, the School Committee will work with the BoS to determine which projects should be pursued — probably in July 2015. The BoS will then release the remaining $2,666,000 for design development through bidding on the pre-fabs and the interior Harrington renovation (pre-K to gen ed) and just design development on the Diamond and Pre-K brick & mortar projects.
Jon Himmel also presented a construction schedule showing construction funds being sought for the pre-fab projects, Diamond brick & mortar, and Harrington renovation at a fall 2015 Special Town Meeting, and construction funds for a new Hastings being sought in June, 2016.
The timeline shows the prefabs available in Sept 2016, Diamond and Harrington in Sept 2017, and Hastings in April, 2019.
There was concern among the group about going for two separate debt exclusion votes.
Rob Adelson noted that we would borrow the $4,080,000. If the work leads to construction, the debt could be rolled into the debt exclusion for construction funds, but if it doesn't lead to construction for particular projects, it has a short 5-yr borrowing term. He noted that specific amounts for specific projects do not need to be noted in the motion, but spending will need to be accounted for separately.
One member of the AC suggested taking the $4 million from the stabilization fund instead to give more flexibility.
The discussion turned to whether to add standard modulars or prefabs to Fiske. There was a consensus among the finance committees and BoS that prefabs were a better value because they last 20 years instead of 3 years.
A member of the AC acknowledged that even if standard modulars were a worse value, they may be necessary because of timing needs, but that pre-fabs offer predictable capacity for the long-term.
Another member of the AC noted that standard modulars are quicker, less expensive — also a responsible path.
One SC member noted that it was important to preserve programs like, art and music, and the spending $4 million on pre-fabs might hurt chances of building brick & mortar in the future. There is also the concern that TM may not approve $ for pre-fabs.
Bill Hurley noted that adding pre-fabs were a way to avoid adding a brick & mortar addition to Fiske.
Joe Pato noted that he is not concerned about pre-fabs having a shorter life than the building because there is so much uncertainty about what will happen at the end of their lifespan – 20 years.
The BoS and finance committees took a break, and the SC continued to deliberate on standards versus pre-fabs. Sandro reiterated his support for standards because of the immediate needs at Fiske in gen ed and in the ILP program, and because he is concerned about foreclosing brick & mortar. Judy said she did not support standard modulars but "reluctantly" supported pref-fabs because she was concerned there was not support for brick & mortar at Fiske, and because she thought Kindergartners at Fiske could be redistricted next year. Jessie noted that Bridge and Bowman are suffering too and they're getting pre-fabs.
The SC voted 3-2 to ask for pre-fabs rather than standard modulars at Fiske. Crocker, Hurley, and Steigerwald in the majority.
That resolved the last main outstanding issue in the consensus document, and the meeting was adjourned.
Posted by Rajeshwari Godbole
← School Committee Meeting – March 10, 2015
School Committee Meeting – Tuesday, April 28, 2015 →
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About this journey The average travel time between Orange and Marseille is 2h22 minutes. The quickest route is 1h27 minutes. The first train leaving Orange is at 06:50, the last at 21:27. There is an average of 28 trains a day between Orange and Marseille, leaving approximately every 31 minutes.


EVER CHANGING SEASONS OF DECOR - Decor Designs, Inc.
Trends and changes in personal taste influence the way we see our homes. Even if you love what you have, eventually, things wear out or become out-dated and need to be replaced. So, it's safe to say your home is constantly evolving. We like to think it will be done at some point. In reality however, like the seasons, our homes are always changing.
We had the pleasure of finishing some updates for a client this week whom we've worked with several times over the past few years. As they've lived and grown in their home, things have gradually been replaced. After buying new occasional tables for the living room and a new dining set, this Lake in the Hills, Illinois family wanted our help putting the finishing touches on their refurnished spaces. They wanted to make sure the new additions flow and work together with their existing decor. They also wanted to update a few things in the kitchen and family rooms we'd redesigned a few years back.
As I told them, while new furniture is always nice, the details are really what bring the new furnishings and spaces to life. After discussing wants, needs and budget, we decided we'd get the biggest bang by adding new window treatments & hardware, lighting, artwork and accessories.
Window treatments are probably the single most overlooked and under played decorative element in the homes we visit. Replacing the previous panels with new, extra-long 108″ panels (even in neutral cream and taupe) added more height and drama to every room.
Updated wrought iron lamps in the family room were added to match the scale of the existing sofa. We repurposed the previous living room lamps on the newly painted and updated sideboard in the dining room.
An area rug, previously purchased by our clients, gave us cues for a new and slightly updated color palette. Pulling terra cotta red and dusty blue from the rug into the decor, we added new pillows, throws and the dining room window panels. Existing artwork and mirrors were repositioned adding a few new pieces for a change. New accessories and greenery also helped bring life to the spaces.
The updated results helped make these least-used rooms feel more warm, cozy and inviting.
As you can see from the next few photos of the home's family room, even the simplest updates can change a space and make it feel new again. We introduced new stationary panels to soften the windows blinds. We added new artwork over the fireplace. A few new throw pillows were added on the sofa carrying our living & dining room colors into this space. Finally, we reworked a few accessories.
Instead of finished and done, your home's decor is always changing. Whether it's new furniture, kitchen cabinets or a new rug, something will prompt a change in your decor. As it often does, one thing usually leads to another. Before you know it, your home has evolved. So embrace change. Enjoy exploring the many different personalities and seasons your rooms can have. Making a house feel like home is a labor of love that lasts a life time.
This entry was posted in Decor Designs, Inc., Interior Decorating, Interior Redesign and tagged Interior Decorating, Interior Redesign on November 1, 2016 by Jeff Rice.


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Philly City Council asks: With schools deficit further away, why pay?
Dale Mezzacappa
Avi Wolfman-Arent
SRC member Marjorie Neff (from right), Philadelphia School District Superintendent William Hite, district CFO Uri Monson, and Councilman Al Taubenburger take part in a Wednesday budget hearing. (Avi Wolfman-Arent/WHYY)
City Council members grilled Superintendent William Hite and other School District of Philadelphia officials Wednesday, asking in a variety of ways the same question: How do we know if you are spending money wisely, and why do you need a tax increase now if you don't expect to run a deficit for another two years?
"If we have two more years of not going negative, why are we dealing with this now?" said Councilman Allan Domb, lodging a question that characterized the tone of the district's annual budget hearing.
In more than four hours of back and forth, council members touched on myriad topics, from the conditions of school facilities to language translation services to the recruitment of black male teachers to efforts to combat truancy. First on the list for Council President Darrell Clarke was an energy- and money-saving initiative in several of the district's buildings, which he would like to see scaled.
But most of the questions circled back to the essential one: If I am going to risk voting in favor of raising property taxes — Mayor Kenney is asking for a 4.1 percent hike to ship more money to the schools — tell me where the money will be going.
"If there's one part of your portfolio where you think there's still efficiencies and what you would identify those to be," Councilwoman Maria Quiñones-Sánchez asked Uri Monson, the district's chief financial officer.
Monson replied that the district wants to incorporate more principles of "zero-based" budgeting and get away from a mentality of "it's in the budget, so you just keep doing it."
Councilwoman Cindy Bass wondered if, after the tax hike, she could tell her constituents that the district would be "competitive" with places such as Lower Merion and Cheltenham. If she could give such assurances, her voters would be "all in" on the tax hike, she said.
"Not yet, but it's a step," replied Hite. Monson pointed out that Lower Merion spends more than twice as much per student as Philadelphia, and the proposed increase would not bring the city's per-pupil expenditure anywhere near Lower Merion's.
Bass said voters in her district, which covers parts of North and Northwest Philadelphia, are struggling to stay afloat financially and won't be happy about plugging a budget deficit that's yet to materialize.
"We want our schools to be good and to be strong, but at the same time the deficit is a minute away, and folks are paying bills to keep their households going right now," Bass said.
Addressing 'structural deficit'
Replying to those inquiries, Monson returned to the same theme: Even though the district has managed to eke out small budget surpluses for several years, its financial posture remains precarious because it has a "structural deficit," meaning that its expenditures continue to outpace its recurring revenues.
Councilwoman Helen Gym also sought to focus on the bigger picture, citing calculations that she said determined that Philadelphia was due another $1 billion annually at least to assure that all its children — most of them living in poverty, many speaking other languages — receive a high-quality education. Pennsylvania has one of the widest spending gaps between wealthy and poor districts in the country, according to some researchers.
"This is a massive civil rights violation," she said, adding that while council should push that issue whenever possible it should also "do what we can" to help the schools.
When Kenney spearheaded an effort to reassert local control over the city's public schools after nearly two decades under a state-controlled board, he promised the move would come with new city money. Kenney has repeatedly argued the city must steer the destiny of its school system and not wait for more dollars from Harrisburg, where the Legislature is controlled by spending-shy — and Philadelphia-averse — Republicans.
Kenney first proposed a property tax hike in March, when the district's financial situation was considerably shakier. Starting in fiscal year 2019, Monson projected, the district would run a deficit that would balloon to nearly a billion dollars by fiscal year 2023.
The math later changed when the city revealed its latest round of property reassessments, which unlocked hundreds of millions more dollars for local schools. Projections released in late March show the district won't sink into the red until fiscal year 2020, and that the five-year deficit, without any new city investment, would reach $660 million.
In light of the new numbers, Kenney revised his ask, lowering the property tax bump to 4.1 percent from 4.6 percent. He also called for an increase in the homestead exemption, which allows homeowners to lower their property tax assessments.
Striving for stability
Clearly, though, some council members see the revised calculus as cause for restraint, especially since the tax rate increase on top of the reassessments would be a double whammy for many homeowners.
Clarke, for instance, started the hearing by asking about the percent of revenue provided to the district by the state and the percent provided by the city, inferring the state should carry a larger load. The current district budget calls for the state to provide about $1.62 billion and the city to provide about $1.56 billion.
District officials implied they were agnostic about where the money comes from, so long as they can ensure long-term stability.
"What we're trying to focus on is the revenue we need to provide children with an adequate education," said Hite.
He later added, "What we're asking for now is to maintain the stability that we fought so hard to get to."
Before that stability, the district lurched from fiscal crisis to fiscal crisis, firing thousands and closing two dozen schools along the way. The worst period started in 2011 when then-Gov. Tom Corbett severely reduced state and federal aid to Philadelphia and other school districts. Among other austerity moves, the district laid off all its counselors and nurses.
Even now, falling enrollment has left many school district buildings half empty.
Domb wanted to know about utilization of school buildings, asking at one point, "What is the perfect size high school?" His question did elicit some interesting information: District facilities manager Danielle Floyd revealed that 31 district schools are operating at less than 50 percent capacity.
But closing schools is a touchy and complicated matter, since they serve as an anchor and, in some cases, the last vestige of institutional stability in many city neighborhoods.
Hite and Floyd did say that the district does ongoing evaluations of building utilization as well as prioritizing maintenance. It has $5 billion in unmet facilities needs, recently explored in a series of Philadelphia Inquirer stories on environmental dangers in school buildings and covered over the past year in the Public School Notebook.
Lottery results for Philly's special-admissions schools to come by month end
District officials are still working to review appeals from families concerning their children's eligibility, which must be completed before the lottery can be held, according
Philly superintendent restructures district leadership in pursuit of academic gains
Superintendent Tony Watlington announced six new sub-offices in the district's central office and several new hires, including a new chief financial officer.
Philly schools request feedback from parents, community on academic calendars
The Philadelphia Board of Education will vote on calendars for the next two school years at its February meeting. Parents and community members have until Dec. 14 to weigh in.
About Dale Mezzacappa
@dalemezz dalem@thenotebook.org
About Avi Wolfman-Arent
@Avi_WA awolfmanarent@whyy.org

