text:
Sometimes [Tia]
Post by mina pandora oliveira on Apr 28, 2018 23:09:30 GMT -7
@tia
10.01.2019 - year five
A loud clatter echoed throughout the empty classroom Mina was in. The sound came from a chair she had kicked over in anger, the cause being a seventh year boy she had been vying after for a while turning her down, the fact of which she did not like. The bubbling frustration of feeling like she had wasted her time during the last few months had held on just long enough for the classroom door to shut and until the sound of footsteps in the adjacent corridor dissipated. To make it worse, today was her birthday, and she had purposely turned down doing things with her friends in order to hang out with this stupid guy. Figured, nothing ever really seemed to go the way she wanted it to when it was planned out. The excuse he had given her was a pretty weak one too; the fact that he 'only had a few months of school left and needed to focus on his studies' did not resonate with her beliefs in the slightest. What she couldn't understand was why that even mattered at this point in time. The years leading up to seventh year were more important, to be honest. Even she knew that. But she 'wouldn't understand, because she was only a fifth year still'. God, she didn't need to be treated like a child anymore – she was sixteen as of today, after all.
Letting out a low, frustrated groan at the turn of events, Mina crossed the room and threw herself into a chair that was situated at a window near the back of the classroom, folding her arms up on the sill with another huff as her chin hit them. There was no use in leaving the room for the next few minutes, the odds of her running into him on the way back to the common room were relatively high still. And even if she did make it back there without another encounter, what was she going to do? Have her friends spring into action in order to celebrate her birthday? While it certainly sounded like something she would normally do, it was too exhausting at this hour of the night. Better to wait until after curfew and wander back, if not stay here all night. As long as she wasn't intruded on, no one would care all that much.
Jun 7, 2018 5:53:28 GMT -7
Post by Deleted on Jun 7, 2018 5:53:28 GMT -7
i am my own.
THOUGH TIA HAD TAMARA AT HOGWARTS, sometimes she felt utterly alone. She was a third year by this point. Gone were the days when her poor social skills could be blamed on the newness of the school. On being a Muggle-born. No, now all she had to blame was her personality. Tamara was better, and Tia knew that if she asked to sit with her sister at lunch she would say yes. But, that required asking and Tia had absolutely no desire to do so.
Scuffing the toe of her polished Mary-Jane's along the stone hallways, Tia alternated between skipping and walking. She'd heard about an annotated copy of Hexes For The Busy & Vexed at the back of Professor Pitterpatt's classroom, and had decided quite rebelliously that she was going to steal it while no-one was around. Well, borrow it, copy the annotations in to her own edition and promptly return it. But, saying the word 'stealing' was a lot more thrilling in theory.
She sidled up outside of the classroom at the same moment that a clatter rattled the walls. She stopped, panic seizing her throat as she wondered if she'd been made. Had someone told? She scoffed under her breath, of course nobody had told, she hadn't said she was going to do it out loud to anyone. And she certainly hadn't snitched. The door was left slightly ajar and Tia used her scuffed shoe to open it slightly. First, all Tia could see what an upturned chair - the source of the noise.
She poked her short, frizzy brown-haired head around the corner. Face pinched, the noise-maker turned out to be a girl at the back of the classroom. Tia's immediate emotion was annoyance. How was she going to snatch the book if the classroom wasn't empty? That meant she had to wait for the girl to scram.
Slipping through the small gap she'd between the door and the frame, Tia shook her long robe sleeve up to her elbow and curled a fist in front of her face. "Ahem," She coughed, announcing herself. Her lips were thin, eyes still a little too big for her face. A skinny thing with hair that swung at her waist, all bony elbows and knees. She wasn't much to look at over all.
When no other sounds filled the air, Tia pointed to the upturned chair. "Are you going to pick that up?" She asked primly, though the look on the girls face prompted Tia to cross the room and pick it up herself. "Nevermind," She mumbled, hair falling around her face so that it was mostly obscured by the time she stood back up, forcing her to palm it away from her face gracelessly. "Why'd you kick the chair?" She asked curiously as she tried to untangle her fingers from her own hair, still young enough to forget about 'minding your own business'.
NEVERLAND at ADOXOGRAPHY 2.0!
Post by mina pandora oliveira on Jun 16, 2018 11:12:42 GMT -7
A shiver of uneasiness rippled through her body as a very clear 'ahem' reverberated in the classroom. The first thought that came to Mina was that a Prefect or Professor had been walking by the room when she had kicked the chair. Seeing how said chair was still lying on its side and she was the only one inside the classroom, she was going to be implicated in the crime without much to defend herself with. It wasn't like detentions were new to her or anything – her frequent visits went all the way back to her first year, rather, her first week of first year. Her inaugural trip had been the result of teaching the Goyle boy how to keep his damn mouth shut. No one ever expected a tiny first year to throw a proper haymaker, but there also weren't many first years that had the luxury of growing up with werewolves for parents. Hogwarts learned that the hard way the previous year when her sister wolfed out on that one kid. Mina hadn't even put two and two together that maybe that was the reason she had been rejected. It made way too much sense. Siblings were great for plenty of things, though hers tended to ruin her life more often than not. Returning from her trip down memory lane and newfound distaste for her eldest sister, Mina leaned back in her chair at the windowsill and dropped her arms to the side of her, letting them dangle freely as she let out a sigh. The Prefect might as well slap her with a detention for breaking curfew too, since there was no way she was going to make it down to the common room by then.
Except the voice asking her to pick the chair up didn't sound authoritative at all. Exactly the opposite, actually. There was a hint of formality, and as Mina slowly turned to see who the guest was, she caught the end of them placing the chair back in its proper position. As the newcomer pushed her hair out of her face, Mina realized how stupid she had been to jump to conclusions, assuming this was a Prefect. This girl was definitely younger than her, and unless she had accidentally spilled a potion of age reduction on herself earlier in the day, it was going to be a few years before this one would even come close to being considered a Prefect. "Because I was pissed off," Mina responded bluntly to the girl's question about raging out on the chair. Why else would anyone take out abuse on an inanimate object? That was a stupid question. "If you're lost, I can't help you. The school should have given a map to all first years. Use that." Turning back around in her chair, Mina returned to the position she had previously been in, before being interrupted.
Post by Deleted on Jun 21, 2018 9:05:36 GMT -7
STANDING IN THE MIDDLE OF THE ROOM, TIA was quickly regretting her decision to waltz in to the room. The girl, who had looked rather innocuous from afar, was far more intimidating when she lifted her head. Tia couldn't tell if she was being glared at, or if that was simply her face. Best not to ask, though, she figured. At least, not right now. Her mother kept telling her to count to five before she said something. That way, less people were less offended.
"Oh." Tia said, the girls blunt reply slapping across the side of her face and lowering her gaze. "Pissed off at a chair?" She muttered with a hint of snark, her defences rising as she wrinkled her nose petulantly. Pulling handfuls of her hair from her face, she sighed. Most of the time, Tia didn't mind being told to get lost. She quite liked her own company. But, there was something about the way the girl regarded her. Like she was some snivelling first year, or something.
"Why would I ask you if I were lost?" She snipped, her bottom lip pouting slightly. "You don't even know where the chairs are supposed to go." Crossing her arms, Tia marched across the room towards where the girl sat. But, instead of stopping beside her, or sitting down. She walked straight past to where the storage cupboards were kept at the back. And, drawing her wand, she muttered under her breath, "Alohomora."
The cupboard snicked open, and Tia began to rummage within. She was going to get that book. The angry girl had driven her past the need for secrecy. Plus, if she told, well Tia could tell too. Finally, the annotated book loomed at the back. She snatched it up without a word and had every intention of walking past without a single explanation.
Post by mina pandora oliveira on Jul 4, 2018 10:40:53 GMT -7
Pissed off at a chair? Mina laughed out loud, not meaning to sound as awful as she did, but the sheer ridiculousness of that comment deserved it. Stupid questions won equally stupid responses, did they not? "Yes, pissed off at the chair because it decided that it didn't want to go out with me. It's actually a seventh year boy, did you know that? Transfigured him into a chair and then decided to kick him around a bit," she said as sarcastically as humanly possible. If this tiny child didn't get that…well, Mina wasn't sure what else she would do. That was too much to think about right now because she was still ticked off at the boy, even when this girl was making it increasingly easier to be angry at her for walking into the room. "Because you look like you have that glazed over look that most first years have," she snapped back, ignoring the bit about knowing where the chairs went. How could she know? She didn't have class in this room. Hell, she didn't even know that this was a classroom until the other girl walked over to a cabinet nearby and unlocked it, producing a something out of its shadowy depths. Now things were getting interesting.
Interest piqued, Mina stood up from her chair abruptly, almost at supersonic speed, and was behind the girl in a matter of steps, trying to see what she had pulled from inside the cupboard. It was a book. "Now, I'm not the best at following rules, but I don't think you're supposed to be doing that," Mina said slowly, reaching one arm around the girl's shoulders to try and keep her from running, if she decided to do so. "What on earth could you want with a book that was locked inside of a cabinet? I'm curious." All thoughts of the boy that had just turned her down were practically gone, now that something more intriguing had come along.
edited Jul 21, 2018 23:24:12 GMT -7 by mina pandora oliveira
Post by Deleted on Jul 7, 2018 14:31:35 GMT -7
TIA'S FACE SCREWED UNCOMFORTABLY AT THE girl's harsh laughter. It rang in her ears, familiar and ugly. She'd been laughed at before. Not mercilessly, but whenever she put up her hand too soon. Or didn't understood what someone was saying, it was always the same, that obnoxious laughter. The kind that never sounded natural to her.
Though, almost as quickly as Tia registered that someone was laughing at her, her eyes widened comically. She took a panicked step toward the chair. "Are you mad?!" She squeaked, staring at it - while simultaneously thinking about what an impressive transfiguration that was if it-
One look at the girl under a curtain of frizzy hair and Tia stopped, her face going slack before tightening in anger. "Very funny." She resisted the insistent urge to stamp her foot, crossing her arms instead. This girl was a bit mean, she reckoned. Though, mostly Tia was rankled at being caught out in such a silly ploy for laughter. She always considered herself... better than that.
With no snappy remark ready at being called afirst year, Tia simply marched toward the back of the room and retrieved her book. She'd hoped the angry girl would be too busy being angry to stop her, but even she knew better than to trust wishful thinking. She halted half way across the room, book under her arm. Pivoting slightly, she cast a snarly look over her shoulder.
