Ginni Ratcliff was sitting in her car outside the gym having something akin to a panic attack. She was supposed to meet personal trainer Amy Honey for the first time to go over how to use all of the unfamiliar equipment, and it was scary.
Summoning up her courage, she walked through the gym doors – and into a different life. These days she helps Amy work with clients at Yelm Bootcamp and at age 51, she recently became a personal trainer. Her journey began with a simple moment of decision.
She began making better food choices, although she shudders to think what some of the were. "The things I thought were healthy then, I would consider bad choices today," she laughs. Although there was still a long way to go, the weight began to drop off.
Alongside better eating habits she decided to join a gym, which is where she discovered that membership included a free session with a personal trainer to learn how to use the equipment. Looking at the wall of photographs of toned, healthy people, Ginni came across one of Amy. "She was holding a live turkey and standing by a goat, and I said, 'Okay, she looks nice.'" Before long, she was sitting nervously in her car, debating the relative merits of driving away.
Over time, Ginni started taking on more responsibility. "After having so much personal training with Amy, I knew proper form. I knew so much about training," she says. "My passion for Bootcamp, for working out and nutrition grew and grew." She decided to take the next step and become a personal trainer.
So what would she say to anyone sitting in their car outside Bootcamp, trying to gather the nerve to walk inside? "Just come in. Check it out. I think you'll love it. If you don't, there's no harm done," she says. "I never dreamed when I walked in that day that I would love it so much.


Last Wednesday morning I noticed for the first time in quite a while that the stars were still out when I arrived at school. Autumn is in full swing so I wasn't surprised, but it was a beautiful sight. Very few students and not too many parents see a school when it's dark, and empty. This is certainly a different perspective. In the summer I would talk about how dismal an empty school building is, but in the fall or winter, such a sight speaks of promise.
There is the promise that the kids will be here soon, that the laughter and enthusiasm they bring will be contagious, and that their growth (academic, spiritual, emotional and physical) is inevitable. What potential an empty building has!
There is also the promise of the future in that cold, dark morning air. Soon Thanksgiving and Advent will be here. The promise of Christmas is not so distant. On that day we will all celebrate the arrival of a child!
One flaw that some of us have is our desire for instant gratification. Perhaps we should have more faith that the future promise of God's love is coming to us all.


text:
Miranda Lambert's 'Palomino' includes a rocking B-52s feature; now she's hoping for her shot at "Love Shack"
Miranda Lambert's giving her rocker side plenty of spotlight on her next album, Palomino, and pairing up with a few new pals in the process. The track list includes a song called "Music City Queen," featuring the voices of rock legends The B-52s.
It all started as a pipe dream in the writing room, Miranda recounts, after she and her co-writers started picking up on some B-52s vibes in the track they were creating.
"And we're like, 'What if we could get them on this?'" she remembers. "So I called my manager. I was like, 'Do you know anyone that might know the B-52s?' Like, 'I don't know how this works, but can our people call their people?'"
Sure enough, when the rockers heard the song, they loved it. But with multiple vocalists, getting them together to record the song proved a little tricky.
"So they Zoomed in," Miranda continues. "They did all their parts on Zoom, because everyone lives in different places."
Miranda's still never met the group in person but she's hoping that will change, especially if "Music City Queen" turns out to be a stand-out moment from the album. The song would make for a fun live performance, she points out, and might give her a chance to put her spin on one of the B-52s' biggest hits.
"If I could do 'Love Shack' with the B-52s — I mean, how cool would that be?" Miranda declares. "If we could do 'Music City Queen' into 'Love Shack' — I think that'd be the end-all, be-all."
Palomino comes out on Friday.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