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


Start the new year as a family serving others. We will be delivering donated comic books and sharing the love of Jesus to the children at USA Women's and Children's Hospital. Children must be accompanied by an adult. For additional questions, contact Jon Seale.


milan, bologna, florence, riccione. statues (naked). wine. dimly lit streets. narrow alleyways with punk rock kids. gelato and cappuccinos and cafe (espressos). statues (real people). fresh markets, dried fruits. open air. ordering things in ones twos and fives. empty cozy restaurants with cheery old italian hosts. (more) wine. panini and pizza. balconies with ashtrays and a small gathering of matchsticks.
dublin, galway. green. mini cadbury eggs. guinness. shady handsy potential ex-IRA members. (more guinness) and cobblestones everywhere. leprechauns and david spade-alikes. charming danish boys. insects and sea creatures on parade. vodka and fanta at the mcdonald's. rainy buses.
Exclusion Suite, Episode One: "Never Have I Ever"
Flying out to Europe (Dublin and Italy) tonight. Be back on the 23rd!
So our first episode's hit a few snags in terms of editing, but it's due out by the end of the week, along with a bitchin' party at 1020, the Morningside Heights bar featured towards the end of "Never Have I Ever." Production photos can be found at this Flickr photoset.
Oh, and the adorable little girl you're going "Awwwww" over is director Rob Brink's daughter, Izzy. She and her mother stopped by the set to say hi. Izzy's pretty much our unofficial mascot now. Does anyone else see a resemblance to Pearl the Landlord?
Stay tuned for news on the release of episode one.


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LAeroporto di Vientiane-Wattay  è un aeroporto internazionale laotiano situato a Wattay, sobborgo 3 km a nord-ovest della capitale Vientiane lungo la strada statale 13. La struttura è costituita da un solo terminal ed è dotata di una pista in asfalto lunga 3 000 m posta ad un'altitudine di 172 m s.l.d.m con orientamento delle piste 13/31.

L'aeroporto, hub della compagnia aerea nazionale Lao Airlines, è gestito dall'Esercito Popolare Laotiano ed è aperto al traffico commerciale e militare.

Note

Altri progetti

Collegamenti esterni

Wattay
Vientiane

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


By using the dialogue exercises, you'll be able to learn French and improve both your French comprehension and your speaking skills at the same time.
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Try MosaLingua, the best way to study French. We're positive you won't regret the download!
If you have a suggestion or need assistance, please click on the customer support link or http://mosalingua.com-- you are guaranteed a reply!
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text:
Religious Radicalism and Violent Extremism In Albania
Violent Extremism in The Western Balkans: Literature Review
An Integrated Approach To The Assessment And Management Of Aggression/Violence in Mental Health
Vurmo, G., Lamallari, B., Papa, A. & Dhemo, E.-2015
This study has collected, generated, and analyzed data on the phenomenon of religious radicalization and violent extremism with the aim of informing policymaking and stakeholders involved in addressing this phenomenon and the challenges interrelated with it. The research methodology approaches the identification and comprehensive analysis of the context by employing a variety of sources to understand the extent and relevance of several factors that enable or fuel religious radicalization and forms of violent extremism. These factors and 'drivers' are often combined with one another and interact with the context through various forms. However, the list of drivers analyzed in this study is not exhaustive, because in di¯erent contexts and times the phenomenon of religious radicalization and violent extremism may be fueled by other factors. During the research period (September 2014 – May 2015), a wide range of official, academic and other reliable sources of data was examined. In addition, a considerable number of actors have been involved in the preparatory phase of the study as well as in the fieldwork to generate data and to conduct the survey and interviews with key informants and focus groups. The entire framework of the research methodology, the findings, the conclusions, and the recommendations drawn in this study have been subjected to validation process to ensure quality, objectivity, compliance with the Albanian context, and inclusive approach based on the data. The IDM study finds that, while religious radicalization in Albania is in its early phase, lack of attention and inclusion in addressing 'push' or enabling factors may serve to aggravate the phenomenon. The study sheds light on the inactivity of most state institutions, particularly those outside the security domain, and of non-state actors in addressing and preventing religious radicalization. The phenomenon of religious radicalization may be further developed due to the lack of contextual cooperation between non-security state authorities and leaders of religious communities on the prevention of the phenomenon. The religious radical groups' agenda may be facilitated and favored by the inexistence of civil society in remote rural areas creating a big gap with regard to "safeguarding" activities on religious radicalization and violent extremism. The broad support of the communities of religious believers to the liberal tradition of faith, religious institutions, and to the values of religious harmony should not serve as an excuse for state and non-state actors' inactivity. On the other hand, misinterpretation of the phenomenon and minimization of its relevance or its identification with consequences (mainly in the security aspect) lead to the wrong approach and eventual counter-productivity of the e¯ects of institutional response. Religious radicalization (as a process) and violent extremism (as a result) are enabled, fueled and/or shaped by a rich array of factors and drivers, which operate in a particular country context at both macro (societal) and micro (individual / group) level.
Extremism(Religious)Multi-agency cooperationPrevention InitiativesRadicalisation Models and MechanismsRadicalisation Risk Factors