"It's an annotated book on Hexes," She said, managing a slightly menacing smile. Except, she hadn't quite mastered the craft. "Are you going to tattle..?" She asked, turning with her arms crossed, the booked tucked under her arm so she could eye the other girl like she wasn't bothered if she did or didn't. She waited a moment, one polished shoe tapping at the toe. "I'm going to put it back eventually..." She explained, wrinkling her nose. She had a rather sour look on her face, which wasn't entirely unusual.
Oh. My. God. This girl was adorably gullible. Mina hadn't encountered anyone like this in a long time. First years were obviously the best targets, but she grew bored of them after a while. This one though…this one still had that fresh-faced look to her. Still didn't understand all the quirks of magic, or that this was a school for magic, and students cast spells on each other all the time. By the way the girl reacted to the fib about the chair being Mina's former crush, the Slytherin could tell this was going to be a fun one to play with. At least for a little longer. The girl wizened up quick. "I thought it was," Mina shrugged. "I can do worse things, you know. So I guess I'm mad, in a way…" she pondered dropping the werewolf card, but kept her lips tight. That could come later. It would seem too impractical after the last trick. Plus, Mina didn't have to explicitly say she was one or not; that could be left up to the girl's imagination.
Unfortunately for Mina, the little one was quick to grab the book and get around her, long before she could manage to get a hold on either the girl or the book. That was fine. There were other ways to keep her here. Right now, keeping the conversation going was the first step. "Oooh hexes. My favorite. Aside from transfiguring boys into chairs, obviously." The girl asked her if she was going to tattle, and Mina shook her head horizontally. "It can be our little secret, 'kay?" she placed her index finger up to her lips. As if that would stop her from blabbering about this to literally everyone in Hogwarts. But the girl didn't know that. "But you have to do something for me first. That's the price for my silence. How's that sound?" This was absolutely evil, and Mina knew it. Torturing younger students was way too much fun!
Jul 31, 2018 8:19:32 GMT -7
Post by Deleted on Jul 31, 2018 8:19:32 GMT -7
THE ONLY FRIEND TIA COULD SAY SHE HAD WITH certainty was her sister. And even that was a stretch. At home they'd grown up dressed the same, attached at the hip. Tam had to be Tia's friend. But, Tia didn't really want for friends either. Especially at Hogwarts. More often than not people found her a little too brash. Quick to jump to conclusions, and even quicker to find a way to slip away.
"Are you- threatening me?" Tia asked aghast, a bitter scowl twisting the corners of her mouth down as she looked at the other girl. No matter that the stranger had an odd, sadistic sense of humour. Tia thought her callous comment about what she was capable to be a far more sinister train of thought. "Because- well, I'm very good at defensive spells for my age and- and," Tia's cheeks were tinged pink with a mixture of anger and shock. "I'm not an easy target!"
Tia found the other girl shockingly intimidating. She'd never quite had any reason to interact with anybody like her, and it made Tia feel off balance. She didn't like the obvious lack of control. Happy to leave before it escalated to a place where her eyes started to nip and her throat flexed sorely. Tia wasn't a crier, more often than not she just allowed herself to be worked in to a red faced tizzy before she threw a tantrum. With the book firmly in her grip, Tia thought she was almost home free.
"I-I heard someone added a few jinxes from Dumbledore's Army..." Tia muttered, staring down at the worn, browned pages of the textbook. She really was jittering with excitement to see for herself. Which is probably why she allowed herself to be reeled back in to the girl's orbit. So absorbed in her own concern of keeping the book and not getting in to trouble all at once. She'd never had detention before, she wasn't about to break her streak just yet.
"That sounds an awful lot like blackmail, you know." Tia said severely, her bottom lip pouting out over her top as she stared the other girl gravely. But, the book was gripped so tight to her chest they would have to pry it free. "What is it you want...?" She asked eventually, turning her head away in a shiver of frizzy brown hair. "Not that I'll do it!" She added, eyeing her from the corner.
Aug 9, 2018 22:43:23 GMT -7
Post by mina pandora oliveira on Aug 9, 2018 22:43:23 GMT -7
"Threatening you?" Mina chuckled, ruffling her hair as if she was thinking about the whole thing. Duh, obviously she was acting on the notion that she could be threatening, that was the whole point of saying she had turned the boy into a chair. As for following through on it? She was sure she would never actually do that. It was much more fun playing around like this, as if she was a cat batting around a mouse, in this case, the little girl. Every time she thought she could get away, Mina would be sure to reel her back in for more excitement. That was her whole shtick these days. "Maybe I am. Can your defensive spells keep you from being tied up? Pretty sure the rope I was using earlier wasn't transfigured along with him…" Looking around the room absently, Mina did her best to hide her smirk, though she was sure some of it had to be seen. It was hard not to see her grinning like an idiot this whole time.
The girl went on to say that some sort of army had added jinxes to the book, and Mina cocked her head to the side. Wasn't Dumbledore one of the old, dead Headmasters of the school? Why on earth would someone like him have an army? That seemed dangerous to her. "Sounds boring. I can show you plenty of things that books will never teach you," she offered, though what she was specifically offering, she had no idea. The girl had yet to catch onto the fact that everything Mina said had to be taken at face value. She didn't like being called fake, because lying and bending the truth wasn't nearly as bad as pretending to be something else entirely. "And if you want to call it blackmail, then I guess it is," Mina maintained her grin, keeping it as innocent as possible. "What I want, is for someone to talk to for a bit. To listen to me. My last sounding board is…well, he had some trouble sitting still so I fixed that for him." A quick flick of her eyes towards the chair she had tossed earlier would hopefully show what she was getting at. "I don't see any harm in a few minutes of innocent chit-chat, do you?"
Post by Deleted on Aug 12, 2018 16:39:57 GMT -7
IT WAS QUITE OBVIOUS THAT TIA WAS BECOMING ruffled. Her eyes getting steadily wider, mouth open as she regarded the girl with a mounding anger, tinged slightly with fear. She'd never had to actually face off with somebody before. But, the girl said things so casually, Tia couldn't tell if she was serious. She quickly decided it didn't matter, a person couldn't afford to trivialise threats.
"Well- I, I reckon you'd have to catch me first..." Tia said seriously, her mouth pinched tightly as she took a step backwards. With her arms crossed, she pressed them against her chest until she felt the weight under her shirt. The book was there too, like an extra weapon if needs be. "And when do you intend to teach me all this tripe, hm?" Tia said sharply, shaking straggly strands of hair out of her face. "Before or after you turn me in to a chair?" Tia was slowly coming to realise that either the girl was winding her up, or she was all talk. Either way, it didn't paint her very rosy in Tia's book.
And while, out of all the things Tia expected to be blackmailed with, she hadn't expected to be blackmailed for her time. People never really bothered talking to Tia, she was too busy trying to butt in and generally offering unhelpful comfort. "That a stu-" But Tia stopped herself, aware that if she belittled this offer the girl might come up with something much more insufferable. She wanted to keep that book.
Slowly, and with deliberation, Tia walked over to a chair and pulled it out. "Before I sit down, this isn't your old boyfriend is it?" Tia said snarkily, but she was already planting her behind on it, straight backed and rigid. "Go on then..." But, before the girl could talk again Tia had already opened her mouth. "I won't promise to be quiet, though!" Tia said hurriedly, her face sour. She still held the book like a lifeline against her chest.
Post by mina pandora oliveira on Aug 28, 2018 20:48:59 GMT -7
A snort came out of Mina when the little girl said she would have to be run down first, before being tied up. Did she not know there was a spell that could conjure ropes which could then be launched at a target? Even Mina knew that, and she spent most classes she did attend doodling in her hand-me-down textbooks over the notes her siblings had previously left, attempting to make things even more difficult for her younger sister than they probably already were as a first-year student. Apparently Mina was supposed to watch over her or whatever, now that Callie had graduated, but she was pretty sure the kid was fine on her own. If the girl in front of her was any indication of this year's new students, then her sister was going to be a rock star. And if all else failed, Mina would tell her the secret to get everyone interested: pretending that she's one of the student werewolves. That trick had the potential of making an appearance tonight, and the moon couldn't betray Mina either. The full moon wasn't until the middle of the month.
"Depends on whether or not you run, I guess," Mina answered, flashing her devilish grin again to try and pierce the girl's soul. She really had this one going, and there was no stopping now. That would mean a ton of disappointment on her end, and a loyal younger student lost. The girl started to say that Mina's idea of blackmail was stupid, and the Slytherin quickly threw her hands at her hips, eyebrows raised and tongue ready to put the kid in place. She was smart enough to stop, and seemingly accept her fate, taking a seat in one of the nearby chairs. "If you mean boy that happened to be a friend whom I also had a crush on, then no. He's the one you picked up earlier." Mina shot another glance at the chair she had tossed, and decided that it was going to be her seat for the remainder of their conversation. Whipping it into place, directly in front of the girl, she equally planted her butt down in it, her knees just far enough away from the girl's that they would only touch if one of them leaned forward in their seat. If her words had already been imposing, now her actions had to match that. So far, all the girl had seen was a chair get tossed across the room and then a slew of baseless threats.
Before she could get into her rant about the boy, her guest decided to pipe up that she wouldn't be silent the whole time. That only worked in Mina's favor. "Okay…anyways, you already know that this chair is a seventh year boy that turned me down about ten minutes ago," Mina said, quickly rapping her knuckles on the open part of the seat in between her thighs. "If that was bound to happen, it would have happened eventually, right? But today's my birthday too, so I thought it was a great idea to ask him out, so if he did say yes, it would make it that much better. Obviously he said no, but the real reason I transfigured him was because he forgot it was my birthday, and I was already ticked off at the fact that my parents forgot to send a birthday card again this year. Can you believe that? My siblings always get theirs on their birthdays, and mine has always been a week late, or never arrives. I used to think my sister Sarah intercepted it and purposely hid it from me, but she got kicked out of school a few years ago for almost killing a kid and it's still happening, so that rules her out. Unless she did it at home, in which case then it doesn't…" she trailed off, not realizing that her tangent had been going on for quite some time. Her words had been coming out at a mile a minute. Most people would have tuned her out by this point, but she had a feeling that her previous threats to the girl would have her listening intently, or at the most, paying attention to the important bits.
Biting onto her lower lip, Mina looked back up at the girl, hoping to get some sort of response from her. "So what do you think? Is someone stealing my birthday cards, or do my parents not love me? Because honestly, I'd rather it be the second one. I always cause problems for them, and after Sarah going all full on werewolf rage mode, I think they've had enough with me too." Mina nodded her head to herself, all of what she just spouted out making sense now that she had put it into words. Without Callie here to look over her, she was basically a lost cause and the second coming of Sarah, as far as her mum and dad were concerned. Cutting ties now would probably save them a lot of heartache when it was her turn to go crazy.