text:
Emotional distress and dysfunctional illness perception are associated with low mental and physical quality of life in Chinese breast cancer patients
Lili Tang1,
Kurt Fritzsche2,
Rainer Leonhart3,
Ying Pang1,
Jinjiang Li1,
Lili Song1,
Irmela Fischer3,
Maike Koch3,
Alexander Wuensch3,
Ricarda Mewes4 &
Rainer Schaefert5
To evaluate the relationship between quality of life (QOL) and physical as well as psychological variables in Chinese breast cancer patients.
This multicenter cross-sectional study enrolled 254 Chinese breast cancer patients in different stages and treatment phases. They answered standard instruments assessing QOL (EORTC), somatic symptom severity (PHQ-15), depression (PHQ-9), anxiety (GAD-7), health-related anxiety (WI-7), illness perception (BIPQ), and sense of coherence (SOC-9). Canonical correlation was applied to identify the strongest correlates between the physical, emotional and social QOL scales and the physical and psychological variables.
In our sample, a low global QOL was significantly associated with the following physical and psychological variables: symptom-related disability (Karnofsky Index) (r = .211, p < .01), somatic symptom severity (r = −.391, p < .001), depression (r = −.488, p < .001), anxiety (r = −.439, p < .001), health-related anxiety (r = −.398, p < .001), dysfunctional illness perception (r = −.411, p < .001), and sense of coherence (r = .371, p < .001). In the canonical correlation analysis, high somatic symptom severity, depression, anxiety, dysfunctional illness perception, and low sense of coherence showed the strongest correlations with low physical, emotional and social functioning. The first three significant canonical correlations between these two sets of variables were .78, .56, and .45.
QOL in Chinese breast cancer patients is strongly associated with psychological factors. Our results suggest that Chinese physicians and nurses should incorporate these factors into their care for women with breast cancer to improve patients' QOL.
China has traditionally been believed to have a low incidence of breast cancer [1]. However, in the past two decades, the age-standardized incidence of breast cancer has increased five-fold, from 6.4 per 100,000 in 1980 to 31.93 per 100,000 in 2011 [2, 3]. The reasons for this increase are multi-factorial and include longer exogenous as well as endogenous estrogen exposure due to "westernized lifestyles", the one-child policy, better provision and uptake of screening for breast cancer, better awareness about breast cancer in the Chinese population, and better diagnostic procedures [4, 5]. Considering the large population base of 1.34 billion, China is facing an increasing and enormous social and economic burden of breast cancer.
Given this background, improving the quality of life (QOL) of breast cancer survivors has significant social and public health implications. QOL is a subjective assessment of physical, psychological, and social well-being [6] and reflects patients' perceptions of the impact of breast cancer diagnosis and treatment on daily living [7, 8]. In Western countries, there are clear connections between QOL, depression, anxiety and somatic symptoms such as pain and fatigue in breast cancer patients [9,10,11,12]. In a study on the 4-week prevalence of mental disorders in cancer populations, the highest prevalence of any mental disorder was found in patients with breast cancer (41.6%; 95% CI, 36.8 to 46.4%) [13]. Similar to patients from Western countries, breast cancer survivors in China experience a high level of depressive and anxiety symptoms [14]. Higher levels of depression and anxiety have been positively associated with a higher level of passive coping style and negatively associated with perceived social support [15].
Several breast cancer studies in Western countries as well as in China have reported that some sociodemographic variables are associated with QOL such as age at cancer diagnosis, level of education, income, employment status, marital status, and social support [9, 11, 16].
In addition, psychological factors such as illness perception [17] and sense of coherence have been found to be strongly associated with QOL in cancer patients [18, 19]. Illness perception is defined as an individual's cognitive (i.e., beliefs, ideas, thoughts) and emotional (i.e., feelings) perceptions of an illness [17]. Illness perceptions in women with breast cancer have been shown to be an important co-variable of QOL [20]. Higher scores on negative and threatening illness perceptions have been associated with lower QOL [21]. In cancer patients, health-related anxiety may be accompanied by inaccurate body perceptions, and patients' perceptions of symptoms combined with their concerns about illness may lead them to interpret harmless body sensations as symptoms of cancer progression [22]. While empirical studies of predominantly Anglophone cancer patients have indicated that negative illness perceptions are significantly associated with more psychological distress and worse QOL [23, 24], it remains unclear how non-Western breast cancer patients interpret their symptoms.
According to the "salutogenic model", sense of coherence (SOC) plays an important role in human health [18, 25]. Antonovsky defined SOC as "a global orientation that expresses the extent to which one has a pervasive, enduring though dynamic feeling of confidence that (1) the stimuli deriving from one's internal and external environments in the course of living are structured, predictable and explicable; (2) the resources are available to one to meet the demands posed by these stimuli; and (3) these demands are challenges, worthy of investment and engagement" [25]. In a systematic review, SOC was strongly related to perceived health, particularly with regard to mental health [19].
To date, there have been no studies about QOL in Chinese breast cancer patients that focus on the relationship between QOL and physical as well as psychological variables.
Study objectives
The overall objective of this study was to evaluate the associations between QOL and physical as well as psychological characteristics of Chinese breast cancer patients.
Our specific research aims were as follows:
To analyze the correlations in metric variables and mean differences in categorical variables between QOL and sociodemographic and clinical data, somatic symptom severity, depression, anxiety, health-related anxiety, illness perception, and SOC in Chinese breast cancer patients; and
To evaluate which of these physical and psychological variables have the strongest correlations with QOL, as measured by the global score and the functional and symptom scales of the European Organization for Research and Treatment of Cancer (EORTC) Core QOL Questionnaire.
Study design and setting
This study is part of a Sino-German research network entitled "Patients with multiple somatic symptoms in China" [26,27,28]. We performed a multicenter, cross-sectional study in three Beijing hospitals (Beijing Cancer Hospital: Department of Psycho-oncology and Department of Traditional Chinese Medicine [TCM]); People's Liberation Army (PLA) Military Hospital: Departments of Medical Oncology and Gynecology; Beijing Tiantan Hospital: Breast Surgery Department). The study was approved by the ethic committees of the universities affiliated with the two principal investigators (LT and KF), the Beijing Cancer Hospital and the University Medical Centre, Freiburg, Germany.
The study was performed under routine clinical conditions on randomly assigned screening days between July 1, 2012, and June 30, 2013. Patients who entered a participating department of the abovementioned hospitals on one of the screening days were informed about the study by research assistants and were asked to participate. Written informed consent was obtained from all participants. Research assistants were well-trained clinical research nurses or medical master's students who were under the supervision of LT.
The inclusion criteria were age older than 18 years, a diagnosis of breast cancer without any stage criteria, and adequate reading and writing skills. The exclusion criteria comprised severe physical and cognitive impairment, psychosis and acute suicidal tendencies.
Sociodemographic data and physical characteristics
The medical records were used to determine Karnofsky Performance Index Score (ranging from 0 ["death"] to 100 ["perfect health"]), cancer stage [0 to 4 or unknown], tumor size (Tis, T1-T4), lymph node status (NX, N0-N3), metastases (MX, M0, M1) (for more information, see http://www.uicc.org), treatment (surgery, hormonal therapy, chemotherapy, radiotherapy), and other severe diseases.
Assessment instruments
We used the following questionnaires:
The European Organization for Research and Treatment of cancer (EORTC) Core quality of life questionnaire (QLQ-C30)
The EORTC QLQ-C30 (version 3.0) is a 30-item questionnaire composed of multi-item scales and single items that reflect the multidimensionality of the QOL construct. It includes five functional scales (physical, role, cognitive, emotional, and social), three symptom scales (fatigue, pain, and nausea/vomiting), and a global health status/QOL scale. The remaining single items assess additional symptoms commonly reported by cancer patients (dyspnea, appetite loss, sleep disturbance, constipation, and diarrhea), as well as the perceived financial impact of the disease [29]. A higher score on the functional subscales and the global QOL represent a higher level of functioning and QOL. A higher score on a symptom subscale or item represents a higher (more severe) symptom level [30]. The standard Chinese version of the EORTC QLQ-C30 (version 3.0) is a valid instrument used to assess QOL in Chinese breast, ovarian, lung, head and neck, colorectal, stomach and brain cancer patients [31,32,33]; there is no Chinese disease-specific module for breast cancer.
Somatic symptom severity scale of the patient health questionnaire (PHQ-15)
Patients were screened using the somatic symptom scale of the Patient Health Questionnaire (PHQ-15) [34]. The PHQ–15 is regarded as a somatization scale that was developed to assess the somatic symptoms that frequently accompany mental disorders rather than serious medical diseases. Two Chinese studies have shown that the Chinese version of the PHQ-15 exhibits satisfactory reliability and have provided preliminary evidence of its validity in the general population and in general health care [35, 36].
Depression scale of the patient health questionnaire (PHQ-9)
This instrument assesses each of the nine DSM-IV depression criteria [37]. The PHQ-9 has been shown to be a reliable and valid instrument in Chinese patients [38].
Anxiety scale (GAD-7)
The seven-item anxiety scale (GAD-7) was used to assess the severity of generalized anxiety and other common anxiety disorders [39]. The instrument has shown good reliability and criterion, construct, factorial, and procedural validity in a Chinese general hospital population [40].
Health-related anxiety (WI-7)
Health-related anxiety was assessed with the 7-item Whiteley-7 index [41]. The Chinese version of the WI-7 has exhibited satisfactory reliability and internal validity in the general population [42].
The brief illness perception questionnaire (BIPQ)
The brief illness perception questionnaire (BIPQ) [17] is an 8-item measure designed to provide a rapid assessment of a patient's cognitive and emotional representations of illness. High scores represent a more threatening and negative illness perception. The Chinese BIPQ has shown acceptable reliability and validity [43].
Sense of coherence (SOC-9)
Sense of coherence was measured using a short version of the Sense of Coherence Scale (SOC-9) [44]. The SOC-9 provides a single-factor solution, with high scores reflecting a strong SOC. Cronbach's α for the Chinese version was 0.82 [45].
The estimated effect for the sample size calculation was based on our previous study about somatic symptom severity in general hospital outpatients in China [26]. For the correlation analysis approach in this article a sample size of 211 achieves 90% power to detect a correlation of .20 using a one-sided hypothesis test with a significance level of .05. For the canonical correlation analysis at least 10 observations per independent variable are helpful to avoid "overfitting" the data [46]. For our canonical correlation analysis with 16 independent variables and our sample of 250 we can come out to 15 participants per independent variable. This is enough for a canonical correlation analysis [46].
Statistical analyses were performed with IBM SPSS Statistics 23.0 and Stata. Categorical variables were evaluated using the χ2-test. Continuous variables were evaluated using analysis of variance. Correlation coefficients were calculated to assess the relationships between QOL, clinical characteristics and psychological variables.
The interrelations between the different scales of the EORTC and the physical as well as the psychological variables were analyzed by canonical correlation. This type of analysis estimates the correlations between two sets of variables to determine what is common among these two sets and to test the parameters for significance. Canonical correlations help us to find relations between two sets of variables and to answer the question how many dimensions these relations have. Canonical correlation analysis produces model equations between the two sets of variables with the aim of a maximum correlation between both linear combinations. The stepwise method starts with a first pair of canonical variables and tests the canonical correlation for significance. After this first step, a second pair of canonical correlations is estimated with the constraint that they are not correlated with the first pair of canonical variables. The procedure stops at the minimum number of variables in both sets. All canonical correlations are tested for significance, and only significant correlations should be interpreted. For the canonical correlation analysis, we used the questionnaire scales only and not single items because the measurement error of single items seemed to be too high. Statistical analyses were conducted using an alpha level of 1% to avoid alpha inflation resulting from multiple testing. For the canonical correlation, we used an alpha level of 5%.
A total of 269 breast cancer patients met the inclusion criteria, and 254 patients (94.8%) provided informed consent. The documentation of cancer stage in the charts was incomplete (22% unknown), but the patients with missing data and the ones with complete data did not differ in QOL, sociodemographic, clinical or psychological variables. For the other variables, the percentages of missing data were less than 3%, with the exception of the Karnofsky index (7.5% missing).
Sociodemographic characteristics
The relationships between sociodemographic characteristics and the EORTC global score are shown in Table 1. According to the 1% alpha level, only employment status showed a significant correlation with QOL. Retired and unemployed women had a better QOL.
Table 1 Relationship between sociodemographic characteristics and quality of life (EORTC) global score
EORTC descriptive statistics
The values of all scales and items and their correlations with the global score are shown in Table 2. The global score showed moderate to high correlations with most of the scales and items. Only 2 items showed no correlation (diarrhea) or low correlation (financial difficulties) with the global score.
Table 2 EORTC descriptive statistics
Clinical data and the EORTC global score
More than half of the patients (56.5%) were diagnosed with stage 1 or 2 cancer. The vast majority of the sample received some type of surgical procedure (n = 227, 89%) as well as chemotherapy or hormone therapy (n = 226, 89%); 102 (40%) patients received radiotherapy.
QOL was not significantly associated with the following oncological characteristics: cancer stage, cancer size, involved lymph nodes, metastases, radiotherapy, surgery and other severe diseases. Patients who received chemo- and/or hormone therapy had a trend to worse QOL than patients who did not. However, QOL was associated with Karnofsky score (See Tables 3 and 4).
Table 3 Stage of cancer, treatment and EORTC global score
Table 4 Relationship between psychological variables, Karnofsky Performance Index Score and EORTC global score
Low QOL (EORTC global score) in breast cancer patients was significantly associated with all analyzed psychological variables including high somatic symptom severity (PHQ-15) as a measure of somatization, depression (PHQ-9), anxiety (GAD-7), health-related anxiety (WI-7), threatening and negative illness perceptions (IPQ), and lower SOC (see Table 4).
Canonical correlation
In the canonical correlation analysis of all significant variables, the strongest associations were found between the EORTC functioning (physical, emotional and social functioning) and somatic scales (fatigue, pain and nausea/vomiting) and the psychological variables such as somatic symptom severity, emotional distress (depression and anxiety), illness perception, and SOC (see Table 5).
Table 5 Canonical correlation between EORTC and other questionnaires
We investigated the associations between QOL and physical as well as psychological variables in Chinese breast cancer patients.
The majority of patients in the study were married, well educated, and diagnosed with an early stage breast cancer. The study population was representative of Chinese breast cancer patients regarding sociodemographic data such as age, cancer stage and treatment. The mean age in our study was 49.8 years. In five epidemiological studies and reviews the mean age of Chinese breast cancer patients was about 50 years [4, 5, 47,48,49].
More than half of the patients in our study were in the earlier stages of cancer (56.5%). This percentage lies under the percentage of two large epidemiological studies [49, 50] with 61.5% and 80.1% stage 1 and 2 cancer. Even if it consistent with other studies, findings relate primarily to early stages of cancer.
Also the treatment distribution was similar to the large epidemiological study (n = 2252) of Peng et al. 2016 [49].
Correlations of low QOL
In terms of our first research question, low QOL in Chinese breast cancer patients was found to be associated with higher somatic symptom severity and a lower Karnofsky performance index, with higher emotional distress, increased health-related anxiety, more negative and threatening illness perceptions, and a lower SOC. No significant associations were found between sociodemographic characteristics and QOL, with the exception of employment status.
Within this sample size of about 250 and some very small subgroups in the variable "life situation" controlling for non-metric potential confounders such as living arrangements is complicated. We should estimate a canonical correlation within each group. This is not possible with this sample size. Within a replication with a higher sample size this question can be addressed. It seems that being alone with children would be associated with higher QOL. This is an unexpected result. But the variance in this sample is high. Two of them have really low values. Because we have only 15 participations in this group we think we should not over-interpret this result.
Unemployed and retired patients surprisingly had a better QOL than employed persons. One reason for this finding could be that during the economic reforms work-related cognitive symptoms existed in breast cancer survivors, which made it difficult for them to adapt their work [51, 52]. But also during the economic reforms many women between 40 and 60 years lost their jobs and retired earlier. They cared for their grandchildren and had unregistered, temporary jobs to earn some money. Consequently, they had more leisure time, no job stress, fewer daily hassles and emotional and physical wellbeing increase. No data were found to verify this hypothesis.
QOL and biomedical data
The results in the Chinese literature about the associations between QOL and cancer stage are inconsistent. In the study by Huang et al. 2013 [53] the QOL in the psychological, social and physical domains of patients at stage 0 and 1 were higher than patients at stage 3 and 4. In the study by Yan et al. 2015 [54] no significant differences were found for QOL in the four cancer stages.
We belief that in a sample of about 250 participants an effect should be significant if this effect is existing in the population. The effects we found in our study are very low with a partial eta-square of .025. For this effect size and our sample size of 250 the analysis had only a power of .34. So for this effect size we would need a sample of nearly 1000 participants to reach a power of .9. A replication study can answer the question, if the not significant associations of QoL with cancer stage or size is related to a high proportion of earlier stage cancers, or could reflect a lack of statistical power in the sample.
Chemotherapy was not significantly associated with QOL. But the group of patients without chemo- and/or hormone therapy was small. A study among Chinese breast cancer patients during adjuvant therapy found that the percentage of participants with anxiety or depression was significantly higher in the chemotherapy group than in the other treatment groups [55].
The high percentage with a stage being unknown (22%) was a problem for the analysis. We did some analysis with and without this group of participants but there are no real differences in the results. Because we want do the analysis for the primary research questions with higher statistical power we include these participants in the analysis. Post hoc tests (Tukey) show that there are no pairwise group differences between the stage groups. All pairwise differences tests for the EORTC global have p > = .4 as result.
QOL and psychological variables
Regarding our second research question, canonical correlation analysis found that all psychological variables including somatic symptom severity were strongly correlated with the physical, emotional and social functioning scales of the EORTC. Multiple somatic symptoms have been shown to be correlated with physical QOL after adjusting for anxiety, depression and disease severity [56]. In our previous studies, we investigated a mixed sample of Chinese General Hospital outpatients and found that high somatic symptom severity was associated with adverse psycho-behavioral characteristics and low physical and mental QOL [26]. In another former study, Chinese General Hospital outpatients showed associations between negative illness perceptions and poor mental and physical health status that were similar to those of primary care patients in Western countries [57]. In a cross-sectional study of cancer survivors from Hong Kong greater physical symptom distress and lower levels of optimism were associated with more negative illness perceptions [58].
SOC was found to be an important contributor to both mental and physical health in Chinese General Hospital outpatients [45]. In a more homogenous group of physically ill Chinese breast cancer patients, we have now found that psychological variables play a major role in patients' QOL.
Very few studies have assessed the association of physical and psychological variables with QOL in Chinese breast cancer patients. This study population was representative of Chinese breast cancer patients regarding sociodemographic data, cancer stage and treatment [2].
The study also had some limitations: (1) The correlations demonstrated associations, and thus causality could not be inferred. Accordingly, the degree to which patients' illness-related thoughts and emotions were the consequence of breast cancer and its treatment cannot be determined. (2) We controlled for treatment but not for initial treatment or different pretreatments. (3) It should be noted that the research approach used a Western biopsychosocial model of illness. Therefore, possible culture-specific characteristics may not have been identified, even though there might be cross-cultural similarities in QOL of breast cancer patients.
The major clinical implication of this study is the broadened view on psychological variables and their associations with physical, mental and social aspects of QOL. In addition to negative affectivity (e.g., depression and anxiety), which is well known, dysfunctional illness perceptions and low SOC in breast cancer patients should also be routinely addressed by Chinese physicians. A simple measure of the cognitive, affective, and behavioral aspects associated with bothersome somatic symptoms may be a helpful tool for screening [59]. Future studies should explore the possible cultural variations in psychological factors, e.g., illness perception and illness attribution in Chinese breast cancer patients, using qualitative methods.
BIPQ:
The brief illness perception questionnaire
EORTC QLQ-C30:
The European Organization for Research and Treatment of Cancer Core Quality of Life Questionnaire-30
GAD-7:
General Anxiety Disorder −7
PHQ-15:
Patient Health Questionnaire −15
PHQ-9:
Patient Health Questionnaire −9
PLA:
People's Liberation Army
QOL:
SD:
SOC-9:
Sense of coherence
SPSS:
is a statistic programm
TCM:
W-7:
Whiteley-7
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Wan C, Meng Q, Yang Z, Tu X, Feng C, Tang X, Zhang C. Validation of the simplified Chinese version of EORTC QLQ-C30 from the measurements of five types of inpatients with cancer. Ann Oncol. 2008;19(12):2053–60. doi:10.1093/annonc/mdn417.
Cheng J, Liu B, Zhang X, Zhang Y, Lin W, Wang R, et al. The validation of the standard Chinese version of the European Organization for Research and Treatment of cancer quality of life Core questionnaire 30 (EORTC QLQ-C30) in pre-operative patients with brain tumor in China. BMC Med Res Methodol. 2011;11:56. doi:10.1186/1471-2288-11-56.
Kroenke K, Spitzer RL, Williams JBW. The PHQ-15: validity of a new measure for evaluating the severity of somatic symptoms. Psychosom Med. 2002;64(2):258–66.
Lee S, Ma YL, Tsang A. Psychometric properties of the Chinese 15-item patient health questionnaire in the general population of Hong Kong. J Psychosom Res. 2011;71(2):69–73.
Qian J, Ren Z, Yu D, He X, Li C. Application of patient health questionnaire somatic symptom scale in the general hospital outpatients. Chin Mental Health J. 2014;28(3):173–8.
Kroenke K, Spitzer RL. The PHQ-9: a new depression diagnostic and severity measure. Psychiatr Ann. 2002;32(9):509–15.
Xiong N, Fritzsche K, Wei J, Hong X, Leonhart R, Zhao X, et al. Validation of patient health questionnaire (PHQ) for major depression in Chinese outpatients with multiple somatic symptoms: a multicenter cross-sectional study. J Affect Disord. 2015;174:636–43.
Spitzer RL, Kroenke K, Williams JBW, Löwe B. A brief measure for assessing generalized anxiety disorder: the GAD-7. JAMA Intern Med. 2006;166(10):1092–7. doi:10.1001/archinte.166.10.1092.
He X, Li C, Qian J, Cui H, Reliability WW. Validity of a generalized anxiety scale in general hospital outpatients. Shanghai Arch Psychiatry. 2010;22(4):200–3.
Fink P, Ewald H, Jensen J, Sørensen L, Engberg M, Holm M, Munk-Jørgensen P. Screening for somatization and hypochondriasis in primary care and neurological in-patients: a seven-item scale for hypochondriasis and somatization. J Psychosom Res. 1999;46(3):261–73.
Lee S, Ng KL, Ma YL, Tsang A, Kwok KPA. General population study of the Wihteley-7 index in Hong Kong. J Psychosom Res. 2011;71(6):387–91.
Lin YP, Chiu KM, Wang TJ. Reliability and validity of the Chinese version of the brief illness perception questionnaire for patients with coronary heart disease. J oriental institute of. Technology. 2011;31:147–57.
Eriksson M, Lindstrom B. Validity of Antonovsky's sense of coherence scale: a systematic review. J Epidemiol Community Health. 2005;59(6):460–6.
Li W, Leonhart R, Schaefert R, Zhao X, Zhang L, Wei J, et al. Sense of coherence contributes to physical and mental health in general hospital patients in China. Psychol Health Med. 2015;20(5):614–22.
Hair JF, Black CB, Babin BJ, Anderson RE. Multivariate data analysis. Pearson Education Limited: Edinburgh Gate, Harlow; 2010.
Fan L, Zheng Y, KD Y, Liu GY, Wu J, JS L, et al. Breast cancer in a transitional society over 18 years: trends and present status in shanghai, China. Breast Cancer Res Treat. 2009;117(2):409–16. doi:10.1007/s10549-008-0303-z.
Li T, Mello-Thoms C, Brennan PC. Descriptive epidemiology of breast cancer in China: incidence, mortality, survival and prevalence. Breast Cancer Res Treat. 2016;159:395–406. doi:10.1007/s10549-016-3947-0.
Peng ZX, Wei J, XS L, Zheng H, Zhong XR, Gao WG, et al. Treatment and survival patterns of Chinese patients diagnosed with breast cancer between 2005 and 2009 in Southwest China an observational, population-based cohort study. Long. W. Medicine. 2016;95(25):e3865. doi:10.1097/MD.0000000000003865.
Zheng Y, Chun-Xiao WU, Zhang ML. The epidemic and characteristics of female breast cancer in China. China. Oncology. 2013;23(8):561–9.
Li X, Huang ML, Hu J, Zeng YCH. Analysis of work related cognitive symptoms of breast cancer survivors and its related factors. Chinese general. Pract Nurs. 2016;14(15):1584–7.
Jim HSL, Phillips KM, Chait S, Faul LA, Popa MA, Lee YH, et al. Meta-analysis of cognitive functioning in breast cancer survivors previously treated with standard-dose chemotherapy. J Clin Oncol. 2012;30(29):3578–87. doi:10.1200/JCO.2011.39.5640.
Huang RL, Huang Y, Tao P, Li H, Wang Q, Li H, et al. Evaluation of the quality of life in patients with breast cancer at different TNM stages after standardized treatment.Zhonghua Zhong Liu Za Zhi. 2013;35(1):71–7. doi: 10.3760/cma.j.issn.0253-3766.2013.01.016.
Yan B, Yang LM, Hao LP, Yang C, Quan L, Wang LH, et al. Determinants of quality of life for breast cancer patients in shanghai, China. Lafrenie RM. PLoS One. 2016;11(4):e0153714. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0153714.
So WK, Marsh G, Ling WM, Leung FY, Lo JC, Yeung M, et al. Anxiety, depression and quality of life among Chinese breast cancer patients during adjuvant therapy. Eur J Oncol Nurs. 2010;14(1):17–22.
Hyphantis T, Tomenson B, Paika V, Almyroudi A, Pappa C, Tsifetaki N, et al. Somatization is associated with physical health-related quality of life independent of anxiety and depression in cancer, glaucoma and rheumatological disorders. Qual Life Res. 2009;18(8):1029–42.
Wu H, Zhao X, Fritzsche K, Salm F, Leonhart R, Wei J, et al. Negative illness perceptions associated with low mental and physical health status in general hospital outpatients in China. Psychol Health Med. 2014;19(3):273–85.
Zhang N, Fielding R, Soong I, Chan KK, Tsang J, Lee V, et al. Illness perceptions among cancer survivors. Support Care Cancer. 2016;24(3):1295–304.
Toussaint A, Murray AM, Voigt K, Herzog A, Gierk B, Kroenke K, et al. Development and validation of the somatic symptom disorder-B criteria scale (SSD-12). Psychosom Med. 2016;78(1):5–12.
We are very grateful to the Chinese team that worked on this study. Furthermore, we extend our sincere thanks to Shikai Wu, Fang Li, and Pilin Wang for their support during the data collection. The cooperation of the participating patients is also gratefully acknowledged. We thank American Journal Experts for proofreading the manuscript.
Data analyses and writing of the manuscript were supported by Grant GZ 690 awarded by the Centre for Sino-German Research Promotion in Beijing to Kurt Fritzsche and Zhao Xudong.
All the data supporting our findings is contained within the manuscript.
Psycho-Oncology Department, Key Laboratory of Carcinogenesis and Translational Research (Ministry of Education), Department of Psycho-Oncology, Peking University School of Oncology, Beijing Cancer Hospital & Institute, Beijing, China
Lili Tang, Ying Pang, Jinjiang Li & Lili Song
Center for Mental Health, Department of Psychosomatic Medicine and Psychotherapy, Medical Center - University of Freiburg, Faculty of Medicine, Freiburg, Germany
Kurt Fritzsche
Institute of Psychology, University of Freiburg, Freiburg, Germany
Rainer Leonhart, Irmela Fischer, Maike Koch & Alexander Wuensch
Department of Psychology, University of Marburg, Marburg, Germany
Ricarda Mewes
Department of Psychosomatic Medicine, Division of Internal Medicine, University Hospital Basel, Hebelstrasse 2, 4031, Basel, Switzerland
Rainer Schaefert
Lili Tang
Rainer Leonhart
Ying Pang
Jinjiang Li
Lili Song
Irmela Fischer
Maike Koch
Alexander Wuensch
LT was the project leader; she was responsible for the organization of data collection and helped to draft the manuscript. KF made substantial contributions to the study conception and design and to data analysis and interpretation and drafted the manuscript. RL participated in the study design and performed the statistical analysis. YP made substantial contributions to the study conception and design. JL participated in the study design and coordination and helped to draft the manuscript. LS participated in the study design and coordination and helped to draft the manuscript. IM made substantial contributions to the study conception and design and data collection. MK made substantial contributions to the study conception and design and data collection. AW made substantial contributions to the study conception and design. RW was involved in drafting the manuscript and critically revising the text for important intellectual content. RS made substantial contributions to the study conception and design, was involved as a supervisor and helped to draft the manuscript. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.
Correspondence to Kurt Fritzsche.
The study was approved by the ethic committees of the two principal investigators (LT and KF) university affiliations, the Beijing Cancer Hospital and the University Medical Centre, Freiburg, Germany.
Written informed consent was obtained from all participants.
We confirm that (1) the authors of this manuscript had access to all study data, are responsible for all contents of the manuscript, and had authority over the preparation of the manuscript and the decision to submit the manuscript for publication and (2) all authors have read and approved the submission of this manuscript to the journal.
Tang, L., Fritzsche, K., Leonhart, R. et al. Emotional distress and dysfunctional illness perception are associated with low mental and physical quality of life in Chinese breast cancer patients. Health Qual Life Outcomes 15, 231 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1186/s12955-017-0803-9
Illness perception


