We've all had inspired ideas, ideas that will bring in a bigger life than we are currently living. We may have had an idea to write a book, start a business, move to a new area or to find a job that suites us better.
Have you ever had the experience of being excited about these inspired ideas? You feel as though you could actually do this. You know your life could be so much fuller and more rewarding.
Our fear has taken over.
1. "We're not enough." This encompasses any insecurities we may have. Fear that I'm not smart enough, pretty enough, liked enough, talented enough, old enough, rich enough, young enough. I'm not…fill in the blank.
We as a species stay in the helpless state longer than any other animal. At a young age most animals in the wild are not dependent on their mothers to survive. Newborn horses walk right away and other animals in the wild are foraging for their food within weeks. We are dependent on our parents for years. We have a survival instinct, so the belief that we're not enough and our parents don't love us, we'll die. This is hardwired in us.
If we try something new it could mean we won't be accepted, especially if we fail. Someone may not approve of our decision and we won't be loved.
The truth is we are enough because we are connected to an infinite source of power.
2. "Fear of loss." We are afraid if we try something new we'll lose something that matters to us. If we start a new business we'll lose our benefits and security. If we enter into a relationship, we will lose our freedom. If we go after our dream, we'll lose time with those that matters the most to us. Or we'll lose the reputation of being successful.
3. "Fear of pain." If I go after something new I may experience some kind of pain - pain of criticism, ridicule or failure.
2. The only way to stop fearing something is to do it.
3. The only way to feel better about yourself is to face your fear.
4. You're not the only person facing fear.
5. Pushing through fear is ultimately less frightening than living with the ongoing fear.
Is it a possibility that you could pour everything into your dream and not have it happen?
Yes, that is a possibility.
I'd rather be in the bed that gave it my all and I have stories to tell from along the way.
Stare down your fear or the dark and then look to the light. Know that you are not alone. Know that you and your higher power will figure this out.
Know that you will have to face your fears to achieve your goals-it's all a part of the process. Because in the end who you have become is the real gift.
There is always something in us that is calling us to expand and to grow, calling us to create. At the same time, we have fear that will say what if…. and let's wait because now isn't a good time or let's not chance it.
We can choose to listen to the voice of inspiration and not the voice of fear.
What voice will you be listening to today?
On this 60 minute call we'll take a look at where you are, where you want to be, what's holding you back, and how I can support you in getting there.
Are you ready to give it everything you've got to live your dream?
Can't believe your dream can come true?
What if it could be easy?


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River City Magazine
Carbon Leaf
December 13, 2016 / You Hear That?!? / Leave a comment
Quick non-bloggy writing heads up: I recently got to interview Barry Privett, the lead singer of Carbon Leaf, and while the article doesn't appear to be online yet, you can grab a print copy of River City Magazine/West End's Best at these locations.
Carbon Leaf is a name you hear and see quite a bit living in Richmond, but I didn't know the group's full backstory — how they all lived together in one house on Floyd Avenue at one point, how they were originally a cover band and had to make the tough transition to playing original music, which venues in town they played in their early years… At the same time that Carbon Leaf has evolved over the years, they've been a constant amid a great deal of change during the last two decades. Really interesting, I think. I hope y'all will grab a copy and then grab a ticket to their show this Saturday at The National — should be a really good time.
Carbon Leaf — "Indecision" (live) [Spotify/iTunes]
Perpetual Groove
September 20, 2016 / You Hear That?!? / Leave a comment
So happy to see my interview with Perpetual Groove hit the interweb. This was a pleasure to work on, in part because it's such an exciting moment for the band. They're picking up steam after taking some time off — new EP, on tour now, and they'll be stopping in Richmond at the National this Saturday night. Should be a special show — keyboardist Matt McDonald said some really nice things about the National in our interview. I hope you'll take a few minutes to learn more about their journey and their history of environmental activism in this River City Magazine article.
Perpetual Groove — "Best Of Anything" [Spotify/iTunes]
The Hot Seats
March 16, 2016 / You Hear That?!? / Leave a comment
Call it creative vision. Call it a sense of purpose. Clarity. Self-awareness. However you want to describe it, talking to drummer/percussionist Jake Sellers convinced me: The Hot Seats have it.
I walked away from our recent interview with a stomach full of delicious Pho Tay Do food and a huge amount of respect for the group, which has won fans on both sides of the Atlantic. They strike me as protectors of something vital — something funny and fearless and closer to the actual "root" of the roots music that's experienced a recent resurgence.
This quote from the article might say it better than any other:
"I think we very much as a band like [what's] scratchy, looser … I don't want to say dangerous, but less safe. Take a chance. We're certainly willing to fall on our faces trying a song we've never played before in front of an audience because that's where the excitement is."
I love that, and I want to thank Jake for taking the time to meet and explore what he and the band are doing. Click here to read the whole River City Magazine article, or pick up a hard copy at one of these locations.
The Hot Seats — "I Ain't No Better Now" [Spotify/iTunes]
Clair Morgan
January 15, 2016 / You Hear That?!? / Leave a comment
Very excited that my River City Magazine interview with Clair Morgan is up — click here to check it out at Richmond Navigator's site. Or you can grab a print copy on newsstands now. My favorite is the red stand outside the Byrd Theatre, but there are a bunch of other places you can go. Here's a full list.
I mentioned this on Instagram last night, but what a privilege this was to work on. These are some of the most talented and friendly musicians you will ever meet, and they took the time to chat about all sorts of fun stuff, including their upcoming album, New Lions & the Not-Good Night, which I'm 100% certain is going to blow minds and win hearts. Morgan won mine in our interview with how much forethought and emotional investment went into the album's overarching narrative. Check out this snippet from the article:
While the music is light at times, heavier themes lend balance to "New Lions." "When you think about an adventure you took as a child," Morgan said, "when you're looking through that lens, that really happened. But now you're looking through a completely different lens, whether you're an adult or a father, and you look back at that scenario from a completely different perspective. What did you not soak in that actually happened that you were not able to absorb?"
Mind already blown. Click here to read the rest, and don't miss their show at the Camel tonight — they'll be closing the book on their previous album cycle by playing No Notes in full. Here's one of that album's standout tracks, "Battleship Heart."
Clair Morgan — "Battleship Heart" [Spotify/iTunes]
Robbin Thompson & Steve Bassett
July 14, 2015 July 17, 2015 / You Hear That?!? / 1 Comment
I've lived in Virginia all my life. In fact, I'm fairly certain I've never been outside of the state (JK it's a commonwealth — just testing you) for more than two consecutive weeks. You could call me a homebody, and you'd be right, but that's only part of the reason why I tend not to wander. I really, really like it here, and that sense of pride led me to interview Robbin Thompson and Steve Bassett about their song "Sweet Virginia Breeze," which the General Assembly recently named the state (ahem, commonwealth) popular song. The interview just went up over at Richmond Navigator.
The Trillions
May 5, 2015 May 8, 2015 / You Hear That?!? / Leave a comment
Been so anxious to share this: My interview with the brilliant and talented Trillions went up late last week over at Richmond Navigator. You can find it in print in River City Magazine — copies should be hitting newsstands this week.
One thing I have to add:
Backstage with Richmond's Brewery Boom
March 5, 2015 March 6, 2015 / You Hear That?!? / Leave a comment
Talk about arduous research. I got to write an article for River City Magazine about the symbiotic relationship between Richmond's breweries and bands. Lots of boozy fun was had, and I'm super-duper excited to share the results — click here to check it out over at Richmond Navigator's site.
Sleepwalkers
November 11, 2014 November 14, 2014 / You Hear That?!? / Leave a comment
There are bands you appreciate, and then there are bands you root for. Not because they need the extra backing, but because there's something that joins your experience with theirs. It could be that their music is so good that you feel passionately that it needs to be heard as widely as possible, and that passion acts like glue — their success is your fulfillment. It could also be the case that you meet the members of a band, and their approach to music aligns with some ideal you hold onto — a picture you've painted in your mind after hearing and dissecting an album you love.
All of the above applies to Sleepwalkers, who I had the chance to interview for River City Magazine/West End's Best in early October. The highlights from that conversation just hit the interweb, and you can read them here (a slightly shorter printed version will hit newsstands any day now). There are two quick things I'd like to add:

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


text:
Q: Date & if else statement PHP I am working on some PHP code currently that seems to work logically
$tod = date("G");
if($tod >= 5 && $tod <= 11)      { $work = "Morning's"; }
elseif($tod >= 12 && $tod <= 17) { $work = "Afternoon's"; }
else                               $work = "Evening's";

$dw = date( "l");

if($work = "Morning's")       { $pre = "Morning"; }
elseif($work = "Afternoon's") { $pre = "Afternoon"; }
else                            $pre = "Evening";

For some reason if I try to increase or set the $tod variable to something in each range when I echo $work it always returns "Morning's" no matter what $tod is set to. Is something wrong with my if..elseif..else statements? I'm not getting any errors when I load the page.
Thanks for the help

A: Try this you have forget  "=" in two if
  $tod = date("G");
    if($tod >= 5 && $tod <= 11) {$work = "Morning's";}
    elseif($tod >= 12 && $tod <= 17) {$work = "Afternoon's";}
    else $work = "Evening's";
    $dw = date( "l");
    if($work == "Morning's"){$pre = "Morning";}
    elseif($work == "Afternoon's"){$pre = "Afternoon";}
    else $pre = "Evening";

A: Just to shorten that a litte (and correct the spelling: Plural is w/o '):
$pre = "Evening";
in_array( date( "G" ), range( 5, 11 ) )  AND $pre  = "Morning";
in_array( date( "G" ), range( 12, 17 ) ) AND $pre = "Afternoon";
$work = "{$pre}s";