"What did you say your name was again?"
THOUGH TIA WAS SMART SHE WOULD NOT CALL herself brave. Tamara was the brave twin, with her love of thrilling sports and her dangerously friendly attitude. No, Tia had always been the more cautious of the two. So, if it came to a fight, she would most definitely prefer to run first. But, that didn't mean she wasn't capable of defending herself. Even if the other girl did unsettle her, with her sharp smile and sinister threats.
"Well, that depends on whether or not you give me a reason to run." Tia snipped back, though her palms were sweaty and she felt exposed. Perhaps that was why she sat down. Something instinctual told her a girl like that liked the chase, Tia just had to seem boring enough to lose her interest. Running didn't seem like the smartest move. Though, she still couldn't help being snarky as she did. "Oh, my bad." Tia said sarcastically, turning over her shoulder to lift a hand to the chair. "Apologies."
Though the likelihood was that she was only playing with Tia, there was something especially heinous about watching her approach the chair and drag it over to Tia, plopping down unnervingly close. Like an added layer of torture. Tia refused to believe it, even when her eyes flickered over the slim legs and scratched frame. Definitely not, she assured herself. But, there was always the risk... Tia sat silently, setting her book on the table top, though keeping a protective hand on top.
It was a task to hold her tongue, almost biting down on it as she listened to the strange girl talk. It was not the tirade Tia had been expecting. In fact, it was rather sad the more she went on. Tia almost felt sorry for her, but more than anything else, a great confusion overwhelmed her. She sat very still, her chin tilted up as she stared at her for a very long time in complete silence. Long enough that the girl went on to ask a question, which Tia had hoped would help. It did not. She wasn't good at this part.
"I don't understand why somebody would steal a birthday card." Tia frowned, shaking her head slightly. "And I- I mean, I can't tell you if your parents love you or not." She felt incredibly uncomfortable saying as much, but Tia wasn't a liar. And she hated when people only said things to make her feel better. That was just a cowardly version of deception. Fiddling with the edge of her sleeve she sighed, turning her head to look at the wall as she reluctantly grumbled, "But like, if they did forget then they're terrible people." Even if their daughter was a little bit of a psychopath, which was saying something since she had just said her sister almost killed somebody. Tia refused to comment on that for self-preservation alone.
Turning to look back at her again, she curled a frizzy strand of hair around her ear. She'd never had a heart-to-heart before, only read about them, but she thought maybe this was the closest she'd ever come. It was kind of gross. "You didn't ask to be here, I figure the least our parents can do is... take responsibility for our existence." Chin squaring defiantly, Tia felt sure in what she had said, even if it wasn't what she wanted to hear. "Though... I still don't think you're dealing with all of this in a very healthy way."
This was, in the end, the only reason Tia answered when she asked for her name. Because, for a millisecond, the girl was actually real. And not some supervillian turning boys in to chairs because they were rejected. "I didn't tell you it," Tia said, licking her lips as she blew a breath out of her nose. "It's Tia." She eventually replied. "Whats yours?" Side-eyeing the girl, she tried to guess what her name would be. Something long and hard to spell, she thought. "For the report I'm going to file against you later," Her tone sniped, the ghost of a smirk tugging at one edge of her mouth.
Of course the little girl wouldn't have a real answer to the questions. They were only posed to kill time, though Mina did find herself often wondering if her parents did actually care about her. During her fiasco of a third year, they cared enough to have the school take action and put her in detentions and remedial classes so she could catch up on her studies. Those sort of worked for a time. "Terrible indeed," Mina agreed with a smirk. "I'm the perfect challenge. The one they keep trying to fix even though I don't want them to. Pretending like they care about my grades," she let out a laugh here, "The only time they should care is when I graduate. Because I'll definitely do that to spite them." She knew that the aforementioned questions only existed because of the way she acted. She wasn't that stupid. Comprehending school work and being able to concentrate on tests may have been her undoing, but she wasn't going to let Hogwarts leave her on the side of the road like everyone thought it would. That still didn't make up for the fact that she was missing a birthday card from them. Its absence did sting a tiny bit, though much less than it had in years past.
Mina shrugged as the girl told her she wasn't being healthy with the way she was handling things. So what? It was her life and body, she could do whatever she wanted to it. Had she known she was going to be stuck in the classroom for this long, she would have brought her cigarettes along with her. Mummy and Daddy didn't know about those yet. "Did I say I disliked it?" she asked. "All I wanted to know was whether or not I'm loved. Obviously my parents don't, and neither did our chair friend. What about you? Have anyone you love yet?" The girl was totally going to say her parents and any siblings she had. Those were like, default 'I love them sooooo much' options. Mina desperately wanted to answer for the girl, but decided it was more fun to listen to her say it with her squeaky little voice.
"Well nice to meet you Tia," she grinned. The repeated threat of being reported was hilarious. Did this girl actually think she was going to give her real name? "I'm Ondina. Last name Weasley. You know, like one of those red-haired kids that are all over? Yeah…one of them. I hate the colour, so I dyed mine," Mina lied, pulling at a few strands of hair. She hated the little red-headed freak. This would make for perfect retaliation for all the stupid outbursts the girl had in the common room.
edited Nov 16, 2018 23:18:39 GMT -7 by mina pandora oliveira
Post by Deleted on Oct 15, 2018 19:17:34 GMT -7
TIA WAS NOT QUITE SURE HOW SHE'D ENDED UP in such a situation. She was not your typical confidante, oftentimes people readily avoided her. She wasn't exactly known for being friendly. Plus, Tia had no interest in gossip. But, this didn't feel like gossip. And while Tia did not think her opinion mattered in this moment, she still felt the urge to give it, even if she was more of a sounding board.
"Well... grades are important." She muttered under her breath, rubbing a finger on a whorl in the wooden table top. The wood had not been treated properly, she could read its wooden diary. "I don't think it's just about graduating." Which was not at all the point the older girl was making, but it was the most important thing that Tia heard. She had dedicated so much of her life to being The Best at her studies, it was difficult to see past that.
Tia was not prepared to be in the spotlight at all, she'd resigned herself to listening to the girl vent her problems so when it was turned on her she was not prepared. Her head whipped up, a frown wrinkling her brows as she stared at the other girl for a long, silent moment. "I... I'm not sure." She said, reaching up to tug at her bottom lip nervously. "Beyond the obvious; my parents, my sister... brother." She loved her family because they raised her, and gave her everything she needed. But, Tia wasn't sure if that counted. It was instinctual, she hadn't felt that love develop, it had always been there.
"What does it matter?" Tia grumbled, shaking the confusion from her head as she scowled. She crossed her arms angrily and glared at the other girl. "You don't need to love any body, it's not important." Which was rather easy for her to say as she'd never been without it, she did not know what she was missing at all. "I certainly won't waste my time with boys who deserve to be chairs." She kicked one leg out from under her seat and it knocked the leg of the chair opposite. "And, quite frankly, neither should you."
Looking up, Tia squinted at Ondina as she introduced herself. Much too pleased for a girl who was threatened only moments before. Even if it was an empty one. "Mmm," Tia hummed, lips pressed in to a tight line. "Wish I could say the same." She tittered, though it hadn't been an entirely terrible conversation overall. Tia had certainly suffered worse. She did, however, recognise the last name Weasley, though it meant very little to her. "I'm leaving now." She said simply, the chair legs scraping against the floor as she stood up.
"You're not allowed to tell anyone..." She added as she turned away and then back hastily, gesturing with her chin to the book she still clutched in her hands. "And I won't tell anyone about the chair or- or anything." She was thinking about the girls story about her parents, about how it obviously bothered the Weasley. It was strange but Tia hadn't heard anything about the Weasley's being poor parents but then again, there were tons of them and Tia hardly ever listened to gossip. She waited for Ondina to confirm but turning to leave again, needing to see truthfulness on her face.
"Are they?" Mina questioned, daringly, fully expecting the little girl to get flustered and either blurt nonsense out or freeze up completely. "Sure, grades are there to see if you test well. But what happens if you suck at testing? Or can't concentrate during the tests or classes? I can cast spells perfectly and I understand how to make potions but I do horribly on tests and homework is just busywork to keep us from doing what we want to do with our free time and from sleeping." She thought for a brief moment that she may have gotten a little too into her spiel, that saying all of that to a girl she had watched steal a book so she could study more would fall on deaf ears, but then Mina thought otherwise. She needed someone to dump all of this onto, and this girl meant nothing to her. Callisto would have told her to shut-up and study more, her parents would have gotten concerned that she was doing drugs, and the school would have thought she was going the same route as her eldest sister.
Of course the girl said exactly what Mina thought she would; it was an obvious choice, considering most students couldn't figure out their feelings for themselves. She even said so herself. And then she started questioning why it mattered. That was what Mina wanted. "Sure it is. Because when your family starts hating you, having someone else is kind of nice." The fallacy in Mina's words came with that fact that her own family didn't inherently dislike her, they were just tired of dealing with her nonsense. Sarah had bought her a few years of freedom, mummy and daddy afraid of turning another one of their pups against them so soon after the first. Mina had capitalized on that as much as possible but was starting to feel the effects waning. "You say that now, but boys are fun. It's easy to get them to do things." Easy to get anyone to believe what she wanted them to believe. In her defense, the game had gone on far longer than she thought it would, the girl's naivety was remarkable even when boldly stealing a book in front of another person. That made Mina look like a saint.
Until she tossed the Weasley girl under the bus for her own (false) actions. The bratty redhead did enough terrible things already as a third year that if word got out she transfigured a boy into a chair, it would seem real. She wasn't sure if Tia here was going to spill the beans or not. "What if I lied to you," Mina called as it looked like the girl was preparing to leave. A few steps and she was standing above Tia, trying to read whatever reaction that was going to come out of the girl. Willingly showing her hand like this wasn't the norm, but coming out of this conversation with only one lie instead of two was better morally. Good karma, or whatever. "The chair isn't actually the boy. He left a few minutes before you showed up…" She chewed on her lower lip, wondering if Tia would believe her or not. Everything up to this point had been relatively convincing on her part, so it was hard to tell what the other girl would accept as fact or fiction. "So I guess that means you're the only one that broke a rule, doesn't it?" Her right hand instinctively found Tia's shoulder, hopefully keeping her in place.


