Once upon a time I posted some alternative hobbies for kids that aren't sports or video games. I also shared tips to get kids to actually like reading. The season of giving is upon us, so today I want to tell you about the importance of presence not presents.
This is something many of us, myself included, struggle with.
It's easy to try and measure love with stuff, to try and quantify it. However, we all know that love is a feeling. It can't be measured. It can be felt. You might even argue it can be seen.
However, we're all still tempted to be unintentionally materialistic. We love our children and our families love them. Grandparents, especially, are inclined to shower our children with gifts. Unfortunately, very few of these gifts offer experiences. Most of them are just stuff.
Stuff that will end up at the bottom of a toy box.
Something with a million parts that will never be put together again.
Usually appropriate for kids starting around age 6. Fun for adults and children, so great to do as a family!
Buy day passes for the zoo. It's even better if the the gift giver is planning on going as well (when able).
If your giftees are lucky enough to have an aquarium nearby, why not gift them a day pass?
New museum? Favorite museum? Single passes and/or gift certificates are affordable options!
Buying movie passes or gift certificates/gift cards to the local theater can be a special treat.
Classic fun to be had just about anywhere. A bowling gift certificate is a great gift to be used with friends or family.
Local arcades (sometimes combined with mini golf, bowl, theme parks or other mentioned gift ideas) are a great place to buy and experiential gift. Buy tokens for the give recipient to use later or some other pass.
Mini golf is another classic and you can find a place almost anywhere. It makes great gifts to be used a family or with friends.
If everyone is comfortable, able, and old enough, horseback riding can be a unique gift experience to give a family or individual.
These are fun for adults and kids! Younger kids may need to ride with an adult or older sibling, so this can be a fun family gift.
If there's a nearby theme park, fun park, or similar area for a good time, you can usually buy passes, tickets, tokens, or gift certificates to give as gifts.
Have you ever received a gift like this? How did you like it? Do you think experiential gifts are better, the same, or don't like them?
Something I hope to be posting more about in the months to come is surrogacy. While the journey is just beginning for me, I believe it will be one of the most rewarding adventures I will ever be a part of.
However, most people don't really now much about surrogacy.
a substitute, especially a person deputizing for another in a specific role or office.
"she was regarded as the surrogate for the governor during his final illness"
So, if you don't know already, a surrogate carries and delivers a child for an intended parent or parents to raise.
A surrogate comes in two basic forms: a traditional surrogate (TS) or a gestational surrogate (GS).
A traditional surrogate uses her own eggs and a gestational surrogate doesn't. This is the most basic of descriptions.
This is my small, somewhat official announcement of intent. We're not too far into this yet, but it is something my family and I are pursuing with great pleasure and pride!
Stereotyping would lead everyone to believe that all little girls spend their childhoods dreaming of being a princess and (when they realize the unlikeliness of that happening) planning their big day in a white dress.
Well, believe it or not, I never had even thought about wedding planning as a child. It was just never one of my dreams to have some big, extravagant wedding. I actually cringing a little right now.
My husband and I have been married for over 5 years now. We were wed by a judge in a local courthouse. We "celebrated" the weekend before we were married by resting comfortably in our new apartment and taking the weekend off work. We were wed on a Monday afternoon, about an hour after I left work for the day.
1. You don't have a couple extra thousand dollars.
Even inexpensive weddings typically climb past $1000 after you break down all the real expenses. Even if that's spread over time, could you and should you have used that money for something else? We skipped the fancy wedding and reception and put the money toward our first apartment and the baby we were expecting. Instead of entering into marriage with some extra debt, why not take that money and apply it toward something like a first home, student loans, an emergency fund, etc.
2. You don't like to ask your friends to pay for your wedding.
This one drives me a little crazy. I've never understood the, "Want to be in MY wedding? Yeah? Okay, I'll need X amount of money for your bridesmaid dress for MY wedding." I know not every wedding works this way, but it seems to be more and more common, especially when people are trying to save money. If that's the case, see point 1!
3. You might get divorced.
Ouch! That one hurt, didn't it? Divorce rates are crazy high, so it's possible, but let's hope it's not probable. Anyway, dropping a couple thousand dollars on a wedding only to get divorced in a year, two years, or five years seems crazy!
4. You'd rather celebrate time wed, not getting wed.
This was a big one for me. I'd like to have a vow renewal someday to celebrate being together X amount of years. I think that's a cause for celebration, more the just celebrating getting married. I'd rather celebrate staying married.
As I mentioned in my World Breastfeeding Week post, sadly Luna and I's breastfeeding journey has come to a close with her just turning 16 months old. It's a bittersweet, somewhat sad time for me.
These past 4 to 6 weeks have been full of transitions for her and I, as she has weaned off breastfeeding with only a little nudge from me at the end and is spending most nights in her crib next to our bed rather than in our bed with us.
Some days we're both a little cranky and frustrated because we just want to revert back to how it used to be, but we've already moved past it so we must figure out new ways to manage.
When I get home from work, for example, I make her peanut butter crackers and apple juice. This was the last feeding session for her to drop. The only other time we sometimes struggle with out new sans breastfeeding life is at afternoon nap (usually close to the time I get home from work, also).
At night we both sometimes fall asleep with me rubbing her back or her holding my hand/finger. If she does wake up in the night, she gets some mommy and daddy cuddles and spend the rest of the night with us.