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Traffic Reduction
East & SE Asia
Transport Matters
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The Electric Assist: Leveraging E-bikes and E-scooters for More Livable Cities
Shared and electric micromobility are helping cities tackle the climate crisis. ITDP's report, The Electric Assist: Leveraging E-bikes and E-scooters for More Livable Cities, provides a comprehensive understanding of the opportunities and risks posed by e-bikes and e-scooters, as well as recommendations for how cities can link electric micromobility to sustainable transport goals and expand the…
Getting to BRT: An Implementation Guide for U.S. Cities
A resource for planners and policy makers to successfully advocate for and implement BRT systems in U.S. cities. While momentum in recent decades has elevated bus rapid transit (BRT) as more than an emerging mode in the U.S., this high-capacity, high quality bus-based mass transit system remains largely unfamiliar to most Americans. This guide offers…
Three Revolutions in Urban Transportation
If you are a member of the press, contact us for additional information. There can be an 80% cut in CO2 emissions if cities embrace 3 revolutions (3R) in vehicle technology: automation, electrification, and, most importantly, ride sharing. This report examines analysis from ITDP and UC Davis showing how 3R synergy provides 40% reduction in urban…
People Near Transit: Improving Accessibility and Rapid Transit Coverage in Large Cities
Many of the world's most important cities are expanding rapidly without adequate transportation planning. People Near Rapid Transit (PNT) measures the number of residents in a city who live within a short walking distance (1 km) of high-quality rapid transit. This is a good way to estimate accessibility and rapid transit coverage in large cities….
In Yichang, China, a New BRT Connects the City (Issue 27, 2016)
Letter from the CEO: Putting Pedestrians First Healthy, Equitable, Environmental Cities Transforming Our World with New Sustainable Development Goals In Yichang, China, A New BRT Connects the City A Sustainable Smart Future: New Transport Investments Tool Shows Indian Cities the Way Forward Changing Direction: Walking and Cycling in African Cities How to Enjoy the City…
Infographic: Rapid Transit to Resident Ratio (RTR)
The Rapid Transit to Resident Ratio (RTR) is a small statistic with a lot of information. The metric compares a country's urban population (cities with more than 500,000 people) with the length of rapid transit lines (including rail, metro, and BRT) that serve them. This metric offers a snapshot of the access, equity, and quality of…
Better Rapid Transit for Greater Boston
Boston finds itself at a crossroads. The metropolitan area is in dire need of bold, modern, resilient, but also cost-efficient transit solutions to improve and complement our existing system. The record-level snowfall in 2015 and other extreme weather events are harsh reminders of this longstanding reality. Metropolitan area planners have included BRT in a number…
Can Shared Mobility Help Low-Income People Access Opportunity?
This report was produced by ITDP for Living Cities and is reprinted here with permission. More information is available at LivingCities.org. Shared-mobility programs like bike-share and car-share have significant potential to benefit low-income users, yet often do not reach that population. This report explores the specific opportunities and challenges facing shared mobility programs in expanding services to low-income…
More Development for Your Transit Dollar: An Analysis of 21 North American Transit Corridors
Increasingly, cities in the US, finding themselves short of funds, are wondering whether BRT, a lower cost mass transit solution initially developed in Latin America and a relatively new form of mass transit in the US, could also be used here to leverage transit-oriented development investments. This report provides an answer. In the wake of…
Sustainable Resolutions for a New Year
US Transit Leaders: "We Must Prioritize, Invest, and Do Better for BRT"
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My Set, be gentle Jul 11, 2018 4:21:02 GMT
Post by jynx316 on Jul 11, 2018 4:21:02 GMT
And, lastly, we have my lands. Most are fairly simple. I'm actually going to provide a little insight in some of them before hand. I have tri color pain lands (provide one color, or one of its two friendlies for 1 damage), what I call "death lands" (provide one color, or one of its two enemies for 1 life), and a cycle of non-basic Basic Lands. They count as the land type, tap for the appropriate mana, but also can tap for an ability in that color's purview.
Buried Hotsprings
Land :uncommon:
T: Add B to your mana pool.
T: Add U or R to your mana pool. Buried Hotsprings deals 1 damage to you.
Burned Woodlands
T: Add R to your mana pool.
T: Add B or G to your mana pool. Burned Woodlands deals 1 damage to you.
Center of the World
Land — Forest :common:
Center of the World is green.
T: Regenerate target Green creature.
City of Prisms
Legendary Land :rare:
T: Add 1 to your mana pool.
T: Add two mana of any one color to your mana pool. You lose two life.
Destruction's Lair
When Destruction's Lair enters the Battlefield, destroy a land of your choice. Then, choose an opponent, and destroy a land of that player's choice.
Eastern Beach
Land — Island :common:
Eastern Beach is blue.
T: Add U to your mana pool.
T: Target Blue creature gains Flying until the end of the turn.
Flooded Pridelands
T: Add W to your mana pool.
T: Add G or U to your mana pool. Flooded Pridelands deals 1 damage to you.
Gravestone Peninsula
T: Add W or B to your mana pool. Gravestone Peninsula deals 1 damage to you.
Halls of the Void
Land :rare:
When Halls of the Void comes enters the Battlefield, choose a creature type. You may choose not to Untap Halls of the Void during your Untap phase.
T: While Halls of the Void remains tapped, creatures of the chosen type lose all abilities.
Lands of the Free
T: Add W or U to your mana pool. You lose one life.
Mesa Bog
T: Add B or R to your mana pool. You lose one life.
Northern Moor
Land — Swamp :common:
Northern Moor is black.
T: Target Black creature gains Intimidate until the end of the turn.
Rolling Foothills
T: Add W or R to your mana pool. Rolling Foothills deals 1 damage to you.
Southern Ridge
Land — Mountain :common:
Southern Ridge is red.
T: Target Red creature gains Haste until the end of the turn.
Sun-lit Mire
T: Add W or G to your mana pool. You lose one life.
T: Add R or G to your mana pool. You lose one life.
Western Fields
Land — Plains :common:
Western Fields is white.
T: Target White creature gains First Strike until the end of the turn.
Wooded Highlands
T: Add U or B to your mana pool. You lose one life.
Icarael
Don't call it a comeback-- I've been here for years!
Favorite Card: Coiling Oracle
Favorite Set: Ravnica: City of Guilds
Post by Icarael on Jul 11, 2018 7:33:05 GMT
Why do some of the dual lands have "You lose 1 life" and others have "[name] deals 1 damage to you"?
Also, those trilands are strong. Too strong for uncommon, in fact. The original painlands entered untapped and tapped for or two colors for 1 damage, and they were widely played. If your lands ETBT, they'd be good at rare.
Destruction's Lair-- Better worded as "When Destruction's Lair enters the battlefield, each player sacrifices a land."
Uncommon land cycle-- They can lose the basic land types, otherwise they're stronger than a basic land.
"Take the bridge, men! Victory! Victory is ou - Retreat! RETREAT!"
Post by jynx316 on Jul 11, 2018 13:34:50 GMT
Jul 11, 2018 7:33:05 GMT Icarael said:
The Enemy Tri Colors have loss of life instead of damage because, when I made them, we figured there were plenty of ways around damage, but not loss of life. Just something to make a difference between the two types.
Destruction's Lair is worded that way specifically for multi player games. The max it will do is two lands, one of your choice, and then one of theirs. So, if you are playing a four person game, they might not choose you.
You're limited to four of them, as they aren't a "basic land", they just have the land types. Also, as they are considered to be colored, they are also vulnerable to effects that mess with colored permanents.
4/4 Angel
I tell you what they want you to know, and you consider it the truth. Nobody is opening their eyes!
My Set, be gentle Jul 11, 2018 19:48:30 GMT via mobile
Post by Gorgon on Jul 11, 2018 19:48:30 GMT
How can something be black-bordered and give denimwalk?
No, wrong question. How can something be black-bordered and interact with silver-bordered cards? And why?
Still wrong question. How can something be black-bordered and make you tear cards apart AND be potentially fun?
ALSO besides those being colored and not real, tell me why shouldn't I remove four basic lands from my deck and put there four of your monocolor lands? Generally most of your lands are strictly better than basic lands, and that's not a good thing.
Last Edit: Jul 11, 2018 19:53:00 GMT by Gorgon
<BB> Velo, Disaster Mage
is next.
Anger Elemental ) Out-of-colour ( ). Red generally doesn't do taps. It's also "[...]deals damage equal to its power[...]".
Atra ) Out-of-colour ( ). Red also doesn't get damage prevention of this sort.
Blazing Fury ) Is, not equals.
Dragon Fire ) This is what we call a "modal spell", and needs to be formatted as such:
Choose one--
* ~ deals 4 damage to target creature
* ~ deals 2 damage to target player
Modal spells are so called because they require you to pick a mode for the spell. All spells with Entwine are modal spells by default. (See the Comprehensive Rules section 700.2 for more information.)
Dragon Mistress ) Out-of-colour ( ). Red doesn't do indefinite yoinks, Brand notwithstanding; they're always temporary. This also seems to me to be a bit on the overpowered side. I would have the yoink last until EoT and have it be a variable-cost ability. Finally, up the rarity to Uncommon at the least, preferably rare.
, : Gain control of target Dragon with converted mana cost X or less until end of turn. If it's a creature, it gains Haste.
: ~ deals 1 damage to target creature or player. Activate this ability only if you control a Dragon.
Entrancing Tutor ) Red doesn't get much in the way of tutors, and they generally are limited to Sorceries or tribal (which is almost always going to be on a creature). The one tutor I could find that wasn't restricted, Gamble, had a drawback (discarding a card at random immediately after the search).
Entwined Goblin ) Again, see my comments on Entwined Peddler et al.
Eternal Goblin ) Remove Persist or increase its toughness by 1. As writ Persist will insta-kill it and cause it to resurrect again due to Undying, meaning every death from an Undying resurrection will deal 2 damage (1 from the original death and 1 from the SBE kill caused by Persist) unless Persist is Stifled.
Flame Render ) Even with the limitation, Mogg Maniac suggests this card should be , especially since combat damage tends to be the most common sort of damage to creatures.
Flame's Embrace ) "[...]Target creature is unable to block[...]" -> "[...]Target creature can't block[...]"
Flaming Wings ) Colour bend - Red does not grant flying in and of itself unless it's granting draconic or phoenix abilities.
Licking Flame ) Inflame has the exact same effect for . You could cost this at .
The Mad Russian Lantrusian ) Let's try to avoid using real-world locations, hm? Also, "on the battlefield" does not need to be spelt out; creatures are only ever creatures on the battlefield and are creature cards everywhere else.
Summit Barbarian ) Needs to be .
Vengeful Alchemist ) Reword:
Resurgence--When ~ dies, it deals damage equal to its power to any target.
Last Edit: Jul 11, 2018 19:57:45 GMT by Jéské Couriano: Still not used to Dominaria wording.
Jul 11, 2018 19:48:30 GMT Gorgon said:
Are you familiar with the card "Chaos Confetti" (apologies, not sure how to link to the cards)? As I've said earlier, this PW is based on a friend, who, during the Unglued heyday, had an Unglued deck, and proxied out Chaos Confetti. He actually even kept all the pieces in a baggies to show to people. His ultimate make him able to turn ANY card you own (I've corrected that as mentioned before) into a Chaos Confetti. Doesn't have to be in play. Hell, technically, I guess it wouldn't even have to be a Magic card. And to some, Chaos Confetti was LOTS of fun.
I guess a little backstory might help everyone to see where I was coming from with Nydex. First, as we can see, he is the Planeswalker for my friend, Phocus. Nydex is the leader of the Huccoons, a race of humanoid raccoons. Huccoons are, by nature, immune to fire. It will burn all of their hair off, but they are not harmed by it otherwise. Coincidently, they are all masters of making their hair grow by use of magical cantrips (D&D cantrips, not Magic cantrips). Nydex himself is a master of creating magical items, albeit twisted ones. His two greatest creations are the Hammer of Cod Piece Knocking and the Sword of Underwear Switching. This is why Nydex gives creatures Pro Red and Denimwalk. Pro Red for his immunity to fire and Denimwalk to somewhat represent his magical items.
The player he is based off of, Phocus, loves the Un sets, specifically Unglued. He still has his original "Cheese Stands Alone" deck. His love of the silver bordered cards created the second ability; getting a card you own (not from the deck, but your collection), and being able to play it.
As I've stated before, his ultimate ability was from Phocus's deck running Chaos Confetti, and proxy-ing the card with commons when it came to using its ability. He collected every single piece he ever ripped apart, and kept them in a ziploc baggie.
Do these abilities twist Magic? Yes. Yes they do. I freely admit this. However, I don't think they bend it to the breaking point. One card, a Mystic at that, out of a set that is "odd" is no more game breaking then one that says you can't lose.
I hope this helps people understand where I care from when making this card. As always, I truly appreciate anyone who gives feedback on my set.
Vunik
Currently Trying to Hide Insanity
Post by Vunik on Jul 11, 2018 22:19:34 GMT
Jul 11, 2018 21:48:52 GMT jynx316 said:
You're not twisting Magic, nor are you creating something even remotely comparable to any card that says "You can't lose the game". Why? Because as it stands, within black border, your card doesn't work.
If you look through the Comprehensive Rules, you'll see that there are no rules relating to denimwalk, or to ripping up cards, or to referencing the border color of a card. All three of those abilities, and as such your planeswalker, can only exist in silver border, where the game is allowed to go outside of the confines of the Comp. Rules. It's why Unstable has cards that can go into players hands that didn't own them, despite that being literally impossible under the Comp. Rules. It's why Unhinged featured Little Girl, half mana, and half power/toughness. Because that's the only place it can work, period. There is no recourse.
Honestly, it's not a question of whether you can justify the card or not, because nearly anything can be justified. It's that unless your entire set is in silver border, or even just this planeswalker (although that opens an entirely different can of worms), it doesn't work.
Rule number one. If a card's text contradicts the rules as stated, the card text takes precedence. If you are basing everything off of the Comp Rules, then you are saying that no one can make new keywords, as the comp rules don't cover them.
Also, the comp rules are fluid. They are ever changing. Things are only not covered by them until they are. If your only objection is that it can't be done because it's never been done that way before, then, to me, it is not a good argument as to why it CAN'T be done.
Also, the ripping of cards? That was originally done in an early tournament, by someone ripping his Chaos Orb into pieces, and throwing the pieces. Because it didn't say he couldn't do that. So, there is precedent.
Last Edit: Jul 11, 2018 23:06:24 GMT by jynx316
colinbeck
Favorite Card: Clockspinning
Favorite Set: Time Spiral
Color Alignment: Blue, Red, Green
Post by colinbeck on Jul 12, 2018 0:30:25 GMT
You are asking players to destroy their physical possessions permanently for a mechanical advantage in a game.
Think for a moment.
Do you want to ask players to Destroy their own belongings to play your set?
Do you expect people to WANT to play with your cards if this is the cost to play them?
You are designing for PLAYERS. Not for yourself. I don't care if you think its a good idea. I am telling you, your players will not agree.
Shall we run a quick poll? We can set up a poll to see how many people think that Chaos Orb effects are fun to play in tournament settings.
Also, "better than a basic land" means "I would replace 4 of my basic lands with this card in every case because it is strictly better." The colored permanent thing is #1) a memory issue because it either doesn't look like a land because its lacking the land border or it doesn't look colored because its lacking a colored border. This is especially important for lands, the backbone of every deck, and is a key reason that there is controversy around Dryad Arbor- It hides with the rest of your lands despite being mechanically different from them, so it is often difficult to remember it is a creature. Tournament organizers have specified exactly which printings and proxies are allowed because of this issue, so it is something to consider. And #2) it is in NO WAY enough of a downside to justify the fact that every deck every where almost no matter what will run your lands replacing 4 basics. Because they are strictly better. Imagine the cost and implications of every deck in every tournament ever wanting a playset of these lands.
Post by Fleur de Violet on Jul 12, 2018 0:38:45 GMT
Arguably, the fact that Chaos Orb is banned in all formats is probably a sign that something that makes you use a card in a way that involves aim/dexterity is almost certainly out of bounds. After all, it is banned in all formats, which very few cards are (save for un-cards, ante cards (which involved legality issues re: gambling) and Shazharad, which resulted in obnoxious time stalling).
If I might make an argument for reasons why such mechanics would be unhealthy for the game even if the comp rules were to hypothetically allow it:
