text:
Idea : Book 2 with a cool fantasy world the protagonist doesn't care enough about.
Process : …
Edited? : Not really.
———– Read some! ———–
None of you shall stay here any longer if you do not want to,
but there is another journey which you must take before you can sail homewards….*[ The Odyssey, Book X, the Internet Classics Archive.]
The doorbell rang. Standing in front of the door, as she had been for the last few minutes, Naomi Littleton placed her finger between the braille-indented pages of The Odyssey and reached for the handle.
"I'll get i— never mind," came her brother's voice from the hall. Seeing her in preparation, he turned quickly and went back into his room.
Naomi opened the door partway. The cool autumn air brushed around her, sending chills over her shoulders and down the back of her neck. "Good evening. May I help you?"
"Ah— good evening… is your mother — or father — at home?"
"My mother is here. May I tell her who is calling?"
He cleared his throat. "Of course. Jerome McKele."
The name seemed familiar. Naomi glanced to the picture of the dancer in the living room, then opened the door fully. "Please come in."
"Thank you." He wiped his feet on the mat and stepped inside just as Naomi pushed the door shut. Although it was only October, he smelled like the snow, and wore a heavy black Chesterfield overcoat, though no gloves. He stood only several inches above Naomi's 5'5" and she thought he must be older than 30 but younger than her mother. Having seen this several minutes before, Naomi went to the kitchen where her mother sat at the table with a cup of coffee. Her head rested on her hand, and she was flipping through magazines without enthusiasm.
Naomi placed her fingers against the wall. "Jerome McKele to see you."
"Jerome… McKele?"
While Naomi closed her eyes, trying to decipher what that tone of voice meant, Angie Littleton stood and walked swiftly to the front door.
"Mrs. Littleton?" Naomi heard behind her.
"I'm Jerome McKele. Pleased to meet you."
They shook hands. Naomi marked her page with a bookmark, then turned, bringing the book to her chest.
"I'm sorry to drop by like this," the man said, still sounding nervous but less cold. "I wasn't even sure I had the address right."
Angie waited for some more explanation, when there was none she asked "Are you related to Jenner McKele?"
"Jenner? I have a cousin named Jenner."
"You look a bit like him."
"Well that's a funny coincidence!"
Naomi smiled at his sudden jolliness.
"Why, then, are you here?" Angie asked, trying not to sound rude.
Jerome brought his hand up to scratch his chin, then cleared his throat and rubbed his hands together. "Well I — weren't you — didn't Tina call?"
Naomi perked up at the sound of her aunt's name.
"Tina?" Angie repeated.
Jerome and Angie stared at each other blankly for a few moments, then Jerome began to laugh. "Well, I'll be a blow-in! 'The dogs themselves will know,' says she. Of course she was lying… she'd never tell her mum now, would she?"
"Tell her what?" Naomi could tell her mother was becoming continuously more agitated.
"Let's start again, now," Jerome said, taking off his hat and holding out his hand. "Jerome McKele, Tina's husband."
Naomi could imagine her mother's brain as a virtual dictionary: right now she was creating a new entry and linking it back to the one for her little sister. Eventually she must have saved her changes, for she reached out and shook his hand again. "Pleased to meet you," she said faintly.
"Seems I have some stories to tell."
"Seems so. Will you stay and take a seat? Or, well, stay for dinner, won't you?"
"It would be my pleasure." He gave her a sweeping bow, then hung his hat on the hatstand and began undoing the laces on his boots.
Angie swept back into the kitchen, banging pots and spoons in what was supposed to be an organized manner. Ever since Mark disappeared she had taken to preparing preparations for the meals she would make over the week. To Naomi it seemed an attempt to appear organized, but she liked the look on her mother's face as she set up these 'meal box stacks'. "It is more efficient," Angie told her daughter. "I can cut all vegetables at the same time, which means washing the cutting board and knives only once." Before, Angie dealt with meals like she dealt with everything: logically, calmly, and with no preparation. She'd never needed preparation, so clearly could she see the problems before her. It wasn't just meals now, either. The fridge and walls of her office were covered in sticky to-do notes, so whenever she felt her mind wander she could pick up a new task. Naomi had thought at first that her mother took her father's absence rather well. Life continued as usual. Except that it didn't. Little by little, Angie began to change things. Last week she'd purchased a new toaster and given the old one to Skip to disassemble. Of them all, her little brother probably been best fortified, perhaps for the wrong reasons. Naomi plucked a blue sticky note off the doorway to the living room and crumpled it in her palm, then moved into the living room and moved the couch one foot away from the doorway. Who needed a reminder for something like that? Clutching the note harder than necessary, she stepped back in the entry way and waited while Jerome grabbed his suitcase from the sidewalk.
"Are you staying long?" Naomi asked.
Jerome popped the case open and pulled out a digital camera. "That depends on your mother. Would you rather I didn't?"
Unsure how to answer that, Naomi looked down at her book for a moment. "Please come sit down," she said, raising her eyes again.
Jerome leaned toward her and waived a hand in front of her face. She blinked and stepped back, bumping against the wall.
"Oh. You're the blind one?"
"The blind one?" Naomi's crestfallen tone caused Skip to laugh.
"Skip, don't tease your sister," Angie called from the kitchen. Skip slid out from the hall and grinned at his sister.
"Then you are the one like your mother," Jerome told Skip.
"No way," the boy said in a low, worried voice.
Jerome powered his camera on. "Blame your aunt, then. She didn't tell me much about you."
"We don't see her often," Naomi said softly.
Jerome turned the display of the camera to them. "Well, do you want to see our— well, not you then, but do you?" he asked Skip.
"Wedding photos. There aren't that many." He passed Skip the camera and went to the kitchen to help, though Angie would soon send him back to sit in the living room. Naomi sidled up to Skip and stared at the space where the camera was. Skip obligingly went through the photos then tried to hold the camera still for about three minutes while Naomi caught up.
"What do you think of our new uncle?" Skip whispered to her.
"I'm not sure," she admitted.
"Me neither. I think I like him. Maybe it'll distract Mom."
The stir fry left to fry, Angie moved to the living room and also went through the pictures. Skip and Naomi, to either side of her on the couch, stared at Jerome, who stared right back. When at last he said something, it was not a welcome topic. "Where's your dad?"
"Gone," Skip said shortly, and waived a warning hand. Although it had been more than three months since he left — with no goodbye and no explanation — Angie hadn't bothered calling any of their family. Maybe it was because they lived so far from all of them, but Angie didn't seem to get on with the rest of her family… or maybe that's why they lived so far away. Angie didn't want to talk to her family, and she just as sure didn't want to talk to Mark's family. She wasn't close to any of the neighbors, nor did she seem to have any particular friends, so the only other person who knew was Naomi's best friend Helen. Naomi wondered what her mother would say if her aunt Marla called to talk to her brother, an occurrence not uncommon this time of year.
"Where is Aunt Tina?" Naomi asked.
"She's still in New York, finishing up, er, stuff."
"Stuff," Skip repeated.
"Selling the apartment, actually."
Angie stood up and passed the camera back to Jerome. "Where are you moving to?"
"Haven't decided that, really."
Angie put her hands on her hips. "Tina expects to stay here."
"Ah, yes. That's what she told me. But, I see, she never called to ask."
The phone rang. Angie hesitated, glancing down at Jerome, then went to the kitchen to answer it. "Is what? Who? Oh. No. He's not taking any work right now. Goodnight." Skip and Naomi glanced at each other.
"Piano," Naomi blurted. "Did you know, I go to an art school." She stood. "May I play something for you?"
Jerome, noticing their discomfort, leaned back in his chair. "Please."
Naomi walked across the room and slid onto the bench, brushing her fingers along the wood over the keys. She lifted it carefully, then began to play a Sonatina. Her mother did not return to the living room until the end of the first movement, then the phone rang again. Looking apprehensive, Angie answered it. Soon, raised voices could be heard, and Naomi finished the piece with reluctance. The lack of piano toned Angie down a notch, and she returned shortly.
"That was Tina," she sighed, collapsing on the couch. Jerome said nothing, just nodded. "Well. She asked if you could both stay here a while. I told her you were already here and she was surprised."
"I'm sorry," Jerome started, but Angie shook her head. "No, no, it's just Tina. This isn't the first time. I mean—" she let out a huff, "— that she's expected something from me without asking."
"That's Tina to a T," Jerome said with a smile. "But we won't impose on you. We'll get an apartment."
"Mom, we have room downstairs," Skip protested.
"No one wants to stay down there," Angie argued, and Naomi nodded, thinking of her father's stuff still strewn all over the floor. "Skip could stay in my room for a while." Skip didn't look thrilled with the idea, but Angie put a hand under her chin. "I could sleep on the couch in my office. That would work. That would be fine. I'd like you to stay," she told Jerome.
