It's a Sunday afternoon and I've sat down to get some writing done. Upstairs, our 2-year-old is sleeping soundly and in the basement, you're sweating profusely as you assemble a bookcase after having carried multiple bins, boxes, and small pieces of furniture among the three floors of our home. As soon as the toddler is up, you'll hang some things on the walls of ours and the baby-to-be's room before cooking dinner and taking us out for ice cream.
I may be 9-months-pregnant and completely deserving of your love and help, but I have to take a minute to thank you. Just because we, the stay-at-home moms, should be offered a hand on the weekends and in the evenings, I know I'm lucky and that not all do. I cringe when I overhear other women talking about how their husbands do absolutely nothing to help out at home. I might not say it every day, but I really do appreciate how you look at our home and family as ours. You have an active role in it because you want to.
Recently, I stumbled across some papers and discovered that a side project of mine is being secretly funded by you — and has been, for almost two years. Tears welled up as I pictured you setting up passwords and an auto-payment plan to withdraw funds monthly without my knowledge so you could let me explore my creativity without stress or guilt. This is the kind of stuff that you just do, without any hope of thanks or recognition. You want me to be happy, and that's the only reason you need.
But I also wanted to thank you for being such a good sport. I know that this pregnancy has been (almost) as difficult on you as it has been on me. My first trimester nausea made it difficult for me to even enter the kitchen, so you swooped in and started cooking each night. And then doing the dishes.
The back pains and cramping I've experienced on-and-off from the start have made working out impossible, but you've stepped up the compliments to make sure I feel pretty. At this point I'm about 99 percent sure you're lying, but you make sure to tell me something positive about my appearance every day. Some 36 weeks and 25 pounds in, that's pretty much the most romantic thing in the entire world.
It isn't only when I'm pregnant; I know what's to come. Your good-sported nature continued last time after my emergency C-section and into the early days of breastfeeding and lack of sleep. You insisted on taking the baby for hour-long stretches whenever you could, to walk around the neighborhood and let me rest. To this day, you practically force me out to get my nails done every two weeks because you know how much this small luxury — and the brief break from reality — means to me.
When I'm not pregnant, you always make sure there's wine in the fridge for those nights when I need it. You make me coffee in the mornings. These are little things, but they are reminders of the love and respect that you have for me, of the appreciation, too. You know that when I gave up my career to be a stay-at-home mom, it was not without hesitation. You listen to me bit*h and always make it clear that when I'm done, you'll support me in deciding to go back to work.
But you also know how much I love it, and you indulge me in my meltdowns despite knowing that I have no plans to change the situation. For every tear I shed over the daily stresses of life, your hard work is what enables me to be home with them, and I'm grateful for that every day.
You've always been patient to say the least. I'll never forget the day that my mother and I moved my things (and my cat) into your one-bedroom apartment in Brooklyn. You had already set up the perfect bachelor pad and in came box after bin after bag filled with clothing, candles, books, and beauty supplies. You looked around at the massive heaps of things and shook your head, but you didn't make me throw anything away until I was ready. I've worked hard to become less scary in the holding onto of things, but a lesser man would have become fed up long ago.
I'm not afraid of tears, and give in to them quite frequently. Rather than telling me how annoying it is, like every guy I dated seriously before you did, you at least pretend to get it. You accept my dramatics and listen even when I'm repeating myself. I am not unaware that half of my rantings are worthy of a serious inner eye-roll, but I'm grateful you at least nod and throw out the occasional word of agreement as I go.
Listen, I'm not going to say you aren't pretty damn lucky yourself. You have your own list of quirks that could fill a book, and I indulge and celebrate you, too. But as we embark on the newest chapter of our lives together, becoming the parents of two kids, I look around a lot and take stock. I can't believe at times what a patient, generous man you've grown to be. The layers were peeled back one at a time over the years. I've always loved you, but as a husband and father now I do even more.
So, thank you for being such a good sport. For being my rock and my reminder to lighten up. For making babies with me and simultaneously (sometimes silently) helping me achieve my goals. Thanks for the coffee and the wine, which keep me going through it all. For forcing me to take time for myself and reminding me what a good mom I am.
Even though at times you drive me absolutely crazy, our particular brand of chaos is exactly the life I dreamed of. Without you and your humor, I know I would take it all way too seriously. I may not be as good a sport as you are, but I'm working on it!
Here's Why You Should Go To Bed AngryWhy Did My MIL Have To Friend Me On Facebook?!


text:
Whitlock Nicoll or Nicholl (1786–1838) was an English physician. Known in his lifetime as a medical and theological writer, he was also responsible in his capacity as physician to Michael Faraday for the term "electrode", a fact not known until well into the 20th century.

Life
The son of the Rev. Iltyd Nicoll, he was born at Treddington, Worcestershire. His father was rector of the parish, and died before Nicoll was two years old; his mother was Ann, daughter of George Hatch of Windsor. He was educated by the Rev. John Nicoll, his uncle, and placed in 1802 to live with John Bevan, a medical practitioner at Cowbridge, Glamorgan.

In 1806 Nicoll became a student at St George's Hospital, and in 1809 received the diploma of membership of the College of Surgeons of England. He then became partner of his former teacher Bevan at Cowbridge, and engaged in general practice. He went to live in Ludlow, Shropshire, took an M.D. degree 17 May 1816 at Marischal College, Aberdeen, and was admitted an extra-licentiate of the College of Physicians of London 8 June 1816. He commenced physician, and received in 1817 the degree of M.D. from the Archbishop of Canterbury. He became a member of the Royal Irish Academy.

On 17 March 1826 Nicoll graduated M.D. at Glasgow University, then moved to London, and was admitted a licentiate of the College of Physicians on 26 June 1826. He attained some success in practice, and was elected Fellow of the Royal Society on 18 February 1830.  Around 1834 when Michael Faraday was looking to introduce terminology for electrolysis, he took up suggestions of Nicoll and William Whewell.

In 1835 Nicoll gave up practice, and settled at Wimbledon, Surrey, where he died on 3 December 1838.

Works
Nicoll began to write aon medicine in the London Medical Repository in 1819; his first separate publication, Tentamen Nosologicum had already appeared there, a general classification of diseases based upon their symptoms. The History of the Human Œconomy appeared in 1819, and suggests a general physiological method of inquiry in clinical medicine. Primary Elements of Disordered Circulation of the Blood was also published in 1819. General Elements of Pathology' appeared in 1820, and in 1821 Practical Remarks on the Disordered States of the Cerebral Structures in Infants. This was first read before an association of physicians in Ireland on 6 December 1819; he proposed that erethism of the cranial brain is due to impressions on the anticerebral extremities of nerves, but this theory went beyond his actual observations.  He published two ophthalmic—one of imperfection of vision, the other of colour-blindness—in the Medico-Chirurgical Transactions, vols. vii. and ix.

The taste for Hebrew and for theology which he acquired in boyhood from the learned uncle who educated him remained through life. Influenced by his uncle, Nicoll published five theological treatises during his lifetime:

 An Analysis of Christianity, London, 1823; '
 Nugæ Hebraicæ and Nature the Preacher, 1837;
 Remarks on the Breaking and Eating of Bread and Drinking of Wine in Commemoration of the Passion of Christ, London, 1837;
 An Inquiry into the Nature and Prospects of the Adamite Race, London, 1838.

He left theological works in manuscript, which were published in 1841, with a short sketch of his life.

Family
Nicoll married:

in 1812, Margaret, daughter of Rev. Robert Rickards, who died 1831;
in 1832, Charlotte, daughter of James Deacon Hume, who died of puerperal fever.

References

Attribution

1786 births
1838 deaths
19th-century English medical doctors
Alumni of the University of Aberdeen
English theologians
Christian Hebraists
Fellows of the Royal Society

