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Due to the versatility of VE’s program delivery, we were able to pivot quickly at the start of the pandemic to adapt our curriculum and meet the evolving realities of remote learning. In doing so, VE helped to ensure that students’ learning continued uninterrupted during the 2020-21 school year. Similarly, we arranged virtual meet-and-greet sessions between VE classes and business professionals and launched an online trade show platform that enabled students and teachers to take part in one of VE’s signature learning experiences despite not being able to interact in person. By quickly implementing these changes, VE stayed on track and helped transform the lives of 18,000 students from 441 schools—half of which were in under-resourced areas.
| https://veinternational.org/blog/2021/12/21/2020-21-annual-report/ | 155 |
The past two years have brought about enormous economic, social and political changes. But challenges also create opportunities to learn.
What did Covid-19 teach Malaysia between 2020 and 2021? ISIS Malaysia’s experts take a critical look at the nation’s experience of the pandemic to preserve the hard-earned knowledge from the last two years.
Pandemic Papers: Lessons from Covid-19 touches on economic growth and development; the impact on women; human capital and foreign relations; and how the pandemic shaped the national discourse. It also documents Covid-19 policies and their effects.
The articles provide context for specific government policies and include recommendations aimed at preparing us for the next crisis.
| https://www.isis.org.my/book-journal/pandemic-papers-lessons-from-covid-19/ | 144 |
I joined the SWPP (Society of Wedding & Portrait Photography) earlier this year. It’s always good to be a member of a professional society, it’s another way of keeping up to date on the industry, networking and so on. They run a monthly competition which I’ve been entering as a way to get professional feedback on my work from some of the worlds leading photographers. This month I got awarded my first Gold Award! 🙂 Needless to say I’m chuffed as these are hard to come by. The winning photograph was in the Landscape category.
I also won 3 Silver Awards and 7 Bronze Awards so it was a good month! This brings the total for this year to 1 Gold, 6 Silvers and 17 Bronzes. Below are the photographs which won the Silver Awards.
Wow! Congratulations – break out the champagne. These are amazing pics and your awards are very well deserved. I look forward to all your future works. | http://kevinmurphyphotography.com/2011/09/swpp-gold-award/ | 200 |
OASE-mylar lace fountain systems represent an interesting design element in fountain technology. As the water is running noiselessly and nearly without splashing downwards along the special mylar laces, many possible applications are possible.
Indoors the mylar lace fountain can divide a room or form a glittering curtain as an architectural feature. OASE mylar fountains basically consist of a bottom water reservoir and a top water distribution system with a multitude of mylar nozzles and the corresponding number of adjustable transparent mylar laces. The water reservoir comprises the complete technology - such as pump, overflow drain, freshwater refill, power supply, the mylar lace conduction plate and the underwater lights. The OASE accessory program also offers other components like a water treatment with the installation of water softener, filtering and dosing plant. | https://www.oase-livingwater.com/en_EN/fountains-lakes/products/p/mylar-lace-4025.1000079525.html | 171 |
The influence of nano-confinement and slip boundary conditions on the thermal motion of fluid molecules is investigated using the LAMMPS molecular dynamics program. We consider a neutral Lennard-Jones fluid confined by crystalline walls with weak surface energy. Particular attention was paid to the implementation of a wall model that allows fine adjustment of the slip length without changing the interfacial fluid structure. We used the original Steele's surface energy decomposition, i.e., that the interaction potential between a fluid molecule and a solid substrate can be expressed as a Fourier expansion in the reciprocal-lattice vectors of the substrate surface. The local diffusion coefficients in the directions parallel and perpendicular to confining walls were estimated as a function of a distance from the walls and then correlated with the slip length. The results of this numerical study are important for interpretation of nano-PIV (Particle Image Velocimetry) measurements of interfacial shear flows and boundary slippage. Financial support from the National Science Foundation (CBET-1033662) is gratefully acknowledged. | https://meetings.aps.org/Meeting/DFD11/Session/D2.1 | 215 |
When you need to plant tomatoes in the garden and quickly get an excellent harvest, the Staroselsky tomato is perfect for this purpose. During the cultivation period, the variety has already received positive reviews from gardeners. After all, it does not require special care when growing, and a rich harvest makes gardeners use it again.
This tomato was bred in Russia, therefore it is adapted for our climatic zone. Early, grows well under film and outdoors. The plant is determinate, low - it reaches 1 meter in height. The crown is formed independently, but for a large yield it is better to form it, a moderate amount of leaves.
Fruit characteristics - ripe tomatoes reach 300 grams, 6 kilograms of tomatoes are removed from a square meter.
Fruit taste is pronounced tomato, sweet with sourness. The aroma is bright, tomato. The tomatoes are juicy and have a red-orange color when ripe. Smooth, round with slight ribbing around the peduncle.
The tomato variety is suitable for fresh consumption, for whole-fruit canning, freshly squeezed juice, making sauces and tomato pastes. As you can see, the variety is universal in use, so it is grown on the plots by absolutely all gardeners.
Early ripening varieties of Staroselskiye tomatoes are usually grown by seedling. First, in March, seeds are sown, previously soaked in a solution of potassium permanganate and washed under a stream of warm water, and then planted in containers with garden soil and humus. Before germination, the soil is irrigated with warm water from a spray bottle. Germinating seeds are placed in a sunny, warm place - usually a windowsill.
After the sprouts emerge and 1-2 leaves are formed, the tomatoes are dived into separate containers for further growth.
It is recommended to feed young shoots with mineral fertilizer for better growth.
When the frosts subside outside and the air temperature is stable, the plants are transplanted into the ground. This stage usually starts in mid-May. Seedlings must be hardened beforehand. To do this, a week before disembarking in open ground, it is taken out into the street for several hours.
In early May, the seedlings are transplanted into the greenhouse at a distance of 40 by 60 centimeters. Approximately 3 bushes per 1 square meter staggered. So it is more convenient to look after them.
In open ground - at the end of May, while the landing pattern is the same.
As mentioned earlier, this variety description does not require special care, however, there are general rules for caring for tomato bushes when growing. And they should be adhered to.
To obtain a rich harvest, it is desirable to form a bush; for this, the lower stepsons break off and excess leaves are removed. To form three branches, the 3 upper stepsons with flowers are left, the rest are removed. You need to feed the plants 3-4 times per season, so the fruit harvest will be of better quality.
The variety is picky about watering - it does not tolerate dry land. It is recommended to loosen the soil after each watering to keep moisture in the ground. Harvesting occurs as the fruits ripen; it is not recommended to leave ripe tomatoes on the bush for a long time. They will slow down the growth of new fruits.
Adhering to these simple rules, gardeners will receive a rich yield of ripe, juicy tomatoes right on their site.
Watch the video: CHERRY TOMATOPICKING TOMATO. SMALL TOMATO. HOW TO GROW TOMATO AT HOME. YELLOW TOMATO. @Penchielyn (May 2022).
Copyright 2022 \ Description of the Staroselsky tomato variety, its characteristics and yield... | https://ie.heldforranson.com/2912-description-of-the-staroselsky-tomato-variety-its-ch.html | 785 |
History
Nuala’s Garden and Horticultural Centre was established in 2009, and is dedicated to the memory of the late Nuala Cunnane (R.I.P. Sept.2007), a founder member of RSG and a great lover of nature, gardening and believer in people.
The Horticultural Centre and garden are located on the grounds of the Derrane centre.
There is a fully accessible greenhouse, outdoor accessible raised beds and gardens all of which are suitable for training and developing skills to all members of the wider community. Disability has no barriers at our centre. The project has been achieved partly through funding grants, fundraising and donations from interested parties in the community.
The Garden and Greenhouse brings people of all abilities and ages from our wider community together, investing them with new skills and ideas that they can profit from in the future. Seed sowing, garden planning, self sufficiency, harvesting and marketing are among the courses available.
Sensory Garden
Here at County Roscommon Disability Support Group we have a sensory garden for the entire community to come and enjoy. The plants have been chosen for their colour, foliage texture or scent . Wildlife and insects are actively encouraged with bird feeders, insect hotels and insect attractive plants such as buddleija that encourage butterflies etc. There is also a boggy garden area that we are hoping to encourage some amphibious friends such as toads and frogs into this year.
The garden will always be evolving but this year it will be filled with colour and scents. There are fruit and herb beds alongside the vegetable plots showing how productive a small plot can be.
The garden is for all to enjoy and engage with so if you would like to come and sit and reflect or get stuck in and volunteer some time for weeding we are always happy to see visitors.
Courses & Classes
Training is tailored around the clients’ needs. We welcome volunteers with or without gardening knowledge and hope that they are inspired to impart their own new found skills to others who have an interest.
The courses available are integrated into the Independent Living Programme at RSG and aim to teach independence, confidence and self worth where appropriate. Most of the growing is fun!
People are welcome to come along and try a taster course and find out for themselves. | 2d7523ec74b8a006d986286b9786cd26 | 470 |
Seraphine's kit is a lot like Sona's
Passive is music themed and empowers next abilities based on the amount of times other skills have been used
Q is music that deals damage in a circle (that's thrown instead of being around the character)
W is music that heals
E is music that applies CC (like Sona's E empowered basic). This is the one that's conceptually the most different ability and that's because Seraphine's is about cc to the enemy and Sona's is about speeding up allies but even then both share the objective of helping the team through movement
R is pretty much the same ability but charms instead of making enemies dance and has that range amplification mechanic that Sona's doesn't have.
ffs Swain, Urgot and Galio are way more different than the original compared to Seraphine to Sona. | a2e35dc54a4d454a9e5755d21cc78107 | 185 |
Recent legislation passed by the Federal Parliament and supported by the ACCC sheds new light on the importance of marketing compliance. Those brands found to be non-compliant can expect to be fined, and penalties will be steep.
With consumer watchdogs and technology being the all-seeing eyes today, brands need to ensure their marketing compliance is a top priority to protect both their reputation and profitability.
Think of marketing compliance as your professional and ethical brand standards.
Marketing compliance refers to a set of external and internal regulations that businesses must adhere to in order to protect the consumer and the brand itself.
External marketing complianceExternal marketing compliance is governed by regulatory bodies that monitor the marketing and advertising efforts of brands to ensure they do not mislead consumers. In Australia, the ACCC, Office of the Australian Information Commissioner (OAIC), Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) and Advertising Standard Bureau are some of the organisations that monitor businesses for breaches in conduct. In America, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) are a few of the governing bodies.Check out this list of legal obligations brands need to follow when marketing their products and services.
Internal marketing complianceInternal marketing compliance is managed by the brand itself, which means setting protocols for how assets (logos, colours, fonts) and messaging should be used. Not to be underestimated, this kind of compliance builds a vital link between the brand and consumer. Just think of any major brand that has burrowed itself into our collective psyche. We instantly know who they are, what they sell and what they’re good at. What these businesses have managed to do is create and maintain a consistent brand story – setting a unique appearance and tone, a confidence, a professionalism that can only be surpassed by their enduring products and/or services.
What happens when a brand’s marketing compliance fails?
When a brand fails to meet marketing compliance standards, it potentially sets in motion a range of outcomes.
A warning is issued (that could be made public).For example, ACMA publishes a list of ‘spam and telemarketing enforcement actions’ which have been issued to brands that have not been compliant with protocols. No-one likes to be spammed or receive unsolicited phone calls, so it’s never good news for brands to be outed on the list. ACMA’s compliance and enforcement approach is available online for brands that don’t want to make the naughty list.
Expensive fines that will put a dent in the bottom line.To date, the highest penalty given to a brand for breaching competition legislation is $46 million, so the Federal Court isn’t taking non-compliance lightly. For some multinational brands, fines could exceed the hundred million dollar mark. That’s a good enough reason alone for brands to get on top of their marketing compliance.
Being shadowed by a consumer watchdog for the next few years.And it doesn’t end with a warning or fine. If you’ve breached consumer laws, you can expect to have your marketing and advertising campaigns closely monitored for the next few years.
A brand’s reputation can be damaged.With socially-minded Millennials at the helm of social media and demanding that brands do better, reputations are at stake now more than ever. Misconduct can lose a brand many valuable customers which will inevitably eat into their bottom line.
Now that we’ve covered the risks of being non-compliant, here are some of our best practices to help brands get their marketing compliance back in shape and keep it that way.
Review your marketing approval workflow.If you’re finding that Legal or Compliance are often missed in the approval workflow or are being sent approval requests at the wrong time, your marketing compliance is at risk. It might be time to do a thorough review of your approval process to see where improvements can be made. Our tips on refining your marketing approval process provides a step-by-step framework for implementing a steadfast approval process. For more information and compliance templates, you can also refer to the ACCC’s Implementing a compliance program.
Get up to speed with marketing compliance and technology.Marketing compliance is always changing to keep up with the rapid-pace of technology. In particular, marketers need to stay abreast of new compliance regulations around social media and data collection. ADMA’s Privacy & Marketing Compliance Course can provide the vital information you need to know your way around data management and consumer privacy.You can also request that your Legal or Compliance team update you when compliance laws change. For new staff coming on board, make sure that an overview of marketing compliance is included in their induction so that they are aware of its importance.
Adopt approval workflow software to safeguard your marketing compliance.There’s a range of ways approval workflow software can safeguard both your external and internal compliance. The system has an inbuilt approval workflow management feature that enables users to customise approval pathways so that Legal or Compliance review marketing content at the right time. Not only that, it guarantees that no reviewer will ever be bypassed in the approval process again. The system also has a robust feedback feature which dispenses with email approvals, as well as it saves an automatic audit trail of marketing work. In addition, it has inbuilt digital asset management (DAM) so you can save only your most current brand assets to eliminate any confusion about which version to use.
If you don’t have a Compliance Manager, it might be time to hire one.Marketing compliance sometimes slip, not because people don’t care they’re just busy doing a whole lot of other stuff. If marketing compliance keeps falling to the bottom of your to do list, it might be time to make a case for hiring a Compliance Manager who will be dedicated to keeping it a top priority.
View your marketing compliance from a customer perspective.While you can have all the right processes, tools and resources in place to safeguard your marketing compliance, sometimes you just need to get out of your marketing headspace and view your campaigns like a customer would. Is your messaging clear, especially content such as your terms and conditions? Are there any claims that aren’t 100% true? Is there anything cited that might be problematic for a governing body like the ACCC? If you can be truly accountable for the content you create, then that’s probably a good indication it’s ready for the public.
Refining your approval process has other benefits such as less revisions, better quality campaigns, faster turnaround times, more cost-savings!
| https://www.admation.com/understanding-marketing-compliance/ | 1,369 |
FOLLOWING the huge 5 Seconds of Summer (5SOS3) tour that began in Europe in March, came to London in April, headed to their hometown of Sydney, and finished in Brazil this week, Luke, Ash, Calum and Michael have now announced UK dates for their ‘Meet You There’ headline tour for October 2018.
The band recently released an acoustic version of their new hit single, Youngblood, the title track from the band’s third studio album, out June 15 on Capitol Records and now available for pre-order.
Fans who pre-order the album will instantly receive Youngblood and Want You Back.
Following 5SOS’ five-plus years of recording and touring behind its first two albums – both of which debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 – the band decamped across the hemisphere to Los Angeles to find a new set of collaborators, influences, and inspirations.
Tickets go on sale at 9am on June 15, 2018. | f225bb257f445ce31c8deeb061260297 | 205 |
how to move turntable arm with a servo?
I'm not sure if this is the ideal subreddit for my question but I didn't know where else to ask it. I had the idea of controlling the arm of my turntable via an esp32-controller-servo (I know this is an Arduino subreddit but its just about the hardware here). However I hadn't quite thought the whole process through because I thought that I could just connect the two and then whenever the servo moves to a certain position the turntable arm is moved accordingly, but I forgot that the arm had to also move by itself when actually playing the song. So now I don't really know how to achieve my initial goal. And since this is my first microcontroller-project I don't have a clue about like mechanical stuff. Does anybody have an idea as to how I could do this? And if you might know a better fitting subreddit to post this to that would also be appreciated. This was the initial idea: But like this the arm is always fixed to the servo can't move on its own.
Previous PostPrevious can I use a resister to lower the 12v input for my nodemcu? | https://arduinoapprentices.wordpress.com/2021/04/08/how-to-move-turntable-arm-with-a-servo/ | 247 |
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| https://ocapi-trading.com/category/spickove-webove-stranky-recenzg-125 | 288 |
Let’s start with the kinda for fun, kinda for work one…my newsletter. I know lots of photographers do this with varied luck–my motivation behind a newsletter is not for a sale, or to pull people in–it’s to keep in touch with folks that I wouldn’t necessarily have reason to keep in contact with. I mean, emailing clients, and random contacts to just say hi is weird–for all of us. Handing out my card really puts all the responsibility on the client to track me down and I know that when I get a card from someone–I typically forget all about it by the time I get home. Unless it’s someone that is selling something I really need–right NOW, or someone I really want as a contact in my field, I don’t often track people down. A newsletter lets me connect, seasonally, with people who would otherwise, probably forget about me. Plus, I get to feature some of my favorite photos and put something pretty together 🙂 Obviously, here and Facebook are the best ways to stay current with me though.
Here is the fall edition. Click on the photo to go read the newsletter without having to severely squint. If you’d like to be on the mailing list, please go here and sign up. All I need is your name, email and the then click the box that says you’d like to receive my newsletter. It’s super easy.
Next on my list of random is a quick update from Ladies Night Out, over in Saint Anthony. It was so much fun for me. It turned into much more of a networking night for me than anything. I met, and had such great conversation with so many incredible women. I left feeling energized and really excited about some new connections. Plus, it’s just so nice to chat, hear stories, discuss work, cute boots and new opportunities. Here’s a photo of me at my table.
And, lastly…my latest Halloween self-portrait. I never used to do any ‘selfies’. (Those were my exact, deep, thoughts on the subject.) Then, a few years ago…when looking through photos, I realized that maybe one, out of every 20 had me in them. Most of them had me chewing, or were just of my butt while my five year old was running around with my camera. ( sigh ) I started to think that maybe I should take matters into my own hands…someday, my kids might like them. However, unexpectedly, through self-portraiture–my confidence with my own clients and models has exploded. I started playing with light, posing, make-up, props and emotion. And, I don’t feel awkward doing it–because, well, it’s just me I’m working with. I bring what I’ve taught myself to all of my sessions now. I post almost all of them on Google+ and have been doing so for years. I’ve become quite active in the self-portraiture communities over there and have helped moderate groups, as well.
Anyway…here is my Halloween-themed photo. I’ve had that little guy for 16 years now…she’s been through a lot with me. If you’re interested in checking out some older photos, click here. Looking through my G+ albums will pull many more current ones, as well.
| https://melissapeifer.com/2014/10/26/newsletter-ladies-night-and-even-a-selfie-champlin-photographer-updates/?shared=email&msg=fail | 727 |
Hammersmith and Fulham, formerly Hammersmith, inner borough of London, England, part of the historic county of Middlesex. It lies north of the River Thames and west of Kensington and Chelsea. It was created a borough in 1965 by the amalgamation of the former metropolitan boroughs of Fulham and Hammersmith. The present borough comprises such areas and neighbourhoods as (from north to south) Wormwood Scrubs, White City, Shepherd’s Bush, Hammersmith, and Fulham.
The borough is predominantly residential, and 19th-century houses are common. Its southern part contains Fulham Palace (early 16th century), the residence of the bishops of London until 1973; the palace is now a museum. The northern sector extends through densely developed areas of terraced houses and flats up to the bleak space known as Wormwood Scrubs, with its prison built by convicts in 1874–90 and still in use today.
The borough also includes the Olympia exhibition centre; Hurlingham Park; the grounds of Chelsea, Fulham, and Queen’s Park Rangers football (soccer) clubs; and the British Broadcasting Corporation’s television headquarters and main studios. Kelmscott House, for 18 years the home of William Morris (now home to the William Morris Society), is situated in Hammersmith. Also notable are the Palais de Danse (Hammersmith Palais) dance hall, which opened in 1919, and the 17th-century Dove, which has been a coffeehouse and inn since 1796. The annual University Boat Race of Oxford and Cambridge eight-man rowing teams starts from near Putney Bridge. Queen’s Club at Barons Court is well known for tennis competition. Fulham, Shepherd’s Bush, and Hammersmith have large shopping centres. Area 6 square miles (16 square km). Pop. (2001) 165,242; (2011) 182,493. | 217cfbfca6d28a6524260c578962b408 | 402 |
During a school wide Secret Santa designed to inpsire inter-house unity, Hermione has the bad luck of acidentally picking Draco Malfoy. When she tries to sneakily learn his secrets in order to get his gift and Malfoy winds trapped under some mistletoe, things get quickly out of hand. Hermione's life will never be the same.
A Christmas inspired Dramione tale. EWE. Banner by Wolfgirl@TDA.
Hermione Granger adored the holiday season. She loved the snow that fell softly over the castle. She loved the twelve Christmas trees that Hagrid dragged into the Great Hall every year, all decked with sparkling baubles and tinsel. She adored the way mistletoe so often sprouted above unsuspecting victims.
There was just something about the time of year that made her heart light. There was nothing nicer, at least in Hermione’s opinion, than to be able to snuggle into a nice hat with a matching scarf and gloves. Nothing toastier than wrapping her hands around a lovely cup of hot chocolate to the sound of softly sung Christmas carols. Even the music made her happy. She adored the many different renditions of timeless carols begin sung throughout the castle.
“I want to do something really special this year,” Ginny announced, flouncing over to where Hermione was sitting at the Gryffindor table in the Great Hall. She’d been sipping her hot chocolate and looking on fondly as Professor Flitwick levitated boughs of holly and more tinsel than she’d ever seen in her life about the hall, decorating every spare surface for the occasion. Hermione adored the way the Professor got so into it, humming jaunty carols to himself as though he hadn’t a care in the world.
“For Christmas?” Hermione asked, smiling at the younger girl in greeting.
“What did you have in mind?” Hermione asked, smiling at the very idea.
“Ginny that’s a lovely idea,” Hermione said, perking up even more at the very idea. Her mind had begun to race with the thought.
“Let’s,” Hermione nodded, getting to her feet and walking with Ginny towards where Professor Dumbledore was sitting at the teacher’s table, overlooking the Great Hall with merriment in his blue eyes.
“Good Afternoon Miss Granger; Miss Weasley,” he greeted them when they reached him.
“Indeed?” he asked, smiling at them curiously over his half-moon spectacles.
Professor Dumbledore looked intrigued.
“What of those who don’t celebrate Christmas or who can’t afford to participate?” Professor Dumbledore asked seriously.
Professor Dumbledore looked thoughtful.
“We could note that if people really can’t afford to buy a gift, they are encouraged to create one. It would be good to help people think outside the box to turn something ordinary into a gift for someone else,” Hermione suggested.
“How do you propose to have everyone choose a gift recipient?” Dumbledore asked.
Hermione smiled widely.
The banner went up in the house common rooms overnight. Hermione smiled when she saw that the Secret Santa idea had been initiated. Students who wished to participate were to submit their names to their head of house by the end of the week. Anyone wishing to participate could spend between five and twenty sickles on their gift, or could make one from scratch if they chose. Anyone who didn’t ordinarily celebrate Christmas was also welcome to join in the fun simply for the joy of exchanging a gift with someone.
Students were also reminded that if they wished to, they were more than welcome to stay at Hogwarts over the Christmas holidays. The poster warned that signing up to participate in the Secret Santa would bind students to keeping their assigned gift recipient a secret until after the gifts had been exchanged, which would be on Christmas day, in the proper spirit. Each participant would only be able to discuss the name of the person they’d been given with their head of house.
“You won’t even mind if you get someone you don’t like and would never ordinarily buy a gift for? Imagine if you picked Parkinson or someone,” Ginny said, wrinkling her nose distastefully.
“I suppose that who we’re given will dictate what we buy and how much we spend. I know if I got Parkinson I’d be more likely to buy her something of less value than I would if I got someone I like, like Luna,” Hermione admitted, though she felt bad for thinking it.
A/N: Hello! A new Christmassy Damione for all of you to enjoy. More chapters soon, I promise. Don't forget to review with your thoughts and ideas!
Hermione held her breath as she reached inside the Christmas stocking Professor McGonagall was holding out to her and withdrew a slip of parchment with a single name on it. The week had passed torturously slow until this moment and Hermione had been on tenterhooks. She’d been going out of her way to eavesdrop on others she didn’t know in an effort to glean information about them just in case she chose them.
The suspense of the moment as she stepped back with the parchment clutched in her hand made her heart race and Professor McGonagall smiled at Hermione’s nervous expression.
Once she was far enough away that no one else would be able to read the name over her shoulder, Hermione opened her hand. Unfurling the crumpled parchment slowly, Hermione blinked in surprise and then mild annoyance when she saw the name of the person she’d chosen.
The name was scrawled in loopy handwriting across the parchment and Hermione frowned at the sight of his name. Of all the people in the entire castle, how had she gotten stuck with him?
Hermione couldn’t think of a singular person in all of Hogwarts that she’d like to buy a gift for less. Even Pansy Parkinson would be preferable to Malfoy. The boy was a complete git. He was always insulting her. How was she supposed to find out what he liked, enough to buy him a gift, when she disliked him and didn’t at all want to spend any time in the same vicinity as him?
She was regretting the idea of this inter-house unity nonsense as she glared at the parchment.
“Not someone you were hoping for, I take it?” Ginny asked, a strip of parchment clutched in her own hand.
She found it difficult to be unable to outright ask who Ginny had got.
“At least there’s that,” Hermione sighed, feeling mildly forlorn over her own choice.
What, if anything, did one give the boy who had everything and had the money to buy whatever he wanted?
“Are we allowed to swap?” Harry asked when he’d chosen a name from the stocking, looking frustrated with his own choice.
“No, Mr Potter. You may not. If you have chosen someone you dislike or do not know, you will simply have to look past those obstacles to choose them a gift. All students should keep in mind that the purpose of this gift exchange is to build inter-house unity and friendships. Having to buy a gift for someone you don’t like means you must look past that dislike to choose something for them. There will be no buying what you yourself would like, and generic gifts will be frowned upon, is that clear. I have charmed the stocking to take note of the name you have all chosen, so don’t think you can weasel your way out of getting that students something they might actually like,” Professor McGonagall told them, scolding Harry for his question.
“But I got…” Harry’s voice stopped suddenly and he made a gagging sound, clearly suffering the effects of the magic that bound him to keep his recipient a secret.
“Don’t try to tell anyone, Mr Potter. You may only discuss your choice with me. If you keep trying, you will suffer that experience again,” Professor McGonagall chided, looking mildly amused with her own spell-work when Harry made another strangled kind of choking sound.
Hermione sighed heavily, wracking her brain for any information she had stored away on Draco Malfoy other than that he was an obnoxious, bigoted, pompous git.
She’d taken to stalking him. That’s how bad things had become. Hermione was stalking Draco Malfoy. It was made all the harder to achieve, since she would never usually pay him any attention. She’d actually managed during the past six years to learn to block him out whenever he spoke and whenever she caught sight of his white-blonde hair.
It was terribly difficult to break the habit of turning the other way when she saw him and of tuning out his voice whenever he spoke. It was also practically impossible to follow him around without drawing attention to her actions.
Everyone in the castle had been on edge for days as they grew paranoid of having others following them. Just yesterday Susan Bones had broken into a fit of hysterical tears during Charms when she’d become convinced that Pansy Parkinson was stalking her, accusing the pug-nosed witch of following her and purposely getting herself assigned to sit with Susan for the class. The stress was getting to people and Hermione herself had noticed that it was hard not to be suspicious.
To throw suspicion off herself she’d been making use of everyone’s paranoia to more effectively conceal who she was stalking. She’d spoken to so many students she’d never really encountered before that she couldn’t help but reel from the information overload. Luna had accused Hermione of being a flip-flopper earlier that morning when Hermione had gone out of her way to make a conversation with the boy of Entwhistle in her year. The usually prejudice Ravenclaw boy had glared at her suspiciously when she’d asked him if he’d been enjoying his classes this year and what his plans were when he graduated.
One interesting result of the Secret Santa was that students were being more open. Where in the past the boy of Entwhistle might’ve told Hermione to mind her own business or even sneered at her for her blood, he’d reluctantly told her. Everywhere she went Hermione heard students giving away information about themselves to others in the hopes of receiving a better gift. She’d taken to passing on to others all she learned of everyone she spoke to as well, all in the hopes that the Secret Santa of the new acquaintances and friends she’d made would overhear what she’d learned.
Ron was taking terrible advantage of the situation. He clearly hoped to be given something he would like, so he’d taken to carrying on loud conversations with Harry about his favourite Quidditch team – the Chudley Cannons – and to complaining loudly about supposedly having run out of sugar mice – his favourite Honeydukes sweet. Hermione would admit it was rather funny to watch him do so. Others had begun adopting the same strategy.
It was even more fun to watch the lengths of subterfuge that some students would go to in order to learn things about their victim. Hermione had begun thinking of Malfoy as her victim. She never spoke to him, in fact she rarely even looked at him whenever anyone might catch her at it. But she paid attention nonetheless.
Yesterday’s Charms lesson – when Susan had grown hysterical with paranoia – Hermione had somehow managed to get herself partnered with Malfoy. She hadn’t even really begun to think about what she could do to glean information from him in that particular class and yet she’d suddenly found herself sitting next to him. Or rather, he’d sat next to her.
Stalking him was not at all an easy feat. In the spirit of the event Dumbledore had granted students permission to attend Hogsmeade on the weekends leading up to Christmas and that was where Hermione found herself. She’d left the boys behind at the Three Broomsticks when they’d all agreed to do some spy-work on their intended victims and she’d wandered out in the streets in hope of finding Malfoy.
The entire idea unsettled her. Ordinarily finding Draco Malfoy was not a good thing and never a task she undertook. Trying to locate him amid the rabble of students wasn’t easy either. At least, it wasn’t until she’d walked into Honeydukes and spotted him. At least his platinum blonde hair was a notable feature. She’d been only vaguely hoping he might be inside the shop when she’d gone in, and in fact she’d come in more intent on buying herself a packet of sugar quills than on finding Malfoy.
Hermione had a nasty habit of chewing her quill when she was nervous or stressed and she desperately needed to buy the sweets to replace her own tattered quill. That way she could chew the lolly version whilst properly using the writing version. She also needed to replace her quill. She was very annoyed with herself in fact. She’d chewed the feathery instrument clean through and now ink often leaked out the top.
It made a terrible mess in her bag and was quite annoying to clean up after. Not to mention it made writing practically impossible. Jostling her way through the many students inside the shop, Hermine watched Malfoy out the corner of her eye. He was loitering in front of the Dolly Mixture jars, seeming to consider the idea of buying some Sour Apple Bites and some Pepper Imps.
Having gleaned that little bit of information, Hermione turned her attention to the packet of sugar quills she was buying, making sure to grab two packets. She knew she’d need them. When she’d paid for them Hermione left Honeydukes.
She sang softly to herself, crooning the lyrics of “Santa Claus is Coming to Town.” She’d always loved the holidays and the sight of Hogsmeade decked to the halls was one that made her smile so wide her cheeks ached. Everywhere she looked Christmas trees glittered in windows and store-fronts. Strands of festive lights had been wrapped around every lamp post and strung between every building.
When she went into Scrivenshaft’s Quill Shop, Christmas carols were playing loudly. She browsed the shelves cheerfully, stopping to pick up and admire some of the many fancy quills for purchase. She stopped when she came across a simple owl-feather quill. It had been dyed a soft shade of pinky-purple, the shaft decorated with several small snowflake jewels. It was simply lovely and despite the price, Hermione decided to treat herself. She couldn’t resist picking up a Christmas themed quill that was on special when she went up to pay.
She was preoccupied with placing the pair of new quills inside her bag alongside her packets of sugar quills and Hermione didn’t realise she was about to walk right into someone until it was too late.
“Oi! Watch where you’re going!” an all too familiar voice drawled, strong hands coming up to grip her shoulders and push her back to arm’s length.
“Malfoy?” Hermione asked, blinking in shock at literally running into the boy.
“Watch it, Granger,” he warned her, levelling one of his smirks her way.
Movement in the corner of her eye sent Hermione skittering backwards in horror, a gasp leaving her lips. Her eyes went wide at the sight he made in the doorway and Hermione could only feel thankful she’d reacted quickly enough to keep from being ensnared.
“Scared of me Granger?” he asked smugly at her reaction.
“Amused?” he asked, narrowing his eyes a little bit.
Hermione pointed in silence, watching with a sense of glee when he tipped his head back to stare in horror at the sight of a large frond of mistletoe growing above his head. Hermione had skittered away fast enough that she hadn’t become trapped along with him, but Draco Malfoy was entirely stuck. And would remain that way until someone took pity on him and kissed him to set him free.
Hermione began to giggle when he pulled out his wand and shot a burning hex at the mistletoe. All he succeeded in doing was making the plant scatter the snow-white berries all over his head. Hermione laughed harder when one hit him in the eye.
“Knock it off, Granger,” he warned her furiously when Hermione doubled over with laughter.
“Why don’t you try vanishing it next?” she choked out, knowing that Vanishing it would make it start to sing.
When Malfoy took her word for it, clearly not knowing much about magical mistletoe, Hermione cried with glee, tears of mirth trickling down her face. She had to grip the nearest display shelf just to keep her balance she was laughing so hard while the obnoxious little plant began shrilly singing Frosty the Snowman.
“Oh for Merlin’s sake!” Malfoy snarled, looking horrified and utterly wrathful.
Hermione could barely see for laughing.
“And guess what Granger?” he said and Hermione glanced at him, noticing that though he looked annoyed about being laughed at he also looked mildly amused by the fact that she was literally hooting with laughter.
“What?” she managed eventually.
“Maybe I could go out the window?” Hermione asked, gesturing to the front display window.
“Oh no,” Hermione said, covering her face with her hands in horror.
“Serves you right for laughing at me, and telling me to Vanish it so it would make this bloody racket!” Malfoy sneered at her, leaning in the doorway and looking entirely too smug for his own good.
She clicked her tongue disapprovingly and Malfoy lost his smirk.
“As if you’re not able to pay attention to your surroundings to avoid walking into a distracted person on the way into a store?” Hermione retorted, rolling her eyes at his rudeness.