Denimwalk would disproportionately punish some people for game-unrelated things. Punishing a player for say, playing x deck or y deck is fine because that's something a play is expected to consider as it's within the bounds on the game. Punishing a player for something out of their control, such as having a limited wardrobe or having a preference towards certain types of clothing (especially the former), isn't IMO a place the game should go to. Granted, Unstable had Blurry Beeble, but Unstable was a significantly less competitive environment and was expected to be played as such, and so the expectations on what effects could do was different.
That is to say, by putting a card into a standard format, a card is expected to conform to the expectation of not being swayed by out-of-game factors. That's also why Chaos Orb is banned, which I reiterate again. Ultimately my dislike and disagreement with the inclusion of denimwalk and Chaos Confetti-esque effects doesn't come from the rules, but because there should be a separation between out-of-game and in-game, and as such one should not directly affect the other.
ZephyrPhantom
Not Amused.
Set Hub: The Desk
Favorite Card: Muck Drubb
Favorite Set: Return to Ravnica
Post by ZephyrPhantom on Jul 12, 2018 1:02:56 GMT
Take it from someone who's said stuff like this and seen a lot of other people make the same argument - "There is precedent" is a bad argument to use if you don't have an airtight case for why a controversial mechanic should be included in your set.
Let's take a look at the Vintage banlist to start off. Keep in mind this is a format that is as close to "everything goes" as it gets in MTG. Aside from Conspiracies (which can't be regulated outside of Draft), the banned cards are either:
1) Cards that ask you to do things that are literally illegal. (Ante)
2) Cards that are "dexterity"-based, i.e. they rely on something not related to the player's inherent skill or their deck. (In Chaos Orb's case, arm strength - or the cleverness to rip it up)
3) Shahrazad.
As Yoshi said, the issue with Denimwalk is that it punishes the player for something not related to Magic. This issue isn't just specific to jeans-wearing or ripping up cards; Mark Rosewater once stated in Kind Acts of Randomness that dice rolling was poorly received in older Un-sets because it disrupts the player's ability to control the outcomes of their game with just their cards. In other words, this is less a question of "Can I do it?" and more a question of "Should I do it?"
Think of it like shoving something like Suspend onto a random mythic in Theros without reminder text and expecting people to just go along with it when it pops up in their booster pack. Sure, people may go along with it, but explaining why Suspend is okay in the block and how it interacts with everything is probably not going to end well. I get you're passionate about the character you're representing, but Planeswalkers still are cards within the set and as a result they need to respect whatever themes the set has.
Last Edit: Jul 12, 2018 1:09:30 GMT by ZephyrPhantom
Fire consumes and reproduces, but is it alive?
Do you like making card designs and having game sessions based around them? The Battle Boards has just had a big update!
Jul 12, 2018 1:02:56 GMT ZephyrPhantom said:
Fun fact. Denimwalk led to the making of one of my favorite rules in Magic. Removing your pants is faster then a mana source. In an Unglued tourney, someone was attacking with Hurloon Wrangler. His opponent literally stood up and pulls his pants off, and blocks. They call a judge, and the judge declares that its a legal move, as "removing his pants is faster then a mana source."
That's all well and good, but is this set an Un-set?
Post by Jéské Couriano on Jul 12, 2018 5:03:21 GMT
Judge rulings for un-sets are irrelevant to black-bordered Magic. As everyone has been trying to tell you, there is a stark difference between the orderly and timely requirements of a black-bordered game/tournament and the anarchy and politicking of a silver-bordered game/tournament.
While there are silver-bordered cards that have made the leap (Barren Glory/The Cheese Stands Alone; Steamflogger Boss doesn't count) it's telling that pretty much no mechanics that ever appeared in a silver-bordered set have appeared or will appear in black border because they rely on characteristics not all players share or are quite clearly taking things to the point of self-parody. Not to mention that decency laws might actually forbid that trick you like so much, especially if a player goes commando.
(Also, the main reason Shahrazad is banned is because it stalls games out. This is also why all cards that create subgames since are in silver-bordered land.)
Last Edit: Jul 12, 2018 5:04:44 GMT by Jéské Couriano
Post by Gorgon on Jul 12, 2018 6:59:24 GMT
101.1. Whenever a card's text directly contradicts these rules, the card takes precedence. The card overrides only the rule that applies to that specific situation. The only exception is that a player can concede the game at any time (see rule 104.3a).
Is there a rule for denimwalk in Magic's Comprehensive Rules? I don't think so.
Furthermore, as others said, it would interact with things outside the game, which isn't allowed.
But Magic rules don't say you can or cannot rip cards apart, so can I make cards be ripped apart? Well, no. Why? Look at the paragraph above.
Also, saying ripping cards apart is precedent because some guy ripped his own Chaos Orb apart is the worst argument I've ever heard. Did you heard that action would be also illegal (in game terms) since it would lower your deck's card size and you would possibly, I repeat, possibly lose the game and possibly, I repeat, possibly get a warning?
You say you made this PW for your friend that loves Chaos Confetti. I think you're lying. If you wouldn't, you would know that both Chaos Confetti, which makes you rip cards apart, and Hurloon Wrangler, which has denimwalk, as well as e.g. Border Guardian, which interacts with colors of borders, are SILVER-BORDERED. And silver-bordered means BANNED-IN-EVERY-COMPETITIVE-AND-SUPPORTED-FORMAT-POSSIBLE, that is a new word to learn. Having a random silver-bordered card in a black-bordered set isn't like having a random black-bordered card in a silver-bordered set, since silver-bordered sets are supposed to do whatever the fuck they want, and black-bordered sets are supposed to be played competitively. When you see silver borders you think "here comes trouble". Imagine Blacker Lotus printed in M19. That's like the same thing.
Last thing, we don't try to discourage you from making this set. We're not even discouraging you from making that specific planeswalker. Shit, you can even put it into your black-bordered set, that's your choice! We just say what would be the players' response if your set would be printed for real.
Last Edit: Jul 12, 2018 7:00:52 GMT by Gorgon
Jul 12, 2018 6:59:24 GMT Gorgon said:
I should also note that this is an urban legend, and it ended with the guy who ripped up his Chaos Orb being DQ'd for having an undersized deck.
If your main deck is undersized, that's not a warning, it's an automatic game loss for every game so long as your decklist does not match the contents of your deck and you don't correct it.
DCI Competitive Rules:
Upgrade: If the deck or sideboard is discovered to be incorrect while presented to the opponent for pre-game shuffling, and the missing cards are not in the opponent's deck, the penalty is a Game Loss. [As opposed to filling it with Basic Land cards and warning as is standard for decklist issues where there's a mismatch. --Bori]
First, my apologies to anyone who I may have aggravated in my explanations. I tend to forget that the local meta-game isn't the same as elsewhere, so what could be fine here wouldn't fly elsewhere. Also, I tend to be a much more casual player, while my friend who helps me plays more in the tournaments. Because of this, we generally cover every all grounds for cards, but, as seen, not always.
Second, I truly appreciate everyone who has chimed in, giving suggestions or alternatives. As I've stated previously, this set has been in the works for the better part of 10 yrs. Some of the wordings were set before the current formatting was put into place. Also, I tend to word things for the Lowest Common Denominator, so I spell things out where it generally isn't needed. But, I then also forget key things that are very obvious. That's one of the reasons I have been posting things here. I tend to look at my cards and see what I meant, not what is actually written on the cards.
Thirdly... there is no third.
That's probably why this question was one of the very first things asked here, honestly:
What kind of set are we talking about here?
Generally when someone says they're making a set here and doesn't provide much of a description people will inevitably trend towards the idea that the set is meant to be a serious set that has basic WoTC standards like being draftable or being capable of added to a format. A lot of the criticism has been made from that perspective because there's a very big difference between "a bunch of cards for my playgroup" and a "set", so to speak. (Though most of the cards bar Nydex could be rebalanced to the point this could be the start of a decent set. I like Jasmin post-rework in particular, Explosive Dragon would be an excellent monoR or 3GR card - monoGreen doesn't get flying that easily, etc...)
I am admittedly curious about the purpose of this set, specifically:
- Is it meant to be drafted/sealed?
- Is more like a compilation of cards you'd think might be interesting for people to use in a deck?
- Can I play Constructed with this set alone?
As for Nydex in particular: Hopefully this doesn't come off as beating the dead horse, but I think it's in your best interest to be clear about whether you're still taking input on changing him or not, or he's going to keep taking the focus off other cards people might be interested in using.
I honestly thought I had gone over what the set was previously, but in re-reading my comments, I guess I just thought about, and never did.
I originally set out to make it, essentially, a stand alone set that would be self contained. My plan from the outset was to make a full block, following the five PWs (all based of myself, my wife, and three friends) from this set, in three different forms; this set in a form that's close to their play style, the last set being something totally NOT their play style, and the middle being inbetween. This is why there are seemingly random things in the set. For example, Prophesised Demonslayer. There are only 3 Demons in this set. However, in one of the originally planned later sets, there were going to be more.
My friend who is helping me attempt to balance things, however, suggested I make things less self-contained, so it could easily be integrated into MtG, as if it were a real set being introduced. We went through a few variations of ideas. Originally, we weren't going to include "normal" creature types. The thought being was, for example, Zombies are already a good archetype deck, so they didn't need any additional cards. After a while, though, I went the other way with it.
From my perspective, it is meant more for play in a more "limited" format. At some point, after fine tuning how things work by itself, I would like to see how it interacts with the real sets. My plan was, after getting feedback here, to print out a few play sets of my cards, and have some friends build decks with just them. After a "tournament", I was going to get people's opinions. See what was too strong, not strong enough, what cards need to be cheaper, etc.
As for Nydex... I don't know what I'm going to do with that one. I will be doing SOMETHING. I just don't know what.
Again, thanks all. Sorry I've been a pain.
A good plan, but in all honesty the best way to test to make sure that the cards aren't going to have unintended consequences would be to have them tested in a Modern environment. [Not to sound like I'm talking down, but to those who don't know, the Modern format allows only cards from 8th Edition onwards, excepting Conspiracies (which are illegal in all constructed formats as they require drafting). Everything from Invasion block and earlier is illegal in the format, except for cards reprinted in non-Vault sets in 8th Edition and beyond. --Bori]
Why Modern? Two reasons: First, it's one of the "eternal" formats, meaning cards can only ever be added to it, not removed from it (contrast Standard, which rotates out blocks regularly). Second, it's a far better barometer of how the colour pie and Wizards' design philosophies are nowadays than Legacy/Vintage will ever be.
Another option, though one I personally don't recommend unless your playgroup is into it, would be to test in Elder Dragon Highlander format. EDH is a singleton Commander format, meaning each deck needs to have a legendary creature and cards cannot have non-generic mana in their cost or rules text that's different from what that legendary creature has. (For example, a deck with Memnarch as commander can only use cards that have generic and/or blue mana in all of its casting costs and text boxen.) The reason I don't recommend EDH is because of the fact it is a singleton format; you'd ideally want to test if two copies of one card is problematic balance-wise.
Is there any chance one of you nice folks would continue critiquing the remaining portions of my set? I know things kinda hit a proverbial brick wall with Nydex, but I'd like feedback on the Gold, Multicolor, Artifact, and Land cards to take with me when I go to bounce ideas with my friend who is helping me. I've got print outs of the feedback to take with me, but I only have stuff up to Green. Thanks.
Post by fluffydeathbringer on Jul 20, 2018 23:15:40 GMT
- Angelic Elemental: owner's* hand
- wotc moved on from "creature or player" to "any target" a while ago (the new wording directly encompasses planeswalkers since the redirection rule no longer exists). it's your choice to do whatever kind of damage you want but I figured there's a chance you just don't know
- Dreaded Angel: the two evasions are a bit redundant (and there's a reason WoTC phased out color-hate mechanics like Intimidate/landwalk/etc., there's too much variance in effectiveness against decks), suggest replacing intimidate with some other evergreen, say, deathtouch
- Individuality is still needless and my solution would be to alter the grave effects of the legends themselves to not stack/not be that powerful, or just not have your legends have grave effects in the first place. any of these is better than "Legendary, but worse"
- Hogmod's last ability needs to say that the player shuffles their library (there are way too many typos for me to comment on so I'm only picking the ones that actively glitch gameplay. if you want a more thorough typo cleanse I can review the set file)
- see, Kitai's a good example of why Invididuality isn't really needed; its grave ability doesn't stack so self-mill doesn't make it obscene. suggestion: check out the Wonder cycle for good grave effect design for the legendary Incarnation cycle (an effect that doesn't stack with multiple copies), alternatively consider activated abilities of cards from graves like Nearheath Chaplain
- why would I ever make Spectrum Fiend lose toughness. it'd be much simpler for it to be a 0/5. and why is there a five-color uncommon anyway, is there enough mana fixing to justify a five-color creature appearing in draft that often
- Tidal Emurgence (sic) is just bad no matter how you cast it: to do some math, I'd need to make either one 3/3 or three 1/1's, both of which are subpar. then to make one 4/4 or four 1/1's, etc.
- Void Mask really doesn't need to be two-color, it can just be monoblue (Merfolk Trickster)
- Individuality is redundant (are you sensing a pattern yet) on Vrede and Zenkon; their abilities can't stack in the first place, since as legendary creatures you can have only one at a time
Yeah, need to look over Individuality again. We were worried more of having one in play AND one in the yard, more then having multiple in the yard. Maybe we just need something better worded.
Post by fluffydeathbringer on Jul 21, 2018 1:17:11 GMT
- Dragon's Eye Visions is out of color in monogreen; "scry, then draw" is in blue's wheelhouse
- Gorging Angel is out of color for both monowhite (the card draw) and monoblue (the lifegain), and shouldn't be a hybrid
- planeswalkers have the Legendary subtype these days (also why is the planeswalker type of Jynx different from his name)
- Jynx/Bill's (Jill's) +1 is way too good for his starting loyalty and mana cost (for modern WoTC sensibilities vis-a-vis walkers with buffing + abilities, see Jiang Yanggu and Arlinn Kord; if you want this to be a high-power set reminiscent of older Modern, Elspeth Tirel is still CMC4)
- Masochistic Acolyte is out of color for monoblue (the creature ping) and monored (the card draw). hybrids need to be in-color for both of their colors
- see above for Masochistic Genius
- Necromantic Shaman: out of color for (the deathtouch)
- Balance is white so Neo/Scott is also out of color (also because of the -3 increasing damage, which white doesn't do)
- Sardia: mixing +1/+1 and -1/-1 counters is a bad idea because it creates confusion (at least in paper Magic) about which marker stands for which counter
- Violet Enchantress: out of color for both colors (countering for , damage for )
- Serene Valley's text would not fit comfortably in the small textbox of a split card
- Arcane Empowerer: does "an opponent" mean "an opponent of the player who casts the spell" or "an opponent of you, the controller of the Familiar", also a 2/2 that stifles spellcasting like this is too strong for , and the 1 life on death isn't enough of a downside
- Chimeric Belt: equipped creature to its owner's* hand; there's a simpler way to word the equip shenanigans and it's merging it into one ability: "Equip nonlegendary creature "
- what's Thorn
- Magical Bauble Stand: "+1/+1" isn't an ability so this shouldn't be worded like this. my suggestion is to just remove that bit. also bauble counters granting different abilities has that "which markers stand for which things" problem, only way worse
yeah it was on the first page. my bad. but why would you devote an entire new keyword to a mechanic that only appears on two of your cards
Last Edit: Jul 21, 2018 2:24:16 GMT by fluffydeathbringer
Goes back to the whole grand ideas I had for when I started out. I always wanted to keyword that ability, and did so when I first started. Had every intention of using it on more cards, but, as you see...