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


text:
Syria Systematically Harasses Medical Aid Convoys
By Menaka Wilhelm
A U.N. convoy carrying aid enters Douma, a besieged town in eastern Ghouta, Syria in March.
Amid suspected chemical attacks and shelling, medics treating nearly any injury in a conflict zone in Syria need supplies like anesthetics, IV catheters, syringes and sterile surgical gloves.
These items are routinely included in humanitarian aid shipments. But in February, they were among the 3,810 medical treatments that Syrian authorities removed from aid convoys headed to Nashabiyah, a city in Ghouta, according to the U.N. Security Council.
"These convoys are systematically stripped of certain types of medical supplies," says Linda Tom, a Damascus-based spokesperson for the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.
It's part of the Syrian government's larger strategy to control the flow of aid to conflict zones. In addition to repeatedly removing essential medical items from aid trucks at checkpoints, Syrian authorities require humanitarian groups to plod through a long bureaucratic process before trucks can even depart.
Shipments between areas of government control and non-government control require formal approval from the Syrian government — which means conflict zones may not receive aid for weeks or even months.
Preventing rebel fighters from getting life-saving supplies is part of the government's military strategy, says Nathanael Chouraqui, a lead Middle East researcher at Iguacu, a nonprofit that studies humanitarian crises and charities. So manipulating aid shipments is a tool, he says. "They want to control what, so to speak, the enemy gets."
Aid deliveries aren't intended to be politicized. They're meant to help anyone who needs assistance, Tom says.
Her group coordinates shipments from U.N. convoys, which bring together items from agencies like the World Health Organization and the World Food Programme.
As a result of the Syrian government's administrative process, scores of aid, like basic medical supplies, food and clothing, are seized by authorities or sitting unused in U.N. warehouses in Syria and neighboring countries like Jordan and Turkey, says Tom.
That's not to say that aid isn't being delivered. Aid convoys that don't cross conflict lines have been able to continue. Deliveries from the World Food Programme reached 2 million people in February, for example.
It's more challenging to drive trucks of aid to conflict zones. The U.N. estimates that 2 million people are still trapped in hard-to-reach areas, like Douma, the city that sustained an alleged chemical attack over the weekend.
To travel into these places within Syria, the U.N. and its partners must specify exactly where trucks will go and what supplies will arrive far ahead of their departures. "These convoys [heading to besieged areas], they're planned weeks in advance," Tom says. UNOCHA, for example, is currently planning the shipments it will propose to Syrian authorities for May and June.
Initial government permissions are only the first step. "After that, there's close to a dozen steps that follow," Tom says. The U.N. coordinates with the Syrian government and the Syrian Arab Red Crescent, a relief group, to finalize routes and loading lists specifying hundreds of items.
From his work with humanitarian organizations in Syria and surrounding countries, Chouraqui says that the process often involves negotiation over details like which healthcare supplies are shipped. The priority for the government is strategy, not civilians' welfare, he says. "What is discussed at these negotiating tables is rarely for the good of the people and the severity of their needs."
Even with government approval, Tom says, healthcare items like insulin and surgical kits are especially at risk of being seized or denied transport.
That was the case on March 5, when 46 trucks ferried food for thousands of people into eastern Ghouta. The Syrian government removed the majority of medical supplies before permitting trucks to travel.
The World Health Organization was allowed to retain these medical supplies for use later. Tom says there's usually not an apparent justification for halting these items' transport.
Chouraqui says that in other cases, "when militias remove those [medical] supplies they tend to use them for themselves."
Shortages of supplies make it harder for medics to treat patients, especially in besieged areas. "We are depending on the convoys, and the pressure of the international community [for medical supplies]," says Dr. Rami Al Rayes, who directs Alameen, a nonprofit that works to provide health care and education in Syria, based in Gaziantep, Turkey.
Al Rayes points out that doctors in areas under attack need medical items for trauma injuries, like saline solution, anesthesia and antibiotics. In many cases, lack of supplies, facilities and doctors means that evacuating a patient to a better-supplied hospital in another city is the best option, he says. But that transport depends on government approval, too.
Without access to aid, doctors are forced to make do with what's available, says James Denselow, head of conflict and humanitarian policy advocacy at Save the Children.
That might mean using equipment designed for children on adults, or reusing disposable items, Denselow says. Save the Children partners reported that medics have reused bandages and needles in times of short supply.
Despite the complexity of accessing these areas and providing enough supplies, UNOCHA continues trying to transport aid to as many people as possible throughout Syria, including more remote places like rural Damascus, Homs and Deir ez-Zor, Tom says.
"Every time we're requesting [access from the Syrian government] to reach hard-to-reach areas," she says, "we put all the areas on the request."
Menaka Wilhelm

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


text:
Asia Watch: Eastern Block…Up and Down…Deep Red
EASTERN BLOCK: An official of the multilateral trade system department of the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry said the Japanese government is working on a plan to raise tariffs on some yet-to-be-decided U.S. imports to counter American...
EASTERN BLOCK: An official of the multilateral trade system department of the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry said the Japanese government is working on a plan to raise tariffs on some yet-to-be-decided U.S. imports to counter American import restrictions on steel products. The official noted, however, that nothing concrete has been decided.
The official said METI Minister Shoichi Nakagawa made a statement last week that the Japanese government will have to determine by the end of November a list of products on which tariffs will be raised if and when the U.S. decides not to withdraw its "safeguard" restrictions on steel imports.
Nakagawa's statement "remains the official position of the Japanese government at this time," the METI official said in response to an earlier report in the Japan Economic Journal that Tokyo is finalizing a plan to impose an extra duty of about five percent on imports of apparel, textiles, bags and leather goods, among others, in the event of a U.S. refusal to withdraw its safeguard restrictions on steel imports. — Tsukasa Furukawa
UP AND DOWN: Isetan reported a 19.8 percent decline in net profits to $20.1 million, or 2.21 billion yen, on a consolidated basis for the first half ended Sept. 30. Operating profits dropped 21.4 percent to $38.5 million, or 4.23 billion yen, while sales inched down 0.9 percent to $2.61 billion, or 287.04 billion yen, partly due to the cool summer, according to the retailer. Extraordinary losses during the period under review were $5.6 million, or 616 million yen, caused by adjustment of the social security payment. Apparel sales, which made up 47.9 percent of total sales inched down 1 percent to $1.1 billion (121.21 billion yen). Dollar figures were converted at current exchange rate.
Also, Isetan announced plans to liquidate two of its subsidiaries; Isetan GmbH in Austria due to a close of Isetan's gift shop in Vienna, and Isetan Spain SA due to a sale of assets of its store.
For the fiscal year ending March 31, 2004, the department store projects net profits of $26.4 million (2.9 billion yen) and sales of $5.59 billion (615 billion yen).
Takashimaya's first half, which ended Aug. 31, returned to the black with net profits of $152.7 million (16.80 billion yen) compared with net losses of $2 million (219 million yen) a year ago on a consolidated basis. The group reported a 0.9 percent drop in sales to $5.23 billion (575.02 billion yen), while the operating profits soared 103.8 percent to $97.4 million (10.71 billion yen) from $47.8 million (5.26 billion yen) during the same period a year ago. Takashimaya's department store business generated sales of $4.25 billion (466.03 billion yen), 2.4 percent down from the previous year, while operating profits soared 359 percent to $53.9 million (5.93 billion yen) due to the restructuring to reduce the business costs, according to the retail group.
Mitsukoshi earned $18.7 million (2.06 billion yen) in net profits, 19.5 percent down from a year ago on a consolidated basis. Sales of the firm during the six-month period ended Aug. 31 dropped 1.8 percent to $4.06 billion (446.28 billion yen), while the operating profits dropped 13.1 percent to $36.5 million (4.01 billion yen). Its department store business generated sales of $3.87 billion (425.38 billion yen), 1.7 percent down from a year ago, while operating profits also dropped 1.0 percent to $35.2 million (3.87 billion yen). — Koji Hirano
DEEP RED: Kanebo announced net losses of $609.8 million (67.08 billion yen) on a consolidated basis for the first half ended Sept. 30, compared with net profits last year of $1.2 million (135 million yen).
"Due to the cool summer and worries against a slowdown of exporting business (in general) because of the appreciation of the yen, business circumstances were very severe," said the group.
Operating losses in the period under review were $66.4 million (7.3 billion yen) compared with last year's operating profits of $118.9 million (13.08 billion yen). Sales dropped 13.9 percent to $2.04 billion (224.72 billion yen). Dollar figures were converted at current exchange.
Cost of goods sold dropped 10.9 percent during the first six months compared with the same period a year earlier, but selling, general and administrative costs fell only 1.1 percent. Extraordinary losses during the period were $365.4 million (40.19 billion yen), including $333.4 million (36.67 billion yen) for restructuring costs.
Cosmetics sales, which made up 43.5 percent of entire revenues, dropped 8.2 percent to $888.6 million (97.75 billion yen) because of increased competition and price deflation, said the group.
For the full year ending March 31, 2004, Kanebo projects net profits of $9.1 million (1 billion yen) and sales of $4.23 billion (465 billion yen) on a consolidated basis. — K.H.


The Atlantic Canada Opportunities Agency (ACOA) and Nova Scotia Business Inc. (NSBI) are currently recruiting companies to participate in an upcoming trade mission to Boston from April 26 to 28, 2010.
The United States is Nova Scotia largest export market; receiving more than 78% of Nova Scotia total exports.
Boston, Massachusetts, is an ideal location for Nova Scotia companies to expand their markets because of the excellent transportation routes between the regions.
A business matchmaker with expertise in doing business in Boston will identify business opportunities specific to your company.
Prior to the mission, the business matchmaker will set up one-on-one in-market meetings (up to a maximum of six) for you with potential leads.
You are responsible for the costs of round-trip airfare, accommodations and meals.
Space is limited. Register now. For more information contact John or Kelly.
Atlantic Canada Opportunities Agency Nova Scotia Business Inc.


