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Babis Bizas (born Charalampos Bizas; 16 September 1954) is a travel writer, explorer, and geographer. He participated in an expedition to the North Pole in May 1996, and 18 years later, in December 2014, he landed on the South Pole, thus probably becoming the only Greek to have visited both Poles. By 2004 Bizas had visited all 193 sovereign countries of the world. He is currently a member of the RGO (Russian Geographic Society).

Recognitions

"The most traveled man on Earth".

Early life

He studied Political Sciences at the Panteion University of Social and Political Sciences in Athens and Slavonic languages in the Institute for Balkan Studies in Thessaloniki, where he learned Bulgarian and Russian.
As a university student, he travelled as backpacker in Europe mostly hitchhiking and in 1977 he followed the stream of the young European travelers.

Books
Babis Bizas has written two travel books. The "Russia" Guide and the "Geographic Guide for Travelers"

References

External links

 Babis Bizas Travelers Century Club Member Reaches the Two Poles
 recovered from the prototype http://www.cosmorama.gr/en/articles/interview-with-babis-bizas--our-own-magellan-.html in 20-09-2020
 Ekathimerini Babis Bizas the most travelled man in the World
 Greeks of diaspora

1954 births
Living people
Panteion University alumni
Greek writers
20th-century travel writers
21st-century travel writers
Greek travel writers
People from Arta, Greece

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


Application of PTFE composites as pad facing allows for a significant improvement in tilt pad thrust bearing performance under severe operating conditions. Many applications of PTFE lined thrust bearings are known, primarily in water turbines in Russia and China, but recently a lot of interest in this kind of pad facing is observed in other countries, as well. This paper is a short overview of the peculiarities in bearing performance caused by some specific properties of PTFE composites. Known techniques for bonding PTFE composites to steel backing are first discussed. The PTFE bonding method utilized in Russia results in an intentionally increased resilience of the bearing surface. The effect of compliant nature of the PTFE on oil film geometry is considered. Another important aspect of using PTFE facing is the thermal insulation of the pad, minimizing its thermal distortions. The effect of minimized thermal distortions, being an advantage for large thrust bearing of water turbines, but, interestingly, not in all applications, is examined. Tribological (friction and wear) aspects of using PTFE layer are also discussed. Additional advantages of using PTFE as a substitute for babbitt are addressed as well. Finally, techniques for monitoring conditions in the PTFE bearings are described.


Currently, Python and R are the dominating data science tools and Python will probably even be taking the lead (at least based on the latest KDNuggets survey). When did the two open source players manage to become the leading platforms for analytics, data science, and machine learning, leaving behind established players such as Matlab or SAS? Here are some insights from Google Trends.
Looking at the years 2009 - 2013 in the first plot, there is very little evidence for a clearly diverging path concerning the interest in Python or R compared to players such as Matlab or SAS.
The picture dramatically starts changing in 2014. Figure 2 plots the development up to 2017. While Matlab and SAS saw a slight increase, the interest in R and Python exploded and came to grow exponentially. Python took over the lead in early 2017 and seems to grow at an even higher rate than R supporting the previously mentioned survey results.
Google Trends can be easily accessed through the browser. If you want to import the data directly to R, the gtrendsR package is very helpful. For Python, PyTrends allows for automated downloading.


This Dora The Explorer Happy Birthday Banner kit is a customizable letter banner and comes with everything you need including attachable pieces to add your specific age. Absolutley gorgeous when hung. Large 25cm tall letters that stretch 3 metres across your room.
Easy to put up and an absolute must for any Dora party!


It looks like UK mobile operator Three will start selling the Samsung Galaxy Tab in the near future, as they have just listed Samsung's Android tablet on their coming soon page.
Three have yet to give any information on how much the Galaxy Tab will cost, and there are also no details as yet on what data plans will be available, although we suspect it will be similar to the Apple iPad plans.
The Samsung Galaxy Tab features a 7 inch touchscreen WSVGA display and it comes with Android 2.2 Froyo. It is also a fully functioning phone, it is capable of making and receiving voice and video calls plus SMS, MMS and email.
Other features include a 3 megapixel camera on the back for taking photos, and a VGA video camera on the front for making video calls.


Jobs on campus are valuable tools for students looking to earn money and gain real-world experience. For Debbie White, winner of the 2016 Student Employee of the Year award, working at the MiraCosta library circulation desk for the past few years has meant so much more.
White, a returning student majoring in business, assists library staff by providing customer service and technical services to students. On her own accord, White gives students a mini tour of the library to show them resources and online tools they can use to help them with classes.
The free resources, she says, has personally helped her put her life back on track.
When White enrolled at MiraCosta College back in September 2012, she had just left a bad relationship plagued by domestic violence. White and her two children had to escape from home and live in a shelter.
"When that happened, I had to start my life completely over from scratch and on my own," said White.
Thanks in part to CalWORKs, a welfare program that gives cash aid and services to eligible needy California families, White was able to restart her educational career. The program helped her earn her first associate of arts degree (AA), but is also helping her with transferring to a four-year university.
White's compassion and determination definitely shines through her work as a student worker—characteristics duly noticed by her peers.
"Debbie is a longtime employee in the library and has always been reliable, professional and dependable," said Michelle Ohnstad, library operations coordinator, who nominated White for the award. "She also possesses an intellectual curiosity, strives to stretch herself academically and is to be admired for taking risks to learn new things—she's a true MiraCostan.
White hopes to transfer to the University of San Diego or USC, and later apply to business school and someday start her own business.


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The Keynesian Story
I'm not sure how much of a future the Tea Party Republicans have; their approval ratings are incredibly low. It may be they will just slink back to their corners after the next election.
But the Wall Street Republican/conservative Democratic coalition will go on and on. That, I think, is the long-term enemy.
We need to make the case for Keynesian economic policies. The right has all the good stories, but they're propaganda for policies that fail, just as the communists had good stories, but couldn't actually create and run a government that delivered freedom and equality.
Keynesian policies work, but we don't have stories to tell, so we can't persuade people to vote for them.
John Maynard Keynes, The General Theory of Employment, Interest and Money, link.
Comparing Barack Obama and James Buchanan
Prof. Tim Burke of Swarthmore draws really interesting comparisons between Barack Obama and James Buchanan, the US President just before Lincoln, post:
The basic error was that Buchanan approached American politics in procedural or legal terms at a moment when the reigning political conflicts in American life were no longer in any sense shaped or resolved by procedural or legal processes. He waited passively for legal decisions to determine his course of action, and when the Dred Scott decision dropped in his lap, he regarded that as the end of the matter. Open conflict in Kansas baffled him, and again he turned to a safely procedural answer (advocating that Kansas enter the Union as a slave state).
Dead Cats, Bouncing Down the Stairs
We've had an extraordinary sell-off in the global securities markets. Everyone is down. As I wrote over on Jared Bernstein's blog, I think the deal dashed all hopes for a recovery in the short term. Before, there was still some hope that matters might get better, and that at least the programs currently in place would stay in place. Now both of those are gone. I suppose one could view this as a correction. Perhaps the big investors have gone back to their models, factored in a lost decade, and are shifting their bets, going from stock to bonds. If this is so, I suppose this would become a trend, and some of the slack in interest rates would be taken up. I wonder if, ultimately, bond prices would rise.
(And, in fact, investors are buying up Treasuries like they are going out of style.)
On the other hand, it is interesting that the big fund managers are apparently now mostly Keynesians--otherwise we'd expect to see a jump in stocks, in the belief that deficit cutting would lead to growth. In another generation, this may penetrate the marble halls and marble heads of the world's capitals.
Scourging Themselves
It occurs to me that the apparently hedonistic US culture is no such thing. Most USers trust pain much more than joy. And that is why, though there is much complaining, the United States has embraced austerity as a solution to its economic problems.
Who needs slavemasters, when the citizens are willing to scourge themselves?
The Greater Depression
As usual where Obama is one of the lead negotiators, the deal is worse than it need be.
Paul Krugman has been calling this the Lesser Depression. But if the austerity budget holds in Congress, it will become the Greater Depression. There will be no WPA, no new government programs to help people in bad times. The austerity budget commits the government cutting what programs there are. Education funding will be cut, as will research. There will be nothing to keep cyclical unemployment from becoming structural unemployment.
I wonder how long it will take to get there? Is there any hope that Congress or the President will see sense before 2020?
(First sentence added the following day. Two weasel words removed a month after initial publication.)
Google+, Pseudonyms, and Sexism
Google+'s "real" names policy is sexist, and an expression of privilege.
The largest group of internet users who use pseudonyms on the internet is probably women, and they do it because anyone with a woman's name on the internet is subject to harassment and stalking, and also because writing is often taken more seriously if it comes under a male name. So forbidding pseudonyms, whatever the intention, is sexist. Google's policy protects the abuses of privilege.
Google does not go to the expense of actually authenticating its users. They end up with names that their software accepts: not real names, but plausible names. Do not trust a Google+ name, regardless of Google's policies: such names are in no way trustworthy.
It is not just women who are harmed by this policy: it's everyone who is put at risk by speaking their minds under an easily-traceable name, or who is marginalized because of the use of their name. Police officers. Radio or television personalities. Closeted gay people. People with a violent exes. People who don't want their bosses snooping on them. Union organizers. Political activists at risk of their lives and freedoms.
Without pseudonyms, Salaam Pax could not have posted from Baghdad. George Eliot might not have published, and might have vanished without a trace if she had. Mark Twain would have had a different career.
The 800-pound gorillas in the room which everyone is ignoring is abuses on the part of US government security agencies, the data miners, the banking system, and the employment system. It's likely that government security agencies played a significant role in devising this policy, and the data miners that are both major Google customers and themselves sellers to the security agencies.
"Peace is not the absence of conflict, but the presence of justice."