Since it was first released as part of iOS 6, Apple Maps has gotten a partially deserved bad rap. Although nowhere near as bad as it was at release, Apple Maps has a reputation for being unreliable compared to options like Google Maps.
One thing that was particularly frustrating about Apple Maps at release was the fact that while the app invited users to report incorrect locations and results, nothing ever seemed to happen with those reports. So if Apple gave you incorrect directions, it might take months for the error to be fixed.
But a thread on Reddit offers what appears to be conclusive proof that Apple has gotten its act together about Maps. According to the thread, Apple is now pushing through error corrections in Apple Maps on a daily basis.
Remember that time Cult of Mac reported that Apple's oft-maligned iOS Maps function steered people the wrong way across Fairbanks Airport Taxiway? If you're anything like this writer, you probably either chuckled at the egregiousness of the error or else were momentarily aghast, and then went on with the rest of your day.
Perhaps it's better that you didn't, however, because the class action lawsuit that has been filed against Apple for iOS Maps is a bit of a headscratcher.
iOS 6 Maps Vs. Google Maps: What's Better For Devs?
Ask some people and Apple's Maps is the cat's meow, and just as reliable (if not more so) than Google. Ask others (like me) and Apple Maps seem to have been plotted out by the Buster Bluth of catographers, and they haven't been able to get accurate directions anywhere ever since iOS 6 launched.
The Apple Maps vs. Google Maps debate isn't likely to be settled any time soon in userland, but what do developers think? Which is better for developers: Apple Maps or Google Maps?