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


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10 Alia Bhatt movies every Bollywood buff has to watch
By Nitya Chablani 22 January 2019
Alia Bhatt has proven herself as one of Bollywood's strongest actors over the years. Ahead of her latest, Gully Boy, here's a look back at her best work yet
It's hard to believe that Alia Bhatt joined Bollywood just seven years ago. Only 19, Bhatt made her debut with a bang in Karan Johar's rom-com Student of the Year (2012), and there's been no looking back for her since. While SOTY had Bhatt playing high school Queen Bee Shanaya Singhania, the roles she's taken on after her big break have put her acting prowess in the spotlight.
Two years after Student of the Year released, Bhatt surprised the country with her performance in Highway (2014), an intense, heart-breaking film in which she played a sheltered girl who finds her voice after getting kidnapped by a gang. But what really showcased her range was the fact that in the same year she transformed into Highway's Veera Tripathi, Alia Bhatt also had audiences falling in love with her strong-minded persona as Ananya Swaminathan in 2 States (2014) and her devil-may-care attitude as Kavya Singh in Humpty Sharma Ki Dulhania (2014).
As the years progressed, Alia Bhatt's movies have only gotten more exciting. If 2014 was the year she was all about romance, 2016 was the year she broke boundaries with a handful of unpredictable roles. For Udta Punjab (2016), Bhatt threw away her smartphone while getting into Bihari labourer Kumari Pinky's skin, and by the end of the year, she won critics over with her honest, open performance as Kaira in coming-of-age drama Dear Zindagi (2016). How does she do it? Bhatt once told us that she always wanted to act, "like a kid who desperately wants a lollipop." And she's had years of practice. "As a child, my mind would always be somewhere else, imagining what I want to do, who I want to be. In car journeys, I would imagine myself in songs that played on the radio. I created my own worlds."
Most recently, Bhatt was seen putting her theatrical skills to the test as Indian spy Sehmat Syed in Raazi (2018), and it's safe to say that her fans can't wait to see what she's like as Sakina in 2018's musical drama, Gully Boy. If director Imtiaz Ali's word is anything to go by, Bhatt is likely to hit this one out of the park as well. "She is constantly trying to improve herself, to do more, to do better," he said back in 2014, and her films serve as proof. Scroll now for a peek at some of the best Alia Bhatt movies so far.
10 Alia Bhatt movies every Bollywood lover has to watch
ALIA BHATTBOLLYWOODDear ZindagiPunjabQUEEN
Have you watched Alia Bhatt & Tiger Shroff in SOTY 2's new song?
By Nitya Chablani 30 April 2019
Alia Bhatt: "When Ranbir and I come together, it has to be magical"
By Shweta Sunny 30 April 2019
What makes Vicky Kaushal internet's newest boyfriend
By Salva Mubarak 11 July 2019


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Child custody decisions are made according to the best interests of the child in all 50 states. Some states provide specific factors that judges should consider in determining the child's best interests. These factors can include the relative parenting competence of each parent, each parent's willingness to foster the child's relationship with the other parent and with siblings, the child's attachment to each parent and the stability of the child's environment. In temporary custody hearings, judges often favor the status quo. For example, if the father has been the primary caretaker for the child and is not unfit, he is more likely to be awarded temporary custody.
At the hearing, you may present any evidence that demonstrates that you having temporary custody is in the child's best interest. Evidence can include school records demonstrating the child is doing well under your care; police reports of any abuse or violence with the other parent; emails and texts demonstrating problems with the other parent; and medical or psychiatric records. You may also call witnesses who can testify to your parenting competence or who have witnessed inappropriate behavior by the other parent. A few states allow witnesses at temporary hearings only if there is an allegation of abuse, so check state laws or consult your attorney before bringing witnesses with you.
In many states, judges are authorized to appoint child experts to give testimony at custody hearings. These experts may include a court-appointed special advocate who investigates the child's living situation and makes a recommendation; a guardian ad litem who can file motions on behalf of the child and her best interests; or a psychologist who can administer evaluations of the child and her parents. People seeking custody may also hire their own witnesses. If you disagree with the recommendation of a court-appointed expert, it can be helpful to hire your own expert to give a different opinion. Make sure the expert is qualified to give an opinion. For example, a psychologist who works primarily with the elderly may not be qualified to make a custody recommendation.
After hearing evidence and arguments, the judge will issue a temporary custody order. These orders may last for a set period of time such as a year, or may expire when a final custody order is issued as part of a divorce decree. When temporary custody is issued because a parent is sick, in jail or otherwise unable to care for the child, the temporary order may expire when the parent is again able to care for the child. You must abide by the terms of the temporary order. Failure to do so is contempt of court.
The Art and Science of Child Custody Evaluations; Jonathan W. Gould, et al.
Custody disputes are often hardest on children, the very people for whom the disputing parties claim to advocate on behalf of. Unlike many states, Arizona does not set out a specific age at which a child may determine the parent with whom she lives. Instead, the desires of the child are considered with numerous other factors. All children, however, have a right to competent, non-abusive caregivers. There are several steps a child can take to ensure her rights are protected and wishes honored.


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In consultation with you, we develop and convert integrated databases into rich new organizational assets – ones that we will interpret to effectively inform and guide your decision-making. We also support existing programs and initiatives or, if you prefer, help you and your vendors develop and roll out new initiatives for fostering organizational objectives.
Our innovative approaches have helped validate assumptions and identify new options for some very traditional organizational entities. They enable a unique view on difficult issues and allow complex decisions to be made with confidence. After all, you want to be taking the right, budget-minded steps to promote the value realized by your organization from the steps you take as well as be assured of their impact on sustainability of health care as a system resource. And, you want to know whether and how much these steps are in fact serving these objectives.
Our specialized team includes savvy experts from health care, business consulting and the science community. You tap a network of accomplished social scientists, clinicians, policy experts, and advisors well-grounded in rich scientific tradition. At the same time, our associates have an artist's eye for creating and providing new customized tools, programs and services.
We are headquartered in the Druid Hills area of Atlanta, GA amid the unique configuration of nearby organizations and resources including the Centers for Disease Control, Emory University, and the Carter Center. This location speaks to our rich and diverse training, experience and approach, although our people have served years in locations around the country.
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In February, we profiled the non-profit organisation Bergwaldprojekt e.V. (STIHL supports the organisation Bergwaldprojekt e.V.). The organisation is committed to protecting, preserving and maintaining forests – with a special focus on mountain forests – and cultural landscapes.
As part of Bergwaldprojekt's activities, kids in Germany can attend a so called "forest school", where they can participate in projects and get to know more about protecting and maintaining forests. The kids spend a week making a hands-on contribution to nature conservation projects to encourage awareness of sustainability and biodiversity. They discuss their activities in class before and after their time in nature to help make their importance for the forest more apparent. Today, we would like to show you what a day at forest school is like for the kids from Käthe Kollwitz school (Bruchsal, Germany).
The sun was just shining in Baden-Baden, Germany. But here along the Schwarzwaldhochstraße, 820 metres above sea level, the clouds hang low around mountain peaks. Just a ten-minute drive out of town, the temperature has already fallen by 8 degrees. It's now a nippy 5 degrees Celsius – in the middle of May. Still, the schoolchildren from Bruchsal stand ready for duty in front of their forest cabins at 7.30 am. And they're in a good mood: at least it's not raining, in contrast to the last two days.
It's Wednesday morning, halfway into their Bergwaldprojekt week. The school class and two teachers have been here in the forest since Sunday, spending their nights at the Bühlerhöhe cabins near Baden-Baden.
They spend their days working in the forest, planting trees, clearing undergrowth and performing other tasks to support nature conservation efforts. Before they head off for the day, the project manager calls the kids together for their morning meeting. He asks each of them to reflect on what they've experienced so far and discuss their personal high point and low point of the first two days. The schoolkids recount the rain, hail and thunderstorms they've had to endure. The view of the valley from the mountain, an exciting river crossing and the hot meals, on the other hand, were magical moments for them.
Once the morning meeting is over, a group of vans transports them up the mountain. The air is even colder here, another 100 metres higher. But the clouds have parted, and the sun raises hopes of higher temperatures to come. Some 100 tiny silver firs are already lined up along the forest path, waiting to be planted in the hillside.
Bergwaldprojekt always works with local forestry authorities on all its projects. Its volunteers perform pressing tasks for which the authorities have too few employees. The project manager explains the day's mission and divides the kids into teams of two.
One of them uses a mattock – a mixture of an axe and a shovel – to loosen the soil and dig a hole. The other one plants the tiny fir in the hole. It is essential that the sapling get as much mineral soil as possible, which is found under the forest's topsoil. "A handful of mineral soil contains more living organisms than there are people on earth," one project manager tells the kids. However, finding it in the hillside's rocky subsoil is no easy task.
By midday, the group has worked its way down the hill in six rows. When it's time for lunch, they have to go back up – some of them on all fours: that's how steep the incline is. Once they've arrived, they all sit around the fire and eat, exhausted and in silence. But with every spoonful of stew, the noise level rises, and the colour starts returning to the kids' faces. By the time desert is served, the atmosphere is once again relaxed and playful.
"The whole soil is full of rocks that I had to dig out first," Anja says, while Natascha talks about how tiring it is to carry plants down the hillside. The kids show grit and determination and put their backs into their work in spite of adversity. With a sense of duty, they plant each fir two metres apart and dig holes deep into the soil. They want their work to pay off. The plants must be firmly planted in the ground to grow.
Without a doubt, a week in the forest makes nature conservation something schoolkids can see and feel for themselves. After all, learning by doing teaches lessons for life. "Spruce twigs are much harder than fir twigs," Bettina says after fighting her way through a thicket of young spruces. That, too, is a truly hands-on nature experience.
Bergwaldprojekt offers volunteer opportunities for adults and families in addition to its week-long school projects. To find out more about Bergwaldprojekt, go to www.bergwaldprojekt.de.