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


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Academic & Professional Books Marine & Freshwater Biology Fishes Bony Fishes
A Review of the Gobiid Fish Genera Exyrias and Macrodontogobius, with Description of a New Species of Exyrias
Identification Key Monograph
Series: Indo-Pacific Fishes Volume: 10
By: Edward O Murdy(Author)
16 pages, 2 plates with 6 colour photos; 2 b/w line drawings, 1 b/w distribution maps, 3 tables
Publisher: Bishop Museum
Paperback Oct 1985 Usually dispatched within 1-2 months
Selected version: £8.99
About this book Customer reviews Related titles
The Indo-Pacific gobiid fish genus Exyrias comprises 3 species: E. belissimus (Smith), E. ferrarisi new species, and E. puntang (Bleeker). A key is provided to the species of Exyrias, which can be differentiated by number of predorsal scales and color pattern: E. puntang possesses 10 or more predorsal scales; E. belissimus has 8 or 9 predorsal scales and dusky bars; and E. ferrarisi has 8 or 9 predorsal scales and dusky stripes. The Indo-Pacific gobiid fish genus Macrodontogobius is monotypic, represented by M. wilburi Herre. Exyrias is easily separable from Macrodontogobius by having 8 or more predorsal scales vs. 7 or fewer, body depth greater than 23% SL vs. 22% or less, head depth greater than 21% SL vs. 18% or less, and least depth of caudal peduncle greater than 14% SL vs. 13% or less. Figures and descriptions of each species are given.
Exyrias and Macrodontogabius are hypothesized to be very closely related, however, no synapomorphies are given. The difficulty of applying phylogenetic techniques to gobioid fishes is discussed.
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Revision of the Indo-Pacific Scorpionfish Genus Scorpaenopsis with Descriptions of Eight New Species
Revision of the Indo-Pacific Groupers (Perciformes: Serranidae: Epinephelinae), with Descriptions of Five New Species
Revision of the Acanthopterygian Fish Family Pegasidae (Order Gasterosteiformes)
Second Revision of the Surgeonfish Genus Ctenochaetus (Perciformes: Acanthuridae) with Descriptions of Two New Species
A Review of the Pomacentrid Fishes of the Genus Stegastes from the Indo-Pacific, with Descriptions of Two New Species
A Revision of the Indo-West Pacific Parrotfish Genera Calotomus and Leptoscarus (Scaridae: Sparisomatinae)
A Revision of the Odacidae, a Temperate Australian-New Zealand Labroid Fish Family
Revision of the Fish Family Siganidae with Descriptions of Two New Species and Comments on Distribution and Biology
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There is a generous provision of 40 illustrations of good fl-and-white quality, and, although some are well known (but nevertheless appropriate to the theme), others are less familiar and thus to be welcomed, such as minor artefacts, a number from the provinces.
Another way in which Augustus and his family insinuated themselves (not a term used by S.) into the life and structure of the Roman state was their use of private staff and finances for public purposes.
Augustus' acceptance of the title pater patriae in 2 BCE seems to be the culmination of several years of grooming three potential heirs: Tiberius, Gaius, and Lucius.
The Sons of Mil in Irish myth are known to actually represent the Gaels themselves, which would imply that the Gaels ancestor was the God of the Underworld.
This would tend to coincide with the beliefs of the Celtic Gauls, reported by Caesar, that they "claim to be descended from Dis Pater, and say that this is the teaching of the druids.
He is known by the name of his kingdom: Hades, Pluto, or Dis, all of which refer to the secret riches of the earth.
Pater Patriae (plural Patres Patriae), also seen as Parens Patriae, is a Latin honorific meaning "Father of the Fatherland."
Like all official titles of the Roman Republic and Principate, the honor of being called pater patriae was conferred by the Roman Senate.
In the early days of the republic, general George Washington, hero of the War of Independence and first American President, was often referred to as pater patriae of the United States of America.
Derived from the phrase pater familias, an Old Latin expression preserving the archaic -as ending.
Attributed to Brutus at the time of Julius Caesar's assassination, and to John Wilkes Booth at the time of Abraham Lincoln's assassination; whether it was actually said at either of these events is disputed.
During Papal Coronations, a monk reminds the pope of his mortality by saying this phrase, preceded by pater sancte ("holy father") while holding before his eyes a burning paper illustrating the passing nature of earthly glories.
In the Roman family the pater was the head of the household and had a duty to protect his wife and children, who were seen as lesser than himself: his family would repay him by giving him complete obedience and respect.
This duty of the pater and family is referred to in Latin as pietas.
The head of the family and heads of the state were both seen as 'pater'—on the family level it was paterfamilias, senators were known as patres conscripti, and the emperor was called pater patriae from the time of Augustus.
The result was the original version of this portrait, which at last measured up to his expectations.
Framed in stone to underscore the monumentality of the subject, the image became known as "Patriae Pater," and it was Peale's ambition to make it the main likeness by which posterity would know Washington.
In the end, however, Peale's Washington never became the national icon that its maker hoped it would be, and today Americans know Washington best through the much-replicated likeness that Gilbert Stuart painted of him in 1796.
One of the many titles granted to Caesar was pater patriae, Father of his country.
The pater familias was the senior member of a large and extended group, even an entire gens.
The pater familias was not unlike a patron for his entire family and they owed him the respect a client owed a patron, at the very least.
In the spring of 1827, he drew a lithograph based on the painting, in the Boston studio of William and John Pendleton, whose lithographic press was highly regarded.
In Florence it was exhibited at the Accademia in September 1829 and praised by the press.
After its purchase, the painting was hung at the gallery level in the Senate Chamber, where it remained until the Senate moved into its new north wing Chamber in 1859, and the Supreme Court moved upstairs into the Old Senate Chamber.
P P = Pater Patriae, 'Father of his Country'.
Augustus received this title in 2 BC and it was subsequently adopted by most of his successors at the time of their accession.
An earlier version (Parens Patriae) had been bestowed on Cicero after his exposure of the Catiline conspiracy in 63 BC and on Caesar in the final months of his life.
George Washington is Patriæ Pater – "Father of His Country." He was known for his love of the land and farming, and his dislike of war.
Patriots honor the Father of their country and protect their fatherland (homeland).
September 9: Seduction and Sanctification Bond's triple concerto for the Aureole Trio, (Laura Gilbert, flute, Mary Hamm, viola, Stacey Shames, harp) commissioned by the Gettysburg Chamber Orchestra, was premiered on September 9, 2007 in Gettysburg, VA.
Bond and writer/ historian Dr. Myles Lee collaborated on a work for narrator and wind ensemble called Pater Patriae using George Washington's words.
This musical portrait was performed by the ensemble vol-au-vent and given its premiere at George Washington's Mount Vernon.
Minted at Lugdunum, 2 B.C. RIC 212 Obv.: "CAESAR AVGVSTVS DIVI F PATER PATRIAE" Laureate head right.
Cesare Augusto, figlio del divo (Cesare), Padre della Patria.
Il titolo di Pater Patriae fu conferito formalmente ad Augusto il 5 febbraio del 2 a.
He was in frequent demand as a patriotic orator.
In his addresses, he always paid tribute to his grandmother's second husband (whom he called "Pater Patriae"), the noblest of models for his boyhood and for all red-blooded American boys.
If he had any criticism of Washington, it was simply that he got up too early in the morning and worked too hard during the day.
Share your travel photos to expand your gallery and add color to your reviews.
TR P oder TRIB POT = Tribunicia Potestate, gemeint ist ausgestattet mit der Potestas (Amtsgewalt) eines Volkstribunen (eines der Grundrechte des Kaisers weil damit das Recht auf Einschreiten gegen jedwede Amtshandlung verbunden ist und auch die Unverletzlichkeit der Person - der Volkstribun ist unangreifbar).
Diese Abürzung steht für "Imperator Caesar Ponifex Maximus Tribunicia Potestate Consul Pater Patriae".
This rare lithograph depicts a bust-length figure of George Washington set in an illusionistic stone oval window atop a stone still engraved with the legend "PATRIÆ PATER" (Father of His Country).
Obverse: Laureate head of Augustus r.; CAESAR AVGVSTVS DIVI F(ILIVS) PATER PATRIAE: Caesar Augustus, son of a god (the Divine Julius Caesar), father of the country.
Between them are sacrifical inplements, a simpulum or ladle and a lituus or curved staff used in augury; Gaius was made a pontifex or priest and Lucius an augur or soothsayer.
The earliest year in which this coin could have been issued was 2 B.C., when Augustus received the new honorific title pater patriae, father of the country; almost all emperors would henceforth receive the title upon coming into power.
CALIGULA succeeds as Gaius Caesar Germanicus Augustus, Pontifex Maximus, and Pater Patriae (born 12 at Antium).
He accedes as Tiberius Claudius Caesar Augustus Germanicus Pontifex Maximus Pater Patriae (born Lyons, 10 bc).
TITUS succeeds as Imperator Titus Caesar Vespasianus Augustus, later Pontifex Max and Pater Patriae (born Rome 39) His wife is Domitia Longina.
Crucial to the cult of monarchy was the idea of king as parens patriae, father of his people, bearing all the privileges ever granted to fathers in the long tradition of patriarchy.
although we only term it fatherly power (potestos patria); yet, being well considered how far it did reach, we may truly say that it was in a sort royal power (potestas regia); as now, in a right and true construction, royal power (potestas regia) may be called fatherly power (potestas patria).
At the same time, the concept of pater patriae limited the authority of lesser fathers, who were themselves permanently subordinated to the father of the nation.
At the onset of 44 BC, the honors heaped upon Caesar continued and the subsequent rift between he and the aristocrats deepened.
He had been named 'Pater Patriae' or Father of the Country and Dictator Perpetuus or Dictator for Life.
Made up mostly of men that Caesar had pardoned already, they knew their only chance to rid Rome of Caesar was to prevent him ever leaving for Parthia.
A dark clad figure, the Medici Lord, plucked her from the steel clad arms of a pliant servant to the Lasombra.
Each time the words would slice the Pater Patriae's soul while he meticulously reworked the network of Vienodelle's recollections, under the dark touch of the Reveler's Memory.
Never ending fits of passionate greed and volatile political tides between the nine families fighting to lead Florence served as ripe soil for the Pater Patriae to plant his most trusted agents in.
In early life he became attached to republican principles, which he never abandoned, although he avoided offending Caesar Augustus by not mentioning them too openly.
He moved that the title of pater patriae should be bestowed upon Augustus, and yet resigned the appointment of prefect of the city after six days' tenure of office, because it was opposed to his ideas of constitutionalism.
In 43 BC he was proscribed, but managed to escape to the camp of Brutus and Cassius.
Augustus received his most prestigious title, the Pater Patriae, on February 5, 2 B.C.E. which was the Day of Concord on the Roman religious calendar.
This must be the case because professors Vermes and Millar report that the earliest actually attested census for taxation was in C.E. 33/34, and that is 20 years after the last official census of Augustus in C.E. All of the five year periods between the main 20-year censuses could be called minor censuses.
It was for Augustus' exaltation to the Pater Patriae.
CUPID AND PSYCHE Walter Pater 1914 ltd ed.
the head of the Roman family; a juridical entity who holds the patria potestas.
a person who is not under the patria potestas of another.
"master of a house, head of a family," from pater "father" + familias, old gen. of familia "family."