text:
The Economics of Well-Being
by Justin Fox,
The Economics of Well-Being ^ R1201D
#R1201D
Justin Fox
Behavioral economics,Social and global issues
Gross domestic product has long been the chief measure of national success. But there's been a lot of talk lately about changing that, from economists and world leaders alike. GDP is under siege for three main reasons. First, it is flawed even on its own terms: It misses lots of economic activity (unpaid household work, for example) and, as a single-number representation of vast, complex systems, is inevitably skewed. Second, it fails to account for economic and environmental sustainability. And third, readily available alternative measures may reflect well-being far better, by taking into account factors such as educational achievement, health, and life expectancy. HBR's Justin Fox surveys historical and current views on how to assess national progress, from Jeremy Bentham to Robert Kennedy to Nicolas Sarkozy. He also looks at where we may be headed. The biggest success so far in the campaign to supplant or at least supplement GDP, he finds, is the UN's Human Development Index--on which the United States has never claimed the top spot.
Product #: R1201D
Related Topics: Behavioral economics, Social and global issues,
Beyond Money: Toward an Economy of Well-Being
By Ed Diener, Martin Seligman,
GDP Is Not a Measure of Human Well-Being
By Amit Kapoor, Bibek Debroy,
Maintain Your Mental Well-Being
By David Rock,
BYJU'S The Learning App
By John Jong-Hyun Kim, Rachna Tahilyani,
Amazon in Emerging Markets
By Amy Nguyen-Chyung, Elliot Faulk,
Oberoi Hotels: Train Whistle in the Tiger Reserve
By Ryan W. Buell, Ananth Raman, Vidhya Muthuram,


text:
Frank Iannantuoni
Senior Principal
Frank has 29 years experience as an accountant in public practice, including 23 years as a principal with A.C. Morris & Co. He is a member of the Institute of Chartered Accountants and the Tax Institute of Australia. He provides advice to a wide range of clients, including advising business owners, property investors and trustees of self-managed superannuation funds.
franki@acmorrisandco.com.au
Darren Barnes
Darren has 26 years experience as an accountant in public practice, including 17 years as a principal with A.C. Morris & Co. He is a member of the Institute of Chartered Accountants and the Tax Institute of Australia. He specialises in providing advice to individuals and business clients, including advising on capital gains tax concessions for small business, capital gains tax issues for investors, deceased estates and trustees of self-managed superannuation funds.
darrenb@acmorrisandco.com.au
Mark Tulloch
Mark joined A.C. Morris & Co in 2002 and qualified a member of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in 2004. Mark is also a member of the Taxation Institute of Australia as a Chartered Tax Advisor and holds a Bachelor of Commerce from the University of Western Australia.
Mark became a principal of A.C. Morris & Co in July 2008 and advises both individual and business clients in tax compliance, planning and superannuation.
Mark has previously assisted the Institute of Chartered Accountants as a facilitator for their CA programme.
markt@acmorrisandco.com.au