It seems like yesterday when she was born, but we are watching her grow everyday! If you and your child are going through the weaning process, here's 6 things to consider when trying to figure out triggers for your child's nursing.
Try to figure out if your child is hungry. If she is, give her a healthy snack to fill her belly so she doesn't feel the need to nurse.
She might need something to drink, so offer some water or juice.
3. Does she need cuddles?
She might need extra attention during the weaning process, even if it's partially initiated by her. Offer extra love and attention and consider babywearing.
If she is tired and used to nursing to sleep, it might be extra hard at first to find other soothing methods. Find something that works for you. Try cuddling, babywearing, back rubbing, etc.
5. Is she sick or teething?
Sick and teething children want extra comfort and might feel a stronger desire to nurse. If this happens during the weaning process, you can consider alternative ways to make her feel better.
Routine is routine and your child might be used to nursing after this, before that, or whatever. Switch up your daily schedules or, better yet, start new routines to help keep both your minds off other stuff. Getting out of the house can help, too!
What triggers your child's desire to nurse? Did your child self-wean? What was the hardest part about weaning for you?
Did you know that August 1st was the beginning of World Breastfeeding Week? Today is the last official day, and I couldn't not touch on it. Breastfeeding has been an interesting journey for us, that has sadly drawn to a close (my inner self is sobbing hysterically right now).
World Breastfeeding Week's focus this year is on breastfeeding and work and making it work! Many moms struggle with when is the appropriate time for them to return to the workforce. Some mothers have to return before they feel emotionally, mentally, or physically ready.
Breastfeeding moms have to worry about pumping breast milk for their baby, maintaining supply after returning to work, ensuring that baby is fed properly and the proper amount while mom is away, and that breast milk is stored and prepared properly in addition to any other non-breastfeeding related worries.
Both Netflix and Microsoft have announced updates and improvements to their maternity leave policies this week, and Google, HP, and Cisco are known for having some of the greatest maternity leave policies in the US. However, the US workforce is mostly lacking when compared to the rest of the world's parent leave policies.
With that in mind, here are 4 tips for successfully continuing your breastfeeding journey after returning to the workforce.
It's important to know your legal rights! You can read about laws by state here and you can read federal law, including regards to pumping at work.
2. Buy a good pump.
You may be able to get your breast pump for free thanks to the Affordable Care Act, unless they're grandfathered plans.
Your health insurance plan must cover the cost of a breast pump – and may offer to cover either a rental or a new one for you to keep. Your plan may have guidelines on whether the covered pump is manual or electric, how long the coverage of a rented pump lasts, and when they'll provide the pump (before or after birth). But it's up to you and your doctor to decide what's right for you.
It's important to get a quality pump if you want to maintain supply at work. I recommend and double electric or hospital grade pump.
It's important to pump every 2 to 3 hours when away from baby to mimic baby's normal feeding schedule and to maintain supply. A rule of thumb is that it's better to pump short periods more often then long periods less often.
Make sure your employer and coworkers understand that you are doing this. I have dealt with shaming from people close to me. It's hard, but don't let anyone bully you out of your convictions. If you're struggling because your work is not properly accommodating you, reach out for help (including legal counsel, if needed).
I hope all you breastfeeding mommies out there continue to nurse on and know that you rock!
Today, I was a bad parent.
My kids ate greasy gas station pizza for lunch.
They ran around like wild animals at the store.
I bought them sugar filled drinks at the checkout and candy at the next store.
I slept in longer than my kids.
I let them skip baths for the third (or is it fourth?) day in a row.
Nobody brushed their teeth today.
I let my kids wear the same clothes as yesterday.
They spent all day in front of the TV.
I sleepervised from the couch during Spongebob.
I hurt my child, because I got overwhelmed.
Today, I wasn't perfect, and tomorrow I won't be either.
Today, I apologized to my child and forgave myself, as well.
Today, I did the best I could and tomorrow I will, too!
Two thirds of my children are currently little boys who will grow into men one day. For quite a few years, I was only a mother of boys. My daughter, Luna's, birth last year made me a mother of boys and a baby girl.
As my boys grow older, I find myself thinking about all the things I want them to know, believe, or be capable of doing when they leave the nest. Society has such warped views for men and masculinity. I hope my two sons grow up to be who they are not a reflection of what society wants them to be.
Fathers are just important as mothers and their role should be as valued and as active.
Men are not dumb dimwitted or irrelevant in marriage, life, or parenthood.
Value your role, value yourself, and find someone who will do the same.
How to cook and manage money. Men can clean the house too. They can do just as good of a job and just as many chores. Housework is not just the wife, mom, or woman's responsibility.
Being a good person, being a good husband, and being a good father is more important and more valuable than conforming to warped societal views on what is masculine and what is appropriate for a man to do.
Sometimes you have to sacrifice money for family, because family is more important.
It's okay to be angry. It's okay to be sad. It's okay to have feelings.
Respect yourself. Respect your significant other. Expect them to do the same.
Find a woman who is with you because she wants to be in not because she needs to be; someone who is independent and able to take care of herself and does not need or use you for your money or your possessions but sees the value of you as a person.
In your marriage or relationship, it's okay to walk away and take a break but never give up if there's hope for future. A good marriage and a good love is based on two people's willingness to fight for each other and for their life together.
Housework and child rearing is not just for women.
What are some things you hope your children will leave the nest knowing?