Instead of fighting their stereotype as drinkers, Northern Kentucky University fraternities are embracing it.
The Interfraternity Council took a symbol of partying and turned it into an opportunity for education with this year's "Red Cup Campaign," which kicked off rush week for the fraternities.
"We used something that brings us down and turned it into a positive," said Mark Gallondorn, president of the IFC.
It was an idea that spawned after ABC released its TV series "Greek," a teen drama series that follows a college freshman who tries to leave behind his high school geek reputation by joining a fraternity, according to the network's site.
The TV show's symbol is the notorious red cup, which is what inspired Gallondorn and Kim Vance, assistant director for Student Life, to use for the Rush Week promotion.
Rush Week began Sept. 9 with about 125 students registered, which is the amount of bids Gallondorn said will be issued. Though the number is consistent with last year's totals, it is double the amount of prospective fraternity members two years ago.
The crowd is more diversified too, he said.
"There aren't 100 of the same guys in a room this year," he said. The red cup symbol helped spread the word to a variety of international students as well as those who don't fit the "jock" stereotype, Gallondorn said.
Fraternity members will announce their bids from 4:30 to 6 p.m. Sept. 13 in the University Center. The event will kick off with an informational session on hazing, and how NKU opposes it. Pledges will run out to be greeted on the UC plaza starting at 5 p.m.


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We are a relatively new group from a wide range of backgrounds. Mainly made up of helpers who met through links with St Peter's High School in Gloucester... and now the word is spreading further! We have lots of fun together and take mainly more active children, due to the skills within our group.


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We understand the difference between good habits and bad ones, not by observing our actions, but by knowing how we arrive at our decision to perform those acts. Beside the ethical and moral pillars of good conduct found in legislation and certain religious concepts that is adhered to by most citizens, some still find no alternative but to engage in negative actions to get by in life. When an individual constantly chooses these questionable or bad actions with sufficient frequency, they tend to influence the habits of the person which in turn, changes the overall character of the person.
Because society assumes a natural condemnation of these destructive decisions people make and the penalties implemented by law that lessen the occurrence of these decisions, people consider deeply the consequences of such actions and usually choose another avenue to achieve their goal. This is not always the case in some countries where social upheaval and economic instability occurs.
A bad habit can be seen as a course of action that increases the risk of an individual, for example, smoking can lead to cancer, not after the first cigarette but its constant use. Another characteristic of this type of decision is that it produced no tangible reward for the doer. They may experience some emotional gratification but that may be short lived if complications pertaining to the action arises. A third characteristic of a bad habit is the ability it has to affect people and the environment, for example, littering. When plastic bottles are thrown into the drainage system it can clog the passages and cause floods to the entire area affecting those who don't practice these actions. Plants and animals will have to adjust their instinctual lifestyles to survive but this is not always the case.
In today's world there are different social circles which subscribe to different modes of conduct. When these groups meet, they quickly learn of similarities and uniqueness of each other. Sometimes one section of people has a cultural practice that others find disgusting or insulting and if a resolution cannot be made, tension and animosity can grow halting future dealings among them. In the end, there isn't one governing set of regulations that could classify all actions as either good or bad. If it were so, many of the freedoms of certain cultures could be subjected to corrective measures thus, suppressing the natural expression of man.


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Houston, Texas, January 15th, 2006
MetaLab Inc. is proud to present PractiCAD™ — the first open release of the company�s Windows®-based and AutoCAD-driven three dimensional computer-aided design (3D CAD) software for sheet metal, HVAC, and construction industries.
PractiCAD is an integral component in the company�s product suite, which includes PractiCAM — the best sheet metal and HVAC CAM and estimating software in the world. The latest innovations incorporated into PractiCAD enable contractors, estimators, engineers, designers, and draftsmen to slash production time, reduce production costs, and minimize production errors.
PractiCAD offers three key user benefits by:
significantly increasing customer productivity;
providing unparalleled performance in automated design, routing, drafting, and detailing of HVAC systems;
enabling users to fully and seamlessly integrate the entire workflow, including design, drafting, detailing, estimating, and fabrication processes.
Just like other MetaLab products, PractiCAD was developed in tight cooperation with end users, who contributed a majority of the innovations and enhancements added to the software.
With PractiCAD, MetaLab opens the door to the construction methods of the future by providing new, powerful tools to automate, unify, and optimize the entire technological workflow — from design concepts to fabrication — once again confirming Making things. Easy.™, as the company's trademark.
PractiCAD key features include:
A completely new approach to design, drafting and detailing procedures, featuring automatics — simple procedural blocks for building and executing on demand any workflow with any types and values of parameters, while encapsulating the essence of any work style and approach, allowing for sharing them across the enterprise. Automatics provide a robust, flexible, consistent, effective and efficient method for establishing, streamlining and executing all daily tasks;
A complete — and largest in the industry — set of fittings for building round, rectangular and oval ductwork, driven by the same set of specifications, defaults, fitting templates, and manufacturing allowances as PractiCAM software;
Extensive automated routing features, including simple straight-duct-before-fitting, straight-duct-before-and-after-fitting, z-routing (variable angles included), variable-routing-on-demand (connect any two duct openings by a user-selectable scenario);
Automated duct layout and detailing, including single-line layout, piece-by-piece placement, and automatic detailing of a given single-line trace — all fully driven by user-selectable scenarios, specifications and manufacturing preferences, and all available for round, rectangular, and oval ductwork;
Unlimited geometric and technological editing for fittings and lines after placement with an automatic intelligent adjustment of the fitting geometry;
Automated duct design, using modern user-selectable methods of HVAC design and construction;
Automatic and optimized system layout, tagging, numbering and dimensioning;
Direct downloading of created ductwork to PractiCAM for fabrication;
Architecturals, including walls and slabs, doors, windows, ceilings, lights, grills, diffusers, structural steel, columns;
Full utilization of AutoCAD-provided facilities — 3D photorealistic rendering, multiple views, color and layer management, placement, view, and direction options and many others;
Innovative, flexible and ergonomic user interface (including MetaLab's proprietary dynamic tool and item bins and dynamic screen management), allowing for a much greater screen control and utilization of the scarce drawing space;
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PractiCAD pre-release version has been available to all MetaLab customers, and many of company's customers have taken advantage of the product pre-release pricing. PractiCAD is currently distributed in English only, and in the near future will be available in four languages (English, Spanish, Russian and French).
For current pricing and availability, please contact MetaLab sales office.
Since 1982, everyone in the sheet metal and HVAC industries (be it a vendor or a customer) was eagerly awaiting the expiration date of two U.S. Patents: No. 4,551,810 and No. 4,554,635 (if, by chance, you have been lucky enough not to know what these patents are covering, then you, most likely, you are very young or you do not have any interest in sheet metal or HVAC…).
As a service to our customers, in the recent past we have provided the countdown timer for these patents on our Web site. Now these patents have expired, but continuing this tradition, we are happy to provide a new timer below, showing the time passed since this expiration date, when our industry was, at last, liberated:
0000 days, 00 hours, 00 minutes, 00 seconds.