He tried to talk her out of it, she insisted, they started talking about Tina, and Naomi began to zone out. She looked to her right at the curtained window, imagining the street hidden from view, remembering the night her father left. He gave the impression he was off on a secret mission, but he didn't have to leave like that, he didn't have to leave them worrying like they were. The past year had seen Naomi somewhat disillusioned with her father. He'd been gone most of the time, had made no effort to attend her performances, and to top it off she learned he had been keeping secrets from her — secrets that involved her, secrets that might be able to explain why Naomi Littleton saw two minutes and fifty-five seconds into the future. At the end of her last school year, Naomi had been recruited by the headmistress of her school to rescue a friend. The headmistress turned out to be a scientist from another world who vanished with a transportation crystal. The friend turned out to be a spy and a thief who vanished in what was surely a more mundane but no less mysterious way.
"—tell him, Naomi?"
Naomi looked up at her mother, completely wandered from the conversation.
"About Clairmon," Skip helped.
"Claire Monet Academy for the Arts," Naomi said, looking towards her uncle. "I'm studying singing, and some piano. More piano, lately." Naomi's voice trailed off at the end, and Angie tried to push the subject a different way. Naomi's best friend and singing partner, Helen, was studying abroad in London.
"I'm not going!" The blond had declared the last time Naomi saw her. "I don't know why Mom absolutely has to be in London this season for whatever poop-ish reason — I'm not going with her. Dad won't leave his quarry — will he? Whatever. I'll cave in your basement."
Next Naomi heard was a long-distance call from Heathrow Airport, where Helen would say nothing but apologize for leaving Naomi alone and request she play with her cats. "I'll upload my part to YouTube, so we'll still do a duet," she said, almost in tears. Naomi didn't say much, and hadn't heard anything these last two weeks. For Naomi, singing had meant Helen, Helen had meant cake, and all together it meant all things wonderful. Without Helen, Naomi didn't feel like singing. It was a horrible feeling, this lack of feeling. If she cried herself to sleep a few times after Helen left, well, that was only natural.
"Do you play any instruments?" Naomi asked Jerome.
"Used to play the fiddle, but that was a while back, don't have one now."
"Doesn't Tina still have a violin?" Angie asked. Naomi looked at her mother. Jermone nodded. "But she scarcely lets it see the light of day. I've only heard her play once."
"I'll make her play for you, Naomi. She's very good. Mother made her take harp lessons when we were young, as revenge she bought a violin and taught herself."
"She didn't like harp?" Naomi wondered.
"Tina was rebellious. If she'd had room or method to take the harp with her to New York. It's probably still in Dad's workroom." Angie stared at a random spot on the wall and Naomi folded her arms. "I guess that means music comes from your side of the family." Jerome fiddled with his camera and Naomi regretted her words. It seemed nothing said wouldn't bring up painful topics. Or was it that they directed everything to misery? Naomi licked her lips. "Um. I work at a music store, and we have a display fiddle. Will you… play for me? After school tomorrow?"
Jerome gave her a jolly grin. "Sounds like a fun thing."
"You could go with Mom and take her to work," Skip suggested.
"What about you?" Angie asked.
"I can walk home just fine."
"I have Poki," Naomi pointed out. She had walked home plenty of times in the past. With Helen. Yet her mother hadn't let her walk home on her own.
"You can meet us there."
"Mom, I have basketball practice."
"I know, so you can walk over with your friends afterwards…."
Naomi turned her head to study her new uncle. He looked and sounded more Irish than the McElroy sisters, though he had blond rather than red hair. Naomi was reminded of the school desk that now sat under Skip's computer in his room — yes, that exact shade of blond. Because of Naomi's condition, Angie had homeschooled her children until a few years ago. What was now Skip's room had been the school room, and still had several bookshelves built into the walls. Little by little the books on math, science, language, and music had been replaced by sci-fi and fantasy paperbacks. Most of them were dog-eared and sticky-noted in a code of Skip's making. Naomi didn't know most of what her brother researched and talked about on 'the forums,' though she knew the blue notes marked anything to do with prophesies, seers, and time-travel. Skip had always been more intense about discovering the answers to the mysteries of her crystal balls. That was why she assigned him the task of online research of the hypothesized 'parallel world.' He spent more time than ever in his room compiling pages and pages of notes.
"I've got homework," he said now, slipping off the couch.
Angie caught his arm. "Dinner will be ready soon."
"Yeah, ok." He waived to Naomi and went to his room, closing the door behind him.
"He does a lot of homework," Angie noted.
"He's self-disciplined," Jerome approved.
"No, he's lying to me," Angie said bluntly, and Naomi winced. "They think I don't notice what goes on in the house," Angie continued, leaning back and looking up at the ceiling. "But I can hear every footstep from my office. I always know when they're home from school, when they're playing Pictionary in Naomi's room, when Poki is being fed. I could always tell how many pictures Mark had to develop because he'd come upstairs and stare out the window here after every 7 exactly. The house is too quiet these days. Skip is gone at school and has basketball practice, when he's home he's always at his computer. Naomi is hardly home. She has extra piano practice now, she works part time, and she takes Taekwon-do. Why am I complaining to you? I'm sorry. Dinner's ready."
Naomi waited for her mother to leave, then she sighed. "I'm glad you're here," she told Jerome. "When does Aunt Tina come?"
"It depends on when the deal is closed. They were supposed to close yesterday but the buyer found a rotted floorboard. What happened to your father?"
Naomi looked down. "We're not sure. He just left. But… I think he's on a mission. I just don't know what for yet."
"Oh? A mission?"
Naomi nodded. "Yup. Do you like to read?"
"We have a lot of books here. Do you mind if I read?"
"Go ahead." What Jerome chose to make of the drama Naomi couldn't tell, but he chose a book from the shelf near the piano and they sat in companionable silence.
Monday was Naomi's favorite day of the week, and she woke to her alarm with a smile on her face and unusual energy. She dressed and washed while humming arias, put away dishes from last night softly singing Carmen, then slipped quietly out the front door.
"It smells like snow," she said to her dog. Poki was tugging at her leash, anxious to run around. Naomi slipped sunglasses over the bridge of her nose, tucked her stick under her backpack like a ninja sword, then let Poki lead her down the driveway while she bit into an apple. By the time she was down to the core they had reached Ned's house, and Naomi was joined by her morning escort.
"Guess what?" Scarlett said over Ned's "Good morning."
"Hi Ned."
"You never guess. Well, Claire has set a wedding date for next January."
Naomi smiled.
"Yeah and you never ask either. I'll tell you anyway. She picked January because 'everybody gets married in the summer' and because Prince Charming finishes his undergraduate degree next December so he's going to take a break for the spring then they'll both resume school in the summer."
"I wish we could go to New York for the wedding."
"I know! Dad still says 'No, I have a deadline in January.' I'm like, 'Dad, I'm talking about more than a year from now,' and he totally doesn't get it. He got this idea for a new series and abandoned the White Collar — you know that one I told you about the translator who dies from smelling a suit, which is due in two weeks by the way — and he's impossible! He forgot to feed Pollywidgeon while I was at school on Friday and all the birds were screeching when I got home." Scarlett took a big breath, then jumped in front of Naomi, putting out her hands to catch Naomi before she ran into her. "What'd you do over the weekend? I thought it would never end."
Naomi laughed, and let Scarlett lead her across the street. "My aunt and uncle are coming to live with us."
"Oh, that's—" Ned tried, but he was beat by Scarlett's "I wish our relatives would just drop in some time! No one ever visits us anymore."
"Don't they come visit your mom?" Ned wondered. Scarlett's mother had been in an asylum since falling off the roof some years ago.
"Yeah, sometimes, but that's her, not us. Wait, is this the aunt that lives in California, or the one from New York?"
"New York. She just got married."
Scarlett sighed dramatically. "It is the city of dreams."
Ned stepped around to walk on the other side of Poki. "Naomi, are you going to the symphony this weekend?"
"Oh, I forgot to ask Skip what's playing!"
"You know, phones don't require sight," Scarlett pointed out.
"I haven't memorized the number."
"You haven't?"
"It's — well, it's kind of expensive."
"My dad's former boss's sister-in-law gave him some tickets. Three, exactly, so well—"
"Go on," Scarlett urged.
"I was," Ned said with good patience. "So Naomi, would you like to go? With me? And Scarlett?"
"Because I'm owl-droppings," Scarlett lamented.
"Really?" Naomi clapped her hands. "Oh, I'm so excited! This will only be my second time!"
"Me too," Ned admitted.
"It'll be my first," Scarlett said in triumph.