I first discovered Minted around the time my daughter was born (nearly a year ago now). I was so sad that I hadn't know about their birth announcements! When I still had a bun in the oven and was ready to buy the entire baby aisle, I posted about ordering prints for the nursery and for the boys' room and how excited I was! Boy, was I missing out!
Minted has a whole slew of children's art prints, and I'm particularly loving this Anatomy of a Name print and it's available in 6 different colors!
While I'm going to spend the next week drooling over children's prints, I know Mother's Day is coming up fast! Sunday May 10th, just 8 days after my baby turns one (insert sobbing here) and my middle child turns five!
While I was surfing through Minted's new collection of art prints, I came across the perfect Mother's Day present for my closest and longest friend!
Her family recently adopted an evil adorable Boston Terrier puppy, and this print is just so darn cute! They also have a Doberman (talk about weird family dynamics), and she already has hanging wall wart for him. I feel she just has to have this. Since I'm terrible at keeping presents a secret (or any secrets, for that matter), she has also agreed that she needs this.
However, unlike me, you might not think a Boston Terrier print says Happy Mother's Day! That's okay! There are tons of other options. For something a little more traditional, you could buy your mom, grandma, or other mommy gal pal one of the Luminous prints or a Fading Pink Roses photograph!
Minted also has these new map gifts where you can fill in family photos in the shape of your home state (or some other state if you prefer, I guess). I, however, am super impressed with their nifty foil maps. Can you say shiny!
On a final note, I might be most excited about their Submit a Design challenges! If you're not familiar, Minted hosts challenges where artists can submit their work to different categories (such as Happy New Years). The fans vote and the winning designs are sold on Minted. Winners get paid between $100 and $1000 and they get 8% commission on prints sold. As a Vis Comm college student, I'm hoping to dive in on this challenge!
What piece art would be perfect for a deserving mom in your life?
Whole30/Paleo focuses on cutting foods and food groups from your diet that may have negative impacts on your health. It is inspired by the idea that our Paleolithic ancestors (when humans were mostly nomadic and not settled) who ate solely for nutrition were healthier. Food groups such as dairy and grains are eliminated.
Now, please don't bash me if I'm not 100% right or if I left out some important details. I am new to this. Anyway, the idea of reinventing the way we eat (and I cook!) is a little scary. So, I've rounded up 14 Paleo/Whole30 friendly recipes to get me (and you!) started.
Have you tried the Whole30 challenge? What do you or would you miss most following the Paleo diet?
I am absolutely in love my with my crock pot (or slow cooker, whichever you call it). Actually, there's barbecue chicken breasts cooking in mine right now! Some people might argue that soups are only for winter, but I love a good soup, year round!
Plus, soups are pretty low maintenance, regardless, so throw in crock pot friendly soup recipes and you've got a super simple dinner. So, here's 20 slow cooker soup recipes!
Share with me your favorite thing to make in the crock pot!
Reading. We know it's fundamental that children learn how to read. Children Kindergarten age, and sometimes earlier, are reading or learning to read. Ready is pushed so hard by schools and parents that it can be very stressful and not fun for children.
Reading expands vocabulary, improves speaking, logic, and communication skills and has many more benefits! Here are 4 tips to get your children loving reading!
Some parents start reading to their child in the womb! Whether or not it's necessary to start that early might be debatable, but it is important to start reading to your baby early on in infancy. Even the youngest infants will enjoy the sound of your voice as you read to them.
As children grow older they can enjoy the colors, shapes, and pictures. Eventually children will be able to read themselves, but they will still value you taking the time to read to them. After they can read on their own, you can do shared reading time and take turns reading to each other!
2. Read what they like.
It's important to recognize that children are more likely to read something that interests them! If you child is into superheroes, Barbie, bugs, horses, etc. then get them books about their topic of interest. If you're not sure, try simply asking your child or just buying a variety of books. You might also consider books with familiar characters or themes.
3. Reward them with reading.
Now while rewarding reading is definitely an option, rewarding with reading is a great way to promote that reading is a fun, positive experience. For example, allowing older children to stay up 15 minutes past their bed time, if they're reading, is a way to reward children with reading. Don't assign reading as punishment, as that will only reinforce any ideas your child has that reading is not for fun.
Carve out some time in your busy schedule to lead by example, and read for pleasure. If this is not something you typically do, try following tip #2 for yourself.
Remember that there are a variety of types of reading materials. These include magazine, poetry, self help books, how to books, fiction novels, and more. Find what your kids like. Find what you like. And read on!
What are you currently reading or hoping to read? What does your child enjoy reading?
I've mentioned before that we are cloth diapering my daughter. I wanted to cloth diaper my son, but felt intimidated by all the options and chickened out. Well, I took the leap with baby #3 and am so glad I did!
Here's four basic, legit reasons you should cloth diaper your babe.
Disposable diapers are estimated to take over 500 years to decompose in a landfill, but last year the US threw away over 18 billion diapers.
You can buy all the cloth diapers your baby will ever need for $200-300 or less. You can likely even reuse them for your next child! Granted, cloth is typically an upfront cost, but disposable diapers will cost the average person over $2000 per child.
Cloth diapers contain chemicals. While major brands claim the amount are so small they're irrelevant, the point still stands that they're there.
Cloth diapers come in a plethora of colors, prints, and styles for all sorts of budgets. After everything else that cloth diapering has to offer, the cuteness is just the cherry on top!
What reason most influenced you to cloth diaper? Or what is keeping you from cloth diapering?