Ripple (XRP) may not be the second largest cryptocurrency after all. In the latest crypto news, we are seeing a new report from the crypto research group Messari which alleges that the altcoin's current market cap – is way less than the $13 billion number as estimated by CoinMarketCap.
According to the researchers, Ripple has a "significantly overstated" on the vast majority of crypto data services – and further estimate that the "real" market cap of Ripple is actually just $6.9 billion.
As the data from Messari shows, Ripple's market cap would now make it the third-largest cryptocurrency (instead of the second) behind both Bitcoin ($62.9 billion) and Ethereum ($12.2 billion).
If you are questioning what is the reason for this discrepancy, Messari's main argue is that the Ripple company – which is in a close link and owns the majority of XRP – does not actually provide accurate market information through its API.
More specifically, the researchers claim that in addition to the 59 billion XRP that the company (Ripple) owns – most of which is held in escrow and some of which is available for restricted sales – the company has distributed billions of XRP to people or organizations who have agreed to contractual restrictions on selling them.
If XRP slice of the pie is larger than it should be, its shareholders are not purchasing quite what they think they are when investing in the funds – and their returns won't accurately track the underlying crypto economy accordingly.
However, this might only be a theory from Massari research and it is yet to be proven by Ripple (XRP).


The highlight of the Coburg North sporting calendar, Twilight Sports, was held on April 2, with the green, blue, yellow and red teams all vying for the victory.
In the end it was the blue team that took top honours but I think we can safely say everyone was a winner on the night – the rain stayed away, the sausages were plentiful and there were plenty of displays of athletic prowess and good sportspersonship.
The hotly contested (and much talk about) parent races were taken out by newcomer, Prep dad (and school councillor) Benjy Lee, and reigning queen of the track Megan Eddie.
Thanks to all the teachers and staff and Parents and Friends' Sally Balhorn and the helpers before, during and after the night – it couldn't happen without you.
And finally, if you haven't noticed as yet, the much anticipated maze is complete and ready for action. It has taken a lot of work by many different parents to complete this project and it looks fantastic.
This entry was posted in Social events, Twilight Sports, Uncategorized and tagged Parents and Friends, sport. Bookmark the permalink.


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Home > Visits > Walking tour > Architectural visit
An architectural promenade in the footsteps of Oscar Niemeyer in Paris
The famous Brazilian architect and designer Oscar Niemeyer played a major role in modern architecture. Even though this carioca achieved international renown for his work in the city of Brasilia in 1960, several of his achievements can be admired in France. He left Brazil with the accession of a military dictatorship to power. Count about half a day to appreciate the visit of these three buildings located in Paris and in Seine-Saint-Denis.
The curvy architecture of the headquarters of the French Communist Party
Rendezvous at Place colonel Fabien; at the limit of the tenth and nineteenth district of Paris easily accessible via metro line 2. It was Niemeyer who sketched the present day headquarters of the French communist Party in the seventies. The building, all in curves, was completed in 1971 while the dome, the parvis and the underground lobby were completed only in the late seventies. The building rests on five pillars of solid concrete around which articulates the interior of the large hall where the chamber of the National council is based.
Find an hotel in Paris 19th arrondissement
Oscar Niemeyer was an admirer of curves which he favored in place of right angles. The French Communist party headquarters is characterized by curves drawn to hide the buildings adjacent to it. The FCP building is listed historical monument since 2007.
The finesse and elegance of the labour exchange in Bobigny
Turn your back on the FCP headquarters and walk a little along boulevard de la Villette. Take the metro at the station Jaurès on line 5 for a few stops to the end of the line: Bobigny Pablo Picasso. From there you can take the tramway for two stops and get off at the station liberation or else walk along the tracks on avenue Lénine in direction of Saint-Denis to get to Labour council building of Bobigny. This building which is located at the angle of boulevard de la Libération and rue de la République, was constructed between 1976 and 1978 by Nieyemer. The architectural lines of the labour exchange building, consisting of two distinct sets, reflect the style of Maison de la Culture in Le Havre on which Niemeyer worked between 1978 and 1982. Admire the curves of the two buildings that rise up as one single block with a finesse that concrete allows.
Niemeyer and the headquarters of the newspaper "l'Humanité"
Leave Bobigny by taking tramway line T1 to the Basilica Saint-Denis - Hotel de Ville train station to arrive at the former headquarters of the daily newspaper Humanité. It was designed by Oscar Niemeyer in 1987 at the request of the director of the newspaper. The Brazilian architect was asked to design a building that complied with the dimensions and the layout of the facade located at place de Montreuil, offering an excellent view of Saint-Denis Basilica. Niemeyer designed a Y-shaped building, which was once again all in curves, a volute marking the entrance to the building. The building facades and roofs are listed as historical monuments by order of a decree, April, 23rdr 2007. The newspaper Humanité has since moved and it is the French state that became owner since 1st January 2010.
Other Works designed by Niemeyer in France
In the Paris region, one can see another creation realized by Niemeyer at Fontenay-sous-Bois (Val-de-Marne). It concerns the building housing the Société Générale and the iconic building "la scène Nationale le Volcan" located in Le Havre in Haute Normandie.
For further information on the theme of architectural heritage
Visit our pages dedicated to the heritage and history of Seine-Saint-Denis and the pages devoted to urban architecture. You can also check our Art Nouveau-Art Deco architecture walking tour if you're ready for an original visit of Paris.
Architectural visit