text:
Ella Jones Elected First Black and First Woman Mayor of Ferguson
Ella Jones made history as she was elected the first black and first woman mayor of Ferguson, Missouri. During the midst of protests for racial justice across the US, Americans made their way to the polls to cast their votes and let their voices be heard.
Jones claimed victory against fellow Councilwoman Heather Robinett by 138 votes to succeed term-limited Mayor James Knowles III. Jones worked as a chemist, church pastor, and Council Member and has been very active in her community. She has since committed to serving her community full time in which she serves in numerous capacities, including Board Member of the Emerson Family YMCA and the St. Louis MetroMarket. As a Council Member, Jones serves as a council representative on the following commissions and boards: Human Rights, Traffic, Landmarks, Senior Citizens, Parks, and West Florissant Business Association, according to her campaign biography.
Jones was elected amidst protests against racial injustice and inequality in all 50 states following the death of 46-year-old George Floyd, who was unlawfully murdered by white Minneapolis law enforcement officer, Derek Chauvin, after Chauvin held his knee to Floyd's neck and killed him. The recent murder of George Floyd and following protests come after a string of continuous murders of black men and women who were murdered as a result of police brutality and racial injustice.
The election of Ella Jones as the first black and first woman mayor in Ferguson hits home as the community continues to mourn the death of 18-year-old Michael Brown Jr. who was fatally shot by white Ferguson officer, Darren Wilson, in Ferguson in 2014. The death of Brown was one of many black deaths at the hands of law enforcement that sparked nationwide unrest, protests, and debate around police brutality, racial injustice and the relationship between African Americans and law enforcement officers.
In response to her victory, Jones said, "That means I got work to do. Because when you're the first African American woman, they require more of you than they require of my counterparts," she continued, adding that she's ready to work together with others to help stabilize the community.