In what I assure you has been a truly strange week, I've been to two immersive theatre productions of Kafka's writing. Last Friday I went to Fourth Monkey's "Project Colony" in East India Quay, and last night, on the very enthusiastic recommendation of a friend, I went to see Retz's "The Trial" at various locations throughout Hoxton/Shoreditch area.
The cult-like atmosphere is very well done (with spooky echoes of 50s Americana.) There is something particularly ominous about how difficult to reach and remote the location is, and the actors play into this rather well. The explanation of the machine is very well described and shown, if not mildly over acted, but the overacting does lend itself well to continuing the theme of not questioning orders or authority and the blindly naive enthusiasm that both the soldiers and civilians on the colony seem to embody. The production presents itself in two parts, and incorporates a party setting (complete with games, entertainment, and a cash bar) mixed with an interestingly lit basement for an alternative setting.
Where "Project Colony" lets itself down is the over-ambitious overreach to incorporate modern issues into the experience. The Penal Colony book doesn't touch much on the society surrounding the machine, and this experience tries to pick up where the book leaves off and present an alternate argument to the modern British society. It forces a weak attempt at convincing the audience of the benefits of living in this alternate cult-like society. Unfortunately, this 'other' side of the argument is not convincing. The rants about television, inclusions of bad dating stories and office life are amusing but miss the mark entirely when it comes to considering the horror of the machine and the issues of capital punishment.
The production is described as "The Trial maps Franz Kafka's seminal story across East London's nooks and crannies. Follow Joseph K through this immersive, large-scale, interactive story as he comes to terms with his mysterious arrest.
The entire thing is incredibly well staged- business cards, answering machine messages, and well-placed insignia contribute to a very complete experience. The locations (of which there are many throughout the walk- and be warned it is a walk, and not for the faint of foot) are entirely believable as the businesses they are meant to portray. The idea of identity is interestingly dealt with through the event- in particular I found how often I found myself readily divulging personal information to be quite poignant.
The actors are (for the most part) sublime, with the lawyer being a particular favourite. Characters are convincing and are very good at pointing you in the right direction and timing you appropriately. It's a good mix humorous and eerie, and entirely believable as something that could be really happening. It was almost *almost* faultless. The only fault I found was with the ending.
Without giving too much away, the way the last 'scene' is set up is fantastic- believable, frightening, and very uncomfortable viewing (particularly if you are not someone comfortable with capital punishment.
So what's wrong with it? Well, considering that the entire experience lends itself so well to Kafka's book, it was a bit surprising that the end to the theatre experience was absolutely nothing like the ending to the book!
The Trial, although it has a last chapter, is not completed as such, but does have a plausible 'ending' that could have been worked into the theatre experience. Instead, the end of The Penal Colony is subbed in for the end of The Trial, and I don't think it resolves this theatre experience as well as this ending resolves The Penal Colony. The Trial is majorly free of machinery as both a book and a play, so it was odd to find the crux of the ending hinging on a machine.
Since both productions had the same ending it's interesting to compare the way both handled their interpretations of it. I almost lean my preference back to Project Colony's rather artistic spectacle of a finale- which used rather basic elements to illuminate and illustrate the end point. Retz's room accurately portrayed the horror of the situation (sweating palms and gasps all around) but it was every so slightly let down by the ending not being particularly relevant to the performance. It may have been this unfulfilled feeling that led to me not being sure it was over (hint- don't forget to look out from the bar to the parking lot afterwards), where as Project Colony had a rather decisive fanfare filled finale.
However I am fully aware that those who haven't read either book may feel differently. Either way, 5 stars for Retz, 3 stars for Fourth Monkey.
Tickets are still available for both performances for the following shows, but book now as they both end this week. If you only pick one- pick Retz.
This entry was posted in Immersive Theatre, Theatre and tagged Fourth Monkey, Kafka, Retz, Review. Bookmark the permalink.


If you think your loved one was abused or neglected in a Lawrenceville nursing home you are not alone. We understand the need for information about nursing home abuse and neglect. That's why we provide plenty of videos, blogs and podcasts on our website. We want to help you learn what to do if your loved one is a victim of nursing home abuse or neglect. Once you view our website you may want to call us and we will be happy to answer any questions you may have.
The terms nursing home abuse and neglect are often used to describe injuries in a nursing home. It is helpful to understand the difference between the two. Abuse is an intentional act. For example, if a caregiver becomes angry and hits a resident, that is abuse. Neglect is an unintentional act such as failing to give a patient their medication on time. Both abuse and neglect can result in serious injuries or death. You do not need to accept this type of treatment of your loved one.
The nursing home injured my loved one – When should I file a lawsuit?
It is unfortunate that your loved one was hurt in their nursing home. If you suspect that your loved one was abused or neglected do not wait to get help. If your loved one has suffered an injury you may want to file a lawsuit as soon as possible. The law limits the time to file a claim and even more importantly, your claim can be more effectively resolved when it is filed quickly.
Waiting too long to file a claim can make it more difficult to resolve. It can be harder to gather medical records and to find the proof necessary to show that the abuse or neglect occurred at the nursing home. Therefore, it is usually a good idea to contact an attorney as soon after you discover the injury as possible.
Some people wonder whether a nursing home neglect lawsuit will be expensive and are concerned about whether they can afford to file a lawsuit. In most cases, the law firm will be able to provide legal services on a contingency basis. This means that you can pay for the attorney's fees from the proceeds of the lawsuit once it is resolved. The attorney will have a set percentage or fee that will be deducted from the money you receive so you won't need to worry about coming up with up-front payments.
There are other expenses that are associated with lawsuits. For example, there are costs involved with ordering medical records and in obtaining expert witnesses for testimony. The attorney may, in some cases, pay for these fees as well and will add them into the amount that is owed at the time that the lawsuit is resolved.
We are Schenk Smith, your Lawrenceville nursing home lawyers.
You may notice that our website offers information only about nursing home abuse and neglect. That's because we focus only on nursing home cases. We don't handle any other types of legal matters and devote our time strictly to taking legal action to help families of victims of nursing home abuse and neglect. Our attorneys are dedicated and knowledgeable about nursing home laws and are able to effectively resolve these types of cases.
Over the last two years we have obtained millions of dollars in verdicts and settlements for our clients. Once you have had a chance to look over the information on our website and view our podcasts you may want to give us a call to schedule a consultation. We are happy to help. We will come to your location wherever you may be located near the Gwinnett History Museum, Vines Botanical Gardens or Collins Hill Aquatic Center.
Nursing Home Abuse & Neglect in Lawrenceville, Georgia- What you need to know.
Lawrenceville, Georgia is located in Gwinnett County and has a population of 30,127 residents. Of those, 12.10% are aged 65 and older. Nursing home abuse and neglect can happen anywhere, even in Lawrenceville.
How do I spot the common signs of nursing home neglect?
Poor Hygiene: Your loved one may require assistance with daily tasks such as brushing teeth or hair, washing up or going to the bathroom. If you notice that your loved one has an unkempt appearance or has soiled bedding or clothing, those could be signs of neglect.
Unexplained Bruises: Falls are a common occurrence when adequate help is not provided in a nursing home. Falls can cause injuries that range from bruises to scrapes and more serious injuries such as fractures and head trauma. If you notice bruises on your loved one they could be a sign that something occurred.
Poor Nutrition: Sudden weight loss or lack of appetite could be a sign that your loved one is not eating properly. Poor nutrition can lead to a host of medical issues, particularly in the elderly. Nursing homes should provide proper supervision to ensure that residents eat adequate to meet their daily nutritional requirements.
Injuries from Falls: Injuries from falls can be quite serious in elderly people. Senior citizens may have bones that are less dense and therefore even a minor fall could become a severe health problem. If your loved one falls in a nursing home it may be because of improper supervision or because they didn't have the help they needed to get to the bathroom or elsewhere.
Bedsores: Bedsores happen when the skin continually rubs against something, often the person's bedding or clothing. They occur most often in people who are immobile or bedridden. They require help from a caregiver to be repositioned every few hours. The failure to do so could result in bedsores that can worsen and lead to infection and even death.
Infections: Infections can be difficult for the elderly to overcome. Some infections are worsened due to lack of immediate care. If a caregiver fails to notice that a resident is sick an infection can worsen and it may be very hard to treat. When caught early, many infections can be successfully resolved. Caregivers must recognize the signs of an infection and seek medical treatment for a resident if these signs are noticed.
Why does nursing home neglect happen to begin with?
Overworked employees: Caregivers in nursing homes may be stretched to their limits. A nursing home may expect too much from their employees and as a result, workers need to cut corners to get their jobs done. Unfortunately, cutting corners in a nursing home can mean that your loved one is neglected and may suffer an injury.
Inadequate staffing: Many nursing homes have limited funds and they try to reduce their staff whenever possible. Also, high quality caregivers are hard to find, especially if the pay is low. Inadequate staffing leads to problems such as neglect in a nursing home. Too few employees means that your loved one may only get a few minutes of assistance a day from a caregiver.
Poor training: There is a high turnover rate in nursing home staff and this can lead to poor training of employees. Additionally, management may be lacking the leadership necessary to ensure that training is provided to workers. Whatever the reason, poor training means that caregivers may not be equipped to provide adequate care and they may not know how to look for signs of medical problems in residents.
My loved one was hurt in a Lawrenceville nursing home- What do I do next?
If your loved one was severely injured or passed away at a Lawrenceville, Georgia nursing home, then we recommend that you act as soon as possible to protect your loved one's rights.
Another available option is to file a complaint with the Georgia Office of the State Long-Term Care Ombudsman. The ombudsman program operates across the state and advocates on behalf of those who file complaints regarding Georgia nursing homes. They work to resolve problems between residents and nursing homes and are legally allowed to go into nursing homes to ask questions.
If your loved one suffered a physical assault, criminal abuse or any unlawful actions at a nursing home you may want to file a police report. The circumstances will determine whether charges will be brought by the District Attorney's Office: Gwinnett Judicial District.
For abuse occurring in a Lawrenceville, Georgia nursing home, report the crime to the City of Lawrenceville Police Department or to the Gwinnett County Sheriff's Department.
You may want to consider finding another nursing home for your loved one. This might be especially important if your loved one was seriously hurt or you are not comfortable with the care that is being provided. It can be difficult to choose a nursing home, especially when you are unsure about what to look for. One of the best things you can do is visit the facility and do a walkthrough. This will give you an overall perception of the nursing home. A visit alone may not be enough to give you the full picture.
The United States Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) has a website that provides a tool that provides helpful details about nursing homes in Georgia and across the country. They compile data and provide ratings on overall care, ratio of nurse to resident, inspection details and more.
For your convenience, a list of all nursing homes located within Lawrenceville, Georgia is located below, along with their contact information and inspection scores.
Nursing home neglect or abuse cases require that you show that your loved one was injured in the facility. In order to provide proof you will need to gather the medical records of your loved one. This includes records from the regular physician as well as from any other medical facilities where your loved one received care. In addition, you will also need to obtain records from the nursing home.
These records are essential because they will show details of when and how the injury occurred. All too often a nursing home disputes a claim of abuse or neglect and states that the injury occurred elsewhere or at a previous time. You will need the medical records that detail how your loved one was hurt and to show that the injury was not a preexisting condition. Medical records are protected by privacy laws. Therefore, you are not able to obtain them without special authorization, even if you are a spouse or other relative.
Anyone is able to file a lawsuit if they feel they were the victim of abuse or neglect. That right does not end when you pass away. Instead, a lawsuit can be filed on behalf of the deceased's estate. However, in order to file a lawsuit or take any other action on behalf of a deceased loved one you must have legal authority. Just because you are a spouse or child does not mean that you automatically can act on their behalf. An estate must be set up and an administrator appointed. A surviving spouse or other loved one may be allowed to file a petition in the Probate Court in the county where the loved one passed away.
It is important to have an estate set up as soon as possible so that important decisions can be made including whether to file a lawsuit. The estate has an appointed administrator or executor who is legally allowed to act on behalf of the estate.
Nursing homes are not all alike. If you are searching for a nursing home we have provided you with the choices in Lawrenceville. This information was gathered from the CMS Nursing Home Compare Website.
There are many law firms across the country and in Georgia. When you are ready to take legal action or simply want to learn more about your options, we are here for you. There are a few things that we think set us apart as a good option to represent you in your lawsuit.
Dedication: Our law firm is dedicated to nursing home cases and nothing else. This focus makes us uniquely qualified to provide you and your family with the efficient representation that you expect. As a client, you will work directly with your attorney and will even have access to the attorney's cell phone.
Knowledge: We provide information to help you learn about nursing home abuse and neglect. One of our founding attorneys, Will Smith, was a CNA at Georgia nursing homes for a decade so we understand how nursing homes work. We love sharing our knowledge and provide videos, blogs and podcasts to educate you on the important issues that you may be facing.
Results: We have successfully obtained millions of dollars for our clients in verdicts and settlements in just the last two years. Our clients often say that they feel like family because we provide compassionate and caring legal support during this difficult time.
If your loved one was injured or died in a Lawrenceville, Georgia nursing home, please call us at Schenk Smith (678) 823-7678 for a free consultation. You can also check out hundreds of video FAQs on our website.