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Stoke On Trent to London
Stoke-on-Trent to London Euston
Travel from Stoke On Trent to London by train
Stoke On Trent London Train
The Stoke On Trent London train connection travels between the stations of Stoke-on-Trent and London Euston.
Use the direct rail train times and ticket search box to get all the information you need on trains from Stoke On Trent to London including schedules, all available fare types from anytime peak to super-off peak.
We feature all available train fare types including advance, off peak and anytime, singles and returns. Find out what options are available on the line between Stoke On Trent and London now.
Get your live Stoke On Trent departures and London arrival times, availability and durations now by inputting the relevant information into our search box.
About Stoke On Trent
Stoke-on-Trent, often referred to as just Stoke, is a city in Staffordshire in England. The city lies approximately midway between Manchester and Birmingham. The Peak District lies to the east of the city. The city is regarded as the home of the pottery industry in England and as a result is also sometimes called the Potteries. The city's association with pottery began in the 17th century and has world famous companies such as Royal Doulton, Dudson Ltd, Spode, Wedgwood, Minton and Baker & Co. The city has also thrived in the past on the back of coal mining and steel production.
Visitors to Stoke-on-Trent can enjoy many attractions including the Potteries Museum and Art Gallery, the Eturia Industrial Museum and the Gladstone Pottery Museum. For visitors looking for a more thrill-seeking experience, the Alton Towers Resort is roughly 10 miles from the city and is in itself one of the United Kingdom's best known, and most visited, attractions.
The main shopping centre is the Potteries Shopping Centre in Hanley which includes department stores, many high street national chain stores and some independent stores.
Stoke-on-Trent railway station is a mainline station on the Stafford-Manchester Line (part of the West Coast Main Line between Manchester and London) and the Crewe-Derby Line.
Stoke On Trent Train Tickets


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800-Year-Old Ethiopian Churches Are Carved From a Single Stone
Churches, Temples, Mosques are some of the popular places of worship which many people visit. Some of them have a rich history and some are wonders which we get to witness when we visit. There are many churches, temples, and mosques which are beautiful and are located in scenic locations.
These places of worship are worshipped by many people for centuries and have a powerful effect over here. The buildings were constructed by amazing architecture that puts modern architecture to shame and one such Church is Rock-Hewn Churches, in the town of Lalibela located in Ethiopia.
Located around 645 km from Addis Ababa, in the mountainous Amhara regions of northern Ethiopia, 11 monolithic churches are carved out of rocks. The town of Lalibela is attributed to King Lalibela who set out to construct these churches after Muslim conquests halted Christian pilgrimages to the holy land. King Lalibela's (AD 1181 to 1221) reign was one of the most flourished reigns where when the churches were constructed and the town was a high place for European Christianity.
These churches were magnificent and one of the most important tourist destinations which bought maximum revenue.
These 11 churches are interconnected with a system of trenches and are divided into 2 main groups.
The one group of churches are located to the North of River Jordan that includes Biete Medhani Alem (House of the Saviour of the World), Biete Mariam (House of Mary), Biete Maskal (House of the Cross), Biete Denagel (House of Virgins), Biete Golgotha Mikael (House of Golgotha Mikael) and the other group are located to the South of River Jordan that includes Biete Amanuel (House of Emmanuel), Biete Qeddus Mercoreus (House of St. Mercoreos), Biete Abba Libanos (House of Abbot Libanos), Biete Gabriel Raphael (House of Gabriel Raphael), and Biete Lehem (House of Holy Bread). The last church that is the 11th church Biete Ghiorgis (House of St. George) remains isolated from the rest.
Out of all the churches, Biete Medhani Alem is believed to be the largest monolithic church in the world with 5 aisles and Biete Ghiorgis is said to have an amazing cruciform plan. It is said that churches Biete Mercoreos and Biete Gabriel Rafael would have been royal residences as several interiors are decorated with murals.
Bet Golgotha has a replica of Jesus' tomb and a manger where Mary gave birth, The Biete Maryam courtyard connects it to Biete Golgotha and Biete Mikael. Where while you enter it first connects to Biete Mikael and then to Biete Golgotha. Bet Giyorgis is the most visual church of all the churches.
[ Also Checkout: 10 Most Sacred Places in the World ]
The churches were not constructed in traditional ways but were hewn from the monolithic rocks. These blocks were chiseled out where they formed doors, windows, columns, and various floors. These gigantic churches also had extensive drainage systems, trenches, and ceremonial passages where some had openings to hermit caves and catacombs.
Tags:800-Year-Old Ethiopian Churches Are Carved From a Single Stoneethiopia churchesEthiopian Churchesethiopian churches undergroundlalibelalalibela churches mysteryUnknown Factswhat are the 11 churches of lalibela
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While you're in the hotel, your personal safety should always be top priority. When you register, the desk clerk should not tell you your room number out loud, especially if there are other people around. If the clerk does announce your room number to the whole lobby, insist that you be given another room. When requesting a room, you'll reduce your chances of being a crime victim if you ask for a room that's not on the ground floor. Almost all finer motels and hotels now use electronic lock systems. These are much safer than old fashioned key systems, and you should avoid staying at establishments that haven't made the switch. Be sure and ask about that when making reservations over the phone. You should always thoroughly inspect a room upon first entering; if you're a woman traveling alone, someone from the hotel staff should accompany you for this purpose. Your door should have a dead bolt lock; if it doesn't, you need to find somewhere else to stay. Whatever kind of door locks you have, make sure you lock them all as soon as you're in the room and keep them locked. Don't ever prop the door open for any reason, no matter how hot or cold you are. Your personal safety is more important than temporary comfort. Likewise, you should never open a hotel or motel door unless you're absolutely positive who's on the other side. If the person identifies themselves as maintenance or security personnel or other staff, and you haven't requested them, you should not let them in until you've called the front desk and verified that they are who they say they are. This is a common scheme criminals use to gain entrance without a key. Don't let it happen to you.


Those who tuned into last night's Country Music Awards might have picked up on a few surprises, like Miranda Lambert's rare loss to Carrie Underwood for Female Vocalist of the Year, or the unrelenting grip that Yodeling Boy has kept on his 15 minutes of fame. Another pleasant shock came with one of the biggest wins of the night, as Kacey Musgraves, the designated underdog, snagged the Album of the Year award for her lovelorn, psychedelia-laced album Golden Hours.
While AOTY might not function as the award of the CMAs the way it does for the Grammys (that honor belongs to Entertainer of the Year, which went to Keith Urban—a shock to all, including Urban) her win is huge for a number of reasons. For starters, her genre-straddling sound and bolder lyrics strongly depart from the traditional country twang, especially compared to her competitors within the category, Dierks Bentley, Chris Stapleton, Thomas Rhett, and Urban.
Another important point to note: Musgraves was the only woman nominated within her category, which is still a thing that we have to emphasize in 20-freaking-18. Despite how much of an eye roll that is, it's still better than the Entertainer of the Year category, which failed to recognize any women this year. We can just assume that all the ladies stayed home with their guitars.
It's likely that everything that sets Musgraves apart is was clinched the AOTY honor for her last night. Golden Hours is beautifully vulnerable and, more importantly, something different—a likely side effect of the LSD trip she admittedly underwent during the creative process, but whatever. It worked.


text:
abn-lookup.com / a-z index / a / a
A Z Surveying Pty Ltd
Australian Company Number
Australian Business Number
Limited by Shares
Proprietary other
Australian proprietary company
Registered on 2012-12-18 and given the 161703322 ACN, A Z Surveying Pty Ltd is a limited by shares Australian proprietary company. It can be found in the state of New South Wales, post code 2025. Before moving there company headquarters could be found in New South Wales post code 2025 (from 2013-04-10 to 2014-09-19), New South Wales post code 2025 (from 2013-03-12 to 2013-04-10), and New South Wales post code 2025 (from 2012-12-18 to 2013-03-12). The company registered for Goods and Services Tax on 2013-01-07 (until 2015-03-06). The data regarding A Z Surveying Pty Ltd was extracted from the ABR on 13-12-2020. The Australian Business Register database was last updated on 2015-07-25.
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A Z Surveying Pty Ltd 18-12-2012 current
NSW 2025 19-09-2014 current
NSW 2025 10-04-2013 19-09-2014
Registered 07-01-2013 06-03-2015
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text:
The week of Sept. 11-17, looking back in five-year intervals
1901: The Oct. 12 Nebraska game is seen as a tough one for Minnesota. Meanwhile, the Cornhuskers prepare for the season at camp. | Full story
1906: Heat makes the going difficult in the team's initial practices. | Full story
1921: Fred Dawson's Huskers head to East Campus for their first practice. Also, former NU lineman Farley Young is named coach of the freshman team.
1926: Sixty-four players report as coach Ernest Bearg begins practices.
1931: A Nebraska lineman reports an enticement from a player at Montana, where former Husker assistant "Bunny" Oakes is head coach.
1951: Star running back Bobby Reynolds suffers a shoulder injury during a scrimmage at Camp Curtis and is expected to be out of action for up to six weeks.
1956: Coach Pete Elliott announces that veteran quarterback Don Erway is likely to sit out the season opener because of knee problems. (Erway would miss the entire season and give up football.)
1966: Nebraska overcomes a sputtering offensive effort in a 14-10 win over TCU to open the season.
1971: The Blackshirts keep Dan Fouts and Bobby Moore in check as Nebraska opens the season with a 34-7 victory over Oregon.
1976: Top-ranked Nebraska opens the season by stubbing its toe in a 6-6 tie at LSU. Miscues in the kicking game proved costly.
1981: A year after suffering a 57-0 loss to Nebraska, Iowa uses a stingy defense, turnovers and Reggie Roby's booming punts to send the Huskers to a shocking 10-7 defeat.
1986: Players and coaches are relieved that the Huskers' ticket ordeal with the NCAA is over.
1991: The Huskers manhandle Colorado State, 71-14, registering their second consecutive game without having to punt.
2001: The terrorist attacks of Sept. 11 force postponement of hundreds of sports events, including the Nebraska-Rice game. At the time of the attacks, nobody was in the World Trade Center offices of the Boomer Esiason Foundation, whose staff included former Husker Dave Rimington.
2006: Nebraska goes run-heavy on offense but is held to 1.9 yards per carry in a 28-10 loss at Southern Cal.
2011: A 24-0 run in the second half breaks open a close game as the Huskers defeat Washington, 51-38, in the teams' third meeting in 365 days. Nebraska gashed the Huskies for 309 rushing yards.
2016: A gritty perfomance by Tommy Armstrong Jr. leads Nebraska to a come-from-behind upset of Oregon, 35-32.