text:
\section{Introduction}

In recent years, weak gravitational lensing has proved to be one of
best probes of the matter power spectrum of the universe. In particular,
this method  can reliably estimate the matter power spectrum at  small scales which
are not directly accessible to other methods e.g. galaxy surveys (for details
and further references see e.g. \citet{Munshi08,Hoekstra08,Refreigier03,BS01}).

Magnetic fields play an important role in the many areas of astrophysics,
and are ubiquitously seen in
the universe. They have been observed in the galaxies and clusters of
 galaxies with the coherence lengths up to
$\simeq$ 10\hbox{--}100 kpc (for a review see e.g. \citet{Widrow02}). There is
 also  evidence of coherent magnetic fields up to super-cluster
scales \citep{Kim89}. Still little  is known about the origin of
 cosmic magnetic fields,  and their role in the evolutionary history of the universe. These
fields could have originated from  dynamo amplification of very tiny
 seed magnetic fields $\simeq 10^{-20} \, \rm G$ (e.g  \citet{Parker79,ZRS83,RSS88}).  It has been shown that dynamo mechanism can amplify
fields to significant values in collapsing objects at high redshifts
\citep{Ryu08,Schleicher10,Arshakian09,dSouza10,Federrath11a,Federrath11b,Schober11}.   It is also possible
that much larger primordial magnetic field ($\simeq 10^{-9} \, \rm G$)  were generated during the
inflationary phase \citep{TW88,Ratra92} and the large scale magnetic field
observed today are the relics of these fields.  In the latter case, of interest to us in this paper,  magnetic field starts with a large value in the intergalactic medium, while in the former case large magnetic fields are confined
to bound objects.

While the presence of primordial magnetic fields have  the potential
 to explain the
observed magnetic fields coherent at a range of scales in the present universe,
such fields also leave detectable  signatures in important observables
at cosmological scales in the universe.

The impact  of large-scale primordial magnetic fields on CMBR temperature
and polarization anisotropies has been studied in detail (e.g. \citet{Kandu98b, Kandu02,Sesh01,Mack02,Lewis04,GS05,TS06,Sethi05,SBK08,Sethi09,Sethi10,Tina05,Giovannini08,Yamazaki08,Sesh09}).  More recently, lower bounds $\simeq 10^{-15} \, \rm G$ on the strength of magnetic fields  have been
obtained based on observations of high-energy $\gamma$-ray photons (e.g.
\citet{Dolag10,NV2010,Tavecchio10,Taylor11}).

\citet{Wasserman78} showed that primordial magnetic fields can
induce density perturbations in the post-recombination universe. Further
 work along these lines
have investigated  the impact of this effect for the formation of first structures, reionization of the universe, and the signal from redshifted HI line from the epoch of reionization \citep[e.g.][]{Kim96,GS03,Sethi05,TS06,sbk,Sethi09}.
 The matter power spectrum induced by
primordial magnetic fields can dominate the matter power spectrum of
the standard $\Lambda$CDM model at small scales. Weak gravitational lensing
can directly probe this difference and therefore reveal the presence of primordial fields or put additional constraint on their strength.

In this paper we  attempt to constrain  primordial magnetic
fields  within the framework of  the
 two-point shear correlation function induced by gravitational lensing,
 including the contribution of
matter perturbations induced by
 these  magnetic fields. We compare our results with the
 CFHTLS Wide data  \citep{LFu08}.

Throughout the paper,  we used flat (k=0) $\Lambda$CDM universe with $\Omega_m$ = 0.24, $\Omega_b$ = 0.044, $h$ = 0.73 and
$\sigma_8$ = 0.77.
\\

\section{Matter  Power Spectrum}

Tangled magnetic fields can be characterized by a power-law power spectrum:
$M(k) = A k^n$. In the pre-recombination era, the magnetic fields
are dissipated at scales below a scale corresponding to $k_{\rm max} \simeq 200 \times (10^{-9} \, {\rm G}/B_{\rm eff})$ \citep[e.g.][]{jedam98,kandu98a}. Here $B_{\rm eff}$ is the RMS at this cut-off
scale for a given value of the spectral index, $n$. Another possible normalization, commonly used in the
 literature, is the value of RMS at $k = 1 \, \rm Mpc^{-1}$, $B_0$.
These two normalizations are related as: $B_{\rm eff} = B_0 k_{\rm max}^{(n+3)/2}$. It is possible to present results using either of the pair
 $\{B_{\rm eff},n\}$ or  $\{B_0,n\}$.

Tangled Magnetic fields induce matter perturbations in the post-recombination
era which grow by gravitational collapse. The matter power spectrum of these
perturbations is given by: $P(k) \propto k^{2n+7}$, for $n < -1.5$, the range
of spectral indices we consider here \citep{Wasserman78,Kim96,GS03}.

The Magnetic field induced matter power spectrum  is cut-off at
the magnetic field  Jeans' wave number: $k_J \simeq 15 (10^{-9} \, \rm G/B_{\rm eff})$ \citep[e.g.][]{Kim96,Tina2011}.
The dissipation of tangled magnetic field in the post-recombination era also
results in an increase in the thermal Jeans' length \citep{Sethi05,SBK08}. For
most of the range of magnetic field strengths considered here,
the  scale corresponding to $k_J$ generally exceed or are comparable to the
thermal Jeans length (Figure~4 of \citet{SBK08}).

For our computation, we need to know the  time evolution of the matter power
spectrum induced by tangled magnetic fields. It can be shown that the dominant
 growing mode in this case  has the same time dependence as the $\Lambda$CDM model (see e.g. \citet{GS03} and references therein)

\section{Weak Lensing \& Cosmic Shear}
The cosmic shear power spectrum $P_{k}(\ell)$ or the lensing convergence power spectrum, $P_\kappa$, is
the measure  of the projection of matter power spectrum  $P_\delta$ and
 is given by the following expression
(\citet{BS01}),
\begin{eqnarray} \label{eq:shearps}
P_{\kappa}(\ell)& = &  \frac {9}{4} {\Omega_m^2} \left(\frac {H_0}{c} \right) ^{4} \int_0^{\chi_{lim}}
                    \frac {d\chi} {a^2 (\chi )} P_\delta \left( \frac {\ell}{f_K(\chi)}
                    ;\chi \right)   \nonumber\\[2ex]
                   && \times \left[ \int _{\chi} ^{\chi_{lim}} d \chi ' n(\chi ') \frac
                    {f_K(\chi ' - \chi)} {f_K(\chi ')} \right] ^2
\end{eqnarray}
where $\chi$ is the comoving distance along the light ray and $\chi_{lim}$ is the limiting comoving
distance of the survey; $f_{K}(\chi)$ is the comoving angular diameter distance; for spatially flat (K=0) universe $f_K (\chi)$ is
numerically equal to the $\chi$ and the expression for $\chi$ in the flat universe is as given below,

\begin{equation} \label{eq:chi_z}
\chi(z) = \frac {c} {H_0} \int_0^z (\Omega_m (1+z)^3 + \Omega_{\Lambda})^{-1/2} dz
\end{equation}
n(z) is the redshift distribution of the sources and $\ell$ is the modulus of a two dimensional wave vector perpendicular
to the line of sight. $P_\delta$ is the matter power spectrum. In this
paper, we use tangled magnetic power spectrum as $P_\delta$ to compute
the shear power spectrum  for the magnetic cases.

The cosmological shear field induced by
density perturbations  is a curl-free  quantity and is donated as an
E-type field. One  can decompose the observed shear signal into E (non-rotational) and
B (rotational) components.  Detection of non-zero B-modes indicates a
 non-gravitational
contribution to the shear field, which might be caused by systematic contamination to the lensing signal.\footnote{The presence of primordial magnetic fields
will also generate the B-modes of the shear power spectrum. Both the vector
and tensor modes generated by magnetic fields could  sources these modes. Vector
modes are likely to play a more dominant role at angular scales of interest to
us in the paper. We hope to  explore this possibility in a future work.}

These decomposed shear correlation functions can be expressed as:
\begin{equation} \label{eq:xieb}
\xi_{E,B}(\theta)=\frac {\xi_+(\theta) \pm \xi'(\theta)} {2}
\end{equation}
where $\xi'$ is given by
\begin{equation} \label{eq:xid}
\xi'(\theta) = \xi_-(\theta) + \int_\theta^\infty \frac { d \vartheta} {\vartheta} \xi_-(\vartheta) \left(
       4-12 \left(\frac {\theta} {\vartheta} \right)^2 \right)
\end{equation}
$\xi_+$ and $\xi_-$ are  two-point shear correlation functions which are
 related to the matter  power
spectrum according to the following relation,
\begin{equation} \label{eq:xi_pm}
\xi_\pm(\theta) = \frac {1} {2\pi} \int_0^\infty d \ell \ \ell P_\kappa (\ell) J_{0,4} (\ell \theta)
\end{equation}
$\theta$ is the angular separation between the galaxy pairs, and $J_{0,4}$ are Bessel functions of the first  kind.

\section{Shear power spectrum  from  tangled magnetic field power spectrum}

We use  the tangled magnetic field matter
 power spectrum   $P_\delta$  to compute the
 shear power spectrum $P_\kappa (\ell)$ which in turn is used
to calculate $\xi_+$, $\xi_-$, $\xi_E$ and $\xi_B$ using Eqs~\eqref{eq:xieb}, \eqref{eq:xid} \& \eqref{eq:xi_pm}.
 We have used the same source redshift
distribution as  in \citet{LFu08}:
\begin{equation} \label{eq:n_z}
n(z) = A \frac {z^a + z^{ab}} {z^b + c} ; \ \ A = \left( \int_0^{z_{max}} \frac {z^a + z^{ab}} {z^b + c} dz \right)^{-1}
\end{equation}
where $z_{max}$ = 6. Values of the parameters a, b, c \& A we have taken from the same paper \citet{LFu08}. Values
of these parameters as quoted in the paper are as, a = 0.612 $\pm$ 0.043 ; b = 8.125 $\pm$ 0.871 ; c = 0.620 $\pm$ 0.065
\& A = 1.555. To evaluate the integral \eqref{eq:shearps} we changed the variable from $\chi$ to z using \eqref{eq:chi_z}.
\begin{eqnarray} \label{eq:shearpsz}
P_{\kappa}(\ell)& = &  \frac {9}{4} {\Omega_m^2} \left(\frac {H_0}{c} \right) ^{4} \int_0^{z_{lim}}
                    \frac {dz} {a^2 (z)} P_\delta \left(k,z \right)   \nonumber\\[2ex]
                   && \times \left[ \int_z^{z_{lim}} d z' \ n(z') \ \frac {\chi (z' - z)} {\chi (z')} \right ] ^2
\end{eqnarray}
where $k = \ell / \chi (z)$. again $P_{\delta}$ (k,z) can be written as,
\begin{equation} \label{eq:p_kz}
P_{\delta} (k,z) = P_{\delta} (k) \times D^2 (z)
\end{equation}
where D(z) is growth factor, which as noted above
is the same as for the flat $\Lambda$CDM mode and is  given by \citet{Peebles93}:
\begin{equation} \label{eq:D_z}
D(z) = \frac {5\Omega_m}{2}  [\Omega_m (1+z)^3 + \Omega_\Lambda ]^{1/2} \int_z^{\infty} \frac {1+z} {(\Omega_m (1+z)^3 +
        \Omega_\Lambda)^{3/2}} \ dz
\end{equation}
We took $z_{lim}$ = 2.5 for our calculations as in \citet{LFu08}.