This elegant design compliments any formal occassion from meetings to weddings. The face of the card is beige with a regal, florish design, with a teal crest off centered to present your personalized text. Inside, follows the theme having the beige background.


text:
News / Press Releases / 2019 / New Crestron Home, Powered by OS 3, Delivers Smart Home User Experience Like No Other
About Crestron
New Crestron Home, Powered by OS 3, Delivers Smart Home User Experience Like No Other
Latest operating system update unlocks the full potential of the Crestron smart home; delivers simple, clean, and sophisticated user experience and speeds deployment of any sized project
Amsterdam, The Netherlands – February 4, 2019 – Crestron, the global leader in advanced smart home technology, will debut Crestron Home, powered by OS 3, at ISE 2019, 5 – 8 February, in Hall-2, Stand C20. Crestron Home, powered by OS 3, unlocks the full potential of the Crestron smart home. It's the complete package for any sized smart home project: a simpler, smarter user experience on mobile devices and TSW touch screens; remarkably fast deployment for integrators; and the confidence that comes with renowned Crestron hardware.
"OS 2 delivered the foundation; OS 3 perfects the experience. It's completely redesigned; simple, clean, and sophisticated. Add in remarkably fast deployment of any sized project, and top it off with the best hardware in the business. Why use anything else?" said Michael Short, Global Residential Marketing Manager for Crestron.
Available spring 2019, OS 3 will deliver sophisticated new page designs, exceptional dynamic room controls and icons, and powerful new features. Complete projects can be set up and deployed on any scale in a fraction of the time of traditional methods, with no programming needed.
Key new features include:
Stylish, responsive, smooth performance
Support for multiple homes
Easy creation and editing of scenes
New icons to save favorites – provides intuitive custom access and experience
Refined layout for easy access to the most commonly used functions
Dynamic, intuitive display features
Personalization of UI using photos of home to represent rooms
Enforced end-to-end encryption for secure communications
Register homeowners and guests remotely via custom URL
A simpler, smarter, more sophisticated user experience. Fast deployment for any size home project. And the best hardware in the business. No one brings it home like Crestron Home, powered by OS 3. See for yourself at ISE 2019, 5 – 8 February, Hall 2, Stand C20.
At Crestron we build the technology that integrates technology. Our automation and control solutions for homes and buildings let people control entire environments with the push of a button, integrating systems such as AV, lighting, shading, security, BMS and HVAC to provide greater comfort, convenience and security. All of our products are designed and built to work together as a complete system, enabling you to monitor, manage and control everything from one platform.
Our products are backed by more than 90 fully-staffed offices that provide 24 x 7 x 365 sales, technical, and training support across the globe. In addition to its World Headquarters in Rockleigh, New Jersey, Crestron has sales and support offices throughout the U.S., Canada, Europe, Asia, Latin America, and Australia. Discover Crestron by visiting www.crestron.com.
All brand names, product names, and trademarks are the property of their respective owners. Certain trademarks, registered trademarks, and trade names may be used in this document to refer to either the entities claiming the marks and names or their products. Crestron disclaims any proprietary interest in the marks and names of others. Crestron is not responsible for errors in typography or photography. ©2019 Crestron Electronics, Inc.


text:
Vet Services News & Events
Audubon Clinic
Audubon, IA 50025
Manning Clinic
400 W. Street
Manning, IA 51455
Grow-Finish Production Management
Sow Farm Production Management
Herd Health Management
Nutrient Management Planning & Coordination
Facilities Construction & Maintenance
Genetic Sourcing
Swine Health Services of Indiana
Clinic History
AMVC Swine Health Services News
Veterinarians and Staff
1610 W Armstrong Rd.
AMVC Employee Blog
WeSearch
Home / News / AASV Announces 2014 Officers
AASV Announces 2014 Officers
AMVC Veterinarians in the News
Central Region News
East Region News
Employee Blog
From the Mailbox of Dr. M
North Region News
Swine Health Services News
Vet Services News and Events
West Region News
NorDak employees give a ham
AMVC Gives a Ham
Creston Food Bank gets ham donation
AMVC recognizes Audubon FFA advisor with ham
posted on Friday, September 12, 2014 in AMVC Veterinarians in the News
March 19, 2014 — Harry Snelson
Dr Michelle Sprague was installed as the President of the American Association of Swine Veterinarians at the association's 45th Annual Meeting in Dallas, TX. She succeeds Dr Matt Anderson who is now immediate Past President. Dr Ron Brodersen has ascended to President-Elect. The newly elected Vice President is Dr. George Charbonneau.
AASV President Dr Michelle Sprague (ISU '05) grew up on a small farrow-to-finish and row crop farm in Glenwood, IA. Following graduation from the Iowa State University College of Veterinary Medicine in 2005, she joined the Audubon Manning Veterinary Clinic (AMVC) in Audubon, IA. She is currently a partner and director of sow health at AMVC. Her responsibilities include overseeing animal health, biosecurity, food safety and animal welfare on all the clinic's managed sow farms.
Dr Sprague has been an active member of the AASV currently serving as the chair of the Pig Welfare Committee and as a member of the PADRAP Advisory Committee. She was awarded the AASV Young Swine Veterinarian of the Year Award in 2010 and is a frequent speaker at various professional and industry meetings including AASV. She also represents AASV on AVMA's Animal Welfare Committee and is a member of the Iowa Veterinary Medical Association.
When asked to comment on her thoughts about the future of AASV and her tenure as president, Dr Sprague said, "I am honored and humbled to serve as president of the AASV this year. As is often the case, the swine industry is currently facing many challenges, including emerging disease threats, shifting public perception and changing antimicrobial regulations. With the introduction of PEDV to our country last year, we continue to have new opportunities to provide guidance not only to our clients but also to each other. I am so proud to be part of an organization whose members have pulled together and openly shared all they can to help one another through these most recent challenges. When we collaborate with our colleagues and abide by the pillars of our oath, the pig always wins. I look forward to representing the AASV, its members and our patients in the coming year."
AASV President-Elect Dr Ron Brodersen (ISU '79) grew up on a livestock farm near Coleridge, Nebraska. He attended the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, Iowa State University where he received a DVM degree, and also attended the University of Illinois EVP program. Dr Brodersen is the owner of Whole Hog Health Center at Hartington, Nebraska where he has been providing swine veterinary services since 1990. He was active on the Nebraska Pseudorabies Eradication Task Force in the 1990's. Dr Brodersen has been active in the AASV serving on the Board of Directors, as well as the Pharmaceutical and Boar Stud committees. He has also served as Chairman of the AASV Foundation. The AASV recognized him as the Swine Practitioner of the Year in 2003.
AASV Vice President Dr George Charbonneau (ON '81) grew up in Arnprior, Ontario. He obtained his Doctor of Veterinary Medicine from the Ontario Veterinary College and established a veterinary practice serving southwestern Ontario. George is currently a partner in South West Ontario Veterinary Services and is based in Stratford, Ontario.
Dr Charbonneau has been very active in the Canadian swine industry. He has served as the President of the Canadian Association of Swine Veterinarians, Ontario Association of Swine Veterinarians and the Ontario Pork Congress. He was involved in the formation of and served as the initial chairman of the Ontario Pork Industry Council. He currently serves in the Canadian Association of Swine Veterinarians and as a District Representative on the Board of Directors of the American Association of Swine Veterinarians.
Dr Charbonneau has received numerous awards from the Ontario swine industry as well as the Ontario Veterinary Medical Association, Outstanding Veterinarian Award in 2008. He was also the 2012 recipient of the AASV Swine Practitioner of the Year award. "I am truly honored to have been elected and will do my best to serve the AASV".
AASV Past President Dr Matt Anderson (ISU '99) is a Minnesota native who grew up around hogs, cattle and crop farming near Stuart, Iowa. After graduating from Iowa State University College of Veterinary Medicine (1999), Dr Anderson started his veterinary practice career in Morris, Minn. He has been a partner/owner in Suidae Health and Production in Algona, Iowa since 2001. Suidae is a seven veterinarian, swine-only practice focused on providing full-service swine veterinary care as well as swine health and business consulting. The practice also has business initiatives in production management and research.
Harry Snelson is the Director of Communications for the AASV
Source: www.aasv.org
@AMVCLLC
Copyright © AMVC


Research recently published in The Journal of Physiology has found that elderly people walk at a slower speed and tire more quickly because of loss of strength and mass in leg muscles. Using computer simulations they found that these physiological changes explain the slower walking speed preferred by the elderly, and that a focus on building up these leg muscles may be the only effective way to improve elderly walking.
Walking performance, measured in terms of energy efficiency – i.e. how far one can travel per calorie consumption – and walking speed, has been shown to decline as people get older. The reason for this decline is unknown as ageing produces a range of physiological changes which affect gait (a person's manner of walking), but are hard to study individually.
This decline in walking performance can lead to a less active lifestyle worsening the health of elderly people and is directly linked to a lower 10-year survival rate for people at age 75. The findings of this study suggest that a focus on building up muscles in the legs may be the only effective way to improve elderly walking. In other words, improving other features such as joint flexibility or walking strategy would not help normal elderly people to walk better.
The research conducted at Carnegie Mellon University used computer simulations to generate physiologically and physically plausible walking behaviors in order to predict how physiological changes affect gait. The computer model consisted of a musculoskeletal system, which was designed based on human physiology, and a neural controller, which drives the musculoskeletal system to generate behaviors and has demonstrated a state-of-the-art prediction level in previous works. The physiological causes of the declined walking performance were searched by selectively 'ageing' the neuro-musculo-skeletal properties of the model (for example, changes in body mass distribution, a range of joint motions, and neural transmission delay and noise), and only the aging in muscle properties resulted in a decline in walking performance.
Given that this was a simulation study the results are based on assumptions that may limit its predictive capabilities as it simplifies the human locomotor system and relies on a hypothesized neural control circuitry.