"Poor Scarlett," Naomi and Ned intoned.
Scarlett put a hand to her chest. "But do not cry for me, my friends — classical music isn't really my thing."
Ned bit his lip. "Then you're not coming?"
"Phh. Of course I'm coming. Free tickets? Who passes up free tickets? Oh, I brought some coupons for ice cream, wanna go after school?"
While Ned explained to Scarlett that it was cold, and she explained that ice cream defies all weather, Naomi just grinned. It was easy to talk about money with these friends, and they were so unembarrassed by their lack of it. Clairmon was a high-class high-tuition school, and a lot of the wealthier students were a bit snobbish. Ironically, poor students were able to attend the school because of scholarships, which usually indicated their extraordinary ability. Except Naomi. The headmistress had offered Naomi a scholarship because she wanted to use Naomi's future-seeing abilities to break into a house and steal back her transportation crystal. At first, that knowledge made Naomi feel sadly inadequate, but she'd gotten over it, thanks to Ned and Scarlett. Their friendship almost made up for the lack of Helen. Almost. Naomi still hadn't told them about her sight, and she wasn't sure she ever could.
They arrived at school a half-hour before class would start, and there separated ways. They took two classes together, those being Math and Astronomy, but the first class for Naomi and Ned was 2nd Year Music Theory. Despite her love of music, Naomi had not studied Theory with enthusiasm before she met Ned. Maybe it was because she shied away from anything having to do with math, or because she hadn't been able to easily get a hold of a music theory book in braille. The summer had changed her mind regarding the subject. Because Naomi had been 'kidnapped' by her headmistress, her mother insisted she take some sort of self-defense class, and because her pen-pal Joey liked Taekwon-do, that was what Naomi chose. What may or may not be coincidentally, Ned started at the same time, so he would come over to her house an hour before walking with her to class, and they spent the time discussing musical theory. Ned would read articles and chapters out aloud to her, he would explain the concepts she didn't understand, and then usually she would get frustrated and ask 'What for?'
"Somebody once needed to figure out why the stars changed," he said at one point. "Somebody had to know why the sun set. They weren't content with 'it is because it is.' Somebody wondered how a bird could fly. Somebody wondered why it rained, why it thundered. If no one asked questions, civilization would never have progressed."
"But I don't really care why it rains," Naomi moaned, falling onto her back. "It just does."
"But think of what you can create with the knowledge."
"An ecosystem?"
"Actually I moved back to music. Can't you find a way to apply these concepts? You know most of it intuitively, try to consciously think about it next time you play a piece on the piano."
She did.
"It's like knowing why Alexander Dumas wrote the Count's adventure the way he did. It takes the simple mystery out of it. I feel kind of disillusioned with Debussy now."
"Don't say that. It doesn't mean he didn't create something beautiful… you can just admire him more for it."
"I guess." She didn't like it, at first, analyzing her favorite pieces of music. It seemed to take the enjoyment out of playing. But then she started playing by herself. Because music had always been a bit hard to read for her, Naomi liked finger exercises and playing around with chords and scales. She could go for hours just moving from one random piece of melody to another, some based on sounds she'd heard, some unfamiliar. For some reason, though she loved doing that, Naomi never thought of writing her own music. Playing around with theory, though, she began to experiment, and discovered another thing she absolutely loved to do. Her mother complained the house was too quiet now, that was probably because most of the summer was accompanied by Helen endlessly pounding out melodies on the piano. She'd tuned it three times.
Thus, Music Theory was one of her favorite classes, and Music Theory was in the morning on Mondays and Wednesdays. Making, as noted, Monday her favorite day of the week. It was also nice having friends in her classes because they could help her take notes. Naomi's teachers were all very helpful, sending her home with notes they had put together, or even (in the case of her piano teacher) recording the notes so she could review them herself. Teachers and students don't always have the same perspectives, though. Naomi could take some notes by herself, but, because she saw the notes appear before she had actually written them down, she would often get lost and end up writing over previous notes or missing chunks of text. She still stubbornly refused to allow her mother to buy her a special little computer designed for blind people.
"I'm not actually blind and I don't like computers," was her reasoning.
Regarding other things, however, her resolve was fading. For as long as she had been aware of her curse, she had determined there was a way to make it go away, that someday she would see like normal people. Where the events of May had given her the first clue in discovering the nature of her ability, it had crushed her hopes. The words of Claire Monet, ex-headmistress of Claire Monet Academy, had lead Naomi to believe she was descended from a Seer in the world Claire was from. That Seer had somehow come here, and the ability had resurfaced in Naomi. She'd asked her mother if anyone in their family had exhibited any sort of the same behavior, or if anyone had been blind, and what about Dad? but either the headmistress was wrong, or Seer ability skips generations. Whatever strange reasoning concluded such, Naomi always assumed that if her curse was some sort of biological mutation there would be a way to reverse it. The same reasoning should conclude the same thing if it is a biological power, but in her mind it was not so. Thinking she would see normally someday had allowed Naomi to adapt to situations less than ideal. Like the stick. Blind people should have a stick. Her brother told her so when she was younger, and she had found a stick (fallen from a tree) and used that until a few months ago when she asked her mother for a real white cane. The one she had now could fold and be stored in her backpack, which meant she was much more inclined to take it around with her. She'd always relied more on her black lab, Poki, and left the stick at home. Now the stick was stuck in the backyard and Naomi found herself really appreciating the capabilities of the cane. Skip had printed a sticky label with her name and address to attach to the cane, and in doing so had named the cane MysteryCurseBuster. Naomi did not so much approve of the name as want the address label, and it made her brother happy, so she let him stick it on. Skip told her she could nickname it 'M.C.' "Like 'My Cane'!" but so far Naomi had called it appropriately 'my cane,' alternatively 'the cane.' Occasionally she fell back into her old habits and referred to it as 'the stick.'
"Watch the stick," said the loud brown-haired boy who sat behind her.
She tapped it against his foot. "Hi to you too, Joe."
Joe reached out to pull her braid but Ned whacked his hand. "What are you, twelve? Leave her alone."
"'Leave her alone'," Joe mimicked.
Naomi set herself in her seat. "Sit, Poki." The dog sat next to her, wagging her tail happily. It thwacked Joe's foot and Joe patted Poki's back with his tennis shoe. Naomi leaned over to her left and whispered to Ned, "Is the teacher here yet?" The teacher, Mrs. Alex Zochee, would be unpacking her things in about three minutes, but Naomi could not hear her now. Ned shook his head, then blushed at his classmates' snickering and said "No, not yet."
"Ned, can I borrow your notes from last week?" asked the girl who sat in front of Naomi. While they discussed the notes, Naomi turned her head to the empty desk on her right. For almost a year, the seat to the right of Naomi Littleton had always been occupied by Helen Choi. Naomi didn't talk to people much, she didn't know anyone else's name, and Helen was a bit snobbish and wild. The two were always together and always somewhat removed from the rest of the class. That was what had been. What was differed greatly, as accented by Helen's empty desk, but then not so greatly, as accented by the still-empty desk.
"Naomi, you've gotten taller," Joe complained, sitting up straight in his seat. Naomi hadn't noticed any change in her height, but then she hadn't been paying it attention. "Why do you get to sit in the front anyway? You don't need to be able to see well."
"It's easier to hear, sitting in the front."
"If you wanted to sit in the front, you could move," the girl behind him suggested.
"Move? Nobody moves after the first week of school."
"You could move, Laura," another boy suggested.
"I already tied all my luck charms to this chair."
"Who sits there after you?" wondered the boy.
"Some lucky dude," Joe helpfully guessed.
Thick heels turned through the doorway and entered the classroom. "What is the square root of 81?" There was a split second of silence.
"Six!" blurted a kid near the back.
"Nine," Ned corrected.
"This isn't math class," groaned Laura.
"I had to see if you were awake," Mrs. Zochee explained, starting to unpack her bag.
"I don't think we are," someone said.
"Let's fix that. Ned, please pass these out." His enthusiasm and dedication for the subject had quickly made Ned her favorite student. Without fail, upon receiving the stack of papers, Ned would pause in front of the class and start reading. Naomi brushed her palm over her notebook, feeling the indentations of pen on the page, then turned to a blank sheet and clicked her pen.