What is your job role within Joplings? I am the General Manager of Joplings, overseeing and responsible for the running of the business. Working closely with the management team, I support staff and develop the business. I am a Chartered Surveyor and registered valuer with the RICS. Part of my time is spent providing professional advice, relating to a wide range of property related matters. I also carry out building surveys and valuations for residential and commercial property, along with providing architectural design and construction advice relating to building projects.
DO YOU REQUIRE A DEED OR SITE PLAN?
Joplings is your local #OneStopPropertyShop and as such, we are able to provide you with a DEED PLAN and / or SITE LOCATION PLAN based on Ordnance Survey digital mapping used for Land Registry?


text:
Entelognathus primordialis ("primordial complete jaw") is a maxillate placoderm from the late Silurian (Ludlow epoch) of Qujing, Yunnan, 419 million years ago.

A team led by Min Zhu of the Academy of Sciences' Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology in Beijing discovered the intact, articulated fossil in rock formations at Xiaoxiang reservoir.

Specimen and taxonomy
The holotype of E. primordialis is the uncrushed and mostly intact anterior half of an individual with the articulating head and trunk armor preserved in three dimensions. The holotype is about  long, and the live animal is estimated to have been over  long. In overall form, the animal resembles primitive arthrodires, but the anatomy of the jaws strongly suggests the anatomies of bony fish and tetrapods. Specifically, this is the first stem gnathostome with dermal marginal jaw bones. These bones are the premaxilla, maxilla, and dentary. Most known placoderms had simple beak-like jaws made of bone plates.

The researchers' cladistic diagram suggests that E. primordialis forms a polytomy with arthrodires, ptyctodonts, and all advanced gnathostomes (namely bony fish, tetrapods, acanthodians, and chondrichthyes).

Etymology
The generic name translates as "complete jaw", referring to how the animal had a complete set of dermal marginal jaw bones. The specific name translates as "primordial".

Evolutionary significance
Prior to the discovery of Entelognathus, scientists assumed that the last common ancestor of jawed vertebrates was a shark-like animal, with no distinct jawbones, and that modern jaws evolved in early bony fishes. This discovery shows that modern jaws evolved earlier. It is possible that Chondrichthyes started with distinct jaws and then dispensed with them. This has been called the earliest known animal with what looks like a face.

See also

 Bianchengichthys
 Qilinyu
 Silurolepis

References

External links
 National Geographic - Fish fossil has oldest known face, may influence evolution
 Reuters - Fossil fish find in China fills in evolutionary picture
 Discover Magazine - First jawed fish had one ugly face
 Scientist hails 'jaw-dropping' fish fossil discovery (BBC, 2013-09-27)

Placoderm genera
Placoderms of Asia
Silurian fish of Asia
Placodermi enigmatic taxa
Prehistoric animals of China
Transitional fossils
Fossil taxa described in 2013
2013 in China

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


text:
package foxtrot.pumps;

import java.awt.AWTEvent;
import java.awt.EventQueue;

import sun.awt.SunToolkit;

/**
 * Specialized ConditionalEventPump for Sun's JDK 1.4, 5.0 and 6.0.
 * It fixes what I think is a misbehavior of {@link EventQueue#peekEvent()},
 * that does not flush pending events to the EventQueue before peeking for them.
 * The implementation of {@link EventQueue#getNextEvent()} calls
 * {@link SunToolkit#flushPendingEvents()} before returning the next event, thus
 * ensuring that all events are flushed to the EventQueue.
 * However, the implementation of {@link EventQueue#peekEvent()} does not call
 * {@link SunToolkit#flushPendingEvents()} resulting in peekEvents() returning
 * null (no events available) while getNextEvent() returns not null (a flushed
 * event).
 *
 * @version $Revision: 255 $
 */
public class SunJDK14ConditionalEventPump extends ConditionalEventPump
{
    /**
     * Flushes pending events before waiting for the next event.
     * There is a mismatch between the behavior of {@link java.awt.EventQueue#getNextEvent()}
     * and {@link java.awt.EventQueue#peekEvent()}: the first always flushes pending events,
     * the second does not. This missing flushing is the reason why peekEvent() returns null
     * causing the proxy implementation of Conditional.evaluate() to never return
     */
    protected AWTEvent waitForEvent()
    {
        EventQueue queue = getEventQueue();
        AWTEvent nextEvent = peekEvent(queue);
        if (nextEvent != null) return nextEvent;