Classic 2 Current Fabrication is a trusted manufacturer of hard to find Chevrolet Blazer rust repair panels and replacement auto body panels. We carry a wide selection of Blazer floor pans, rocker panels, and trunk extensions. Breathe new life into your Chevrolet Blazer — we have everything you need right here! Search our product list for your entire Blazer parts needs.
The Chevrolet Blazer (4WD model T-10) and the similar GMC S-15 Jimmy (4WD model T-15) are mid-size SUVs from General Motors. Production began alongside the larger K5 Blazer and Jimmy in 1983 and lasted through 2005. In the United States retail sales after 2004 were limited to two-door Blazer models, all other models being sold to fleets, until April 20, 2005. In the Canadian market, four-door models of the Blazer and Jimmy were sold until the 2004 model year and until the 2005 model year for the two-door models of both.


text:
Config files is located on configs/ dir at root of your project.
Each environment config should be file with json content. Each json file = separate environment config

```
configs/
|--- production.json
|--- local.json
|--- stage.json
```

# ENV file

env file is located on root of your project.
It needs to define your environment and load config file that belongs to your current environment

```
project_root
|--- .env
```

.env content:

```
production
```

# DB configs

DB connection configs will be parsed from .my.cnf file located on home directory

# Accessing to the configs

production.json:

```json
{
  "somevar": "111",
  "somedict": {
    "somevar": "222"
  }
}
```

```python
from configs import Config

configs = Config()

print(configs.get("somevar")) # 111
print(configs.get("somedict.somevar")) # 222
```

# License

Released under MIT license

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaGithub


text:
Epistle LXXX: Cyprian to Sergius, Rogatianus, and the Other Confessors in Prison
[Argument.—He consoles Rogatianus and his colleagues, the confessors in prison, and gives them courage by the example of the martyrs Rogatianus the elder and Felicissimus. The letter itself indicates that it was written in exile.]
Most likely during the persecution decreed by Emperor Valerian, when Cyprian was exiled to Curubis by the Proconsul Paternus.
by Cyprian of Carthage in 257 A.D. | translated by Unknown
1. Cyprian to Sergius and Rogatianus, and the rest of the confessors in the Lord, everlasting health. I salute you, dearest and most blessed brethren, myself also desiring to enjoy the sight of you, if the state in which I am placed would permit me to come to you. For what could happen to me more desirable and more joyful than to be now close to you, that you might embrace me with those hands, which, pure and innocent, and maintaining the faith of the Lord, have rejected the profane obedience? What more pleasant and sublime than now to kiss your lips, which with a glorious voice have confessed the Lord, to be looked upon even in presence by your eyes, which, despising the world, have become worthy of looking upon God? But since opportunity is not afforded me to share in this joy, I send this letter in my stead to your ears and to your eyes, by which I congratulate and exhort you that you persevere strongly and steadily in the confession of the heavenly glory; and having entered on the way of the Lord's condescension, that you go on in the strength of the Spirit, to receive the crown, having the Lord as your protector and guide, who said, "Lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world." O blessed prison, which your presence has enlightened! O blessed prison, which sends the men of God to heaven! O darkness, more bright than the sun itself, and clearer than the light of this world, where now are placed temples of God, and your members are to be sanctified by divine confessions!
2. Nor let anything now be revolved in your hearts and minds besides the divine precepts and heavenly commands, with which the Holy Spirit has ever animated you to the endurance of suffering. Let no one think of death, but of immortality; nor of temporary punishment, but of eternal glory; since it is written, "Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of His saints;" and again, "A broken spirit is a sacrifice to God: a contrite and humble heart God doth not despise." And again, where the sacred Scripture speaks of the tortures which consecrate God's martyrs, and sanctify them in the very trial of suffering: "And if they have suffered torments in the sight of men, yet is their hope full of immortality; and having been a little chastised, they shall be greatly rewarded: for God proved them, and found them worthy of Himself. As gold in the furnace hath He tried them, and received them as a sacrifice of a burnt-offering, and in due time regard shall be had unto them. The righteous shall shine, and shall run to and fro like sparks among the stubble. They shall judge the nations, and have dominion over the people; and their Lord shall reign for ever." When, therefore, you reflect that you shall judge and reign with Christ the Lord, you must needs exult and tread under foot present sufferings, in the joy of what is to come; knowing that from the beginning of the world it has been so appointed that righteousness should suffer there in the conflict of the world, since in the beginning, even at the first, the righteous Abel was slain, and thereafter all righteous men, and prophets, and apostles who were sent. To all of whom the Lord also in Himself has appointed an example, teaching that none shall attain to His kingdom but those who have followed Him in His own way, saying, "He that loveth his life in this world shall lose it; and he that hateth his life in this world shall keep it unto life eternal." And again: "Fear not them which kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul: but rather fear Him who is able to destroy both soul and body in hell." Paul also exhorts us that we who desire to attain to the Lord's promises ought to imitate the Lord in all things. "We are," says he, "the sons of God: but if sons, then heirs; heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ; if so be that we suffer with Him, that we may also be glorified together." Moreover, he added the comparison of the present time and of the future glory, saying, "The sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the coming glory which shall be revealed in us." Of which brightness, when we consider the glory, it behoves us to bear all afflictions and persecutions; because, although many are the afflictions of the righteous, yet those are delivered from them all who trust in God.
3. Blessed women also, who are established with you in the same glory of confession, who, maintaining the Lord's faith, and braver than their sex, not only themselves are near to the crown of glory, but have afforded an example to other women by their constancy! And lest anything should be wanting to the glory of your number, that each sex and every age also might be with you in honour, the divine condescension has also associated with you boys in a glorious confession; representing to us something of the same kind as once did Ananias, Azarias, and Misael, the illustrious youths to whom, when shut up in the furnace, the fires gave way, and the flames gave refreshment, the Lord being present with them, and proving that against His confessors and martyrs the heat of hell could have no power, but that they who trusted in God should always continue unhurt and safe in all dangers. And I beg you to consider more carefully, in accordance with your religion, what must have been the faith in these youths which could deserve such full acknowledgment from the Lord. For, prepared for every fate, as we ought all to be, they say to the king, "O king Nebuchadnezzar, we are not careful to answer thee in this matter; for our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace; and He will deliver us out of thine hand, O king! But if not, be it known unto thee, O king, that we will not serve thy gods, nor worship the golden image which thou hast set up." Although they believed, and, in accordance with their faith, knew that they might even be delivered from their present punishment, they still would not boast of this, nor claim it for themselves, saying, "But if not." Lest the virtue of their confession should be less without the testimony of their suffering, they added that God could do all things; but yet they would not trust in this, so as to wish to be delivered at the moment; but they thought on that glory. of eternal liberty and security.
4. And you also, retaining this faith, and meditating day and night, with your whole heart prepared for God, think of the future only, with contempt for the present, that you may be able to come to the fruit of the eternal kingdom, and to the embrace and kiss, and the sight of the Lord, that you may follow in all things Rogatianus the presbyter, the glorious old man who, to the glory of our time, makes a way for you by his religious courage and divine condescension, who, with Felicissimus our brother, ever quiet and temperate, receiving the attack of a ferocious people, first prepared for you a dwelling in the prison, and, marking out the way for you in some measure, now also goes before you. That this may be consummated in you, we beseech the Lord in constant prayers, that from beginnings going on to the highest results, He may cause those whom He has made to confess, also to be crowned. I bid you, dearest and most beloved brethren, ever heartily farewell in the Lord; and may you attain to the crown of heavenly glory. Victor the deacon, and those who are with me, greet you.
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At the state GIC (Group Insurance Commission), they've been referred to as 'consumer driven' plans, which sounds a bit more positive in tone. But regardless the terminology, they all have the same result, namely reducing the monthly insurance premium substantially but upping out-of-pocket costs.
"While premium reduction is an attractive outcome, Mass Retirees has a somewhat cautious approach when it comes to high deductible plans being offered as an option," continues Duhamel. "We're concerned over their long term impact on our non-Medicare retirees.
"If more and more employees leave the traditional (lower deductible) plans for those with a high deductible and lower premium, then the unintended consequences would be greater and greater increases in the premiums being paid by our non-Medicare members for the lower deductible plans. Worse yet, they could see their benefits gradually being eroded.
"That said, high deductible plans are no longer just an idea on the drawing board. They're being offered to local retirees on their menu of non-Medicare plans. For example, they're now included in the Cape Cod Municipal Health Group.
Having started in 1987, the Cape Cod Municipal Health Group lays claim as the oldest municipal joint purchase group in Massachusetts. We commonly refer to these joint purchase groups, which are authorized under the municipal group insurance law or Chapter 32B, as municipal insurance pools.
With over fifty participating communities or governmental units, Cape Cod also claims to be one of the state's largest pools. One of the Cape Cod participants is the Town of Dennis.
Chapter 32B). With that decision, the Association appointed a retiree designee to the town's Public Employee Committee (PEC).
"Association member Bob Rolanti, a retired Dennis firefighter, was designated by us to serve on the town's PEC," according to PEC Coordinator Tricia Igo. "Bob is also one of the elected members to the Barnstable County Retirement Board.
Non-Medicare retirees and employees continue to be offered standard HMO and PPO plans that include for example, deductibles ranging from $300 for an individual HMO enrollee to $900 for a family. As an alternative, the Cape Group also offered HDHSA plans with relatively higher deductibles of $2,000 for an individual and $4,000 for a family.
To offset the higher deductibles, these HDHSA plans come at a much lower premium. In addition, they offer other features such as reimbursement for a portion of the deductible and coverage in full (no copays) after the deductible is paid for many services.
"Naturally Bob questioned the process that led to these plans being offered by the Cape Group to Dennis in the first place without consulting the PEC," continues Rehrey. "Officials have argued that they can offer the plans without the PEC's approval, and we don't agree with them.
Ed Note: Hyannis and Orleans have included them. Some 180 enrollees have signed up for these plans at this time.