Do you love making gifts for your friends and family? I do, but you can only gift so many paintings, you know? Luckily I have some very talented blogger friends who do much more than paint. Like Brittany at Pretty Handy Girl. I recently went through her projects and came up with an amazing 100+ DIY Gift Ideas plus Creative Gift Wrapping!
Just click on the photos below to see each collection.
Are your creative juices flowing now? Mine are! And many of these DIY Gift Ideas take very little time to make.
And if you need even more ideas, here are some of my own DIY gift ideas along with my friends'.
Let me know which are your favorites and what you're making this holiday season!
I've learn a few just right stuff here. Definitely wworth bookmarking foor revisiting.


text:
Kamień runiczny ze Skivum (DR 133) – datowany na okres między 900 a 1020 rokiem kamień runiczny, znajdujący się w kościele w Skivum w gminie Aalborg w Danii.

Granitowy obelisk ma 198 cm wysokości, 93 cm szerokości i 50 cm grubości. Wzmiankowany po raz pierwszy w 1654 roku, znajdował się wówczas na terenie przykościelnego cmentarza. W 1850 roku przeniesiono go do wnętrza świątyni. Na jego powierzchni wyryta została pisana bustrofedonem inskrypcja runiczna o treści:
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co znaczy:
 Matka Thyra oraz synowie Odinkar i Gudmund, tych troje wzniosło ten pamiątkowy kamień dla Gisli. Był on najlepszy i pierwszy spośród majętnych w Danii.

Przypisy

Skivum

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


In late 1983, as the affects of the video game crash were taking hold, Atari was putting the final touches on a brilliant retail concept that would present Atari as a lifestyle brand and place Atari in retail locations across the continent. Called "Atari Adventure," the stores would have been a retail experience unlike any other. Atari Adventure mixed ideas of arcades, interactive cinemas, amusement park attractions, computer learning, video game and computer stores, and world's fair pavilions.
Microsoft offered Comic Con attendees an early look at what was billed as a rough cut of Atari: Game Over, the upcoming documentary ostensibly about the fabled Atari 2600 E.T. game. Though much has been made about the unearthing of buried Atari cartridges in the New Mexico desert, it does not prove to be the film's most prominent focus. While the burial is present throughout, the film goes on to tell a larger story of the incredible rise and fall of Atari, once the fastest growing company in American history.


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How A Luxury Hoodie Company Builds Product Launch Suspense & Uses Rewards to Retain 50% of Customers
Amy Miraflor felt inadequate as a budget-conscious stay at home mom …
But when she decided to quit her job as a fourth-grade teacher to become a homemaker, money became extremely tight. Then she noticed other mothers easily sewing all kinds of garments for their families to save money.
The problem?
It seemed like everyone could sew but Miraflor.
So Miraflor borrowed her mother's sewing machine and she taught herself how to thread and operate a sewing machine with help from her mother-in-law, a professional seamstress.
Miraflor, who also maintained a family blog at the time, showed off some pictures of the hoodies she had sewn for her family's vacation to Disney World.
Immediately, people began asking if they could purchase the hoodies.
I put a PayPal link on my blog and sold fifteen hoodies in a half hour," Miraflor recalls. "That's the day my business was born.
But the business needed a name…
"Is that Evy's tree, mama?" asked Jacob when he noticed his mother sewing a hoodie with an owl face on the chest. Evy is short for Evelyn, the Miraflors' second child, and the hoodie reminded Jacob of Evy's bedroom wall which was painted with an owl sitting on a tree branch.
But as Evy's Tree began selling high-end hoodies to women around the world out of Miraflor's garage, the company ran into a major problem …
Since Miraflor was still a beginning seamstress, she couldn't sew fast enough to keep up with demand.
Hoodies That Come With Names
Turns out, pre-schools are great places to find top-notch employees.
Or, at least, that's where Miraflor initially met several of the women who would later become employees at Evy's Tree; their children happened to attend the same school.
"Amy is amazing," says Samantha Donohue, the IT expert at Evy's Tree and one of the employees who met Miraflor at the pre-school. "These aren't just ordinary hoodies. They're made to help women feel special and beautiful."
Each is named after a woman. And each comes with a story about that woman and why she's so inspiring.
"Each of our hoodies has a meaning and a purpose," Miraflor says. "We want women to feel like a million dollars when they put on one of our hoodies and know they belong to a community of women all over the world."
But building that community required a big leap.
Evy's Tree, which until a few years ago operated out of Miraflor's garage, had to begin mass producing its hoodies to meet demand. She spent almost two years searching for factories that would produce quality hoodies that felt like luxury.
Finally, in the fall of 2013, she received her first mass-produced line. Today, the company produces what it calls luxury pieces sourced from high-end fabrics from around the world.
While the brand story has been key in attracting an extremely loyal customer base, the company's unique product launch strategy is also a key differentiator.
"No one is searching Google for luxury hoodies," Donohue says with a laugh. "It's why we tell a story with each hoodie while simultaneously building suspense for its launch."
Instead of simply offering new products for sale on its site, Evy's tree works in advance to build anticipation and prime customers; think of a two-week marketing blitz that invites customers to pre-order and capped off by the equivalent of a flash sale.
Here's the launch formula and how it works:
First, a new hoodie inspired by a real woman is named, created, and topped with a story about why that woman is an inspiration.
Second, Evy's Tree doesn't immediately offer the hoodie for sale. Instead, it launches a sneak peek three days prior to the release. It slowly introduces the hoodie and tells the story behind the hoodie via its Facebook and Instagram channels.
Third, on launch day, Evy's Tree sends out an email to its VIP email list letting everyone know the item is finally for sale and includes a link to a dedicated product landing page. Preorders are taken, with a delivery date somewhere between 2-4 weeks.
"We build a lot of suspense prior to offering each product for sale," Donohue says. "Since the hoodies are special we want to offer a luxury experience as well."
Evy's Tree launches 5-6 products like this per month.
It's akin to a brick-and-mortar Black Friday event in which customers who have been waiting impatiently outside overnight are finally allowed to burst through the doors and purchase what they've been longing for.
But with the intense surge in demand comes a silent threat …
The company's site needs to be just as special as its hoodies to handle the spikes in traffic.
Scripts + Rewards = Radical Retention
Evy's Tree is undoubtedly a hit with women around the world …
The company has doubled and tripled year-over-year sales thanks, in part, to the suspense it builds prior to product launches. Having a reliable site that can handle the traffic spikes that come with each launch is crucial.
"When a product goes live hundreds of customers immediately begin ordering at the same time," Donohue says. "If our site crashes that'd be really bad because we're committed to offering a luxury experience with the minimal number of clicks necessary to check out."
It's why Evy's Tree upgraded to Shopify Plus, an enterprise ecommerce platform for high volume merchants who require a platform that can scale on demand.
Shopify Plus has been a great move for us," Donohue says. "Reliability is super important to us and we know we can count on Shopify when we launch a product.
Besides a customized checkout that Evy's Tree says allows it to retain its branding throughout the customer journey, the company credits Shopify Scripts with helping the company offer promotions that have yielded increased average order values.
"We use scripts to offer a variety of discounts and to repackage our pricing and merchandise," Donohue says. "Being able to offer different discounts allows us to pinpoint emotional triggers that lead to more sales."
Separately, Evy's Tree says Scripts, which are implemented by the developers over at Disco Labs, also significantly improves the customer experience as well. Instead of offering discount codes that can be difficult for mobile customers to enter, Evy's Tree uses Scripts to automatically calculate and apply discounts at the checkout.
"It's a win for us and the customer," Donohue says.
Remember, Evy's Tree is focused on reducing the number of clicks it takes to checkout. Evy's Tree uses Scripts to automatically calculate discounts in real time instead of asking customers to enter a discount code.
This removes two clicks- and potentially a lot of frustration for the 75% of Evy's Tree customers accessing the site on a mobile phone- from the checkout process.
Just as important, according to Evy's Tree, is that Scripts can be used in tandem with Smile.io, which powers Evy's loyalty program. Specifically, Smile.io helps merchants earn loyalty via the Shopify Plus platform by offering program participants flexible choices when it comes to redeeming their points including:
Customers may redeem points for an additional product discount
Customers may redeem points for free shipping
"Shipping is a high priority for many customers but can be really expensive for merchants," says Alex McEachern, a Loyalty Marketing Specialist at Smile.io. "Rewards diversity is huge. Not only does allowing customers to choose how they'd like to redeem their points communicate that the merchant respects and values the customer, but it also positions brands to better compete with Amazon Prime."
The results of integrating rewards and discounts at the checkout?
Evy Tree's retention rate, or the number of customers making more than one purchase, is over 50%
Many merchants see repeat customer rates around 15%, according to Smile.io
"Smile.io has played a huge role in our customer retention efforts," Donohue says. "Our products are not cheap and rewards offer the incentives necessary to convince customers to purchase our hoodies more often."
The results Smile.io has helped Evy's Tree achieve are impressive:
$1,032 savings in monthly ad-spend
58% lift in repeat customer rate
65% redemption rate
83X overall ROI
But there's another part of this story that's even sweeter … honey.
The Mommy-and-Me Market
Customers are worried about Evy's Tree.
If the company continues to double and triple in size some customers have wondered aloud whether Evy's tree will still be able to provide the same level of customer service.
Rest assured though, the company's size may change, but its commitment to improving the customer experience won't.
Customer satisfaction will always be at the top of our list," Donohue says. "We will always strive to offer a luxury experience.
In fact, it's a priority that will guide all Evy's Tree does going forward. Though Donohue was sparse in terms of dropping hints about the future, she did tell us Evy's Tree will soon expand into new areas and may even consider alternative sales options such as subscriptions or exclusive clubs for customers willing to pay an annual membership fee.
Recently, the company introduced a girl's line of hoodies under the name Honey by Evy's Trees. It's a different storefront but powered by the same back end as the parent company. "We want to capture the mommy and me market with Honey," Donohue says.
The new line's name may not have been inspired by a newborn. But it's just as sweet.