“Leave off, Granger,” he told her, turning around in the hopes of spotting someone he could flag down to get them both out of this. Hermione suspected he was wasting his time. No one ever came to Scrivenshaft’s unless they needed a new quill and the shop was on one of the streets off High Street. Given how much freedom they’d all been given to come to Hogsmeade this year, Hermione doubted very strongly that anyone else would be in need of new quills this close to Christmas.
“I need a new quill, what do you think?” Malfoy retorted aggressively, spinning back to her face her and looking annoyed with her for asking.
“Well obviously. What happened to yours?” Hermione asked him curiously, wondering what he’d done to his.
“Goyle sat on mine,” Malfoy told her, looking kind of grossed out by the notion of quill-chewing.
“That poor quill,” Hermione sighed before she could think of it, the horror of imagining anything being sat on by Goyle making her blurt it out before she could consider that she was being rude. Malfoy snorted at her comment when her cheeks turned pink.
They eyed each other in silence for a few minutes after that.
“You know I can’t tell you,” Malfoy replied, looking amused and quizzical simultaneously. He was eyeing her as though he was simply waiting for her to crack and take pity on them both enough to snog him so they could get out of this mess.
“You have no idea,” he answered darkly, looking away again to see if there was anyone on the street he could lure into setting him free.
“Are you going home for Christmas?” Hermione asked nonchalantly, returning to browsing the shelves. The mistletoe was growing even shriller, now singing Jingle Bell Rock in a terrible high-pitched squeak. It was setting her teeth on edge and she could feel the tension in the room spike the longer she refused to let Malfoy loose.
“Not really,” Hermione admitted, unsure why she was sharing anything with him other than that she was already getting bored standing around in the store and in a rare fit of enthusiasm for the trip, had neglected to pack a book.
“You fight with them,” he pointed out.
“Are you going to hold out long?” he asked as the mistletoe above his head switched to singing Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer at such a pitch that it made a headache prickle behind Hermione’s eyes.
“Is that you’re way of asking me to snog you, Malfoy?” Hermione asked him, shooting him a sly glance.
We’re never going to get out of here if you don’t,” he complained, before making the mistake of trying to silence the singing plant.
“No, don’t!” Hermione said, taking a step towards him but it was too late. The mistletoe hurled more snowy berries down on Malfoy’s head before it sang even louder, switching to a deep baritone that resonated so loud the windows rattled.
Malfoy groaned, putting his hands over his ears and staring at Hermione in horror. Hermione aimed her wand at the sprig and tried Vanishing it again, causing it to switch back to the high pitch singing.
“Don’t do that again,” Hermione scolded the boy under the mistletoe.
“Don’t you know anything about mistletoe in the magical world?” Hermione asked him.
Hermione rolled her eyes and went back to browsing the quills.
“If you’re going to be difficult about this, could you at least get my quills for me?” he asked a little while and a lot of unkind muttering later. Hermione glanced over at him to see he was holding a small bag of coins out towards her hopefully.
“Do you know which quill you want?” Hermione asked him curiously.
Hermione walked over and picked them up.
“I take it you like blue then?” she asked curiously.
“What’s it to you?” he asked suspiciously.
“I thought I caught you distributing personal information about everyone the other day,” he nodded, narrowing his gaze a little.
“How do I know you’re not just asking because you’re my Secret Santa?” Malfoy asked.
“But if I do that I’ll just be given something random that I’ve most likely already been given in the past or bought for myself,” Malfoy pointed out sounding entirely too pompous for his own good.
“You’re too smart for your own good, Witch,” he accused her and Hermione realised he’d asked her to pick the quills he wanted to try and trap her under the mistletoe right along with him.
“Did you doubt that prior to now?” Hermione rolled her eyes again, catching the coin-purse when he tossed it to her.
“Smugness doesn’t suit you Granger,” Malfoy informed her, leaning in the doorway while Hermione moved over to pay for the quills he wanted with his money. The old man running the store looked entirely amused by the proceedings and Hermione was practically choking on the tension in the room. It was thick and stifling, pressing in on her as she came to the realisation that she really wasn’t going to be able to avoid kissing him unless she stayed in the shop for hours on end. Already an hour had passed. Her friends would be looking for her soon.
“I’ll leave it to you then,” Hermione told him without looking at him.
“That doesn’t narrow it down,” he answered.
“Well what do you like? I mean, you don’t wear jewellery as far as I can see, and you aren’t interested in Quidditch or other wizarding games like chess. So beyond books, what makes Hermione Granger tick?” he asked nosily and Hermione smiled. Thus far no one had asked her what she wanted. At least, no one other than her friends who would be buying for her anyway.
“Just because I don’t often wear jewellery doesn’t mean I don’t like it. But other than books I like what you would probably call old crone interests. I like to knit things. And I like trying exotic flavours of tea. When I’m at home, I bake…. But beyond that I just really do love books,” Hermione told him, not caring that he would most likely laugh at her.
“You’re boring, in other words,” he needled though he grinned a little and Hermione suspected he was trying to soften the blow rather than simply trying to hurt her.
“How fascinating,” Hermione murmured and she felt a prickle of unease to know that despite her utter distaste for him and all he represented within the wizarding world, some of her dislike faded to learn that about him.
“Isn’t it?” he asked dryly and Hermione could tell from the evil glare he shot the mistletoe above his head that he was getting a headache. Hermione knew she was, anyway.
She was going to have to bite the bullet and get this over with, Hermione realised. She had things she needed to do, confound it all and that infernal singing coming from the wretched plant was not at all making it any easier to just wait around for someone else who’d be willing to kiss Malfoy.
Before she could think better of it or give him any warning, Hermione squared her shoulders and marched forwards until she was well inside Draco Malfoy’s personal space. She went up on her toes, the hand holding his coin-purse and items pressing them into his hold even as she brushed her lips against his surprised pair. It was brief, barely a touch of flesh upon flesh, and yet Hermione felt a strange tingle run all the way through her down to her toes and back up again.
She meant to pull away after that. To brush his lips with hers, pull away and be off about the rest of her day as though none of this had happened, but it seemed both the mistletoe and Malfoy weren’t having any of that. Before she could take a step back, she felt his free hand curl up to cup her cheek and Malfoy pushed away from the wall where he’d been leaning. Hermione made a surprised squeak of protest when he nipped her lower lip gently before taking advantage of her shock to sweep his tongue into her mouth. He tangled it with her own tongue skilfully, the hand clutching his belongings curling around her waist and pulling her closer.
Standing there with her eyes closed and his lips pressed so intimately to hers, Hermione forgot for just a moment that he was a pureblood and she a muggle-born. She forgot that he was probably a Death Eater and she an Order member. She forgot he was a Slytherin and she a Gryffindor. He snogged her soundly, well exceeding the requirement for the mistletoe overhead to desist its Merlin-cursed singing.
Vaguely she was aware of the wretched plant spitting more berries, flowers and leaves all over the pair of them as it fell apart now that its magic had been spent. Dimly she was aware of the way Malfoy’s arm on her waist tightened until she was pressed intimately against the full length of his body. On a subconscious level she was aware they were in the doorway to a Hogsmeade store where anyone might happen across them.
But with his tongue tangled around hers so sinfully, Hermione forgot that those things mattered.
When they finally broke apart Hermione wasn’t the only one breathless and wide-eyed. She blinked at Malfoy in bewilderment, trying to regain her wits. As she stumbled backwards he released his hold on her and Hermione almost fell on the stairs of the shop before catching herself.
“Thanks,” Malfoy said in a husky voice, looking as dazed as Hermione felt.
“Yeah,” Hermione uttered before her cheeks darkened as she realised she’d just thanked Draco Malfoy for snogging her. Before he could recover enough to tease her for it, Hermione hurried down the steps and away down the street.
Christmas was upon them before Hermione realised it. She was loathe to admit to it, but she’d been in something of a daze since snogging Malfoy under that awful mistletoe. Ginny had teased her about her having snogged someone when Hermione had stumbled up to the girl in Hogsmeade afterwards, her hair all in a mess with sprigs, leaves and berries tangled in it. Hermione hadn’t been able to admit to anyone what she’d done and as far as she knew Malfoy had been just as Mum on the subject.
She was sitting on her bed in the process of trying to put together the gift she’d made him. It felt entirely too odd to be giving him a gift after the snog they’d shared. However, despite the way it made her feel squirrelly, Hermione had gotten together something to give him. She was embarrassed to say she’d exceeded the cap that had been put on the purchases, but there was little to be done about it.
Waving her wand to enlarge the gift box she’d purchased, Hermione compiled the gift she’d assembled for him. She’d been unable to forget the words he’d said about wanting clues to who his Secret Santa could be. Hermione didn’t know why she was bothering but she’d decided she might as well make the most of the game, even if it was Malfoy. And so in the spirit of giving him a clue, Hermione placed the first part of his present in the box.
She’d designed and knitted him a scarf with his family crest on it, using bottle green and black wool of the softest ply she’d been able to find. In one corner, right at the end in tiny letters she’d stitched the words “Secret Santa” followed by the year.
To be on the safe side she’d also bought him a packet of each type of sweet she’d seen him eyeing in Hogsmeade – Pepper Imps and Sour Apple Bites. Hermione would admit she’d also gone a little silly and had tracked down a textbook on the complex lore of Wandmaking in addition to finding the most complicated set of metal puzzles she could find and had added those to the box as well.
When she’d finished placing all four items inside, Hermione penned a simple note.
Happy Christmas. You’ll never guess who I am.
Your Secret Santa.
Dropping the note in on top of everything else Hermione used magic to wrap it in plain gold wrapping paper, tying it off with a silver bow on the top. Then, using the scrap of parchment with his name scrawled on it that she’d pulled out of the stocking to pick her recipient, Hermione marked who it was for.
The rest of the gifts she was giving this year – for her friends and family – had already been packaged and wrapped, ready to be taken by an elf to their recipients.
“Dobby?” she asked quietly, smiling when the elf popped into the room next to her.
“Miss Hermione?” Dobby asked, bowing to her despite how often Hermione had asked him not to.
“Hello Dobby, how are you?” Hermione asked him politely.
“Oh… well I don’t want to trouble you if your busy with other things Dobby,” Hermione began, feeling bad for even thinking to ask him for assistance.
“I was hoping you could deliver these presents for me Dobby,” Hermione admitted, waving her hand to the large stack of presents she’d purchased. Having gone overboard for Malfoy’s gift Hermione had felt guilty and bought several things for her friends.
Dobby burst into tears to hear that. Hugging her leg, he promised he would return before he disappeared again.
When Hermione woke on Christmas morning there was a heavy weight pressing down on her feet and she blinked blearily at the sight of so many presents piled on the end of her bed. Her eyes bugged out at the sight of so many of them, the most notable of which was a large rectangular box wrapped in red wrapping paper.
It was tied with a pair of green and white bows and Hermione knew none of her friends would ever have gone to that much trouble with a box. Harry and Ron were usually hard pressed to even get the wrapping paper on properly, and she recognised the wrapping styles of her other friends too. Luna’s gift for her was typically whimsical – the paper appearing to have been painted by the girl herself. Ginny’s rush-job wrapping was also a dead giveaway. Ginny always left her wrapping until the last minute.
Unable to resist the urge to know even a hint about who her Secret Santa was, Hermione reached for the large box eagerly. The rest of her presents she would hold off on opening – as was their tradition – until she could open them with Harry, Ron and Ginny. This however, was something she wanted to open in private. Carefully, Hermione searched the package for any tell-tale notes and was dismayed when she found only the strip of parchment in her own handwriting with her name on it.
She unwrapped the box carefully, untying the fancy bows and peeling back the bright red wrapping. Inside it was a simple white box, but it too bore no giveaway indicators of who her Secret Santa was. Hermione felt a smile pull at the corners of her mouth as she lifted the lid of the box. She had butterflies fluttering in her stomach, wondering who the gift might be from and just what it might be.
Her breath caught at the sight of the things inside the box.
A velvet box filled with sterling silver knitting needles drew her attention first. There were seven pairs of needles in different sizes and the silver gleamed brilliantly.
Hermione’s heart raced inside her chest. There was no way whoever had bought her this gift had stuck to the suggested monetary cap.
In addition to the needles, the eagle-feather quill she’d admired in Scrivenshaft’s store could be found among the collection of gifts. A packet of sugar quills could be found inside, along with twelve enormous balls of the softest and most wonderful wool she’d ever laid eyes upon. It was in an eye catching shade of pale purple and Hermione wondered how her secret Santa had learned that mauve was her favourite colour. She couldn’t remember ever telling anyone so.
Hermione was so overwhelmed with the gift that she almost missed the small velvet box of pristine black.
Tucked in beneath the sweets and the wool, it was easy to overlook. She brushed her fingers over it, her stomach swooping strangely at the sight. The feel of the velvet beneath her fingertips prickled goosepimples across her skin and she picked the small box up with trembling hands.
She was afraid to open it.
Swallowing harshly, Hermione bit her lip as she pried the lid up the reveal the treasure nestled within and she dropped the box in shock at what lay inside.
Glinting at her from within the ring-box was a large emerald ring. If she had to guess she’d say it was set in white gold. The emerald itself was rectangular, flanked either side by what appeared to be small diamonds. The green gemstone was the size of the nail on her pinky finger and Hermione couldn’t breathe.
Who could possibly have gone to such lengths to learn what she liked?
Who could have afforded to give her such a fantastically expensive gift?
Hermione could think of no one she knew who would ever go to such lengths to purchase her a gift. Her friends certainly wouldn’t, and there was no one else in the school she could think of that had the type of money to afford such expensive things for an anonymous stranger. At least, none who would willingly buy such expensive things for her. The only people with that kind of money that Hermione knew of were some of the old pureblood families and none of them would ever buy a lowly muggle-born like her such a gift.
Yet someone certainly had. She couldn’t deny that. Hermione bit her lip almost fearfully as she touched the cool metal of the ring, prying it loose of the box where it had been kept. She almost couldn’t bear the thought of trying it on. She would have to return it. It simply wouldn’t do to hang onto such an extravagant gift. Surely she’d been given such lovely things by accident?
Yet, the urge to try it on for size and admire the large rock glinting on her finger was undeniable.
Hermione squeaked with concern when she tried it against both her middle fingers unsuccessfully. She bit her lip, glancing about her bed with its drawn curtains carefully before indulging the hopelessly romantic side of herself and slipping the ring onto her wedding-ring finger. The cool metal heated quickly to match her skin temperature, and it slipped snugly over her flesh to rest snuggled against her knuckle like any proper ring would.
The sight of it on her finger made her insides flip-flop wildly and Hermione scolded herself for being so silly as to try it on for size. The fact that it was a perfect fit was surely coincidence alone. She admired the ring on her finger for merely a moment, before closing her hand around it and trying to remove the jewellery.
Hermione felt her heart leap into her throat in panic when the rock and metal wouldn’t budge a bit. Not even a little. She could turn it to some extent to view it at different angles, but the rock wouldn’t move away from her knuckle. It remained stubbornly snug against her skin, glittering in the early morning light.
Sweet Merlin what was she going to do?
Hermione cursed, tugging on the ring and trying to move it. It simply refused to slip back off her finger. She noted that it wasn’t due to poor sizing either. The ring didn’t slide up to her first knuckle before becoming stuck. It wouldn’t move at all from the ordinary place were any regular woman might wear her promise ring.
Giving up on tyring to remove it when she couldn’t budge it an inch, Hermione seized the box it had come in, tearing out the pillow where the ring rested in the hopes of locating some explanation. It had to be a charmed ring. That was the only explanation.
Her blood ran cold when she came across the package information.
By the donning of this ring on the ring finger, the witch in question becomes bound by the promise of the ring. The item cannot be ever removed, just as the promises made can never be broken. May you find your happiness.
There was nothing else, except the logo of the company that manufactured the rings.
Godric, she was doomed!
What kind of barmy git would have purchased her a promise ring?
Burrowing through the box once more, Hermione frantically searched for something that might indicate who had given her the gift, hoping they might know how in Merlins boots she was going to get the ring back off her finger. Right at the very bottom, buried under everything else, Hermione uncovered a strip of parchment that made up a hand written note.
I imagine by now you’re panicking. Good luck getting that ring off your finger, Hermione. You’ll be stuck with it forever unless you can work out who I am. Happy Christmas.
It hadn’t been signed.
There was nothing to indicate who had even written the note. The handwriting was loopy and elegant, but she didn’t recognize it. Who did she even know who would think something like this was funny?
Panicking, Hermione leapt out of bed, reaching for her clothes quickly. She made sure to pull on some gloves to conceal the ring on her finger, not at all fancying having to explain this mess to her friends should they spot it. As desperately as she wanted to, Hermione realised she was going to have to be careful with how she went about fixing this matter.
She didn’t want to go drawing any unnecessary attention to her predicament. She was embarrassed just thinking about having anyone find out. Surely the information would be easy enough to find. She just needed to use the clues she’d been given to work out who could possibly have bought her such a gift. She would start by working out who knew she like knitting; who knew her favourite colour; and who would have enough money to have pulled this gift off.
What she wouldn’t do was involve her friends in this mess. Which meant she was going to have to spend the day pretending she was just like everyone else. Gathering together the remainder of her presents from friends and family, Hermione marched out of her room, wishing everyone she saw a Happy Christmas and feigning indifference to the ring that somehow felt heavy on her finger.
“Are you alright Hermione?” Harry asked her a few hours later when they’d all finally gotten through the present opening part of the morning and were lounging around in Harry and Ron’s dormitory just waiting to head to the Great Hall for lunch.
“Huh?” Hermione asked, drawn from her thoughts of who could possibly be her Secret Santa.
Hermione bit her lip, glancing at Ginny and Ron, who’d fallen to eating Bertie Bott’s Every Flavour Beans and laughing over the effects. Neville was looking on as well, having looked up from the game of wizard’s chess he and Harry were having with the new chess set Harry had bought Neville for Christmas.
“I… erm… I got some sugar quills and an eagle-feather quill I was admiring the other day,” Hermione admitted, biting her lip and deciding against mentioning the wool, the knitting needles and the ring on her finger.
Harry held up a fancy looking cloak that would look undoubtedly fantastic on him.
“How do you know it was her?” Ginny asked and Hermione caught the mildly possessive gleam in Ginny’s eyes as she looked at Harry.
“She signed the note with her name on it, telling me that if the robes didn’t fit to see her and she’d have them altered appropriately. I was a little surprised, to be honest,” Harry answered, blushing a bit.
“Do they fit?” Ron wanted to know.
“Perfectly,” Harry admitted and Hermione wondered at the way Harry looked away as though embarrassed by that fact. She resolved to ask him about it later, sensing there was some story there.
“What’d you get Ron?” Ginny asked nosily.
“Any idea who they’re from?” Harry asked, clearly pleased that he was no longer the centre of attention.
“You don’t want to know who gave them to you?” Hermione asked, wondering how he could not care.
“If it’s important to whoever they are, they’ll let me know, I suppose. Otherwise it was just part of the fun and now it’s done,” Ron said, totally blasé about the whole ordeal.
Hermione wanted to throttle him, though mostly that was a misdirection of her fury with whoever her Secret Santa was.
Until that moment, Hermione had completely forgotten that she’d bought a gift for Draco Malfoy and sent it off to him. She wondered idly if he liked it and she found herself mortified when, unbidden, the memory of the snog they’d shared under the mistletoe surfaced within her mind. She’d been trying very hard since the incident not to think about what had happened and she’d gone out of her way to avoid him.
It hadn’t been easy either, considering she still had to think about him enough to gather together the present she’d given him. Funny how now it seemed almost inconsequential in the light of the Promise ring stuck on her finger that Hermione couldn’t remove.
“I’m still chilly,” Hermione lied, her cheeks turning pink.
“Whatever you say,” Ron shrugged. He seemed in an entirely cheerful mood and Hermione wished she could be as well. She just couldn’t. Not with the enormous rock weighing on her finger heavily and the problem it posed weighing on her mind. What was she going to do?
She’d been wracking her brain, trying to think of anyone who might’ve been able to pull off the gift she’d been given and she was drawing a blank. The only person who knew that she specifically liked mauve, rather than simply the colour purple was her mother and perhaps Ginny. However neither of them could be her secret Santa. Her mother was obviously not a student and Ginny was a Gryffindor. The only person who knew she’d like the eagle feather quill could be Malfoy, but he would never spend so much on the person he referred to as a Mudblood on a regular basis. Even if they had snogged that one time.
The other parts of the gift were also a mystery. It was clear that the buyer had a lot of money. The sterling silver knitting set couldn’t have been cheap and she supposed the wool was something fancy and expensive based on its softness. There were also limited people who knew about her knitting habit. Her friends knew, of course, and it was conceivable to her that they could’ve told others looking for information on her.
“Ginny, did you tell anyone my favourite colour?” Hermione asked the girl as they made their way into the Great Hall.
Brilliant. There went that lead.
“I need to know,” Hermione answered shortly, her fingers twisting the ring on her wedding finger nervously, turning the metal in circles around and around the digit.
“You worry too much,” Ginny rolled her eyes.
Hermione’s eyes scanned the hall nervously, wondering if her Secret Santa was even still at Hogwarts or if they had gone home to spend the holidays with their families. She couldn’t even begin to guess. As she gazed across the hall, her eyes noting the suspicious glances several other students were shooting their peers she realised she wasn’t alone in wondering who her gift this morning had been from and she hoped fervently that whoever her Secret Santa was, they would be foolish enough or smug enough to slip up.
Her gaze clashed with a pair of stormy grey eyes across the Great Hall. The house tables had today been replaced with one long table to accommodate the smaller number of students who had stayed for the holidays and Malfoy was seated across the table and down the row from where Hermione’s friends dropped into seats. He watched her nonchalantly, and Hermione wondered idly if he knew she’d been his Secret Santa. She supposed her gifts had been a little obvious and a bit of a giveaway, but she no longer cared if he knew it had been her.
She was more interested in finding out who been her Secret Santa. She had to find out how to get this infernal ring off her finger, curse it all. This was no longer a fun game to be indulged in. It was a serious mess that meant she was having to hide things from her friends, including her own hands. Hermione glared at Malfoy for a long moment, noticing idly that he was wearing the scarf she’d knitted for him. If she weren’t so stressed she’d feel smug over that fact.
His all too familiar smirk marred his facial features and Hermione narrowed her eyes on him when he lifted his hand to scratch his nose. Glinting on his middle finger of his left hand was a ring of some kind. She didn’t know why, but that, combined with the way he continued to smirk at her, made her suspicious that even if he wasn’t behind her Secret Santa’s prank, Malfoy was aware of it somehow.
All through her lunch, Hermione glanced at him, trying to work out if he’d picked up on the fact that she’d been his Secret Santa. He gave no indication that he thought she was, though he seemed to be sneaking smirks in her direction whenever she glanced at him inconspicuously.
As the crowd began to disperse towards the grounds after lunch, Hermione was grateful for an excuse to be wearing gloves.
“Snowball fight, anyone?” Harry offered as they strolled the grounds.
Hermione couldn’t help but laugh when Harry suddenly lobbed a snowball at Ginny, catching the girl across the chest and spraying her chin with snow. Running for cover behind a nearby tree, Hermione began rolling snowballs of her own before she peeked out from behind the tree. She ducked back in when Ron hurled a snowball at her. Lobbying the boy with snowballs, Hermione giggled when she heard a thwack followed by Ron cursing.
Gathering up her missiles and risking a break for it so as to not be pinned down, Hermione raced for a nearby rock. She lobbed a snowball at Harry, hissing when Ginny caught her hip with a snowball. Harry returned fire and managed to hit both Hermione and Ginny before pelting a snowball at Neville.
Neville seemed to have a knack for snowball making, but a lousy throwing arm and Ginny was taking advantage. The pair had scraped together a snow fort and Ginny was showering everyone with snowballs. From behind her rock, Hermione was making a collection of her own, routinely poking her head out to hurl the missiles at her friends. She laughed when she caught Luna with one and was lining up to pelt Harry again when something drew her eyes.
A ways beyond their battlefield, Hermione spotted Draco Malfoy and a couple of his cronies also out enjoying the snow and the opportunity was too good to pass up. Gathering up some of her snowballs, Hermione ducked out from behind her rock long enough to pelt the Slytherins with snowballs.
“Ha! Take that you slick gits!” Hermione heard Ron shout and she watched on gleefully when one of her snowballs whacked into Malfoy’s cheek with a wet smack while another hit Goyle square in the nose.
Ron and Harry, and indeed all those in the snowball fight seemed to take their cue from her, all of them turning on the Slytherins, who looked furious at first before falling to making their own snowballs and snow forts. Hermione hurled her missiles indiscriminately, not caring if she hit friend or foe.
When she ran out of snow behind her rock she made a break for a nearby embankment where some drifts had gathered. Her lack of discrimination was making comrades out of enemies and Hermione shrieked when she spotted Harry in a snow fort alongside Theodore Nott, pelting Ron and Pansy Parkinson with snowballs.
Someone – Goyle from the weight of the throw – lobbed a snowball at her hard, and Hermione giggled gleefully when she dove behind the embankment.
She was gathering snowballs and lobbing them blindly until she heard the slushy sound of footsteps coming her way. Malfoy came racing over the edge of the embankment in time for Hermione to pelt him with snowballs, and Hermione took great delight in doing so.
Until he tackled her into the snow to cease her fire.
“Quit it, Granger!” he growled when they rolled down the embankment. He’d collided with her hard enough to topple her to the ground and Hermione was winded when she found herself lying in the snow beneath the blonde haired Slytherin.
“Get off me,” she protested immediately, gathering up and handful of snow and smushing it into his face when he didn’t move fast enough.
“I was here first,” Hermione protested, not about to let him have her fort. She’d been digging into the thick snow on the embankment steadily, using the excess snow to build a shield and more missiles.
Before Malfoy could reply a lobby of snowballs came their way and Hermione cursed when she and Malfoy knocked heads diving behind the shield she’d built.
Hermione didn’t even think before handing it over, realising suddenly that he could use her own missiles against her. He didn’t. Hermione giggled when she heard Goyle swear.
Another volley fell upon them, this time from where she’d last seen Ron and Pansy paired together behind their own fort, followed by Ginny and Neville.
“You expect me to pair up with you?” Hermione demanded, ready to argue.
She got caught across the face with a snowball for her trouble too and heard Harry’s triumphant laugh at her resulting shriek.
“Build you own snowballs,” Hermione commanded of Malfoy, making several more before poking her head out to volley her friends with missiles. He followed suit, lobbing them from right next to her.
She squeaked when he grabbed hold of her jumper, pulling her down as the others returned fire.
“Help me build this up,” he said letting her go and shoving at the snow to fortify their quickly developing bunker of snow.
Hermione did as she was told.
“You’re bringing magic to a snowball fight,” he looked impressed when Hermione waved her wand, conjuring the snow into the shape of a large snow man before duplicating it and sending the snowy soldiers off to be pelted by their friend’s snowballs.
While he did that, Hermione set about using magic to better reinforce their fort. She transfigured it from a simple snow pile into an igloo with several closable manholes they could pop out of and lobby people from.
“You’re competitive,” he observed her, watching her when Hermione fell to siphoning snow inside the igloo-fort to make more missiles.
“As if you’re not?” Hermione scoffed, glancing sideways at him.
He didn’t answer. He was too busy sticking his head out one of the holes and pelting their neighbours with snowballs. Hermione joined him a moment later. Malfoy was primarily targeting Harry and Theodore’s fort, which looked rather impressive since she doubted they’d used magic to build it. While he focused on them, Hermione turned her attention to Ginny and Neville. She caught sight of Ginny’s shocked expression when the red-head saw Hermione and Malfoy working together and she paid for the distraction when Crabbe and Goyle pelted her with snowballs.
Hermione lobbed her own snowballs at the pair of oafs, chortling with glee when they looked enraged and mistakenly pelted Pansy and Ron’s fort in retaliation. Harry and Theo were firing back at Malfoy with a vengeance and Ginny joined in, Neville poking his head out. Hermione was almost blindsided when Luna appeared suddenly, accompanied by Terry Boot and Anthony Goldstein, the three of the having abandoned cover.
Hermione grabbed Malfoy’s robes at the back, hauling him back inside the fort and closing the hatch just before their lobby could hit the pair of them. Malfoy laughed when the sound of many missiles raining down on their fort could be heard followed by cursing when nothing happened.
“It creeps me out to think about Crabbe or Goyle having flanks,” Malfoy informed her, smirking.
“Like Clydesdales,” Hermione giggled.
“We need more snow,” Hermione commented, crawling towards the little door she’d made at the back of their fort to siphon in more snow. More volleys could be heard raining down on their fort.
In any other circumstance Hermione might’ve hexed him for his behaviour, but all was fair in a snowball fight. They’d made that rule years ago and Harry knew it.
She warned him too late and Hermione laughed when Malfoy dropped back down inside their fort with a nasty red mark marring his now-wet cheek.
“So?” Hermione asked, surprised by the sudden change in his demeanour and his tone.
“You were my Secret Santa after all?” he accused, sitting on the floor and leaning against the wall of their fort nonchalantly, his stormy-grey eyes watching her.
“What?” Hermione asked, hoping the blush on her cheeks would be mistaken for exertion from the snowball fight.
“Do you deny it?” Malfoy asked her, eyeing her strangely.
“What makes you think I’m you’re secret Santa?” Hermione wanted to know.
He eyed her drolly for a moment.
“What makes you ask?” Malfoy replied, his face transforming to a smooth mask of indifference.
“Just tell me if you were Malfoy,” Hermione said, eyeing him.
Before he could answer Hermione heard the sound of running footsteps and she scooted back from the top manhole of their igloo in time to see Theodore Nott’s smug face. He aimed his wand inside the fort for a moment, muttering an incantation, before he shoved a snow drift in on top of Malfoy, who shouted in protest.
Hermione wasn’t listening.
“What did I do?” he protested, looking wary suddenly of her flat tone.
Hermione simply pointed, realising with horror that the snow was just a distraction. Theodore Nott was an insidious git. That much was clear.
“Oh for Merlin’s sake! Not again!” Malfoy cursed, following her finger with his eyes to see that Nott had used a charm to cause mistletoe to grow inside their fort directly above their heads.
“Harry must have shared the golden rule of our snowball fights,” Hermione sighed, flopping defeatedly against the wall of the fort.
“What golden rule?” Malfoy asked.
“It’s not like you haven’t snogged me before,” he pointed out, looking miffed with her disgusted tone.
“But they don’t know that,” Hermione pointed out.
She eyed Malfoy, noticing that he was eyeing her back.
“Don’t look at me like that,” Hermione told him when he got the same look on his face he’d worn in the quill shop when he’d begun trying to talk her into kissing him.
“Would your father buy that reasoning when he heard you’d snogged a muggle-born?” Hermione challenged.
“It’s just mistletoe,” he repeated, glancing at her again.
Hermione bit her lip, holding his gaze for a moment. On the one hand, having snogged him once before made her less concerned over doing so again. On the other, her friends would be ridiculous about the matter.
Before she could make up her mind about what she meant to do, Malfoy’s hands curled around her jaw, tilted her face to his and he planted his lips on her. Hermione squeaked in surprise, regretting the sound when his tongue dove into her mouth. His hands pulled at her, dragging her closer, pressing her to him and Hermione gasped when he toppled her right into his lap.
The feel of his lips on hers was electrifying and the same tingles she’d felt the last time she’d kissed him swept through her, engulfing her senses. That could be the only explanation for her not pulling away from him. Hermione closed her eyes at the feel of him nibbling her bottom lip before tangling his tongue with hers once more. She had no explanation for the fact that instead of pushing him away, she found herself threading her fingers into his soft blonde hair.
Hermione didn’t know when it was that she straddled his hips. Or when he’d tangled one hand into her hair. She also didn’t know what he thought he was doing pulling the wet gloves from her hands before removing his own. In all honesty, Hermione could only say he’d bamboozled her with his intensity as he snogged her senseless.
She forgot in that moment that they were in a snow fort surround by their combined group of friends. She forgot those friends would be closing in on them, thinking them sitting ducks trapped beneath some mistletoe. She forgot it all and instead found herself sighing against his lips when she felt his cool hand snake up the back of her shirt, pressing intimately against the bare flesh of her lower back.
She also forgot that there was a back door to their fort. One that was being tugged open.
Hermione jerked her face back from Malfoy’s at the feel of the cool draft coming through the slowly opening door to their fort. She blinked at him, wide-eyed in horror for a moment. She was sitting in his lap, her legs straddling his hips intimately and both his hands were inside the back of her shirt.
He looked dazed, his eyes feasting upon her lips the way his mouth had just done. His legs were curled up like a pretzel beneath her and he showed no indication of wanting to let her go. Hermione had to do something. She could see from the way his eyes flashed hungrily and feel from the way his hand gripped her needily that he meant to pull her to him again, to snog her until the feeling inside her shattered.
Before she could think better of it, Hermione reached for a snowball, stuffing it down the back of his shirt.
Malfoy hissed in shock, his eyes snapping wide and his focus returning.
“Fuck!” he cursed, shoving her out of his lap as he squirmed, trying to fish out the hard little snowball under his collar. Hermione ignored his plight in favour of collecting more snowballs. As soon as to door to the fort opened, Hermione began hurling the missiles at their assailants, catching Nott in the face and Harry under the chin. Ron shouted in surprised and returned fire before ducking out of the way of her fury when Hermione lost her temper. Malfoy was still cursing behind her and as she pelted snowballs at everyone outside the door, he did the same.
Kneeling behind her, he lobbed them over her shoulder, catching Pansy in the eye hard enough that the girl cried out and dropped her missiles in favour of falling back. She clutched her eye and whimpered; no doubt it would leave a bruise. Hermione knew the snowballs she made were hard as stone and from such close range, thrown by a furious Draco Malfoy, they were bound to leave marks.
“Bloody hell, Hermione!” Harry shouted when she caught him with one hard enough to crack the lens on his glasses.
Malfoy’s aim was deadly when he took out Harry’s other glasses lens, driving the boy back. Crabbe and Goyle lobbed snowballs back at them, but Hermione hit one of them below the belt with a precisely thrown missile, causing both to fall back in fear. Her hands were going numb from holding the snow without gloves, dimly recalling Malfoy had relieved her of them because they were wet and cold.