We had a super first day back in The Sunshine Suite. I was so impressed with how well all the children worked together to create some fabulous pizzas. We quickly discovered that this was going to be a tricky task as not everyone liked the same pizza toppings. Well done for listening to each other, sharing ideas and working as a team. Take a look at the photographs below.


Recently, Euro Machinery Specialists, Menomonee Falls, WI, remanufactured a 1960s vintage Snyder "three-stage" lathe machining line for Standard Forged Product, McKees Rocks, PA, for its production of rail and locomotive axles. Owing to the change from hydraulic tracer to advanced CNC control, DC headstock to synchronized AC drive, and hydraulic to AC axes servo motion, the production of steel billets into hammer forged finished axles has been substantially improved.
"Standard Forged Products was looking for a significant productivity increase to bring the three-stage system back to OEM-level cycle times, due to punishment from many years of heavy-duty machining around the clock," explained Euro vice president Karl Engelke. "Peak operating performance was originally about a four-minute cycle time for a completely machined axle, start to finish. Over the years, cycle times dwindled and, when we received the project, cycle time was over seven minutes per axle, due to numerous mechanical and electrical problems and failures — therefore, this Snyder line was in need of a total overhaul and remanufacture.


How do I begin to talk about Orlando? Or about this last year? It hasn't been an easy one. It has been a year of waking up in the challenge, a year of marching and leaning forward enough to maintain momentum. No longer necessary to seek the journey, it has rushed into our faces. We must become the journey if we want to go forward in this political climate. We must embody our path.
So to speak of Orlando is to speak of self. And as a queer Chicana when I speak of self I must also speak of love. I must carry my own supply, because this world has little for me. Orlando made that clear, again.
And my love, even my self love, I know is not mine, but part of the greater flow. As I love my self, I send love to the families. As I love my self, I send love to the lost. As I love my self, I change the world in which a massacre like the one at Pulse can happen.
I must hold self love up high enough to see through the lies of this land and keep my self alive, embodied.
This is the epitome of being queer to me.
Creativity has always been my modes operandi. When the going gets tough and the going is definitely tough, the creative start making art! The portraits of those lost are most moving. They serve not only as a memorial, but also as an act of respect. Art is a way to commune with a subject. As artists, we take them in and then express out how they move us. They literally move through us. Through our eyes, our heart and finally out our hands onto the canvas or page. Artists re-embody their subjects through themselves. And again I come to love.
The more we love ourselves, the more we express love through everything we create, the more creativity is an act of love both self and communal. Self. Community. Creativity. Love. This is life to me. This is political. Our creativity is within to heal us and those around us. That's why it's suppressed.
To unleash our creative power is one of the strongest acts of self love there is.
In April, I spontaneously began writing my first YA novella, Ma Llorona. It hit hard and fast. Unexpected, even disruptive. I got the main body of it but eventually learned that what I thought I knew I didn't. Numerous times I thought it was ready for final edits, but as I do with my creative work, I prayed into it instead of looking for closure. I asked for insight and healing every step of the way, especially since I had never done anything like this before. And in perfect order, my creative prayers delivered again and again and the story expanded, deepened, healed more and more of me. I didn't know how much of me would be held or healed by this story. I didn't know that I had the ability to let something like this pass through me. I'm still rattled, still a bit shaky.
By the time the manuscript was complete, and I'll be honest I'm still on final edits, Orlando had become part of the story. It wasn't my initial intention. It was a deeper, intuitive healing. The kind that sneaks up on you because it's so deep it can't be consciously courted. As I worked through the timeline with the calendar I realized that Orlando occurred at a key moment. It was there, embedded in the story already, waiting to be included. When I looked at why it would be there, it fit perfectly. It made sense. It was only a matter of me opening my eyes and accepting it.
So today as I actively work on completing and submitting the second proof to my printer, as I love my self and send deep love to the families and those lost in Orlando, I howl out to our ancestors and I howl into the power of creativity to heal us through these times.
I HOWL THE POWER TO CREATE.
I HOWL THE POWER TO HEAL.
The ancient river ghost, La Llorona guides me to speak however messy, to step forward however clumsy, to lean into my own ghosts both personal and ancient and find a way through the shadows.
I reclaim La Llorona as an indigenous, queer, MesoAmerican reflection. She is ours now. She belongs to us queers. We need her to howl with us, to teach us about grief. But more than one ghost, I claim all of our ghosts. I claim all of our stories as valuable, all of our history as necessary, I call out all the healing waiting to be unleashed through the power of our voices. As queer Latinx/Chicanx we can heal. We can change the world. We can paint, write, express. With love we can re-embody and transform this world. It's ours. I claim this world as queer. Now.
It makes sense that Orlando is a part of Ma Llorona. Orlando is very deep for us as queer Latinx/Chicanx. It is part of our story now. It is ours to heal. It is ours to see that it rides not only on the moment it happened, but on everything that led to that moment. From MesoAmerica to Mexico City to San Francisco to Orlando, the ghosts are calling.
Tonight, like last year we will gather in the Castro and fill the sky with our love, and our grief. We will stand with the ghosts and we will tell their stories. Our stories.
Tonight, we will change the world, the way queers always do.
By loving ourselves and using our voices.
Tonight we stand with Orlando.
Blessings OUT on this one year anniversary. Queer Eternal.
The act of telling our own stories is a radical act.
I continue to stand humbled by the power of creativity and its ability to heal us and change the world we live in. It's with a sense of urgency that creativity flows through me these days. Sometimes it feels like the only realness in a mad, mad world. I know for myself going through my own personal challenges, creativity has been the anchor, the teacher, the expression I needed to heal and further myself on the path of life. I have said for many years that I sit at the feet of the creative force, a devotee open to learn. Unleashing the creative force within myself and allowing it to flow with greater and greater power is one of my primary goals in life. From this all else flows.
In that flow, I just spent the last 3 weeks writing my first novella. It was unexpected, and overwhelming at times. As I step away and begin final reads and edits, I find I am more committed to the power of voice as a revolution to heal us, to reclaim our history, to change the vision we hold of ourselves… I could go on forever! Instead I'll land on this.
WE NEED YOUR VOICE. WE NEED YOUR STORIES. The weight of silence is very real. It has affected our hearts and our minds. The world has changed without our voices in it. We must find a way to step forward and reclaim storytelling.
For over 20 years I have been citing CCBC's statistics to portray the sobering vision of silence for POC and Indigenous people. But the last few years I began focusing on what else those statistics are telling us. When we look at them from a creator's perspective, we see how many more books we need to make to step forward into our voice in the world. We see the power that is ours to rise into, the spaces where our voices are needed.
Look at the graphics below. See where your community stands. I follow the BLUE statistics to see where Latinx like me stand. Our numbers are stunning. Looking at the enormous silence and invisibility we live with as a community. I can literally feel the courage it has taken me to step into voice. It's been a deep and healing challenge, a 40 year journey, ever since I was 13 when I first decided I would write.
Statistics from the Cooperative Children's Book Center (CCBC).
Voice is a revolution. For you. For me. For all of us. We need your voice. We need your story. Now more than ever.
There is an urgency to step forward and a knowing now that we must do it for ourselves.
I've provided everything I know along the way through School of the Free Mind and will continue to share stories, book templates, statistics and everything imaginable on our collective journey toward presence and voice.
Reflection Press will be releasing my next book, a ghost story novella, fabulously soon! And several other children's books are in the works. We also have plans to offer anthology submission opportunities and are preparing to open up scholarships again for School of the Free Mind.
and where the winds go.
even if I go away.
the power of my own hands.
Right now, the last 3 ½ years feel more like a dream than anything else.
Matthew and I dropped into an engaged, active, productive, on task mode with materials and community. Creating School of the Free Mind was a fantastic experience that rose from our desire to share everything we know with our communities. It's pure heart and soul with lots of brass tack info from my 20+ years in the children's book industry and our journey into creating our own indie press.
The process was intense, a huge undertaking that taught both of us immense amounts. Focused, structured, driven, social—ALL in service to getting the materials down. It's a strange feeling to realize you did something out of the ordinary for a very long time, and now it's done. Maybe we had to enter some kind of altered state to pull this school thing off! I don't know but I'm laughing my taco off the more I feel like myself.
Instead of putting yet another story aside that was haunting me, 2017 opened with work on a book of my own, and nothing but more of my own books in the cue. As much as I LOVED teaching and especially the supercoolfolks I got to groove with, it was a relief not to fill my head with new class materials, essays, videos, calendars, schedules, interviews, sessions, outreach and so much more. Just me and my books. Nada mas.
It's a comfort with so much change and unknown coming on in the world. Obama gives his farewell address tonight ushering in the next president elect. If ever these are the days to come into ourselves, our power, our true voice. These are our days. I am claiming these days as my own.
We are inviting you to do the same.
As we release the school to independent study the focus of the artistauthor journey becomes more personal. Taking responsibility for not only ones self but also for one's creative power and expression becomes key. All of the teaching is geared to support what you know and you coming into voice from an inner authority. Your confidence and power. Your true voice and story. That's all that's important. I know once creativity is explored, owned, claimed and engaged with as one wants and needs, the flow can be profound. Having a holistic framework supports your heart and spirit in coming into greater strength so you can hold your own power and expand your creative flow now and forever. School of the Free Mind is full on. It is meant for days like these.
As I continue to wake up and return more wholly to the creative life, my desire to learn about the power of our creative flow grows. This is my lifelong practice and what the school is based on. It's time to return as a new me to my old ways. I feel this is the strongest position for me to share from. 'Living the creative life' is something that is foreign to most of us.
In a world that aligns success with self-sacrifice and submission, School of the Free Mind calls out independence, heart's desire and true power for PoC, Indigenous and Queer peoples.
There's a heavy rain in San Francisco. I've been keeping the candles lit, turning inward. My body has been rebalancing, always a sign of spirit calling. I'm taking this turn to deepen my practice, go back to my visions and stories, listening from the inside. Starting a new fire at 53 in 2017. I'm extremely excited for the walk ahead. I sense rocks and rivers. I imagine myself a boat and star at the same time waking up.
Learn more about School of the Free Mind here.
The Rainbow Alphabet with Mami Q and The Girl in the Library, The Library in the Girl will be published in 2017 by Reflection Press.
Written and illustrated by me, The Rainbow Alphabet with Mami Q is a playful take on the Mother Goose tradition that respectfully centers and celebrates LGBTQ experiences and stories for kids. Rooted in the concept that as we center LGBTQ kids we center folks from ALL our communities, Mami Q sings us through a simple understanding of queer identities. Even with so many letters in the rainbow alphabet, Mami suggests that one day we will need more words or maybe better words to speak the truths of more people.
The Girl In the Library, The Library In the Girl is my story. The one I've been telling kids in schools for the last 20 years. I grew up during a time when I did NOT see ANY books that looked or sounded like me and my family or folks I knew. I think because of that, I used to draw my big, round Chicana face into the blank page in the backs of books! Eventually I began drawing a whole series of characters and later writing poems and stories. As a child I couldn't find books that looked and sounded like me in the library, now the library has books written, illustrated, even published by me!
Having books that are ours in the library helps the library feel more like home. I hope these new books support more and more kids in feeling like the library is theirs to enjoy and is theirs to fill up with books written, illustrated, even published by them too!
I've also added another book to my list of 6 in case you missed it, When a Bully is President/Truth and Creativity for Oppressive Times. You can read more about it in my last blog post.