text:
Andreas Moser ist der Name folgender Personen:

* Andreas Moser (Schriftsteller) (1766–1806), deutscher Schriftsteller und Pädagoge
 Andreas Moser (Musiker) (1859–1925), deutscher Musiker und Musikpädagoge
 Andreas Moser (Biologe) (* 1956), Schweizer Biologe, Tierfilmer und Fernsehmoderator
 Andreas Moser (Architekt, 1959) (* 1959), Schweizer Architekt
 Andreas Moser (Architekt, 1961) (* 1961), Schweizer Architekt und Politiker (FDP)
 Andreas Moser (Architekt, 1968) (* 1968), deutscher Architekt

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


text:
Eagles Honored in 2001
Watson, Florene M.
Florene Miller Watson, one of only 25 women to qualify for the Women's Auxiliary Ferrying Squadron (WAFS), later known as the Women's Air Force Service Pilots (WASPs), became fascinated with planes at the age of 8. By age 19, she had completed flight...
Tucker, Sean D.
Sean D. Tucker was the first person ever to win the two most prestigious airshow industry honors in the same year, the Art Scholl Memorial Showmanship Award and the Bill Barber Award for Airshow Showmanship. Born in Riverside, California, in 1952, Tucker graduated...
Schriever, Bernard A.
Bernard Adolph Schriever, the father of the Air Force Space and Missile Program, was born in Germany in 1910. At the age of six, Schriever came to the US and settled with his family in New Braunfels, Texas before becoming a naturalized citizen in 1923. He graduated...
Ritchie, Richard S.
Brigadier General "Steve" Ritchie is the U.S. Air Force's only pilot ace of the Vietnam War. Born in North Carolina in 1942, he graduated from the U.S. Air Force Academy in 1964. He then attended undergraduate pilot training in Texas where he...
Risner, Robinson
In 1973, Americans welcomed home their returning Vietnam prisoners of war (POWs). Among those released heroes walked then-Colonel James Robinson "Robbie" Risner. During 33 years of service, he fought in three wars and twice received the Air Force's...
Potter, Henry A.
Hank Potter was Jimmy Doolittle's navigator in the first plane to launch for their famous Tokyo Raid. Born in Pierre, South Dakota, 1918, Henry "Hank" Potter entered the Army Air Corps as an Aviation Cadet in July of 1940, and graduated as a...
Parker, Ellis D.
Don Parker, a true Army Aviation pioneer, provided the vision, the masterful leadership, and the commitment necessary to consolidate and modernize Army Aviation during its formative years. Born in Sadlersville, Tennessee in 1932, Parker dreamed of flying since his...
Goebel, Robert J.
It took less than three months of World War II action for Robert J. "Bob" Goebel to become a Double Ace flying the North American P-51 Mustang. Goebel, the youngest of seven children, was born and raised in Racine, Wisconsin. At age 19, he entered the U.S....
Engle, Joe H.
Captain Joe H. Engle was first selected by Air Command and Staff College's Gathering of Eagles in 1983 and subsequently honored in 1987, 1989, 1995, 1997, and 2001, respectively. Engle became America's youngest astronaut on 29 June 1965, at age 32, after...
Denton, Jeremiah A. Jr
Prayer and covert communication were the biggest weapons we had," declared Jeremiah A. Denton, Jr., former prisoner of war. Born in Mobile, Alabama in 1924, Denton attended McGill Institute and Spring Hill College. In 1946, Denton received his commission from...
Day, George E.
Brigadier General George E. "Bud" Day was first selected as an Eagle by Air Command and Staff College's Gathering of Eagles in 1992 and subsequently honored in 2001, 2002, 2004, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2010, and 2013 respectively. He was born in Iowa in...
Cunningham, Randall H.
Navy Lieutenant Randy Cunningham was Americas first pilot ace of the Vietnam War. Born on 8 December 1941, he was commissioned in the US Navy in 1967. Receiving his gold wings the following year, he soon joined VF-96 flying F-4J Phantoms. Assigned to the...
Carter, Herbert E.
Herbert "Gene" Carter is a veteran World War II fighter pilot and a member of the original cadre of the Tuskegee Airman. Carter and his fellow Tuskegee Airmen shattered the widely held myth that blacks were not capable of serving their country in the arena...
Bolden, Charles F. Jr
Blesse, Frederick C.
Frederick "Boots" Blesse, a double ace with two combat tours each in Korea and Vietnam, is the sixth-ranking US jet ace and one of the world's premier jet tacticians. Born in the Panama Canal Zone in 1921, he graduated from West Point in 1945 and...
Blount, Winton M.
Pilot, CEO, public servant, Winton M. "Red" Blount was born in Union Springs, Alabama in 1921. At the age of 13, he worked for the family business for ten cents an hour, a wage he thought was "pretty good." He graduated from Union Springs High...

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


text:
Piedra Parada är en ort i Mexiko.   Den ligger i kommunen Manuel Doblado och delstaten Guanajuato, i den centrala delen av landet,  km nordväst om huvudstaden Mexico City. Piedra Parada ligger  meter över havet och antalet invånare är .

Terrängen runt Piedra Parada är platt åt sydväst, men åt nordost är den kuperad. Den högsta punkten i närheten är La Colmena,  meter över havet,  km norr om Piedra Parada. Runt Piedra Parada är det ganska tätbefolkat, med  invånare per kvadratkilometer. Närmaste större samhälle är Cuerámaro,  km sydost om Piedra Parada. I omgivningarna runt Piedra Parada växer huvudsakligen savannskog.

Klimatet i området är fuktigt och subtropiskt. Årsmedeltemperaturen i trakten är  °C. Den varmaste månaden är maj, då medeltemperaturen är  °C, och den kallaste är december, med  °C. Genomsnittlig årsnederbörd är  millimeter. Den regnigaste månaden är juli, med i genomsnitt  mm nederbörd, och den torraste är april, med  mm nederbörd.

Kommentarer

Referenser

Orter i Guanajuato


I loved reading about you personal experiences with the Spirit. I think the Spirit is like a mom. Mothers have a different relationship with each of their children; different ways to communicate and work with each personality. So I believe the Holy Ghost works with each of us similarly. I suppose it's the same with the other members of the Godhead. Thanks again for giving us something of yourself.


I've always been good at finding the words to comfort, motivate and affirm others – but it's a lot more complicated to offer myself the same positive words. It's easier to be super critical and demanding of you than it is to be proud, content and secure. It's easier to point out all of the flaws in you verses admiring how beautiful you truly are.
It's not that I don't think you're worth it… I just know that you can be so much more.
Often, you are pushed beyond your limits – harder, faster… further. Not because I don't think you're good enough or not doing enough… But because I know that you can and will be great. Some days, I don't take into account that you may be unable to handle the extra pressure – but it's because I know that you're strong enough to handle it all; that I don't think twice about the extra stress & anxiety that I'm causing you. I pack your planners, days and weeks – full of all the things you need to get done; without giving you time to bask in your accomplishments. And you, have accomplished so much.
I deeply apologize for how I've treated you.
I apologize for neglecting you, the way I talk down to you and putting you last on my priorities list. You've always deserved so much more than I've ever offered you over the years. And its time to make that change. You deserve to rest peacefully at night without overthinking life and everything else in the great beyond. You deserve your weekly lavender sea salt soaks, two a day meditation sessions and yoga everyday. You should be pampered, and treated well. I need to invest in you, the same way I invest in everything and everyone else. You deserve to rest, regroup and enjoy life. You will be praised for your accomplishments, dusted off without "I told you so's" when you fall short, and loved unconditionally, even if all you did was get out of bed that day.
Knowing that you aren't invincible and that life tomorrow, isn't' guaranteed. You've accomplished so much, and you deserve to be reminded of such. Look at your son, your business and how far you've come. Even through moments of panic and fear, you've managed to find a way to do more than just "manage." You make it happen, make it look easy and you've been humbly doing things for a while now. I promise to give you a break sometimes, and not pushing you as hard. I understand that some days, you need a break and to embrace the things and moments that make you feel loved by me.
It's hard to right this letter, without realizing that I owe you more than just an apology or an excuse. You deserve legit change that KNOWWWWW I'm capable of. With constant reminders that you are only human, and treating yourself as such, is not a weakness. I love you beyond measure and I should protect and value you as such. Give me a chance to prove myself and I knowwww you'll be happy.
← Why I Decided to say "no" to Hair Coloring and My Journey To Growing My Hair out..