        while (true)
        {
            SunToolkit.flushPendingEvents();
            synchronized (queue)
            {
                nextEvent = peekEvent(queue);
                if (nextEvent != null) return nextEvent;
                if (debug) System.out.println("[SunJDK14ConditionalEventPump] Waiting for events...");
                try
                {
                    queue.wait();
                }
                catch (InterruptedException e)
                {
                    Thread.currentThread().interrupt();
                    return null;
                }
            }
        }
    }
}

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaGithub


she was coming back to the house, because the support she got was much more than she imagined. She also said that some of the housemates who thought they are big in the house, don't really have much supporters campaigning for them.
Khloe who got disqualified alongside her strategic partner, K.Brule, after getting a third strike, also made it to the shortlist of the evicted housemates, who came back to the house through votes from viewers. Recall that after a video of Khloe in South Africa surfaced yesterday, followers of the show speculated that she might be among the housemates expected back in the house today.
On the live show today, Khloe confirmed that she will be bringing drama to the house and also settling scores in the house. The returning housemate, further disclosed that the housemate won't be sleeping too much again now she's back.
We reported earlier that after Khloe was spotted at a South African airport, followers of the show took to Twitter to react to the video.


We are a North Texas Food Truck Specializing in Meatballs and Other Ball Shaped Items! Check out Our Menu, Our Balls are Delicious, and Made with 100% BEEF!
The bus is unique like the concept for OH Balls! We wanted something people would remember and who could forget a school bus?
Our Goal is to "Break the Stigma" of Meatballs, They Aren't Just Served Over Spaghetti Anymore. Give Us a Try, We Can't Wait to Serve You!
Chef Kent is a Fort Worth native currently living on the north side with his beautiful wife Lindsay and their Corgi, Sadie. He loves bringing food and people together. He has always felt that God called him to serve, and can't wait to see how He uses the food truck as an avenue to do just that!
I love how versatile meatballs actually are. Its not just "Spaghetti and Meatballs" here at OH Balls!, I want to break the stigma and introduce different flavors to people who wouldn't normally think of them being in a meatball.
That is a tough one, The "TX" is killer, the sauce is made with my favorite whiskey, and I love pairing it with the creamy cauliflower. The "Bleu" is also deceivingly delicious. It is rich and a fun twist on the classic Chicken Cordon Bleu, try it, you wont be disappointed!
Copyright © 2018 OH Balls! LLC - All Rights Reserved.


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Buderus commercial and industrial boilers ranging from 65kW to 19200kW and solar thermal water heating systems.
Gas boilers provide heat for radiator and underfloor systems equally well and can use either LPG or Diesel boilers require the installation of a fuel tank outside the house. For more information, download our Geothermal Heating Brochure.
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All secondment opportunities will be posted on the GO Programme database on PKF365. For details of how to get access to PKF365, please click here.
Global Opportunities may be available in any of the 150 countries in which the PKF International network has a member firm so the possibilities are endless. If you are attracted to the exotic, interesting or culturally diverse there could be an appropriate global opportunity for you.
You can then research the opportunities available and, if you are interested in a secondment in a particular location, you should speak to your local manager / partner who, provided you meet the criteria below, will give you permission to respond online.
Advance planning is essential. Well before you commence your PKF GO you should identify some key goals that you want to achieve during the secondment, both workwise and as part of experiencing life in a different country. You should then discuss these plans with the office you are planning to go to (the destination office) and your current Base office.
Depending on the length or nature of your secondment, it is also worthwhile to give some thought - either as part of your planning and/or during your secondment -about the role you would like to take up on your return to your Base Office.
For short term secondments, you will return to your existing role in your Base Office. However, your additional skills and experiences should enhance your opportunities for career advancement.
If you have been on a longer term secondment, you will return to a role that is commensurate with your skills and experience. This will be at least at the level you were at when you left and may be higher depending on the staffing situation at your Base Office.


text:
Inspector Clueless: NYPD Commander Janice Holmes Rightly Catches Hell for Tweeting #BlackLivesMatter hashtag
Boy, is she out of touch with the rank and file.
But, I think social justice mentality has infected some brass of the NYPD starting with Police Commissioner James O'Neil. As for Holmes, this was a misstep she can recover from. Her family history with the NYPD more than makes up for this.
NY Post reports a positive gesture by an NYPD precinct commander went sideways when she used the hashtag #blacklivesmatter in an official tweet — and she deleted it amid furious pushback.
Deputy Inspector Janice Holmes of the 100th Precinct in Rockaway, Queens, tweeted a photo of late African-American heavyweight boxing champion Jack Johnson from her NYPD account Thursday afternoon.
The tweet, commemorating Black History Month, elicited a storm of criticism from cops throughout the department, and it was later taken down.
"How can a precinct commander lead people when she aligns herself with a group that is known to hate law enforcement and wishes police officers dead?" one police source said.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