text:
Jen Hatmaker Book Club | Episode
August 2020: Nora McInerny's "No Happy Endings"
Want a sneak peek into the book club of your dreams? Then allow us to present: the Jen Hatmaker Book Club! From time to time, we'll drop in with what we're reading in hopes you'll join us at jenhatmakerbookclub.com—because we *know* you'll love it. This month's book has been an over-the-top experience for all of us. We read No Happy Endings by Nora McInerny, and it's resonated from top to bottom in our community. Nora makes a living talking to people about life's hardest moments, and she speaks from experience. She lost her second baby, her father, and her young husband over the course of six weeks when she was 31 years old. Yet, she's chosen to channel her grief into two bestselling memoirs and a stellar podcast called Terrible, Thanks for Asking. She's a master storyteller who brings heart, transparency, and even levity to the most difficult and uncomfortable conversations that most of us spend our lives trying to avoid. And through it all, Nora's a reliable, trustworthy guide as we journey along our own suffering and grief and loss.
connect with nora mcinerny:
No Happy Endings
The Young Hot Widows Club
It's Okay to Laugh
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Jen: Guys, welcome back to the Jen Hatmaker Book Club Podcast. If you're listening to this on our regular For the Love Podcast feed, welcome. This is a sneak peek into all the incredible fun we have behind the scenes at the Jen Hatmaker Book Club, which you can join at jenhatmakerbookclub.com, and you should. Like, oh my gosh, you should. It is my favorite thing.
This month's book has been an over-the-top experience for all of us. We read No Happy Endings by Nora McInerny. It has just resonated from top to bottom in our community. Nora makes a living talking to people about life's hardest moments. Right? And she speaks from experience. She lost her second baby, her father, and her young husband over the course of six weeks when she was thirty-one years old. So, over these years, she has built a really impressive body of work. She's the bestselling author of two memoirs: No Happy Endings, which of course we devoured this month, and It's Okay to Laugh: Crying Is Cool Too. Nora's also the host of an award-winning podcast called Terrible, Thanks for Asking. It's so good, you guys. Immediately download that podcast. She's also the founder of a nonprofit called Still Kickin.
After reading this book, you're not surprised to know that Nora writes for all kinds of outlets: Elle, Time, Slate, Vox. She's such a good writer. She's a writer's writer. And she does what she does best. She writes about emotion and humor. She's so funny, wicked funny, inside very complex topics.
So, I know that you'll agree that she is a master storyteller who brings heart and sincerity and transparency and even levity to the most difficult and uncomfortable conversations that most of us spend our lives trying to avoid. She is a leader. She is a mentor. She is a reliable and a trustworthy guide through our own suffering and grief and loss. You are going to love this conversation. This girl is—she is worth all her salt. I'm so pleased to share this conversation with author extraordinaire and my friend, Nora McInerny.
Jen: Well, I am super happy to be looking at your face and talking to your voice and your mouth in your closet. I can see the clothes. And I'm so happy. Thank you for doing this.
Nora: Oh my gosh. I am so happy to be here on my dead husband's birthday.
Jen: Today?
Nora: Yeah. Today.
Jen: It really is? Nora.
Nora: Today, today, today. Yeah. He's forty-one, in a way. Actually, he's forever thirty-five.
Jen: Wow.
Nora: Yeah.
Jen: How does that feel? How does that feel?
Nora: I always know this day is coming. Obviously I have a calendar, I'm not a total fool, but your body knows certain days are coming, too. So, this time of year and November I get a little emotionally congested. I had a nice conversation with some of my friends a week ago, and I sobbed hysterically over who knows what even. I'm just like, "I've got to get it out. I've got to get it out."
Jen: Some low-hanging trigger point.
Nora: Right. Yes. They were like, "Yeah. You doing okay?" I was like, "Oh, obviously. Thank you. Thank you for checking in."
Jen: Totally.
Nora: But I've shifted from reserving all of these days for sadness into reserving these days for a celebration. And Aaron loved his birthday. He called it AaronFest. He made T-shirts.
Jen: Wow. Whoa.
Nora: He threw these giant parties up at his grandfather's land in the middle of nowhere Minnesota and would throw these parties for days for his friends. For his friends.
Jen: Are you serious? I love that.
Nora: I went to one that was before he got brain cancer, and it was too much for me. I literally sat inside the cabin and read books, because I was like, "I'm not used to whatever this is, and it's too much for me."
Jen: Just the sensory overload, the constant bro time.
Nora: It was like constant music. They were like, "We found these old tools in the shed. Let's go!" Just bizarre stuff. "We found a four wheeler. Let's go ride it!" I'm like, "We are drunk. No, we are not doing that."
Nora: It's just a lot, a lot of stuff happening all at once.
Jen: Oh my gosh.
Nora: So, our AaronFest this year is all the kids, all my kids from my two marriages, my niece and nephew, Aaron's sister. We finally live near her.
Jen: Nice.
Nora: They're coming over. We're getting Taco Bell, which is Aaron's…
Jen: Yes, lady!
Nora: And Taco Bell has a new treat. He loved Mountain Dew. They have a Mountain Dew slushie now.
Jen: Okay. Well.
Nora: You've got to try it, folks. You've got to try it. So, that's what we're doing.
Jen: Thank you so much for telling me that. I'm just learning. I have always, and I'm still in this current moment, learning a lot from you about how to live. How to live, and how grief is a part of the thing, not just to be put on a shelf and put a lid on, and that it can even be beautiful in a way that we didn't ever have an imagination for. You don't write this script that you have. You didn't expect it.
Nora: No.
Jen: And here you are, living beautifully. It's really something.
This has been the absolute through line this month in our book club, as we've all read your book, is this constant refrain from our community like, "Wow, I am, number one, learning so much about how to feel, how to grieve, how to name it, how to be kind and generous to my own self." So, I bring with me a whole bucket, a million buckets of women that said, "Please tell Nora thank you so much," just for your transparency. It feels like you didn't leave anything out.
Jen: I think it's all in there.
Nora: It's all in there. All the parts of the story that were mine to tell are in there. And some of it is not, and those are things that I will tell people when they ask me personally, but I think a lot of the transition between the first and the second book was also learning what parts of this experience were mine and what parts of the experience I had decided were mine that were not.
Jen: That's a special wisdom right there.
Nora: And you'll get that in time. You will get that in time, because the first part of grief, it lasts forever. Grief is forever. Grieving is a period of time, and you will revisit it. Grief is just a little thing you carry around with you. It's just a little bit of you. For a long time, it feels like it is going to be your story, period. That's it. Like, I will be the girl whose husband died. And he died of brain cancer, and wasn't that so sad, and isn't that so sad about Aaron? And Aaron's death is a part of his story; it is not his entire story. That grief, that experience, that is a part of my story. Forever, I will hold onto it. I will defend it with my life. No one will claw it from me. And there is so much more to that story and to my story in general. We are all still here. We are all still living it. And the process of figuring out what something means, we have this—sorry, and I'm just going in…
Jen: I want you to.
Nora: But if your listeners are on Instagram, and I have a feeling they might be, but you are inundated with this, everybody knows, toxic positivity. Google it. Psychology Today has a great article about it. We are conditioning one another to believe that the silver lining is the first part you should see, when really you've got to stand in it for a while. Okay? Everybody wants to tell you to have some perspective. By that, they mean "Please have my perspective."
Nora: "Where I can look around the world and see like, well, yeah, this bad thing happened to you, but at least, or just those…" Nothing good ever came after the words "at least." Nothing. Nothing, nothing.
Nora: No one was ever comforted by a sentence that started with "at least."
Jen: At least.
Nora: "At least you know you can get pregnant." Oh, great. Thank you. That's so helpful as I bury my baby. Thank you, thank you, thank you.
Jen: God. Right.
Nora: Just these things. People want to get to that positive side. They want you to get to that positive side, because they're so uncomfortable with your discomfort, and it's so dehumanizing. And all we need is for somebody to be like, "Hey, Jen, this is as bad as you think it is."
Jen: Totally. Yep. Yep.
Nora: "Maybe even worse."
Jen: "And you deserve every single ounce of the feelings that you are feeling for as long as you want to feel them."
Nora: "For as long as you want to feel them. It will not always feel like this hot of a knife wedged in between your ribs, but right now it does."
Jen: It does.
Nora: "Right now it does." So, you are welcome, to everybody. Thank you to everybody who read this book, frankly. I think sometimes people see a book and they're like, "Well, but my husband's not dead." It's like, yeah, but everybody in the world knows what it is like—or you will know eventually, because I'm fun—what it's like for your entire life to fall apart.
Jen: Yep. Totally. Right. I told you. I told you yesterday, I'm like, "I can deeply identify with your story, not in the same ways. I'm not a carbon copy of your story. But the threads of grief, loss, catastrophe, a narrative that unravels without your permission, all of it." I'm like, "Hell, I don't know a woman at my age that has not already crossed this bridge in some way, big or small." And I always just tell people, "If you've never experienced loss that cut your heart out, just live longer. You will. You will."
So, No Happy Endings is not just a roadmap through losing your young husband to cancer. I mean, those are the details around your story, but all this incredible wisdom that you embedded is serving everybody that has read it. It's interesting how you sat down and started the thing. You opened the book, and you slipped this right away. I mean, we just don't even get a second. We're not going to warm up the engine. Right at the beginning, you are like, "Happiness doesn't negate sadness, and we're allowed to be happy, even in the middle of literally unthinkable grief." So, you're holding this paradox from the first page essentially.
I'm trying to put myself in your shoes, Nora. When you sat down to your laptop and you were like, "This is a big and hard story to talk about and tell." How did you start there? How did you know where to start?
Nora: I always, for some reason, before I start a project, I can always tell you where it's going to begin, and I can always tell you where it's going to end. But this is why I'm terrible in pitch meetings: I can't tell you what the book will be about.
Jen: "Here the book is. Use your imagination."
Nora: Yeah. I'm like, "We're here and we're there, and in the middle we've got to live it, but I'm pretty sure this is what it's about." And all of my best writing comes from a place of anger. It always comes from anger. I know that is not inspiring to most people, and it's always a reaction to something. So, my TED Talk, that is an act of passive aggression. I'm from Minnesota. That TED Talk was…
Jen: Sure. It's a subtweet.
Nora: It is a subtweet to the masses, to everybody in the Western world who watches somebody go through something difficult, go through grief, and then is like, "Okay, but," taps watch, "can we be done with this? Why is this still a thing?" I watched myself go through that, and more importantly I watched other people come to me and say, "Well, I wish after I'd published my first book—I'm just not doing as well as you are." And I thought, Why do you think I'm doing well? Then I realized, Oh, it's because you see that I've met somebody, and you see that we each had children and we are one of those lucky few people whose family didn't even need to blend; it just was. It just was a thing right away. So, you think that it must be over for me.
And I have some secret to tell you, and all I can tell you is that the first part of me falling in love with Matthew was me falling apart for the first time, was me having a place where I could be at rest emotionally, which I had not had for a very, very long time. At the time that I wrote this book, I think I had maybe 50,000 Instagram followers. The podcast had started, was taking off, but I had started to get some nastiness that I knew was underlying a larger attitude that I saw coming through in our group, the Hot Young Widows Club with a lot of widows, where people will be like, "Oh, everybody is telling me that either I should," no, "have moved on," false, "Or everybody is telling me that when my grief is expressed that I'm faking it, because look at all the other things that are good in my life."
Jen: Whoa. That's cruel.
Nora: It's so cruel. People are so cruel. But I've seen it. I've seen this same resistance as an observer on the internet where there's some—I don't know her name—influencer and her child died, and then she's doing something, and people are like, "Well, why are you doing this? I thought you were sad about your baby dying." It's like, well, yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. No, I guarantee you she is. Okay? You don't need her grief passport to know that she is still very much aching over that. And the world keeps spinning. She's still got to live for these other children. She's still got to do her job. And also, she wants to. She wants to be a part of the living world.
I had resisted falling in love with Matthew. Not well, I'm not that strong. But I had resisted people knowing about it, and I had spent that first book tour pregnant, secretly, not just out of shame but out of fear that I could not possibly have another good thing happen to me, because it would be taken. So, the best way to live life would be like, "Oh, I'll just stay at a three excitement level at all times," and therefore, when you hit a one or a negative one, that's not that far to fall. You get to a ten? High risk.
Jen: I see what you're saying. Yeah.
Nora: Risk of spinal cord injury. You don't want to do that, okay?
Nora: So, I knew that the thread of the book was going to be about the fact that things are as good as they look; they really are. Matthew's extremely handsome. He's so kind. The children he brought to this marriage: beautiful, loving humans. This other baby we have, TBD. Honestly, he's four.
Jen: We'll see. The jury's out on him.
Nora: The jury's out. He's got that youngest child syndrome where you're like, "You could be great, or you could be borderline evil because you are too adored, you are too adored."
Jen: Totally. "You are over-loved. Okay?"
Nora: "You are over-loved."
Jen: It's going to create a monster.
Nora: And it is also all of our children—minus that baby, maybe that's his problem—come from a traumatic environment. The older kids, they lost a family. They lost a life that they were not comfortable in, but that was very normal to them.