The return fire coming from their combined group of friends was hammering against her but Hermione was too furious with the lot of them to care about the pain of being hit by their missiles. She suspected Malfoy was feeling the same way because though he grunted when Ginny caught him on the chin with a snowball, he didn’t stop throwing the snowballs. He had his wand in one hand, waving it to transform the nearby snow into balls, and levitating them close enough to throw.
If Hermione weren’t so busy throwing her own snowballs and being angry with her friends for their mistletoe trick, she’d have been extremely impressed by Malfoy’s magical display.
“Bloody hell, they’re barmy!” Ron shouted when Hermione hurled a snowball in his direction, causing it to explode on his chest and spray his chin with snow.
“Hermione? Truce?” Harry called out, still groping around with cracked glasses. Hermione knew he just wanted her help to mend them because he could never remember the spell to fix them himself.
“You can shove your truce, you bastards!” Malfoy growled in return, jostling her a little with the violence of his throws. Hermione was only grateful Malfoy was left handed, otherwise she was sure their combined throwing out of the small doorway would’ve resulted in them accidentally clobbering each other.
“Blimey, who pissed them off?” Ron wanted to know and Hermione heard Theodore Nott begin to chuckle.
Focusing her efforts, Hermione aimed all of her remaining snowballs at Nott, pelting him with them furiously. She’d never been so furious with anyone in all her life. Not even Malfoy himself, and that really was saying something. The boy gave a shout as they mercilessly hounded him, noticing that Malfoy had copied her and was also aiming exclusively at Nott.
Nott was indeed down. Hermione didn’t know if she or Draco had effectively caused him to double over in pain thanks to a well-aimed throw, but he was certainly no longer fighting back and no longer laughing.
“Damn it, Hermione, you win!” Ron grumbled when they finally ran out of snowballs, Malfoy was still making more in case they were needed but everyone else seemed to think the game was over.
Everyone except Luna. Hermione shrieked in shock and heard Malfoy shout in surprise when a bucketful of snow was dumped on the pair of them from above, plummeting through the open door of their fort and slithering under their collars.
“Does this mean I win?” the dreamy girl asked and Malfoy growled like an animal before going after her with his snowballs. Hermione cursed when Malfoy got to his feet to pelt Luna, toppling her forwards a little and out the door of their fort.
“I think it’s safe to say Hermione and Malfoy win,” Ginny said dryly when Luna surrendered a few minutes later under Malfoy’s feral attack.
Malfoy growled and Hermione squawked when his arms slithered around her ribs where she was still trying to extricate her legs from where they’d become tangled with his. He lifted her with ease until she was on her feet before he nudged her out the door of their fort.
“Something the matter Draco?” Nott wheezed from his foetal position in the snow, smirking cruelly at Hermione and Malfoy. Hermione realised that he must not have told them what enchantment he’d used to distract them before the rest of the group could mount their ambush.
Nott laughed at Ron’s words and Hermione felt her cheeks stain pink. She was panting with exertion from their battle and her shoulder was beginning to ache from all the throwing. Her hands were numb.
Turning back towards the fort Hermione glanced at Malfoy, who returned her glance with a glare of annoyance.
He narrowed his eyes on her but Hermione ignored him, tucking a lock of hair behind her ear before crawling back into the fort and snatching up her gloves. She grabbed Malfoy’s discarded pair as well before exiting the fort and stuffing them into his hands.
“Who wants hot chocolate?” Luna asked, clearly still cheerful despite Malfoy’s relentless attack.
“Let’s all have some,” Harry suggested and Hermione was surprised when he included the Slytherins in his grin. He stomped towards Hermione and Malfoy purposefully, both glasses lenses destroyed but still allowing him to see better with them than he could without them. He handed them to Hermione wordlessly and Hermione sighed before she tapped them with her wand to mend them for him.
Hermione was surprised to hear the compliment and evidently so was Malfoy because he dropped one of his gloves in shock. Harry must’ve been in a particularly cheerful mood to not only have been decent to Malfoy but to have acknowledged their superior snowball fighting abilities.
“Let’s get warm,” Ginny nagged, shivering a little.
Hermione waved her wand to begin drying her clothes, starting with her gloves. When her robes were dry she turned to Harry, waving her wand to dry him too.
“Thanks Hermione,” Harry told her, grinning. Hermione nodded before turning her wand on Malfoy and drying him too. She didn’t know what was going on with the lot of them getting on for the afternoon, perhaps it was simply the Christmas Spirit at work, but she didn’t want to ruin the moment.
Malfoy tensed when she pointed her wand at him, but when his robes began to steam as they heated up and began to dry he looked surprised and then perhaps just a little bit grateful.
“Thanks Granger,” he grunted when his clothes were dry.
Luna, Terry and Ginny were also using their wands to dry themselves and others.
“This is weird,” Pansy announced after a few moments of tense silence as they all began to make their way towards the Great Hall.
Hermione was surprised to hear the suggestion coming from Ron, of all people, but pleased nonetheless when as a group everyone muttered their acquiescence to that notion. She also noted that Malfoy stayed close to her as they all trooped back towards the Great Hall, laughing and talking as group about the battle.
“That was some fort, Granger,” he commented quietly when they fell a little behind the rest of the group all trying to get through the double doors of the castle.
“You’ve got pretty good aim with those snowballs,” Hermione replied, shrugging modestly and offering her truthful opinion.
“You never answered my question, you know?” he pointed out as they crossed the Entrance Hall.
“Which question?” Hermione asked. She didn’t know if he was trying as hard as she was to not even think about the fact that they’d snogged. Again. But she suspected he might be.
“About you being my Secret Santa,” he told her.
“You never answered my question either. Are you my Secret Santa?” Hermione wanted to know, realising suddenly that she still hadn’t donned her gloves.
She pulled them out of her pocket hurriedly and began trying to put them on but before she could Malfoy seized her left hand quickly. He stopped walking, pulling her to a stop too as he tilted her hand in his grip until he could see the emerald and diamonds glittering on her ring finger. He eyed the rocks for a moment before releasing her hand, his eyes lifting to meet hers.
“Guess you’ll never know,” he smirked down at her and Hermione noticed idly that his lips were swollen from snogging her.
“If you don’t know what it is then you weren’t my secret Santa,” Hermione said through gritted teeth.
He smirked wider at that, clearly enjoying her annoyance.
“Was it you Malfoy? This isn’t some joke.
“Why would you think it was me?” he wanted to know, his eyes glittering with something Hermione couldn’t name.
“Are you being purposely dense about this?” Hermione demanded in a low voice. Their friends were all gathered together at the table in the Great Hall drinking hot chocolate. She caught of few of them looking in their direction as they argued quietly. Nott looked particularly amused.
You and I despise each other Granger,” he told her coldly.
Malfoy narrowed his eyes at her for that.
“Just tell me!” Hermione snapped, burying her fingers inside her gloves to hide the evidence from everyone else. If it wasn’t Malfoy who’d given her the gift, he would undoubtedly laugh with his friends over the idea of her wearing a promise ring from someone she didn’t even know. If it was him, she had no idea what to make of it all.
Hermione had never been so grateful for cold weather than in the days that followed Christmas day. The day before the rest of the school was due to return after the holidays, she escaped to the library for a reprieve. She was in desperate need of answers. She’d been hiding her hands in her pockets and inside gloves for days and it was getting out of control. Ginny had begun eyeing her strangely and Ron was getting suspicious.
Before she’d told them she was going to the library – knowing none of her friends were likely to want to follow her with school resuming the following day – she’d been ready to throttle Ron for his nosiness. He’d begun plucking at her hands whenever he could, trying to peel her gloves off without her noticing. Hermione was annoyed about the entire matter, not because he was doing anything wrong per se, but because she was getting sick of wearing the infernal things.
She had the ring still glittering cheerfully on her wedding finger and she didn’t know what to do about it. She’d tried owling the company responsible for making the promise ring, requesting more information on the make and the charms used to make them work. She’d been horrified to learn that whatever person had given her the ring was the only one who could remove the ring from her finger – confirming Malfoy’s assertion from Christmas Day.
She wanted to be able to take her gloves off but she didn’t want anyone to see the ring on her finger. If it really came down to it she would simply have to tell them the truth. That she’d tried the infernal thing on and now couldn’t get it off. She just didn’t want her friends to laugh at her. She also didn’t want to see the looks Ginny and Ron would wear at the sight of the expensive gems glittering on her finger.
“Bloody ridiculous,” she muttered to herself grumpily whilst researching the charms the Quintonian Promise Ring company had used to make the ring effective. She’d been most disgruntled to know their charms were irreversible and that the buyer of the ring could also add extra charms to the jewellery at will if they so chose.
She’d had no further luck locating which dolt had been her secret Santa, though she still suspected Malfoy. She just couldn’t rationalise what would possibly possess him to give her something so… binding. So claiming. So…. Barbaric! For all that they’d had an interesting and cordial Christmas, Hermione knew she and Malfoy were the farthest thing from friends.
So they’d snogged under some mistletoe a couple of times. It was just mistletoe. He’d said so himself. Hermione hated herself for the fact that she’d caught herself staring at him at breakfast that morning. She had been having trouble pushing him from her thoughts after the searing snogs they’d shared. Her suspicions over him being her secret Santa weren’t helping her focus on anything but him and it was doing her head in.
He was a Death Eater for crying out loud!
He was on the side that wanted people like her weeded out of society and killed. And yet he’d snogged her like he couldn’t get enough of her. Hermione admittedly hadn’t snogged many people in her life – the only other boy besides Malfoy being Viktor Krum – but she knew chemistry when she felt it. And loathe as she was to admit it, she and Malfoy had chemistry when they snogged.
She could still feel the tingles that had washed through her whole body the two times Malfoy had snogged her, as though some electrical current inspired by his touch still hummed under her skin. She also couldn’t forget the way he’d snogged her in such a way that she forgot herself. That he’d managed to distract her in the middle of a snowball fight and whilst in public at Hogsmeade enough that she’d simply snogged him back was a feat to be proud of.
That he’d managed to make her forget their hatred for one another for the duration of each snog was also rather disconcerting. She had no idea if he was simply that skilled at snogging or if there was something else at play but she couldn’t deny they had a certain spark. Hermione imagined that if he weren’t such a bigoted git, and if they weren’t from rivalling sides of the brewing war, that in some other life they might’ve had a shot at romance.
Not that she wanted anything romantic with Draco Malfoy. He was a vile git who needed a good box around the ears to sort himself out, but that was none of her business.
“You’re going to chew a hole through your lip if you keep worrying it like that,” a drawling voice informed her and Hermione jerked in surprise at the intrusion. She drew her wand before she could cease the reflex reaction, aiming it at her intruding visitor and startled to find Malfoy leaning against the back of the desk across from the study cubicle she had claimed for herself.
He had his arms folded across his chest and his ankles crossed as he leant there nonchalantly. As always he was dressed in dark robes, his blonde hair hanging into his face stylishly. He had dark circles under his eyes as though he wasn’t sleeping right, Hermione noticed idly. He’d looked awful all year, in fact. She’d noticed it the minute they’d gotten off the train at the beginning of term and he seemed to be getting worse.
“What do you want?” Hermione sneered, annoyed by the very sight of him. She eyed him warily, unnerved that he’d managed to sneak up on her and annoyed at herself for the fact that she’d been thinking about him before he arrived.
“You’re wasting your time trying to find way to wiggle that thing off your finger,” he told her without preamble eyeing her with dark amusement in his eyes.
“What do you mean why?” Hermione demanded.
“It’s a promise ring! Given to me by Merlin only knows who. I’m only seventeen!
Malfoy asked, eyeing her like she was barmy.
It was lucky Madame Pince had allowed Hermione into the library without supervision or the librarian would be rousing on her for her noise.
“Same thing,” Hermione snapped, furious with him.
“I knew you’d be here,” he shrugged, ignoring her accusation.
Hermione glared at him in silence after that and he stared back at her unflinchingly.
Hermione retorted, blushing, “It wouldn’t fit on either of my middle fingers.
“You tried it on your wedding finger like some love-struck fool, didn’t you?” Malfoy sneered looking wickedly amused.
“Why would anyone want to stalk you?” he asked nastily.
“You’re the one doing it. You tell me,” she challenged, glaring at him.
A rustling sound drew her attention and Hermione glanced upwards with mounting horror to know that this might be rapidly becoming one of the worst Christmases she'd ever been forced to endure.
"I'm not stalking you, you barmy swot," Malfoy protested, oblivious to the direction her attention had been taken and to the fact that he was once again trapped under the mistletoe with Hermione.
"Well if you're not, could you at least stop appearing wherever I happen to be until the holiday season is over?" Hermione demanded quietly.
"The holidays end tomorrow," Malfoy pointed out and Hermione rolled her eyes at him for pointing out the obvious. It was New Year's Eve after all, and she didn't much fancy the idea of going into the New Year arguing vehemently with anyone, let alone sodding Malfoy.
Not that he could really, given the mistletoe overhead once again trapping them together.
"Are you trying to ignore me?" he wanted to know after several long minutes of silence.
"Yes. I'm trying to pretend you don't exist," Hermione answered honestly without looking up. She wondered idly how long it would take for someone to come looking for her, trying to gauge how long she might have to put up with Malfoy in order to avoid snogging him again.
"I find it funny that you got that thing stuck on your wedding finger," Malfoy announced, clearly looking for things to needle her about. Hermione wondered what he thought he was doing just loitering about annoying her. Surely he had better things he could be doing with his time.
It wouldn't do to have word getting back to the other Death Eaters that you're fraternizing with a Mudblood."
Malfoy narrowed his eyes on her.
"You saying you think I'm a Death Eater?" he wanted to know, his tone changing from one of smugness to a deadly, dangerous tone that made the hair's on the back of her neck stand on end.
Hermione rolled her eyes and pointed to the fact that he'd clearly forgotten himself. He'd just rolled up the sleeves on his jumper, despite it still being so nippy in the library and Hermione could plainly see the Dark Mark branded on his arm. She didn't know why she was unsurprised by the sight of the blemish. She'd been arguing with Harry all year that surely Malfoy wasn't a Death Eater. That he was too young. That no one in their right mind would be making teenagers into Death Eaters. She'd forgotten of course, that the megalomaniac responsible for the blemish on Malfoy's forearm was also the psychopath obsessed with immortality and a teenage boy.
"If you're going to try and lie, Malfoy, at least make sure to hide the truth," she told him, reaching over the desk before he could jerk his sleeve down and seizing his arm tightly. He tried to jerk out of her grip, surprised by the touch and horrified to realise he'd left the mark uncovered, but Hermione refused to let him go.
"Let go of me," he demanded, looming over her as though he hoped to threaten her into doing so. Hermione ignored him in favour of studying the mark on his forearm. It was black and ugly. The very sight of it made her feel sick. She wondered if he had similar feelings about it, given how hard he tried to hide it.
When he jerked his arm violently out of her grip, he levelled an evil glare at her. He was clearly furious. That much was made clear when he tried to storm away from her, only to be rooted on the spot thanks to the enchantment of the mistletoe above their heads.
"What the...?" he began, seeming confused.
He glanced at her and Hermione stared at him drolly, waiting for him to understand. When he closed his eyes and sighed heavily before tilting his head back and spotting the mistletoe, Hermione knew he was already resigned to the fact that this was utterly absurd.
"Why does this keep happening with you?" he wanted to know, glaring nastily at the mistletoe as though he'd like to try burning it or hexing it in some other way but having learned that lesson in Scrivenshaft's.
"Because we keep fighting," Hermione answered honestly, "Every building that's been enchanted to grow mistletoe has the same effect during the Christmas season. If anyone inside the enchanted building who aren't blood relatives argues or in some way deviates from the peace and love bollocks of the holiday season it triggers the growth of the mistletoe. That's why it keeps happening to us. In other cases it's just a result of the enchantment randomly kicking in to spread good cheer."
he accused, glancing over at her from where he'd returned to leaning against the opposite desk.
"So I've been told," Hermione replied, sighing heavily.
"This is why you were trying to ignore me?" he asked, clearly realising she'd spotted the mistletoe and not said anything.
"Are you going to keep talking or are you going to let me study in peace?" Hermione asked him, not bothering to confirm his suspicions.
"You want to study right now?" he asked, looking incredulous.
"This might come as something of a shock Malfoy, but I don't much fancy the idea of snogging you again. Twice in one lifetime was more than enough, thank you very much."
He eyed her for a long moment after that.
he sighed, looking resigned to being stuck with her.
"How else will you learn your lesson and stop stalking me?" Hermione countered, "Besides, I'm sure my friends will come looking for me eventually."
he grumbled, clearly growing bored in a hurry.
"Excuse me for wanting to keep the information of what I was looking up to myself," Hermione retorted.
"You're that embarrassed?" he wanted to know, an unreadable expression flashing across his face.
"Yes. I am," Hermione admitted, "I did something foolish and air-headed. And now look at me."
She flung her jewelled hand in his direction, indicating to the large rocks adorning her finger.
"You just don't like it because their Slytherin colours," Malfoy rolled his eyes at her.
"Do I seem that shallow to you?" Hermione asked mildly, "I actually happen to like the gemstones. I just don't like the obviousness of such a large ring. Not to mention I don't want to deal with the foul mood Ron will fly into when he sees this."
"Isn't he still dating Lavender Brown?"
Hermione narrowed her eyes in annoyance at the reminder.
"He wouldn't for the fact that it's a promise ring on my engagement finger. But that won't stop him from getting snippy when he sees it. He's already suspicious about why I've been wearing gloves. When he sees something this expensive on my finger, he'll have a cow."
Malfoy smirked then.
"I'd forgotten that he's still got his nose out of joint about being poor," the blonde wizard commented.
"Yes. And given that I know how much one of these wretched things costs, you can imagine why I might not want to go flashing it about in his face."
"You know, if you'd been smarter, you could've just said it was a gift from a recently deceased relative. You already lied about what you were given by your Secret Santa. What's one more lie?" Malfoy told her and Hermione wanted to slap herself when she realized he was right.
"You would only know I was lying about what I was given if you were the one who gave me the gift in the first place," she told him.
"Why are you so convinced it was me?" he wanted to know, seeming genuinely curious.
"I've already told you that," Hermione replied, "You're the only person I know who could afford it. And the only one wretched enough to pull this kind of trick.
She waved her hand towards him again in clear invitation to have him remove the jewel from her finger.
"Why would I ever do that?" he countered slyly, smirking at her now.
"So you admit it was you then?" Hermione demanded, lifting her nose out of her book to glare at him.
"You'll never know," he answered before picking up her quill and beginning to toy with it.
Just deal with it. You might as well just accept your fate and move on with life. Are you going to let me out of this any time soon?"
"Not unless you take it off me," Hermione said, meaning the ring on her finger but realizing when he shot her a suggestive glance that she'd put her foot in it.
"That can be arranged, you know," he warned, eyeing her strangely.
"For someone who's supposed to hate muggleborns; particularly someone who’s been a complete git about my heritage for as long as I've known you; you seem awfully calm about the fact that you keep having to snog me," she pointed it out.
"Don't over-analyse the situation Granger.
"Maybe so, but I've always been of the belief that if I consider something to be the scum of the earth, I'm not about to go snogging it."
"Why? You snogged me and you've made no secret of your disdain for me either," he pointed out and Hermione paused to consider that.
She supposed he was right. She had accepted having snogged him twice without much ado. Of course, she was a rational and logical person capable of compartmentalising a snog as being born of a necessity to escape an enchantment.
"Why did you take the Dark Mark?" Hermione asked him quietly, choosing to change the subject before she had to think too hard about the fact that her body still hummed with tingles of electricity from the snog he'd stolen from her days ago. She needed to distract herself from the fact that there was a sense of anticipation over needing to snog him again soon building inside her and Hermione didn't want to think about that either.
"Why not?" Malfoy shrugged but Hermione suspected from the way he narrowed his eyes and looked away that there was far more to his feelings on the subject.
"Because Voldemort is evil?" Hermione suggested, "Because the eradication of people who can't help how they were born is barbaric and wrong?
He clenched his fists at her statements.
"What are you hoping to hear me say Granger?" he asked after a long time when Hermione eventually gave up on waiting to hear his answer. Hermione glanced up to look at him, her eyes meeting his grey pair for a long moment.
"The truth," Hermione told him, "Do you actually believe that people like me are inferior to people like you just because my parents happen to be muggles? Do you want to murder me?"
He simply stared at her, his jaw clenched as though he either didn't know the answer to her questions or couldn't bear to declare one way or the other what he thought.
"You don't know, do you?" Hermione asked finally, "You've been told your whole life that people like me are inhuman abominations, but you can't rationalise that information against the fact that you're sitting here having a conversation with me. Or against the fact that you snogged me the other day, far exceeding the requirement needed to free us from under the mistletoe."
He looked at her like she'd just slapped him when she mentioned that and Hermione decided that she'd had enough of the conversation. Returning her attention to the book she was reading, Hermione tried her hardest to pretend he wasn't sitting there.
Eventually he seemed to grow bored, fidgeting in his seat and looking like he wanted to get as far away from her as possible. Hermione could tell she'd unsettled him with her questions and that he probably wanted to slink back to the dungeons where his friends and associates all simply demanded he disdain people like her rather than allowing even the thought that maybe she wasn't an abomination to enter his mind.
More than an hour ticked past as she continued her research and he sat there, brooding.
The afternoon began to wane into evening and Hermione wondered where her friends were. Probably off planning some kind of celebration to bring in the looming New Year. They probably assumed she was lost in her research and would be until the late hours of the evening.
Hermione felt the chill in the library increase and she glanced towards one of the main windows lining the wall, noticing that it had begun to snow once more. Closing her book slowly, Hermione reached for the latch on the window, unhooking it and feeling thankful she'd chosen this desk where she could even open the window whilst still trapped under the mistletoe.
"What are you doing?" Malfoy wanted to know, seeming surprised when Hermione climbed up on the desk, tucking her feet up under herself and enjoying the cold breeze that blew into the library.
"Enjoying the snow," she admitted honestly without looking at him.
She flinched minutely when he got up from his chair, moving even closer to her until his hip was propped against her desk and he was staring out the window over her shoulder. The snow outside fell heavily, creating a winter wonderland. The glow from Hagrid's hut looked warm and inviting through the snowy curtain falling fast.
"Got any goals for the new year Malfoy?" Hermione asked him a little while later when he shuffled himself onto the desk beside her.
Hermione didn't look at him. She didn't want to ruin the relatively comfortable feel of being in his company. When he'd taken a seat on the desk he'd shuffled far enough that his shoulder and his knee were brushing against hers. Despite their mutual distaste for one another, Hermione had to resist the urge to move even closer to him. The warmth of his body was drawing her closer as the breeze coming through the window picked up.
"Don't get killed," Malfoy shrugged, his shoulder jostling hers a bit.
"That's a sensible goal," Hermione grinned, unable to keep from laughing, "I think everyone should keep that kind of goal."
"You're more of a wise crack than I expected," he told her, smirking sideways at her on the desk.
"You're more capable of sitting quietly without bugging me than I anticipated," she answered, grinning back. She noticed suddenly as she eyed him that he was again wearing the scarf she'd knitted for him as his secret Santa gift. She kind of hated that it suited him so well and she didn't know what to make of his willingness to wear it, even if she'd hadn't entirely confirmed she'd been his Secret Santa.
"Smart aleck," he accused though he appeared in good spirits about it all, "What are your goals for the new year if you're so flip about mine."
"I'm also planning not to get killed," she smirked.
She laughed when he rolled his eyes at her. Hermione was surprised to find herself doing so. It had been a strange holiday, all in all. She could hardly believe that on Christmas day they'd all put aside their rivalries and differences to have a pleasant day snowball fighting and then simply lounging around. She supposed in some respects that Ginny had been right about this perhaps being the last Christmas everyone would spend with things as they were. The Slytherins must've felt it too. They had all been here at Hogwarts, away from their families, either for the safety being in the castle offered or for other, less scrupulous reasons, but either way Hermione knew it wasn't a Christmas she was likely to forget.
"I'd also like to make a more concerted effort at forgetting old grievances," Hermione admitted a little while later as the breeze carried a few snowflakes in through the open window to land in her hair. She didn't know why she was telling him anything, or really why she didn't just get the required snog over with and be on her way, but Hermione found herself blurting it out anyway.
"You're not about to get all sentimental are you Granger?" he asked, a teasing lilt in his voice.
"Probably," Hermione shrugged, her shoulder brushing his again, "Things aren't ever going to be the same as they are now and it makes me sad to think this time next year people I've shared a classroom with might be dead."
"There's nothing you can do about it," he informed her quietly, his right hand going to his left forearm and toying with his sleeve as though the brand on his arm itched.
"There is actually," Hermione replied softly.
She didn't bother elaborating. To her the answer was entirely obvious regarding the things she could do. Instead, Hermione hesitantly reached over and took hold of his arm again. He flinched minutely at the cold touch of her hand but he didn't jerk away from her. When she pulled his sleeve up slowly to reveal the ugly Dark Mark marring his arm, Hermione leaned a bit closer to inspect it. The design was one she'd read about before and seen in books. She'd researched the first war extensively and she knew that it was the same design Voldemort had used last time. Most of his followers now were the same as the ones he'd had back then, so that was hardly surprising.
"Did your father make you?" she asked, unable to keep from tracing the outline of the mark. She didn't actually touch the blackened skin, not daring to touch the beacon that Voldemort used to summon his followers. But she did trail the tip of her finger over the pale skin that surrounded the Mark.
“My father was in Azkaban at the time,” Malfoy replied quietly.
“And someone had to fill his shoes,” Hermione murmured knowingly, her finger still tracing against his skin lightly. A little hum of electricity tingled in her hand as she did so, clutching his arm while she traced, studying the mark intently.
“My mother cried,” he whispered, as though admitting such a terrible truth to her was abominable and shameful. The amount of guilt laced into those three little words told Hermione far more about Draco Malfoy than she’d ever realised before. In fact, the very realisation made her eyes prickle uncomfortably as though she too might shed a tear over the implications and strings that came along with the terrible blemish on his smooth pale flesh.
Hermione didn’t say anything else. She didn’t think she could. Not without telling him what a foolish decision he’d made. Not without sparking an argument between them. She simply sat there on the desk beside him, her fingers drawing on his skin. Absently she wondered why he let her. Surely someone radical enough to bear the Dark Mark ought to pull away from her touch with a flinch of disgust. In the past he’d always done so.
Yet he simply sat in silence alongside her, his arm still beneath her tracery, his breathing even and steady. To Hermione it felt a little like the calm before the storm.
She ought to pull away. She ought to get the required kiss over with and be on her way without looking back. Hermione knew that. Sitting there with him, peering out the window at the gathering dark, she knew she ought to turn her back on him and never look at him or speak to him again.
He bore the brand of a traitor. He wore the badge of monster. He was destined to become a killer. Draco Malfoy was a Death Eater and he ought to be trying to kill her, as per the beliefs being circulated by Voldemort and his followers.
Yet she stayed. In part it was because she was holding out the hope that one of her friends would come looking for her and so free her from beneath the mistletoe and her obligation to snog Malfoy. There was another part of her that was simply enthralled. This Christmas season had been an unusual one and she knew that this night would be the deep, dying breath of the world as she knew it. Not because of Malfoy.
Because the world was about to pitched in chaos. Already things were bad, but she knew there was worse to come. There was something about simply sitting there in the stillness of the library next to a person who would soon be her enemy upon the battlefield that felt right. She wondered if Malfoy sensed it to. He didn’t say anything else as he sat there next to her, simply allowing her to trace her fingertips over the smooth skin surrounding the Dark mark on his arm.
Hermione didn’t say anything either. She’d been tracing his skin for hours, drawing nonsensical patterns over it and simply sitting there with him. She didn’t know what to make of the entire experience, all she could think about was that this was the last time she would ever be the person she was now. That this final day of the year would be the final day she was likely to ever spend in the company of an enemy without fear.
“Can I ask you something?” he asked after the late afternoon sunlight was gone and it grew too dark to effectively see much of the snow that was falling.
“I suppose,” Hermione murmured. She was still touching his skin and she marvelled at how smooth and warm his flesh felt beneath her own cold fingers. Somewhere in the distance of the castle, a clock chimed out the hour, indicating that it was already eleven at night. Hermione wondered when it had gotten so late and why none of her friends had come looking for her.
“Maybe you don’t know,” he muttered.
Hermione’s smile widened at that.
“So you want to sit in the dark with me in what? Some hope to avoid it?” he asked, sounding baffled.
“I’m sitting here with you because when that day comes; when it happens that you and I meet in the field, I’d like to be able to remember today. I hope you’ll remember it too. Maybe it will make a difference. Maybe it won’t. Who knows? Maybe what we do here, right now, today, will be the difference between one or both of us living or dying,” Hermione told him softly.
“Maybe it won’t,” Hermione shrugged, her shoulder brushing against his and sending a little jolt of electricity through her system. She fell silent again after that, her fingers gliding against the skin of his forearm, dancing over the silky skin of his inner wrist, skirting around the black tattoo and tracing the length of his inner arm. It felt strangely mesmerizing to be touching his skin without having him pull away from her or hissing insults about her supposed dirtiness as a result of the blood running through her veins.
She jumped in surprise when his free hand caught hers where it traced his skin, lifting it away from his arm. Hermione glanced down at her own hand when he intertwined her fingers with his in the dark, simply holding her hand. He shook the arm she’d been drawing on slightly, causing his sleeve to fall back down to cover the mark. Hermione lifted her gaze slowly to meet his. The candle she’d been studying by was burning low and the fireplace across the room designed to keep the study alcoves warm was crackling softly.
Hermione found herself studying him intently, her gaze drinking in the sight he made. His cheekbones were high and sharp, the firelight casting shadows from their peaks. His eyes were a bright, silvery shade of grey. His face was pointed and harsh. He had a face made for sneering and for looking down his nose at others. His chin was sharp like his cheekbones. His blonde hair hung forwards over his forehead from where he’d run his hands through it distractedly.
Around his neck he wore the scarf she’d knitted him as a part of her Secret Santa gift to him. As she scrutinized his face carefully, noting the little cleft in his chin and the way he maintained that completely blank expression that showed not even a hint at any emotion in particular, Hermione knew he was scrutinizing her too. She wondered how she seemed to him. She knew she wasn’t the most beautiful girl in the school.
Compared to others like Ginny or Luna, Hermione believed herself rather plain. Her hair was messy and always curling out of its hair-tie. She wore minimal make-up beyond lip-gloss. She had a smattering of freckles upon her nose.
She wondered if he thought her plain. Hermione didn’t much care about his actual opinion of her, but she wondered about it just the same.
“Tell me something you’ve never told anyone else,” he said quietly, his eyes returning to fix upon her own. Hermione raised her eyebrows. She wondered what he thought he was doing sitting there holding her hand, balanced on a library desk and asking her something personal about herself. Had her idea reached him? Did he want to burn this holiday season into his mind the way she did, something to look back on in the darkness that would follow?
She snuck a peek at Malfoy when she finished the tale on a sad note. Being an only child had taught Hermione many things about life, the most important one being that without her parents, there was no one else she could rely on to be her knight in shining armour. Now, of course, she knew she had Harry and Ron looking out for her, brave and willing to do anything should she ever need protection. But back then Hermione had learned the hard way that the best method to avoid ever needing a knight in shining armour was to make sure she was clever enough to never be the damsel in distress.
“What about you?” she asked him softly when his expression remained blank as he watched her.
“I never imagined being a damsel myself,” he told her, and he grinned when Hermione snorted in surprise.
“And you’d look so pretty in a princess dress too,” Hermione rolled her eyes, chuckling at the very idea, a mental image flashing into her mind of Draco Malfoy wearing the pink gown she’d worn as a girl, flitting about some castle screaming about a terrible dragon and swooning foolishly.
“You don’t think pink’s my colour?” he asked, smirking.
“You don’t really have the hair for it, but the skin tone is on point,” Hermione poked fun at him.
“Real nice, Granger,” he laughed, and Hermione was surprised by the rich sound. She’d never heard it before when he wasn’t laughing at someone’s expense.
He glanced out the window into the snow and Hermione thought he wasn’t going to answer. His hand was warm in hers and Hermione caught the way her thumb had begun to trace patterns on the back of his hand where they were intertwined.
Hermione felt her heart constrict inside her chest, noting the way he tried to pull his hand away from hers and the way he looked away from her despairing expression as though he were ashamed. She held tighter to his hand, keeping hold of it even when he wriggled it in her grip. She wanted to tell him he didn’t have to be the villain. That he didn’t have to fight for Voldemort. That there was always an opportunity for one to be a good person, so long as they made the choice to do so. She wanted to, but she didn’t.
She knew without needing to be told that he did have to be the villain. He had a mark on his arm and a path of destiny that was already carved for him to walk. He couldn’t turn against Voldemort without risking his own life and the lives of his family. He couldn’t just walk away from it all. Not with his family up to their necks in Darkness. So instead, Hermione did the next best thing she could think of. Somewhere in the castle the clock chimed once more, indicating that it was quarter to midnight.
“You don’t have to be a villain tonight,” she whispered when he managed to pull his hand away and climbed off the desk to turn his back on her.
“Don’t delude yourself into thinking that either of us would still be here if not for the bloody mistletoe, Granger,” he warned.
“Don’t tempt me,” he warned in a low voice and Hermione sighed.
He narrowed his eyes on her when she stomped her foot indignantly. Hermione narrowed hers in return. She watched him open his mouth, clearly intent on saying something to disprove her notion that he didn’t always have to be a villain, and before he could spoil things any more than he already had, Hermione slid her feet closer, went up on her toes and pressed her lips to his. She brought her hands up, tangling them into his silky blonde hair as she kissed him deeply.
She closed her eyes when she felt his arms circle her waist, dragging her to him firmly, moulding her to his chest as he returned the snog hotly. His tongue slipped out to tangle with hers and Hermione felt the butterflies begin to riot in her tummy. She didn’t know what it was about snogging him that turned her brain to mush, but it was clearly something associated with the feel of his tongue sweeping against hers and his hands clutching at her desperately. His lips were warm and firm against hers and Hermione found herself breathing deeply of his citrus and spice scent and noting idly that both were things she’d begun unknowingly associating with him.