text:
Home Multicoloured Color Fantastic Arabic Abaya
Multicoloured Color Fantastic Arabic Abaya
Product Code: AB1295
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redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


text:
in Sony Playstation 3, Video Games
PS3 Exploit: Hacked Gran Turismo 5 and Hybriding
by Peter Chubb January 14, 2011, 14:16 1 Comment
You do not have to be a PS3 fan to know that the games console has now been hacked, this latest exploit now makes it possible for PlayStation 3 users to gain access to game features that was once unavailable to them. One such game that is waiting for this is Gran Turismo 5, and the most asked for feature is hybriding.
Being able to change different aspects of a vehicle is always considered the holy grail of racing sims, imagine having any car and then having the ability to change the engine and transmission? GTPlantet points out that this is not a new thing, as it has been done on previous version of the GT series.
GTPlantet has made a very good point about having hybriding on GT5, it did not matter on previous versions of the game, but having a high powered engine in a small car will not be unfair while playing online against other players. How you would feel if you had a Veyron, only to be beat by a small little Honda?
Where do you stand on the subject on hybriding? Would you be upset if you had worked hard to get yourself an expensive supercar, only to be creamed round a race track by a small hatchback that has a 1500BHP engine in?
Gran Turismo 5GT5Polyphony Digital
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MasterLife is a discipleship opportunity that small groups of women (8-10) walk through together for eight months, discovering what it means to follow Christ.
New groups will begin on Thursday, September 6th. Online registration is now open. Location and details of meeting times and spaces will be announced in August.
Small groups and their MasterLife leaders meet on Thursdays at various times and locations. Our next round launches September 6, 2018.


text:
@class TSCContentController;
#import "TSCThunderBasics.h"

@interface TSCStormLanguageController : TSCLanguageController

@property (nonatomic, strong) NSString *currentLanguage;
@property (nonatomic, strong) NSString *languagesFolder;
@property (nonatomic, strong) TSCContentController *contentController;

+ (TSCStormLanguageController *)sharedController;
- (void)reloadLanguagePack;
- (NSLocale *)localeForLanguageKey:(NSString *)localeString;
- (NSString *)localisedLanguageNameForLocale:(NSLocale *)locale;
- (NSString *)localisedLanguageNameForLocaleIdentifier:(NSString *)localeIdentifier;
- (NSLocale *)currentLocale;

@end

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaGithub


She wouldn't know the truth if it hit her in the face. She's nothing more than a doormat.
It is always good to face the problems !
I totally agree with Miss Rhonda Bernal's comment. it could not have been any more accurate than as stated. I wish the best for Wendy and I hope she will inform all her fans and audience members about the details of her bizarre marriage concerning adulterous affairs committed by her husband. This would be good therapeutics and increase her tv show ratings.
Wendy Williams Needs Assistance to Walk. What Is Causing Her Latest Health Issue?
An insider spoke with Radar Online and told the publication that on April 23, 2019, during the taping of "The Wendy Williams Show" in front of a live audience, Williams did not appear to be well.


Representational State Transfer (REST) as an architectural style for service design has seen substantial uptake in the past years. However, some areas such as Business Process Modeling (BPM) and push services so far have not been addressed in the context of REST principles. In this work, we look at how both BPM and push can be combined so that business processes can be modeled and observed in a RESTful way. Based on this approach, clients can subscribe to be notified when certain states in a business process are reached. Our goal is to design an architecture that brings REST's claims of loose coupling and good scalability to the area of BPM, and still allow process-driven composition and interaction between resources to be modeled.


mobile | Another dot in the blogosphere?
These two tweets have something in common — they highlight relics of the past shrouded in the cloak of modernity.
We are in the midst of switching from a clunky, arcane online submission system to a confusing, cloud-based submission system. Please stand by.
Both mention current technologies. The first critiques the thinking around content delivery while the second focuses on content submission. Both hint at the change in medium and not a corresponding or upward change in method.
The tweets reminded me of an event I attended recently. I had to download a mobile app that generated a QR code which was used to take my attendance. Sounds progressive, right?
I wondered how it worked. When I found out, I was disappointed. The QR code was just my full name and the attendance taker checked this manually against a printed list.
This took longer than me stating my name and showing my identification card. This was even longer for folks who did not download the app — they had to do that first, sign in on the app (if they could remember their log in details), and then learn how to find their QR code.
Then there were some who did not bother and the attendance taker just asked them for their names. So why go through the motions of using the app and QR code when stating your name was enough?
Again, there was a change in medium (QR code) but not in the method (taking attendance). The technology was overkill for something so simple.
If, on the other hand, the QR code was tied to individual verification and the event being more selective about its participants, this might have made for sense. The method would not just have been about attendance, it would have been about selection and verification.
So this is my long-standing critique technology implementation, particularly in schools and educational institutions: Superficial changes or administrative procedures seem to come first. This is not meaningful and powerful integration of technology. For that to happen, we must put the learners and learning first.
The tweet below would like you know that kids (also) read books while adults (also) read from screens.
This is news if you live under a rock or choose not to observe people around you.
The tweet also claims that "the tides have turned", meaning that adults are doing what kids do and vice versa. No, the tides have not. They ebb and flow, and you see what you see depending where and when you are.
It is not unusual for adults to use their mobile devices as much as, or more than kids. If you live in the modern world, your daily commute on public transport will confirm this. There is also research to back this up.
Kids are still made to complete books lists as part of school or homework, regardless of whether such reading is meaningful or not. They are held to the standards of the past and prepared for their teacher's history instead of their own futures.
Kids also still go to libraries to borrow books. They do so because they have inculcated good reading habits and do so for pleasure.
So back to the tweet: An anecdote is not data; a snapshot is not representative. It is meant to be funny, but it sends the wrong message. The tides have not turned. Instead they ebb and flow, and dynamic change is what matters.
… or do as I do?
That was my reaction when I read this article in STonline about a local school restricting mobile gaming from 7am to 2pm.
Before I explain my reaction, I should point out that the newspaper article was a report of a report. There could be information loss from translation and there definitely was selective reporting of another report. That said, I have to work only with the information at hand.
The crux of the matter is this: Students cannot use their own devices for mobile games right before school starts and during breaks.
Sometimes it is logical for students to be held to different standards. Other times it is not. For example, there are dress codes for students' uniforms and their general appearances that teachers are not subject to.
Some would argue that the adults have matured to the point of understanding socially accepted standards of decency so that they know how to dress professionally.
If you believe that, you have not sampled enough adults. That is why we have dress codes everywhere, even at a beach.
So if standards and codes of conduct are the norm, what is wrong with a partial ban on mobile gaming?
Consider this: How would you like to be told that you cannot check your Facebook feed on your commute to work because you need to psyche yourself up for work?
Or how you like to be told that you cannot nap, gossip, or surf down rabbit holes during your lunch break?
Yes, both the students and teachers are at school and schools are walled gardens separate from the real world. So what happened to bringing the real world in?
As for the adults who say "do as I say because I do not do what you do", I ask: Just how real world is that? How (dis)connected are you?
This reflection has been brought to you by the medieval workshop of Draconian Measures.
Sometimes I leave home without my wallet. In my wallet are various forms of identification, of which the most important is my national identity card.
I wonder if I am asked to prove my identity that what I have on my phone will suffice. After all, I use a biometric to unlock it. Alternatively, I use a code that only I know.
I also have photos and videos of me and my family on my phone. My social and other media apps are linked to my identity.
Like most people, I would freak out if I lost or damaged my phone. If there was a fire at home, the first thing I would reach for is my phone. If there was an emergency, my phone would be my lifeline.
I am certain most people would relate to this sentiment: You wring my phone only from my cold, dead hands.
Our phones are insidiously and significantly linked to us. So why are some classrooms still so phone-resistant, phone-absent, or phone-ignorant? Why are administrative bodies still so paper-based? Why are both so stuck in the past?
I am not asking you to prepare for the future. I am just asking that you stay relevant to the present.
Banksy's tweet below was a call to use the lenses in your eyes instead of the lenses in your phone to process life events.
It is easy to sigh and complain that "young people" or "millennials" are staring at their phones instead of paying attention to each other or what is around them. It is more difficult to see things through their eyes.
Who are we to judge? Your parents complained about your time on the corded phone or television. They also had negative things to say about your taste in music and clothes. Anything of theirs was nostalgically good while yours is alarmingly questionable.
No, you do not have to put down your phone to enjoy life. Life is not just what exists outside the phone. Some moments are best enjoyed through it.
There are FaceTime calls with loved ones that you are separated from by physical distance, but not technological distance.
There is the capturing of significant moments in life like first steps, graduation, a new home, and eye-opening trips.
There is information and intellectual connection you can make via YouTube and social media.
The larger issue is awareness of context. There are times to look up, look down, or both. It is about knowing when, not applying a blanket rule to cover every situation.
There is so much world to see and so much life to experience. Why make it either-or instead of taking in all that life has to offer?
My initial reaction to this tweet was: Really?
On one hand, I recall the oft cited quote that if teachers can be replaced by technology, they should be. Cradled in that hand is the notion that much of schooling is the delivery of information for mindless factual recall.
But here are some things that you cannot and should not outsource to the smartest of phones. For example, positive mindsets, values, and attitudes like continuous learning, taking ownership, and having empathy. There is thinking that is critical and creative, iterative and reflective, and strategic and systemic.
There is no app for these traits nor should there be, especially if educators stay relevant and remain true to their calling.