We had a great show. One of our best shows ever. Everything went real smooth.
B & C Truck and trailer on the way to Las Vegas Friday Morning. Weighed in at 13,160 pounds.
Click each line for more pictures. Click back on your browser to return to this page.
Set up Friday night. Needed more light at our booth.
Saturday morning start of show. Still needed more light at our booth.
The only break came on Sunday afternoon during Nolan Bushnell's talk.
Everyone went to his talk and gave us a nice break.
We are now releasing the Atari "Big Disk" The is a disk Atari made to demonstrate the Video capability of the Jaguar. Atari used this disk to test the CDROM drives in production and as a demo at some of the computer shows. It is fully encrypted and runs on any Jagaur with CDROM. No Bypass or developer units required. It features several Jaguar commercials including "AVP Oh Mom", Kasumi Ninja, Doom, Iron Solder and several Movie Trailers including Star Wars, Back to the Future III(?), Jaws & Maverick. You can zoom in or out, rotate, flip or jump. This is not a game, it is a test disk and a technology demo disk.
Requires Jaglink, PC adapter and modem software.
Requires Test Disk 2A, Jaglink, PC adapter and modem software.


text:
using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.Linq;
using System.Threading.Tasks;
using Microsoft.AspNetCore.Http;

namespace DotNetNinja.AspNetCore.UserAccess
{
    public class UnauthorizedRedirectionMiddleware
    {
        readonly RequestDelegate _next;
        UnauthorizedRedirectionOptions _options;

        public UnauthorizedRedirectionMiddleware(RequestDelegate next, UnauthorizedRedirectionOptions options)
        {
            _next = next;
            _options = options;
        }

        public async Task Invoke(HttpContext context)
        {
            await _next(context);

            if (context.Response.StatusCode == 401)
            {
                context.Response.Redirect(_options.RouteValue);
            }
        }
    }
}

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaGithub


text:
from unittest.mock import patch

import pytest

from pontoon.base.models import User
from pontoon.pretranslation.pretranslate import get_translations
from pontoon.test.factories import (
    EntityFactory,
    TranslationMemoryFactory,
)

@patch("pontoon.pretranslation.pretranslate.get_google_translate_data")
@pytest.mark.django_db
def test_get_translations(gt_mock, locale_b, resource_a, google_translate_locale):
    entities = [
        EntityFactory(resource=resource_a, string=x, order=i)
        for i, x in enumerate(["abaa", "abac", "aaab", "abab"])
    ]

    entities[1].string_plural = entities[1].string
    entities[3].string_plural = entities[3].string
    entities[1].save()
    entities[3].save()

    google_translate_locale.cldr_plurals = "1, 2"
    google_translate_locale.save()

    for entity in entities[0:2]:
        TranslationMemoryFactory.create(
            entity=entity,
            source=entity.string,
            target=entity.string,
            locale=locale_b,
        )
        TranslationMemoryFactory.create(
            entity=entity,
            source=entity.string,
            target=entity.string,
            locale=google_translate_locale,
        )

    # Mock the return value of get_google_translate_data
    gt_mock.return_value = {
        "status": True,
        "translation": "gt_translation",
    }

    tm_user = User.objects.get(email="pontoon-tm@example.com")
    gt_user = User.objects.get(email="pontoon-gt@example.com")

    # 100% match exists in translation memory.
    response_a = get_translations(entities[0], locale_b)
    response_b = get_translations(entities[0], google_translate_locale)
    assert response_a == [(entities[0].string, None, tm_user)]
    assert response_b == [(entities[0].string, None, tm_user)]

    # 100% match does not exists and locale.google_translate_code is None.
    response = get_translations(entities[2], locale_b)
    assert response == []

    # 100% match does not exists and locale.google_translate_code is not None.
    response = get_translations(entities[2], google_translate_locale)
    assert response == [("gt_translation", None, gt_user)]

    # Entity.string_plural is not None.
    response_a = get_translations(entities[1], google_translate_locale)
    response_b = get_translations(entities[3], google_translate_locale)
    assert response_a == [
        (entities[1].string, 0, tm_user),
        (entities[1].string, 1, tm_user),
    ]
    assert response_b == [
        ("gt_translation", 0, gt_user),
        ("gt_translation", 1, gt_user),
    ]


The everso generous picture book illustrator Gus Mackinnon has hand drawn and coloured this bookplate exclusively for International Book Giving Day.
I just LOVE its energy, quirkiness and the sense of fun that leaps from those characters on that ever so long bike. Isn't it brilliant?!
What are you waiting for? Follow the link to download & print ….
Angus Mackinnon is one half of the Superhairies, a couple of uncommonly hairy individuals who fight boredom by creating imaginative children's books.
You have seen The Weasel Puffin Unicorn Baboon Pig Lobster Race and Dog On Stilts (Digital Leaf) haven't you?!
what they will be doing on Feb 14, 2018. Thank you !


Tracie Gunningham accepted a place on the judging panel for the Skills Group hair show in exeter.
With plenty of talent on show, the decision making was tough, but the 30 years of hairdressing experience came in handy when it came down to the final cut.
Tracie Gunningham said ' I find it so refreshing to see how much effort and natural talent and flair there is in the hairdressing industry, some entrants only had 6 weeks experience and what they manage to create on stage in 30 minutes is truly incredible'.


text:
Carcross at the crossroads
Change is underfoot in Carcross, and the community's rich history is providing the foundation for many exciting projects.
Change is underfoot in Carcross, and the community's rich history is providing the foundation for many exciting projects.
From Carcross/Tagish First Nation traditions to the Chilkoot Trail to the many historic buildings, heritage themes dominate the area's attractions and assets. Add in Carcross' spectacular backdrop and natural riches, and it's a unique combination of features with definite destination potential.
It wasn't that long ago that Carcross was an ice-cream-and-pit-stop that saw few benefits from thousands of visitors passing through.
"The challenge was how to encourage people to stay more than 20 minutes," says Ed Krahn, Carcross co-ordinator for the Yukon government. "It's probably one of the highest visitation communities in the territory, but they weren't staying very long."
In response, residents have been working together to revitalize the community, working with the Yukon government on a Downtown Core Plan, a set of initiatives and land-use specifications that govern things like waterfront development and the protection of the cultural landscape and heritage resources, such as the Caribou Hotel.
One of the oldest buildings in the Southern Lakes and one of the last historic three-storey frame buildings in the Yukon, the Caribou Hotel was designated a Yukon Historic Site last year. The building is a central feature in Carcross, and thanks to its new owners Anne Morgan and Jamie Toole, is in the midst of receiving some major restoration work.
Other valued historic resources include the dozens of modest historic homes that still line Bennett Avenue and Waterfront Drive. These were once the residences of many of Carcross' major figures, including Skookum Jim whose house was built in 1899 just after his Bonanza Creek gold discovery, outfitter and guide Johnny Johns and mine owner John Howard Conrad.
Another community priority is to tell First Nation stories from their perspective. Carcross/Tagish First Nation is tapping into local talent to stage cultural performances, developing retail for arts and crafts and constructing a timber frame gazebo for special events. The community is also abuzz about a new carving facility where celebrated Tlingit carver Keith Wolf Smarch will be leading demonstrations and training throughout the summer.
"The improvements and changes are extensive," notes Krahn, listing additional projects that are changing the face of Carcross. "The community is engaged in planning, and they're developing bylaws and zoning. They're maintaining the historic landscape and creating walking tours. White Pass now has the ability to do point-to-point service so you can stop and explore, and Parks Canada is looking at new ways for people to experience the Chilkoot Trail."
Local Advisory Council member and visitor information centre employee Daphne Mennell has watched significant changes unfold in Carcross in recent years and is excited that the town is beginning to get some recognition.
"We have world-class bike trails on Montana Mountain that have been written up in biking magazines," says Mennell. "They're getting a lot of notice. The word is that someone with a Lear jet came into Whitehorse, brought his bike out to Carcross, and said they're the best trails he'd ever been on!"
While some changes in the Downtown Core Plan—like realigning the entrance to Carcross—are more cosmetic, projects like carving demonstrations and renovating the SS Tutshi celebrate the special stories and history of the area.
Long a diamond-in-the-rough, Carcross is beginning to shine as its cultural, heritage and natural assets become the underpinnings of the community's economic revival.
For more information on Yukon's historic places, please go to www.yukonhistoricplaces.ca.
This article is part of a series produced by the Yukon Department of Tourism and Culture with the support of the Government of Canada,
Historic Places Initiative.
Teach your children hate


Commander General for Liwa Shimal Demokratik, SDF constituent and local force from Idlib, Ebu Omer Idlibi spoke to the ANF about whether the Sochi deal has succeeded.
Omer Idlibi said during the development of the Idlib revolution, they saw that the Turkish state approached the Syrian revolution in a self-seeking manner.
"We and some forces like us fighting under different names were removed from Idlib in 2014 by terrorist forces. Jabhat Al Nusra attacked us as we were fighting the regime and ISIS. They proceeded to disband our forces because we fought ISIS and we were against putting the revolution on a jihadist path.
"We objected because we knew that this alliance would not end well for the peoples of Syria and Idlib. This deal was made only for Russia's and Turkey's interests.


Interest is so massive in plans to create a giant waterslide on a hilly street in Oslo this summer that the website set up to sell tickets crashed over the weekend. It simply couldn't handle the demand.
The organizers apologized but are also pleased by the response to their unusual project that recently won city approval in a revised form. Now the main problem is meeting demand.
He said the exact number of tickets that will be available for the one day the slide will be available (June 11) remained unclear. "It has to do with security and capacity," he said.
The waterslide (called a vannsklie in Norwegian) will start at the top of Treschows Gate at Bjølsen and run for 300 meters with views over the city and fjord. Ticket prices for adults and children run from NOK 649 down to NOK 100.