His fingers were cool against her skin when he slipped them under the hem of her jumper to clutch at her hips, holding her firmly to him. Dimly Hermione realised he’d turned them both and had pressed her back against the wall of the library, moulding himself against her as he snogged her deeply. The kiss was slow, passionate and burning with all the things both of them could never voice. Hermione found herself thinking that she enjoyed the taste of his lips on hers and that she liked the way her body trembled when he touched her.
She found herself thinking that if things had been different, she’d have very much been interested in the idea of pursuing something with him. After all, there hadn’t been anyone else who could make her forget all about the facts in favour of the fantasy when she kissed them. Hermione gasped when Malfoy broke away from her lips, trailing a line of burning kisses along her jaw and then down her neck tantalizingly. The butterflies already rioting inside her went nuts, cartwheeling and somersaulting wildly and making her feel things she’d never felt before.
He nipped his way along her clavicle carefully and Hermione heard the little mewl that escaped her lips at the sensations he awoke within her. She jumped a little when the castle clock began chiming the hour. Students could be heard distantly shouting about a Happy New Year. Hermione lost her breath when Draco Malfoy dragged his lips from her neck to capture her own again. He snogged her slowly then. Deliberately. His tongue swept into her mouth, stroking against hers, making her quake with the strange rush of sensation. He took his time about it, kissing her long after the distant chiming and cheering had fallen silent.
Idly, Hermione was aware that she was keeping to the muggle custom of kissing in the New Year for luck, and she marvelled at the fact that Draco Malfoy was the boy she was doing it with. Her heart was hammering against her ribs inside her chest, her breathing ragged with the feelings he inspired in her. One of his hands had tangled into her hair, the other grasping desperately at her lower back as though he thought to devour her. As though he wanted to possess every part of her. As though he couldn’t get enough of her.
She was vaguely aware that the mistletoe overhead had cascaded down upon them, scattering them with berries, twigs and leaves as the magic that had held them in each other’s company all afternoon was exhausted and spent. She wondered if there was some magical occurrence where the magic of the plant transferred into the magic of the snog those snagged beneath its branches shared. She wondered if it was wrong that she enjoyed Malfoy’s kiss so much.
She didn’t want to stop. In that moment, Hermione felt that she wouldn’t at all mind if she stood there all night long and snogged him until she forgot her own name.
Especially when he caught her hands inside his own, interlocking their fingers and lifting her arms over her head, pressing them to the wall as well as he massaged her tongue with his. He leaned in even closer then, his hard form pressed intimately against the length of hers and Hermione was dimly aware of the little mewling sounds he drew from her as he snogged her senseless.
When finally they broke apart, she wasn’t the only one panting for breath. He laid his forehead against hers gently, his breath ragged and his fingers still interwoven with her own. He lowered their arms slowly, sliding them down the walls until they rested at her sides, all without releasing her.
“Tell me something,” he whispered without opening his eyes. Hermione was paying such close attention to what he was asking that she almost missed the way his fingers slipped the emerald and diamond ring from her wedding finger.
Hermione felt her heart skip a beat in surprise as his huskily toned question. A little rush of something she couldn’t describe washed through her at the very thought and she realised with a jolt that much like she did, he must feel the strange sense of connection and rightness that overwhelmed her when they kissed. Malfoy released her left hand slowly, catching her right one in both of his and Hermione opened her eyes when she felt the promise ring slide down her right-hand ring finger, gliding over the digit until it met the knuckle.
“Maybe, in another life,” Hermione whispered, feeling a sense of sadness at the truth of her words.
Malfoy sighed along with her when she did so involuntarily at the sudden melancholy that surrounded her. He nodded lightly, his forehead still resting against hers before he pulled away. He stepped back slowly.
“Happy New Year,” he whispered, holding her gaze for a long moment.
“Happy New Year Malfoy,” Hermione murmured in return, feeling an overwhelming sense of loss as he released her hands and stepped back even further from her. He stared into her eyes for a minute longer, all of the words rolling through both their minds remaining unsaid.
When he nodded once, spun on his heels and walked away, Hermione made no move to stop him.
A/N: Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays everyone! This will be the last chapter through before the queue closure, but I promise I'll be back with more in the New Year. May you all have a safe and cheerful holidays season and may all your wishes come true!
In the months that followed the holidays, Hermione Granger could often be found toying with the ring adorning her right hand ring finger. She’d not bothered trying to ask Malfoy any further questions about the ring or the promise it signified. Initially she had been relieved simply to know that he had indeed been the one to give it to her and then over the fact that he’d moved it from her wedding finger to her other hand. At least now she could wear it without being given the third degree by her friends over wearing an engagement ring.
Of course, they’d still been suspicious over the ring she wore, but Hermione had taken Malfoy’s advice and lied, saying she’d been given it by a relative. After that they hadn’t bothered her with any further questions and Hermione was grateful. She often found herself thinking back on New Year’s Eve and the holiday season with some melancholy, though she couldn’t entirely explain why.
She wouldn’t say she fancied Draco Malfoy. Most days she barely even tolerated him. In the aftermath of the holidays, things between the Slytherins and Gryffindors had returned to their usual animosity. Malfoy often picked fights with Harry and Ron, just as had always happened and Harry was more convinced than ever that Malfoy was a Death Eater. Hermione hadn’t bothered trying to change his mind, though she hadn’t confirmed it either. She supposed that if her loyalty was entirely directed towards Harry and the Light that she ought to mention that Malfoy was indeed a marked Death Eater, but she didn’t.
It would be far too complicated to try and explain to her friends how it was that she’d discovered the truth. She hadn’t breathed a word of the evening she’d spent in his company on New Year’s Eve. She hadn’t spoken of the hours they had spent in pleasant silence, or of the strangely saddening conversation they’d shared. She’d not told a single soul of the way he’d snogged her so passionately, or of the way he’d asked that little question about whether or not she thought the two of them could ever work as a couple.
She’d not spoken of it, but Hermione couldn’t deny she’d been thinking about it. Often of late when she was supposed to be focusing on her studies and on keeping Harry out of trouble, Hermione thought of that night. She wondered privately if Malfoy thought of it too. He gave no indication of doing so. She never caught him looking at her in class, though he’d worn the scarf she’d given him all throughout the winter until it grew too warm to continue doing so.
She’d also noticed he had a habit of playing with the metal puzzles she’d given him as part of her Secret Santa gift. She’d caught him many times in classes and in the Great Hall toying with them, carrying them around in his pockets and playing with them. She suspected he’d completed each one a few times, but he continued puzzling over them nonetheless. Just last week shed come across him in class when she’d slipped in late. He was sitting towards the back, as he so often did, and he wasn’t paying any attention whatsoever to the lecture Professor Sinistra had been giving.
He’d simply been sitting there fiddling with the puzzle, trying to undo the metal links until they would all come apart. He did so almost distractedly, not really focusing on the task, and yet entirely distracted by it. She’d watched him for several minutes from a few desks over as he did so. Every time she thought about him she caught herself toying with the ring on her finger, turning it around and around her knuckle, fiddling with the stones and admiring the piece of jewellery.
She didn’t fancy him, but Hermione would be lying if she were to say she wasn’t mildly intrigued by him. The holidays had changed her. There could be no doubt about it. She’d spent time with the enemy and she’d found he wasn’t all bad. Since then, of course, there had been some incidents where she doubted he could ever be anything but a villain, but Hermione maintained that he wasn’t evil.
“Are you paying attention, Hermione?” Ron asked her, nudging her in Transfiguration and drawing her thoughts away from Draco Malfoy.
“I beg your pardon?” she asked, blinking, before interlocking her fingers together when she realised she’d been fiddling with her promise ring again.
“You’re not even listening, are you?” Ron asked and Hermione caught the entirely smug expression on his face at that idea.
“No, Ron, I wasn’t paying attention. What did you need?” she asked patiently rather than allowing him to rile her up. He’d been enjoying doing so of late, Hermione knew. He’d broken up with Lavender some time ago and though neither of them had shown any hint of fancying the other, Hermione suspected he might be enjoying the idea of her being distracted. She wondered if he did fancy her. She wondered if Malfoy did. Surely he must – a little – to have asked if she thought they’d be able to make it work as a couple.
What other reason could he have for asking? She wondered often about the promise he’d made when he’d given her the ring adorning her finger, but she’d never asked him. She’d not even spoken to him since New Year’s Eve and he had been similarly silent when it came to her. He picked fights with her friends, but he never spoke to her or teased her.
“I just thought you might be interested in writing down today’s homework assignment,” Ronald grinned at her, enjoying her distraction and Hermione squeezed her eyes closed, trying to focus on the blackboard where Professor McGonagall had recorded their required homework for the week. She sighed as she took up her quill and noted it all down in her homework planner.
“Are you coming to lunch?” Harry asked her when the lesson ended and Hermione found herself loitering at her desk.
“Are you alright Hermione?” Harry asked her, his brow furrowing in concern. Hermione knew he’d been worried about her recently. If she was honest, Hermione suspected she was a little confused and a little saddened about the war and the state of things.
She knew it was because of Malfoy. She couldn’t say she fancied him or wanted to be with him, but it irked her more than it ought to know that were she to have fancied him, she couldn’t have acted upon it. All because of one sociopath’s yearning for world domination and immortality.
“Do you need to go to the Hospital Wing?” he asked, frowning deeper and looking concerned. He took her hand inside his and gave it a little squeeze of comfort and Hermione smiled at him. He might be a snappy sod sometimes when his moods went haywire, but Hermione loved Harry like the brother she’d never had. It made her feel mildly better to know he was concerned for her and worried about her wellbeing.
Harry nodded his head before releasing her and Hermione watched him and Ron turn towards the stairs to go to the Great Hall. She didn’t really need to go to the library for anything, though she supposed it would make sense to gather what she needed for the Transfiguration essay she had to write. In all honesty, Hermione wouldn’t mind going and having a lie down. She had a free period after lunch, so she could get away with it. She didn’t have to be back at classes until two for Arithmancy.
Sighing to herself, Hermione made her way towards the library quickly, finding the books she thought would be useful for the essay before she climbed to stairs towards Gryffindor Tower. She wasn’t very hungry, if she was being honest. She might just drop off the books from her morning’s classes and return to the Great Hall.
Hermione was almost there, just reaching the top of the stairs on the seventh floor, when she felt someone grab her from behind.
“Stop struggling, would you?” a voice murmured into her ear as she was bodily carried across the corridor and behind a statue of Ulma the Unhinged. Hermione froze, hating herself a little for recognising that voice but doing so nonetheless. He put her down carefully when they were out of sight, keeping his hands wrapped around her lest she scream and alert people that he had just accosted her.
“What are you doing Malfoy?” Hermione demanded, clawing his hand away from her face so she could speak. She noted idly the way it slipped down to collar her throat.
Not in a threatening way, but in a way that made her think he liked the feel of the warm soft skin there. His fingers trailed lightly over the flesh. His other arm stayed curled tight around her middle, pressing her back against his chest.
“What does it look like I’m doing?” he asked with a snort.
“Assaulting me?” Hermione suggested scathingly, somehow feeling irked by his smug voice though she’d not spoken a word to him in months.
“It’s not assault if you like it, Granger,” he pointed out, his breath caressing the shell of her ear.
“Is there a reason you’ve dragged me behind a statue in a deserted corridor Draco Malfoy?” she hissed, stomping on his foot for his insinuation and his ignorance.
“There is actually. If you’d shut it, I’d get to the point,” he retorted.
Hermione bit her tongue on the reply she wanted to spit at him.
“I need you stay out of the corridors tonight,” he murmured softly and Hermione shivered in his hold when his lips brushed against her ear.
“Why?” she asked, hating herself for the way her voice went husky at the caress.
“Damn it, why do you have to be so bloody stubborn?” he growled in her ear and Hermione shivered in his hold again.
“Why do you have to make vague and unexplained suggestions?” she retorted, meaning more than just what he’d just asked her to do.
“It’s in my nature,” he replied smoothly.
“You think you’re going to rile me into releasing you so you can interrogate me?” he asked, and Hermione could practically hear him rolling his eyes.
“Good,” he whispered, his fingers still stroking up and down the side of her neck. Hermione reached up, digging her nails into the back of his hand where his arm bracketed her middle like a steel band, causing him to twitch and eventually release her.
“Now what is this about?” Hermione asked, spinning in his grip before he could pin her to him again. She hated the whisper of a thrill that crept through her as his fingers tangled into the hair at the nape of her neck. She suddenly found herself well within his personal space, merely an inch or two separating their faces as she tilted her head back to peer into his stormy grey eyes.
“Meaning you’re planning something illegal and you don’t want us to interfere and foil your plans,” Hermione summarised, glaring at him.
“You’ve found a way to get Death Eaters into the school,” Hermione breathed, her eyes going wide as she stared into his face. He might’ve become a master of masking his emotions, but Hermione had spent a good deal of time contemplating his face in recent months. She read the confirmation glowing in his eyes and in the tightness around his mouth.
“Snape’s a Death Eater too. It’s his job to feed information to the Order to keep them thinking he’s loyal,” Hermione pointed out.
“And you just assume I’m trying to murder the Headmaster? Me?” he asked carefully.
Malfoy looked like she’d hit him upside the head with something solid.
Hermione asked, wondering if he’d finally cracked under the pressure of completing his task without failing again and without getting his family murdered.
“Granger,” he warned.
“More proof that the git needs you to win the war,” Malfoy muttered.
“No you won’t,” he growled, his eyes flashing dangerously at her now.
“It?” Hermione raised her eyebrows, feeling a little tendrils of fear begin to wrap itself around her heart.
“What are you saying Draco?” Hermione whispered, her eyes widening at his intensity.
The tendrils of fear began to multiply in her stomach, spreading through her limbs with a terrible cold that made her shiver and tremble.
“Tonight’s the plunge, Granger. This is it. No more hiding behind castle walls and pretending we’re not at war. No more studying to make sure we pass useless exams. Tonight a horde of Death Eaters will enter the sanctity of Hogwarts and they will cut down any in their path. You can’t stop it. I can’t stop it. All we can do is try to survive. Do you hear me?” he gave her a little shake for emphasis, his voice so cold that it made her body feel like ice.
“Then you condemn us both to death,” he hissed and Hermione hated the way that made a sob catch in her throat.
“Why are you telling me this?” Hermione asked, feeling like she was beginning to crack and crumple.
I need you to go with Potter and do whatever you have to do to defeat the Dark Lord.
Hermione felt a tear trickle down her cheek, unbidden as she realised the hopelessness of the situation they were in.
“Please just go to you common room and stay there tonight Granger,” he whispered, laying his forehead against hers for a moment. Hermione felt more than heard the way he took a shuddering breath in.
Before she could respond, he leaned into her and kissed her. She hadn’t kissed him in months. Not since New Year’s Eve. Like a farewell to the strange notion of the two of them maybe finding a way to care for each other. Now, she knew better. He poured every emotion she could think of into it. Rage. Fear. Anger. Happiness. Hate. Lust. Maybe even love. All of it washed over her as he snogged her so powerfully, stealing her breath and absconding with her sense. I felt so final. Like the severing of whatever strange threads had snared them together.
His tongue tangled with hers, stroking, caressing, massaging. Hermione felt her toes curl in her shoes even as her hands clutched at his hips, holding him as desperately as he held her. She let herself be completely swept away by the feel of his mouth on hers. For several long, blissful minutes all he’d been telling her; all they’d been arguing about; all of it fell away. In that kiss was all the promise of the things they could never have and weren’t supposed to want. Good and Evil. Light and Dark. Right and Wrong. All of those things meant nothing when his lips were on hers, his hands tangled into her messy hair.
And then the moment ended and he pulled back from her, both of them breathing hard.
“I can’t do nothing,” Hermione whispered desperately, everything coming back to her in a rush as she recalled that he’d been asking her - warning her - to steer clear of the corridors. To sit idly by while havoc and chaos reigned. To do nothing while others were hurt and possibly killed. She couldn’t do that. Not for Draco Malfoy. Not for anyone.
Hermione knew it was true. That this was goodbye. She felt a pang of regret and loss inside her chest to know that this was the last time she would ever think of him as anything but a Death Eater. That this was the final moment before he would either become a murderer or would be murdered.
He didn’t bid her goodbye with words. Didn’t say all the things that hung between then, unspoken. He didn’t do anything but look into her eyes for one last long minute, holding her gaze as the world crashed around them. He withdrew his hands slowly from her hair until he was no longer touching her, simply peering into her eyes.
“Forgive me?” he whispered, his eyes wide and pleading.
It was as she was opening her mouth to respond – though she had no clue of what she’d meant to say – that she felt it. His wand pressed gently to her temple before she could even think to defend herself and she watched, more than heard, his mouth form the incantation for the spell.
“Imperio,” he murmured. And everything went blank.
He held her captive for the rest of the day – controlling her mind and ensuring she would do as he asked. He had to keep her out of the corridors. He had to make sure his Aunt and the other vile Death Eaters he would be letting into the school wouldn't lay their eyes on her.
It wasn't easy to control her. If he hadn't been drilled all of last summer by Aunt Bellatrix to make sure he mastered the Imperius curse – and if he hadn't practiced even harder by controlling the minds of Madame Rosemerta and Katie Bell earlier in the year, Draco was sure she'd have been able to throw him off her.
Only two things allowed him to keep his hold over her mind. The first was that he made sure she was doing things she'd ordinarily have done anyway – exerting his will over her subtly rather than attempting to have her do things she might never usually do. Keeping with her intentions, he made sure she stopped at the library and borrowed some books on the Transfiguration homework they'd been given before having her attend lunch with her friends.
Her own explanation and distraction earlier in the day allowed for her slightly vacant expression and for how she wasn't paying any attention in her lessons. Throughout dinner he made sure she ate, not wanting her to go hungry as a result of his interference in her life. His own stomach twisted with nervousness and fear over what he knew was coming, but having Granger to focus on helped somehow.
He had a job to do. He relinquished enough control over her to convince her to do her homework in the common room, amused by the subtle attempts she made as she tried to overcome the subtle prods he gave her about being sure they all stayed in the common room.
When Potter and Weasley returned from Quidditch practice after dinner, Draco pushed Granger to assist them with their homework too, as a means of keeping the three of them in the common room. He knew Potter and Weasley would be only too willing to take advantage of her apparent generosity if it meant they'd get help with their homework. He even pushed her to instigate a game of chess with Weasley and he took great delight in prodding her to outwit the ginger bastard at his favourite game.
He squashed every notion she had about warning Potter and Weasley of what he'd told her. Every urge she had to run to Dumbledore and warn him of what was coming. The only spanner in the works was when Potter announced he had a meeting with Dumbledore and disappeared to attend it. Draco had scowled his way through that. He couldn't alter their plans. The Death Eaters would be invading tonight, no matter how he tried to put them off.
He had known already that Potter was meeting with Dumbledore and had been most of the year. Draco didn't know what it was about but unless they were carrying on some torrid affair that Draco didn't want to contemplate, he assumed it had to do with bringing down the Dark Lord.
When the time came, Draco prepared to make his way up through the halls to the Room of Requirement unaccompanied. He'd not needed to warn his friends of where he was going and why it would be in their best interests, lest they be expelled, to remain in the Common Room of the Great Hall rather than anywhere in there corridors anywhere near where they might be accused of being involved in the plot to bring down Dumbledore. Crabbe and Goyle had both shaken his hand before letting him leave the corridor. Zabini had rolled her eyes and handed Draco a flask full of whiskey without saying a word.
Theo had surprised him the most. Following him out of the corridor, the other boy walked in silence along with him.
"So," Theo said, having long since forgiven him for the pummelling with snowballs that Draco and Granger had given him at Christmas.
"So?" Draco asked, raising one eyebrow.
"Are you ever going to tell me about you and Granger," Theo asked in a low voice, pulling Draco into an empty alcove along one of the first floor corridors. Draco's heart clenched inside his chest and he nearly lost control of the curse he was using to control the witch they spoke of.
"I don't know what you mean," Draco replied evenly.
You've had a thing for that swotty little witch since third year," Theo told him, "And we both know what happened at Christmas."
"Nothing happened at Christmas," Draco denied.
"Yeah, and I didn't climb into a snow fort with Harry bloody Potter and pelt you with snowballs or charm mistletoe to trap you in your fort with her," Theo rolled his eyes, "I know you snogged her. And you were missing at New Year's."
Draco kept his face carefully blank.
"You always do that," Theo sighed, eyeing him, "Clam up. Hide everything from me as though I haven't learned every quirk and expression you've got since birth. I know how you feel about her. I know you went well over the recommended limit on the Secret Santa exchange after you drew her name – yeah, I know you drew her.
Draco wondered if it was possible to keep his face blank whilst suffering a heart attack. He was sure as hell going to try.
"What did you promise, Draco?"
Draco opened his mouth before closing it again slowly and glancing out into the corridor.
"It's not important what I promised I'd do," he replied, "I need to go. She won't ever forgive me for what I'm about to do, so the point is nulled."
"I'll keep her safe," Theo swore softly, holding his gaze, "I don't know how you think you'll ever have a shot with her, what with the way your folks are about blood and the way the war's about to tip, but I'll do what I can to protect her."
"She's under the Imperius curse right now," Draco admitted quietly, "I didn't want to risk her getting into the corridors tonight and being caught in the crossfire."
Theo nodded his head.
"Promise me something?" Theo asked quietly.
Draco raised his eyebrows in question.
"I… well, I… Don't do it, alright?" Theo begged quietly, "Don't murder Dumbledore yourself. Let Snape do it."
Draco simply stared at him, longing to make that promise.
"I have to do it," Draco said stonily.
"Fine, promise me something else then," Theo said, his voice dropping to a whisper before poking his head out to check the corridors, "If you ever… I don't know what good it will even do, but if there ever comes a day when you've got to choose between giving up Granger or Potter to the Dark Lord…. Just…. Don't do it. Please?"
Draco stared at him for a long moment, realising everything Theo was asking of him and suddenly jolting with knowledge he ought to have known about his best friend by now.
"You fancy him," Draco said quietly, eyeing Theo in surprise to learn he fancied blokes.
Never fancied any other bloke, even with you parading around looking like that."
He waved his hand at Draco's face and them his body.
"Six days out of seven I'm a fuckin' skirt-chaser and proud of it," Theo went on, "But the seventh I want…"
"Potter," Draco finished for him when Theo trailed off, "Why? How do you even know? You realise he's straight, don't you?"
I want to stick my hands in his messy hair and just…"
Theo shook his head, his cheeks turning red at his own words.
Theo glanced back at him, looking shocked that he'd admitted it.
"Fuck, we're messed up," Theo sighed, "Sons of Death Eaters who'd murder us if they knew the types of people we want to drag home with us. Look, I'll make you a deal, mate. I'll watch out for her however I can and you do the same for him and we'll call it even.
Draco snorted at his friend's suggestion. He didn't say it, but right then he was beyond grateful to Theo for his friendship, his admission and his bloody honesty that he didn't share with anyone but Draco. He was meant to be on the way up to make the worst mistake of his life, letting his deranged Aunt and the other Death Eaters into the school to terrorise the place and to have them witness him committing a murder he was bloody positive he couldn't commit. And Theo was distracting him in the best possible way.
"Deal," Draco held out his hand, waiting for Theo to shake it.
When the sod did so, Draco yanked on his hand, pulling the other git into a one-armed hug. More than words could ever express passed between them and Draco let the support and friendship between him and the boy who was the closest thing to a brother that Draco was every going to get buoy him along on silent footsteps until he reached the seventh floor. He was there and waiting outside the Vanishing Cabinet when Bellatrix and the others all came through, his stomach roiling and his heart in his shoes when he spied Greyback among them.
He didn't realise until much too late that Theo had distracted him just enough that his Imperius upon his favourite little muggleborn witch had slipped and set her free, putting her right back in harm's way.
Nineteen months after the end of the war, Draco Malfoy walked into the Leaky Cauldron pub beside Theodore Nott and scanned the room with his eyes. Christmas Eve was one of the biggest nights of the year in this place, he’d been told. Everyone flocked home from all corners of the Earth to spend the holidays with their families and the whole place was packed. He could see the flash of unmistakable red hair that undoubtedly belonged to the Weasley clan, dispersed throughout the pub, and he found himself scanning their group with his eyes, trying to catch a glimpse of the witch he’d been thinking about for longer than he cared to admit.
Draco himself thought it was a bit ridiculous, if he was being honest, but then he’d only recently been let off a year-long house arrest, which had followed a six month stay in Azkaban. Who was he to complain about the idea of catching up with people when he’d been essentially a recluse for the past year; Theo one of his only visitors?
“You see her anywhere?” Theo asked quietly, glancing at him.
“You see Potter anywhere?” he asked in a low voice.
“When you say things like that, I know you still fancy him,” Draco drawled at his best friend.
I don’t,” Theo denied, but his cheeks turned the faintest shade of pink and Draco knew the truth.
Try as he might – and Merlin knew, Theo had tried – he didn’t seem able to shake his crush on Potter. Draco knew the feeling. He’d been trying since third year to stop fancying Granger, to no avail. If he was being honest, he’d accepted that he was likely always going to have a thing for her at this point. Hell, most of the nights he’d spent in Azkaban had been filled with thoughts of the little curly haired witch. Be they wretched memories of seeing her tortured before the promise ring he’d put on her finger had dulled the effects enough to still have her scream, but not so much as to shatter her mind under Aunt Bella’s wand; or memories of the way they’d spent New Year’s Eve together, simply sitting, talking softly and lightly touching, Draco had relived them all.
He’d come tonight with one idea in mind. He wanted to see her. He hadn’t in almost two years. Sure, there were pictures of her in the paper quiet often. The rebuilding of Hogwarts, where she’d almost single-handedly restored the library and re-catalogued all the books while everyone else handled the rest of the castle. Her return to the school to complete her final year and to study her NEWTs while Potter and Weasley joined the Auror program. Theo had kept him informed about her during that time – one of the few others who’d repeated the year and thus one of the people she’d been forced to associate with semi-regularly.
The papers reported on her other activities too. Her brief romance with Weasley that had died in the arse before it could even really begin – something he’d smirked over when he’d seen their break-up story in the Prophet. Her entry into the Ministry workforce, taking a position in the Department for the Regulation and Control of Magical Creatures office. Draco had followed it all avidly, but there was no satisfaction in watching her ten seconds of forced smiles or scowling glares in Daily Prophet photographs. Not when he could still see that promise ring he’d given her, glittering upon her finger. Skeeter had tried to do an article about the ring, in fact, mid-way through this year when Granger had been interviewed about her new position in the Ministry.
Rita had, of course, made something much bigger of the whole thing that it actually was, but from then on there had been a weekly bet running in the Prophet gossip section about just who had made Hermione Granger a promised and given her that ring. More still speculated on whether it was an engagement ring. Any number of lads had been stepping up to claim that they’d given it to her in the hopes of securing her hand in marriage. Draco had laughed at all of them. Particularly when there’d been an explosive row recorded between Granger and Weasley a week after the first article, where Weasley had been heard accusing her of having the ring since Christmas of their sixth year, of lying about its origin into her life, and of playing him by dating him when she was clearly promised to someone else.
He’d laughed long and loud when he’d read that, especially when Granger had been recorded telling Weasley he was thicker than a concussed troll not to have noticed that she wore the bloody thing on her right hand, not her left, thereby disproving it’s origin as a betrothal ring. If she knew the promises Draco had made when imbuing the ring with the protective magic that had allowed her to keep her brilliant mind under Bella’s torture, she might not be quite so firm about just what it represented.
When pressed about it, the witch would only say that it had been given to her by someone who would not appreciate having it known that he was responsible for it.
Draco had nearly written to her with the intent of begging to differ, when he’d read that particular notion. But he hadn’t. He’d kept his distance and kept to the terms of his parole after being released from Azkaban. Now, however, he was free and he wanted to see her. Fuck, what he would give to press her up against the nearest flat surface and ravish her, but he wouldn’t. Not unless he was sure of his welcome. Which he doubted very much would be forthcoming.
“I need a drink,” Theo muttered to him while Draco continued scanning the bar for some sign of his curly haired limerence.
Nodding along with his friend, Draco followed Theo as he weaved his way over to the bar and ordered them both a whiskey. He was sipping it and still searching for her when he finally spotted her. Leaning against a wall across the room, she sipped her drink and looked like she wanted to be just about anywhere else. In her hand, she clutched a glass of what looked like eggnog, and her hands were bare of gloves. The emerald and diamonds set into the ring he’d given her glittered and winked in the light of the pub, catching his eye and making him smirk.
The thought hit him like a kick in the chest. She looked beyond good, if he was being honest. Her curls were all in a mess, beginning to frizz thanks to the relative warmth of the bar from the tightly packed bodies all emitting heat within the confined space. Tumbling down her back longer than he’d ever seen them, she’d swept a good portion of them over one shoulder. She was dressed modestly for a girl who probably knew she would be in the spotlight.
Wearing a plum coloured cocktail dress paired with black tights and heeled black boots, she had either chosen to don, or been forced into a Santa hat that was sitting slightly askew atop her head. The ensemble made his mouth water and Draco’s hands twitched with the sudden urge he had to run them over her fine feminine form. The last time he’d seen her in person, she’d been gaunt and haunted, her eyes bruised with lack of sleep, her face and body skeletal in the middle of a war.
Now, well… now she’d regained all the beauty and deliciousness of youth and just enough weight to show off all those tantalizing curves.
“Found her,” Theo smirked, following his gaze, obviously having realised that Draco had not been listening to whatever he’d been blathering on about.
“Mmmm,” Draco hummed appreciatively.
Look who she’s with,” Theo muttered.
Draco honestly hadn’t noticed anyone with her. Hell, he might as well have been alone in the whole pub with her, if not for Theo’s voice intruding on his suddenly lecherous thoughts pertaining to the curly haired witch he was so enamoured with.
Dragging his eyes from the woman, Draco spotted Potter standing right beside her. Similarly wearing a Santa hat, the spectacled saviour of the wizarding world looked like he’d rather be just about anywhere than right there at that moment too. Indeed, he looked like he was muttering to Granger about the idea of leaving the pub.
“Cheerful pair of sods, aren’t they?” Draco smirked.
“They’ll probably leave before the hour is up,” Theo grumbled, his eyes raking over Potter with decided heat.
“They’re being hassled by those reporters and photographers because Weasley is making an arse of himself with Bones,” Theo nodded toward the red-haired wizard who made up the final part of their little trio.
Indeed, he was making an arse of himself. He’d pulled the small former-Hufflepuff witch into his lap where he was seated upon a barstool and appeared to be attempting to give her mouth-to-mouth resuscitation. That, or he was attempting to strangle her with his tongue alone. It wasn’t pretty, but the reporters were lapping it up like cats with cream.
“In other words, the likelihood of cornering the two of them to talk to them just went from slim to none?” Draco sighed, raising one eyebrow at his best friend.
“Imagine her face if she knew,” Theo retorted darkly.
“Yeah, because the woman routinely doing both of the Greengrass sisters is going to care that you crave one particular bloke?” Draco snorted.
“Shut up,” Theo hissed, stomping on his foot over the idea of having anyone overhear them.
Theo looked annoyed for a moment.
“Got it,” he muttered, smirking suddenly before leaning over and beginning to whisper his plan to Draco.
Hermione sighed and laid her head on Harry’s shoulder, leaning against the wall of the Leaky Cauldron and watching Ron attempt to swallow Susan Bones whole.
“They’re making me nauseas,” Harry complained quietly.
“Me too,” Hermione sighed.
“You want to get out of here?” Harry asked.
“Don’t you usually use that line when seducing women into bed with you?” Hermione snorted.
Hermione giggled, recalling the time when she’d actually overheard Harry trying to sweet-talk Jessica Finnegan into going home with him by asking her how she liked her eggs.
“Maybe you’ve been practicing in front of the mirror?” Hermione giggled.
“I’ll spank you if you keep giggling at me, witch,” Harry warned.
“You wouldn’t dare!” Hermione gasped, shocked at his words.
“Wouldn’t I, Hermione?” Harry challenged, raising one eyebrow before grinning at her wickedly.
Hermione began to laugh all the more at the very idea of Harry clutching a paddle or some such device of divine torture.
“Let’s just go home,” Hermione laughed, linking her arm through Harry’s.
“You just got tired of rattling around that monstrous house all by yourself after Ron moved out,” Hermione rolled her eyes, letting Harry steer her through the crowd towards the exit.
Hermione rolled her eyes at the very idea.
“I am not doing the walk of shame on Christmas morning,” Hermione informed him.
“Well, where’s the fun in that?” a voice drawled out of the darkness when she and Harry stepped out the doors of the pub and into the Alley.
Harry’s hand dove for his wand instinctively, but Hermione found her eyes dropping closed in shock at the sound of a voice she was sure she knew too well for not having heard in it almost two years.
“Malfoy?” Harry asked, his eyebrows lifting when he pointed his wand in the direction of the voice before realising who it was.
“Potter,” Malfoy nodded and Hermione opened her eyes slowly, butterflies beginning to riot in her stomach.
Gods, she hadn’t seen him in nineteen months. Not since the end of the war and his subsequent trial.
Hermione lifted her gaze to look in the direction of the two wizards who both seemed to be leaning against the wall of the pub, standing in the snowy alley and puffing on pipes. The sight seemed so utterly alien that a small giggle escaped her.
Harry and Hermione looked at each other, mirrored expressions of abject horror crossing their faces over the very idea.
“Urgh!” Harry said inarticulately.
“That would be disgusting,” Hermione declared, unable to take her eyes off Draco when she looked back at him.
A year confined to his house had obviously done him some good after his stay in prison. She’d seen photographs in the paper when he’d been re-tried and released on parole. Back then he’d looked as bad as he’d done during the height of the war. Now he looked much like the Draco Malfoy she recalled snogging in sixth year. All sleek blonde hair that hung in his eyes, pointed features, silver eyes glittering with something she could never quite name and that Malfoy-patented smirk.
Theo Nott laughed at their reactions to the idea of shagging one another.
Hermione smirked to herself when Harry nearly dropped his wand in surprise. She was the only person who knew Harry’s little secret about swinging whichever way took his fancy. Of course, he’d never swung any way but the witches way, no matter how he’d admitted to Hermione whilst drunk over Easter, that he’d been having hot dreams about a bloke.
“Cat got your tongue, Granger?” Draco asked her quietly and Hermione suddenly felt heavy.