Forum: Male Breast Cancer — For men who have been diagnosed or are at high risk.
There's not many men visiting BCO these days. In any case, I hang around in case the odd one drops in.
Thanks for hanging around. Diagnosed Oct 17, 2018. Surgery and sentinel node biopsy Nov 16, 2018. Just starting the journey. So far everyone has been very supportive.
For all the men out there, if you feel a lump do not hesitate to have it checked out. My only symptom was a hard, palpable , immobile, painless lump in my left breast 1.7 cm x 1.2cm x 1.4cm in size. My radiologist and sonographer gave it a BI-RADS 5 score. Which means >95% chance of malignancy. The biopsy was a only a little unpleasant. It came back as Invasive Ductal Carcinoma (IDC) the most common breast cancer in men. Estrogen positive, Progesterone positive and HER2 negative, My lymph nodes looked clear on ultrasound but the sentinel node biopsy will give the true picture. The one area of concern was the tumor grade of 2-3. So a pretty high grade tumor but not totally a 3, which is good. Surgery and the Sentinel Node Biopsy are scheduled for Nov 16 only 4 weeks after diagnosis. The surgeon will send the tumor off for ONCOTYPE DX test. So unless I have node involvement or a high ONCO score, no Chemo! Radiation is still in play because the tumor is close to the skin. Surgery will tell if there is skin involvement. If so, then radiation. But as of right now just a complete mastectomy and hormonal treatment (tamoxifen).
Welcome SafetyGuy. It's great to hear that you and your team are on the case without delay. Your ++- gene expression is a typical guy result and glad to hear you may dodge chemo. The rads are pretty essential.
Do you have any bc in your family? What age are you.? Where are you located? I'm here to support you in any way I can.
To answer your questions I lost an aunt (Father's sister) in 2016 to BC. Quite a bit of cancer on my father's side of the family. Both my father and his brother lost their battle with kidney cancer. My dad's 2 sisters had BC and my grandfather( Dad's father ) was lost to prostate cancer, but at the ripe old age of 86. I am turning 56 on Oct 31. I live in Chesapeake, Virginia. It has been on my bucket list to take a trip down under.
Beacause of the the family history of rare cancers in the family genetic testing was done. BRAC1, BRAC2 and p53 in particular.
I'm sorry to hear of your family histories of different cancers. Certainly these are likely factors in your diagnosis. Were any of those genetic mutations found in DNA testing by you?
So far none. Negative for BRAC1, BRAC2 and p53. Broader testing is underway.


Ciliegino is an authentic Italian brand from Sicily which has chosen to open its first UK restaurant at St David's! Using only the finest ingredients brought from Italy, Ciliegino offers fantastic pizzas freshly cooked in traditional ovens, alongside other typical Italian recipes including pastas and salads.
Their staff will be waiting to welcome you and to help you choose which of the delicious dishes to try first.


Taxed enough already, Bob! Do you want us to eat cake, too?
Comments on this week's Supreme Court ruling on a straw man purchase of a firearm HERE.
If you have bare areas, take a look at these photos, and then check out the tab at the top entitled Tennessee lawn grass. These are photos of Zenith Zoysia taken during the second growing season. Click to see a larger image. Seed were sewn over plug aerated soil May 2013. These pictures were taken June 17, 2014.
Seed sprouted last summer, watered last summer PRN, and only rain water this second summer. No topsoil here.
The longest stolon (runner) is about a foot long.
By the end of year four, with just rain water, this are should have close to complete coverage.
The green clump in the center is a Zoysia plant. As it grows, it will put runners out into the bare area.
My rebuttal to a recent letter to the editor of the Knoxville News-Sentinel. If you subscribe to the N-S, you can see the slightly edited version they published HERE.
The recent letter writer, Ben Brabson, in his opposition to permitless open carry of handguns, begins with an ad hominem attack on Senator Campfield, and ends with a false assertion concerning the conduct of fellow Tennesseans.
He reminisces about his childhood firearms usage and the safety indoctrination he received from his father and uncles. I guess he missed the Bill of Rights indoctrination, which speaks of keeping and bearing arms, not for food gathering or pest control, but for defense against unlawful felonious aggression. I guess he missed the definition of infringed in the Second Amendment, which has the same meaning as abridged in the First. Maybe, too, he missed the definition of the people.
The fact is, the writer shows his callous disregard for the safety and well-being of his lower-income neighbors who can't afford the poll tax on the individual right to bear arms. He, by extension, becomes a co-conspirator with criminals who prey on the lawfully disarmed. Are the lives of these citizens of such less value?
there will be a version of the gunfight at the O.K. Corral repeated in every county of the state on a daily basis.
He may be surprised, then, to learn that every county of every state bordering Tennessee, except Georgia already has permitless open carry. Can he point to crime statistics that would support his assertion? In Kentucky alone, that would add up to 43,800 gunfights last year.
He insults Tennesseans by insinuating that we are less capable of self-restraint than people in those seven states. Are we, sir, such a bunch of rubes, that we can't be trusted to exercise a God-given, natural right, unless we first purchase a permission slip from our Master, the State?
Ultimately, there is no middle ground. Gun prohibitionists keep looking for ways to reduce/eliminate private ownership and use of firearms. They are never content, either, with partial steps. Given their choice, total prohibition is the ultimate goal.
Check out the Salon review of M J Mollenhour's latest novel, Oddington.
Get the Kindle edition HERE, dead tree edition HERE.
Be sure and read his other two earlier novels, Arcturus and Amazon Avenger. Both intriguing thrillers.
In the wake of more shootings in Gun Free Zones, politicians are ramping up the conversation on gun bans. Meaningful gun bans can only mean gun confiscation. I discuss the unknown, possibly very high cost of such efforts at Examiner HERE.
Six hundred yards. First shot was X ring. Wish all of them were!
Score sheet - shots 1 & 4 were X's. Overall satisfied with iron sights and geezer eyes.
A few yahoos have been Open Carrying of long arms into some restaurants uninvited. Not Good. See my inquiry results from Sonic and Chili's.


text:
Ramiro Sanchez, Jr., MD
by Marquis Who's Who ModeratorPosted on December 27, 2018
Company: Otsuka America Pharmaceutical, Inc.
Location: New Hope, Pennsylvania, United States
Ramiro Sanchez, Jr., MD, Vice President of Otsuka America Pharmaceutical, Inc., has been recognized by Marquis Who's Who Top Doctors for dedication, achievements, and leadership in developing new therapies for patients.
When starting out in his career, Dr. Sanchez saw his work as most valuable in the academic sector. He spent a year instructing psychiatry at Yale University before realizing he could help more people on a bigger scale with a slight career change. After leaving Yale, he started working for Purdue Pharma as an associate medical director. From there, he garnered managerial and executive experience through various positions with the Bristol-Myers Squibb Company. In 2007, he joined Otsuka America Pharmaceuticals as the senior director of Global Clinical Development. In 2010, he was named a vice president of the company and in 2013, Dr. Sanchez was chosen for his current position as Senior Vice President of Global Clinical Development. For him, the moment that stands out knowing he made such a difference in people's live with his work was seeing the psychiatric treatment drug Abilify on the shelf of a CVS pharmacy. Dr. Sanchez played a role in bringing that medication to patients.
Fascinated by the machinations of the human mind from an early age, Dr. Sanchez pursued this nascent interest by first earning an AB from Northwestern University in 1984. He continued with a post-baccalaureate fellowship in sleep disorders medicine at Harvard Medical School. He continued with an internship at the National Institutes of Mental Health Research before earning an MD from Northwestern University. He followed this degree with an internship, residency and fellowship in medicine, neurology and psychiatry at the Yale School of Medicine. Since 1999, he has served as a trustee on the board of directors of the Connecticut Mental Health Foundation at Yale University. Furthermore, he has consulted for the Connecticut Science Fair Association, Inc. since 1996.
Dr. Sanchez's achievements include procuring patents for pharmaceuticals. He was the first to Malcolm Bowers Clinical Rounds at the Yale School of Medicine. Additionally, he has contributed to research in sleep science, light treatment and biological rhythms. For his work, Dr. Sanchez has received a number of accolades and recognition, including 2016's Leadership Award from the International Society for CNS Drug Development. In 2015, he was honored with Otsuka President's Award for Rexulti Dual-Indication Approval. He has received several STAR Awards from Bristol-Myers Squibb Company, as well as grant research awards and scholarships. In his career, he has maintained professional affiliation with a variety of organizations including the Royal Society of Medicine, the International Society for CNS Drug Development, the American Psychiatric Association and The Sleep Research Society.
Pharm Exec's Emerging Pharma Leaders 2018
Pharm Exec's Emerging Pharma Leaders 2018: Dr. Sanchez's Feature
Industry Leaders Profile
Contact Dr. Sanchez:
Posted in Medical Educator, MedicineTagged Abilify, emerging medication, pharmaceuticals, psychiatry, Ramiro Sanchez
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Courtesy of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit comes a new ERISA preemption case, Great-West Life & Ann. Ins. Co. v. Information Systems & Networks Corp., ___ F.3d ___, 2008 U.S. App. LEXIS 7769. Information Systems & Networks Corp ("ISN") had a self funded medical benefits plan for its employees and their dependents. ISN contracted for Great-West to provide claims processing services. At the end of the contract period, Great-West had advanced about $94,000 to pay claims owed by the ISN medical benefits plan. It asked for reimbursement and ISN refused to pay.
Great-West sued ISN asserting state law claims for breach of the claims processing services contract and for unjust enrichment. ISN claimed that ERISA preempted both claims. The gist of the defense by ISN was that the state law claims by Great-West "related to" ISN's ERISA plan in a way that fell within the scope of the statute. As a consequence, ISN argued that the only remedy Great-West had was a claim under ERISA's remedial scheme.
The district court rejected that argument and ruled that Great-West had a valid claim for breach of contract and unjust enrichment under state law. On appeal the Fourth Circuit affirmed, ruling that ERISA did not preempt Great-West's state law claims.
Citing earlier Supreme Court and Circuit cases, the decision outlines a number of basic principles of ERISA preemption. The contract claims that Great-West brought had an "affect" on the ERISA plan sponsored by ISN. But their impact was too "tenuous, remote or peripheral" to run afoul of ERISA's preemption. Great-West was not a plan fiduciary. The issues between the parties were "run-of-the-mill state law claims alleging failure to pay a creditor . . .."
Interestingly, the three judge panel that decided the case included retired Associate Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor. She's appeared on a number of panels in U.S. Circuit Courts of Appeal across the country since her retirement.
Post a Comment to "The Fourth Circuit on ERISA Preemption"