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FBIP: DNA barcode reference library for plants from Addo Elephant National Park for herbivore diet studies
Kerley G (2019). FBIP: DNA barcode reference library for plants from Addo Elephant National Park for herbivore diet studies. South African National Biodiversity Institute. Occurrence dataset https://doi.org/10.15468/vekrqq accessed via GBIF.org on 2022-01-17.
Identifying their diet resources is key to understanding how a high diversity of herbivore species can co-exist without competition, as well as in terms of predicting their impacts on plant species and communities. To date describing the diets of herbivores has been slow, cumbersome and probably biased. The use of DNA metabarcoding of diet samples however overcomes these limits, but is dependent on the availability of a comprehensive reference collection of DNA sequenced material for the potentially consumed plant species. To date no such reference collection exists for Subtropical Thicket in the Eastern Cape. This project therefore aimed to establish such a reference collection, for the plant community in the Addo Elephant National Park (AENP). The data set represents the plant voucher specimens collected from two localities, their identities, and DNA sequences. The voucher specimens have been deposited in the Ria Olivier Herbarium at NMMU.
Sampling Description
Addo Elephant National Park, two localities: Main Camp and Colchester
Data from specimen labels / datasheets. DNA barcoding done by Prof P Taberlet of Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, France. Specimens vouchered in Ria Olivier Herbarium, identified by PhD student (C. Weatherall-Thomas), Prof E. Campbell. Specimens that could not be identified based on morphology were barcoded and barcodes used to obtain identifications
Method steps
This survey will be undertaken throughout the Addo Main Camp and Colchester Sections of the Addo Elephant National Park, this to cover 8 vegetation types that occur here. An initial literature and expert-based survey indicates that approximately 500 plant species should be sampled, these reflecting both dominant plant species, plant species of conservation significance and plants that are potentially consumed by the herbivores (the latter comprising 13 species) Sampling will comprise the collection of tissue and herbarium samples. Samples will be located in the field by local experts, tissues samples stored in labelled, silica-dried tubes and matched plant species will be prepared for herbarium curation in the Ria Olivier Herbarium at the Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University. This phase (plant collection, identification and curation) will be undertaken by a team of botanists and ecologists, including Profs Campbell and Kerley, Dr Landman together with postgraduate and undergraduate students. SANParks Regional Ecologist A Gaylard will also assist with this phase, together with SANParks Field Rangers (for protection of researchers). The field work will be initiated in January 2014 (or as soon as funds are released) and will run for 12 months. In this period there will be at least three major sampling trips to cover the phenological patterns of the plant communities. The tissue samples will then be sent to France, under a BABS permit, for analysis. The DNA barcoding itself will be supported by a separate project and will be undertaken in collaboration with Dr Pierre Taberlet of the Joseph Fourier University, France. The DNA analysis will be divided into three sub-tasks: (i) DNA extraction, (ii) DNA amplification, and (iii) DNA sequencing. Sequence reads will be analysed using tools specifically designed for such analyses, including http://www.grenoble.prabi.fr/trac/OBITools. It is anticipated that these DNA analyses will require an additional 6 months.
Most specimen have been identified to Genus level while others to Species and Subspecies level.
rank: kingdom
Graham Kerley
position: Professor and Director of Centre for African Conservation Ecology
Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University
Summerstrand Campus (South), Department of Zoology, Room 12-114c
email: graham.kerley@mandela.ac.za
homepage: http://ace.mandela.ac.za/
Mahlatse Kgatla
position: FBIP Data Specialist
2 Cussonia Avenue, Brummeria
email: m.kgatla@sanbi.org.za
homepage: http://fbip.co.za/contact/


Equisure insurance is one of the popular insurance. The horse show arenas in Wellington, Florida to the floor of Madison Square Garden's famous dog show, Equisure Inc. has provided specialty insurance coverage for horse and dog owners alike.
Equisure Inc. is well known among horse and dog owners as the insurance agency that understands the passion and the sport of its customers and has responded with specialty insurance products for owners, associations, and their affiliates.
purchasing too many equine trade associations and their members. Equisure has the ability to provide horse enthusiasts with comprehensive liability coverage with competitive premiums.
Equisure Inc. provides an array of professional liability, general liability, and directors and officer's liability for clubs and organizations. It also provides horse mortality/major medical, as well as crime and additional coverage customized to meet the unique needs of horse and dog enthusiasts.


Choosing a career of a private chef can be very rewarding and exciting at first sight. However, if you are thinking about changing your career from a restaurant chef to a chef in a private household, there are a few important things which you should consider before making the first step.
Nevertheless, gratitude and appreciation is the direct result of your own achievements. Therefore, if you are seeking for a personal interaction with your customers and direct appreciation for the work you do – private chef job is definitely the one for you. As a private chef, you have an opportunity to build personal relations with the customer. You cook for a specific person, with specific preferences and, as a result, your work is 100% personalised. In contrast, restaurants chefs rarely know the people they cook for, not to speak about their diets and tastes.
However, working as a private chef gives you an opportunity to become an essential part of somebody's life, and it is usually someone you would not typically meet and interact with while working in a restaurant. You have a chance to experience different lifestyles and get to know how HNW people (e.g. celebrities, wealthy business figures, members of royal families, etc.) live their everyday life. You can also choose the freelance position and on-call work for dinner parties or special occasions because the networking in this sphere is extremely fast developing. Once you have been offered a position for one occasion and completed it with success, it will open you the door in business of private catering and the net of your clients would grow very quickly.
Another important thing to consider is that this job would definitely not be suitable for people who lack self-organisational skills or may get tired of creating something new every time. While in a restaurant there is usually some specialties of the restaurant, stable menu and fixed working hours, private Chef's work is certainly more autonomous and creative. Usually, private chefs have more freedom to choose what to cook. Indeed, people who hire private chefs set some food rules regarding diet restrictions and some general preferences, but the rest is left to the chef's imagination. Moreover, as a private chef you are the one who organises your time, cooking style, and anything else which is typically strictly ruled in the restaurant.
If you, despite all of the challenges and difficulties, has found yourself in the profession of private chef and at the moment you are looking for your next great employer – we are here for you! Submit your application form and our consultants will get in touch with you as soon as we have something suitable for you.