Gods, he was actually there. There and talking to her and smirking that wicked smirk in her direction and suddenly Hermione’s lips were tingling as they hadn’t since he’d snogged her goodbye before throwing his life away and letting Death Eaters into the school.
“Just a little surprised to see you walking around free, Draco,” Hermione replied quietly, watching out the corner of her eye as Harry recovered and began verbally sparring with Nott, who seemed to enjoy antagonizing her best friend entirely too much.
When Theo offered Harry a puff on his pipe, Hermione was surprised as Harry took it and puffed.
“You don’t seem pleased about it,” Malfoy noted quietly, somehow managing to manoeuvre himself between her and Harry as Harry was drawn into conversation that looked and sounded and awful lot like flirtatious banter with Theo.
“I… Honestly, I’m a little bit shocked to see you,” Hermione admitted, looking bravely up at Draco.
A thousand thoughts ran through her head as she stared at him. Anger with him for what he’d done that day so long ago, using an Unforgiveable on her to try and protect her and keep her from interfering with his plan to let the Death Eaters in. Relief that, after all this time, he seemed much the same as he’d been that New Year’s Eve she’d spent with him. Confusion over the fact that there were butterflies in her stomach and tingles in her lips and a strange weakness in her knees simply at the sight of his face and the sound of his voice. She wanted to slap him. To scold him. To scream at him. To snog him senseless like she’d done only a few times before.
“It’s been a while,” Malfoy nodded his head, tipping it slightly ever so slightly as he regarded her curiously.
“I… erm… uh?” Hermione frowned when words seemed to fail her, her fingers suddenly twisting the ring upon her finger that he’d given her – a nervous habit she’d yet to kick.
“Articulation is such an admirable quality,” he teased lightly and Hermione found a genuine smile of amusement pulling at the corners of her mouth.
He reached out slightly and tugged very gently on one of the loose curls dangling over her right shoulder.
“I didn’t want to overwhelm or seem conceited,” Hermione replied, grinning in return.
“Ah, yes that certainly wouldn’t do,” he chuckled quietly.
Hermione stared at him for a moment before glancing past him to meet Harry’s gaze, finding him smiling in her direction just the tiniest bit. Looking back at Malfoy, Hermione raised her eyebrows at him.
“So…?” she said, fingers still twisting the emerald on her finger.
“Your… what question?” Hermione frowned, recalling in vivid detail that he’d once asked her if she though they could ever work. She recalled telling him that maybe they could’ve, in another life.
“I asked you to forgive me,” he reminded her very softly, his smile slipping away and leaving worried grey eyes and a slight frown in it’s wake, almost as though he were bracing for her rejection.
He sighed at her words, obviously thinking she was about to list his many other misdeeds, faults and wrong-doings.
Hermione opened her mouth, her own brow furrowing before she glanced down at her hands where her left-hand fingers continued twisting the promise ring he’d given her around and around and around.
“I understand if you can’t, Granger,” he said in a low voice.
Malfoy raised his eyebrows in silent question as he continued to stare at her. Hermione held up her hand indicatively, showing him the promise ring.
“What you promised. I figured it out,” Hermione told him.
“Oh?” his lips twitched.
He was still watching her, those silver eyes that so often haunted her dreams fixed upon her own brown pair, boring into her and making her feel like he was looking into her soul.
One side of his mouth quirked up in a half-smile at her words.
“No, I was waiting for you to continue detailing just what it is that you think I promised with that thing,” Draco smirked.
“There’s more?” Hermione frowned at him.
He actually laughed at her, causing Theo and Harry to look over from where they both leaned against the wall of the pub now, passing the pipe between them and trading banter. Hermione idly realised that Harry was flirting with the Slytherin boy and had to hide her grin.
“I… you…. But…” Hermione eyes went wide as she glanced at the ring upon her finger, noting that at some stage while she’d been showing him and explaining her theory, he’d taken her hand and begun toying with the ring.
“You…?” Hermione felt like her heart might be pounding hard enough against her ribcage to break right through and burst out of her chest.
“I really need you to forgive me, Granger,” Malfoy told her quietly, sliding the emerald ring off her ring hand ring finger before catching her left hand.
His smirk was wicked when he paused, the tip of her wedding finger sticking through the circlet of the promise ring, just waiting to glide down the length of the digit to meet her knuckle.
| https://harrypotterfanfiction.com/printerfriendly.php?mode=story&object=335416 | 34,720 |
<issue_start><issue_comment>Title: Unknown Error (code: redirect_uri_mismatch)
username_0: ## Bug Description
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I tried to connect Site Kit using my account. A redirect_uri_mismatch ensues when I tried connecting it via the email account I use.
I have done the following:
- verified my site using html.
- connected both analytics and console
- used https
## Steps to reproduce
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1. Go to your Sitekit Dashboard.
2. Input client ID and follow directions until done.
## Screenshots
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## Additional Context
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- PHP Version: 5.6.4
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## Acceptance criteria
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## Implementation Brief
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<issue_comment>username_1: @username_0 Can you please check your WordPress site settings under "Settings > General" in your WordPress dashboard. Confirm your WordPress Address (URL) and Site Address (URL) match, and ensure they have a https prefix if you are using a https website.
If you have already checked and both addresses match please share your [Site Health info](https://i.imgur.com/Rtkmsba.png) from your WordPress dashboard and we can troubleshoot further.
<issue_comment>username_0: I see. It's now fixed. The WordPress site settings was the culprit. Thank
you!<issue_closed> | 12792481 | 636 |
A sponsored APMP webinar featuring Jeremy Steinberg of RocketDocs.
RocketDocs 2.0 is an innovative response and content management platform backed by 25 years of industry expertise. Over time, RocketDocs has built their product to solve the most pressing challenges that RFP writers face daily. Join their webinar to learn strategies for managing common pain points (and how RocketDocs can support those strategies).
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Jeremy is the VP of Product at RocketDocs where he oversees the development of RocketDocs 2.0, working with customers, sales, and market intelligence to drive the continued evolution of the platform. Jeremy was previously the VP of Customer Experience at RocketDocs where he led the professional services and managed services side of the business.
Before joining RocketDocs, Jeremy served in numerous executive positions, most recently as a managing partner of Antson Advisors, a Baltimore-based management consulting firm. | https://members.apmp.org/APMP/Event_display.aspx?EventKey=030122WEB&_zs=GwMhd1&_zl=CWxB8 | 221 |
The Pearl District, once dominated by abandoned warehouses, was transformed in the 1980's when visionary developers like Hoyt Street Properties saw the potential for converting forgotten industrial sites into vibrant loft live/work spaces.
Chic shops, striking urban architecture, and a lively buzz resonates throughout Portland's Pearl District, one of the city's most exciting, progressive urban neighborhoods.
Today, the Pearl District is a diverse blend of art galleries, parks, upscale restaurants, anchor and boutique retailers, creative living options, and an urban population who thrive on its vibrant pulse. | https://ello.co/keoneoe/post/avw9axolmyatjbb_bzslzq | 112 |
I introduced to you about the Japanese NOREN before on this Blog.
NOREN is a Japanese traditional door curtain.
Persimmon Juice Dye -Hand Made by a Japanese Professional Craftsman.
The persimmon juice dye has been widely used for Japanese goods for a long time since about the Heian era.
The juice of the persimmon has the character to dye only the cloth of a natural material.
Because the bitter juice of the persimmon is taken from the nature, it can be said it is very ecological.
The workman dyed this item introduced here carefully with the hand one by one.
In your home or for the present, how about such wonderful craft goods from Japan?
This is a NOREN or the Japanese door cartain to be hang from the ceiling of an entrance or somewhere you would like a divider.
Ex. kitchen entrance, shop, etc. Of course, you can use it as a tapestry if you wish.
JapanStyle will join the Blog Action Day!!! It is an annual event that unites the world’s bloggers in posting about the same issue on the same day.
The aim is to raise awareness and trigger a global discussion.
The theme for 2009 is “Climate Change”. I’ll post some articles about it on 15th, so please visit my Blog!
Are Poles and Wires Too Much of an Eyesore? | 9f6eb337c5c5ebf482a368e19508972d | 297 |
This was shot from outside the BBC Scotland building at Glasgow's Pacific Quay. The "looky-likey" Sydney Opera House (budget edition) is nicknamed The Armadillo by the people of the city.
I cropped this shot on the advice of one of the members here... GOOD CALL!!
It looks much better balanced now Steven - thanks for taking my advice!
No, David - Thank you!! | https://www.pentaxuser.com/photo/search-springtime--cropped/the-armadillo--cropped--42484 | 85 |
For over 18 years we have been producing great quality prints for small,
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Today's briefing by Press Secretary Robert Gibbs began late. Originally scheduled for 1 p.m. ET, it was moved to 2, then 2:15. Gibbs showed up at the podium at 2:37.
In the time between the original scheduled start and Gibbs' arrival, the Congressional Black Caucus demanded the reinstatement of Shirley Sherrod. We learned that Obama supported the USDA's decision to "reconsider" her firing, which isn't saying much. How much more is there to consider? She's owed an apology and her job back, if she wants it.
Gibbs said Secretary Vilsack is trying to reach Shirley Sherrod, and when he reaches her, he will apologize. But he is still in the process of "reviewing" all the facts, and he won't say that Vilsack will just offer her her job back. The president was briefed on the matter yesterday morning.
"Without a doubt," Gibbs said, "Ms. Sherrod is owed an apology."
And, of course, Gibbs was asked if the president was angry about the Sherrod incident. Gibbs refused to say.
Update, 2:50 p.m. Jake Tapper said "apparently she's watching this briefing on CNN right now, is there anything you'd like to say to her?" Gibbs repeated that Vilsack is trying to reach her to apologize. And Gibbs apologized again.
Why was there such an overreaction? Gibbs blamed the news cycle. And: If this is a teachable moment, who is the teacher? Gibbs could not say.
Vilsack's job is safe.
Chuck Todd with a weird one: "Does the president think this is about race or media?" What, Chuck? Is "Star Wars" about aliens or robots?
Update, 3:30 p.m. "So, Robert, is the lesson, 'don't trust the internet,' or what?" Robert Gibbs announced that everyone should probably stop just replaying 2-minute internet clips on TV without understanding what they mean, from now on. He is probably right! (But while the media criticism was more or less correct, Gibbs never completely explained why this administration capitulated to the worst media tendencies this time.) And then Gibbs left.
| https://www.salon.com/2010/07/21/robert_gibbs_shirley_sherrod/ | 463 |
Diarist Samuel Pepys first recorded Mr Punch in 1662. Pepys saw the character as a marionette in London’s Covent Garden operated by Italian puppeteer Signor Bologna. Mr Punch (or Pulchinella) was displayed in a tent, as opposed to the kind of booth we see him in today with an audience watching while standing outside.
Pepys returned just 14 days later, this time bringing his wife. That October, a performance was put on for the King at Whitehall. Pepys also recorded seeing a number of other puppetry showmen from Italy perform in England. In 1672, the King demanded that a puppeteer perform at Charing Cross.
Strolling puppeteers, however, continued to perform in portable booths up and down the country, putting on shows based around legends and Bible stories. Norwich was especially active in puppetry in the 17th century. That tradition continues in the city today.
Satan has long had a role to play in puppetry shows, in fact. He has also made numerous appearances alongside Mr Punch. The May Fair from 1699 featured a written account of a show it described as a senseless piece of dialogue, taking place between the Devil and Pulchinello, which was performed in front of the audience through a tin speaker. Walter Wilkinson was responsible for making the puppet and did a lot to give some credibility back to glove puppetry in the first half of the 20th century.
Puppetry theatre became a fashionable form of adult entertainment in 18th-century London. Other marionettes established themselves soon after 1710 when Martin Powell’s Dublin puppets opened at a St Martin’s Lane theatre.
Powell’s theatre featured scenery, backcloths, and footlights. He performed at a Covent Garden tavern, along in towns such as Oxford, Bristol, and Bath. His marionettes satirized such contemporary theatrical fashions as Italian opera and lampooned celebrities. Other puppetry theatres in the 18th century included Exeter Change’s Patagonian Theatre and James Streets’ Punch’s Theatre.
In 1770 a company of Italian marionettes (or fantoccini) introduced a new wave of European puppetry to London. Companies from Italy performed comedic opera, plays based on the Commedia dell’arte featuring Columbine and Harlequin, as well as ‘magical’ scenery transformations.
Just seven years later, four West End puppetry companies were in existence, along with an oriental-style shadow theatre show called ‘Ombres Chinoises’. One was managed by the famous Philip Astley and included shadow theatre in a show he put on in Piccadilly.
By the start of the 19th century, puppetry shows at larger fairs were close to dying out due to high operating costs. Glove puppet versions of Punch and Judy, however, came to be commonplace in London portable booths.
Mother Shipton was a character that featured in a number of plays in the 18th century. From early Tudor times, she was regarded as a prophetess throughout the country and in her local county of Yorkshire.
Many of Mother Shipton’s prophecies are thought to have included the Great Fire of London, the death of Wolsey, and the Civil Wars. She’s portrayed as an unattractive old lady with an upturned chin and a hooked nose. She appeared in 17th-century plays and pantomime, in addition to puppet theatre, in which she typically smoked a pipe. | https://periscopiounima.org/the-early-history-of-puppetry-part-2/ | 749 |
... Procedure Act (APA) to request public comment and publicize this regulation through all required avenues... COMDINST M5728.2D. COMDINST M5728.2D is the Coast Guard Public Affairs Manual intended to provide non.... This regulation was published in accordance with the Administrative Procedure Act (APA) in the Federal...
Refleksioner over madens festival og fremstilling af en typologisk skitse med fire grundtyper, der kunne benævnes �Dyrskuet�, �Høstgudstjenesten�, �Bilka-fødselsdagsfesten� og �Food Festivalen�.......Refleksioner over madens festival og fremstilling af en typologisk skitse med fire grundtyper, der kunne benævnes �Dyrskuet�, �Høstgudstjenesten�, �Bilka-fødselsdagsfesten� og �Food Festivalen�....
The terrace of Restaurant 3 was once again transformed into the CERN version of Glastonbury on 25 July, for the 20th edition of the CERN Hardronic Festival. This mythical yearly music event gathered over 1000 CERNois, CERNoises and CERNoisettes (the little ones jumping on bouncy castles) for a fabulous hot day in a spirit of summer fairs and good music. Twelve of the best bands in the CERN Musiclub played an assortment of excellent music ranging from country to pop and rock, ending with metal mayhem by midnight, which spread havoc amongst a crowd of students who rocked and headbanged into the night. Produced by the CERN Musiclub and Softball clubs as a community event, under the motto "Have fun together to work better together", the Hardronic has always been the most popular family entertainment day at CERN.
Innovation in rural festivals. Are festival managers disempowered?
Rural festivals are numerous and remarkably diverse happenings. Ranging from harvest festivals to cultural celebrations and sports events, festivals have become a signifi cant source of enjoyment, inspiration and business opportunities for the rural communities’ members and visitors alike...
Som den italienske antropolog og folklorist Alessandro Falassi gør opmærksom på i antologien Time out of Time: Essays on the Festival, så er det sparsomt, hvad der er gjort af teoretiske forsøg på definere, hvad en festival er. Det står altså skidt til med et begreb om festivalen, og dette endog...... til trods for, at der er forsket i festivalen som fænomen siden det 19. århundrede – tilmed inden for en række forskellige faglige discipliner såsom religionsvidenskab, sociologi, antropologi, folklore m.fl. Endnu mere sparsomt må det vel så også stå til med bud på, hvad fødens festival er for en...
The article is an introduction to the festival 'Visioner av Nuet' Stockholm, 1966. The article focuses on the historical event, and contextualizes it to both the discussions on art and technology at the time, and to the planned collaborations with the prominent artists from the American group E.......A.T. such as Billy Klüver, John Cage, Robert Rauchenberg and Öyvind Fahlström, - collaborations that never were succeeded. The article was written on a request from Anna Lundh and published in the catalogue for her reactualization of 'Visioner av Nuet, Stockholm Festival for Art and Technology', Stockholm 2013....
Background Materials on Ching Ming Festival [And] Winter Festival [And] Dragon Boat Festival.
Methaemoglobinaemia during Holi festival.
We report eight children who developed methaemoglobinaemia after exposure to contaminated colours used during Holi, a traditional festival celebrated in India. Methaemoglobinaemia can be life-threatening, but outcome is good if treated in time with intravenous methylene blue. Physicians might encounter such cases after exposure to Holi colours and hence should be aware of this life-threatening but easily treatable complication.
On 8 August, the Hardronic Festival took place on the terrace of Restaurant 3 in Prévessin. Ten bands from the CERN MusiClub played an assortment of excellent music in a non-stop show that lasted until the early hours. Hundreds of people gathered by the stage, favouring the Hardronic rhythms over the bangs and crackles of the Fête de Genève fireworks.
Full Text Available El mito de un pueblo que no puede, según se dice, tener acceso al arte por una especie de incapacidad intrÃnseca y que no se halla interesado en la cultura, quedó desenmascarado en el Festival Iberoamericano de Teatro , Bogotá 88, por el abrumador plebiscito del público bogotano que, ora frente a los espectáculos gratuitos del teatro callejero, ora disputándose boletas muy costosas, mostró que, al contrario de los que nos dicen los medios de comunicación comercializados, está ávido de verdadero arte, de superarse y de encontrar salidas efectivas a su situación de atraso e ignorancia.
How to Stage a Jazz Festival.
Tallinnas algas eile kolmas Vene filmide festival, mis toimub Tallinna kobarkinos ja alates 16. novembrist ka Narva kobarkinos. Algas festival nädala eest Riias. Vitali Melnikovi mängufilmist "Peksa vaenlast"
Festival Citylink (FCL) is a shopping center that using concept mixed-use integration between shopping center, hotels and convention center located in South Bandung area. The problem that faces by Festival Citylink is low on brand equity performance, brand history and the intense of competition. Based on survey result in 2011, Festival Cityink has low in brand awareness, recall and response. The negative perception brand image from predecessor Mollis as shopping center before Festival Citylin...
Anmeldelse af Sten Hanson festival, hvor der udover kunstneren selv, deltog en række prominente performance- og lydkunstnere fra ind- og udland.......Anmeldelse af Sten Hanson festival, hvor der udover kunstneren selv, deltog en række prominente performance- og lydkunstnere fra ind- og udland....
Ghanaian youth and festive transvestism.
'Festive transvestism' is an increasingly visible cross-dressing practice performed by young people in the Southern parts of contemporary Ghana. Based on participant observation in four cross-dressing events, 15 individual interviews and a focus-group discussion, festive cross-dressing is understood as a contemporary ritual that mainly serves the purpose of reinforcing and reproducing gender binaries as well as heteronormativity in Ghanaian society. Nevertheless cross-dressing events also provide a subjective, creative and exploratory space--although temporary and circumscribed--for the transvestites as well as for the spectators to deconstruct sex, gender and sexuality through the performativity of transvestism. The opening of this exploratory space is made possible by the liminality of the social category of youth in Ghana, which grants young people, especially young men, more liberty and (gender) flexibility. Finally, the paper challenges the widely spread Western perception that feminine men and cross-dressers are necessarily homosexual by resituating the concept of homosexuality within the context of Ghanaian society, where it has recently started to occupy the public space.
RESUMEN: El joven festival internacional de danza oriental Shatti Santander ha supuesto un soplo de aire fresco para nuestra comunidad autónoma, Cantabria. La constancia y trabajo duro dedicado por parte de sus directoras Marta Casado y Ana Tejera, junto con el apoyo obtenido de las instituciones ha hecho posible este proyecto. La meta a conseguir por mi parte mediante este trabajo es lograr el objetivo con el que nació el festival: ser el número uno a nivel nacional de todos los festiv...
Full Text Available The focus of this article is on the “festivalization� of Sarajevo, the capital city of Bosnia-Herzegovina, after the signing of the Dayton Agreement (1995, and the donor environment during that time that largely supported foreign rather than local performances. I chronicle a shift - from socialist-era regional festivals before the war to post-war period staged multi-day multi-performance events with foreign programming - and highlight the tendency of donors to de-emphasize local difference as a way of creating politically safe aiding strategies. I unpack why the “festival model� was attractive to local and foreign cultural organizers during this period. Specifically I discuss the reorganization of the Sarajevo Winter Festival as well as other festivals that existed before the war and continued to produce such events after the war.
Nädalavahetusel algab festival "Ariel"
Science festivals are the innovative method to introduce the scientific information for the children of various age groups. Every year Vigyan Prasar organize one national level live science festival in summer holidays through its EduSAT network and six virtual science festivals at various remote locations of the country. Through the science festival with the help of do yourself programme children can learn basic information about the science and technology. With the help of these science fes...
Motives for attending the Cultivaria Arts festival | Saayman | South ...
Cultivaria is one of South Africa's newest arts festivals and is held at Paarl annually. The festival is one combining the arts, wine and food. The purpose of this research is to determine the reasons (motives) for visitors attending the festival. This information is needed so that a marketing plan can be developed, as well as to ...
Full Text Available Purpose: Arts festivals, as a form of event tourism, are becoming more and more popular in South Africa with new festivals developing annually. The Volksblad Arts Festival in Bloemfontein celebrated its fifth anniversary in 2005. The purpose of this paper is to indicate the economic impact of the annual Volksblad Arts Festival on the local economy of Bloemfontein. Results are also compared with research done at other popular festivals in South Africa. Design/Methodology/Approach: The main thrust of the paper is to determine the economic impact of the Volksblad Arts Festival in Bloemfontein. More than 400 visitor questionnaires and 72 business questionnaires were administered and successfully completed during the festival that took place from 12-17 July 2005. Findings: The results show that this festival generates R18 405 653. If one compares it to festivals such as the KKNK in Oudtshoorn, the National Arts Festival in Grahamstown and even Aardklop held in Potchefstroom, it is evident that Volksblad is a smaller festival and it is therefore also expected that the economic impact of the festival should be less. Implications: This paper presents a comprehensive approach to understanding the measurement of the economic impact of a festival like the Volksblad Arts Festival. It provides tourism managers of Bloemfontein with an indication of the potential of event tourism as a source of income for the city. It also indicates the need for more extensive marketing in order to increase the percentage of non-local visitors to the particular festival. Originality/Value: Bloemfontein is increasingly regarded as an event tourism destination rather than an end destination for leisure tourists. This research represents an original attempt to indicate the potential impact of events to the tourism managers of Bloemfontein as well as other destinations with similar interests.
Film festivals have become a widespread phenomenon over the last fifty years and are leading events establishing the reputation of film professionals and constitute a well-established field in itself. Studying the cities of Copenhagen and Rome the authors are asking why the public authorities...... of these cities establish their own film festivals in an lready saturated field of international film festivals? The focus is on the strategic responses and work made by two late adopters of film festivals – Copenhagen and Rome and their international film festivals, CIFF and ‘Festa del Cinema di Roma’ (FCR......). The comparative case study is based on qualitative data and methods. It investigates how the two festivals establish, legitimate and position themselves within the existing, institutionalised field of international film festivals. Combining the classical work on early and late adopters in the diffusion of ideas...
Full Text Available This text is a report of my own experience as curator of short films at the Mostra de Cinema de Tiradentes for the past 5 years. Created in 1988, the festival has a focun in independent, auteur brazilian cinema, and has become one of the larger platforms for the exhibition and discussion of contemporary brazilian cinema.
Full Text Available This is an ethnographic study which described the local knowledge of the Lucbanin on Pahiyas. The generation of information on the local knowledge as described by the Lucbanin unfolded the natives‘ meanings in celebrating Philippine festivities such as Pahiyas Festival. Further, their cultural practices and beliefs, handed down from generation to generation served as contributory factors in the acquisition of local knowledge on Pahiyas, revealing its priceless and transcendent beauty. Triangulation was used in the study to analyze and interpret field notes based on participant observations, interviews and document/s analyses. Theme analysis was conducted concurrently with data gathering. Coding was used to classify and identify emerging themes/categories which provided extensive analysis of the data. Results revealed that oral traditions played significant contributions in the acquisition of local knowledge of the Lucbanins in the preparations and celebration of Pahiyas Festival .Oral traditions coupled with direct and participants’ observations, formal and informal education as well as folklore served as mystical instruments in the preservation and promotion of Lucbanins’ cultural and spiritual values and beliefs, keeping Pahiyas Festival as a moving and dynamic legacy throughout the years. The role of oral traditions as rooted in Lucbanins’ local history is a symbol of a true and genuine Lucbanin, entirely different from other locals in the country.
Pärnus 14.-16. novembrini kestva kirjanduse ja muusika festivali "Kahe ilu festival" eelinfo - korraldavad Vaimse Rutiini Preventsiooni Sihtasutus, Kultuurilabor, Pärnu ooper ja Kunstide Maja, festivali raames toimub luulemaraton ning kõnekoosolek "Meie igapäevane põrgu"
Full Text Available Food festivals are a mainstay of the festival sector and some surveys show that they currently account for 30 percent. Despite this, we know very little about this important part of event tourism, and its economic and social impacts. This study tries to show, by econometric methods, the impacts on the local economy made by food festivals – and, at the same time, fhe effects -of the multiplicator and spillover factors. This paper looks for some correlation between the local index-number of tourism and gastronomic festivals, using data from more than 200 events and festivals and 123 settlements. The first step in the survey was to determine two tourism factors, and this was followed by our methodological studies of these factors. Although the summarized conclusions may not support the general opinion as can be found in the relevant literature – that is, a positive correlation between gastronomic festivals and local tourism, new research directions are revealed.
Full Text Available This paper is about two things. On the one hand it tries to observe some of the changes after the digital revolution, changes that had an impact on film festivals. The digital projection and acceptance of digital films to film festivals have been achieved. Yet an aspect of this digitization is under attack. The film submissions through digital portals. The second aspect is often neglected and an under the other topic: short film festivals, especially for and by the young.
The Learning Festival: Pathway to Sustainable Learning Cities?
The National Road Festival is a four-day event scheduled in mid-May along a 90-mile section of U.S. Route 40 within the southwestern Pennsylvania counties of Washington, Fayette, and Somerset. This 26-year tradition commemorates America's first federally funded highway and includes over 30 recreational sites and community attractions. The Festival provides a...
Full Text Available The purpose of this study is to examine the strategic marketing tools (instruments such as segmentation and targeting for a better understanding of current and potential audiences of classical music festivals. Arts administrators need to locate and address the audience segmentation, enhancing communication with audiences of all segments. The marketing strategies for music festivals should include improving music festival branding as well as developing diverse programs and engaging with the community on multiple levels. The study incorporates a literature review of the recent sociological research dealing with the consumption of arts products and a case study approach on the fifteenth edition of Romanian Music Festival in Iași, involving an audience survey. The research can be used as a tool to inform marketing and audience development plans for the organisers of Romanian Music Festival and other arts organisations. It also contains insights that organisations might find useful in the development of an arts activity itself.
Measuring success of a wine festival: is it really that simple ...
One of the country's largest wine festivals, the Wacky Wine Festival, is held annually in Robertson, South Africa. Forty-eight wine farms participate actively in the Robertson Valley that forms part of the wine route and festival, which makes this wine festival unique. This paper presents the results of a survey that was ...
Full Text Available The article offers a tour around the annual festive cycle of Carmona (Seville, with special emphasis on the cult acts and religiousness. The data, result of the direct observation, have been supported by other historical in nature which provides a diachronic overview of the major festivals in this city. This will enables an overall analysis of the most recent transformations of the festive fact in a population that can serve as a model for the Low Andalusia. Pursuing this goal in this article are described the organizing agents and the degrees of participation from different sectors of the community, are detected the influence of dominant models and different processes of festive revitalization. Finally, the information provided allows a reflection about the consequences of modernity in the festive fact.
The Hardronic Festival is one of the most popular events of the summer at CERN. Given its big success and the huge number of bands wanting to perform, this year the organisers have decided to hold it over two and a half days. Don’t miss it on the evening of 16 July and all day on 17 July!  Simon Baird, EN Deputy Department Leader and President of the Music Club, is proud of the Club's success. Established in 1985, the Club now has more than 100 members from CERN and outside. “Several bands use our rehearsal room in Building 566, and this year 16 bands wanted to perform at the Hardronic Festival, our flagship event�, says Simon. “We wanted to give all of them a reasonable amount of time on stage and thus we extended the duration of the Festival�. The Club has become very popular. Its rehearsal room, fully equipped with two pianos, amplifiers, drum kits, microphones, speakers, etc., has reached its booking capacity. “The facil...
La Fête de la science (Festival of Science) in France has become an unmissable event, where researchers and the general public meet each other amid microscopes and computers. The 2005 event runs during the week 10 to 16 October and CERN, as every year, is part of it. In the programme of events at the Laboratory: The exhibition 'One hundred years after Einstein' opens on 11 October. Based on an exhibition from the Cité des Sciences et de l'Industrie in Paris, it shows Einstein's discoveries, their impact and applications a hundred years later. For the week of the Festival of Science, the opening hours are extended to 9am-5pm every day. Also in the Globe, a workshop entitled 'Poussière d'étoiles' (Stardust) will enable young and old alike to see a working cloud chamber and to detect some of the countless cosmic particles that pass through our atmosphere. In this workshop, budding physicists can learn the ABC of detecting and identifying particles. (Wednesday 12 October 2-5pm, Saturday 15 October 9a...
Full Text Available Festival “Gunung Kromong Palimanan� merupakan festival seni budaya sebagai wujud aksi sosial budaya dan pelestarian seni rakyat yang bermuara pada kepedulian lingkungan. Metode yang digunakan adalah metode riset pengabdian masyarakat dengan mengadakan aksi revitalisasi aset budaya, mengkoordinasi generasi muda, mengadakan festival seni budaya. Melalui metode tersebut, Festival seni budaya dapat terwujud dalam mengatasi perubahan sosial budaya masyarakat dengan berpegang pada nilai-nilai budaya yang berlaku dalam lingkungan masyarakat setempat. Konsep artistik Festival Gunung Kromong menggunakan konsep pertunjukan yang disajikan dengan menggunakan tata panggung realis dan tata pentas prosenium. Kegiatan seni pertunjukan adalah konsep pertunjukan seni tradisional kegiatan yang multi disiplin ilmu, mulai dari penata gerak (koregrafer, tata make up, tata suara (seni musik, seni dekorasi tata panggung (lighting, back droop atau backround. Hasil dari riset pengabdian kepada masyarakat ini berupa festival seni budaya yang terdiri dari arak-arakan (pawai budaya dan sajian seni pertunjukan yang dikemas dalam ‘Gunung Kromong Performing Arts’. Kata kunci: Festival, lighting, back droop, backround, Gunung Kromong Performing art.
-friendly workplace while simultaneously strengthening the networks between the civic society and the city. Some of the local sports associations took advantage of the festival’s need for volunteers to recruit and strengthen the ties with potential, “sleeping� volunteers before and during the festival. In doing so......In 2013 the most important sport-for-all-festival in Denmark, the Landsstævne dating back to 1863 successfully took place in the city of Esbjerg. The relationship of the stakeholders managing the festival was the subject of a study of the difference in aims, strategies and power in the last four...
333 An Examination of the Festival Motif in Femi Osofisan's ...
ceremonies, festivals, religious rites, oral storytelling and various kinds of ... Music and dance set the mood and tempo of activities during the ceremonies. In fact, a ..... connects the audience to history by using familiar mythical artefacts in the ...
Present work was conducted to evaluate the physico-chemical properties of water samples Tapi River during Ganesh festival at Umara Ovara immersion site. Water samples were collected and analyzed for temperature, turbidity, total solids, total dissolved solids, total suspended solids, pH, total alkalinity, total hardness, calcium hardness, DO, BOD, COD, and Oil and Grease etc. during pre-immersion, immersion and post-immersion periods of festival. It was noted that the values of most of the pa...
Full Text Available The Draga�evo Trumpet Festival in Gu�a (The Republic of Serbia is a unique competition of folk brass bands in the world and one of the most important events of the overall national creativity and cultural amateurism in Serbia. Therefore, Gu�a represents an event which is used for branding of tourist offer and musical culture of Serbia at regional and international level. The paper delivers the results of a questionnaire research conducted during the 50th anniversary of The Draga�evo Trumpet Festival in Gu�a (DTF in August 2010. The results were based on 300 questionnaires. The questionnaire contained, in one of its parts, questions regarding festival branding and influences, i.e. effects which brands (various advertisements of great sponsors and festival donators may produce and thus leave an impression on perception of each visitor as well as on a destination itself.
Full Text Available ÄŒlánek se soustÅ™eÄ�uje na fenomén slavnosti, jenž je inherentà každému sportovnÃmu agonu. Slavnost je analyzována jako fenomén setkánà Ä�lovÄ›ka s poÄ�átkem, jenž je posvátný, proto je zde ve hÅ™e jiná úloha Ä�asu než je Ä�as pochopený jako fyzikálnà entita. SouÄ�asnost potÅ™ebuje vytrženà tohoto typu, protože je nasmÄ›rována jen smÄ›rem k budoucnosti a takové rozvrženà života dává pÅ™ednost jen práci bez pÅ™estánÃ, takový život je nÄ›kdy velmi těžký a to pÅ™ispÃvá ke vzniku jevů, kterým Å™Ãkáme 'útÄ›ky ze spoleÄ�nosti'. Tyto útÄ›ky se realizujà formou drog, alkoholu, práce a prevalence osobnà výkonnosti. [The article concentrates on the phenomenon of festivity, which is inherent to every championship. The festivity is analyzed as phenomenon of human meeting with an origin, that is sacred and therefore we find here the other role of time as in the physical science. Present needs an ecstasy from this point of view, because is directed only to the future and this scheme prefers to persistent working, such life is very difficult and supports to the inception of phenomena, that are named the escapes from society. This escapes are realised through drugs, alcohol, workoholism anf through limitless personal performance.