text:
Prodigal Love: What to Do When Family or Friends Have Rejected Jesus
As we watch family and friends leave the faith, do we look more like the elder brother, the father—or the younger son?
Karen Swallow Prior| September 20, 2013
Image: Daniel Bendjy / Vetta / iStock
Daniel Smith, 23, arrived as a freshman at Cedarville University in 2008. Outwardly he was a Christian, but inwardly he was a prodigal. Doubting some essential doctrines, he was afraid to ask peers and professors about God, hell, and Christianity's dark moments in human history. "Others probably perceived me as a typical, good Christian kid," Smith says. "I worked hard to keep up that perception. But inside my faith was completely dead."
Steven* (*not real name), also a freshman, was immersed in all that life at a Christian college offered. His charisma, activism, and faith were infectious to others—including Smith. "We bonded over our bookish pretensions and freshman philosophizing. The world was in our pockets, and we were like brothers," Smith says. The two decided to room together sophomore year.
Early that year, Steven's mother began having health problems. Soon she was diagnosed with stage IV cancer. Before school was out, she was dead. During her illness, Steven grew frustrated with Christians' trite responses to his mother's suffering. He was angry at God. By the time she died, Steven had turned to meditation and Eastern mysticism for solace. By senior year, he had come out as gay and walked away from the faith. Steven's journey gave Smith a lot to think about.
When Lee,* Michele Sterlace-Accorsi's husband of 24 years, walked away from Christianity, he walked away from his family, too. Much of their marriage had been difficult, says Sterlace-Accorsi, but the years of raising their four children were mostly good. The couple built a large home in upstate New York on a plot of land with woods and a pond. The family went to church each Sunday, the children attended Christian schools, and prayer began and ended the days and preceded family meals.
One of those prayers was the turning point, recalls Sterlace-Accorsi, 48, sitting inside the condominium on the West Coast where she moved after the divorce. "We always held hands around the dinner table. One night—it was right after Lee lost his job as a museum curator—he refused to hold hands with us. The kids were confused and urged him to pray. He finally gave in and held our hands, but just stared ahead. You could see something inside him was changing."
Lee swiftly took more steps away. He began to doze off in church as soon as the sermon began, then stopped going. He started to mock the music Sterlace-Accorsi and the kids listened to. Family fights escalated as Lee alternated between being volatile and withdrawn. "He was either angry or depressed, yet he continued to reject God," says Sterlace-Accorsi.
Ezra, the youngest child, recalls one day when he and his father were riding in the car. "I was worried about his salvation, so I begged Dad to pray the sinner's prayer with me. Finally, there in the car, he did." But regardless of any spiritual shift, Lee soon disengaged from church and the family's prayer life entirely. Within a few years, he left the family.
Of course, some prodigals stay with their family. But being married to a spouse who has renounced a faith once shared brings its own kind of pain.
Alise Wright was in the living room of her family's West Virginia home in the fall of 2009 when her husband, Jason, returned from meeting with a therapist. After a few minutes of rehashing the session, Jason said that he no longer believed in God.
Wright misunderstood. From the time they had first met, it was Jason who had been "completely on fire for God."
"My husband grew up in a Christian home," says Wright. "When we started dating, he was attending Bible college and helping to lead worship. There is no question to me that his faith was genuine. It always seemed much more secure and passionate than my own."
United in a love of worship music, Alise and Jason had married and attended church and prayed together. They were raising their four children in the faith. Then, 12 years into their marriage, Jason declared himself an atheist.
"I was terrified," Alise says. For two weeks, neither spoke about it. Alise only cried. She feared Jason would no longer want to be married to a Christian, while Jason wondered if Alise would stay with an unbeliever.
They both stayed.
After she and Jason began to talk about the sudden turn in their marriage, they shared with family, then their church, and, finally, their children. Now, four years later, her husband remains her "closest friend," says Wright. But the situation is complicated. Wright wrote recently at her blog:
The emotions catch me off guard. A sense of loneliness on a Sunday morning when I'm in the middle of a worship song that we used to sing together. A hint of frustration when I am unable to ask my spouse to pray with me about something troubling. A feeling of gratitude that I am able to navigate this road with the person that I love the most in the whole world.
More Than Teen Angst
Sandra's* prodigal story more closely resembles the one found in Scripture. Her daughter exhibited a strong faith as a child. "Jennifer* was the youth group superstar, leading worship, inviting friends to church, reading her Bible, and searching out mission trips," Sandra says. But during Jennifer's teen years, now over a decade ago, battles began emerging over clothing, curfews, and house rules.
At first the fights seemed like a mere product of teenage angst. As a homeschooling family in a conservative Midwest town, Sandra and her husband were more lenient than most families in their circle. But looking back, Sandra realizes that Jennifer was rebelling against a legalistic Christian culture. During one fight, Jennifer told her parents that she didn't believe "the world" was as bad as they had made it out to be. She vowed to prove it to them.
"That vow was as deep and real as any other commitment she'd ever made in her life," Sandra says. "Including the commitment to Christ she made when she was 6."
At age 18, after dropping out of college and returning home, Jennifer took everything out of her room and left. Sandra can't erase from her mind the moment of standing in Jennifer's old bedroom, the bed stripped bare, the dresser drawers pulled open, the closet cleared out. "It was like the aftermath of a devastating storm," Sandra says, the pain fresh in her voice. She watched Jennifer drive away, not knowing where she would sleep that night or the next, not knowing to what distant country her beat-up car would take her.
Kristen's* experience puts her in the company of the elder son in the parable. Kristen has believed since age 4, she says: attending a Christian school, a Christian college, and then seminary. Her brother Nathan* first professed faith at age 9. Yet "he was always drawn to the flashiest, most popular, most expensive, and most fun," Kristen says. When their school outside of Pittsburgh put on the Christian children's musical Antshillvania, Nathan landed the part of the fast-talking dragonfly who leads the protagonist ant away from the colony. Nathan was praised by everyone as a "natural talent," and he and Kristen joked about the typecasting.
"He has an extremely charming and witty personality," says Kristen, "so everyone wanted to be his friend. And he always seemed to gravitate toward those the Scripture would call 'fools.' "
By the time Kristen came home the summer after her freshman year in college, Nathan's flirtation with fools had turned into something more serious. Instead of discussing with her what she was doing and learning at school, her parents were consumed with Nathan: the pornography in his room, his late hours, and the friends he was making. Kristen grieved with them. But it was hard not to resent him, too, for taking so much away from their family—and from her.
Giving Up Guilt
At some point in their lives, one of every three Americans will leave Christianity, according to a 2011 study in the Journal of Religion and Society. Called "leavers," "deconverts," or "ex-Christians," they are targets of fresh concern among church denominations watching their numbers shrink. Pollsters and bloggers tick off reasons why so many are leaving, such as intellectual hurdles to belief, immoral or intolerant church leaders, and profound suffering. But the leavers phenomenon is nothing new. It goes back at least to the parable of the Prodigal Son, told by Jesus and recorded in .
What about the people whom the prodigals leave behind? The ones who love the leavers? The ones left to hold down the forts of remaining families and faith communities? Few theological and practical resources exist for the two out of every three Christians who remain with the Father while they watch their "younger brother" leave.
The biblical parable centers on the relationship between a father and his two sons. But the essence of the story remains the same, whether the prodigal is a child, sibling, spouse, parent, or friend. This is why P. C. Ennis Jr. argues in the Journal for Preachers that "it is crucial that periodically we preach on the Prodigal Son. . . . Like the Easter story and the Christmas story, it bears repeating, for the story of the Prodigal Son is the gospel in capsule."
The father, in his eager rush to reconcile with his son, is understood to represent God the Father, or Christ, who is telling the story. The resentful elder son is linked to the Pharisees, who were part of Jesus' original listeners. The parable makes clear which attitude we believers, saved by grace, are to have. But chances are that when confronted with a flesh-and-blood prodigal, we are neither the father nor the elder son. Usually we are both.
The anguish of Sterlace-Accorsi, Wright, Sandra, and Kristen reflects the love of the father. Yet for most of us, it is easy to be swayed, too, by the exacting calculus of the elder son. It is hard, after all, to love a God of justice and righteousness and not to love those very qualities overmuch. It strains our human frailty to hate rebellion, squandering, and wantonness—prodigality—and yet be able to embrace one so wasteful.
Helmut Thielicke notes in his classic commentary on the parable, The Waiting Father, that the elder brother is outraged because his father's lavish welcome is "uneconomical." As in the parable of the day laborers (Matt. 20:1–16), it is a bitter pill that those who arrive late get the same welcome as those who have been faithful all along. Yes, we want grace, but in the recesses of our hearts, if we are honest, we want it doled out with justice.
This economical attitude is exactly what Wright feared she would encounter at church after Jason revealed his atheism on his blog. She suspected that fellow Christians would point to her progressivism and blame that—her—for his leaving the faith, as if she hadn't done enough. Before church that first Sunday back, she went to an empty room to be alone. She tightened when she heard someone enter. But when that person walked over and gave her a long, silent hug, it was "the expression of love that I needed," Wright says.
Yet Wright believes some members think more prayer, greater conservatism, or sharper apologetics will bring her husband back into the fold. That if she was doing more or doing it better, he would believe again. "It can feel unsafe when someone wants to fix things. It hurts," Wright says. "The Great Physician is Jesus. He can work with our prodigals in a way we can't."
"One of the deceptions that befalls those who love prodigals is the notion that the prodigal's decision to head for the far country is somehow all about us and, correspondingly, it is our total responsibility somehow to bring them home," says Jeff Lucas, a teaching pastor at Timberline Church in Fort Collins, Colorado. Describing itself as a "prodigal-friendly church," Timberline aims to reach nonbelievers or ex-Christians wandering in and out of the faith.
Believing that we faithful Christians can fix our prodigals adds an undue burden of guilt, as it did for Sandra for years. When she remembers the fights over Jennifer's Britney Spears–inspired clothing, she realizes they were about much more than fashion. "Those fights were like I was going after her personhood," says Sandra. Counseling has helped Sandra give up the role of the elder brother; she can't shoulder responsibilities that are the Father's alone. Being a "perfect" parent does not guarantee a child's faith. After all, Adam and Eve's Father was perfect, and still they rebelled.
"This trial has clarified a lot in my life," Sandra says. "I wouldn't trade what I've learned about God in this for anything—anything except seeing Jennifer restored to God, to herself, and to our family. We have learned that God is there, he is for us, and he is good. He loves us. He loves Jennifer. I have learned that waiting can be prayer."
Kristen's parents, meanwhile, are not quite there. Embarrassed, they haven't told fellow church members about Nathan, who was kicked out of his Christian college, then moved far from home, and has worked for years in the nightclub industry. Unfortunately, says Carol Barnier, author of Engaging Today's Prodigal, such secrecy, while understandable, prevents the church from functioning as the body.
A pastor's daughter who returned to faith after 13 years of atheism, Barnier describes walking into a room once where she was to speak about prodigals. The downcast demeanor of the people trickling in was unlike any gathering she'd seen. She realized that the atmosphere was due to one emotion felt by everyone in the room: shame.
"People with a prodigal don't share because they fear a very different response," says Barnier. "They worry—often with some justification—that they or their [prodigal] will be judged, lose status, and even lose fellowship." Yet, Barnier says, it is important to tell fellow Christians, not only to gain support but also to show other "elder brothers" that they aren't alone.
Further, sharing is one of the few aspects of dealing with a prodigal that one can control. It's "something proactive, something you can do today, something you can make happen that actually makes things better . . . in the lives of you and others near you," Barnier says. "Allow the body of Christ, which is to reach out to the world, to also reach out to you."
Mercy and Malice
But the church does not always know how to minister to either the prodigals or to those who love them. Wright says one of the greatest difficulties in being married to a prodigal is how it has affected her relationships with Christians. "I often feel protective of him, and as a result, I sometimes hold others who I perceive as a threat to him at arm's length."
Sterlace-Accorsi struggled less with her church than with her ex-husband. Certainly she had just cause to feel the elder brother's resentment—and more. But the bitterness she bore was hurting her most. Her children insisted that she begin to see her former husband as they do, as a "lost soul." Her oldest son welcomed his father—and new girlfriend—into his home on the occasion of a family celebration. Slowly, Sterlace-Accorsi was won over. "The kids have ministered to me. They've helped me see that that's the way I'm supposed to look at him." Although she has moved on in her life, she says that if Lee were to return to God and reconcile with his family, "I would be that father in the parable. I would welcome him home 1,000 times over."
This mercy mingled with malice arises, in part, from the legacy of evangelicals as "a holiness people," says Lucas. We don't know how to reconcile our particular Christian tradition with the universal truth that "church is for 'the messed up,' " he says. "We have a theology that says church is for the pure. But the same passages from Paul we use rightly to stand firm against sin provide the very evidence that such sins have been prevalent in the church from the start." Why should we expect the modern church to be any different from the first-century church?
Rather than seeing ourselves as the father and, in so doing, only continuing to play the part of the elder son—after all, the elder son was essentially usurping the authority of the father in upbraiding him—we should instead consider ourselves as equals of the prodigal, equals in need of grace and equals in recipients of that grace. "We think of ourselves as extending grace to prodigals, but we are simply sharing grace we have received and are still receiving." We should stop "feeding the Christian obsession with fixing everybody," Lucas exhorts. There is no magnanimity in extending grace, he explains, because we all need it.
Likewise, UK pastor and business leader Rob Parsons says, "The great problem with the church in the Western world is that half the prodigals are still in the pews." In other words, coming home is not about returning to church, but rather despairing over our own sins as the Prodigal Son does in the pigsty. The elder brother "did his sinning without ever leaving," Parsons, author of Bringing Home the Prodigals, notes. He "needed to 'come home' every bit as much as his brother."
This is what happened to Smith. In the midst of his roommate Steven's doubts, he found himself drawn to God. "The peak of Steven's questioning was probably my most potent period of growth," Smith says. Steven's agonized wrestling seemed to free Smith to seek answers for himself.
Although they stayed roommates, Smith and Steven spoke less and less. After graduating last year, they went their separate ways. Smith is now strong in his faith and hopes to teach theology someday. In watching his roommate and best friend walk away, Smith came home.
An Impossible Prayer
Whether in the church or out of it, wandering in the hills or working the Father's fields, we need the Father's radical love equally—the elder son no less than the prodigal. Helmut Thielicke noted that we easily dismiss the attitude of the elder son as "nothing more than dull, Philistine respectability." But the compassionate father, Thielicke writes, "sees the life of the elder brother too from the inside, from the point of view of his heart, and he says to him, 'Yes, you are my beloved son, you are always with me, and therefore we share everything.' "
The cloud of the father's rebuke of the elder son's resentment carries the silver lining of "the dependability of a heart surrendered to him." Thielicke marvels, "How broad is the love of the Father! It spans the whole scale of human possibilities."
Thus, at the heart of the very notion of prodigality lies an intriguing paradox. For the word prodigal, meaning "profuse," carries with it both the negative sense of "wastefulness," the meaning understood as applied to the younger son, but also "extravagant," "luxuriant," or "flamboyant." In this way, it applies equally to the younger son and to the father in corresponding polarity.
The love of the father is more prodigious than the son's waywardness. The love the father shows the Prodigal Son—both in the son's leaving and in his returning—is nothing if not extravagant. It is a love that is blind to past wrongs and present accounting. It is a love that offers the loved one the freedom to squander, without cajoling or badgering or wrangling the prodigal into wisdom. It is a love that waits with patience and prayer.
It's like Kristen's love for her brother.
Late one summer night while on school break, Kristen woke up again to the sound of her parents arguing with Nathan after he had come home hours after his curfew. She put her head under her pillow, but it didn't help. The arguments had gone on all summer and the summer before. But this night, Kristen recalled a convocation speech recently given at her college. The speaker had urged the students to honor God by praying for the impossible. Kristen sat up, turned on the light, opened the prayer journal at her bedside, and wrote down three impossible prayers. One of these was that Nathan would return to God.
That was ten years ago.
Today, Kristen teaches at a Christian university. As she prepares each day to teach, she glances at herself in a mirror surrounded by photos. The photo in the upper-right corner where her eyes most often land depicts a handsome black man, a Creole woman, and a little girl with bronze skin, curly dark hair, and sparkling eyes. The man in the photo is Nathan, the woman, her sister-in-law, and the child, Kristen's only niece. Each morning when she looks at the picture, Kristen feels a punch in her gut: Nathan has yet to make the prodigal's journey home. But every day, Kristen offers up that impossible, immoderate, and extravagant prayer.
Many theologians have pointed out that because the Prodigal Son requested his inheritance from his father, his petition was tantamount to wishing for his father's death. Given the death required for the salvation of all of us, our prayers for prodigals ask no less. We are prodigals, all of us.
Karen Swallow Prior is a professor in the English department at Liberty University and author of Booked: Literature in the Soul of Me. A Her.meneutics contributor, she is writing a book about abolitionist Hannah More.
Apostacy | Faith and Practice | Family | Parables | Parenting | Prayer | Prodigal Son
September 2013, Vol. 57, No. 7, Pg 52, "Prodigal Love"
More From: Karen Swallow Prior @KSPrior Facebook
This article is from the September 2013 issue.
In Christian Publishing, 'Platform' Is Being Weighed and Found Wanting
Favoring big-name authors and "influencers" might be good for the bottom line, but not always for the books—and readers—themselves.
Collin Huber
The Bulletin Episode 9|55min
One on One with Bono
Mike Cosper interviewed the U2 frontman for December's cover story. Here's the whole conversation.
Prodigal Love: What to Do When Family or Friends ...