For comparison, we also compute all the relevant quantities
for the  linear and non-linear  $\Lambda$CDM  models. For
 $\Lambda$CDM linear power
spectrum we used $P(k,z) = A k T^2(k) D^2(z)$, where the  transfer
function  $T(k)$ is given by \citet{BE84}. For nonlinear
$\Lambda$CDM we followed prescription given in \citet{PD96}.

\begin{figure
   \centerline{
   \includegraphics[scale=0.7,angle=0]{PowSpec8.eps}
}
   \caption[]{
The Matter power spectrum is displayed for the magnetic and non magnetic cases.
Magnetic field-induced matter power spectra are plotted for $k < k_{\rm J}$
in each case.
}
\end{figure}
\vspace{0.1in}
\section{Results}
In Figure~1 we show the tangled  magnetic field matter
 power spectra for a range of spectral indices $n$ and magnetic
field strengths, $B_0$ at $z = 0$.
 The matter  power spectra
are plotted for $k < k_J$; a sharp cut-off below this scale is
assumed for our computation. For comparison,   we have also displayed
 the linear and non-linear $\Lambda$CDM  matter power spectra
(the non-linear power spectrum is obtained following  the method
introduced by  \citet{PD96}). The figure shows that
the magnetic field induced matter power spectra can dominate over
the $\Lambda$CDM case at small scales. Possible implications of
this excess have already been studied for early formation of structures,
reionization, and the HI signal from the epoch of reionization \citep{Sethi05,TS06,sbk,Sethi09,Sethi10}. Here
we explore the observational signatures of this excess in the weak lensing
data.

In Figure~2 we show the shear power spectra for magnetic and non-magnetic cases. The green and  red curves present the shear power
spectrum for $\Lambda$CDM linear and nonlinear matter power spectra, respectively. The blue curve shows the shear power spectrum for the
tangled magnetic field power spectrum ($B_{\rm eff}$ = 3.0 nG and  $n$ = -2.9). In
 this figure  we can see the impact of additional power in the
tangled magnetic field-induced matter
power spectrum as an enhancement in the shear power spectrum
  on  angular scales $\simeq 1'$.

 The peak of the matter  power spectra of
both the $\Lambda$CDM model and the magnetic-field induced matter power
spectra are also seen in the shear power spectra. The ratio of angular
scales at the peak of the two cases correspond to the ratio
of these peaks of the matter power spectra:  $k_{\rm eq}/k_J$. In the $\Lambda$CDM model the power at small scales falls as $k^{-3}$, while $k_J$ imposes
a sharp cut-off in the magnetic case. In both the cases, there is power
at angular scales smaller than the peak of the matter power spectra. But
the sharp cut-off in the matter power spectrum at $k > k_J$
 results in  a  steeper drop in shear power spectra as compared
to the $\Lambda$CDM case. This cut-off ensures that
the magnetic field-induced effects dominate the shear power spectrum for only
a small range of angular scales.

In Figure~3,  the two-point shear correlation functions $\xi_E$
and $\xi_B$  are shown  for magnetic and non-magnetic cases. As noted in the
previous section, we use the parameters of the paper of  \citet{LFu08}
for all our computation, which allows us to directly compare our
results with their data, shown in Figure~3.

For detailed comparison with
the data of \citet{LFu08}, we performed a  $\chi^2$ including
the effect of both the $\Lambda$CDM (non-linear model with the best
fit parameters as obtained by \citet{LFu08}) and the magnetic field
induced signal. We fitted the sum of these two signals ($({\xi_E})_B$ + $({\xi_E})_{\Lambda CDM}$) against the CFHTLS data to obtain limits on the
magnetic field strength $B_0$ and the spectral index $n$. As seen in Figure~3,
the magnetic field induced signal dominates the data for only a small range of
angular scales below a few arc-minutes. However, this can put stringent
constraints on the magnetic field model. Our best fit values are
$B_0 = 1.5 \, \rm  nG$ and $n= -2.96$. In Figure~4, we show the allowed contours
of these parameters for a range of  $\Delta\chi^2 = \chi^2_i - \chi^2_{min}$.
It should be noted that $B_0 =0$ is an acceptable fit to the data because
we fix  the best fit parameters obtained by \citet{LFu08}.
\vspace{0.1in}
\begin{figure
   \centerline{
   \includegraphics[scale=0.7,angle=0]{ShearPS8.eps}
}
   \caption[]{
Shear power spectra  for the magnetic and the $\Lambda$CDM models.
}
\end{figure}
\clearpage
\vspace{0.1in}
\begin{figure
   \centerline{
   \includegraphics[scale=0.7,angle=0]{ShearCorr8.eps}
}
   \caption[]{
Decomposed 2-point shear correlation functions $\xi_{E,B}$ for magnetic and non magnetic cases along with CFHT Legacy Survey data.  The inset magnifies
the relevant curves and data points for a smaller range of  ordinate values. The solid (magenta) curves correspond to $\xi_B$.
}
\end{figure}
\vspace{0.1in}

\vspace{0.1in}
\begin{figure
   \centerline{
   \includegraphics[scale=0.7,angle=-90]{ChiSq8.eps}
}
\caption[]{
The figure shows the allowed region  in the ($B_0$,n) plane,
 based on
the analysis of   ($({\xi_E})_B$ + $({\xi_E})_{\rm \Lambda CDM}$) against
 the CFHTLS data \citet{LFu08}. The shaded area is the 1-$\sigma$ allowed
region.
The three  curves (from top to bottom)
 are contours at 5$\sigma$, 3$\sigma$ and  1$\sigma$ level.
}
\end{figure}

\section{Discussion}
Primordial magnetic fields leave their   signatures in a host
of observables in the universe. Their  impacts on CMBR temperature and
polarization  anisotropies  have been extensively studied. \citet{Yamazaki10}
compute the allowed region in the $\{B_0,n\}$ plane by comparing the
predictions of primordial magnetic field models with existing CMBR observations.
Other constraints come from early formation of structures,  Faraday rotation
of CMBR polarization  \citep[e.g.][]{Tina2011} and reionization
in the presence of magnetic fields \citet{SM2010}.

In addition to the upper bounds on the magnetic field strength obtained
by these observables, recent results suggests that there might be
a lower bound of $\simeq 10^{-15} \, \rm G$ on the magnetic field strength
(e.g.  \citet{Dolag10,NV2010,Tavecchio10,Taylor11}). This would suggest
that the magnetic field lies in the range  $10^{-15} < B_0 < \hbox{a few} \, 10^{-9} \, \rm G$. This range is still too large for a precise determination of the
magnetic field strength.

How do  our constraints (Figure~4) compare with the existing bounds on
primordial magnetic fields? CMBR constraints (e.g. Figure~1 of \citet{Yamazaki10})
are stronger than our constraints for $n < -2.95$. For the entire range of
spectral indices above this value, we obtain stronger upper limits on $B_0$.
Our limits are comparable to bounds obtained from the formation of early structures, which also arise from excess power in the magnetic field-induced
matter power spectrum (e.g. \citet{Tina2011}).

Can primordial magnetic fields be detected in the Weak lensing data? As seen
in Figure~3, detection of excess power in the measurement of $\xi_E$ over what
is expected for the $\Lambda$CDM model, constrained well from other observations, could be interpreted as contribution
from primordial magnetic fields.

 The present data is noisy at the scales at
which magnetic fields begin to make significant contribution, at least partly
owing to errors inherent in ground based measurements of shear, e.g.
correction for point spread function, etc (e.g. Figure~4
of \citep{schrabback2010}; a brief look at this figure might suggest
that their measurements would already put stronger constraints on magnetic
field strength than presented here). Future, proposed space missions
such as  SNAP are likely to greatly improve the errors on these measurements.
A comparison of Figure~4 of the white paper on weak lensing with
SNAP  \citep{albert2005} with the Figure~3 of this paper
suggests that SNAP would easily be able to probe sub-nano Gauss
 magnetic fields.

 The magnetic field signal
could be degenerate with the overall normalization  of the $\Lambda$CDM model
as measured by $\sigma_8$ ; WMAP 7-year data give $\sigma_8 = 0.801 \pm 0.030$ (\citep{Larson11}).  WMAP results are  in reasonable  agreement
with the value of $\sigma_8$ as inferred by the weak lensing data. This
error is not sufficient to mimic the much larger  signal
from  magnetic field strengths considered in this paper
 (e.g. Figure~4 of\citep{schrabback2010}). However, a more careful analysis
will be needed to distinguish the error in $\sigma_8$
from the sub-nano Gauss magnetic fields.