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Q: Using mysql event scheduler and php I would like to delete records from my database every 2 minutes.
I have a user table where I would like to delete users who are active after 2 minutes. I have read a little about using mysql event scheduler but unsure if I can achieve it?
wanted to ask if anybody has previously done anything similar who could help me start ?

A: You Can Create An Event SCHEDULE on your Mysql Server
First thing You must switch the event SCHEDULE to on that is because its Always off by default Run this Sql Query
 SET GLOBAL event_scheduler = ON;

After That You can create an Event Schedule to delete your records from the table every 2 min You can use a query like this
  DELIMITER $$
CREATE EVENT IF NOT EXISTS EventName
ON SCHEDULE EVERY  2 MINUTE
DO
BEGIN

DELETE FROM Your Table WHERE Your Conditions if Exists;

END$$

DELIMITER ;

This Event will automatically deletes your specific records every 2 min

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


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Join Sam and Charlie came from the Disruptive Media learning Lab, Coventry University, UK, in this playful full-day workshop to help uncover the secrets to building better team working skills. Using Lego Serious Play, participants playfully explored what it means to be a good team member, develop insight into valuable communication and collaboration skills and identify how to grow these into their own work environments. This workshop will be of particular benefit to anyone who works with other members of the farming industry.
This workshop toke part during the Gyüttment Festival in Zebegény.
This workshop is funded and hosted by the EU H2020 BOND project aimed at building better connections across farming industries in Europe.


A single storey extension to the rear of a listed Georgian property this project includes two very distinctive parts. The first is a feature pyramid roof structure which covers the new bedroom wing, all formed in timber with concealed steel connections. The link between new and existing was bridged by a glazed double mono pitched roof utilising glass ridge beams and stub columns. CRA were responsible for the design of all elements including the structural glazing.


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2018-19: The Midweeks
Rick Cowdery
@Only1Argyle
WE have been handed five midweek Sky Bet League One matches for the 2018-19 season, beginning on August 21 – the fourth match of the campaign - with Wycombe Wanderers at Home Park.
That is one of three non-holiday non-Saturday games at the Theatre of Greens, with two more scheduled on the road.
Next up after Wycombe are Barnsley at Oakwell on Tuesday, October 2, with the third match under floodlights on at home to Gillingham on Tuesday, October 23, before the fourth and final midweek game before Christmas coming at Shrewsbury Town on Tuesday, November 27.
The final midweek game, after the turn of the year, is also against Shrewsbury, on Tuesday, March 12, at the Theatre of Greens.
MIDWEEK MATCHES
Tuesday, August 21 v Wycombe Wanderers H
Tuesday, October 2 v Barnsley A
Tuesday, October 23 v Gillingham H
Tuesday, November 27 Shrewsbury A
Tuesday, March 12 v Shrewsbury Town H
All fixtures are subject to confirmation
More Fixtures Release Day coverage here.
The Miles
The Longhauls
The Finish
The Key Dates


Much of Michael Jackson's death still haunts La Toya Jackson.
She also offers insights into their relationship and how he cared for his three children, Paris, Prince and Blanket.
The book is Jackson's latest foray back into the entertainment industry (she went into seclusion in the late 1990s after her hellish marriage and divorce from her manager). Earlier this year, she took part in NBC's "Celebrity Apprentice." She's set to release her final full-length album before the end of 2011.
On Michael Jackson's prediction of his death: "'La Toya, I'm going to be murdered for my music publishing catalog and my estate,' he had told me again and again. Michael believed there was a conspiracy."
On her theory of what happened the night he died: "I believe that when Michael walked in that house that night, whatever it was that greeted him, he knew that his end was upon him. And as soon as he had passed, some of the very people he had expressed suspicions about now controlled his estate."
On her suspicions about Dr. Tohme Tohme, Jackson's final business adviser, and his colleagues: "As soon as he began acting as Michael's business adviser, he fired key people who had been close to Michael for years. ... Once Tohme shut out the rest of the world, he would be able to steer Michael toward business ventures that were profitable for Tohme and his friends."
On Paris' description of her father's final days: "'Daddy was always cold,' she said. 'Daddy was always freezing. He would sit and fall asleep by the fireplace. He would always cry. And we would watch to make sure everything was fine. … And he needed a doctor. And then, they turned the lights out. We were in the dark ... and they cut the phones off.'"
On Paris' description of her father's last words to her: "Prince and I were arguing, and Daddy said, 'Stop fighting with your brother. I'm not always going to be here, and you're going to have to be the lady and watch over them.'"
On Paris' final gift to her father: "She had made a special request of me during our fitting for the clothes we would wear to the memorial: 'Auntie La Toya, I would like to give Daddy a half of a heart necklace. I'll have one half, and he'll have one half.' ... 'Daddy, this is for you,' she said. 'I have this part of the heart. And I want you to have this other part and carry it with you.' It was such a beautiful, sentimental moment."
On his strict parenting: "Michael was strict about what his kids were exposed to, allowing them to take in only educational programming. He also made sure that they never saw any of the news accounts about him. … Michael was also particularly careful about the music he allowed around his children. At that time, Paris was allowed to listen to only one song, 'Butterflies,' which singer Kolohe Kai had written for his own daugther."
On his religiosity from a young age: "He was deeply devoted to his study of God and the Bible. While my brother Randy and the other kids played basketball during the breaks at the private school we attended, Michael and I would sit on the lawn together and read our Bibles."
On how he was against all drugs before becoming addicted to painkillers: "Michael didn't believe in putting any chemicals in his body, and he was devoted to health food throughout his life. When we both lived at home, Michael once became upset with me when he saw me take an aspirin … 'La Toya, why are you taking that aspirin?' he asked. 'That's a drug.'"
On one of his many Neverland rituals: "Every time Michael came home to Neverland from a tour, a vacation, or even just a day spent shopping or in the studio, all of the staff members lined up from outside the front door, all the way down the stairs, and along each side of the walkway. When Michael stepped out of the car, he walked between the rows of employees, who numbered about 25, as they all stood at attention and addressed him when he walked by. 'Hello, Mr. Jackson,' one would say. 'Welcome, Mr. Jackson,' the next would say. As Michael passed by them, he took a moment to acknowledge each employee with a greeting and a smile or a nod of the head … These rituals meant the world to Michael."


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Pseudodracontium latifolium är en kallaväxtart som beskrevs av Serebryanyi. Pseudodracontium latifolium ingår i släktet Pseudodracontium och familjen kallaväxter.

Artens utbredningsområde är Thailand. Inga underarter finns listade.

Källor

Kallaväxter
latifolium

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


I always buy Sram chains as I`ve never had any problems with them unlike some other brands which never seem to work for me.
Good quality chain from Sram. Fits very easy with the supplied power link.
I like 8 speed geartrains & SRAM chains are my choice. Strong & high mileage.
Nice, seems to last a long time.


MINSK, 17 September (BelTA) – Belarus and Indonesia are interested in intensifying direct contacts between the business communities of the two countries. The matter was discussed at the meeting between Andrei Dapkiunas, Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs of Belarus, and Adang Sudrajat, Chairman of the Indonesia-Belarus Parliamentary Friendship Group of the House of Representatives of the People's Consultative Assembly of the Republic of Indonesia. The meeting took place in Minsk on 17 September, BelTA learned from the press service of the Belarusian Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
The parties deem it necessary to invigorate direct contacts between Belarusian and Indonesian businesses, including through chambers of commerce and industry. They also discussed the exchange of high-level visits and a possibility of opening an Indonesian Embassy in Belarus.
Andrei Dapkiunas and Adang Sudrajat emphasized that everything is in place to expand the bilateral cooperation. They voiced their interest in scaling up cooperation in politics, trade and other areas, strengthening the legal framework of the interstate relations and providing mutual support at international organizations.


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Talulah Riley Quotes
Talulah Riley — English Actress born on September 26, 1985,
Talulah Jane Riley-Milburn, known professionally as Talulah Riley, is an English actress. She has appeared in films such as Pride and Prejudice, St Trinian's, The Boat That Rocked, St. Trinian's 2: The Legend of Fritton's Gold, and Inception... (wikipedia)
I was a real daydreamer at school, gazing out of the window and losing myself in imaginary worlds.
I got into physics through pop science and quantum science and ended up being such a quantum groupie.
Along with issues like global warming, I think a problem with the world today is population decline.
I would literally do anything for Richard Curtis. Anything.
Men are visual creatures.