Easter in Punta Cana is a major event. Easter Week, or Semana Santa as it is known throughout Spanish-speaking countries, is one of the most important Latin American holiday celebrations. With a strong Catholic heritage, this is no different in the Dominican Republic.
What Should I Know About Easter in Punta Cana?
4. But Street Pools Are In!
Easter is a good time for coming together with family and friends. It also happens to be a great time to eat. Sweet cream of beans or Habichuelas con dulce is a delicious dessert typical of this time of year in the Dominican Republic. Generally, each family makes their own large portions and then shares those large portions with their neighbors. It is one of the Dominican Republic's most distinctive deserts and is loved—and devoured—by all during Easter Week.
Habichuela con leche (Photo by Telemundo).
If you're celebrating Easter in Punta Cana, make sure you get your fix of Habichuelas con dulce! If not, here's a great recipe!
As an official national holiday, many Dominicans take advantage of the free time to visit their families in other towns or to make an escape to the beach, especially in and around Punta Cana.
This also happens to be when it's the hottest and driest all year. As a result, the beautiful beaches and flowing rivers of the Dominican Republic are filled with happily frolicking families and friends looking to enjoy themselves while they escape the heat.
We Recommend: Is There Seaweed in Punta Cana?
Many churches realize theater pieces to commemorate the passion, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ, and many representations of Christ are carried throughout the streets in religious processions.
Easter procession in Punta Cana (Photo by Mipueblogh.com).
Also, Catholic tradition prohibits eat meat during this period. So meat is out. As a result, being an overwhelmingly Catholic nation, many people in the Dominican Republic change their diet. Like at the family dinner tables, most hotels will also serve heavy doses of fish, seafood and vegetables during Easter in Punta Cana.
What better way to beat the heat for those who can't make it to the beach than putting a pool outside your front door and inviting all your friends!
Street pools in a Dominican neighborhood (Photo by Listin Diario).
Yes, street pools! In cities like Santo Domingo and Santiago you will find many streets adorned with inflatable swimming pools filled with cool water and happily splashing children. Street pools in a Dominican neighborhood (Photo by CDN).Yes, street pools! In cities like Santo Domingo and Santiago you will find many streets adorned with inflatable swimming pools filled with cool water and happily splashing children.
Known as the Basilica of Higuey, this Cathedral located in the bustling city of Higuey is visited by thousands of devoted Catholic faithful each year during Easter celebrations.
The Higuey Basilica pays homage to Our Lady of Altagracia.
And rightly so, as it is considered to be the Dominican Republic's most important religious monument. In fact, it is the site of reverence to the Virgin of Altagracia, considered to the spiritual protector of the Dominican people.
Come Spend Easter in Punta Cana with Amstar!
Just a 50 minute drive from Punta Cana, you can arrange private transportation to witness this annual pilgrimage and afterwards visit other sites, such as Samana. Or take some time out to go shopping and sightseeing on a fun tour of nearby La Romana! Also, remember to pre-book your private transportation from Punta Cana airport to your resort. And as always, remember to check out all the wilderness beyond Punta Cana with adventures like the Outback Explorer!
Have you ever witnessed Easter celebrations in another country? Tell us about your experience!