text:
package edu.cmu.cs.stage3.alice.core.question;

import edu.cmu.cs.stage3.alice.core.ReferenceFrame;
import edu.cmu.cs.stage3.alice.core.property.ReferenceFrameProperty;
import edu.cmu.cs.stage3.alice.core.Transformable;

public abstract class SubjectAsSeenByQuestion extends SubjectQuestion {
	public final ReferenceFrameProperty asSeenBy = new ReferenceFrameProperty( this, "asSeenBy", null );
	protected abstract Object getValue( Transformable subjectValue, ReferenceFrame asSeenByValue );
	protected Object getValue( Transformable subjectValue ) {
		ReferenceFrame asSeenByValue = asSeenBy.getReferenceFrameValue();
		return getValue( subjectValue, asSeenByValue );
	}
}


Peter Cross first approached me in April 1994 to sound out the possibility of collaborating on an exhibition project, which would centre on Hackney Hospital and include contributions from both contemporary artists and mental health service users. He suggested that psychiatric service users who choose to use art processes as a way of exploring issues and emotions central to their experiences could effectively be brought into dialogue with artists who focus their work on subject areas which might overlap with, or reflect upon, what Peter perceived as the users' concerns.
During our initial discussions we talked about the proposed exhibition in terms of what makes an individual an artist and who or what institutions support or challenge this identification; whether or not a piece of work made by a service user could be called "art," and if the visual pieces we hoped that they would create for the exhibition were not "art," what level could be applied; to what extent a curator could expand the boundaries defining what is commonly accepted as "an exhibition;" what our roles would be in facilitating this project, and how these roles might contradict, or support, our professional identities.
From the beginning, it was agreed that the pieces and texts produced would move beyond highlighting issues specifically related to psychiatry towards more discreet reflections on how both the individual and the collective body responds to what amounts to a loss of power in the realms of the physical, the psychological, the cultural and the political.
It seemed necessary to acknowledge the risks inherent in inviting members of the art community into a psychiatric hospital to create site-specific pieces. The subject of so-called insanity, and all that it implies, deeply intrigues and repels. Hackney Hospital can be understood to represent the "closed room" which we are forbidden to enter as children: there remains an irresistible desire to "peek in," even though we instinctively know that we might not like what we discover. Primitive and unconscious voyeuristic desires are experienced by all of us. As workers within such an institution and as outsiders invited in, it is our responsibility to be aware of their seductive power. Our challenge in developing Care and Control was to try to ensure that we did not "stage a show," which satisfied these desires, but instead, included pieces which attempted to address this very issue.
Another area of concern centred on the hospital users' contribution to the project. Our primary objective was to step away from the historical representation of art created by untrained individuals who were suffering from mental distress, such as the exhibitions mounted under the general heading of Art Brut or Outsiders' Art. Our intention was to present hospital users with the opportunity to voice publicly their perspectives on aspects of psychiatric treatment, and on their experiences of the institution, in the most specific and the widest sense.
Jane Roberts and I had set up an art workshop programme in 1992, designed to complement the art therapy service I had established at the hospital. This marked the beginning of the Hackney Arts Initiative. When I first met Peter, Jane and I had recently introduced a specific theme to the workshop series. Hackney Hospital would be closing in Autumn 1995 and it seemed both appropriate and therapeutic to focus the workshop on documenting the existing site prior to its demolition. We hoped to compile an archive of images, which might incorporate a personal and political slant on users' experiences as consumers of the psychiatric services provided by the hospital. From a clinical perspective, it seemed vital to create a forum in which users could work through a difficult and, in many instances, highly charged ending, while also confronting the loss of the hospital, which resonates for each individual in deep and powerful ways.
The vast majority of individual participating in the art workshops have been in-patients on the acute wards and many have a history of frequent admission. Their ambivalent feelings about the psychiatric treatment they have engaged in, or resisted, can only be generalised by the title of this exhibition.
Prior to the opening of the Homerton General Hospital, Hackney Hospital housed the physical and psychological departments servicing the community; many current users were themselves born in the hospital, or had close family members or friends who died there. A number of elderly members of the Hackney Hospital community can recall the days when the site operated as a Workhouse. These layered personal memories, historic and contemporary, along with the individual responses to the psychiatric institution, informed many of the early pieces created in the archive workshops run by members of the Hackney Arts Initiative.
The theme of Hackney Hospital's pending closure was identified as the most logical point for the exhibition. On a practical level, as the different wards and department based on the Hospital site would be moving to the new complex in stages commencing in April 1995, there was scope for Rear Window, in collaboration with Hackney Arts Initiative, to take over spaces as they became available.
As a group, we concluded that the core component of the proposed show would be work produced by users in the existing workshop programme.
The main debate revolved around the degree to which the workshop facilitators and artists should intervene in the production of images, object, and installations by service users. We felt that a certain level of guidance would be appropriate, but the point at which guidance might be experienced as restricting an organic process, or as overtly directive, was difficult to pin down. It was important that we did not impose our own conceptual and aesthetic agenda on the workshop participants, while being aware that effective communication hinged on the acquisition of visual language skills. Out overall aim across the workshop programme, which was carefully structured to meet the differing needs of service users, and conducted in environments ranging from studio spaces through to locked wards, was to achieve a balance between client-led exploration and the professional artists' interventions.
It is difficult to convey the complexity of the task facing each workshop facilitator. From outside artists who joined established groups for a block of sessions to those professionals who had a long history of working at the hospital on art and art therapy based programmes, engaging on a project as ambitious as Care and Control presented many challenges. Speaking from the perspective of an artist and art therapist, I found myself struggling with issues particular to my role at the hospital; how my involvement on the project related to, or was in conflict with this role; and how my identity as an artist did, or did not fit in.
As a clinician, a recurring theme in my therapeutic work is how the individual copes with life's significant changes and losses. Loss takes many forms, ranging from the most concrete—the death of a significant other, or the loss of a cultural or personal identity—to the sense of absence, or perceived denial, of a desired emotional experience.
The loss of the capacity to differentiate between the real and the imagined is one of the most frightening and confusing experiential states. In such instances, the boundary between outside and inside collapses. In the collective realm of experiences, the violent penetration of the one culture forcing its identity on to, or into another, represents a similar collapse of dividing lines and results in severe emotional distress.
Another compelling force behind the artist's desire to create, as discussed in psychoanalytical literature, can be linked to the need to express aggressive and destructive impulses, and to make reparation for damage caused to internal objects in unconscious fantasy. The work of art can provide a contained for such primitive fantasies, while the process of creating art can offer a means through which harmony and integration can be achieved. The piece of work which results may or may not hold identifiable traces of the unconscious processes engaged in. Indeed, it could be said that even the artist him or herself cannot with confidence analyse the unconscious fantasies and memories which may have informed the decisions taken en route.
The artist can be said to use a specific medium both to communicate and to contain expressions of internal conflict and loss. Individuals who have not had access to ways in which to increase their understanding of painful mental states, and do not possess the language with which to articulate their experiences, are at greater risk of being overwhelmed by them.
Making available the opportunity for hospital users to discover creative rather than pathological forms of expression is one of the primary goals of the artists and art therapists who work with them.
A key feature of art therapy is to encourage clients to explore various media themselves without the active involvement of the therapist. This gives both the therapist and the client the opportunity to gain insight into how the individual copes with the anxiety inherent in confronting a new, and often very unfamiliar situation, and all of its everyday ramifications. It can be helpful if the client has little or no previous knowledge of art as this reduces the possibility of manipulating the language and provides more scope for unconscious material to surface. Not to be underestimated either is the sheer enjoyment inherent in discovering one's own unique approach to image making. For all these reasons, teaching art techniques to clients is not the therapist's task.
The images and processes engaged in, which evolve in the course of art therapy sessions, are used as a starting point form which to move into verbal explorations focussing on the client's past and present life. A number of clinician and theoreticians have emphasised the similarities between creating a picture within an art therapy session and dreaming. This analogy is helpful, but the differences between the two experiences are as significant as the identified overlaps.
To focus briefly on the interface between dreaming and making an image within the therapy session, it could be said that in both instances, the subject may employ various strategies such as displacement, distortion, condensation, and symbolic representation as defined by Freud. The art therapist will facilitate the client's interpretation of the image, in a way that is similar to how the psychoanalyst might make use of a dream related by the analysand. Interwoven in this process are the communications made through the multi-layered transference relationships the client develops with the art therapist. Such communications are also privately interpreted by the art therapist, informing his or her responses to the client, and when appropriate, are directly negotiated in the session.
The artwork produced within a therapy context is therefore experienced by both client and therapist in a way that is markedly different from pieces made in a workshop or studio setting. For these reasons, it is considered inappropriate to show the work in a public venue. However, many individuals engaging in art therapy discover the pleasure to be gained from creating objects and images and wish to develop their skills while, at the same time, actively request opportunities to exhibit their work. Equally, a number of hospital users express reluctance to engage in art therapy, as their anxieties about using the materials are too great. In response to this feedback from clients, Jane and I first introduced multi-tiered art workshop programme designed to meet these diverse needs.
In keeping with the view that a clear boundary between art and art therapy be maintained, art workshops take place, where possible, in an on-site studio setting and are facilitated by an artist, not an art therapist. This gives hospital users the choice to participate in a group conducted in a non-clinical environment and run by an outside practitioner, not a member of the hospital's mental health team.
Following through Hackney Arts Initiative's commitment to challenging the way in which mental health service users are perceived, Jane and I have also developed an exhibition programme, which has focused on liaising with the Whitechapel Art Gallery's Education Department. This has resulted in two exhibitions (Inner City / Inter City, 1993 and In Transition, 1994) and a regular slot on the Whitechapel's Homerton Gallery exhibition calendar. In addition, we are currently developing a Picture Archive of images made by users, selections of which are scheduled to be shown in the new site and in the community. The first installation of work, totalling 175 images has been hung in the new home for the elderly and opened 10 April 1995.
Collaborating with Rear Window has meant that our exhibition programme and the art workshop project, with its underlying clinical agenda, could be expanded considerably; a development which was very much welcomed. However, in order to carry the project forward, the safe sanctuary the workshop programme represented for many of its more vulnerable users had to be opened up to et in professional artists and members of a contemporary gallery organisation, all of whom operate within a specifically defined cultural community with its own highly evolved language. The willingness and courage of the workshop participants who agreed to engage in the project should be noted. Following a brief in many ways similar to the one presented to participating artists, hospital users were invited to create works, which communicated their varying responses to one specific institution—the psychiatric hospital. This has been used in the exhibition as a point of departure for reflections on more wide ranging yet interconnected subjects related to the architectural environment; the power relations inherent in institutionalised communities; and the effects of physical or mental illnesses on the individual.
It was made clear from the start that Rear Window would assume curatorial role on the project, which meant that workshop users willing to develop their ideas within the context of the project also had to face a process of evaluation and assessment. No matter how sensitively this was undertaken, and its was certainly handled with insight and respect for each individual, the implications and attendant anxieties had to be confronted and worked through by every participant.
From the clinical point of view, such interventions could be understood as presenting valuable opportunities for users to negotiate new relationships with "outsiders," while at the same time engaging in the painful process of what is termed "reality testing" through subjecting their ideas, and therefore aspects of themselves, to a professional response. Opportunities for personal development of this kind are limited within mental health care, and Rear Window's initiatives were both supported and appreciated.
Additionally, the invitation to exhibit selections of the work made in the workshop programme or to tell their own stories through interviews, was highly valued by the hospital users. It is hoped that by creating a context within which hospital users can articulate their responses to the institution and all that it implies, alongside professional artists engaged in a similar task, a conversational space has been opened up. This offers ways for all participants to re-locate themselves within a general cultural and societal arena and, through this process to challenge further the fixed positions each occupies within an established discourse attached to a particular institution.
In reflecting on my role in the project, I became aware of how difficult it was to maintain distinct boundaries between my ongoing work as a clinician at Hackney Hospital and my involvement on the Care and Control project. From the beginning, Jane and I provided the essential links between Rear Window, the hospital users and the hospital staff and management. A large number of the service users who participated in the project had been or are currently members of one of my art therapy groups, and have experienced my only within this context. As an art therapist, I have been in the privileged position of having access to conversations which are rightly considered personal and confidential, the content of which has no place in a project like Care and Control. For hospital users to engage with me, and through me, with professional on the Care and Control project, opened up another dimension to the therapeutic relationship I had established with them.
This kind of development can be very healthy, providing that the therapist and the client are both aware of the subtle dividing lines, which help to differentiate one form of interaction from another. The willingness to be flexible and to take risks within a relationship which seems to have clear parameters, was generously demonstrated by those hospital users with whom I had had long term contact and who took part in Care and Control. From my current position it is impossible to know—if indeed it ever will be—the degree to which the experience was predominantly positive or negative for some of the more vulnerable individual involved. On a general note, such risks are inherent in any new and innovative undertaking of this kind, and at this stage, it would seem that the gains have far exceeded the losses.
Shifting away from the clinical perspective, another area of concern for me pivoted on my identity as an artist, and whether or not I would be able to create a piece of work for the exhibition. The problem I faced was that of identifying a conceptual focus, given the fact that individuals currently in therapy with me would see the exhibition. It is the therapist's responsibility to make it possible for the client to superimpose inner representations of figure from the past onto the therapist, that is, to provide the conditions for the development of the transference relationship. Through this process, the consciously forgotten past, and the attendant feelings, are re-enacted in the present. In order to facilitate this experience, it is most helpful if the client's knowledge of the therapist's core identity is limited. Making a piece of art implicitly involves degrees of disclosure, both through revealing the conceptual concerns of the artists and through the formal structure, or the language employed. This made thinking of a possible contribution to the show very problematic, and serves to illustrate further the conflict between my role as artist and art therapist.
Jane faced a similar dilemma; we both felt strongly, however, that it was crucial to challenge the way in which the contemporary art establishment tends to restrict how an artist's practice is identified. It would seem that the artist is commonly viewed as an individual who produces pieces, which can be shown within a gallery setting. Although this model is constantly being questioned in many different ways by artists, curators, and critics, Jane and I wished to develop the debate within the context of our positions within the hospital.
Our mutual conviction is that the work we undertake in planning and facilitating workshops and exhibitions for hospital users I in itself a form of art practice. The discussions between ourselves, and with hospital users, evolve out of questions similar to those pose by artists who regularly exhibit: who is the art being made for? Can the role of the artist be opened up to include individuals who operate outside the fixed boundaries established and, some might say, actively protected by the art community? Is there a role for art outside the gallery setting? What or who defines whether or not a piece of work is in fact art? The pieces that Jane and I chose to install for the exhibition represent our collaborative attempt to address these issues.
It seems important to confirm that it has never been our intention to "elevate" the work created by hospital users to the status of so-termed "high art." Rather, we continue to attempt to question the ways in which space is made available for selected individuals (artists) to articulate their responses to pertinent political, social, and cultural concerns shared by the community as a whole. Often artists take on the role of interpreter or advocate for those who are not in the privileged position of being able to develop their own language. Through the workshop programme, Jane and I have attempted to open up a creative space in which the acquisition of visual language skills can be fostered and, inseparable from this, new ways of thinking can be developed. Rear Window's significant contribution to this undertaking has taken the process one step further.