Full Text Available Sukkot is a festival that occurs in autumn and finishes the agricultural cycle of holidays in the Old Testament. It reflects divine care of his own people. In the eschatological texts of the Old Testament, the term “Sukkot� refers to a new, changed reality. Prophet Ezekiel recognizes only two holidays in eschatological times: Pesach and Sukkot. Zechariah leaves only one term “Sukkot� and connects it with a general concept of the conversion of all nations to God in Jerusalem. Jesus gives the eschatological significance to the meaning of Sukkot when he refers to himself in the texts of the New Testament (Mt 17: 1–8; 21: 1–9; 33–34; Mk 9: 2–8. In theological sense Jesus becomes “sukka� – “the shelter.� Eschatological meaning of Sukkot fulfills itself in a gift of salvation in Jesus and through Jesus. He becomes the climax of salvation. Jesus is the eschatological, ritual and theological meaning of shelter, water and light.
Festivals and events are becoming increasingly important drivers of tourism activity in Maine. Based on a survey of festival visitors, this study used an IMPLANTM input-output model to estimate the economic impact of the 2008 American Folk Festival in Bangor, ME. The Center for Tourism Research and Outreach estimated that 95,626 local and...
© 2017 Elsevier Ltd. Festivals play an important role in rural communities, and they are typically embedded in the local ecosystems of sports, culture, business and other types of associations, where they might deliver elements of coherence, commitment and meaning, as well as occasional economic...... reasons, generally low-ranked by organizers. On the other hand, there is strong evidence that local businesses actually participate in rural festivals' ecosystems and that there are numerous mutual interactions among local businesses, festival organizers and residents that together create an excellent...... means for driving entrepreneurial activity. It is a delicate undertaking to strengthen partnerships with entrepreneurs without compromising community objectives. Several potential courses of action are proposed....
The Festival de Cine de Lima (Lima Film Festival) was launched in 1997 as ‘elcine’ with ten days of screenings composed of 21 features and 38 shorts from ten Latin American countries alongside a three-day event in the southern city of Arequipa. Over 15,000 spectators attended what was described by its organisers as an ‘unprecedented event’[1] – not just for its statistics but also for the way it encouraged private enterprise to support a major cultural activity, involved many young people in ...
 Roskilde Festival analyseres som et innovationssystem. Festivallen har tætte, langsigtede og mangefacetterede relationer til organisationer i lokalområdet. Det bidrager direkte til innovationer inden for management, produkter, markedsføring og teknologi....... Roskilde Festival analyseres som et innovationssystem. Festivallen har tætte, langsigtede og mangefacetterede relationer til organisationer i lokalområdet. Det bidrager direkte til innovationer inden for management, produkter, markedsføring og teknologi....
The content of this work is animation of music and analysis of a specific instrument, which is marketing and PR. The art of music is focused on classical music festival. The practical part examines the individual components of marketing as a SWOT analysis, marketing mix in two music festivals taking place in the Czech Republic. It is the Smetana's Litomyšl International Opera Festival and the International Festival of Sacred Art St. Wenceslas Festivities. The conclusion assesses the role of a...
[Pohoda no. II (delayed death--following music festival)].
A mass tragedy on the Slovak biggest music festival "POHODA", caused by a windstorm, shocked whole society, even abroad. Many questions concerned a causality and a circumstances of the incident arose immediately. The forensic autopsies of victims (29-aged man and 19-aged woman) represented a very special expertise act in police investigation of the case.
The CERN Hardronic Music Festival is back this July!
On the 15th July, ten of the finest MusiClub bands plus a DJs set will come on stage to amuse the crowd on its 26th edition. The show will run from 3. pm to 1. am with performers acting alternatively on two stages behind Restaurant 3 so the music never stops. A bar, a stand for food and second-hand stall (all for charity) plus the legendary free bouncy castle for kids will ensure you have a great time. Entrance is free for CERN members. Their friends and relatives will have to be registered in a guest-list available in the festival's website. A free shuttle service will take people from CERN reception to the festival area in Prévessin. For more information regarding visitors and other practical informations, please check http://cern.ch/hardronic. The festival can only take place thanks to the volunteers helping us run it. If you want to take part in this great collective effort, please send an e-mail to |||EMAIL_ADDRESS||| and help us make an even better festival! The MusiClub would ...
2. offline@online meediakunsti festival alapealkirjaga "Media non grata"
Festival toimub koostöös Eesti Kunstiakadeemia, Academia Non Grata, Kaasaegse Kunsti Eesti Keskuse, NYYDi, "Interstanding 3" ja Goethe Instituudiga 24.-25. novembril 1999. Tööde ärasaatmise tähtaeg 30. sept. 1999. Alajaotused: digitaalne kunst, media non grata.
de Valck, M.
This article uses the work of Pierre Bourdieu to assess the economization of global art cinema and film festivals. Bourdieu has written extensively on art and its function in society. He is most famous for his novel argumentation on the correlation between aesthetic taste and class in Distinction.
Full Text Available At the global level the events industry is developing and it is directly connected with sustainable development of communities in each country. Festivals are perceived nowadays as an important part of cultural and leisure attractiveness of destinations. Festivals as major events have the power to mobilize large numbers of people and create a significant impact on their lives by creating a positive experience for spectators and by changing humans’ behaviour on long term in a positive way. The main purpose of the research is to study participants’ motivations for attending a film festival, their perceptions and overall impression from different segments point of view. An exploratory and descriptive research was conducted. Data were collected from the attendees of the Transilvania International Film Festival, which takes place on a regular basis in Cluj-Napoca, Romania using a faceto- face interview based on a short questionnaire. The obtained results reveal significant variations in motivations and overall impression across main demographic features of the participants. The study brings some theoretical contributions, but also managerial implications.
The Female Factor in Yoruba Traditional Festivals | Olaoba ...
This paper focuses on the dynamism of women in indigenous Yoruba festivals. This is an area in which women have featured with demonstration of wit and talent towards the promotion of cultural development. The paper states that there had been women of substance, whose role in the scheme of cultural development, ...
Full Text Available A pesar de que los eventos puedan representar una contribución importante al desarrollo económico y social, esto sólo es posible cuando el evento se realiza bajo un paradigma que haga hincapié en la importancia de las complejas relaciones entre el proponente del evento y laspartes interesadas. Dentro del sector de los eventos, los festivales representan un sub-campo que comparte similitudes y particularidades, en contraste con otros tipos de evento. Este trabajo analiza el contextoitaliano de los festivales de música y profundiza en las relaciones entre el organizador del festival y los actores públicos y privados, utilizando un enfoque de gestión de partes interesadas. Los resultados sugieren que los festivales italianos tienen un nivel razonable de iniciativa empresarial ya que el análisisrevela una buena predisposición para el use de prácticas de gestión.
The Rio Grande Science and Arts (RiSA) Festival organized by the Center for Gravitational Wave Astronomy (CGWA) at the University of Texas at Brownsville (UTB) will use a wide variety of artforms to bring physics and science topics to the bilingual and bicultural population of the Rio Grande Valley of South Texas. The science and art faculty at UTB will partner with art and education professionals to create an annual community event celebrating science though art. Music, dance, poetry, and visual arts will headline the festival activities. Festival events and products will be produced in both English and Spanish to attract and inform the bilingual local community. The RiSA Festival is supported by the Science Festival Alliance and the Sloan Foundation. Supported by the Science Festival Alliance and the Sloan Foundation.
NWANAJU UZOMA T.
Full Text Available Festivals are important cultural values in an African society. In the modern times, people often tend to divorce themselves from these celebrations. Their argument is often based on religious grounds: festivals are fetish and offer nothing to human society. This paper then investigates the importance of festivals as it concerns societal harmonious co-existence. It poses the question: Can Culture Unite? IwaAkwa and Seigbein festivals of Ndi Igbo and the Ijaw people are chosen as case studies while ethnographic research methods involving participant observation, non-participant observation and interviews are adopted. At the end, it is observed that not only that festival unite people, they also serve major form of ethnographic identity. Their celebrations also encourage tourism and attract economic gains. The paper recommends not just a continuous sustenance of festivals but also investment in them for their longevity.
Theoretical part of this bachelor thesis focuses on arts marketing, marketing communications and commercial communications in general, and marketing and communication mix of music festivals. In practical part of the thesis I present a particular music festival PodblanÃk. Based on available information I analyze the marketing and communication mix of music festival PodblanÃk and its promotion campaign. In the last part of this work propose my own recommendation for the future activities of mar...
Full Text Available This essay proposes cosmopolitan entanglement as a conceptual framework for the understanding of the Philippine pista (fiesta. The pista is a cosmopolitan phenomenon because communities engage in a disposition of cultural openness with the strange and the stranger. It is a performance of entanglement because it is a complex cultural phenomenon projected to be solemn yet secular, a festivity that neither the State nor the Church is in an ultimate position of authority, a parade of divinity, and a procession of spectacle. In arguing for cosmopolitan entanglement in the pista, the essay explores the 2007 Agawan festivity in Sariaya, Quezon, some 120 km south of Manila, as a case study. The first part is a conceptualization of cosmopolitanism as related to the pista using the Catholic dogma as lens. The analysis of Catholic dogma is necessary because in the Philippines the pista has its origin in Catholicism, its celebrations often coinciding with the feast day of a community’s patron saint. The second part examines the pista as a performance of entanglement. The final section describes the Sariaya pista via the Agawan festival as a case of cosmopolitan entanglement. The pista in Sariaya is an exemplar of cosmopolitan entanglement because community members perform cultural openness, which is also a mixing and matching of different performance activities, a strategy of combining the secular and the sacred, and a welcoming gesture to both the familiar and the stranger.
Huazhao Festival is a traditional one that is celebrated in early spring and appeals to both highbrows and lowbrows. Once, it was as significant as Lantern Festival and Mid-autumn Festival. Ever since Tang Dynasty, it has undergone stages of emerging, thriving, declining and restoring. Originally, people only had a spring outing enjoying beautiful flowers at this festival; later, various other folk activities were also carried out on this day, including catching butterflies, picking wild vege...
Fox, Jacob; Smith, Alexis; Yale, Alexander; Chow, Christopher; Alaswad, Elsa; Cushing, Tracy; Monte, Andrew A.
Drugs of Abuse and Novel Psychoactive Substances at Outdoor Music Festivals in Colorado.
Drugs of abuse (DOA) are widely used in the United States and are ubiquitous at outdoor music festivals. Attendees at music festivals are at high-risk for novel psychoactive substance (NPS) use, which is becoming more prevalent worldwide. No U.S. studies have employed an qualitative approach to investigate the etiologies of both traditional DOA and NPS use amongst music festival attendees. The objective of this study was to improve understanding of the knowledge, attitudes, beliefs, and practices of festival attendees using NPS and DOA. We conducted semi-structured interviews of 171 attendees during the Sonic Bloom and Arise music festivals in Colorado in 2015 and 2016. Discrete variables were summarized with descriptive statistics. The anonymous, multi-domain interview documented the knowledge, attitudes beliefs, and practices underlying DOA use, which were analyzed with qualitative methods. We enrolled 171 participants that endorsed DOA use at the festivals. Most were experienced DOA users, who perceived minimal risks associated with DOA and NPS use. Nearly all unanimously reported normalization of DOA at music festivals. Participants popularly cited empathogenic, entactogenic, and entheogenic effects of DOA as their primary motivations for use. NPS use was endorsed by 39.8% (n = 68) of respondents, all of whom identified as being experienced DOA users. This population of novel psychoactive substance users is primarily composed of experienced drug users that endorsed use because of low cost, minimal perceived risk, accessibility, and normalization of drug use at music festivals.
Orosun Festival in Idanre, South-west Nigeria: An historical Survey ...
This paper concerns itself with the Orosun festival in Idanre. The objective is to examine the people's micro history through a study of the festival. The study deals with the cultural and social history of the people of Idanre. Idanre town is one of the oldest towns in Yorubaland but, little is known about her history. Orosun ...
75 FR 57293 - Certain Festive Articles: Recommendations for Modifying the Harmonized Tariff Schedule of the...
... symbol and/ or motif that is closely associated with a festive occasion (for example, Christmas, Easter... example, Christmas, Easter, Halloween, or Thanksgiving)'' be replaced by ``Christmas, Easter, Halloween... Christmas, Easter, Halloween, Thanksgiving or similar festive occasion, the foregoing articles used or...
Full Text Available Alors que les deux grands festivals « historiques » du monde arabe, Carthage (JCC et Le Caire, sont entrés en décadence, on assiste depuis le début des années 2000 à une véritable explosion du phénomène festivalier dans le monde arabe. Le pays le plus en pointe est le Maroc, quoique de manière contrastée, avec une manifestation de prestige à Marrakech, et une nuée de petites manifestations. Dans les émirats du Golfe, la multiplication des festivals traduit une stratégie de communication plutôt qu’une volonté de développement culturel. Cette stratégie est fragilisée par la concurrence que se livrent les différents acteurs. Dans les autres pays arabes, on trouve une grande variété de situations sous le signe de la dispersion. Pourtant, l’accumulation de festivals (une centaine dans la région finit par avoir des effets d’ensemble, au-delà des buts, moyens et limites de chacun d’eux. Le phénomène festivalier, bien qu’inscrit dans des agendas locaux ou nationaux, génère de manière plus vaste des réseaux générationnels, financiers, de procédures d’expertise, de processus d’interrelation, géographiques mais aussi entre le cinéma et les autres arts ou médias.
This French-Swiss cross-border festival offers a mixture of group and individual activities calling on both the mental and the physical prowess of its participants. This year, the second day of the festival will be held at CERN's Meyrin site in celebration of the Organization's fiftieth anniversary. The programme for this second day of events on Sunday, 5 September includes a cycle ride of about thirty kilometres from Versoix to CERN through all the participating communes, as well as petanque, quizzes, children's games, a lunch comprising dishes from all over Europe and a whole host of other things. In addition, Microcosm will be open in the afternoon and the 'Fun with Physics' presenters will offer the opportunity to sample their special liquid-nitrogen icecream. The programme for Saturday, 4 September comprises a football tournament in Saint-Genis, a dictation competition in Versoix or a cross-border tennis competition. For more details (in French), see last week's Bulletin (No. 36/2004).
Full Text Available Festivities in the two major American viceroyalties inherited traits from theri forerunners in mainland Spain, which they resembled in may ways. However, the human and cultural contexts were different, so the metropolitan people were replaced by indians and Castes. Each detail in the celebrations carried different messages to awaken in all urban sectors different representations and emotions that would eventually exalt in everybody imperial order in all its facets. These representantion and emotions spanned from admiration to the most rustic hilarity and childish tenderness, thus the relevance of technologically managed special effects. The fantastic and fabulous went hand in hand with circus tricks, and gunpowder played an essential role in creating atmospheres and scenarios inspiring alternately admiration, laughter, and fear. Forefathers of our current mass events, these festivities managed, with the means at hand, to teach, entertain, and fascinate indian subjects of all levels. The special effects and emotions  sowed in them the idea of a powerful yet human imperial monarchy.
In the recent times, music festivals are being used as relevant tools for tourism development and promotion thanks to their capacity to attract tourists in every moment of the year. For this reason, it becomes extremely important for policy-makers and festival organizers to quantify and examine the economic, social and cultural impact of these special events on the local economy. This paper is focused on NOS Alive, a famous music Festival held in the city of Lisbon. The main objective of this...
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He’s going to be the future bell cow of a team that just broke the all time single season rushing record. Also, the team that just drafted him wasn’t in need for an RB and they still took him. They broke that record and still have the same core group of running backs and they all look good and healthy. Yet they still took him rather than fill other needs. That speaks for his talent right there.
Combine his talent with his situation in a year or two when Ingrams gone. He should be a great investment. Might not be an immediate investment as this is still Ingrams team. But, if we are anything like last year, we should have a high scoring offense. High scoring teams run a lot when they have a lead. And that’s a great time to give the touches to your new toy and rest your vet. | d48162ed4cdc428092c3e7abb073c5ee | 181 |
Could Germany be ruled by man named McAllister who got married in a kilt, supports Rangers... and drinks Irn-Bru?
A Scotsman who married in a kilt, supports Rangers, likes white pudding and drinks Irn-Bru is now being tipped as the possible ruler of...Germany.
After climbing high and fast through the ranks of Germany’s CDU conservative party, pundits speculate great things lie in store for.
David McAllister with his wife Dunja Kolleck and daughters Jamie Elizabeth and Mia Louise: He has been touted as a future leader of Germany
Last year he was appointed head of the CDU in Lower Saxony, the second most important and powerful regional post in the country.
He is the only politician under 40 to hold such a position and.
Growing up enclosed by the Berlin Wall left its mark on Mr McAllister. the next decade..'
Rangers supporters at the Ibrox Stadium, in Glasgow: Mr McAllister is a fan.'
Politics has fascinated him for most of his life. 'I love politics. I love serving the people. It started in Hanover, where I was studying, where I got involved in local politics. I was OK at football, tabl e tennis, high school, but politics I really loved.'
Mr McAllister could have relinquished his German citizenship to avoid compulsory military service, but opted to spend two years with a tank battalion.
He said that being a Scot had no disadvantages – except that people found it hard to pronounce his name.
Seat of power: The Reichstag building in Berlin, home to Germany's parliament.
He does think, however, that the sense of humour of the British Isles – not just Scotland – could do with being exported to some of his colleagues.
.'
He added: 'With very, very few exceptions I have found, in all seriousness, that no-one is against my Scottish heritage.'
While he insists that he does not have Berlin in his sights just yet, others are convinced he is on the path to greatness.
German weekly Stern last year compared McAllister's career path to that of three-time Chancellor Helmut Kohl, Germany's longest-serving postwar leader.
David McAllister's career has been compared to a young Helmut Kohl (right)
Should ‘Mac’, as the headline writers call him,r McAllister's first political post came in 1991, when he was chairman of the young conservative branch of the CDU in Cuxhaven.
Nine years later, he was the chairman of the CDU parliamentary faction there. Since 1998, he has been an MP in the Lower Saxony parliament, the general secretary of the party in the state since August last year, became the leader in parliament in 2003 and is now the party boss.
McAllister met his wife, Dunja Kolleck, when they were studying law in Hanover.
They have two daughters, Jamie Elizabeth and Mia Louise, and the family live in Bad Beders... | 346eed268742dc829902a884e5c0d14d | 632 |
We planned for our IMS Europe Summit 2020—our annual meeting to exchange experiences, ideas, visions, and more—to take place in October in Cambridge, United Kingdom. With your safety top of mind, we have decided to forgo the face-to-face meeting this year. Instead, we will be hosting live virtual events in November to learn from each other and inspire new ideas.
Let's meet in November and plan our future at the IMS Europe Summit 2020
So far, 2020 has been an incredible year with a huge impact on our personal lives, the way we work, the way we meet, and the way students learn! The COVID-19 pandemic has accelerated the implementation of online learning in a big way, and more than ever, the work done by the IMS community has proven to be essential. Without the work of so many IMS members (now over 570 organizations), the transition to virtual learning would not have been as smooth. As we prepare for the future of education, we must leverage the knowledge of the IMS community to put into place practices to evolve the teaching and learning digital ecosystem continually.
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WHAT TO EXPECT
Throughout November, IMS Europe will host four virtual Summit sessions. Each session focuses on a different topic related to online learning and edtech in Europe.
These sessions are offered free and open to the public; IMS membership is not a prerequisite to participate.
SCHEDULE & AGENDA
The confirmed dates and topics for the summit sessions are:
Monday, November 2 – Update on the Work of IMS Global and IMS Europe [View the Day 1 Presentations]
Monday, November 9 – Evolving a Plug-and-Play Ecosystem in Europe [View the Day 2 Presentations]
Monday, November 23 – Progress with IMS Digital Credentialing and Open Badges [View the Day 3 Presentations]
Monday, November 30 – Measuring Student Success using Learning Analytics and Digital Assessments [View the Day 4 Presentations]
The four Summit sessions will run from 11:00 to 15:00 CET, with a 1-hour lunch break halfway.
WHO SHOULD PARTICIPATE
Topics are of interest to institutional IT and academic leaders, edtech supplier executives and product managers, academic technology staff and managers, and directors of online programs.
WHO WILL CONTRIBUTE
The IMS Europe community will shape most of the summit sessions. Every session starts with a keynote speaker. Then there will be an opportunity for European IMS members to do a 10-minute lightning talk followed by a panel discussion and an interactive activity to share best practices and interact with other attendees.
Most of the content of the first session will come from the IMS staff, looking back at the year 2020, and sharing the vision and plans for the year to come.
LIGHTNING TALKS CALL FOR PARTICIPATION
We will accommodate five lightning talks at each of the November sessions. European IMS members can contribute to the agenda by sharing your online learning story of spring/summer 2020 in a 10-minute lightning talk. This is an opportunity for you to share how you experienced the fast upscale of online learning, what you learned, what inspired you, and what advice you have for the broader European edtech community. You can find more information on the lightning talks here.
IMS EUROPE LEARNING IMPACT AWARDS COMPETITION
IMS gives awards for the most outstanding lightning talks of the November 2020 Summit sessions—determined by the projects that demonstrated the most potential to improve learning impact. Winning an IMS award gives you recognition within the IMS community and the opportunity to participate in the global IMS Learning Impact Awards 2021 competition. You can find more information on the awards here.
SPONSORSHIP OPPORTUNITIES
Sponsoring this series of sessions gives you exposure during the sessions, demonstrating your organization's commitment to accelerating IMS standards across Europe. You can find more information on the sponsor program here.
There is no fee to attend the November virtual sessions. However, we do ask that you register in advance. To register for one or more of the sessions, please go here. All session recordings and slides will be made available to registered attendees.
Help us make this European IMS event a success and join us in November!
IMS EUROPE TECHNICAL MEETING IN OCTOBER
In addition to the four meetings in November, the bi-annual IMS Europe Technical Meeting is on October 14, from 11:00-15:00 CET. Sessions will appeal to a more technical audience like learning application developers and architects. More information can be found here.
IMS EUROPE SUMMIT 2021
While our plans for this year have shifted, we are already looking forward to seeing you in person next year. Tentative plans are to hold IMS Europe Summit 2021 in Cambridge, United Kingdom, at Cambridge Assessment. | dd57a39c291792df54a3f31348bd7110 | 1,073 |
Achillea Millefolium 'Red Velvet' (Yarrow)
Garden Centre > Plants > Perennials > Y
Achillea Millefolium 'Red Velvet' (Yarrow)
£7.99
Position: full sun
Soil: moist, well-drained, non acidic
Rate of Growth: fast-growing
Flowering period: July to early August, with potential for 2nd flush
Hardiness: fully hardy
The flattened, rosy-red flowerheads are held on upright stems above the aromatic fern-like foliage throughout summer. This cultivar is said to have a good resistance to colour fade. encourage secondary flush in late summer/early autumn. Old clumps can be revived by lifting, splitting and replanting Achillea millefolium in real gardens.
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- Achillea Millefolium | 45808d0f05785d4e49cf86b1e95ef665 | 300 |
It’s my good friend Rob’s birthday today. I have known him since 1977 and we have never lived closer than 175 miles to each other. That’s quite unusual. I think all my other friends have, at some point, either lived near me, worked with me or played cricket with me. I got to know Rob through our mutual friend Paul who shared a house with him in Malvern. For the first few years I never met Rob without meeting Paul but recently we have met up two or three times a year for beer and curry in London, normally preceded by a cursory visit to a museum. I wonder how long it will be before we can resume this.
Rob and I have a lot in common. Mainly music and politics but also in the way we relate to other people. He came with me to see The Unthanks on the day that I left Oakmeeds Community College in 2011 after 13 years work. He organised two great weekends in Cork with four other friends. We also met up in London many years ago when Paul’s brother arranged for us to go and see a band at The Scala in Kings Cross. (The Scala was, of course, the venue where the TV programme in “A Hard Days Night” was filmed.) Paul’s brother vastly underestimated how long it would take him and Rob to drive from Bristol to London on a Friday night so I got to the pub where we were due to meet two hours before they arrived. Luckily Rob’s son and fiancée were there and although we had never met, we passed a very pleasant time waiting for them. Quite a bizarre encounter which could have been very difficult if it wasn’t for the fact that these two people less than half my age are utterly charming, funny and sensitive people who made for excellent company. A lot like Rob.
As I said, Rob and I have a lot in common musically. I don’t like Focus but apart from that we pretty much agree on most music. Rob is the only person with whom I can talk about “progressive” music such as King Crimson, van der Graaf Generator and discuss how much The Unthanks music is derivative of the late sixties underground music scene. I love it that we can suggest songs to each other which invariably we like. Rob compiled 52 very interesting Spotify playlists in 2018, one a week, which led me to discover many artists I’d never heard of or previously considered, for example, Bob Fox & Stu Luckley, Phil Beer, Jim Moray, Harvey Andrews, Nic Jones, Steve Hillage.
Rob is an excellent guitar player and singer. Ever since I’ve known him, he and Paul have performed as a duo, playing in pubs and clubs round Bristol and Weston-s-Mare. A long time ago, I travelled down to Bristol one cold and wet Friday night and watched the two of them rehearse before going on to perform at a folk club. I can remember the thrill I got from hearing their powerful and emotional version of “Fire And Wine”, a Steve Ashley song.
I went to stay with Rob in October 2018 and he has the most magnificent music room in his house where he and his very talented son play a range of instruments. There were at least 11 guitars as well as a mandolin and keyboard. Now he is learning how to play the saxophone. I was very jealous. When I retired (for the first time, last August), I was considering what to do with all the spare time I had and I was considering learning to play the piano. What with holidays, voluntary work and snooker, I never pursued it. I’m now seriously considering it again. Maybe one hour’s practice a day? I’m not very good at doing something that I’m rubbish at but it might be worth giving it a try. I tried very hard to play golf and had several rounds with my dear and trustworthy friend Keith Burton before giving up because I was so terrible. I used to be half decent at cricket but gave up when I started getting out for next to nothing and not being able to pitch the ball on the wicket. So it could be an expensive waste of time but maybe I should try it.
A few years ago, I suggested that Rob listen to “Queen Bee” by Brent Best. A week later, I was thrilled to receive a version of the song that Rob had recorded with his son. It’s a great song and they perform it very well.
Brent Best used to be in Slobberbone who were a really excellent group. I once went to see them with Ben in The Borderline in London on a Tuesday night. I had never drunk Red Stripe before but I had more than I should have. I somehow staggered back to Ben’s house before waking up at 6:00 knowing I was teaching at 8:30 and I had an hour and a half’s train journey to negotiate first. I wasn’t sober and that was the first and only time I ever took a “sicky”. I also saw Slobberbone in a venue called “The Lift” in Brighton where there were fewer than ten people in the audience. Both times, they were magnificent. They played loud, in your face, literate rock music. Brent Best writes very intelligent, lyric-heavy songs. Michael Toland wrote “Heavily influenced by Southern literary authors like Larry Brown and Harry Crews, Brent Best has long crafted lyrics that are short stories unto themselves, singing them in a plainspoken ramble and marrying them to engaging roots rock melodies that elevate his tunes beyond the usual Americana drone.” I once wrote a review of their third record on my website and Brent Best sent me an email congratulating me on “digging so deep” into the record. Yes, Slobberbone were great and I was gutted when they split up in 2004. Most of the group formed a short lived group called The Drams but this didn’t really live up to the heights of Slobberbone.
Between the time of Slobberbone’s 4th and last record and Brent Best’s only (so far) solo record, he changed his appearance significantly.
The record that Brent Best released in 2015 is called “Your Dog, Champ”. These words appear in a song called “Robert Cole” where his mother is the victim of domestic abuse. “I am your mother. I told your sister and baby brother, your dog, Champ and your best friend. The opening song on the record is “Daddy Was A Liar” and some of the words are “You’re wading in the water and looking for your daughter. Daddy’s at the deep end dragging something under from the shore.” In “Good Man Now” he sings “Momma you always told me that the only good man was a dead man.” After the singer shoots his father he sings “Momma please don’t cry. Daddy’s now a good man.” The song “Aunt Ramona” describes a long car journey with his family when his Aunt dies in the car.
“Queen Bee”, though, is definitely uplifting. In fact, it brings me to tears most times I hear it and these are not tears of sorrow but of redemption. This is a love song in which he compares himself to the object of his love. She is a beautiful girl but he is a “dime store devil.” She is an architect but he is “building forts out of cardboard and in sand.” There’s a beautiful but strange sounding instrument which I take to be a distorted fiddle and it gets me every time.
Whatever happens to these musicians? Brent Best is a highly intelligent but, possibly, troubled man who has made some truly original music. How is he? There is no information on his website. No new music for 5 years. Listening to his songs, I have felt a real connection with someone who is telling me things about himself. We all invest so much in our heroes and yet we all live our lives independently. Listening to this record is a deeply emotional experience. Brent Best has given so much of himself in singing these songs. And when it’s all over, what next?
| https://addsomemusictoyourdayblog.wordpress.com/2020/05/20/your-dog-champ-by-brent-best/ | 1,772 |
Next Post Monkey Cheese….or something like that!
Awe…what cute pj’s…I have to agree with Josh, but…let’s keep that quiet, huh? I wish we had pj day at work 🙂 But some of these nuts would probably wear something inappropriate! HA HA!
I love Ruby’s PJs. When I was still teaching, we had PJ Day every year. I had a pair of PJs that I saved just for that day. I’m like Ruby, I don’t wear pajamas; I like gowns better but they are not appropriate for PJ Day. That was the busiest day of the year for me. The students did Accelerated Reader plus other activities. I spent the day checking out hundreds of books and going to rooms when computers were giving them trouble. I’m surprised Ruby didn’t take her favorite pillow as well. That was wonderful fun – stretching out on the floor with your head on your favorite pillow while the teacher read a good book. I agree with you; she is going to have a fun day. | https://kristydorminy.com/2009/10/02/pj-day/ | 231 |
<commit_before># Poole
*The Strange Case of Dr. Jeykll and Mr. Hyde* tells the story of a lawyer investigating the connection of two persons, Dr. <NAME> and Mr. <NAME>. Chief among the novel's supporting cast is a man by the name of Mr. Poole, Dr. Jekyll's loyal butler.
-----
Poole is the butler for [Jekyll](http://jekyllrb.com), the static site generator. It's designed and developed by [@mdo](https://twitter.com/mdo) to provide a clear and concise foundational setup for any Jekyll site. It does so by furnishing a full vanilla Jekyll install with example templates, pages, posts, and styles.
See Poole in action with [the demo site](http://demo.getpoole.com).
There are currently two official themes built on Poole:
* [Hyde](http://hyde.getpoole.com)
* [Lanyon](http://lanyon.getpoole.com)
Individual theme feedback and bug reports should be submitted to the theme's individual repository.
## Contents
- [Usage](#usage)
- [Options](#options)
- [Rems, `font-size`, and scaling](#rems-font-size-and-scaling)
- [Development](#development)
- [Author](#author)
- [License](#license)
## Usage
### 1. Install Jekyll
Poole is built for use with Jekyll, so naturally you'll need to install that. On Macs, it's rather straightforward:
```bash
$ gem install jekyll
```
**Windows users:** Windows users have a bit more work to do, but luckily [@juthilo](https://github.com/juthilo) has your back with his [Run Jekyll on Windows](https://github.com/juthilo/run-jekyll-on-windows) guide.
You may also need to install Pygments, the Python syntax highlighter for code snippets that plays nicely with Jekyll. Read more about this [in the Jekyll docs](http://jekyllrb.com/docs/templates/#code_snippet_highlighting).
### 2a. Quick start
To help anyone with any level of familiarity with Jekyll quickly get started, Poole includes everything you need for a basic Jekyll site. To that end, just download Poole and start up Jekyll.
### 2b. Roll your own Jekyll site
Folks wishing to use Jekyll's templates and styles can do so with a little bit of manual labor. Download Poole and then copy what you need (likely `_layouts/`, `*.html` files, `atom.xml` for RSS, and `public/` for CSS, JS, etc.).
### 3. Running locally
To see your Jekyll site with Poole applied, start a Jekyll server. In Terminal, from `/Poole` (or whatever your Jekyll site's root directory is named):
```bash
$ jekyll serve
```
Open <http://localhost:4000> in your browser, and voilà. You're done.
## Options
Poole includes some customizable options, typically applied via classes on the `<body>` element.
### Rems, `font-size`, and scaling
Poole is built almost entirely with `rem`s (instead of pixels). `rem`s are like `em`s, but instead of building on the immediate parent's `font-size`, they build on the root element, `<html>`.
By default, we use the following:
```css
html {
font-size: 16px;
line-height: 1.5;
}
@media (min-width: 38rem) {
html {
font-size: 20px;
}
}
```
To easily scale your site's typography and components, simply customize the base `font-size`s here.
## Development
Poole has two branches, but only one is used for active development.
- `master` for development. **All pull requests should be to submitted against `master`.**
- `gh-pages` for our hosted site, which includes our analytics tracking code. **Please avoid using this branch.**
## Author
**<NAME>**
- <https://github.com/mdo>
- <https://twitter.com/mdo>
## License
Open sourced under the [MIT license](LICENSE.md).
<3
<commit_msg>Removed Poole text<commit_after># VillainyHQ
My Site. Put together faster than you can say 'Bazinga'.
<3 | 2156777 | 1,175 |
We’re nearing the end of September and hasn’t this year just flown by? Christmas has already started to appear left, right and centre and it’s starting to get darker earlier and earlier as the days go on. Around this time of year, people tend to spend more and more time in their own homes, staying warm and cosy. So we decided to write a blog and tell you all about our top tips to get your fitted bedrooms ready for those cosy nights in!
Starplan Fitted Bedrooms
The most important part of your bedroom is, of course, your bed! So why not start off with that? A new season means new sheets! So whether that means brand new sheets with an autumnal pattern or print, a new duvet with an increased tog or even if it just means getting a blanket out that you only use during the colder weather, we all know that there is nothing better than new bedding!
A key part of being cosy is through the use of blankets, pillows and different textures. Layering up your bedding is just what you need to keep you warm at night.
Now it’s not all just about bedding! Your lighting is important too. No one wants to wake up on a dark autumn morning and have to turn on the main light, blinding everyone in the room for a few seconds. So why not invest in some lamps and mood lighting, which will make it easier to adjust to the decreased amount of natural light in the room? Candles are also a really soothing way to add some natural light to the room. Scented ones are a bonus as well!
Finally, don’t forget to try and keep as much of the cold out as possible. Don’t forget about little things like draught excluders and making sure the windows are completely shut.