As working efficiency reaches the lowest rates in stuffy offices, entrepreneurs have to invigorate their employees in a fresh environment. The best way to immerse them into a cool atmosphere is to install a decent air conditioning system. If you're eager to promote appliances of this kind, make use of the theme you see here. Thanks to its inspirational visuals shown on a light palette, you'll have an opportunity to represent any manufacturer of air conditioners as a reliable company to seek help from. Thus, customers will believe the probability of mechanical defects in the advertized products is extremely low, which will motivate them to make a purchase with absolute certainty. Browsing through your platform, its visitors will become confident in the ability to create a comfortable place to work due to appliances promoted by means of this template.
Responsive design is a technique of web design that lets pages to adapt to a screen size of any kind of gadget - whether it's a pc, a laptop or a mobile phone.
Responsive design might help your webpage look equally cool on display of any kind of personal computer or handheld gadget.
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Via a SEO-friendly design templates, you will get the base to produce a notable cyberspace project that can be easy-to-find by way of the usual keywords and phrases research. Besides that, you may make your online site rank higher in search results, as a consequence making it much more likely that people will visit it.
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No, we design Joomla templates for Facility Company optimized for web resolution only.


The mystical Black Lion looks out ahead with his eyes fixed and focused out unto the horizon. Upon some point of past shadows and demons with the blood, he paid through countless battles to be at the point where he is now, is still poignantly fresh and trickling down his eye and the front of his mane. Here he still stands victorious. A heart catharticly emoting the treasures and wars of it's own eternalness. This is my spirit animal. This is my story. This is Kidnapped.
This album Kidnapped is both literal and personal for me from a whirlwind of emotions from when I was young and then extrapolating that metaphorically paralleling the effects of an enslaved mentality and the way the world works.
The first half represents physical and emotional trauma. Each half however, is in two parts, broken between 9 songs a piece…9 numerologically is linked to the cross and finality of things. The first nine songs tied to physical and the next nine emotional.
The weird and wild chaoticness of a Kidnapped psyche is balanced by breaking these two testaments of lives within themselves for a structured four parts bound by the cross, or nine. Four represents disciple and stability, thus winning back the psyche from what was Kidnapped. Furthermore, for each part of nine there is a song that acts as a bridge on the fifth song of each of the four parts. The fifth being perfectly fit to give flux within each part to give ties and leeway respectively within each.


A motorcyclist headed home from a weekend ride to the mountains of Virginia and West Virginia was killed by a suspected drunk driver Sunday afternoon.
Johnston County emergency crews responded to the 2:37pm crash on Highway 70 at West Edwards Street in Princeton, near the US70-A intersection.
According to the NC Highway Patrol, a GMC SUV driven by James Edward Newkirk, 70, of Smithfield was traveling on West Edwards Street when he failed to stop for a stop sign and flashing lights at Highway 70. His SUV collided with a black Harley Davidson motorcycle traveling eastbound on Highway 70.
As a result of the impact, the operator of the motorcycle, Gary Martin Henry, 61, of Havelock, NC was ejected and died at the scene. A second motorcycle traveling with Henry avoided the collision but the operator witnessed his friend being struck. He was visibly shaken but was not physically injured.
Newkirk was arrested by state troopers and charged with driving while impaired and felony death by motor vehicle.
A passenger in the SUV, Sarah Louise Massengill, 27, of Princeton fled from the scene but was later apprehended. Massengill was charged with felony fleeing the scene of an accident resulting in death. Both Newkirk and Massengill were booked into the Johnston County Jail. As of Monday afternoon, Newkirk was still being held under an $80,000 bond. Massengill was still confined under a $10,000 bond.
Henry's death marks the 14th fatality on Johnston County roadways in 2018.


text:
News / Highlight
Xi Sends Reply Letter to U.S. High School Students
Chinese President Xi Jinping has sent a reply letter to a group of U.S. high school students, encouraging them to make contributions to promoting friendship between the Chinese and American peoples.
The group of over 40 students from Niles North High School in Illinois state, the United States, have written in Chinese to Xi, asking him about his work, life and hobbies.
The students said in their letter that they are studying Chinese, that they love Chinese language and characters, as well as music and Chinese food, and that they would love to have the chance to visit China.
In his reply letter to the students, Xi thanked them for their letter, saying he feels their love for the Chinese language and their interest in the Chinese culture.
Studying Chinese helps better understand China, make more Chinese friends, and also make many friends who can speak Chinese across the world, Xi said.
He praised the students' neat writing and correct wording in Chinese, and encouraged them to continue the efforts to achieve greater progress in Chinese learning.
"I have visited the United States for many times, and was deeply impressed by the beautiful scenery, hospitable people and diverse culture there. I have also made many American friends, including young friends," the president said.
"My job is to serve the people. It is very tiring, but also very fulfilling," he added.
The president said he has strong interest in philosophy, history, literature, culture, music and sports, among others, adding that many of his hobbies have been kept since his middle school years.
Calling the young generation the future of China-U.S. friendship, Xi said he hopes that the students will cherish their youth, study hard and make contributions to promoting friendship between the Chinese and American peoples.
Noting that it is better to see something once than to hear about it a hundred times, the president said the students are welcome to visit China.
Xi's letter was met with an enthusiastic response in Niles North High School, where teachers and students said they can feel Xi's amiability and are moved by his care for young people in China and the United States.
Xi's letter will encourage more local students to learn Chinese, know about Chinese culture and participate in friendly exchanges between the two countries, they added.
Niles North High School, established in 1964, is a public school in the U.S. state of Illinois. Having more than 2,000 students, the school pays special attention to international exchanges and encourages students to learn foreign languages. The school has included Chinese in its curriculum since 2008, and currently has 11 classes of students learning Chinese as an elective course.
U.S. high school students send Chinese letter to President Xi