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You are here: Home › Frontier League unveils '11 schedule; Oakland County to go dark
Frontier League unveils '11 schedule; Oakland County to go dark
By Kevin Reichard on December 13, 2010 in Features, Independent Baseball
The independent Frontier League unveiled a 2011 schedule today that includes the new Joliet team playing out of Silver Cross Field; the big news is the the Oakland County Cruisers will go dark for the season and will not resume operations until a new ballpark is finished.
Basicall, the Frontier League will be the same in 2011 as 2011 except for one change: a new Joliet team replacing Oakland County. To make room for the new Joliet club, the Frontier League asked the Oakland County Cruisers to sit out the 2011 season while finalizing construction on their new Diamond at the Summit ballpark in Waterford Township, Michigan. The Cruisers will return to Frontier League play for the 2012 season.
Players under contract to the Cruisers will be released via a dispersal draft on Monday, Dec. 20.
"Frontier League owners and the Commissioner's Office have worked very closely with (Cruisers President) Rob Hilliard and EVP Tim Birtsas to bring about a solution that enables us to immediately add a great Chicago-area market like Joliet and to provide the best possible scenario for the Cruisers to break into the metro-Detroit region," said Commissioner Bill Lee.
"While we were fully prepared to play the initial part of our 2011 season in an area college facility and the latter part of our schedule in a semi-completed stadium," said Hilliard, "the ideal situation is to unveil a brand new, state-of-the-art venue with our organization being able to hire the right people and to give them a full season to properly market the Cruisers."
Construction bids for the new Cruisers ballpark should be released before the end of the year.
RELATED STORIES: Cruisers: We'll be ready to play in new ballpark in 2011
Subscribers to the weekly Ballpark Digest newsletter see features before they're posted to the site. You can sign up for a free subscription at the Newsletter Signup Page.
2011, bill lee, frontier league, independent, joliet, oakland county cruisers, rob hilliard, schedule, silver cross field
Will we see a ballpark concert tour in 2011?
Potter County commits $30K to ballpark improvements


Microsoft "might" remove Cortana standalone app from Android and integrate all it's functionality to the Microsoft Launcher.
Microsoft working on to redesign Cortana Notebook interface in Windows 10. New interface will separate content in 2 different sections.
In order to deliver more connected experience, it is possible that the Microsoft could bring Microsoft Edge to Android and iOS.
Cortana beta app updated for Android users. Bring few notable new changes and performance improvements along with general bug fixes.
Microsoft integrate Cortana bot in latest Skype preview update for Android devices. Though it is only available for US region.
Multi-step interactivity in notifications (with an image) now available for Windows Insiders in the fast ring.
Microsoft is testing new A/B testing interface for Bing integration in Cortana could be arrive with the Fall Creators Update.
Microsoft to bring Intelligent chat-bots into Cortana, Bing and Skype for Business. Company is also integrating payment request API into Bot Framework.
Microsoft working on a special version of Cortana for Samsung devices. Company will announce more details about it at Build 2017.


EBA published its detailed work program for 2019. The work program describes the specific activities and tasks of EBA for the coming year and highlights the key strategic areas of work from 2019 to 2021.
With regard to leading the Basel III implementation, the development of the Single Rulebook and its effective and consistent application will remain the core business of EBA during 2019. EBA is still likely to have a significant amount of regulatory mandates in the coming three years, following the endorsement of the CRDV-CRR2-BRRD2 package and the preparation of the implementation of the Basel III framework. Additionally, to improve the loss-absorbing capacity of the EU banking system, EBA will ensure that minimum requirement for own funds and eligible liabilities (MREL) decisions taken by resolution authorities are supported by credible and consistent resolution-planning work and by clarity on the expected composition and quality of MREL, in terms of both subordination and, if applicable, other eligibility criteria and potential exclusions.


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Adrian Smith + Gordon Gill's Imperial Tower Could Be Mumbai's Tallest and Greenest Skyscraper
under Architecture, carousel showcase, Green Building, News
by Mark Boyer
With projects like the Burj Khalifa under his belt, architect Adrian Smith has become synonymous with supertall skyscrapers – so it's no surprise that his firm, Adrian Smith + Gordon Gill, is the creative force behind Imperial Tower, a 116-story tower that's proposed for Mumbai. The only problem with building such a tall tower in Mumbai is dealing with the wind, but AS+GG have come up with a solution for that. The firm claims that the skinny tower is aerodynamically shaped to "confuse the wind." Strange as that may sound, the tower will also feature several sky gardens that the firm says will further help to break up wind currents around the building.
Adrian Smith + Gordon Gill was just named the winner of a competition for its design of Imperial Tower. At 116 floors and 1,300 feet, the Imperial Tower will be Mumbai's tallest tower — if it is built. The tower will be the SD Corporation Pvt. Ltd., but for any undertaking as big as this one, it's far from guaranteed that it will reach construction.
In addition to helping to mitigate wind, AS+GG says the sky gardens will provide access to light and excellent views to the building's 132 residential units. The building will also harvest rainwater to be recycled in the units, and gray water will also be reused within the building. The building's exterior walls and cladding will be designed diffuse sunlight and limit solar heat gain, cutting down on the need for air conditioning within the tower. The tower will also feature high-efficiency mechanical systems and its podium will be covered in a green wall.
+ Adrian Smith + Gordon Gill
via Gizmag
One thought on "Adrian Smith + Gordon Gill's Imperial Tower Could Be Mumbai's Tallest and Greenest Skyscraper"
What is construction system of this building
Adrian Smith + Gordon Gill's Imperial Tower Could Be Mumbai's Tallest and Greenest Skyscraper
Imperial Tower in Mumbai
With projects like the Burj Khalifa under his belt, architect Adrian Smith has become synonymous with supertall skyscrapers - so it's no surprise that his firm, Adrian Smith + Gordon Gill, is the creative force behind Imperial Tower, a 116-story tower that's proposed for Mumbai. The only problem with building such a tall tower in Mumbai is dealing with the wind, but AS+GG have come up with a solution for that. The firm claims that the skinny tower is aerodynamically shaped to "confuse the wind." Strange as that may sound, the tower will also feature several sky gardens that the firm says will further help to break up wind currents around the building.


With its less-than-two-inch blade, the Chive is a small knife, which makes it perfect for pocket, pack, purse, or briefcase carry. In fact, the Chive is perfect for just about any cutting task you'd care to ask it to do from opening packages to breaking down cardboard boxes. To ensure this handy little blade is always ready when you need it, the Chive is equipped with SpeedSafe assisted opening. Just pull back on the ambidextrous blade protrusion or push on the thumbstud and the blade moves out of the handle, ready for use. The high-carbon blade steel offers good edge retention and excellent corrosion resistance. The bead-blasted finish is easy to maintain. The frame lock secures the blade open so it can't accidentally close during use. And to ensure that it won't accidentally open during transport, the Chive is also equipped with a Tip-Lock slider to lock the blade closed when folded. In pure stainless steel, both blade and handle are easy to clean and maintain.


Stock #149580 - This sleek little Chris Craft Holiday is a real piece of art and highly sought after!If you are in the market for an antique, look no further than this 1964 Chris-Craft Holiday, priced right at $22,499 (offers encouraged).This boat is located in Rochester, Minnesota and is in great condition. She is also equipped with a Chris-Craft engine.We are looking for people all over the country who share our love for boats. If you have a passion for our product and like the idea of working from home, please visit SellBoatsAndRVs.com to learn more.This is a brand new listing, just on the market this week. Please submit all reasonable offers.Reason for selling is elderly couple purchased classic automobileAt POP Yachts, we will always provide you with a TRUE representation of every vessel we market. We encourage all buyers to schedule a survey for an independent analysis. Any offer to purchase is ALWAYS subject to satisfactory survey results.Contact us for a free BoatHistoryReport.com report on this vessel. We pay upfront for a report on every vessel possible, and we provide this peace of mind to our buyers at no charge and with no commitment. All you have to do is ask!Take a look at ALL . of this vessel on our main website at 1964 Chris-Craft Holiday. We appreciate that you took your time to look at our advertisement and we look forward to speaking with you!


Use this Foreign Worker Quota (FWQ) / Foreign Worker Levy (FWL) Calculator to determine the number of S Pass and Work Permit holders you can hire by calculating your Dependency Ratio Ceiling (DRC), or quota. Based on your industry requirements and tiering of Basic skilled and High skilled workers, you may then compute your total levy cost.
At Talenox, we believe in designing human experiences, not just HR products. Here we put together a tool for you to automatically calculate your foreign worker quota and levy, so you can spend the saved time focusing on what truly matters for your business.
Talenox offers more than just free calculators.
We have a Free Plan for small and medium-sized teams to process their payroll for free, forever.
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Still not convinced? See our subscription plans.


SIU physicians Meghna Desai, MD, associate professor of internal medicine and Wendi Willis El-Amin, MD, associate dean for equity, diversity and inclusion and associate professor of family and community medicine, are course co-directors of the symposium. To learn more or to register, visit siumed.edu/cpd.
The mission of Simmons Cancer Institute at SIU is to serve the people of central and southern Illinois by addressing their present and future cancer needs through education, biomedical research, patient care and community service.
Note to Media: Media interviews can best be arranged during the break at 10 am or during the lunch break at 12:20 pm. To arrange interviews, please call Cindy Davidsmeyer at 217-545-3837 weekdays, or at 217-248-3336 on the day of the event.