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Feature: Interviews, West Side Story (National Tour)
Richard Blake, Associate Theatre Critic for John Garcia's The COLUMN
West Side Story lovers, have I got a treat for you! I had the wonderful privilege of interviewing MaryJoanna Grisso starring as "Maria", Addison Reid Coe starring as "Tony" Because of the grueling tour schedule, we did the interviews via the phone.
The National tour has come to Bass Hall in Ft. Worth for a limited engagement January 15th-20th, 2013 and I thought people would want to know a little more about the young stars of the show and its' amazing Musical Director. All three were simply wonderful to talk to and shared some exciting, and sometime funny insights about themselves and the show.
View my review of the show by clicking here.
Watch Addison and MaryJoanna perform "Tonight" LIVE on WFAA television, Dallas, TX by clicking here.
I asked both MaryJoanna and Addison the same questions and got some really interesting answers. Below you'll see them in a Q&A format back-to-back. These two young, powerful performers are so down-to-earth with simply charming personalities, it was a true pleasure to speak with them!
Addison Reid Coe, MaryJoanna Grisso
and Richard Blake
Richard Blake: Let's start at the beginning. Where you were born and raised?
MaryJoanna Grisso: High Plains, New York but I grew up in Morgantown West Virginia.
Addison Reid Coe: I was born and spent my whole life Rochester Michigan until I moved to NYC two days before the WSS auditions last year.
RB: When did you start performing?
MJG: Well, I started performing when I was a little girl. My mother and I would sing together when I was about 4 years old. My mom is a music teacher, and my dad a musician, so I grew up in a house full of beautiful music. My first "performance" was a musical in Catholic school called "A Star Is Born" as Penny in the leading role. My mom was the teacher and I was afraid they would think I got special attention, but I worked very, very hard because I had more to "prove" and got it! My first full musicals were in High School, then I did my first regional performance(s) in 2006 at West Virginia Public Theatre in "The Sound of Music" as a nun [giggles a bit] I know, I know!
ARC: Well, I actually started performing as a senior in high school and doing community theatre in Grand Rapids, Michigan. [We then go off on a tangent about theatre in Michigan since it turned out we knew/performed at many of the same places, of course it was decades ago for me, LOL]. While I was at Calvin College, I played Judas in "Godspell" and then landed my first big regional role playing Danny in "Grease" at the Grand Rapids Civic Theatre in 2008.
RB: When you were growing up, or even today, were there any artists—any actors—who you particularly admired or influenced you?
MJG: Oh, it was definitely my family who influenced me the most and supported me all the time! As an actress, Audrey Hepburn's gracefulness and poise is something I've always admired. Musically, I really admire Kristin Chenoweth and Kelli O'Hara, their talent is amazing and I respect them a lot.
ARC: As a musical performer, I've always watched and admired Hugh Jackman's nuances and subtleties when he performs. As an actor, Paul Newman has always been an influence on me. Growing up I was exposed to iconic performers like Gene Kelly and Fred Astaire and truly admire them. I use their experiences to guide me in confidence and genuineness. You should always use such successes in your arsenal as a performer to keep your talent fresh and grounded.
RB: Had Broadway been your goal as a performer or did you ever think about TV or movies?
MJG: I have always been in love with Broadway. [giggles] When I was young I used to tap dance on the fireplace hearth at Christmas and do little plays with my sisters. It's always been a dream of mine. I really started to get serious about my possibilities as a performer in high school and then when in college I really focused on it, including Broadway tours.
ARC: Well, I thought I would just "do" theatre and see what happened [I laughed and said "see look WHAT happened! He laughed]. I'd love for television to me my next step in the industry. I did a short web-series and it turned out to be one of the best new experiences for me! We filmed from like midnight to 5AM but I thought it was just so cool, and it wetted my appetite for TV & film. [Laughs] I don't think I'll be doing anything like "SAW 10", but I do like thrillers. You just need to find that "smart role" that doesn't hold you back.
RB: How would you describe Maria & Tony, the characters that you play?
MJG: Well, I feel like she has a simple "freshness" like me personally and the Director believed in me with that approach. I've seen many versions on stage and the movie and so much of "Maria" is the music and I try to bring that along with myself into the role. You must be true and honest to make the character believable. For example, the last scene of the show is so emotionally charged, I just put all of myself as an actor and a person as I can into it. It is also easy to create the role with people like Michelle Alves who plays "Anita", just like in the show, we are now dear friends. With Addison, whom I met at the auditions, as soon as we met I KNEW he was "Tony"!! The creative team was very good at finding the right personalities, as well as, talent.
ARC: "Tony" is somebody ready for the next step in life. In the beginning, he feels alone and stuck in life, making fun of the silly romantics. But "Maria" BECOMES his life and passion. He then becomes that hopeless romantic he made fun of throughout the rest of the story, never loses hope and is always looking for solutions. He HAS to find a new way out and that can ONLY happen with "Maria". MaryJoanna is simply wonderful in the role and makes it so easy every night to become "Tony" and fully immerse myself into the role.
RB: Hard to play such an iconic role?
MJG: Yes, it's very hard especially with the existing ideas and perceptions of "Maria" I just bring the freshness of her as a human being to the stage. It's challenging, but such an honor to do it, and I'm so grateful to get the chance to do it. For me, to be doing this show, being classically trained, it's just pure gold! The music is wonderfully rich and the book is simply incredible. I remember I was babysitting when I got the call offering me the role. I was so excited, had to put down the baby I was holding, just yelled and danced with excitement at the news!
ARC: It's definitely NOT the easiest to play him. I don't ever take a day off from "self-criticism" about my portrayal. I DO have a lot of fun, but I'll still think about "well, I did good there but not so good there" after performances. It was hard to create my version of the role. I try to be me as much as possible to have people connect with the role. It's kind of a "mind-trap" if you base your portrayal off other peoples performance… it's NOT you and the character falls apart. Funny story about me finding about the role was my mom telling me about it two days after I moved to NYC! I figured "I'll just DO IT and see how it goes. The process took about two weeks, then about a month later [he laughs] while cleaning my floors… yes "swiffering" them, I got the call I had the part. I'm so proud I get to do the role, especially for my mother who is a "Golden Age" girl when it comes to musicals and movies and West Side Story is her absolute favorite!
RB: Do you have a favorite moment or something that you look forward to each night?
MJG: It's interesting, I have different moments vocally and some funny moments I like. At first, the iconic balcony scene was my favorite moment, but as time has progressed I've been connecting to the final scene in the show. When "Maria" responds with such humanity when she feel like she'll break, looking at the "Sharks" then at the "Jets" wanting to shoot and kill them, she realizes she can only conquer evil with pure love. It just touches MY humanity when I do that scene. At first I thought it was so sad, now it has a much deeper meaning to me… get over the sadness and respond with love.
ARC: Oh, the balcony scene is my favorite. She (MaryJoanna) really helps me when we're performing it. It's really "Addison" out there at that moment, with true purity. That scene is the tipping point for me in the show as a singer, it's the peak of my fun and I enjoy every moment of it! Oh, my favorite to WATCH and listen to is "Maria" and "Anita" performing "I Have a Love"!
RB: How demanding is doing the tour?
MJG: Very. We do so many shows, but as crazy as it can get it's really fun. Sometimes we have four shows on the weekends in addition to the weekly ones, and sometimes just one night performances, which are the hardest. We get off the bus, a few hours to prepare, perform and then were off to another city! Honestly, it can be very challenging on the voice and body. It can he a HARD thing to do, you know staying physically healthy while on the road… ESPECIALLY eating right [she laughs] ! I have made "recipes for the road", asking myself "what can I make tonight in the hotel room"? [She bursts into laughter] Hey, there's an idea… a "Recipes from the Road" Blog!!
ARC: It's hard. If you don't start out with thoughts of self-preservation, it can be very difficult. Long morning showers, less talking to save the voice and drinking or partying is DEFINATELY a no-no. You have to learn to be careful and you need self-discipline. It's hard not really having a "home" and sleeping is the only relaxing you can get sometimes. On the flip side, things are NEVER really the same everyday which is good. For example, I just spent time with a host family in a city and it was really fun and interesting.
RB: Where would you like to see your career go from here? Do you have dream roles?
MJG: I seriously never could've imagined this would happen to me so soon. "Maria" IS my dream role and I'm just thrilled to be doing it. But, I would love to play "Christine Daaé" in Phantom of the Opera or "Glinda" in Wicked! My future plans, well, I'm based out of NYC, my boyfriend and friends are there, so I'll probably stay there for a while. Who know what will happen in the future, I do have some plans, but as a professional performer you can't hold on to those plans too tightly as they can always change in an instant!
ARC: I'm IN a dream role right now! I think I'd like to do film or television next… I think I see myself crossing genres and then maybe coming back to the stage. As a professional, you choose the best roles for your passion and career, then you're off to the next job or project. Who knows what I have in store, but for right now, I'm simply excited to where I am right now!
RB: Do you have any other projects in the works or are you just focusing on WSS at the moment?
MJG: I'm always preparing for other things, that's very important to me. I'm still working with a vocal instructor and J. Michael, the tour's Music Director, while we're on the road. It's always good to build and push your voice. I am working on my website and I love doing cabaret shows when I can!
ARC: I don't have anything "per-se" locked in as a next project, but now that we're basically settled in to the tour and the holidays are over, I'm ready to put some feelers out. Right now, I'm just living in the moment of West Side Story and enjoying every moment of it!
Let me tell you folks, these two are the epitome of class, professionalism and the finest examples of performers I have met in a long time. I'm sure you will see much more of them in the years to come as success definitely comes to people like them. Determined, humble, hardworking and respectful of the Art we call theatre!
Follow Addison, MaryJoanna and the entire National Tour Cast on Facebook at: www.facebook.com/westsidestorybroadway