Nora: Ralph lost a dad that he didn't even get to know. Matthew lost his entire life, everything that he thought was his, gone, gone. And same with me. So, those are not things that are erased by the fact that we found each other.
Nora: Those are things that they show up in our marriage, they show up in raising these kids. And you're so good at this in your own writing. We have to make sure this is clear, because our kids are watching. Our kids are watching. And I never saw my mom fall apart, because honestly she didn't have the time, and it was the go, go eighties.
It's like, her brother died when I was in eighth grade. I saw her cry at the funeral, and then she held it together. That's how she was raised, by the Greatest Generation, which I have a bone to pick with that name. Okay? They were a generation. They were fine. Okay?
Jen: They were okay.
Nora: They were okay. Did they raise emotionally competent children?
Jen: They did not.
Nora: Heavens no.
Jen: Yeah, good point.
Nora: No, no, no, no, no. So, that's where I sat down. I sat down, and in a place of reactiveness I wrote that whole chapter.
Jen: I love it, because I find grief and loss and suffering and recovery poorly discussed in general, poorly managed. You mentioned earlier we're just not good—we have no home training on how to sit with other people's pain. We're just terrible at it. We just want to hustle everybody through. I feel that instinct in my own self, and I know better. So, the honesty is both breathtaking and refreshing.
You said a minute ago a word that I want to hear you talk about a little bit, from the Young, Hot—oh, let me…
Nora: Hot Young Widows Club.
Jen: There it is. Hot Young Widows Club. Hot Young—What was that word? That some of the women kept reporting what they should be doing or feeling or saying? I want to talk about that. I want to talk about the shoulds. And I'm an achiever. I'm an Enneagram 3.
Nora: Same. Yeah.
Jen: I'm capable, and I'm smart. So, should plays a pretty prominent role in my life, and it's an enemy of mine. That's just not how life works. It's not real. It's a fake construct. It's like what your dad said. Your dad said, "It's like we expect the world to care about our own timing." Because things don't ever work into the should.
So, can you talk about what role should—or should not, for that matter, other side of the coin—has played in your life, what you've learned about that, and how you fight that demon?
Nora: Yeah. I'm also a 3, also an achiever, also a person who loved to get a gold star growing up, loved to see the syllabus and be like, "Okay, great. This is just a roadmap to my personal success."
Jen: 100%.
Nora: And not just success but approval. Sweet, sweet approval.
Jen: Bless it all. May we get it all at the city gates.
Nora: Yes.
Nora: It's from a person that I don't even like or respect? Even better. I'll take it. I'll take it, and I'll treasure that even more, frankly.
Jen: That's my favorite. Yes.
Nora: That seems even more important to me. And raised in the Midwest, my parents were married when they were twenty-two. Look, they were parents. They had two kids by the time they were twenty-five. That's all I know. I can't do that math. I was a twenty-seven year old with no savings account when I left New York City and moved home with them, which I thought was kind of a mutual decision. They disagreed. That was not their plan. But I felt like I was getting off the plan, right? I was already supposed to be married. You have to be a mom before you're thirty. There are all these things that you should do…
Jen: Should do. Yeah.
Nora: …to live a life based on what—should is an automatic comparison. So, when you are saying that, one, who says you should? And if you say you should, what are you comparing yourself to? Because you're either comparing yourself to somebody else and you're looking over at their paper, which is impossible not to do, because you go on Instagram and people are renovating their kitchens. And you're like, "Where did we get that money? Am I supposed to have kitchen money? Is that what I'm supposed to have? Should I have kitchen money right now?" Their kids are going to a private school. Yeah, you looked it up. You looked up the tuition. It's $20,000. "Is that what we're supposed to be doing?" Or they're working fifty hours a week, but they are also making cupcakes that actually look like Minions.
Jen: It's confusing.
Nora: "I've never once done that." It's confusing. It's confusing.
So, even before the internet, we knew what we should do, because we would look around, we'd see how everybody else was living, or our parents imbued that expectation upon us, and then we took that on. We took that on. And most of our shoulds come from—my shoulds, at least—come from myself. They come from my inability to focus on staying in my own lane, on accepting my own reality, especially in times of crisis when we say, "Well, I guess I should," or "Hmm, it's not really that bad." I mean, when you look at this person, really what am I going through? It robs us of empathy for ourselves.
Jen: That's it.
Nora: Brené Brown has done a beautiful job of drilling into us the need for empathy for other people, and somehow in that whole message, we were like, "Oh, just for other people."
Jen: Right. Yes.
Nora: Even as I'm pretty sure she's screaming, "Give it to yourself too!" We're like, "Right, right. Other people. Other people." Especially women. We're like, "But forget about me. I'm a piece of trash." So, that's how I treat myself. That's how I treat myself every time I use should, every time I use it on somebody else. What I am doing is saying, "I already have an expectation of where I think you ought to be, and you are disappointing me. You are not meeting that expectation."
Let's say you still lived a very, very blessed life, but, hi, we're in a pandemic, and right now we are all comparing ourselves against the person we were last year at this time, the person we thought we would be at this time, what we thought we would be doing, what we thought we would have. And now we're like, "I don't know. Will I get another paycheck? Are the children going to school?"
Jen: Right. God.
Nora: So, wiping that from my vocabulary is truly a daily, daily process, and to maintain that in myself I have to—behind this computer are reminders of who I actually am and where I actually am.
I have all of these things to remind me this is who I am and where I am, and it's good. It's good. It is good. And it does not look like what I thought my life would look like at all. I did not anticipate being a thirty—I don't remember how old I am—thirty-seven year old stepmom on her second marriage, working in a closet because the world fell apart. And holy crap, that was not good for the old single-family income. Also, it's really good. I don't need a new kitchen. We have a functional kitchen. Our water runs.
Jen: That's right. It's fine.
Nora: We're good. We're good. If I never saw anyone else's kitchen, I'd be like, "This is a great kitchen! It's a great kitchen, great kitchen." Sometimes should sneaks in on the diet that you feed yourself.
Jen: You're right. I'm kind of working on that practice right now, that sort of mindfulness embodiment, which is not something that's easy for me at all. I live in productivity and externally largely. So, having to learn to just be like, "Where am I right this second, right this minute? Okay. Let me just feel. I'm inside this body. I'm breathing. The heart is beating. Bravo, heart." And, yes, staying kind of present in the moment instead of helicoptering into everybody else's lives. That's really easy to do. But I appreciate you saying that most of our shoulds come from within. That's my experience, too.
What am I willing to entertain? What is my mental digestion? What thoughts am I circling the drain around? And you're right. That's our own work to do, which sucks, because I wish we could just put that on somebody else, "Stop doing this to me," and then I will be grounded in my own life. But really it's worse than that. That's our own work.
Nora: Yes. This happens not just with what people have physically, not just with their physical possessions, but with the way they appear to be living their life. And some, "Well, I guess I should be more open. I guess I should be meditating sixty minutes every morning. I guess I should be …" And, no. Or maybe, but everybody's life recipe is so, so, so different, and what you are seeing is a small part of what they are choosing to show you.
Jen: That's real.
Nora: And you have no idea what their reality is. So, it's all smoke and mirrors, a shell game, and you are doing the best you can with what you have. And also, lower your expectations. Lower them.
Nora: Not for what you want to have, but what you think you are supposed to be doing.
Nora: And how you think you are supposed to be performing in this world.
Jen: So, one thing that you've talked about a little bit here, but I want you to talk about more, is that your experience of loss and suffering, of course, is its own entity, and then you are then contending with what everybody else's emotions are around you and their response to you. So, you talked about how most people—maybe that's a little bit mean, but I think that's true—do not know how to respond to your particular tragedy, or they just disappeared altogether like maybe you were contagious, maybe your brand of life was just going to be catching, like the flu, or they helped badly, the shoulds and the silver linings and the "How much longer?"
Nora: "It's over now, right?"
Jen: Right. Like, "it's been a minute, so," or, "You have a new boyfriend."
Nora: Yeah. So, who cares?
Jen: So, I wonder what that has done to your BS meter. What has that done longterm for you in terms of your tolerance for people with the shiny veneer, or your tolerance for inauthenticity, or your tolerance for tidy narratives? How has that carried through to where you are even right now?
Nora: Yeah. I distrust a tidy story. I distrust anybody who encourages other people to hustle their way through something, or "It's all about your mindset." It's not your mindset ninety percent of the time.
We live in America, which is a very difficult place for most people, where there are stark socioeconomic and racial inequities that actually affect people's lives, that affect your ability to be able to grieve.
Nora: Grief is the feeling everybody cannot escape. To grieve is still a privilege. To have access to mental health care, huge privilege. So, your level of okayness is impacted—not dependent on, but is impacted—by where you fall on that spectrum of different kinds of privileges.
Jen: You're right.
Nora: That was a hard thing even for me to—if you would have told me that like, "Well, but think of all your privileges," when Aaron died, I would have been like, "Please F off forever."
Jen: Forever.
Nora: And now I'm like, "Oh my god. Of course. Of course."
Jen: Totally. Right. Same.
Nora: So, I can even look back on some sort of Instagram post that I had made where I was like, "Oh, look, it's all going to be great," and that was a lie that I was telling myself. It was also a lie that I thought that was most palatable to other people, because I did not want them to pity me.
Jen: You were probably right on both counts.
Nora: I was right, and what I was doing was I was contributing to that digital pollution where women were seeing me and being like, "Oh, well, you ran a half marathon after your husband died. You must be doing great." And it's like, I was running, literally running from my feelings. Literally running from my feelings in that process, and, again, doing horribly, drinking quite a lot. So, no. No. But I am most genuinely connected with—I don't believe that you have this responsibility to walk around, bleeding out for everybody that you meet. That is not true.
Jen: That's a really good intention to hold.
Nora: Yes. You do not need to do that. Your pain, by the way, is also yours, and you get to choose who is a safe place to hold it.
So, when I talk about—Terrible, Thanks for Asking is an aspirational response, by the way. What I had done in that first year is tell everybody that I was fine, and every time I told them that, I built a nice little cage for myself.
And who did I keep out? I kept out my sister who loves me, who knows me, who wanted to be there, and also I was kept out of her life where she was going through her own stuff. She had lost Aaron, too. She loves him. And, she was going through her own marriage stuff that I had no idea, because I was like, "I'm fine." Tha-dunk. Done.
I kept out my brothers who also wanted to be there, who dressed Aaron's dead body, who put socks on him, because I'd forgotten socks. I'd forgotten to lay out socks, and they picked out the right socks.
I kept out friends who truly did want to be there, lifelong friends, because it was so painful for me to see their husbands holding their kids. And I didn't know how to say that. I didn't know how to say that.
Jen: Wow. That's so honest.
Nora: I thought it would break everything. I thought, If I let myself feel it, everyone else will feel it, and it will be too much.
"Fine," is a fine thing to say to the checkout boy at Target, and I apologize for weeping to only inappropriate people, by the way.
Jen: Totally. Right.
Nora: My mail carrier? Deep apologies.
Jen: So sorry. Wrong guy at the wrong time.
Nora: Wrong guy at the wrong time. Handing him a stack of letters that say "return to sender." "He's dead!" and then he's like, "Oh, I'm so sorry." I'm like, "You know, it's not you. It's not you. It's just the whole …" He's like, "I do need to leave. This interaction does need to be over. I regret standing here for any longer."
Jen: I just love what you're saying right now. Fine is right for a category of people; it is not right for another category of people.
Nora: Right. Also, it's like you know when you're talking to someone, Is this safe with you? Is this safe with you? Am I safe with you? I knew very quickly that there were some people that I was not safe with, but to guard against them I just put it up for everybody. So, I'm thinking about somebody coming over and literally looking down at my child on the floor and saying, "Heartbreaking."
And I was like, "I don't want that for him. You can have your heart broken for him, but don't do that right here in this moment."
I have another theory. Aaron's life to me was very much The Great Gatsby, only he wasn't a faker and he wasn't a bastard, but there were 1,000 people at our wedding online, because we couldn't afford to have more than 200 people there.
There were 1,000 people at his funeral. And in between, there were some people who showed up—Jamie Ericksen, I'm talking about you—and afterwards there were much, much fewer. Much, much fewer. I was keeping score in my mind, like "Who's here and who isn't?"
I feel differently about that now. I had so much anger, and feel that anger. We do not let women feel angry, and you're angry for a reason, and feel it. Rage out. Hit your mattress with a whiffle ball bat. Old therapy trick. Beat it with your fists.
Jen: Yeah. Totally. You told me that yesterday.
Nora: Rage until your body is—I hope you did it too. Double fist and let your body just hit it as hard as you can. I know now that them not showing up really had nothing to do with me, and it had everything to do with their own stuff that I'll never know about, and also that hurt me too much for the relationship to repair.
Jen: Yep, I understand both of those.
Nora: It was too much. So, I can look at those people with compassion, and I can also say, "You were in my life for that part of it, and you did love Aaron, and you didn't love me the way I needed you. So, here we are. Here we are. And I will wish you well, and I will also control my Instagram settings so that I don't see you."