100 million EWT are planned to operate the EW Chain.
Offers an API (Application Programming Interface) for banks and insurers (to track the identity of itemsto help banks and insurers in the management of fradulent transactions), law enforcement (to enable the tracing of fraud based on collected data), and online market places (to assist with detecting the sale of stolen goods). ; Has partnered with other industries - Vastari for art, Chai Consulting for wine, Britannia Mining for commodities trading, and SAP Ariba for supply chain with the goal of providing provenance for risky goods.
Tokens represent measurement of impact on human-health and sustaibility. Tradable.
Utilizes a blockchain-based token system to reduce barriers and facilitate the optimal coupling of local electric generation with parties that can evaluate, generate, store, trade, and utilize this generation most efficiently. Applications in creation of microgrids, powering EVs, and allowing peer-to-peer trade of renewable energy production.
Blockchain • Blockchain (MATRIX), protocol?
Could MATRIX AI Network Be a Potential Moonshot?
Pilot project in partnership with Sweetgreen in 2017; received $2.5 million in fuding in September 2018.


Background: The Danish National Patient Registry (DNPR) is one of the world's oldest nationwide hospital registries and is used extensively for research. Many studies have validated algorithms for identifying health events in the DNPR, but the reports are fragmented and no overview exists.
Objectives: To review the content, data quality, and research potential of the DNPR.
Methods: We examined the setting, history, aims, content, and classification systems of the DNPR. We searched PubMed and the Danish Medical Journal to create a bibliography of validation studies. We included also studies that were referenced in retrieved papers or known to us beforehand. Methodological considerations related to DNPR data were reviewed.
Results: During 1977–2012, the DNPR registered 8,085,603 persons, accounting for 7,268,857 inpatient, 5,953,405 outpatient, and 5,097,300 emergency department contacts. The DNPR provides nationwide longitudinal registration of detailed administrative and clinical data. It has recorded information on all patients discharged from Danish nonpsychiatric hospitals since 1977 and on psychiatric inpatients and emergency department and outpatient specialty clinic contacts since 1995. For each patient contact, one primary and optional secondary diagnoses are recorded according to the International Classification of Diseases. The DNPR provides a data source to identify diseases, examinations, certain in-hospital medical treatments, and surgical procedures. Long-term temporal trends in hospitalization and treatment rates can be studied. The positive predictive values of diseases and treatments vary widely (<15%–100%). The DNPR data are linkable at the patient level with data from other Danish administrative registries, clinical registries, randomized controlled trials, population surveys, and epidemiologic field studies – enabling researchers to reconstruct individual life and health trajectories for an entire population.
Conclusion: The DNPR is a valuable tool for epidemiological research. However, both its strengths and limitations must be considered when interpreting research results, and continuous validation of its clinical data is essential.


Dinah Sanders has been playing D&D for nearly 40 years, and has been a dungeon master going all the way back. Her current weekly game has a handful of players that have continuously played the same campaign for the past few years.
We cover Dinah's early history in blogging, her two books and her plans for a future one as well as diving into all the ins and outs of D&D with me, someone that's never played.
P.S. The week after we recorded this, I did get to join her weekly D&D night to play my first game ever, and it was a blast. The photo above is a shot from that night.
P.P.S. There's a new theme song and I added a bit of story I forgot to cover in the John Roderick episode so stick around to the end to hear it.


This is a video to help promote your use of the Theory Test Pro app. The logo in the main video and the one displayed in the phone animation will be swapped for your own.
To personalise this for you, we will require your logo (ideally with no background), your phone details and the main area you cover. Once ordered, please let us know your website address by calling/text (07876031945) or email to darren@drivinginstructorsites.co.uk.


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The Oxford Dictionary of Canadian English.
By Alex Beam
Aug 21, 19963:30 AM
A reasonable person might question the need for a Canadian English dictionary. Having spent a good portion of my life in "Anglo" Canada, I've never felt compelled to consult a dictionary. The natives are quite friendly, and well-versed in our common mother tongue. They prattle on about their superior system of health care, how their TV shows don't glorify violence, and how they invented the telephone. Every word is completely comprehensible.
But Oxford is gung-ho about its forthcoming Oxford Dictionary of Canadian English. With an investment of 2 million Canadian dollars (now there's a word with a different meaning above the 48th parallel) and five years of lexicographical scrivening, the OUP plans to finish the dictionary project by 1998. When asked for sales projections, editor in chief Katherine Barber cheerily notes that there are 30 million Canadian citizens. "I want every one to have one," she says.
Blithely unconcerned about the fact that 6 million of those citizens are French-speaking, Barber's team plows ahead. To cull the 140,000 entries, her staff of four researchers is plowing through the language the same way Sir James Murray did to compile The Oxford English Dictionary 100 years ago, although this time with the help of computers. Barber and company are surveying 2 million words' worth of citations, garnered from 800 different sources (magazines, newspapers, etc.). In addition, they are reviewing 12 million words scanned from full texts (books, CD-ROMs), backstopped by the OED's formidable, 20-million-word data bank. We're talking one heck of lot of Canadian English here!
While working on this article, I undertook my own modest research project in Canadian English. I read the Canadian newsmagazine Maclean's, and some short stories by Alice Munro. I read The Telling of Lies, one of many superb novels by Toronto's Timothy Findley. I even suffered through 90 minutes of sound blast at a concert by Alanis Morrisette, Canada's pied piper to troubled teens.
Maclean's was a fount of information. I learned that the Canadian consul general in my hometown of Boston has been implicated in a terrible mine disaster; that a Canadian rock group called "The Farmer's Daughters" are hot, hot, hot; and that the notorious "V-chip" is made in Canada. But the magazine yielded up only two Canadianisms, broadly defined: "Canadarm," the gangly mechanical elbow that grabs satellites out of the space shuttle's cargo bay and tosses them into the cosmos. And "bannock," an unleavened bread baked by Canadian Indians, known to their countrymen as "First Peoples." I thought I caught Munro in a Canadianism–"dormitory suburb"–but Barber says it's a British expression.
In Findley's book, told by an American, the narrator makes sport of the word "Tory": "I believe in Canada, they call these deserters 'Loyalists'–Tories who rule by right of natural selection." In the course of conversation, Barber had mentioned "Tory" as an example of a word that has three different possibilities. For the English, it means a Conservative politician. For us Americans, it designates a turncoat. And for the Canadians, it doesn't exist. "We don't use that word ourselves," she says.
So what words do they use? Barber expects that only about 2,000 or 3,000 words in her dictionary will be exclusively Canadian. Like "hydro." Even though Canadians cheerfully use nuclear power and don't whine about it, they talk of paying the "hydro" (electricity) bill. What professional dishwashers call "the pig," and many of us call the kitchen "Disposall," Canadians call the "Garburator," a colorful trade name.
Most "purely" Canadian words are borrowings from the Indians, or from the French ("Second Peoples"?). The word reverberating in every sled-dog's ear–"Mush!"–garbles the French imperative "Marche!" or "Get going!" "Tuque," from the French "toqué" for woolen cap, is common parlance. "Hooch," which my son assured me was a transcription of the alcohol molecule (C2H5OH), actually derives from "a Tlingit word, roughly 'Hutsnuwu,' meaning 'grizzly-bear fort,' " Barber told me. "It got borrowed into English as 'Hoochinoo,' to designate an Indian people living on Admiralty Island, Alaska, who are reputed to produce strong drink." When I said that my son's version came from a policeman addressing a sixth-grade drug- and alcohol-awareness seminar, Barber shot back: "It sounds as though your son has had an encounter with the dreaded FOLK ETYMOLOGY, which lurks everywhere and must be rooted out!" Other examples: "wop," which is not an acronym for "without papers," and "fuck," which does not mean "for unlawful carnal knowledge."
A >lthough we share a continent, Canadians have found different names for our flora and fauna: "hackmatack" for "tamarack" (a larch tree); "whisky-jack" for the bird we call the Canada jay, and "venison bird"–well, not even Barber knows what that is.
Different institutions beget different vocabularies. "Mounties" are as Canadian as winter vacations in Cuba. "Separate" schools are what we call parochial schools, except they're publicly funded in Canada. A "warden" is … well, Barber assures me it's a Canadianism, although she doesn't know what it means: "We haven't got to 'W' yet."
Slang is a touchy issue in Canada. When The Oxford Dictionary of Modern Slang appeared in 1992, none of the derivations was attributed to Canada. A newspaper columnist suggested the word "scuzz" might be Canadian, because Oxford had quoted a usage from Margaret Atwood. But that was pretty much it. The Oxford Dictionary will redress this grievance. Words like "bargoon" for bargain, and "bird course" for what we call "gut" courses in college, have been duly noted. "Have had the biscuit" means "to be done for," and is not to be confused with the British expression "to take the biscuit," which means "to take the cake." A "forty pounder" is a 40-ounce bottle of liquor, much in evidence on sultry Saturday nights in Saskatoon. Barber has become an expert on underwear argot: "gaunch," "gotch," "gitch," "ginch," etc.
I give in. Any language with four words for underwear certainly deserves its own dictionary.