Keith Colgan, a local event photographer and website designer, recently received 1st place honors in the Visitors Bureau Photo Contest. He visited Nancy Beckman (President & CEO) this morning to view the winning entries and thank her for the recognition.
Several months ago the Bureau proposed the contest and invited local photographers to submit high quality images that showcased points of interest in Lodi. These photos will be used to promote Lodi as a tourist destination.
In addition to having the photos framed and mounted at the Visitors Bureau offices on School Street, several local businesses offered valuable prizes (Cheese Central, CRUSH Kitchen + Bar, Fields Family Wines, Lodi Cooks, McKinley's Frame Shop, Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory, Rosewood Bar and Grill, Wine & Roses).
Keith Colgan has lived in Lodi since 1983. He can be seen at local events, camera in hand, capturing the faces of people enjoying themselves. Recent awards and publications include: 1st Place winner of the KCRA Channel 13 Asparagus Festival Photo Contest, a "Herlife" Magazine photo spread, and the cover photo of the 2013 Lodi Parks & Recreation Activity Guide.
Keith, congratulations on the recognition given you . You put much effort into your unique perspective of Lodi, the surrounding area and the people who live here. I am sure that many enjoy the work you do as much as we do!
Keith is not only an excellent photographer, but as you can see, a very adept website designer and it is here on this website, Lodi 360.com, that any and every event that is of local interest is featured. This is such a great area oriented website and since Keith can't be available for all events, he encourages those who hold or participate in local events, award ceremonies, crab feeds. graduations, etc., to take their own photos and write a brief resume to present to him for publication on Lodi360.com. In essence, any area resident can be his photographer/reporter at any given time and if the event is local, chances are, it will appear here on Lodi360.com. With a great personality to match and a compassion for caring and helping those in need, I think this recognition was long overdue.


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text:
World Cup Security Guards Strike in Wage Dispute
curity guards walked out less than two hours before kick-off. The issue was a wage dispute with their employer, a subcontractor.
World Cup organizers quickly bussed in more than 1,000 police trainees. Most fans didn't even know there'd been a narrowly-averted crisis. Security workers in another host city, Durban, have also cried foul. They say they were paid less than $30 for an 18-hour day.
South Africa doesn't have one blanket minimum wage. Instead, it has a series of nation-wide wage agreements "which lay down minimum standards for particular grades for particular kinds of work," says Patrick Craven with the country's trade union federation.
Craven says it's still unclear whether the companies paying security guards are shirking labor laws. "In the past, the security industry has been notoriously bad for mistreating its workers," he says.
Local organizers say these police trainees will provide security in these cities until further notice. Security guards are calling on the international soccer association, FIFA, to confirm what they should be paid by subcontractors.
audio economy labor Marketplace South Africa stories


text:
← Media treatment of the 4th National Climate Assessment
Quick program note: Abandoning Github for my own code →
The Climate Crunch
Posted on 30 November 2018	by ecoquant
(with the possibility of rapid 15-20 foot SLR out there)
David Suzuki aptly calls the corner we've painted ourselves into "the climate crunch".
See his article.
Why a "crunch"?
Had we heeded early warnings and had political representatives done more than talk, we likely could have addressed the problem with minimal societal disruption. But the industry-funded denial machine, which continues today, has been effective. Concern about climate change and other environmental issues has diminished as the problems have intensified. Politicians continue to think in terms of brief election cycles, focusing on short-term gains from exploiting fossil fuels rather than long-term benefits of conserving energy and shifting to cleaner sources.
Meanwhile, greenhouse gas emissions continue to rise and carbon sinks like forests and wetlands are still being destroyed. Even if we stopped using fossil fuels tomorrow, we've emitted so much carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases that we wouldn't be able to avert worsening of the consequences already happening. But we still have time — albeit very little — to ensure the problem doesn't become catastrophic. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, which is conservative in its estimates, gives us about 12 years to take decisive action.
The thing is, circumstances are so bad now that fixing this will take large, industrial scale measures, and be triply costly, (a) to make a rapid transition away from fossil fuels, (b) adapt to the impacts that are ever increasing and weren't anticipated to come this quickly, and (c) to remove Carbon Dioxide from the climate system so to limit further deterioration.
Even those who accept the science and the urgency are, in my opinion, pursuing pipe dreams. Some think we can jettison capitalism and solve this. Some think we need to make environmental justice our primary constraint. Some think we can solve this by pursuing marketplace measures for solar energy (which includes wind). Some think we can protect all ecosystems while rolling out the measures we need to take to fix the situation.
It's too late.
We need to do this fast. We don't have a lot of time. The kind of future I see is one where the world as an economy does Carbon Dioxide removal as the central economic activity, akin to building the tombs of pharaohs was for ancient Egypt. Corporations can and must exist because, frankly, we don't have the centuries or decades available to create an alternative structure. Government planning doesn't work. (Look at the administrative nightmares that are the U.S. EPA or the Army Corps of Engineers as described in Mary Christina Wood's Nature's Trust.) We need global scale engineering and technical skills. We need capital.
Exerpt of API President Frank Ikard's 1965 speech on climate change and fossil fuels. API is the American Petroleum Institute.
Quick take from Professor Richard Alley:
Full interview with Professor Alley:
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SALEM, Va. - It was busier than usual at Mac and Bob's restaurant Sunday morning.
Before doors opened at 10 a.m, loyal customers were already lined up outside.
Co-owner Bob Rotanz, who opened the restaurant 38 years ago, greeted the customers like they were family.
Rotanz said the lawsuits allege that he violated tip-pooling laws by allowing servers to tip out to the dishwashers.
"The whole thing ballooned into a million-dollar settlement. We didn't have the money to pay the attorney to litigate it," Rotanz said.
Since filing Chapter 11 bankruptcy, Rotanz said he and his staff are getting an enormous amount of support from the community.
When a GoFundMe page was created to help Rotanz with legal fees, more than $120,000 was raised within two days, exceeding the goal of $100,000.
"Bob and the folks that work here are nothing but the best people," Bill Philips, a customer, said.
Despite the financial crisis, Rotanz said the restaurant will not be closing.


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The move signals a get-tough attitude toward a threat to Minnesota lakes.
Zebra mussels continue to spread to Minnesota lakes, including one in Wright County, where it has become the first county in the state to require boats, trailers, docks and other equipment to be inspected for aquatic invasive species.
Signaling a get-tough attitude toward a threat to Minnesota lakes, Wright County has become the first county in the state to require boats, trailers, docks and other equipment to be inspected for aquatic invasive species (AIS).
The mandatory inspections apply to only four lakes in the county, but they may signal the beginning of an era when Minnesota boaters can expect greater scrutiny of their watercraft hygiene.
While only about 5 percent of the state's lakes are infested with species such as zebra mussels, Eurasian milfoil and starry stonewort, experts say that once the invaders arrive in a lake, they're difficult if not impossible to eradicate. That has state and local officials emphasizing prevention through equipment inspections and decontamination to make sure that boaters don't spread the invaders from lake to lake.
The state Department of Natural Resources (DNR) is keenly interested in Wright County's effort, said Heidi Wolf, supervisor of the agency's Invasive Species Program. The DNR must sign off on an official delegation of authority to the county before the program gets underway, but county officials said they expect that to happen by the end of July.
Wright County commissioners adopted the regional inspection program last month. Under the proposal, boaters entering the four lakes — East and West Sylvia, John and Pleasant — would first have to visit an inspection and decontamination station in Annandale.
After inspection, a zip tie would be placed on their trailer. Any trailers at the four lakes found without a zip tie would be subject to a citation from county sheriff's officers.
Local lakeshore owners suggested the program last year, after starry stonewort was found in the Sylvia lakes. Only 10 lakes in the state have starry stonewort, a thick algae that turns the water yellow and can clog boat motors.
Wright County's program is being watched nationwide, said Jeff Forester, executive director of Minnesota Lakes and Rivers Advocates.
Forester praised the local lake associations for leading the way.
"It's really local action," he said. The program is being funded by local lake associations and a grant from the Initiative Foundation, a nonprofit that promotes economic development in central Minnesota.
Once the program gets underway, inspectors will be at the Annandale station every day 30 minutes before sunrise to 30 minutes after sunset, said Alicia O'Hare, a water resource specialist with the Wright Soil and Water Conservation District.
"The whole point of the program is to remove the inspectors from the [individual] accesses, because that's how it becomes more cost-effective," she said. Still, the annual cost of the program is expected to run into six figures, she said.
The fight against AIS is difficult because boaters are more mobile today, said Christine Husom, a Wright County commissioner.
"The lakes are very important in Minnesota, and I believe that most people don't want to see lakes being basically ruined by aquatic invasives," Husom said. "We love to swim, we love to boat, we love to recreate.


text:
Q: Replace certain characters in the dataframe python I'm trying to get rid of ',' to print out just the number
bitcoin['Volume'].replace(',', '')

outputs
0        9,926,540,000
1        7,652,090,000
2        8,744,010,000
3        8,660,880,000
4        7,296,160,000
5        9,062,540,000
6        7,909,820,000
7        5,696,720,000
8        6,256,440,000
9        6,122,190,000
10       7,780,960,000

but it's not working for some reason. I did inplace = True
test = bitcoin['Volume'].replace(',', '', inplace=True)
print(test)
None

prints nothing.. What is going on???

A: test = bitcoin['Volume'].str.replace(',', '')

Easy fix... I did .str before .replace and it works
0        9926540000
1        7652090000
2        8744010000
3        8660880000
4        7296160000
5        9062540000
.
.
.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


Thanks to our wonderful April customers, we were able to donate 123 pounds of cat food to help feed feral cats across the country!
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Thanks to our wonderful March customers, we were able to donate 86 pounds of cat food to help feed feral cats across the country!
Thanks to our wonderful February customers, we were able to donate 108 pounds of cat food to help feed feral cats across the country!
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Thanks to our wonderful January customers, we were able to donate 87 pounds of cat food to help feed feral cats across the country!
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Thanks to our wonderful December customers, we were able to donate 225 pounds of cat food to help feed feral cats across the country!
Our new Officer Tom image is available on stickers, magnets, and mugs!


Departmental fuel cards are used for fueling non-fleet vehicles.
Purchase fuel or pay for service work performed on a University vehicle. Taxes are removed from purchases upon bill back.
A $5.00 administrative fee per card, per month in addition to purchases made.
Billing for Department cards occurs monthly.
For Departmentally owned vehicles with circumstances not covered in BS20, please refer to Risk Management for guidance.
Requests for Departmental fuel cards are made directly to Fleet Operations via the Departmental fuel card request form (pdf).