So we hope that this blog will help you keep your home and your bedroom as warm and as cosy as possible. However, if your bedroom isn’t somewhere you want to spend those long nights in, why don’t you come and visit your local Starplan showroom and let us create your perfect fitted bedroom? | 2d017b2f47397a356b0a1ec11d84bcf8 | 452 |
Holly Arnold Kinney poses for a portrait at The Fort on March 10, 2017 in Morrison. Holly Arnold Kinney was inducted into the Denver/Colorado Toursim Industry Hall of Fame this week for her contributions to the state’s toursim industry. Since joining her father in the business in 1999, and subsequently taking it over, Kinney has been heavily involved in the state’s tourism industry.
Holly Arnold Kinney has followed in the footsteps of her father, the late Sam Arnold, in various ways, from an earlier career in public relations and marketing to purchasing and taking over operations at The Fort restaurant in Morrison in 1999.
Last week marked another such step as she was inducted into the Denver and Colorado Tourism Hall of Fame, chosen by the past chairs of the nonprofit Visit Denver’s board.
“When Holly’s name was presented, it was pretty unanimous it was obvious that it was time to honor her life and work,” said Richard Scharf, president and CEO of Visit Denver, who calls Kinney a marketing and PR genius.
Kinney’s parents built what is now The Fort restaurant in the early 1960s as a replica of the historic Bent’s Fort on the Santa Fe Trail. It serves food of the early West and has become an iconic tourist destination.
The award is about much more than Kinney’s work at The Fort. Since she joined what is now Visit Denver, Denver’s nonprofit trade association that promotes the city and Colorado tourism, in the late ’90s, she was on the committee that created Denver Restaurant Week, pushed for promotion of the Lariat Loop National Scenic Byway and served on the U.S. Travel and Tourism Advisory Board, advising the Obama administration on tourism issues.
Such honors sometimes indicate the conclusion of a career, recognizing the pinnacle of achievement in its downswing, but that is far from the case with Kinney.
This summer, The Fort and the Tesoro Cultural Center will debut a “Living History Experience” event every weekend beginning June 2 and taking place through October.
The weekly event will replace The Fort’s annual Indian Market and Powwow, which typically takes place in May, but that does not mean the event’s artist markets and cultural dances are disappearing.
The change is an indicator of her dedication to the promotion of history and heritage: those of Colorado, American Indians, pioneer settlers of the West, Spanish settlers, Bent’s Fort, the Santa Fe Trail and all of the other subjects covered by the Tesoro Cultural Center, founded at The Fort by Kinney in 1999.
Each weekend will have a different theme and artists who have attended The Fort’s Indian Markets. There will also be historical interpreters dressed in period attire, demonstrations and workshops, performances by the Adams 12 School District American Indian Cultural Program, film screenings, food trucks and more, all in the setting of The Fort’s authentic adobe building.
March 23, 2020 A Denver restaurant went through with its grand opening during the coronavirus shutdown. Here’s how it’s faring.
“It also will just build more of a relationship with Tesoro and the public,” Kinney said.
The June 3 event will include the annual powwow to honor American Indian veterans and will overlap Buffalo Bill’s burial ceremony reenactment for its 100th anniversary.
The two sites on the Lariat Loop National Scenic Byway will make some connections for the events, said Steve Friesen, director of the Buffalo Bill Museum.
Friesen is a founding member of the Lariat Loop Historic Byway and has known Kinney and her father since the early ’90s.
For more information on the upcoming Living History Experiences, go to tesoroculturalcenter.org.
Liquor stores and recreational marijuana dispensaries are considered non-essential businesses.
"Opening a restaurant is difficult. Opening a restaurant in the midst of a global pandemic is... something else." | https://www.denverpost.com/2017/03/14/the-fort-restaurant-hall-of-fame-morrison/ | 842 |
Ideally yes. Realistically it depends. Many government outlets though (MTO, service Canada etc) all provide services in both. Why does QC feel the need to not only discourage this, but outright ban it?
And again if it's so important then offer language training to newcomers. They are more than happy to collect my taxes and demand I speak French but do nothing to facilitate and in fact make it harder than a new foreign immigrant.
So quite frankly if they are going to stand in my way while making demands of me I will go out of my way to not comply. Because f--- them that's why. | 035b0791a87e4df5b3820d030f68897e | 130 |
I pulled him a while back, and for some reason iv got this constant urge to level him up and throw him into spider, my current team, is a freeze /HP burn based team, with Achak the wendarin's passive controlling the fight, and shrimani pumping the TM push's with her A3, It would depend what his Auto AI is pulled towards, i could high attack and crit him if his main target is the spider.
The skills look solid but I feel its the reliant on freeze debuffs, His A2 could control the spider as well, with the TM steal, feel he could keep hitting and get the job done, have you found any areas he excels in or champs he pairs well with? | c62fba5f8df54cfe8f404e68c0b200f3 | 153 |
Bjorn Stromberg at UltraMobileLife.com has put up some pictures and info on Packard Bell’s EasyNote XS UMPC that is being launched in Europe. I’m not sure if I’d call it a UMPC or not. From what I’m reading I don’t see much about touch screens. Also of interest is what will happen to the Packard Bell brand given the pending Acer acquistion of Gateway, as Gateway was in the running to purchase Packard Bell.
| https://www.gottabemobile.com/packard-bell-easynote-xs/ | 112 |
Microwave ovens were first available for sale as long ago as 1946. However, the question asked then is still being asked today – Is it safe to microwave your food?
When it was first introduced, many people were suspicious of the microwave oven and questioned whether it had health risks. This question remains relevant today.
To understand the answer to this question, you need to discover how the microwave oven actually works.
Inside your microwave is a magnetron. This is responsible for converting it into radio waves. These are also referred to as electromagnetic radiation. Basically, microwave exposes your food to electromagnetic radiation in the microwave frequency range.
These radio waves are then directed through a channel into the heating area; where you place your food.
Your food should be sat on a turntable. Turning the food is essential to ensure the radio waves heat the food evenly.
The inside of the microwave is reflective metal. This bounces the radio waves around the cooking area; increasing the intensity of the cooking effect. The waves bounce off metal but will pass straight through china and other materials; allowing them to vibrate the molecules in your food.
This vibration causes the food to heat up. The more they vibrate the hotter you food becomes.
There are many claims and concerns over the effects of these radio waves on your food and health. Fortunately, the majority of these claims appear to be unfounded.
Many people are concerned that microwaves remove the nutrients from your food. This is true, but so does any form of cooking.
The mere act of heating food up alters its nutritional profile. The real issue is when you cook it for too long or on too high a setting. Again, this is also true for a conventional oven.
What you may be interested to know is that the rapid cooking process that occurs inside a microwave actually helps to retain the polyphenols in green vegetables. These are beneficial to your health.
Your microwave can even help to retain vitamin C, which is usually lost when boiling vegetables!
Many people are concerned with the electromagnetic radiation given off by a microwave and its potential links to cancer. There are even surveys which appear to confirm this.
It is first necessary to understand what HCAs are. HCAs are compounds created when you cook meat, poultry or fish at high temperatures. HCAs are defined as carcinogens; these are substances that are likely to cause cancer.
These only occur when you cook meat for a long period of time at high temperatures. And they appear regardless of your cooking method. There are no studies that show microwave ovens produce any more HCAs than a conventional oven.
In fact, studies show that barbequed fish contain more HCAs than microwaved cooked fish.
The bottom line; there is no greater risk than with any other cooking method.
If you’ve looked at my article on whether bottled water is safe, you’ll know a little about BPAs and the risk they pose to your health.
It is, therefore, reasonable to question whether these same chemicals can leach out of the plastic during the microwave cooking process.
However, if you use plastic products that are labeled microwave safe, there is no BPA present, so you don’t need to be concerned.
Of course, you can simply use alternative containers; such as glass.
This concern arises because you will often find hot and cold spots after you’ve cooked something in a microwave. This happens when the food is not rotating properly or hasn’t been cooked long enough.
In this instance, you will increase the chances of not having killed any harmful bacteria in your food. This is why it is essential to make sure your food is cooked for the right amount of time at the right temperature.
Also, salt in food causes localized heating which can make the food appear hot before the cooking process has actually been completed.
If you stick to the guidelines for cooking and storing food, this will not be an issue.
Can Your Microwave Cause Damage to You If You Stand Too Close?
The real issue with a microwave is the radio waves it creates. These are harmful to people and can cause burns. They are the same rays that are used by cell phones, but much more powerful.
Your microwave is designed to contain these waves inside the food area; none are retained after the food has finished cooking.
But, if your microwave oven does not contain these rays properly and you stand close by watching your food cook, you are potentially increasing your exposure.
Microwaves should not leak radio waves. But if they do, then your body will absorb these rays and it can potentially damage your health. Research is ongoing into how bad the effects are.
Test your microwave by placing your cell phone inside it with the door closed. Do not turn it on!!!
Then ring your cell phone via Skype, FaceTime or a similar internet-based service. You should not be able to get a WI-Fi signal inside your microwave.
If you do then your microwave may be leaking. But, even this is unlikely to be harmful to your health as it will be in such a small amount!
If you are at all concerned, stand approximately 2 feet away; this will allow the radio waves to dissipate.
The fact is that using radio waves to cook your food has no more of a negative effect on your food or your health than using a conventional oven.
You can carry on using your microwave with confidence.
Microwaves will not make your food dangerous, they cannot alter your DNA and, even if leaking, they will put off less electromagnetic radiation than your refrigerator.
You can continue to use them! | ab7226b221dab82a540a793e1a9a1efc | 1,163 |
So it has been a few weeks since I re-created the array with all the same drives.
Written about 80TB to the array though our backup process which deletes old files and copies new ones.
So far, using the same set of discs, no I/O errors, nothing dodgy in dmesg, and no bad blocks on any of the drives.
Not really sure what to make of it... | https://forums-web2.gentoo.org/viewtopic-t-1032304-postdays-0-postorder-asc-start-25.html | 87 |
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<header>
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| 13396414 | 274 |
Out of Stock
Item # GRO0007
Don't worry though, we have a lot more Cables in stock than that.
Gore RideOn Low Friction Derailleur Cable Kit $0.00
Description
At the heart of the Gore RideOn Low Friction Cables is recommend this Low Friction system for those of us that spend most of our time riding in fair conditions, negating the need for the continuous liner and grub seal found in the sealed version of the RideOn Cable systems.
The Gore RideOn Low Friction Cables are compatible with SRAM, Shimano, or Campagnolo shifting options for road bike applications. Though the Gore RideOn Low Friction Cables work wonders in all conditions -- they are recommended for dry weather. For those routinely seeking more robust adventure, or simply commuting in the rain, we'd recommend the Gore RideOn Sealed Cables. These cables work for a very, very long time -- we knew plenty of people who managed to use the old Ride-On systems for years and years. Spend more time riding and less time changing and lubricating your traditional cables. What a concept!
Available in Black or White housing options. The 'Black' image currently shows Gray housing, but do not be fooled. You will receive a Black kit if that is what you choose.
Tech Specs
Reviews & Community
What do you think of the
Gore RideOn Low Friction Derailleur Cable Kit
? Share a...
Arthur Morris.
jontu
Ride On (into a world where you are poor and shifting sucks)
These cables shift awesomely when new, but their trick is a slick plastic-y coating that lets them slide through the housing with minimal friction. Sounded great to me too, the catch is that the coating doesn't stay on the cables. The attached photo says it all, the cable on the left is off my bike, which uses a conventional external routing, the one on the right is off my buddy's BMC which routes internally. As you can see, the cable has gotten shredded at every contact point. Mine was pretty bad, especially at the BB cable guide, but on the BMC it was just awful. I had to fish bits of cable coating out of the shifters with tweezers. This is after about 1k miles on babied road bikes, mind you, not decades of cyclocross. And if you want to replace that inner cable? Too bad, Gore won't sell you one. Add to that a frustrating install because it is double-ended (SRAM users cut off the Campy end, and then curse and shout as the cable frays when they try to thread it through), and you have a pretty poor showing altogether.
I would not suggest this product to anyone paying for their own gear, and if you have a frame that routes cables internally, don't even think about it.
Arthur Morris
Well, jontu's photo shows that he's got a point. I've got two thoughts from my experience with gore cables. First, the main reason I use them is for creating a sealed system cable system, which I don't find necessary on road bikes (or even mountain bikes for that matter, as I'm based in Utah and our mud is only very rarely ridable) and especially not on a bike with internal cable routing. I only use the full system on cyclocross bikes where it saves me a lot of re-cableing and mid-race issues. Second, good cable cutters are a must. If the are dull or poorly made or if they are not designed for cutting cable you'll have the nightmare that jontu has described.
Frendorfo Ridebike | f5f37225ba584c66548aebee75b92a4c | 771 |
Write a text based on this summary: venezuelan court orders detention of former president carlos andres perez on corruption charges
Text:
a judge has ordered the detention of former venezuelan president carlos andres perez and his wife , cecilia matos , while a court considers charges that they illegally enriched themselves while perez was in office more than eight years ago . | 3d4101439e2041239955138af1722f6d | 84 |
North Muskegon received contributions from several players as it earned a 60-51 win over visiting Muskegon Catholic in the non conference season opener...
Sydney Czurak scored 18 points and Abby Rodriguez added 16 and led the Shelby Tiger girls to a 52-19 victory over the host...
Andrew Woodfin 2 5-6 10, Brad Visser 11 3-9 33, Zach Hofman 0 2-2...
Kyle Mastenbrook’s first game as the Western Michigan Christian boys varsity basketball coach did not turn out as planned on Tuesday night.
Reeths-Puffer freshman Kalisa Williams...
Orchard View used the 1-2 punch of Diamond McGee and Jayshonna Blackshire to top visiting Grant 54-33 in its Lakes 8 opener.
Kalisa Williams scored a game-high 17 points on Friday night and led the Reeths-Puffer Rockets to a 35-17 victory over the Fruitport Trojans.
Claire Abendroth hit a 10-footer and two free throws down the stretch and led the Fremont Packers to a 38-37 victory over the...
FRUITPORT – Brad Richards had his Fruitport Calvary Christian girls basketball team ready to play on Friday night.
Armed with an...
Ravenna earned its first win of the season downing visiting Well Spring Preparatory 31-14.
The Bulldogs used its press and man defense to take...
Lauren Zeerip poured in 30 points, pulled down 18 rebounds and had 13 steals in Hesperia’s 50-16 girls basketball victory over Walkerville on...
Talk about a showdown on the very first night of girls basketball.
Shelby, led by Tristen Moore and Sydney Czurak, defeated highly touted Ludington...
Greenville took a two-point lead into the fourth quarter and turned it into a 13-point victory over the Reeths-Puffer Rockets on Tuesday night.
Breanne Burns scored 20 points and Allison Beckwith added 10 as Fruitport defeated host Ravenna 60-16 in Tuesday night’s girls basketball opener for...
Orchard View opened up its season with a hot hand against host Montague on Tuesday night and downed the Wildcats 51-24.
The Cardinals jumped... | https://localsportsjournal.com/category/schools-g-l/page/277/ | 476 |
Just like Austin Air HealthMate Standard HM400 HEPA air purifiers we have also been selling HM450 HealthMate Plus HEPA air purifiers also known as HealthMate Plus HEPA air cleaners with great success since 1989. The Plus model will also clean rooms and open spaces up to 1500 square feet for dust, allergy and asthma control. The big difference between the HealthMate standard and the HealthMate Plus is the Plus air purifier unit has Potassium Iodide added into the carbon-Zeolite blend for more out-gassing chemical removal ability. So if you have a new home, newer carpeting, new furniture or fresh paint in your home, the Plus model is a good choice to keep your home or office space clean while removing a higher amount of out-gassing chemicals. Most people purchase one unit for the bedroom(s) and one for the family room to keep the indoor air quality (IAQ) in both main living spaces clean, healthy and chemical free.
On the market since the end of 1989, Austin Air HealthMate Plus HM-450 HEPA air purifiers are MADE IN THE USA and they include a HEPA filter that will last up to five years before replacement is necessary. Austin Air HealthMate Plus HEPA air purifiers are very user friendly because they include a permanent pre-filter that can be vacuumed off from the outside of the unit’s case and it does not require replacement until the entire HEPA filter drum is replaced. When a new HEPA filter drum is purchased a new pre-filter is included. The Plus model is a wonderful HEPA air purifier for new homes or office spaces that have problems due to out-gassing chemicals from newer carpeting, furniture, particleboard and furnishings. The HealthMate Plus can clean the air in an average bedroom size space up to 13 time per hour. The factory advertises that they can effectively clean open areas up to 1500 square feet. However we honestly feel that 1000 square feet is more accurate.
Quiet yet powerful, the 3 speed motor can pull air through this machine with up to 400 CFM of air movement. We have been selling the Austin Air HealthMate Plus HEPA air purifiers with great success for many years! These quality units have a 99.97 percent efficient HEPA filter that cleans dust and allergens down to 0.3 microns of particle size. The HEPA filter drum includes 15 pounds of activated carbon and natural zeolite blend that will clean the air of odors and outgassing chemicals in you’re living space coming from newer carpeting, home furnishings, paint and other sources for up to 5 years before the activated carbon-zeolite blend in the HEPA filter drum will need to be replaced. NOTE: If the activated carbon-zeolite blend in the filter drum is over exposed to a high amount of outgassing chemicals or odors the carbon-zeolite absorption life part of the filter will be reduced but the dust, particulate and allergen removal ability will continue on for up to 5 years.
The next 5 years of HEPA filter cost based of 5 years of allergen, odors and outgassing chemical removal is only approx. $65.00 per year and yearly electrical consumption running each unit non-stop 24 hours per day is only approx. $35.00 per year We have many happy customers that have Austin Air HealthMate Plus HEPA air purifiers still operating after 26 years of quality service. We know this to be factual because they continue to purchase 5 year replacement filters from us. Most customers end up purchasing two or three of these wonderful machines. One for each needed bedroom(s), one for the family room and or home office area to keep the main living spaces where family members spend the most time dust, allergy, asthma and chemical outgassing free!
The one important fact that separates the Austin Air HealthMate Plus air purifiers aside from all others is the extremely easy care and maintenance! This unit is a perfect fit for people that are mechanically challenged or just plain lazy when it comes to changing replacement filters! Its because the only maintenance the HealthMate Plus requires is vacuuming off the outside metal case of the unit once every two weeks to keep the permanent pre-filter clean! When its time to replace the one piece HEPA filter/carbon-zeolite drum once every approx. 5 years all you have to do is to place the unit on its side and remove the 4 screws holding the filter drum in the case. Stand the unit back up and simply lift the metal case off of the filter drum to remove it and replace the HEPA filter drum with a new one! This easy procedure takes about 3-5 minutes and it’s so simple a young kid can do it with no problems!
The Austin HealthMate Plus HEPA air purifiers will do a wonderful job of cleaning the air in your home or office by filtering and removing the dust and the many different allergens from your air. These allergens include dust, dust mite allergen pollen, animal, cat and dog dander, organic and chemical odors as well as formaldehyde and many other dangerous chemicals that out-gas into your indoor air. Cigar and cigarette smokers that do not want air purifiers and air cleaners that create ozone love its ability to control smoke and odors!
These HEPA air purifiers are made from steel! (NOT PLASTIC) They are portable and built on sturdy caster wheels for easy rolling movement. The HealthMate Plus is factory guaranteed for 5 full years while covering all non wear parts and labor. The HEPA filter is pro-rated for home use.
Your family or co-workers will enjoy this important allergy and asthma HEPA air purifier to help keep your home or office space indoor air clean and chemical free!
The corners are rounded for safety at a radius of two inches.
Five Year Factory Warranty: Always shipped to you fresh from the factory!
We Are The Largest Seller Of Austin Air Healthmate HEPA Air Purifiers And Allergy Products In The USA & Canada Since 1989!
| https://www.aircleaners.com/product/austin-air-healthmate-plus-2/ | 1,272 |
Peter is as real as it gets in the Bible. He is the combination of a gritty human earthiness and wide-eyed love for Christ. I could write a small book on the lessons he teaches me; for now I’ll settle for a significant moment between him and Jesus.
Having just eaten their last meal with Jesus, the disciples clash about who might be the greatest among them. Jesus interposes and redefines greatness based on service. Then, he addresses Peter in a telling way that settles the matter about his spiritual eminence among the disciples.
We don’t notice why these verses are more significant than how we usually read them unless we study them closely. The word “you” in verse 31 is plural and would be a second-person plural pronoun in English, as in “you (all)”; however, “you” is singular in verse 32. Reread it; the interpretational revision is striking. Some versions, like the NIV and NLT, properly reflect this.
Thus, addressing Peter, the most seasoned disciple in age and piety, Jesus explains that Satan had plans to destroy the faith of all the disciples. Then, based on his foreknowledge of Peter’s disgrace (vs. 33-34), he directly challenges Peter—“when you are restored…” He charges Peter with a responsibility for the rest of the disciples.
Satan’s maneuvers had not been limited to Judas; and noticing in Peter some proneness to fall, he demanded him of Jesus, like with Job. If Satan could get the one disciple with the most gleaming faith, he could ruin the whole band. After all, Peter was the one who dared walk on water; the one who confessed the deity of Christ; and the one who jetted from his boat and swam ashore to the resurrected Jesus.
There are many lessons these verses offer, but I’ll select only three.
We should see worth in people despite their failings. Jesus goes on to tell Peter in no uncertain terms that he would deny him. Yet he had just implied that Peter’s faith wouldn’t be shattered. Just because people fall into sin or commit a serious offense or crime doesn’t mean they should be written-off. They still bear tremendous value, even greatness. But it will never be realized if after carrying the weight of their misdeed, we gracelessly finish them off.
We should pray for those with influence. We know that we should pray for officials and titled leadership. But we should also strategically pray for the salvation of those with significant influence on the minds of others—key business people, celebrities, professors, drug dealers, gang leaders, well-liked family and friends. How many have been saved because Saul became Paul? We thank God that C.S. Lewis didn’t remain an atheist. I think you get the point.
Our failures should make us empathetic enough to help others. What we learn about God and ourselves through failing becomes our ministry to others. In other accounts of this very conversation, Jesus tells the disciples that they all would desert him; however, Peter would dissociate himself entirely from Jesus to save himself. Out of that sore experience—because it hurt Peter to his heart—he was to rebuild the faith of his brothers. The Book of Acts and legend of Peter’s death prove that he did. | https://mikeforchrist.com/2014/05/26/ | 709 |
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Edward Winslow Bryant Jr. was born on August 27, 1945, in White Plains, New York and died on February 10, 2017.
He was an American science fiction and horror writer.
He was sometimes associated with the Dangerous Visions series of anthologies that bolstered The New Wave.
Before his death, he resided in North Denver.
Bryant writing career began in 1968 with his attendance at the Clarion Workshop.
Reaching 1973, Edward had gained acclaim for stories with a conversational style that mask rather dark realities, at those times, these realities are downright apocalyptic, although in other cases the message is joyous and hopeful.
He died in Denver, Colorado.
Edward Bryant passed away at 71 years old. | https://historygreatest.com/edward-bryant-american-science-fiction-and-horror-writer-died-at-71 | 150 |
US retail giant closes stores on the weekend to prepare for stock clearing sale.
US-based retailer Best Buy announced a closing down sale set to begin on Monday with an advertised 10 to 30 per cent off in store and online.
Loss making Best Buy had earlier announced a pull out from the UK market: "We intend to cease retail trading at our Best Buy UK branded stores & website by the 15th January 2012."
The retail stores closed over the weekend in order to prepare for the sale.
The company said that gift cards will also need to be redeemed before the 15th of January final closing date. Anyone that owns such a card would be well advised to cash in before all the best stuff goes in the sale. | https://www.pcr-online.biz/2011/11/27/best-buy-announces-closing-down-sale/ | 148 |
Three-time Supersport World Champion Kenan Sofuoglu will fight for the 2015 title on a Kawasaki Ninja ZX-6R after signing to ride with the San Carlo Puccetti Kawasaki squad at the Magny-Cours circuit last weekend.
The most recent of Kenan’s three championships was taken in on a Kawasaki in the 2012 season. After a tough year for the 30-year-old Turkish rider in 2014 he is fully committed to aiming for a fourth championship win next year as part of the ambitions Puccetti squad, based in Italy.
Statistically speaking Kenan is the most successful WSS rider ever, with one more championship win to his credit than any other rider. He also has a record 27 race wins, 60 podiums, 22 fastest laps and 70 front row starting positions – all within 91 race starts to date.
Kenan has one more chance to add another race victory to his statistics at the final round of the 2014 championship at Losail in Qatar on November 2, before taking up a renewed challenge next year.
If you are interested in Kawasaki products, see this motorcycle cover.
| http://www.mbike.com/news/2014/10/sofuoglu-re-signs-with-kawasaki-for-2015/ | 236 |
Banks have always played an important role in the economy, and their significance is highlighted even more during a financial crisis.
The loans they provide to both individuals and companies can spell the difference between growth or bankruptcy.
This quarterly survey helps us monitor banks’ lending behavior as well as loan demands. Understanding what drives their actions will help paint a better picture of the state of the Philippine economy.
Last week, we showed that the Philippines’ capacity utilization has reached a new low in Q2 2020. We’ve also mentioned that GDP growth for the same period sharply contracted by 16.5%, the lowest since 1981.
Consumption level at this time declined due to the increase in unemployment rate and lowered productivity. As expected, both metrics showed worse numbers in Q2 than in the previous quarter.
In an attempt to soften the blow of the pandemic on the economy, the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) had slashed interest rates thrice this year. In total, rates are now 175 basis points lower than last year.
In a normal environment, lower interest rates can fuel the economy. In times of economic turmoil such as today’s, a low interest rate environment can lengthen business survivability in the near term. Businesses would be able to borrow at lower rates to keep their operations going.
However, low rates do not mean an increase in actual loans. Banks will still need to assess each borrower’s capability to pay back their debt. Banks also have other requirements to fulfill, such as being compliant with the capital adequacy ratio. The more risk-weighted assets the bank has, the lower its CAR, and the less likely the bank would be able to absorb any losses and remain solvent.
Moreover, lower rates would negatively impact banks’ profitability due to lower interest to be collected from these loans.
Naturally, if banks are not keen on lending, or perhaps are loosening their lending standards, it makes access to cash harder to reach to the hands of borrowers.
In the Q2 2020 Senior Bank Loan Officers’ Survey (SLOS), this looks to be the case. Despite the BSP’s multiple attempts to increase the money supply of the economy, banks are not increasing their lending activities.
The SLOS is one way to understand banks’ current sentiments and their potential actions. As we mentioned in our March 3rd Monday Macro article, this survey enhances our understanding of banks’ lending behavior. The information from this survey is also used by the BSP to monitor the effectiveness of their monetary policy actions.
The chart below shows banks’ response to the SLOS with regard to changes in demand for loans to enterprises as of Q2 2020.
The red bars above indicate that 27% of respondent banks “somewhat increased” their lending of loans to enterprises from the previous quarter.
The blue bars in the middle indicate that 32% of banks decided to maintain their credit standards for the quarter.
The majority of the banks that have maintained their credit standards for multiple consecutive quarters are now decreasing their lending exposure to enterprises. Moreover, 69% of the survey respondents tightened their credit standards.
The banks cited the following reasons for the overall net tightening found in the BSP survey: uncertain economic outlook, expected deterioration in borrowers’ profiles, worsening of industry- or firm-specific outlook, and banks’ lower tolerance for risk.
Tighter credit standards have historically been a very early signal of a recession. It normally signals that a recession will occur in two to four years because tighter credit standards can subdue growth potential.
This is why constant monitoring of banks’ behavior through this survey is essential for investors. Credit plays a huge role in businesses, who will need to refinance their obligations if earnings become inadequate to cover their payments.
However, businesses might not be able to borrow if credit standards remain tight.
If credit standards remain tight or become even tighter in the following quarters, the economy might take a much longer time to recover because of the limited capital available to businesses.
Hopefully, banks’ credit standards will ease in the next quarter as economic activity picks up, and earnings generation becomes more stable. This will likely be driven by the ability of businesses to be flexible in this uncertain environment.
In the meantime, our August 10 Monday Macro Report on the Philippines’ Aggregate CCFP shows that financial obligations are still comfortable enough for firms to continue their operations without defaulting on their loans in the near-term.
As businesses continue to slowly open, on top of the BSP’s monetary policy actions, the Philippines still has the potential to make a swifter recovery than in credit-driven recessions. | https://www.valens-research.com/philippine-markets-daily/monday-macro-banks-have-now-tightened-credit-standards-but-aggregate-ccfp-signals-that-this-is-no-reason-to-panic/ | 966 |
Primary Care Networks (PCNs) are being developed with the goals of providing greater patient access to long-term primary care and to give providers a foundation to deliver better quality care. While the BC government is leading this work, in order to be successful PCNs will require the...
When doctors work together with other doctors and health care professionals, great things can happen. In BC, multi-disciplinary specialized clinics and programs are making a big difference for patients by breaking new ground in medicine.
| https://www.doctorsofbc.ca/tags/specialists | 99 |
use table_constraint::table_constraint_type::TableConstraint;
named!(pub table_constraint<TableConstraint>,
do_parse!(
(
TableConstraint::SomeValue
)
)
);
#[cfg(test)]
mod tests {
use super::*;
#[test]
fn test_table_constraint() {
let res = nom_value!(table_constraint, "test".as_bytes());
assert_eq!(res, TableConstraint::SomeValue);
}
} | 1327160 | 212 |
Initially, a custom piece is individually molded and shaped for volume and matching lid contours. Using alginate, a creamy material, a basic mold is placed behind the eye lids while warm to conform to the patient's unique shape. This shell is worn for a few weeks to help the patient adjust to wearing the artificial eye. The above procedure is only used for people with misshapen or shrunken globes.
Using alginate, a primary mold of the eye is made by putting the material behind the eye socket and letting an impression set.
After removal, a two-piece mold is made, very hot wax is poured into the mold. The wax is used as a base for creating the eye, as it is malleable. Further shaping and adjustments canbe made as necessary.
Doctor and patient choose an iris, pupil, and cornea of the front of the eye that most accurately match the working eye. Some ocularists paint the iris on by hand. The above can be positioned as needed for most realistic gaze and dilation. This part takes a few hours due to constant trial and error and refittings.
The sclera, the outer white coat of the eye to which six muscle groups outside the eye that hold the eye in are attached, is painted in and color adjustments are made. Very thin red threads are placed on the mold to recreate small veins on the sclera. The tear duct is also painted on the mold.
The eye is shaped for eyelid fittings identical to those of the other eye (older versions of the eye had a bit of a problem in this respect). The mold can be augmented and shaved down for desired effects.
Once the eye is deemed finished, the eye is put in the original mold and sealed with an acrylic finish. This finish gives the eye a shine mimicking that of the liquid that constantly bathes the eye. This maintains the integrity of the iris' color and the painting of the veins and sclera. It also provides comfort and allows for greater mobility.
They claim this doesn't hurt. They are lying. When you are four years old and someone is sticking a warm and unfomfortable piece of plastic into your eye socket, it hurts. I'm sure that my mother did not enjoy having to hold me down during this. Also, considering that some appointments last upwards of three hours, you get awfully squirmy. Mobility depends on the quality of fit of the eye (I have 20-25% mobility, which is enough to trick about 95% of the population).
You get adjusted to wearing your eye just as you do wearing your contacts. You wear it during waking hours and remove it at night and let it soak in a diluted soap mixture with warm water. Lately I have found that two drops of Dr. Bronner's Pure Castile Soap mixed with warm water in a small cylindrical pill bottle works very well. After a while, you remove the eye once a week, twice during allergy season.
When touching your eye, you must sterilize you hands as best as possible to prevent later infections (I recommend Neutrogena Oil-Free Soap). Artificial eyes are hard to break, but this is not an excuse to have butterfingers when dealing with them (another reason to make sure your hands are degreased). While your eye may not break, it will get surface scratches and you will eventually have to go to your ocularist to get it polished.
When you are little you can expect to get a new prothesis every year (at least). After your 13-15th year, replacements will only be necessary due to losage, color fading, etc.
Artificial eyes can be lost when put under pressure. People have lost them when diving into lakes and pools. If you rub your eyes too hard it can be pushed out of its socket. Losing your fake eye is a really bad idea because they cost upwards of $700 (many insurance policies will cover them as an aesthetic enhancement).
| https://m.everything2.com/title/making+prosthetic+eyes | 828 |
Why is Lenovo Yoga C930 13.9" UHD Intel Core i7-8550U 1.8GHz / 16GB RAM / 1TB SSD better than the average?
| https://versus.com/en/lenovo-yoga-c930-13-9-uhd-intel-core-i7-8550u-1-8ghz-16gb-ram-1tb-ssd | 38 |
YES, yes we all hate bankers. After all, they’re the ones who got us into this whole mess, aren’t they? So, we’ve got to rein them in, force them to our will, instruct our politicians to tell them what to do.
Well, so much for that. The FTSE 100 fell as much as 1.7 per cent this morning, while overnight the euro and Asian stock markets tumbled, after Europe’s leaders announced their grand 2-trillion-euro plan over the weekend to drag the Eurozone out of the mire. It appears the markets are well past the point of believing that political leaders can get us out of this mess. The consensus is that the plan is not concrete enough.
Now it’s true that FTSE has recovered but that doesn’t change the basic insight of the observation.
It might even be true that it is bankers who got us into this mess: it’s a hard one to argue about Greece and the spending habits of entire drunken navies, but it’s just about possible to believe. However, even if it were the bankers, that doesn’t mean that giving the politicians more power or even more of our money is going to kiss everything better.
It is in fact possible that the entire (political!) idea of the euro itself was wrong. Even, that there’s absolutely sweet fa that anyone can do about it.
Leave aside the whole banking thing, even Greece, and consider the underlying economics. You can have a single currency in an area only so long as that area is an “optimal currency area”. A bit tautological, but really it just means an area that you can have a single currency in without screwing any one group of people too much.
There’s a few things you can do to make a larger area more like an optimal one too: have one central economic policy. Have the rich regions subsidise the poor. Make sure there are tax transfers from rich areas to poor. These all help make up for the fact that you’ve got an area that without these policies is too large to be an optimal currency area.
OK, we’ve clear and obvious evidence that the eurozone is too large an area to be one of these optimal ones. So, we should bring in these things that will help, right?