text:
nettime archive finds : DJ Spooky interview by Erik Davis+ new science & new minds thoughts
Submitted by kathy on Fri, 19/10/2007 - 22:02
whilst looking for the original posting and thread of Erik Davis' nettime-l posting on "Philip K. Dick's Divine Interference", I came across an interview by Erik with DJ Spooky from 2003. the closest I came to the PKD post was a later reply to the thread - I can't seem to find the original post though. maybe it had a different title. anyway, the DJ Spooky article is interesting - he speaks about some of his projects, the artist's relationship to working whilst on psychedelics (& how he doesn't do this), the culture he grew up with, his multi-faceted collection of projects : music and DJing, sound art, installation, sculpture, painting, video remixing and the mixology of images, but he mostly identifies as being a writer. he also speaks about his style of writing, creative commons, artificial scarcity amongst other things.
Erik Davis : "You first got on the map doing music and DJing. You've done sound
art, installation, sculpture, painting. You've been working lately
with video remixing and getting into the mixology of images. But in
many ways you still define yourself primarily as a writer. Why is it
important for you to stay tied to the world of writing?"
DJ Spooky : "At the end of the day, you still want to communicate with your fellow
human beings. Otherwise it becomes a subjective implosion."
Erik Davis : "Yeah, but some people would say that images are now a better form of
communication, that text isn't a very good form anymore. It's too slow, for one thing."
DJ Spooky : "It is, it's all that. In fact it's kind of retro. But that's cool,
too. That's why people wear bell bottom jeans. You can always
squeeze something out of the past and make it become new."
Erik Davis : "But for you, it is about communication."
DJ Spooky : "It's a puzzle you set for yourself. Being at a crossroads like this,
and being uncertain which direction to move, is actually a good
thing, because it makes me question everything a lot more. Why do I
want to write, why do I want to make a track, why do I want to do
this installation? They're all hobbies, which keeps the fun. If I
were a dead serious artist guy, who wanted to just strictly be in all
the right collections, and network the gallery scene, that's easily
done. Same with the DJ circuit. But by being a hobbyist, a kind of
flaneur or somebody who jumps around, it keeps things fresh and new.
I can only imagine what kind of mentality most people must have
doing one thing all their lives. But I guess because I grew up with
books, I've always wanted to write one, to add my own book to the
bookshelf in my mind or something."
other finds / bookmarks to self for further reading :
Is Mark Dery an Absolute Idiot? - an email from DJ Spooky
"an interview I did with Roy Christopher, the fellow who
edits www.frontwheeldrive.com an e-zine that focuses on "New Science
and new Media." In the dialog I talk about stuff like William
Gibson's loa computer loa programs versus John Shirley's "city
avatars" (John Shirley wrote a classic cyberpunk novel called "City
Comes a Walkin'" that influenced Gibson big time, and the different
uses of digital media in the two novels speaks volumes about how
people can perceive the uh... "Africa Within" of Mchluhan's Gutenberg
Galaxy of text and electri-city) and alot more stuff. "
a 1997 thread about Gnosis and Stahlman by Erik Davis, who intros it with :
"Though as usual Stahlman waxes grandiose, his recent post about Wired,
Heaven's Gate, and modern gnosis is quite intriguing. Though I do not draw
the historical lines of causality and control as tightly as he does, the
basic drift of his connections point to much that gurgles beneath the
surface, and shows once again that his "hermeneutics of suspicion," for all
its excesses, is a vital thread in this debate."
hermenaut journal
"Hermenaut, an irregularly published journal of philosophy and pop-culture, has been described as "a zine that gives voice to indie intellectual thought," "a scholarly journal minus the university," and "a sounding board for thinking folk who operate outside the ivory tower." Founded in 1992 by a rag-tag group of outsider intellectuals, Hermenaut uses the tools of philosophy, sociology, and critical theory to explode the received notions of academia and the hipster demimonde alike."
TERENCE MCKENNA VS. THE BLACK HOLE - Terence on Death and Dying post by Erik Davis.
... "some excerpts from interviews that I conducted with
McKenna in late October and early November last year, in
preparation for a profile that will appear in the May issue of Wired. For
obvious reasons, I have chosen selections concerning his feelings about
death and dying."
Posthuman Condition 4 post :
Remote Control - Erik Davis ponders wireless technology and the erosion of place.
The Davis-Stahlman-Dialogue
"[In this e-mail dialogue Erik Davis, an independent writer in Francisco,
who also contributed to Wired Magazine replies to Mark Stahlman,
New York who wrote several pieces for Information World and worked
on Wall Street, how jut finished his Big Picture of 'The English Ideology'
behind Net-Pravda) The thread goes along the main lines of ecology movement
vs ecofascism, the viability of pattern recognition vs conspiracy theory,
or simply with which kind of assembled subjectivity we could enjoy the puzzle
stadium without crashing against the millenial time-wall."
Acoustic Cyberspace
a " transcript from the lecture at "Xchange On-air session" Riga, November 1997
edition by Diana McCarty and Ted Byfield
pubished in net audio issue 'Acoustic Space' http://xchange.re-lab.net
real-audio version available at http://ozone.re-lab.net/festival/erik_d.ram "
name.space threads ???!!??!
Philip K Dick
kathy's blog