Things are going good around here today. It was therapy day and today we decided to start scaling it back to every other week instead of once a week. That's a good thing, because it means that everything is going well enough that I don't need to go once a week, but honestly I'll really miss going weekly! I like therapy. It's been really good for me and I definitely think it has helped. My anxiety isn't totally gone but I'm dealing with it a lot better. Therapy also helped me unload some baggage that I had been carrying around for far too long. It's been freeing. This was the year of working on myself and therapy was an important tool in that process. I'm really going to miss it when I stop going completely.
Other than that there's not much new going on around here. Shawn has the day off tomorrow and I'm looking forward to that. I like it when he's home on a weekday. It doesn't happen very often, but it's always nice. We have errands to run and Christmas stuff to do. I'm excited to get the tree up!
So I don't really have anything specific to blog about today so I went to the blogher site to borrow their writing prompt and I noticed that I've missed a lot of them, so I copied the past week or so and I'll catch up. Here we go.
What is the last thing you do before bed?
Usually take allergy medicine, check my e-mail and plug in my iPad. Heaven forbid it not be charged in the morning since checking my e-mail is also the first thing I do when I wake up!
Describe an heirloom that has been passed down through generations of your family. What is its significance to you personally?
I don't think I have anything that has been passed down through generations. I do have a special heirloom though. When I was growing up my grandma had a china cabinet that had a lot of antique dolls in it. I used to love to look at all the treasures in that cabinet when I was a kid. A few years ago my grandma sold the house they had lived in for 50 years and moved into a condo and she decided to give her dolls to her granddaughters. She picked out a doll for each granddaughter and included a note about where the doll came from. I absolutely adore my grandma and I was so touched to receive that doll. It's something that I keep carefully stored in a box and someday I'll give it to Clarissa.
Do you enjoy being alone? Would you rather be around other people?
I actually do enjoy being alone. I almost enjoy it too much sometimes and I have to force myself to get out and socialize. I'm a homebody. I don't mind being alone or just home with the family.
Write about a piece of music that changed your life forever. What do you feel when you hear it now?
What is the luckiest thing that has ever happened to you, and why?
I'm not a super lucky person! I've never won anything in my entire life. My mother, on the other hand, is always winning something. She was born with the luck gene and didn't pass it on, I guess! If you want the honest I-know-this-is-cheesy-but-I'm-going-to-say-it-anyway truth, Shawn and the kids are the luckiest thing that have ever happened to me. And now that I think of it, that makes me pretty darn lucky.
Well, the vacation fun is over and it's time to get back to real life! I had a really fun trip to my hometown. I needed a few days away REALLY bad! It helped, my brain feels clear again and I'm ready to get back to work around here.
So today I've been taking advantage of Cyber Monday and getting most of my Christmas shopping done. I'm a big internet shopper. I prefer to shop that way, especially for Christmas presents because I can do it without the kids and everything just shows up at my house in discreet brown boxes that are easy to hide. I've got probably 80% of my shopping done now. I got the big things done today that I knew were going to take some searching around, so that's good.
I'm really looking forward to Christmas this year. I'm anxious to get the Christmas tree up and get into a Christmasy mood. We have some fun parties and things coming up that I'm looking forward to. Next week Shawn's company party is at one of our favorite restaurants, so we're really looking forward to that!
One of the other things I've been working on is planning the summer vacation that I'm so excited about. Over the Thanksgiving holiday our trip to Canada turned into a trip to the Oregon coast. I was telling my mom all about our plans to go to Canada and Shawn and I kept bringing up the trip we took to the Oregon Coast with the boys when they were little and we kept saying how much fun it was and my mom said "well then why don't you just go back there?". Shawn and I looked at each other and you know what, that's where we really want to go. I wanted to do Canada because we've never been there before, but it's a lot farther drive that Oregon and with Clarissa being so young still I'm not sure how much fun a super long car trip would actually be. I still want to take the trip to Northern Idaho and Canada but I think we're going to do it in a few years when a super long car trip would be easier.
The Oregon coast is still a long drive but we can stop in Portland for the night and go to the zoo and do all the other things we love to do along the way. I absolutely love going to the Oregon coast. That's where we spent our honeymoon and some of the best vacations I've ever had in my life have been there. It's peaceful and beautiful and everything I love about going on vacation.
The Oregon coast is stunningly beautiful. It's ocean on one side and forest on the other. Renting a beach house is really fun there because you feel like you're in the woods but you can go right outside and play in the ocean. I love it there because it's never super crowded so it's quiet and peaceful but there are still a lot of fun things to do. The more we talked about it this weekend the more we realized that it was the perfect location for our summer vacation.
So I've had a great time searching for beach houses to rent. There are a million different options all up and down the coast so I'm still not sure exactly where we'll end up, but I'm having fun looking. Part of the fun of a vacation for me is planning it. I'll spend all winter planning it before I decide on anything.
Well, the fun is over and it's time to head home. I'm writing this from the freeway. I love going out of town but I alway hate the drive home. Only 280 more miles to go!
We just got back from seeing the new Muppet movie with my brothers family. I've been waiting for months for that movie to come out and it was just as awesome as I hoped it would be! I love the Muppets. I've seen the old Muppet movies a million times and I never get tired of them. The new movie is super cute with lots of fun music. I can't wait to see it again!
We're having a great time at my moms house. I'm going to be sad to leave tomorrow. The kids have loved playing with their cousins and I've enjoyed spending time with family.
We're having a fun trip! We had a great Thanksgiving yesterday and today we're doing some shopping and visiting family. For now I'm off to run errands with my mom! I love being back in my hometown with my family. No matter how long I've been gone this town still feels like home.
It's 8am and we're on the road. Only four more hours till we're at Grandmas house! :) Happy Thanksgiving everyone!
We're leaving tomorrow morning to go to my hometown for Thanksgiving. This afternoon I've got therapy and lots of packing to do before we go.
I'm not sure how I'm going to keep up with my daily blog posts while I'm gone, but I'm going to try my hardest. I may be making short posts from my iPhone. I've been doing so good on my blogging every day for a month goal, so I'm hoping to keep it up through the end of the month!
I'm really looking forward to getting out of the house for a few days. I've been counting down the days all week! It will be nice to see my family, do a little Christmas shopping with my mom and let the kids run around with their cousins. We haven't been there since July, so it will be good to spend some time with family.
The other thing that I've really been looking forward recently is the new Muppet movie! I'm ridiculously excited about that movie. Next weekend I think we're going to get a babysitter for Clarissa and take the boys. I'm a huge fan of the old Muppet movies. I watched them over and over growing up and I can't wait to see this one!
Remember the other day when I said that I needed something to pull me out of my rut and that I really needed a vacation and that I needed some adventure in my life?
I've been thinking about it for the past several days and I think I've determined that vacations are definitely what is going to pull me out of my funk and I've started planning some fun adventures!
Before Clarissa came home we used to go on vacations a lot. They weren't always big vacations but every few months we would get out of the house for a few days and do something. I LOVE vacations. I love being a tourist, I love road trips, I love sleeping in a different bed, I love seeing new things, I love all the planning that goes into a vacation...I love it all.
Then Clarissa came home and we had a million reasons why it was never the right time to take a vacation. Frankly, the adoption was a huge drain on our finances, so for a while we couldn't afford vacations like we used to, and then Clarissa hit that toddler stage where it was hard to take her anywhere and a vacation just didn't sound like that much fun. Then I've had a string of health issues this year, we've had other stuff going on and suddenly we realized that it has been ages since we just packed up and left town for a few days. I need that in my life. It recharges my batteries and gives me something fun to look forward to. Vacations are exciting and they make me happy.
So next year we're taking vacations. Big ones, small ones, I don't care, but the Whites are leaving town. We've been talking more and more about going to Canada next summer and I think we're going to do it. We live in Southern Idaho and Canada boarders Idaho on the Northern tip, which is around an 8ish hour drive from here. We've never been to Northern Idaho or Canada but everyone says that it's beautiful. I think we're going to go for a week, maybe in July, I haven't decided when yet, and we'll spend a few days in Northern Idaho and a few days in Canada. I'm still at the beginning planning stages but I'm really excited about it!
I'm also planning a couple of short trips earlier in the year to our favorite little town in the mountains. We used to rent cabins in the mountains all the time and we haven't done it in ages. I just got an e-mail from the cabin rental company we use and they have a bunch of good specials through the winter, so it's not really that expensive to get away for a few days. I think we're going to try to rent a cabin for a long weekend at the end of January and again for spring break at the end of March. I love renting cabins up there. It's only an hour away but it's in the middle of nowhere and there's really not a single thing to do up there but hang out and play games, watch movies, enjoy the beautiful scenery and have fun family time. Every time we go we have a blast. It's something that I've really missed these past few years.
So there are my big vacation plans. I've declared next year our year of adventures and I'm determined to make it happen!
The fact that Shawn and Clarissa are downstairs right now singing the Muppet theme song at the top of their lungs and it's making me smile.
I'm too tired to blog tonight, so instead you get a Youtube video of otters holding hands.
I don't have anything exciting to talk about today so I'm going back to using a blogher writing prompt, which is "describe the happiest moment of your life".
That's a tough one because I honestly don't think I have one happiest moment. There are several events that pop into my head, like my wedding day, the birth of my children, our trip to Korea to get Clarissa, etc. It would be hard for me to say that one of those events was more happy than the others because they were all pretty amazing events in my life.
In general, my happiest moments are those spent with my family. Every now and then we'll be doing something together, like a family vacation or a holiday or even a fun movie night and I'll think to myself "this is a PERFECT moment". One of those moments that you just stop and take a mental picture of so that you will remember it forever.