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Home » Depression » Rethinking the Diagnosis of Depression
Rethinking the Diagnosis of Depression
Most people diagnosed with depression today aren't depressed, according to Edward Shorter, a historian of psychiatry, in his latest book How Everyone Became Depressed: The Rise and Fall of the Nervous Breakdown.
Specifically, about 1 in 5 Americans will receive a diagnosis of major depression in their lifetime. But Shorter believes that the term major depression doesn't capture the symptoms most of these individuals have. "Nervous illness," however, does.
"The nervous patients of yesteryear are the depressives of today," he writes.
And these individuals aren't particularly sad. Rather, their symptoms fall into these five domains, according to Shorter: nervous exhaustion; mild depression; mild anxiety; somatic symptoms, such as chronic pain or insomnia; and obsessive thinking.
As he writes in this recent blog post:
… The problem is that many people who get the diagnosis of major depression aren't necessarily sad. They don't cry all the time. They drag themselves from bed and go to work and plow through family life, but they aren't sad. They may well have one of the "D-words" — dysphoria, disenchantment, demoralization — but they aren't necessarily depressed.
Instead, what do they have in addition? They're anxious. They're exhausted and often report crushing fatigue. They have all kinds of somatic pains that come and go. And they tend to obsess about the whole package.
What they have is a whole-body disorder, not a disorder of mood. And that is the problem with the term depression: it shines the spotlight on mood, a spotlight that belongs elsewhere.
Severe depression, which has been lumped in with depression, is a completely different disorder. It's a serious illness akin to melancholia, a term used around the mid 18th century to the early 20th century. Melancholia speaks more accurately to the gravity of this severe depression and its serious symptoms, which include despair, hopelessness, lack of pleasure in one's life and suicide.
Shorter also describes melancholia as a "dejection that appears to observers as sadness but that patients themselves often interpret as pain." It's recurrent. "Melancholia digs deep into the brain and body, putting patients in touch with their most primeval – and often sinister – impulses. Fantasies of murder and suicide are common themes."
So how did everyone become depressed?
Shorter names three main culprits: psychoanalysis, which shifted the emphasis away from the body and solely to the mind; the pharmaceutical industry, "the marketing to the public of drugs for depression on the grounds that they rested on an unshakable foundation of neuroscience"; and the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual (DSM).
Before 1980 (and the DSM-III), psychiatry had two depressions: melancholia, which was also called "endogenous depression;" and nonmelancholia, which was called a variety of names, such as "reactive depression" and "neurotic depression."
After 1980, with the publication of the DSM-III, we were introduced to one term. The manual did include melancholia as a subtype of "major depressive episode." But, according to Shorter, this was "a pale shadow of the historic melancholia, with its crushing burden of intolerable pain." It was there "in letter, not in spirit."
In the book Shorter harshly criticizes this diagnostic decision. He writes:
Whereas melancholia designated a small population of people with life-threatening illness, the diagnosis called simply "depression" was applied to millions. Before DSM-III in 1980, psychiatry had always had two depressions, and now it had only one, and that depression, which began life in 1980 as "major depression," was a scientific travesty, a poor limp thing of a diagnosis that did not necessarily mean that the patient was sad at all – which is what a depressive mood diagnosis is supposed to convey – but was unhappy, aggrieved, tried, anxious, uncomfortable, or had nothing at all really wrong; the doctor had put her on antidepressants because he or she could think of nothing else to do.
Throughout the book Shorter features stories, case histories, diary excerpts and experts' quotes along with research and survey data that bolster the need for separate diagnoses.
For instance, he cites one study where "depressed" patients most frequently picked words such as dispirited, sluggish, empty and listless — not sad — to describe how they felt. In the National Comorbidity Survey of 1990-1992, lack of energy appeared to be a prominent symptom for people with depression and anxiety.
Shorter also cites Bernard Carroll's work. In 1968 Carroll, a psychiatrist and endocrinologist, discovered a biochemical marker for depression, a "promising lead" that's largely been forgotten. According to Shorter:
…Carroll discovered that administering a synthetic steroid drug called dexamethasone to melancholic patients uncovered an unsuspected dysfunction of their endocrine system: It keeps their cortisol levels high. Cortisol is a stress hormone. Unlike normal subjects, if you gave them dexamethasone at midnight, their systems did not experience the normal late-night-early-morning reduction of cortisol; this nonreduction correlated with the severity of the illness, and it disappeared after patients were successfully treated for their depression. Later studies found that the endocrine systems of patients with most other psychiatric diagnoses showed normal suppression in response to dexamethasone. Thus, melancholic patients had a distinctive dysfunction of the hypothalamus-pituitary-adrenal axis called 'DST nonsuppression.'
Other illnesses share this suppression. But they're not mistaken for melancholia, Shorter says. In fact, he compares the accuracy of the DST to the diagnostic test for epilepsy.
The marker of cortisol nonsuppression is not biologically unique to melancholia: it occurs in severe physical illness and in some psychiatric disorders that are unlikely to be confused with melancholia, such as anorexia nervosa and dementia. Yet the dexamethasone suppression test, or "DST," has about the same ability to diagnose melancholia properly, without too many "false negatives" and "false positives," that the interictal (between seizures) electroencephalogram has in epilepsy: useful but not perfect. The DST provides evidence that most melancholic patients, whether unipolar or bipolar, have an underlying biochemical homogeneity that is entirely lacking in other psychiatric disorders.
Ultimately, Shorter calls for a de-emphasis of sad mood in depression. "People with the nerve syndrome are not necessarily sad, weepy, or down in the dumps any more than the population as a whole. They feel ill at ease in their bodies, preoccupied with their state of mind, and are unable to get their thoughts off their internal psychic condition."
He also calls for a division of depression. He believes that lumping melancholia with depression is dangerous. "…[P]oorly diagnosed patients are denied the benefit of proper treatment while being exposed to all the side effects of classes of medication, such as Prozac-style drugs, that are ineffective for serious illness."
In sum, having one term to describe melancholia and "nervous illness" simply makes no sense. As Shorter writes, these two illnesses are as different as "tuberculosis and mumps."
Tartakovsky, M. (2018). Rethinking the Diagnosis of Depression. Psych Central. Retrieved on January 22, 2020, from https://psychcentral.com/blog/rethinking-the-diagnosis-of-depression/
Last updated: 8 Jul 2018 (Originally: 26 Mar 2013)
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A Myanmar Life Ended
Info seputar HK Hari Ini 2020 – 2021.
Ko Nyi Aung Htet was 23 years of ages when he was killed on February 28, 2021 by the Tatmadaw while peacefully protesting versus the February 1st stroke of genius d'état in Yangon, Myanmar. He was fired in his abdominal area. A graduate of the College of West Yangon with a bachelor's degree in the Myanmar language, he found work as a network engineer with among the many Web business that were established during the previous 5 years as Myanmar opened after years of seclusion. Such firms have brought hope of a much better life to university graduates that dealt with terribly high rates of joblessness under army guideline– at least when universities were permitted to run.
Ko Nyi Aung Htet delighted in functioning and playing. Among his favorite activities was playing Mobile Legends, a mobile multiplayer online fight field. Launched in 2016, the game has ended up being preferred in Southeast Asia and also was among the games picked for the 2019 Southeast Eastern Games in the Philippines. He was recognized by many gamers of the game. When not online, he took pleasure in spending quality time with his twin sibling as well as his pet called The same level Kyel.
With the Tatmadaw taking control of the federal government once more and currently taking actions to return the country to isolation (internet blocked, banks shut, worldwide flights cancelled), a lot of one of the most encouraging new careers are now extremely unclear. With this expect his future being squashed, he signed up with the protestors.
From Yangon: a protest in pictures In an age in which optics are basic, Myanmar's protest movement has actually forged a calculated aesthetic course inspired by actual as well as imaginary past motions.
He understood what he ran the risk of. The Tatmadaw has a lengthy history of brutality versus the noncombatant population of Myanmar. Lots of have actually been eliminated as well as many have actually been held as political prisoners in awful conditions– sometimes for years. He persisted, nevertheless, for he believed that democracy and a bright future would not return to Myanmar if the Tatmadaw prospered.
The Tatmadaw relies upon its old playbook in managing protestors. It promoted a legislation making prohibited any type of team in excess of 4 people. It initially preserved the look of restraint using water canons and also rubber bullets to mask its use of live rounds. It attempted to turn off the ways of protestor communication. It released violent prisoners right into communities, where activists came, to wreck havoc, loot, and also rape. It identified where some activists lived and also dragged them from their homes under the cover of evening. It tried to plant individuals amongst the protestors and advised them to hurl projectiles at the police. This was developed to provide the police justification for utilizing harmful pressure. It had soldiers dressed as civilians pretend to be pro-Tatmadaw protestors and also had them strike the calm protestors while police waited. Lastly, the Tatmadaw has actually considered utilizing machine guns, explosives, and bulldozers.
It remained in this phase that Ko Nyi Aung Htet's life was taken.
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Well I officially no longer have a license (I do have a car though so I guess that's something?) I am now stuck to public transport and begging people for lifts (for the next 3 months anyway, then God willing it will be smooth sailing re-getting my license and sitting the practical test).
There's some relief to it finally happening if I am being honest, I just found having the 28 days between handing it in before not actually having the licence very anxiety inducing and it made me question so much. Now I can count down the days to being able to drive again, at this stage I am just hanging out to Christmas as by the time that comes around I will have less than a month until I can drive again.
I am also trying to break it down 3 months is 12 weeks which is one school term and 2 weeks, its only 60 working days (mind you I get between Christmas and New Year off so its less than that!), its only 12 weekends etc which is putting things in perspective. I guess now its happened I can focus on getting it back (dealing with reverse and parallel parking!) and surviving the next few months.
If you could pray for the following for me that would be great, I have no idea how I will get through the next few months without some major prayer!
Getting to work will be easy and I won't arrive late.
That when the time comes I will pass the practical test (and the computer test to get my L's), also if the instructor would be understanding during it that would be great and that I won't let my anxiety get in the way of me focusing.
That I will get a good time for the test, ideally I want a test within a week of the 20th of January.
That people will be understanding of my situation and not look at me like a failure or a disappointment.
That I won't let this get in the way of my work and stay focused on that.
I guess I just don't know what to think anymore, I had always thought that once I got a job everything would be easy (silly me forgot that nothing in my life has never been easy so why would that change?!) but its ended up being a challenge to say the least! I know that God is good and that there is always a bright side to every situation but I am having trouble seeing that side at the moment, if anything there is relief that its finally happened.
To read the other 2 posts regarding this matter click here and here.