text:
Trivial Pursuit EA, Xbox 360, March 2009
The Xbox 360 Trivial Pursuit is a fun experience for you and up to three more players on your couch-- the questions range from simple to challenging, but are mostly challenging. The game also appears to have found a smart in-game way to promote downloadable content (DLC), plus this title incorporates your avatars.
Rather than have you say the answer out loud, this game features multiple choice answers. This may infuriate purists, but it does allow the game to be played without having to quickly think about, type in, and spell correctly your answer. I thank the developers for this.
It's so simple even your idiot friends can play it. Move the cursor and use the buttons as directed on the screen-- the developers made sure that this game would be accessible to people who may not be experts on controller button placement. This is particularly great if, to have a four-player game, you need to use cheap controllers for the extra players. Well done! You also have the options of selecting the language in which the game appears, or picking if each gamer gets a controller or if you all share.
The colorful board could be out of 1987 or 2009-- it just looks sharp and very plastic-y. The menus are all very simple, and the development house made sure to not be too showy. It looks like you're playing with digital chunks of plastic, and the dark screen with brightly colored pieces makes it easy to see what you're supposed to do.
A particularly clever element is a "news ticker" on the bottom of the screen. Not only does it give you statistics on how everybody is doing, but it occasionally pops up a reminder of which downloadable expansion packs are available for download-- free or paid. It's a great use of the screen's real estate, plus it's pretty unobtrusive as these things go.
Like numerous other board game/game show games of this era, there's an announcer which hurls taunts and compliments your way as you play. The sound mix places him in a position so that if you're having a conversation in the room with other players, it's easy to completely tune him out. He's not particularly annoying, but I can say that his presence was generally not noticed when we were playing.
Online Play and Multiplayer
There's no online play. This is a real shame, because the reshaped experience seems to lend itself well to online trivia battles-- although we suppose it might be possible to exploit Google and cheat if nobody's watching you play. There are online leaderboards, but I honestly have to say that I don't feel that online leaderboards on a trivia game (because you may be able to cheat) are a particularly noteworthy feature.
The single player mode-- yes, there is one-- relies on time, scoring multipliers and yes, points. As such you aren't competing against the computer, which was a really smart decision for this game. You can earn a high score, and there's an actual strategy involved in which questions you opt to answer in order to maximize your score. Depending on if you want to play for a huge score or just for fun for a few minutes, you can finish the one-player mode in under 10 minutes quite easily, or stretch it out to about 30 minutes. Kudos for the decision to let you compete with what you know, rather than a computer player who'd likely be either a genius or, shall we say, "special."
Of all the Hasbro/EA board game conversions we've played so far, this one we liked the best. Unlike Hasbro Family Game Night, there are no little surprises which may prevent you from playing the game you paid for.
One final detail: it does make use of your avatar, but it clips your name at 6 characters. Expect butchering of names.
Is It Worth It?
LOCAL FUN
There are some things you simply cannot do when you translate a board game to a video game. This game tries hard to get around these obstacles, but part of Trivial Pursuit's charm was that you actually have to be able to speak an answer aloud rather than guess a correct answer out of four. Questions involve picking one of four correct trivia answers, highlighting the right location on an unlabeled, border-free map, and other challenges. If you don't know geography, this game will punish you severely.
If you are a single gamer who only plays with other people via Xbox Live, you probably won't want to buy this unless you can get it cheap. I highly recommend this to anyone who loves video games, but has a significant other that's a board game fiend. This will allow you to satisfy your desire to earn more achievement points-- some of which are damned fiendish-- while they get to pretend they're playing a game involving dice and a board. If you enjoyed the Scene It! games, this is a better game overall-- plus it's expandable. Here's hoping EA continues to provide additional DLC question packs, particularly if they're free like the movies one, which you ought to grab as soon as you buy this game.
Trivial Pursuit is available on numerous other platforms including Wii, Playstation 3, and PS2. The PS2 version can be had cheaply on sale or even on clearance at certain retailers. (The big red dot does not waste time.)