A few years before we adopted Clarissa we went to Disney World with the boys. That was an absolutely perfect week. I remember stopping several times and looking around at my kids having so much fun and thinking that that was the most perfect week of my life. We still talk about that trip. I remember sitting on top of a mountain in Korea at night listening to a Korean music festival thinking that that was another one of life's perfect moments. I've been blessed with many happy moments in my life. To choose one as the happiest would be impossible.
I'm grateful for those happy moments because the memory of them gets me through moments that aren't so happy. This year has been incredibly difficult for me for some reason. I honestly don't even know why exactly, nothing specific has changed in my life, I've just been struggling for the past several months. In fact, I was just reading back on my blog earlier today and it really struck me how much happier and more fun my posts used to be. I can tell that things have changed a bit this year. Sometimes I just get stuck in my head and it takes a new hobby or a vacation or some sort of change to pull me out of it. I just haven't managed to find the right thing to pull me out of it this time. I will though, I'm not worried.
I just got back from a date night with Shawn. We realized recently that we don't get out of the house without the kids nearly enough, and by not nearly enough I mean almost never! For a long time after we brought Clarissa home from Korea we didn't want to leave her with anyone while we were still working on the attachment process and after a while we just got so used to never going out alone that we just quit having date nights altogether. We're trying to change that though. We have the sweetest girl down the street who babysits for us. The kids love her and she does a great job with them.
Tonight we went out for Mexican food, walked around the mall for a while and then went out for desert. It was nice to get out for a bit. I feel like I've been cooped up inve house too much lately now that it's getting cold outside. It actually snowed for a few minutes here today! The kids were hoping for lots of snow but I'm hoping it waits a bit longer because we're going out of town for Thanksgiving and I don't like to travel in bad weather.
post every day this month but I'm struggling to come up with things to blog about. Remember when we were in the adoption process and there was always something exciting going on to blog about?! Maybe we need to adopt again so I have something to write about, lol. As fun as that sounds, I don't think it's going to happen. It's funny, whenever anyone asks me about the adoption process I look back on it so fondly and say how much fun it was, but then I occasionally read back on my blog posts and remember how much I complained about how hard it was! The wait was awful! I always forget about that part because the outcome has been so amazing and so worth it. We're pretty sure our family is complete and we're not likely to adopt again, but I admit there is a little part of me that wishes we could do it again.
Ok, well, I've run out of things to talk about so I'm off to put on my pj's and snuggle up with Shawn!
So that's where I got my love of books!
Today you get another old photo. This one is REALLY old! It's my dad in 1955. I love this picture. I wonder what he was reading.
I don't have much time for a blog post tonight, so instead you get a random picture from my childhood.
That was my family (minus my sister who must have been taking the picture) on Thanksgiving. I'm taking a guess on the year but it was probably around 1990.
This picture makes me smile and brings back great memories. It seemed fitting to share because next week is Thanksgiving and this Friday would have been my dad's 64th birthday. I miss him. I'm grateful for these old photos so I can still see his face every now and then.
I'm completely out of blog topic ideas today. I checked the blogher writing prompt and started a blog post about it (the topic was to describe your favorite place) but it was boring and I wasn't inspired. The Oregon Coast is my favorite place, by the way.
So I'll tell two quick stories and be on my way.
The first story is that I made sugar cookies yesterday. Josh came home from school yesterday with a certificate that said he made the honor roll for first quarter. I was super excited about that and decided to make sugar cookies as a special treat to celebrate.
My second story is that this morning I was getting ready to take Matthew to school and my vision started to get weird. There was a bright, blurry spot in the center, almost like someone had shot a flashbulb in my eyes. I drove Matthew to school and got halfway home and it started to get worse. I started losing my peripheral vision. It was bright and sparkly and I couldn't see well at all. I was driving at the time, which was really scary. I didn't know what was going on and I was kind of freaking out.
I was close to home and managed to see well enough to get home and I immediately ran in the house and called Shawn and explained what was happening. By the time I got him on the phone my vision was clearing and it wasn't as bad. Shawn listened to me describe what had happened and then said, "so did you get the headache yet?" Shawn suffers from occasional migraines and what I described is exactly what happens to him right before he gets a migraine. He told me to go take some pain medicine right away and lay down. I did end up getting a headache, although not a terrible one, thanks to the medicine. My vision is fine now and I feel fine, it was just super scary for a few minutes. That has never happened to me before. I later looked up migraine auras online and what they described is exactly what happened. It's good to know if it ever happens again. It was scary for a few minutes.
So there are my two stories for the day. Let's hope I have something more interesting to talk about tomorrow!
There's not a whole lot going on here these days. I've taken up yoga for my anxiety, which is super hilarious because I'm so bad at it. I bought a set of videos and there are some really great routines on there for stress relief that mostly just involve laying on the yoga mat and breathing deeply. I'm really good at laying there and breathing! :) But I've been trying to branch out and do some of the more strenuous routines (they're videos for beginners, so strenuous is relative. They're supposed to be really simple routines) and I've discovered that there is pretty much no one in the world less flexible than me! It's embarassing how bad I am at it. I start off super excited and determined to follow along and five minutes into it I'm sitting on my yoga mat giving the yoga video lady the finger while she turns herself into a human pretzel. It's super awesome, I'm sad that you all can't witness the hillarity that is me doing yoga.
In other news, this morning Clarissa brought me a book and asked me to read it to her. It was a big book about the solar system that we bought for one of the boys a few years ago. It's not exactly a picture book that you read to a two year old. I really didn't want to read a reference book about the solar system to her so I told her to go find me another book to read. Instead of finding another book to read she sad down next to me, opened up the solar system book and started pointing to planets and correctly naming them! Apparently Shawn has been reading it to her and teaching her the planets. I had no idea she could name the planets! Silly me for thinking that a reference book on the solar system was to much to read a two year old, lol.
Last night we went over to a friends house for ice cream. These were the friends we went on our yearly cabin trip with earlier this year. They compiled all the pictures and video that everyone took on the cabin trip and made a super cute video out of it that we watched last night. It was fun to relieve that trip and remember how much fun we had. I love those friends. They're like family to me.
And speaking of family, we're going to my moms house for Thanksgiving this year, which should be fun. I've been going a bit stir crazy around here lately and I'm desperate to get out of town for a few days. I'm looking forward to taking a break from life and spending a few days with family.
I'm finally getting around to sharing some Halloween pictures! Enjoy!
Today is Pepero Day in Korea. Pepero is a popular Korean snack, sort of similar to a pretzel stick dipped in chocolate, but it's more cookie that pretzel. It's long and skinny like a pretzel. They're pretty yummy!
Anyway, a Pepero stick is shaped like the number one, so Korea celebrates Pepero Day on 11/11 every year. On Pepero Day you exchange Pepero with your friends and family.
It's a silly little holiday, but I'm kind of a sucker for things like Valentine's Day, where you give candy and gifts to the people you love, so Pepero Day is right up my alley, lol. We like to celebrate Korean holidays and traditions whenever we can. For one thing it's just fun to have more holidays to celebrate and as Clarissa gets older I want to make sure that she has every opportunity to learn about her birth culture as much as she wants to.
I don't have much to blog about but I wanted to share a funny story from today.
Remember the Korean exchange student named Michael that we hosted for a month earlier this year? When he went back to Korea Clarissa kept asking where he went and we had to keep reminding her that he went back to Korea.
We talk about Korea a lot in our house and Clarissa is used to hearing about it but obviously doesn't really grasp what Korea actually is. It's interesting though, that she can often point out something that is Korean. If she sees a picture of an Asian person she will point to them and say "Korea!". Sometimes when she sees something distinctly Asian/Korean looking, like some of the Korean nicknacks we have or whatever, she'll identify it as Korea. But I'm sure that she has no idea what Korea actually is. She's just too young to understand it.
Today I needed to run to the Korean market to buy some Korean snacks called Pepero because tomorrow is Pepero day in Korea (I'll make a post about that tomorrow). I asked her if she wanted to go to the Korean store and she got all excited and said "I love Korea!". Somehow I think she thought we were finally going to that mysterious, much talked about place called Korea, lol. We got in the car and as I was strapping her in we were talking about Korea and she said "Anyoung!", which is Korean for "Hi". We have taught her that in the past but I had absolutely no idea that she remembered it or that she associated it with Korea. I asked her again what people say in Korea and she said "anyoung!". It blew me away! Smart girl!
So then we got to the Korean market and we did our shopping. I love going to the Korean market. I like to walk around and look at all the cool stuff. We paid for our Pepero and as we were walking out of the store, Clarissa looked back, all confused and said "where's Michael?". We've been telling her all this time that Michael was in Korea and she thought that the Korean market was Korea, so I guess she was expecting to see Michael there! It made us all laugh. But now I'm afraid one of these days I'm going to explain to her that she came from Korea and she's going to think we bought her at the Korean market, lol.
Check back tomorrow to hear all about Pepero Day!
Today was therapy day. I love therapy. It clears my head and for someone who always has a million things going on in her head, that says a lot.
So the blogher writing prompt for the day is this: When was the first time that you realized that your home was not like other peoples home?
Hmmm....I'm pondering the question and I'm not sure I understand it. Everyone's home is different, right? I think I realized that the first time I went to someone's house that wasn't mine, lol.
Ok, so I don't like the question very much, but I guess I can do a general blog post about home.
I grew up in the same house from the time I was four until I got married. My wedding reception was in the backyard. I loved that house. I loved the neighborhood, I loved the neighbors, I loved growing up there. It was a great neighborhood with tons of kids, where everyone knew each other. We played in the street and wandered in and out of each others houses during the summer when I was a kid.