One uncertainty in our analysis is that the magnetic Jeans' scale, unlike
the thermal Jeans' scale which is well defined in linear perturbation
theory, is obtained within an approximation in which
the backreaction of the magnetic field on the matter is not exactly  captured
\citep[e.g.][]{Kim96,Sethi05}.
 Even though our results capture
qualitatively the impact of such a scale, there could be more power on
sub-Jeans' scale which is lost owing to our approximation of the sharp k-cut
 off. As noted in section~2, the cut-off scale is the larger of the
magnetic Jeans' length and the thermal Jeans' length. Magnetic field
dissipation can raise the temperature of the medium
to $\simeq 10^4 \, \rm K$, thereby raising
 thermal Jeans' length of the medium (Figure 4
of \citet{SBK08} for a comparison between the two scales for different
magnetic field strengths). For $B_0 \gtrsim  10^{-9} \, \rm G$, the magnetic
Jeans' scale is the  larger of the two scales, as the maximum
temperature of the medium reached owing to this process doesn't exceed
$10^4 \, \rm K$.  In the more general case
also this would be true as photoionization of the medium by other sources, e.g.
the sources which could have cause reionization of the universe at
 $z\simeq 10$,
also  results in comparable temperatures. For magnetic field strengths smaller
than considered in the paper, the cut-off scale is likely to be determined
by thermal Jeans' scale, caused  by the  photoionization of the medium by
sources other than the magnetic field dissipation.
Our approximation  allows us to
 identify important length and
angular scales for our study (Figure~2 and~3). However, further work along
these lines could extend our analysis by taking into account the physical
effects of sub-magnetic Jeans' scales.

The analysis of Lyman-$\alpha$ forest in the redshift range $2 \lesssim z \lesssim 4$ is another powerful probe of the matter power spectrum of at small scales \citep[e.g.][]{croft02}.
Primordial magnetic field can  alter this interpretation in many ways: (a) more small scale power owing to magnetic field induced matter power spectrum (Figure~1), (b) dissipation of magnetic field can change the thermal state of Lyman-$\alpha$ clouds  \citep[e.g.][]{Sethi10,Sethi05}, (c) magnetic Jeans' length can reduce the  power at the smallest probable scale.  We hope to undertake this study in a future work.

\section*{Acknowledgments}
We thank an anonymous referee for useful comments which contributed to
improving the quality of the paper.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaArXiv


text:
As a Pastor, I Help Dozens of Heroin Addicts—Including My Own Son
For this mother of two, work with the recovery community is a 24/7 job.
By taryn trenda, as told to Beth Dreher
My family has a history of addiction—my father was an alcoholic and my brother died two years ago from complications of heroin use. Growing up in a housing project in Vancouver, Washington, I experimented with drugs as a young teenager, but I was always able to stop.
My husband, Allen, and I met in high school and we got married when I was 18. During the first few years of our marriage, drinking with friends was a favorite pastime. But when I was 30, I started attending Faith Center Church in Vancouver, not far from where I grew up. Allen joined me six months later, and gradually, the partying stopped.
Over the next few years, I got more involved with the church. I was hired as an assistant to the pastor, Glen Johnson, and managed fundraisers and other events. In 2000, I went to Rhema Bible Training College, and then got a job as an assistant pastor at Faith Center.
When our sons Seth, who is 37 now, and Travis, who's 34, were born, I wanted to make sure that we broke this generational curse of drug addiction. Allen and I were very involved with our sons' lives. We were at every sports event. I was the classroom mom. And we kept an eye on any medication that doctors prescribed them. We never allowed them to take painkillers.
The Trenda family. From left: Seth, Taryn, Allen, Travis
Courtesy Taryn Trenda
When I started working at the church full time in 1989, Travis was seven and I put him in daycare. We found out about four years ago that he was abused there. Looking back, it's awful to think that's where I left him every day. Sometimes I think, why did God not warn me? Travis's crisis when he was seven really changed the way he perceived the world. It set him on the path toward self-medicating and addiction.
A Death Close to Home
On May 26, 2011, Gabe Washburn, a young man in our church and a close childhood friend of Travis's, overdosed on heroin. We knew that he and Travis used drugs together. Several of us from the church, including Travis, were in the hospital room when Gabe took his last breath five days later. Travis was sobbing in the back of the room. I went up to hug him, but he pushed me away.
Left: Gabe Washburn. Right: Gabe's mother, Jackie Washburn, listens for Gabe's heart beat shortly after he overdosed.
Courtesy Jackie Washburn
I thought that Gabe's death would be the end of Travis's drug use. He did stop for a few weeks, but I think the survivor's guilt was too much. About a month later, I heard noises coming from our bathroom and I could tell Travis wasn't okay in there. He had locked himself in, and he was hunched over blocking the door. I had to knock the door down with my body to get to him. It isn't as hard as you'd think when you're afraid for your son's life. Travis had taken sleeping medication in addition to using heroin. My emotions were so raw after Gabe's death that I was crying and slapping Travis to try to revive him. Thankfully, by the time the paramedics arrived, he was breathing normally again. In my role as a chaplain, I've been on calls where I've had to deal with overdoses, but when it's your son it's different. That was one of my lowest moments.
"In my role as a chaplain, I've been on calls where I've had to deal with overdoses, but when it's your son it's different."
After Gabe's death, the church family realized that we needed to take action to get a handle on the heroin epidemic that was tearing our community apart. Pastor Glen declared that our church would be a vessel for change. I met with Tim Leavitt, the mayor of Vancouver, and some other local leaders. Someone mentioned a couple, Bill and Vicky Smith, who ran an addiction recovery program in town. They were looking to change locations, so Pastor Glen and I went and talked to them. Three months later, we joined forces and started the XChange Recovery church service on Saturday nights at Faith Center Church. It will be four years in November since we merged, and attendance has grown from 50 people to 350 people. We also have a Friday night recovery service at the church's Kelso, WA, campus, which has 120 attendees and growing.
Left: Pastor Glen Johnson. Right: Vicky and Bill Smith
Courtesy Eternal View Photography, Tim Murray
The recovery church service welcomes anyone who is struggling with addiction. The recovery pastor gets up and asks, 'Who has one week clean?' People will stand up and everyone will applaud. They'll go up to five years clean. The message is not one of condemnation or guilt. It's more that God loves you right where you are and he wants to help you. And the congregation and community are here to help you no matter what you've done in the past. It's very loving.
"A lot of addicts have been burned by religion. The very people who are supposed to love them have beaten them down."
A lot of addicts have been burned by religion. The very people who are supposed to love them have beaten them down. So they don't even want to set foot in a church. When they come here, we try to make them feel like they're accepted. We don't care who you are, what you look like, what your past is. We say come and hear the word and let God change you.
Being a Mother and a Pastor
It's hard to be both a pastor serving the addict community and the mother of an addict. But in a way I think God has used this situation with Travis to help me in my work. I know what it's like to watch him go through withdrawals. I've had to hold him down because he was shaking so bad. For someone who hasn't experienced that, it can be scary. But I can do it because I've been there.
"Each addict is someone's sister or brother, son or daughter. Each one was born with a purpose in life, and it wasn't to stand on the street corner, waiting for another fix."
Like Travis, the people we minister to weren't born to be drug addicts. Each one is somebody's sister or brother, someone's son or daughter. Things happen in their lives and it takes them away from who they were supposed to be. Everybody has a purpose. Everybody has something great inside them that they were created to do and it wasn't just to stand on the street corner holding a sign, waiting for another fix.
Taryn Trenda leads a Saturday night Xchange Recovery service.
For me, the hard part about our Saturday night service is that I see people getting better and Travis is still struggling. I do my job as a pastor. I help run the service, and I act as a mentor to other addicts and families. But as the mom of an addict, it can be really hard to be there. As a pastor, I'm telling people what God can do for them. But I'm sure there are people who look at me like yeah, well, what about your son?
Travis Trenda
When we learned about Travis's abuse and how bad his situation had gotten, I realized that I have a choice. I can either allow the addiction to destroy our family and everything my husband and I have fought for, or I can stand strong. And I choose to stand. We choose to love him through it. We realized that it's the disease of addiction, not our son, that we're fighting. Still, there are times when I feel angry, hurt, and helpless, and all I can do is pray and cry because he's not better. He's not where he should be, but I believe he'll get there. So even now, I'm standing.
There is so much more to Travis and our story that it would take a book to tell. But my heart's desire is that if you are suffering from addiction or have a loved one who is struggling, that you will never give up. Don't stop searching for the right program. Take it from me: Love never fails.
Follow Woman's Day on Instagram.
Beth Dreher Features Director As the Features Director for Woman's Day and Good Housekeeping, Beth covers topics ranging from the opioid epidemic and mental health, to personal finance, women in politics, and more.
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Looking for a filler that lasts? Discover an injection that not only improves wrinkles this month, but renews skin for years to come. Sculptra is a filler containing poly-L-lactic acid. This biocompatible substance is naturally and gradually absorbed by the body. As the skin absorbs PLLA, Sculptra stimulates the body's collagen production. This leads to a reduction in wrinkles and fine lines that can last for more than 2 years. In fact, 80% of patients in a study rated their results as either "Good," "Very Good," or "Excellent" when they were 25 months out from their first treatment.
Natural-looking results appear gradually, so you don't look like you've had work done – you just look gorgeous and refreshed. If you're interested in fighting aging with a subtle approach, Sculptra could be the treatment you've been seeking.
Sculptra typically delivers best results when administered in a series of treatments. Most patients benefit from three injections over the course of 3-4 months, with results lasting up to 2 years. Our providers will form a personalized treatment plan depending on the amount of lost collagen in your skin.
Sculptra is injected into the deep dermis, which is where collagen strands form. Over time, PLLA stimulates new collagen production to lift, tighten and smooth skin. This helps restore the deep scaffolding within the skin for natural-looking results that are based on your own body's collagen production.
Dermal fillers contain substances like hyaluronic acid. They improve wrinkles by pushing up the skin in areas that are wrinkled or creased. Results are immediate and last for several months. Sculptra combines this filler effect with collagen stimulation. It works deeper within the skin than standard fillers, revitalizing collagen production in the deep dermis. Restored collagen strands boost facial volume and fullness to minimize lines.
Am I a Sculptra Candidate?
Most patients interested in improving lines around the mouth or chin are good Sculptra candidates. There is no allergy test required and minimal side effects. Only those with a history of keloid formation or hypertrophic scarring should avoid this treatment.
If you're interested in learning more, schedule a consultation to meet with our Sculptra experts and discuss your candidacy.


A base station is the heart of your home automation system. The station is connected to your router and thus to your home network. Note: some base stations are brand-related. This information can be found per base station in the product text on the page.