Nora: "Because it hurts so bad to see your name. It hurts so bad to see your name on…"
Jen: I'm sorry.
Nora: "Aaron's sister's posts or on Aaron's mom's posts, but I know it's not about …" And maybe it is about me, because I was also, by the way, when you are in pain, there's a phrase: "Hurt people hurt people." Hell yes you will. It's like you will breathe fire all over.
Jen: Of course. Yep.
Nora: All over. And some earth will be scorched, and sometimes some earth needs that to regrow. And some, it just kills it forever.
Jen: That's great. What a good analogy.
Nora: But I will say, this is my final piece of wisdom on this, okay? The people who show up are the right people.
Jen: That's right. God.
Nora: Even if they aren't the people you wanted there.
Jen: That's so true.
Nora: The people who are there, they are the right people. I know we're all like fourth grade girls looking around our birthday party, being like, "Why isn't Kristen here?" And it's like, no, no, no, no, because Emily's here, and Emily was the right person.
Jen: That's right. That's right. That's it. I'm experiencing that in my life right now. Okay. I'm going to ask you, our book club sent in a billion questions for you. Fortunately for you, I culled them. So, I picked a couple. Everybody had a lot. It's just, you know this now, because you've put your story out into the world with such transparency and tenderness, it's so easy to connect to. So, unfortunately we're all like, "Same. Same. Me too. Same. Same."
Nora: Whenever someone's like, "I liked your book," I'm like, "Oh, sorry."
Jen: Oh, totally.
Nora: "I'm so sorry. Oh, why?"
Jen: "I wish it was confusing to you." You're like, "Wow, this feels real sad. I don't even know about it."
Okay. Here's a question from Karen White. She asked, "What was the best part about writing this book and what was the hardest part about writing it?"
Nora: Okay. The best part about writing this book was that I felt like—I'm going to quote Chanel Miller here. She wrote Know My Name, and she wrote this cartoon of her being on 60 Minutes, and them being like, "How did it feel to write this book?" and her thought bubble being like, "Like taking a giant emotional dump."
Jen: Lovely. Lovely.
Nora: Yeah. It felt wonderful. But I felt like I had reorganized even my thoughts around this whole experience, which were so rooted in shame, which is something that I still feel, because I am alive and Aaron is not. And I have this career that people are like, "How do you get published?"
And I'm like, "You write a viral obituary. I don't know." It's like, So did I just cheat my way to the top? Did I cheat my way to the lower middle? Did I? Did I? I don't know. But oh God, who deserves to get two big loves? Nobody gets what they deserve. Nobody gets what they deserve. You get what you get and you don't throw a fit. We say that to our kids when they get a weirdly shaped cookie. Well, guess what? We need to hear it ourselves, too.
So, I think personally it helped me work through a lot of the thoughts that felt too tangly to express to the people who cared about me, and all of my work is an act of either aggression or passive aggression. I felt like I was giving other people, and so you telling me it resonated with people does mean so much to me, because I felt like I was giving people who were going through something proof, like "You're not nuts."
Nora: And I was hoping people who have had a perfect life would read it and be like, "Ohhh, okay. Okay. Maybe I need to think a little bit differently about the way that I'm interacting with a friend or a family member who's suffering."
Jen: That's good. That's good. That's so great.
Nora: So, having children, I do struggle with what are the things that—because we all need to know. Everybody's like, "How do I do a family? How do I do a family that doesn't look exactly like what I thought a family looked like?" I don't know. I don't know. And we have these wonderful examples. We have Glennon and Abby, and they get along so well, and for most people it really sucks.
Jen: Oh yeah. You're right.
Nora: They have this superhuman beautiful family, and I know it took work to get there, and I take so much inspiration from following them and from watching Abby be a stepmom who is also just a mom, just a mom. And, there are certain parts of the story that you can't tell, because they aren't yours. They just aren't yours. So, there are additional complications that are just not mine to tell.
Jen: Of course there are.
Nora: And never will be, and that part is so hard, because I know that would be really helpful for people.
Nora: It would be really helpful for people. And also, I can't do it. I can't do it.
Jen: Gosh.
Nora: Also I have to think about these kids. They will eventually read my writing. My daughter said, "It's not for me," but my niece read it and was like…
Jen: "Not for me."
Nora: My niece read it and she actually was like, "Huh. Pretty good."
Jen: "Look what you can do."
Nora: Okay, fourteen-year-old goth? Pretty good?
Jen: Take it. Lady, take it.
Nora: Pretty good. Pretty good. So, that is the hard part. I know that there are more questions. I know that there's more that people need to know, that they want to know.
Jen: Oh man.
Nora: It's also like, it's just not mine.
Nora: It's just not mine.
Jen: Okay. Here's another question. This is from Shelley Radcliffe. What's your advice for people supporting a grieving friend? You mentioned this just a second ago.
Nora: Oh my God. Yes. Oh, bless. What a wonderful question. Thank you for asking this, because it requires so much humility from you. Because you are going to do something, and you won't hear back. You're going to do something, they won't like it.
Jen: Oh my God. Right.
Nora: You're going to do something, and you're going to send a text that will never get a reply, and then you're going to internalize and be like, "Well, they hate me now. They don't need me." They do need you. You just keep showing up.
Jen: Ugh, this is so good, Nora.
Nora: You just keep doing it. You keep doing things. And some of them are the wrong thing, and some of them are neutral, and one will be the right thing. And you just keep doing things. There's a Venn diagram of whatever you can do and whatever you will do. In there, you just keep doing those things. So, you don't rewire their electrical if that's not something you can do. Okay?
Jen: Right. Right.
Nora: You don't shovel if you've got a bad back. But if what you can do is every single day you send them a text that's a reminder of a good thing about them that you admire, if every single day you send them a song that made you think of them, if every single week you send them a gift card to go buy something that they don't need, you do that. Whatever is in your wheelhouse and that you will do without expectation, without expectation of acknowledgement, and truly that you would do with no one even knowing it was you, you do that.
Jen: I've never really heard anybody say that. Now that I'm sitting deeply in the pocket of this grief space, I spend so much time once every few days trying to dig out of my texts and be like, "I'm sorry for the delay. I'm sorry I didn't respond."
Nora: Oh God.
Jen: You know what I mean?
Nora: Yes. Yes.
Jen: Because that's what I'm worried about, like they're going to think, "Well, I did call," or "I did text her, but she didn't respond." But I just can't. I just can't. I've literally never heard anybody say that. So, love them how you can without expectations. Well, that's just…
Nora: Without expectations.
Jen: We'll just end it right there.
Okay. One more question, and then we'll wrap. Debbie West said, "When you are tired and you've shoveled grace all day and just that's the end of it, what's your go-to dinner?"
Nora: Oh my God, I…
Jen: Food is a comfort, as we know.
Nora: I hate dinner so much. Okay. Dinner is like the most stressful. I want a snack. I want a snack dinner. That's the answer.
Jen: I applaud this.
Nora: Okay. We do this thing called "summer sushi," and by that I mean it's just sliced up cheeses, it is sliced up fruits, sliced up hotdogs, cooked and uncooked, because our children are garbage. Hunks of bread, butter, dips. And then everybody just eats the snacks that they want to eat. Popcorn. Actually, I would take for dinner a giant, on the stove…
Jen: Oh, old fashioned.
Nora: …in a Whirly-Pop…
Jen: I hear you. We're up on that.
Nora: …thing of popcorn with like a whole stick of butter melted over it. I basically want a stick of butter with some popcorn floating in it. That's it. That's it. I don't want to eat a single vegetable. I don't want the meal to be balanced in any way. In no way.
Jen: No. No lean proteins.
Nora: There will be no lean proteins. I have actually started to cook anything that you post on Instagram, because it's very helpful. And guess what? Guess who's pickling?
Jen: I'm so happy.
Nora: This lady. I'm a pickler, okay?
Jen: Look at you. Look at what you're doing.
Nora: I'm pickling everything. I didn't even know you could pickle carrots.
Jen: You can!
Nora: I was like, "You can only pickle pickles."
Jen: They belong on the summer sushi board.
Nora: I know.
Jen: Put your pickled carrots right there. Make a convert…
Nora: Put some pickled carrots. Yes.
Jen: …as young as you can, to the world of pickles.
Nora: The world of pickles. I didn't even know you could pickle all these things. So wonderful. Yeah, we'll add some pickles to the summer sushi. But I want snacks. I want hardcore snacks all the time.
Jen: That makes me happy.
Nora: And super fatty too. If anybody gives me like, "Oh, I made this dip with fat-free yogurt," I want you to leave my home.
Jen: This is a friend deal-breaker. Bye.
Nora: Yeah. Why would you abuse me in this manner? Why would I want your low fat? No, no, no, no, no, no, no.
Jen: I haven't bought anything that's low fat in I don't even— a decade?
Nora: Good. Good.
Jen: A decade?
Nora: It's a scam.
Jen: We have Instacart. Do you have that up there? Where you can get a grocery shopper?
Nora: Oh yeah. Yeah.
Jen: So, when I get something like yogurt or ricotta or just whatever, I go into the little place where I can make a special note, and I'm like, "Be very careful not to get low fat or fat free. Please check it twice. because that's just sad. Don't make me sad today. Like, Linda, get me what I want here."
One time my coffee creamer, which is trash, it's just chemicals that you drink every morning. But it came in fat free, and I was like, "Well, I guess I'll just pour it down the drain."
Nora: No. If I am adding a somewhat cancerous flavor to my coffee, I would like all the fat in it, please. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.
Jen: Please let it taste sincerely like coconut, okay? So, don't mess with me.
Okay. Last here. Obviously writers are readers. You're a reader. What are you reading right now? What do you love? What book are you enjoying? What author is your summer space?
Nora: Okay. Hold on. I've got a couple that I actually need your address [for], because I'm putting them in the mail for you.
Jen: Oh, goodie.
Nora: Okay. So, I've got a couple that are just go-tos. One is Felicity by Mary Oliver.
Jen: Oh, Mary Oliver.
Nora: This is a weeper. It is a weeper, a weeper. And I've also been reading sort of, it's not historical fiction, but it's historical nonfiction, okay? So, I just read Empty Mansions, because it's about an eccentric billionaire from the twenties who died very recently at like age 103 in New York City, and who died with all of these empty mansions all over that she just bought and kept in this meticulous shape. It's fascinating, fascinating.
Jen: Whoa.
Nora: Eccentric old lady. Yes, please.
Jen: Oh yeah. Okay. Love it.
Nora: Then I'm also buying books that are no longer necessarily—books that are out of print or books that are super, super old, just find something that you're vaguely interested, and look if there's a book about it. Because I got very interested in televangelism, and I got this book.
Jen: I didn't see this coming.
Nora: The Rise and Fall of Jim and Tammy Faye Bakker's Evangelical Empire. Fascinating. Then I went in, and I bought every book that Tammy Faye Bakker has ever written.
Jen: No, you did not. You did?
Nora: So, I'm on a deep, deep rabbit hole of Tammy Faye Bakker, who I did not know was from Minnesota. We don't claim her, and I find that to be a travesty, because she did come from such crazy humble beginnings. And guess what? Her husband was the crook. She was just sort of along for the ride.
Jen: I'm going to look forward to hearing a future report on your Tammy Faye Bakker deep dive.
Nora: Yes, yes, yes. I will. I have a vaguely Christian podcast called Cafeteria Christian, where I'm going to do this deep dive, because…
Jen: Oh God, finally, finally.
Nora: Okay. This is a new one that I got at the bookstore. It's called Self-Care. You will read it in one hour. It is light. So, you need to read this, because it is a light, and it's a satire. It's so funny, and it's just sort of about obviously a female self-care hustle culture and being a girl boss and all of that.
Jen: Okay, yeah. Perfect.
Nora: It's amazing.
Jen: Okay.
Nora: Next, this comes out next month, and I read this in two hours the other night. It's called Sanctuary.
Jen: Great cover.
Nora: By Paola Mendoza. It takes place in the near future. It is I think technically a YA, but that's the kinds of books we should all be writing. And it's a political story about a country, the United States, where all immigrants are microchipped and have to prove their belongingness. It's given me nightmares for two nights, but…
Jen: Highly recommend.
Nora: Highly recommend.
Jen: Yes, yes.
Nora: It's such a good telling of the anxiety that so many people feel without—you can tell that it's grounded in emotional reality, even though it is fiction, which I really love.
This is the other book that I'm sending you, so don't buy it. Okay?
Nora: Pema Chodron, When Things Fall Apart. And I'm going to read this to everybody, because holy crap, everybody needs to hear this. Okay. Okay. Okay. So, three passages.
"Things falling apart is a kind of testing and also a kind of healing. We think that the point is to pass the test or to overcome the problem, but the truth is that things don't really get solved. They come together and they fall apart. Then they come together and fall apart again. It's just like that. The healing comes from letting there be room for all of this to happen: room for grief, for relief, for misery, for joy."
Nora: Oh, you think I'm done? I'm not done. Okay.
"When things fall apart and we're on the verge of we know not what, the test for each of us is to stay on that brink and not concretize. Life is a good teacher and a good friend."
I would like to just add that life is a touch-and-go friend. Okay?
Jen: She's okay.
Nora: Okay?
Jen: She's all right.
Nora: I've had better. Okay.
"Things are always in transition, if we could only realize it. Nothing ever sums itself up in the way that we like to dream about. The off center, in-between state is the ideal situation, a situation in which we don't get caught and we can open our hearts and minds beyond limit. To stay with that shakiness, to stay with a broken heart, with a rumbling stomach, with a feeling of hopelessness and wanting to get revenge, that is the path of true awakening."
Jen: Great. Thank you for those readings. Those are powerful. Okay. Well, listen, on behalf of the Jen Hatmaker Book Club, [we're] big Nora fans up in here, huge, monumental.
Nora: Oh God. Thank you.
Jen: Thank you. Thank you for your time today. Happy birthday to Aaron.
Nora: All right. Bye.
Jen: Much love.