Three months after I got married my mom got remarried and sold the house. It happened really suddenly and I was devastated when she sold that house. I had gone through a lot of change and upheaval and loss over the past couple of years with my dad dying and some other things in my life and it was just one more loss that took me a while to process. I struggle with change and after a lifetime of everything being the same, the years between 20 and 22 were just one big change after another. Some good changes, some terrible changes, but just a lot of change.
So it's no big surprise that in my adult life I have not been someone that likes to move or make major changes, especially to our living situation. Shawn and I have been married for 14 years and we've moved four times, and quite possibly will not move again until our children are grown and married. We lived in two different apartments while he was going to school and then we built a cute little starter home after he graduated that we lived in for three years and then we bought this home, which we intend to be our "forever" home. My goal was to find a house that we could comfortably raise our family in before our oldest child started Kindergarten and we managed to do that. We moved here when Josh was four and Matthew was one.
We bought our current house from my aunt and uncle. We originally moved to this city so that Shawn could complete a year of internships for college and when we came here for a weekend to look for apartments my aunt and uncle offered to let us stay at their house (this house) while we looked for a place to live. I had never been here until then.
The first time we walked into this house I gasped. We were broke college students at the time but this was my dream house. I don't know what it was specifically but it was weird, it just felt like my house. I remember laying in bed with Shawn in the guest room in the basement that night and telling him that this was the house I wanted to live in someday. And then we laughed because we were broke college students who couldn't afford penny candy, let alone a house.
When Shawn graduated we ended up building a house about a mile from this house and we used to come over here and visit my aunt and uncle all the time. We had Thanksgiving dinner here, we celebrated the fourth of July here...I loved coming to visit my aunt and uncle and I still loved their house. Shawn and I still whispered to each other that if they ever moved we were going to buy their house.
And then one day my aunt called and told me that they were moving. And suddenly so were we! Thirty days later we had sold our house and moved a mile down the road to this house.
I love that we have a history with this house. I have pictures of Josh as a baby in this house, when it still belonged to my aunt and uncle. Every now and then Shawn and I sleep in the basement spare room and giggle about the night we slept there and declared that this was the house we wanted to buy someday and how it felt like such an impossible dream.
So this is it, this is home. This is the house my kids will be talking about when they're all grown up. This is where they'll make their memories.
Home means stability to me. It's a soft place to land where the people around you support you and care about you and love you, warts and all. Our home is happy. We laugh and celebrate here. Friends are welcome here. There is lots of love here.
So there is my story about home. I'm nine days into my month of blogging. Let's see how long I can keep it up, lol!
Writing in my blog every day is hard when nothing interesting is going on around here! I'm really trying hard to stick to my goal of blogging every day but today I'm kind of searching for something to write about. It was a pretty low key day around here.
Has anything traumatic ever happened to you? Describe the scenes surrounding a particular event.
When I think about traumatic moments in my life three events popped into my head. My dad's death, a difficult breakup and Matthew's birth. They were all traumatic for different reasons but when I think of life changing, difficult moments in my life, those three things probably top the list.
My dad died of cancer a few weeks before my 21st birthday. He was first diagnosed with gallbladder cancer the year before. I was living across the country from my family at the time, as a live in nanny in New Jersey when my mom called to tell me that they discovered cancer on my dads gallbladder during routine gallbladder surgery. Being so far away from home was difficult. I couldn't be there for my mom and I didn't feel like I had a lot of details about exactly what was happening.
I was only supposed to be in New Jersey for a year and my year was almost up when the cancer was discovered, so I finished out my last few weeks or so in New Jersey and was able to join my family again fairly quickly.
The cancer my dad had had spread and was not treatable. They removed what they could but they knew it would come back. We were lucky to have another good year with him where he was healthy and happy before the cancer reappeared and he passed away.
Losing a parent is really hard no matter how old you are. My family changed a lot after he died and I've struggled with the trauma of all of those changes for years. Therapy has helped. Talking through some of that old trauma has been really helpful to me.
Trauma #3 was Matthew's birth. I think I've shared that story here before so I won't share the long version. The short version is that the cord prolapsed during labor and I was rushed into emergency surgery and that was honestly the scariest moment of my life. It was a horrifying experience that obviously ended happily, but it does rank as the #1 scariest moment of my life. The short version of that story doesn't sound so bad. The long version is kind of awful. I'm grateful for a quick thinking doctor and a bit of divine intervention that saved that situation from being a lot more traumatic than it was.
I've had other traumas and challenges in my life, as we all have, but there are the three that came to mind when I thought about the blog topic tonight. Something I've learned as I've examined my life in my quest for a better me this year is that all experiences have value, even the crappy ones. I learned important life lessons from the traumas in my life, the big ones and the small ones. What I've learned from the self reflection this year is that you can either let your challenges get you down and make you weak or you can learn from them and let them make you stronger. These days I'm aiming for stronger.
Last month when I was sick and didn't feel well enough to do anything but lay on the couch I watched a lot of Netflix and I got hooked on the show Felicity. I've been working my way through all 84 episodes for the past few weeks.
The show is all about college life and I sometimes watch it right before I go to bed so I've been having dreams about college lately. Last night I had a dream that I decided to go back to college but I couldn't decide what to major in, so I kept researching different careers to decide what I wanted to do.
I decided that I wanted to be a school librarian so I was going to schools to talk to their librarians about what degree you need to be a librarian. Then Shawn decided that he was going to go back to school too. Shawn has a doctorate degree in Pharmacy and a career he loves so has no reason to go back to school, so I was trying to tell him that he didn't need more college but he said that he needed to take three more classes to get his black belt in pharmacy, lol. Who can argue with that, right?!
In real life I never graduated from college, something that has always bugged me. I had big plans but life got in the way. I went for a year and decided that the major I chose was not what I wanted to do and my life was kind of in turmoil at the time so I took a year off to sort things out and while I was trying to regroup and figure out what to do next I met Shawn. When we got married he still had four years of a very difficult doctorate program to get through and I needed to work to pay the bills while he was in school. By the time he was done with school we had Josh and eleven years later I still wish that I had managed to somehow fit college in there.
So once Clarissa starts school and I don't have little kids at home anymore I'm planning to eventually go back to school. I'm still not quite sure what I want to be when I grow up though, so like my dream I'm still trying to figure out what I would go to school for. When I was in high school my plan was to get a degree in psychology. Then when I actually got to college I changed my mind at the last minute and majored in social work. I took a bunch of social work classes and hated them. I knew it wasn't for me. I may decide to do what I wanted to do in the first place and get a degree in psychology. Or who knows, maybe I'll do like my dream and become a school librarian, lol. I do like books! Josh told me recently that I should be a zookeeper because I like the zoo so much. Honestly, I don't know if I really even care about having a career. I love being a full time mom and I'm not in a hurry to go back to work or anything. I just like learning and it would complete a goal I set for myself a long time ago to get a college degree.
So there is my dream. The real life dream I had last night and the dream I have of finally earning a college degree. It's good to have dreams!
I love Sundays. It's a day filled with family and church. We don't go anywhere besides church on Sundays, the rest of the day is family time and I enjoy the one day of the week when we're not running to a million different places and we can just have a nice family day.
Although today wasn't as relaxing as most Sundays because I had to teach a class of teenage girls at church. I'm the secretary in our church's young women organization. As the secretary I don't usually have to teach Sunday lessons, which works great for me because I absolutely hate standing up in front of people. I have social anxiety when it comes to things like that. But today was the one day a year where the secretary gets to teach the lesson.
I've worked on the lesson all week and I thought I would have to fill about 20-25 minutes. Because I don't like standing up in front of groups of people I've been stressing over this lesson for the past several days. I thought I was ready and I had a good 25 minutes worth of lesson planned.
Then I got to the class, the opening portion went way faster than it usually does and when it was time for me to teach I looked at the clock and realized that I had 45 minutes to fill. I'm really not a great teacher. I'm not used to doing it, I'm not great at winging it and having to fill 45 minutes with 25 minutes worth of information felt like one of those bad dreams when you realize that you have to take a test that you forgot to study for. Plus when I get nervous I talk really fast and I can trim a 25 minute lesson into about 15 if I don't remind myself to slow down!
For some people standing in front of 30 teenage girls and teaching a class isn't that big of a deal. To me it's just super intimidating for some reason. Put me in front of a group of little kids and I can teach all day but teenage girls scare me, lol.
I don't really have anything exciting to blog about today, so here's a picture of our family that my mom took in September. Maybe I'll think of something more exciting to blog about tomorrow.
I didn't like the NaBloPoMo writing prompt for today, so I'm just going with whatever is in my head.
Hmm...now that I'm sitting here I'm realizing that there's not a whole lot of anything in my head right now. Darn.
Speaking of Clarissa, I feel bad that I didn't blog on October 15th, which was the two year anniversary of her joining our family!! TWO YEARS, can you believe it?! Clarissa celebrated the day by being the flower girl in a friends wedding. If you've been reading my blog for a long time maybe you remember me talking about our Korean friend Larry. He used to be a co-worker of Shawn's and when he found out that we were adopting from Korea he was really excited and we kind of bonded over it and became good friends. While we were waiting for Clarissa he came over several times and made us Korean food and helped me with the language and we all watched Korean movies together. Larry had a girlfriend named Michelle, who we also became close with. When Clarissa joined our family they were really exited for us and last year when they got engaged they asked Clarissa to be the flower girl.