The Capacity for Infinite Happiness – Wolsak & Wynn Publishers Ltd.
Mathematician Emily Kogan's family is good at keeping their secrets. But when she uses her visit to the vacation lodge they own to conduct research for a graduate thesis on measuring the influence of interpersonal relationships, she learns far more than she bargained for. During her investigation at the Treasure Island Lodge – a resort that has catered to the Jewish community since the early 1930s, when their clientele would have been turned away from segregated hotels – she discovers long-buried clues to the mystery of her family's true identity, and how old friends, kind neighbours and even the famous Harpo Marx all played their roles in an astonishing tale of ill-fated love, extraordinary courage and a daring transatlantic escape.
You can find it at All Lit Up!
"While the reader may not initially feel a fascination or link with Harpo Marx—and other reviewers have noted their ignorance or even disinterest upon picking up the book—the dexterity of Von Konigslow's storytelling produces a narrative that will not easily be forgotten."
"The writing is gorgeous, the narrative engaging -- how can you not want to read a book with Harpo Marx as the heroic lead? This is a book about secrets and family history and letters and anti-Semitism and art and most of all, love."
"The author is a Toronto woman with degrees in math, physics and creative writing, and the plot of her first novel is similarly audacious."
"As a writer, I struggle with this closeness of thought and these choices of words…. I want to hold readers close, but I want it to be a pleasant, or at least interesting, experience."