text:
Financial Trends
Stretching for yield
SNL Report: Some banks extending duration as reinvestment risk looms
Written by SNL Financial
SNL Financial, part of S&P Global Market Intelligence, is the premier provider of breaking news, financial data, and expert analysis on business sectors critical to the global economy. This article originally appeared on the subscriber side of SNL Financial's website.
By Nathan Stovall and Venkatesh Iyer, SNL Financial staff writers
The lower-for-longer rate environment has prompted some banks to extend durations in their securities portfolio to help bolster waning interest income.
As long-term rates have remained lower and even fallen further in the wake of Brexit, banks have seen their security yields, and by extension, net interest margins, come under more pressure. Some banks have kept their powder dry or invested more heavily in floating-rate bonds, hoping that increases in rates at some point will provide them relief. Others, meanwhile, are reaching further out the yield curve to mitigate persistent pressure on their net interest margins.
SNL data shows that the banking industry's security yield fell to 2.06% through the first half of 2016, down 12 basis points from 2015 and more than 20 basis points lower from 2013 as long-term rates have fallen considerably during that time frame.
The yield on the benchmark 10-year Treasury has come under pressure in the last two years and fell close to 80 basis points in the first six months of 2016 alone. The yield on the 10-year Treasury has not increased much since then. Much of the banking industry now faces reinvestment risk as they are confronted with putting existing cash flows to work at lower rates.
PNC Financial Services Group Inc. Chairman, President, and CEO William Demchak described that challenge on his company's second-quarter earnings call. PNC's security yield was 2.68% in the second quarter, but the executive noted if the company looked to replace the securities in its portfolio, new purchases likely would carry a yield of 1.69%, or roughly 100 basis points lower than the current yield on the portfolio.
"Now if we really got into an environment where we believed that we were stuck here à la Japan, which I don't think is the case, we could put liquidity to work and raise our duration of equity if we got stuck into that. So there [are] offsets to it," Demchak said on the call, according to the transcript. "Look, it is a simple statement to make that it is tougher to get to positive operating leverage without help or at least without pain from interest rates."
Most banks do not appear to have changed the composition of their bond portfolios that much for now. Some of the decision-making is influenced by regulation such as the liquidity coverage ratio, which requires banks with more than $50 billion in assets to maintain high-quality liquid assets greater than their projected cash outflows during a stressed scenario.
Many of those high-quality liquid assets are low-yielding securities such as Treasurys and agency debt, and banks subject to the rule held 73.1% of all securities in the industry at end of the second quarter.
Click on the image to enlarge it
Still, the relative size of government securities—securities issued by the Treasury, government agencies and government-sponsored agencies—did decline in bank bond portfolios in the second quarter, falling to a median of 18.0% of total securities, from 20.3% in the first quarter and 23.0% a year earlier. Many of those securities are highly sensitive to change in long-term rates and likely would see their prices come under pressure if rates rise.
Even as some banks might be eying the prospect of higher rates, others are reaching further out on the yield curve to help offset the impact of the current low rate environment.
For instance, Pacific Continental Corp. said it increased the average duration of its securities portfolio to 4.2 years at June 30 from 3.7 years at March 31. Pacific Continental CFO Rick Sawyer said on the company's second-quarter earnings call that it expanded duration to generate additional interest income and yield on the portfolio.
East West Bancorp Inc. said on its second-quarter earnings call that it could entertain the same strategy as it looks to defend its current net interest margin. East West CFO Irene Oh said on the call that the duration on the company's security portfolio is "pretty low" and it would be comfortable extending from current levels.
Other bankers, however, are not changing their investment approach and say they want to be mindful of not taking on too much duration risk, even if rates remain low. Regions Financial Corp. CFO David Turner noted on his company's second-quarter earnings call that it could face reinvestment risk as the yield on the 10-year Treasury remains under pressure, but he does not believe the risk of trying to change that is worth it right now.
"We haven't extended duration. We are a little over three years right now. It's been that way for a while and we don't look to make that change," Turner said on the call.
This article originally appeared on SNL Financial's website under the title, "Some banks extending duration as reinvestment risk looms"
Download reprint of SNL article
Tagged under	ALCO, Management, Financial Trends, Risk Management, Rate Risk,
SNL Financial
SNL Financial, now part of S&P Global Market Intelligence, is the premier provider of breaking news, financial data, and expert analysis on business sectors critical to the global economy: Banking, Insurance, Financial Services, Real Estate, Energy, Media & Communications and Metals & Mining. SNL's business intelligence service provides investment professionals, from leading Wall Street institutions to top corporate management, with access to an in-depth electronic database, available online and updated 24/7. This article originally appeared on the subscriber side of SNL Financial's website in slightly different form and appears on www.bankingexchange.com as part of a cooperative venture. Each week a selected SNL article will be brought to our readers. Click here to learn more about SNL Financial and to obtain a free trial subscription.
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text:
Yamatotettix pacificus är en insektsart som beskrevs av Webb 1986. Yamatotettix pacificus ingår i släktet Yamatotettix och familjen dvärgstritar. Inga underarter finns listade i Catalogue of Life.