I had really been looking forward to the wedding and the whole flower girl thing, unfortunately when the big day arrived it was the day I started getting the flu and I really didn't feel well. We got Clarissa dressed up in her super cute flower girl dress and went to the wedding and everything was beautiful but I didn't feel well that night. Clarissa did a great job as the flower girl though, which was a big relief because you can never predict what a two year old is going to do! :) The kids had a ball at the reception and they danced all night. You should see Clarissa do the chicken dance. I wish I had gotten it on video!
Anyway, we're super happy for Larry and Michelle and it was a fun way to spend Clarissa's second family day. It honestly blows my mind that two years has passed. Why is it that the two years we waited for her seemed to drag on for an eternity and the two years since have flown by like nothing? Probably because I'm way busier now! It's fun now to read blog posts from before Clarissa came home. It's fun to remember how excited I was and how I wondered what she'd look like and what she'd be like. Honestly, the whole experience far exceeded anything I could have imagined. Having Clarissa in our family has been amazing. I absolutely adore that little girl.
Things are going awesome with the boys these days too. Josh is settled in to middle school and is getting straight A's, which I'm really proud of. It was great to go to parent teacher conferences and have every one of his teachers go on about what a great kid he is. I'm proud of the person he is becoming. He turns 12 in May, something I'm not quite ready for, but I'm excited to see him learning and growing and becoming his own person. He's an awesome kid.
Matthew is loving third grade. He's still on a year round school schedule and his track break starts on Monday, so he'll be home for the rest of the month. It's weird this year because Josh and Matthew are on different school schedules now, so Matthew will be home and Josh will still have school. It's kind of a bummer for Matthew because he and Josh are such good friends and play well together when they're both home. He'll miss having Josh home. Matthew is in the gifted program, which meets one day a week and that program still continues through track break because it involves other schools that aren't on a year round schedule, so I'll still take him over there for part of the day every Tuesday through track break. He loves the gifted program so he's excited that he'll still be able to do that during the break.
Both the boys are still in taekwondo and doing great. They're high blue belts and are hopefully going to be advancing to their red belts next month. After that they just have high red and deputy belt (which is black and red) and then they'll get their black belts. The last few belts generally progress slower though, because it progressively gets harder, so it will be at least another year before they get their black belts. I'm proud of how hard they've worked. They can do things I never imagined that they'd be able to do!
So there's your update on what's happening in the kids lives these days. I have awesome kids and I'm proud of them.
Can you listen to music and write? What song did you hear today?
Music has always had a profound effect on me. Certain songs can change my mood. Certain songs bring back very strong memories. I listen to music every chance I get. I usually have music playing in the background when I'm making blog posts. The song that is playing right now is Cannonball by Damien Rice. I like mellow songs when I'm posting on my blog. I have a playlist on my Ipad called "Mellow" and it has 136 songs on it. I usually start that playlist when I sit down to blog.
My musical tastes are kind of all over the place. I listen to a playlist with Lady Gaga, Pink and Bruno Mars when I shower in the morning to wake me up. I just finished listening to the Mormon Tabernacle Choir to help get Clarissa to take a nap. I'm obsessed with the Wicked soundtrack and I love other Broadway soundtracks as well. The radio station in my car is set to country music because I can generally count on it to be safe for my kids to listen to and there is some nostalgia value in country music for me that I like.
The current song playing while I blog is The Promise, by Tracy Chapman. I love that song. It's haunting. Next up is Down by Jason Walker. Also a good one.
So on another topic, while I'm sitting here blogging and listening to music, I'm also eating a little bag of German chocolates called Schoko-Bons. When I was 19 I was a nanny in for a family in New Jersey. The nanny they had before me was German and while I was there she came back to visit and brought chocolates for the family. One of the chocolates she brought were Schoko-Bons. I'm not really sure why she bought chocolate for the kids because the kids mom didn't really let them eat much candy so I ended up eating most of it and I fell in LOVE with Schoko-Bons. I'd never seen them before and they're not easy to find in the US. For years I remembered eating those chocolates and wished I could find more of them and then one day years later it occured to me to search for them online, and of course you can buy anything online!
So I was surfing the web this morning and discovered that according the the Blogher network, November is NaBloPoMo (National Blog Posting Month). I'm not really part of whatever they're doing, I only stumbled across it by chance and I'm not part of their network or whatever, but I like the idea of it, so I've made a goal to make a blog post every day this month.
They're posting post topic ideas every day this month if you need some inspiration so I'm using their topic for today, which is "If you knew whatever you ate next would be your last meal, what would you want it to be?"
We went to this tiny little restaurant off a side alley in Insadong, which is kind of a touristy shopping area. Insadong is one long street full of super cool shops and there are little side alleys along the way with neat little restaurants and different things. Anyway, she took us to this little restaurant and ordered tang soo yook. Tang soo yook is actually Koreanized Chinese food, I think. It's basically sweet and sour pork. I've had sweet and sour pork before, but this was a little different, and SO GOOD! Oh my goodness, I practically inhaled it. We ate some really good Korean food while we were there, but that tang soo yook was awesome.
So a couple of days later Shawn and I were back in Insadong, wandering around and doing a bit of souvineer shopping and we decided that we wanted to go back to that restaurant and have more tang soo yook. We thought we knew exactly where it was but when we started to go down the alley we realized that all the alleys looked exactly alike and we couldn't remember which alley we had gone down or what the front of the restaurant looked like. It was a tiny little restaurant and it didn't have a flashy front window or anything that would make it memorable. All we did remember was that there was a cool tree in the middle of the restaurant.
So we wandered up and down the alleys of Insadong for a really long time trying to find that restaurant again. We peeked in every window and couldn't find it. It was like it had dissapeared or something. It was the weirdest thing, because we were sure that we knew where it was but when we got to where we thought we remembered it, it wasn't there.
After walking for what seemed like ages, there it was. It was just a small little restaurant wedged between two other stores and it was really easy to miss. The only way we recognized it was by peeking in and seeing the tree.
So we went in and ordered more tang soo yook. The waiters didn't speak english and of course our Korean is minimal so we just sat down and said "tang soo yook!" They brought our food and it was as delicious the second time around as it was the first time and it was totally worth searching for.
When I think of Korea I always think of that little restaurant. When Shawn and I reminisce about our trip we always bring it up and giggle over the day we searched all afternoon for the restaurant with the tree in it. Some day I'm going to go back to Korea with my kids and we're going to go back to that little restaurant. I remember where it is. If you ever go to Insadong, it's down the first alley on the left, quite a ways down on the left hand side. Look for the tree in the middle of the restaurant, and be sure to order tang soo yook!
So if I knew that a meal was going to be my last, I would want it to be in Korea, in that little restaurant with the tree in the middle. Before I die I want to go back to Korea and eat tang soo yook one more time.
People are starting to ask where I went (which I appreciated because I wasn't sure if anyone was even reading my blog anymore!) so I decided I'd better get here and update.
Frankly, it's been a pretty crappy month, which is why I haven't blogged. It's kind of a long story, but I've had one long string of assorted health problems. It started out with my heartburn flaring up again and it became hard to swallow, so they sent me for an endoscopy, where they stuck a camera down my throat to see what was going on down there. They ended up dilating my esophagus with a balloon type thing and now I can swallow again. Fun.
Then I started having crazy heart palpitations, which are super scary and feel like I'm having a heart attack 50 times a day. I had the same thing a few months ago and attributed it to some medication I was taking, but I"m not taking the medication anymore. I had a physical and they ran a million tests and there's nothing wrong with me, my heart is just beating weird for no reason. The doctor said it isn't going to hurt me and to just ignore it. Easier said than done.
Then two and a half weeks ago I got the flu and I've never been so sick in my whole life. I went back to the doctor to be tested for strep because it felt like I was swallowing glass but the test was negative. I had a fever, terrible congestion and my whole body hurt for two solid weeks. Even now I'm still not feeling super great. I still have a cough and my head is still a bit stuffy but I'm finally coming out of it.
So all in all, October was a pretty crappy month. I spent the entire month either on the couch or at the doctor. Neither of which were any fun. At one point Shawn and Clarissa got sick too and we were all so pathetic that neighbors started bringing us meals, which were wonderful and the highlight of my crappy month. I'm grateful for good friends.
So here it is, November first and I'm trying to pull myself back together and put crappy October behind me. In my quest for a better me, October was not successful. I missed some therapy due to being sick and my big plans and goal setting pretty much got abandoned for a bit.
It's OK though, I'm moving forward and not looking back. My latest plan in my quest to be a better me is yoga. I bought some yoga DVD's the other day and I actually kind of like it. I've always wanted to try it, but I'm sadly not flexible and I never dared to take a class at the gym because I really don't need a room full of people watching me make a fool out of myself. But now I'm doing yoga in the comfort of my home where no one gets to watch how bad I am at it! :) I've only been doing it for two days but so far I like it and it's been a nice stress reliever. Being sick for a month made my anxiety worse and now I'm trying to refocus and yoga is helping. I'm hoping that if I do it at home long enough I'll get good enough at it to take a class at the gym.
So there's a recap of my crappy month. Not much else is happening around here. Everything kind of came to a halt when I got sick. The kids went trick or treating last night and had a ball. This is the first year that Clarissa has been old enough to really kind of understand Halloween and she was SO excited! I have a bunch of pictures I want to share but my old laptop died and I just got a new one and I don't have Photoshop or any of my photos transferred over to it yet. That's my project for this week. I'll be back with pictures when I have things up and running better.
For now I'm going to eat some Halloween candy and go to bed. Tomorrow is a new day and it's time for me to get back to work!


Stick Defences Workshop. Get it booked!
What sort of learning style are you?
Multiple attackers, is it a planned attack or a spontaneous group?
Junior and Teen Krav Maga Grading.
it's only available until Friday 1st June 2018.
The point is, if you want a particular response from someone. Think about how you put your communication across.