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pacificus

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


Resin Addict Forum • View topic - How are large, clear tables made?
I've seen some beautiful resin furniture for sale, and I've wondered how they make it. I have two particular examples in mind: the crystal clear (or translucent colored) slabs of resin, and the resin/wood hybrid. Are they using huge pressure chambers to get the perfectly clear finish?
Re: How are large, clear tables made?
I think these are epoxy resin. Careful mixing and pouring avoid introducing bubbles and long cure times allow any bubbles to leave, as they're not placed under vacuum or pressure.
I suggest finding people who have made these and asking them. I've seen a couple on YouTube.


Live Blood Cell Analysis is conducted according to the standard methodology.
A drop of blood sample is taken from the finger tip of the subject not introduced to EMR of cellular phone. This sample is placed on a specimen slide in a series of layers. After the layers dry, they are observed under the microscope. Digital camera attached to microscope takes a picture of the sample.
Then the same subject uses cellular phone in standard operating position without Anti Radiation Chip for 5 minutes and the drop of blood sample is taken from the finger tip one more time. Sample is observed under the microscope, and digital camera takes another picture.
Afterwards, the same subject uses cellular phone in standard operating position with without Anti Radiation Chip for another 5 minutes and the drop of blood sample is taken from the finger tip and observed under microscope. All three images are compared and analyzed. The image of the blood sample taken after exposure of the subject to EMR of cellular phone without Anti Radiation Chip shows the patterns known as Rouleau formation of red blood cells. Blood cells are stacked forming worm-like patterns.
• The image of the blood sample taken after 5 minutes exposure of subject to electromagnetic radiation of mobile phone without Anti Radiation Chip shows the patterns known as Rouleau formation of red blood cells. Blood cells are stacked forming worm-like patterns. It usually develops such symptoms as fatigue, shortness of breath, and poor blood circulation in hands and feet because red blood cells cannot carry enough oxygen.
• The image of the blood sample of the same subject after 5 minutes exposure to electromagnetic radiation of mobile phone with Anti Radiation Chip shows immediate restoration and improvement of blood cells morphology.
• The comparison of the images with control one appears to indicate that the installation of Anti Radiation Chip on cellular phone provides the improvement of the human blood morphology and may compensate against the harmful effect of EMR exposure.
Conclusion: It can be concluded that Anti Radiation Chip on cellular phone provides the improvement of the human blood morphology and may compensate against the harmful effect of EMR exposure.


A poorly timed Windows 10 update can cause a major headache for an end user. Fortunately, users can pause updates or IT can take steps to halt updates using Group Policy.
Updates may be necessary to keep Windows 10 healthy and secure, but there is no denying that the update process can sometimes be disruptive.
Windows 10 updates seem to have a way of occurring at the most inopportune moments. Most users have experienced an update installing right in the middle of an important project or when they are trying to shut down their computer so they can go somewhere. Some people have even been prompted to install updates in the middle of high-profile presentations.
All of these less than ideal situations make users want to know how to stop Windows 10 updates and if it is possible at all.
Yes, users can stop Windows 10 updates. No, they cannot stop Windows 10 updates indefinitely.
Windows 10 allows users to pause the update process for a maximum of seven days. When the update process does eventually resume, Windows 10 will force the user to install any available updates before he can pause the update process again. In other words, a user can't just keep clicking the Pause button and avoid updates forever.
To show users how to stop Windows 10 updates, IT should instruct them to click on the Settings button and then on Update & Security. When the Windows Update screen appears, click on Advanced Options. The Advanced Options screen contains the option to pause updates.
IT professionals may also want to know how to stop Windows 10 updates on an organization-wide basis.
As nice as it is to pause updates on a single device, IT professionals may also want to know how to stop Windows 10 updates on an organization-wide basis. This might be necessary, for example, if Microsoft releases a buggy update. In such a situation, IT can use a Group Policy setting to pause updates.
To do so, open the Group Policy Object Editor and navigate through the console tree to Computer Configuration > Administrative Templates > Windows Components > Windows Update. Then, right-click on Defer Upgrades and Updates and select the Edit command from the shortcut menu. Finally, choose the Pause Upgrades and Updates option and click OK.
The deferral periods IT can set using Group Policy are significantly different from the seven day period that users can set in the Windows 10 GUI.
What is the biggest risk associated with pausing Windows 10 updates?