Which leads us to our problem. We can’t do that either. Because the Germans, the Finns, the Austrians (the French aren’t actually rich enough) and so on just aren’t willing to sign open cheques to be sending 5 to 15% of everything they earn and produce to the poor countries for the next few decades. So, since they’re not willing to do that then we’re stuck with this currency area that’s too large.
And as the late great Herb Stein said, anything that cannot go on forever won’t. So, the euro will break up. And it’s nothing to do with the bankers at all: it’s all entirely to do with the politicians of the 90s who bounced 17 countries into it without realising (or caring) that the people weren’t willing to pay for it.
Or, if you prefer, yes,sure, bankers can be damaging to your wealth: but they’re as nothing, mere pikers, compared to the amount of your money that politicians can piss away.
| https://www.anorak.co.uk/294550/money/yes-yes-we-all-hate-the-bankers-but-blame-the-eu-and-the-politicians.html | 735 |
Written by Dermot Monaghan on January 10, 2017.
As discussed in my previous post the investment options for American expats living abroad have been severely limited by FATCA legislation introduced in 2010. While FATCA was brought in to reduce money laundering and tax evasion, it has also affected millions of Americans who are merely trying to maintain US bank or brokerage accounts but who don’t have sufficient funds invested to make it worthwhile for a financial institution to carry out all the steps to comply with the stringent new tax reporting rules.
In this post I’d like to talk specifically about the problem of frozen IRAs and pensions which is now affecting many US expats as a direct result of FATCA. In the past US non-residents could easily keep their IRAs and maintain their pension arrangements while they were posted abroad. This is no longer possible in the vast majority of cases with US pension providers such as Fidelity, Wells-Fargo and Vanguard refusing to take US expats on as clients and, worse still, freezing the accounts of clients when they move abroad as they don’t want to risk incurring hefty fines if mistakes are made.
Perhaps you have already received a letter from your pension provider to say that your IRA is frozen, or from your bank telling you that your account is being closed. The natural reaction to this is panic and I’ve certainly had a few alarmed and anxious clients in Kazakhstan contact me for exactly these reasons.
Fortunately, I am able to allay their fears and propose a solution to allow them to unfreeze those funds and invest them elsewhere in order to protect and grow their wealth as they did before they moved from the States to Kazakhstan.
In conjunction with Tilney Bestinvest, a London-based, award-winning asset manager, Infinity has developed a product specifically with US expats in mind which can roll over Traditional and Roth IRAS as well as 401(k)s in a way that keeps them subject to the same tax regime and regulations as prior to emigrating. This means that maximum contributions and withdrawal dates for example are kept the same. With over 28 billion USD of assets under their management it’s safe to say that you can trust TBI with your money. In fact, you may well find that the rate of return on your investments is better than it was previously!
I have already helped a number of clients in Almaty and Atyrau solve the dilemma of frozen IRAs and pensions and would love to do the same for you. Whether you’ve already suffered from the FATCA crackdown, or fear that you will in the future, I can answer any questions that you have on the subject and talk you through this handy solution which has been developed specifically with you in mind. Please do feel free to get in touch with me by email [email protected] , call me on +7 (747) 837 0469 or skype me at dermot.m.monaghan.
Posted on January 10, 2017 in American Expatriates.
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By Joseph Regan on February 16, 2016. | 677dc3246a8fdc719791abe1efdc0d5c | 781 |
The Eye˜s nose has been to the ground for several months following the trail of the ever-elusive Natural Resources Research Center. Then government lawyers decided the site-selection process should be more public, and began taking bids from several developers on multiple parcels of land in and around Fort Collins.
Now, word is a final decision will be made early this month. (However, for the past few months, word has been that a final decision would be made each month). If an official announcement is made, common speculation is that it will come back to the CSU land.
"I don˜t know that for a fact," said Jud Harper, vice president for research at CSU. "I hope that˜s right. Some of our developers have put together complete packages. We˜ve done all we can."
We˜ be waiting to see what˜s announced this month. Or the next. Or the next.n n nHow to win friends and influence people.
Celestica Colorado has been busy — perhaps too busy for some other local high-tech manufacturers, given the region˜s chronic labor shortage.
Celestica vice president and general manager Joseph Mixsell, speaking at the Fort Collins Economic Development Corp. semiannual luncheon last month, noted that Celestica has been looking close-to-home for employees as it ramps up to a potential work force of 2,100 at its planned Fort Collins plant.
Where˜s the printed-circuit-board company been looking? Try none other than the plums of the Northern Colorado high-tech economy, namely Comlinear Corp., Symbios Logic Inc., Woodward Governor Co., Dovatron, EFTC Corp., etc.
"Some of the people we may be hiring É their companies are in this room," Mixsell said.
| https://bizwest.com/1997/11/01/the-eye-fed-center-decision-approaches/ | 374 |
We're rolling into a full month of bike fun, but riders all over the world weren't waiting. The roads were packed with people pushing the pedals, snapping amazing #purefix pics, and we've got four brand new Riders of the Week to crown! Let's see who sprung into the spotlight this time.
@Cheez4meez soaked up the springtime sun on her Abbey in Winter Park, @rideforlife23 caught her Kilo spying the sights with her puppy pal by the beach, @cpt_highside was framed for fame with his Jack up in Canada, and @nzemek shot his Meriwether in (hopefully) the last snowy storm of spring.
With so much happening this month, there's plenty of opportunity to get your own ride into the spotlight too! Jump on your bike, join in the festivities, and snap your best #purefix shots for your chance to be one of next week's winning riders!
We'll see you out there. | 9300ed0dd053e3089a8977b76d0b3ede | 204 |
If your measurement of technological advancement is space travel, then yea. We might never get there. But like, why. That is a very arbitrary thing to choose and its got next to nothing to do with how we live. Yes, satellites and with them Internet are dependent on space travel to be instituted, but they won't vanish over night, they're already up there.
Also, the reason we are 'struggling' to deploy renewable energy is not because we have too little fossil fuels or any other sort of resource deficiency. It's be cause the people profiting off of fossil fuels actively hinder us from building up the sort of infrastructure we need. If you don't believe me, look up what kind of orgs companies like exxon mobile or BP sponsor and what these orgs campaign for. | 7e1017ca0421428baee16e80c2e98876 | 164 |
We had to do this as a family when our dog got scabies. I don't remember the timing of events. I do remember that the treatment was painless and effective. It's a pain in the butt to get the logistics right (so many prescriptions!), but the treatment itself is no big deal. If you aren't sure how to use the prescriptions and do the washing, just wait a day and call the doctor(s) & vet to get the right directions for everyone. Waiting a day isn't going to make a big difference, so it's best to get it right. Good luck! | 3bd9271e8d204958b734da21f4cb0417 | 126 |
Ybarra singled to left field, advanced to second; Tsuchiyama advanced to third.
Kimbrough advanced to second on a wild pitch.
Turang reached first on an error by 2b.
Sheffler walked; Turang advanced to second.
Harris singled to left field; Sheffler advanced to second.
Holmes singled to left center, RBI; Sandoval advanced to third; Tautalafua scored.
Garcia walked; Holmes advanced to second.
Jones-Wesley pinch hit for Gregorio.
Jones-Wesley reached on a fielder's choice; Garcia advanced to second; Holmes advanced to third; Sandoval out at home 1b to c.
Gregorio to cf for Jones-Wesley.
Tautalafua singled to left field.
Garcia singled to left center. | dce4102de152818459bea951305077a6 | 178 |
The PRE'17 Student Poster Competition is organized to encourage students and recent graduates to present their original research in the best possible way. This contest is open to Graduates, Post Graduates and Research Scholars not above the age of 35.
To be eligible for the award, students must have their poster abstracts accepted for presentation at the conference, and they must be regularly registered as students.
An Award Certificate and a prize of € 250 will be awarded to the poster judged the "best" overall based on the content of the poster, the quality of the visual display of information on the poster, and the ability of the student to successfully and succinctly present the subject matter in the poster. A second and a third prize Certificates will be awarded as well, with amounts of € 150 and € 100, respectively.
A panel of members from research and academic sectors will judge the posters. The judges will look at the posters during the poster sessions. The judges' decision will be final and no clarification will be given.
The winning posters will be announced at the closing of the conference.
Students interested in having their posters considered for the PRE'17 Student Poster Competition must fill this form on-line by November 27th, 2017 at the latest. At the registration desk, they will receive a sticker, to be put on their poster for the easy recognition of the competitors.
The jury congratulated with all the participants for the high scientific level and the presentation clarity of their posters. Special mention was given to the posters by Damiano Massella and Cesare Meroni, both PhD students at the University of Trento and IFN CNR. | http://pre17.fbk.eu/poster-contest | 333 |
ಅವಳು
Kannada[edit]
Pronoun[edit]
Declension[edit]
The locative, ablative, and illative forms are not considered cases by many modern authorities. Instead, they are considered combinations of the genitive case of the noun and "ಅಲ್ಲಿ," meaning "there." Therefore, "ಮರದಲ್ಲಿ" means "there of the tree." This explanation is likely because "ಅಲ್ಲಿ" can still be declined even in its combination with the genitive. For example, the "ablative" form is simply the instrumental case of "ಅಲ್ಲಿ" suffixed to the genitive. However, because many learners' grammars, traditional grammars, and a few modern authorities will give the locative case as a case, it has been included in the declension table. In any case, some may consider the locative a case that has evolved from a postposition anyway because "ಅಲ್ಲಿ" cannot be separated from the noun as with other postpositions. | b5e9d125bd1fd010261fb4b48be696e4 | 286 |
Weekly running report for w/c 2nd January
Well it didn’t start out as a great week since Sunday race unfortunately, during and after the race my legs felt fine and I did my usual stretches and then pretty much vegetated for the rest of the day. Monday however I woke to pains in predominantly my right gluteus and left calf although in … [Read more…] | 7c0af36f136dec4c4383168c3e3d9faa | 80 |
Tina has had a very smooth transition in Records. She has taken charge and responsibility for her area and encourages team work. Tina works well independently and is self motivated, which brings about positive work flow. Quality assurance checks are completed on a regular basis and she often encourages Records staff to complete their own Quality Assurance and to correct any mistakes. Since Tina has been promoted to Records manager, minimal errors by Records Staff have been noted and errors have been addressed promptly. Tina can be counted on to be fair and consistent with all the staff. Records staff feel that she is fair, consistent, and is able to make decisions.
Tina is also very task oriented and organized, which is a huge help when managing and prioritizing her own tasks as well as for the unit. The Records Unit has been operating with two (2) full time positions short for a long time, not to mention honoring leave requests. Tina comes to work early and will stay late when needed. Tina’s direct supervision has noticed a decrease in workload and they feel she handles daily tasks without constant feedback.
Tina has implemented positive change in her area by delegating tasks specifically to personnel, thus establishing accountability and overall fairness. She has started training within her unit by offering lunchtime webinars. Tina has encouraged everyone to participate in teambuilding, which they did when they cleaned and organized the Records Unit last Friday to include the ceiling tiles and light fixtures. | 9b48858c206df70b30ab392b7e17302e | 290 |
<issue_start><issue_comment>Title: Where to start?
username_0: What are the first few things we need to do?
Some ideas:
What build tool to use? Maven? Gradle?
Which UI tool to use? Swing? JavaFX?
How will it be run? From the IDE? From Command line? From an executable jar?
<issue_comment>username_0: Vote for Maven here
<issue_comment>username_0: My vote goes to Maven, Swing and an executable jar
<issue_comment>username_1: My vote goes to Maven, Swing and an Executable Jar
<issue_comment>username_2: Maven, Spring, Processing
<issue_comment>username_3: If you have a look at the processing source code you'll see that there is not very much added to the default java.awt or swing elements, it may even cause some Preformance Issues (all the float Math functions only pass those values to the default java Math functions and cast the result to float...)
So I'd recomend to use Maven with Swing. Java FX is quite powerfull but I feel like it's a bit messed up for "game" development.
IMO it is not really the right way to discuss the graphics stuff now. First there sould be the logic for learning and some basic / analythic representations. The benefit of separating the logic and representation is that we can use the same modules for a Client Program and for a (maybe one day) server based program... - wouldn't it be cool if anyone could train their AI and let them all live on a central world -
<issue_comment>username_1: There's already a repo for [Processing here](https://github.com/username_0/evolvio4Processing)
Spring Boot is an interesting idea although am not sure whether making it a web app is the right direction
<issue_comment>username_1: Yeah definitely gotta split up the rendering and logic! Any pattern you recommend... MVC? MVVM? MPV?
<issue_comment>username_3: I'm used to MVC in Business apps but games ... in the end it will be a variation of it.
I thought about something like a ComponentRenderer structure.
But I'm not shure how the Mapping from Component to Renderer should look like
```java
public interface ComponentRenderer {
public void render(Component component);
}
public abstract class Component{
private ComponentRenderer renderer;
public ComponentRenderer getRenderer(){
return renderer();
}
}
```
Here we get the same issue with linking the Representation to the ProcessObject.
```java
public abstract class Component{
}
public abstract class Element extends Component{
private List<Component> components;
}
public abstract class ComponentRenderer{
private Map<Class extends Component, ComponentRenderer> childRenderers;
protected abstract void renderThis(Component c);
public final void render(Component c){
renderThis(c);
if(!(c instanceof Element)){
return; // no sub components to render
}
for(Component comp : ((Element) c).getComponents()){
ComponentRenderer renderer = childRenderers.get(comp.getClass());
if(renderer == null){
continue; // ignore this component
}
renderer.render(comp);
}
}
}
```
In that way we get a completely independent RendererTree. But also brings us the Pain to create a RendererClass for every ComponentClass we want to display and to maintain not only the Component Tree but also the Renderer Tree.
The "double Tree Option" lets us also add another Tree for handling updates later.
Something that's also worth mentioning: Do we want to support scripting (LUA, js, ...)?
And now we are starting to create our own Engine :anguished:
P.S: do not try to Compile this code, just wrote it on my mobile ... maybe there are lots of typos in it as well
<issue_comment>username_1: Some good ideas there! Think the renderer map could be pulled out into it's own RendererMap class with a
`void <T> T addRenderer(Class<T> rendererClass, IRenderer<T> renderer){}`
method and a
`void render(Object rendered){}`
method. That way it could be reused for whatever component without needing to extend from ComponentRenderer
<issue_comment>username_1: The only thing then is whether the components are in charge of when they should be rendered or whether they add themselves to a Collection of things to render which is iterated over by the renderers at some later point.
<issue_comment>username_1: Scripting would be nice, am not sure where it would sit within an evolution simulator though, maybe one for future ideas
<issue_comment>username_1: Just added a PR for a potential starting point that uses maven, swing and an executable jar, comments welcome
<issue_comment>username_3: To add scripting support depends on the final goal you want to reach with this program. Baybe in the future this schould not only simulate circles floating around in a 2d space but some real evolving 3d creatures. Scripting is then used to allow an "enduser" to modify the behaviour, add new bodyparts etc without having to recompile or knowing the project in detail. A well defined and documented Interface will do the job for most scripters.
My personal goal is to use the knowledge gained here in a Simulator for cellular evolution with the goal to simulate the transition from single cell organisms to multi cell organisms.
<issue_comment>username_3: For a Modeling system i propose http://sparxsystems.com/products/ea/ it is not free and no very cheap but it's extreamly powerfull for the price you pay.
<issue_comment>username_3: Do components need to be in charge of when they get rendered? I think the descision if something gets rendered should be made in the renderer based on maybe zoom and a defined near and far clip in the component.
<issue_comment>username_2: It is not required to web app to use Spring Boot.
Spring is just dependency injection framework. Nothing about web.
Spring boot just allows you to run it easily.
<issue_comment>username_2: Access denied to push.
<issue_comment>username_1: I love the ideas of eventually allowing scripting and body parts and being able to choose between 2D or 3D, and making it flexible enough to simulate single/multi-celled life. It would need a pretty flexible definition of body and body part but it seems perfectly possible with the right structure in place.
I'm very hesitant to go with a paid option though, to be frank I don't want to pay for anything lol
<issue_comment>username_1: Ah didn't know about Spring Boot being just a DI framework, very interesting. It seems like it would reduce a lot of boilerplate but might reduce flexibility too. It depends on how it would interact with any scripting we put in place later on. Let's keep it in mind.
<issue_comment>username_1: WRT how Spring Boot might interact with any scripting data, it looks like adding a configuration class which points to a resources/scripts/ directory would work very nicely indeed.
<issue_comment>username_3: How do you feel about if I create the same rendering classes paralell to yours but with lwjgl?
<issue_comment>username_1: Yeah that sounds good!<issue_closed> | 28109772 | 1,913 |
If your daughter does go out and make this mistake, in her inexperience and youth, and let's say that she gets her stomach pumped, or spends a night in jail... don't you, as a parent, still support her? Do you scold her after posting bail, or do you wait for her at home with a flame thrower? Do you maybe ground her for a month while having serious talks, or do you somehow insist that she use no drugs in childbirth and receive no medical help that might save her life (because painful and deadly childbirth was punishment for eating an apple... why not for this?)
When you are a good parent, do you respond proportionally? Or do you insist that she owes you animal sacrifices for the next 40 years to try to make up for it (and never can)?
Because, I think the biggest mistake believers make when defending god's responses in all this is... sure, crime deserves proportional punishment... but, it has to be proportional or it's immoral (cruel and unusual punishment is even outlawed by flawed human systems).
You can't say... "well, all those babies deserved what they got because, Pharaoh was bad and they all had original sin's stink on them" It just doesn't hold up. | b57713a44ba24ed49724c3f32dce6353 | 273 |
You would have to go through at least one round of egg harvesting to be able to freeze your eggs before surgery, and it might be the most painful thing you ever do. Your ovary is already cystic, the fertility drugs they give you to hyperstimulate your ovary into ripening as many eggs as possible will make it absolutely balloon and it will **hurt.** It might be best to just accept you will never have biological kids, and make peace with it before you get your last ovary removed. Your health and well-being now matter more than the abstract possibility of changing your mind in the future. | aee8fdb8796948019aa54d232b3cfffc | 126 |
with Mathew Rudy
Instant Fixes
5 Timeless Swing Fixes
Claude Harmon III shares his best tips, with inspiration from father, Butch, and grandfather, Claude.
Stop Missing Greens
Make a few adjustments to your iron game, and you'll go flag hunting.
Tips From the Top: Bernd Wiesberger
Focus on the dynamic movement, not the position.
How to Hit a Draw in 5 Minutes
Quick tips for turning it over on command.
Back to Basics
5-Minute Clinic: Short-Game Secrets From Tiger's Coach
Steal my favorite greenside tips from the tour
Play Your Best: The Long Ball
Jhonattan Vegas: How To Go Deep When You Need To
Back to Basics
5-Minute Clinic: The Art of Saving Par
Add some confidence to your short game
Golf Instruction
Bunker Do's and Don'ts
The No. 1 theme for good bunker shots? Hitting the sand where you intend to hit it
How to play a really hard course
It's all about having a plan and sticking to it | 1ecea8a96ec50ce30843aee99b49077a | 229 |
This wonderful pilgrimage day with Ven. Tenzin Namjong will be to to Rajgir – to Vulture's Peak, where the Buddha taught The Heart Sutra and also to the ruins of the great Nalanda University.
The pilgrimage is for all participants of Ven Namjong’s Wisdom of Emptiness course, but can also be undertaken by others, as long as they sign on in advance.
The suggestive donation for this pilgrimage is separate from the course, and will be confirmed closer to the dates as it will vary depending on numbers.
At each site the group will be given important information about the site and led into different meditations and practices relevant to the place.
| https://www.rootinstitute.ngo/spiritual-programme/pilgrimage/eventdetail/11454/pilgrimage-to-rajgir-with-ven-tenzin-namjong | 141 |
Follow these steps to register your phone or other device to use two-step login with the Duo app.
To use two-step login, you'll need to register a device that you normally have with you whenever you log into your student account or access campus networks. Most users choose a mobile phone as their primary device because it provides the most seamless two-step login experience.
This page discusses registering a device for the first time. If you've already done that, here are the instructions for adding additional devices (strongly recommended so you have a backup when your primary device is unavailable).
If you've already installed the app, you may go straight to the registration portal (duo-registration.ucsd.edu); otherwise, read below for detailed instructions.
Before starting the process to register a mobile device to use two-step login, it's a good idea to install and open up the app. The process for iOS is documented below, and is similar for Android.
Step 1: Find the Duo Mobile app. Note that other apps may appear, so be sure you're installing Duo Mobile with the green logo.
Step 2: When you open the app, you'll probably want to allow Duo to send notifications. This will lead to the most seamless experience using two-step login. Otherwise, each time you log in you'll have to open the app to approve.
Step 3: Get ready to add your account in the Duo app. You can either tap ADD ACCOUNT, or tap the plus symbol in the upper right corner.
Step 4: The Duo app needs to access your camera to complete the registration process (see screenshot below). Allow the access, then put the phone down momentarily to continue to the device registration interface.
Visit the registration page (duo-registration.ucsd.edu) and log in with Active Directory. When you see the screen below, click Start setup to get going.
Choose the type of device to add. Using a mobile phone as your primary device is highly recommended because it provides the most seamless two-step login experience, and you probably always have your cell phone close at hand.
Select the radio button and click Continue.
Enter the mobile phone's number, click the check box to confirm, and click Continue.
Choose the type of phone you're registering, and click Continue.
You'll be prompted to install the Duo mobile app (if you haven't already). See instructions above.
Once the app is installed, click I have Duo Mobile installed.
Follow the on-screen instructions to open your Duo app and scan the barcode that appears on screen. You may need to grant Duo permission to access your camera.
This is the key step that ties your identity to your device!
Congrats! You've enrolled your device.
With your device registered, set your preferences for using it. When you register a cell phone with Duo, it is approved to receive calls or push notifications for two-step login.
The easiest way to complete two-step login is to have Duo automatically generate a push notification.
With your mobile phone registered, learn more about using two-step login, including registering secondary devices, like an alternate phone number, or receiving passcodes you can use as a backup for when you don't have your phone. | https://blink.ucsd.edu/technology/security/services/two-step-login/register.html | 677 |
View Poll Results: What is your empathy quotient score?
Thread: Empathy Score?
I want to see if SAers lack empathy or something (due to being socially deficient).
Don't be embarrassed. I've read criticism that this test collapsed emotional empathy into cognitive empathy. Ideally, they should be differentiated otherwise people who have low cognitive empathy but high emotional empathy might still get a low overall score.
Just squeaked by with a 64. But I'm a counselor besides a librarian, so I think I was trained in empathy more than that it comes naturally.
I scored 53. Just 'above average' . I cry watching movies or too sad or emotional news stories.
34. I'm a bit disappointed.
What's your score, Antidote?
The first time I did the test, years ago, I scored above average. But that was when I thought I could read people very well. I've changed my mind now, and think I don't read people well at all (I changed my mind after I did this body language reading test and I scored low). So when it comes to questions like ''I can tell if someone is masking their true emotion" ... well I used to think yes, that this sort of stuff is obvious. But honestly you don't know because it's subjective. So this time I answered much more conservatively and I scored in the average range, about 35. | https://anxietyspace.com/forums/showthread.php?1890-Empathy-Score | 291 |
The good work being done by the Butler University College of Education (COE) has earned national and local attention.
Author Marla Olthof, who spent time at IPS/Butler Laboratory School in 2012 to learn about its outdoor education efforts, has featured the school in her new book, Gardening with Young Children: Second Edition of Hollyhocks and Honeybees.
The Lab School is featured in a two-page spread on pages 106-107, and numerous photographs of Lab School students are displayed throughout the book. The Lab School’s “edible schoolyard” project was funded in part through a $12,000 Dow Promise Grant to Butler. COE students developed the grant proposal and the initial Lab School gardens last spring as part of a “Leadership in Education” course.
The COE collaborates with Indianapolis Public Schools in the Lab School’s curriculum development and operations. All faculty hold Butler education degrees.
Also, an early childhood documentary called Little Children, Big Returns, featuring interviews with Dean Ena Shelley and Ted Maple ’01, will air May 8 at 9:00 p.m. on WFYI-1 (Channel 20). Maple is president and CEO of Day Nursery, which operates seven Indianapolis-area child care centers that provide care daily to more than 750 children ages infant to 6 years old.
The documentary delves into the positive business and financial impact properly funded pre-kindergarten programs have on the state. Preview it here: http://youtu.be/sh5SzlOxRm0.
| https://news.butler.edu/blog/2014/04/coe-efforts/ | 329 |
Okeke arrived at the Frankfurt central train station at 11 o’clock for the first in Germany to receive the prestigious Nollywood Award. As he came out from the train, he walked down to the shopping malls and in front of him were two Nollywood volunteer staffs holding the poster of the event to welcome him. What a VIP reception! He met cheerful and passionate volunteers who offered to help him out with his small luggage. Okeke started to feel the spirit of the festival as the car was pulling down to drop him at his hotel.
At one time “his volunteer host” on the steering was looking for a parking space but Frankfurt like other big cities have this problem except for paid parking spaces. Big cities, big problems, space is rare and a free parking space is expensive. Finally, he found a parking space to allow the second volunteer, the cheerful lady who offered to carry Okeke’s luggage, to buy baby milk in one of the stores. It took her less than ten minutes and there she comes rushing down to the car.
“Sorry sir”, she told Okeke.
The car moved straight to Patty’s home for refreshment. And what a feast! Everybody was in a festive mood. The festival hasn’t started yet. The ladies were in the kitchen preparing delicious dishes; Agbono soup, pounded yam, meat pie while the paparazzi was taking pictures and reporting the event live on facebook as he interviews anyone in front of his lens. And in less than a second the news of the festival in video format was on his facebook wall.
Yes “the show must go on” and really it went on with much excitement when two Nollywood Stars, Peter Orji and Francis Dasu walked inside the living room. The ambiance of the house was charged with positive energy. Laugh and jokes filled the air. Two ladies were dancing in a sexy manner, twerking their waists to the appeal of the men in the room. Now the two Nollywood Stars opened more his appetite when they called boldly for the food to be served. Patty’s wife called the stewards in the kitchen to serve everybody food. ‘Agbono soup and pounded yam’ were served immediately.
What a delicious meal shared with two popular Nollywood Stars in the house. Okeke was impressed by their humble profile. After lunch the photo session started with the stars and the afternoon was real entertainment. At the time to leave the house to his hotel, the Madam of the house gave Okeke ‘chim, chim’ a type of Nigerian biscuit which is called “one for road” which means something to eat in case you are hungry. It was the master of the ceremony, Patty who drove Okeke down to his hotel in the center of Frankfurt. The StandbyGuttenTag hotel was just a stone throw away to the tramway station. It was a four star hotel and he had to take an elevator to his room on the sixth floor. At the reception of the hotel, the receptionists were speaking perfect English and that was helpful to Okeke because his couldn’t have checked him inside his room. He discovered that you don’t even need to speak the German language when you are in Frankfurt. It might differ in other cities but Frankfurt being the business hub, has turned the city to a bilingual city. Patty left him at the canter and promised to send someone to pick him up for the opening ceremony of the festival in the evening. He pulled his small box on its rollers to his room.
| https://nollywoodfrance.com/e-book-of-nollywood-france-bimbo-and-okeke-7-2/ | 754 |
STOCKHOLM, Sweden, Oct. 6 -- American Paul C. Lauterbur and Briton Peter Mansfield received the 2003 Nobel Prize for medicine today for their discoveries in magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). Lauterbur, director of the Biomedical Magnetic Resonance Laboratory at the University of Illinois College of Medicine at Urbana-Champaign, discovered it was possible to create a 2-D picture by introducing gradients in the magnetic field. By analyzing the characteristics of the emitted radio waves, he could determine their origin. This made it possible to build 2-D pictures of structures that could not be visualized with other methods. Mansfield, an emeritus professor with the Magnetic Resonance Centre at the School of Physics and Astronomy, University of Nottingham, further developed the use of gradients in the magnetic field. He showed how the signals could be mathematically analyzed, which made it possible to develop a useful imaging technique. Mansfield also showed how extremely fast imaging could be achieved. This became technically possible in the medical field a decade later. The pair were lauded for their seminal discoveries in the use of magnetic resonance to visualize different structures, which led to the development of modern MRI, considered a breakthrough in medical diagnostics and research. For more information, visit: | 26de5d5cd6687f58f7b8eb054c8e6f5c | 260 |
A BUBBLE BATH may be just the thing for cleaning and preserving delicate fabrics if work by researchers in Wales proves that foam is less harmful than water.
At the moment, when museum conservationists try to spruce up or preserve ancient fabrics, they wash out dirt with distilled water. Alternatively, they can soak the material in a solution of polymer, which coats the fibres and prevents airborne contaminants from dissolving the strands of cloth or bleaching dyes. But textiles swell in water and shrink as they dry, which can weaken the fabric.
Now Walter Gneisinger and colleagues at the University of Wales College of Cardiff are investigating whether foam-based cleaning agents could limit water damage. Because of their structure, foams spread the same amount of cleaning or preserving chemical over a fabric using much less water or solvent than immersion methods. Gneisinger hopes that the ease with which the ratio ...
To continue reading this article, subscribe to receive access to all of newscientist.com, including 20 years of archive content. | 09d9d50066f919993b3e816e1583a2c4 | 211 |
NAUNA is a great red wine produced by Schola Sarmenti with a blend of Negroamaro and Primitivo grapes. The grapes come from vineyards with Apulian saplings of 50/60 years, hand-picked and gently placed in small ventilated boxes to preserve their integrity. A modern sorting table allows further sorting in the cellar. Once the winemaking phase is complete, the assembly follows. Maturation and refinement for 9 months in French oak tonneaux, medium toasting. Finally, 10 months of further ageing in the bottle.
NAUNA offers a riot of perfumes that envelop the nose. From the balsamic embrace, impetuous hints of ripe fruit are released, slowly slipping into an intense finish of chocolate and tobacco. A ripe sip with smoky notes surprises the palate and imprints the fine and delicate texture of a wine endowed with incredible persistence, followed by a sovereign tone marked by gentle and harmonious tannins with a balanced and timeless finish.
Important dishes of Salento land cuisine. | 8c6585c3bf47c39fdbba1820c23145d8 | 214 |
Vector Control Research Centre
VCRC is one of the permanent institutes of Indian Council of Medical Research established in 1975 at Pondicherry. It is a centre of excellence for research and training in vector-borne diseases and control and a WHO collaborating Centre for Research and Trainining in Lymphatic Filariasis and Integrated Methods of Vector Control. | 9022a2ac6438a427c1c1d710c09d9397 | 69 |
Please look through the descriptions and pictures to gain a thorough understanding of the item, price and shipping terms before placing an order. If you are uncertain about any products, please feel free to contact us at [email protected].
Our office hours are 9:00 AM - 5:00 PM, Monday to Friday, except major holidays. We usually reply customer email within 1 business day. | https://www.xcoos.com/content/12-customers-service | 77 |
Addon for in-game editing of an entity's keyvalues?
I work with Hammer a lot, and I was wondering if there was an addon that adds something like the property editor in the base game, but for any keyvalues on any entity that can be accessed with the context menu. For example, you can't change anything about a func\_door entity with the built-in property editor, and I would like to be able to do so, without having to manually type console commands like ent\_keyvalue. | zp7q9z | 109 |
Mason Marchment’s two goals led the Marlies to a 4-0 victory over the Rochester Americans on Saturday afternoon at the Coca-Cola Coliseum in Toronto.
The Marlies (23-20-3-2) played its second of three games in three nights, looking to avenge a 7-4 loss to the Belleville Senators Friday night. Toronto entered the game three points out of the final playoff spot in the North Division.
Coming off a hat-trick performance Friday night in Bellville, Mason Marchment continued his hot streak early, as he beat Rochester (27-15-2-4) goaltender Andrew Hammond 52 seconds into the first period.
Nic Petan and Teemu Kivihalme were credited with the assists on the goal that would later prove to be the game-winner.
Marchment continued to be the story of the game throughout the second period, where he beat Hammond on the power play with only 39 seconds remaining. Marchment has now scored five goals in the last two games, pushing his goal total to 10 for the season.
Marchment has found success over the last few games with his new line mates, Kenny Agostino and Nic Petan. After the game, he spoke about how he likes playing with the two forwards.
“They like to forecheck. They like to create space and I like to do the same. Those guys are really good players and we’ve seem to have found success,” says Marchment.
Marlies goaltender Joseph Woll made his 24th start of the season, and returned to action after coming in relief of Kasimir Kaskisuo Friday against the Bellveille Senators in the third period. Woll was sharp from the start and remained perfect, saving all 38 shots struck on goal by the Americans.
The 38 save effort by Woll earns him his fourth shutout of the season.
Matt Read and Joseph Duszak’s empty netters at 16:02 and 19:06 of the third period solidified the victory for the Marlies.
After a relatively quiet first period, the game turned into a physical affair once the second period started. Rochester winger Dalton Smith took a double-minor roughing penalty off the opening faceoff to give the Marlies fifth ranked power play an opportunity to capitalize. The Marlies did not capitalize on the four-minute power play, instead, they gave up a 2 on 0 shorthanded breakaway to the Americans. Neither team executed their respective power play and shorthanded chances, and game remained 1-0 in the favour of the Marlies.
Kenny Agostino was awarded a penalty shot with seven and a half minutes remaining in the second period after being take down on a breakaway by Americans defenceman Andrew MacWilliam. Hammond continued to be sharp since allowing the Marlies first goal, this time stopping Agostino on the penalty shot.
Tension between the two teams grew to a new level late in the second period after Andrew MacWilliam’s hit on Kivihalme forced the Marlies defenceman to leave the game. Kivihalme returned to the game for the third period.
The already tightly played game became a contest reliant on power play execution from both sides. The Marlies and Americans were a combined 1 for 6 on the power play in the second period. Until Marchment’s second goal of the game late in the period, the teams were scoreless on the power play through five attempts.
The Marlies took a 2-0 lead to the third period and never looked back.
Toronto entered the game giving up 3.36 goals per game, the fourth most in the AHL. The shutout from Woll tonight will surely bring the number down and improve the Marlies in the goal against category.
Back in the win column, Toronto will host the Laval Rocket tomorrow afternoon to conclude its stint of three games in three nights. | https://www.barnburner.ca/Features/Hockey/TORONTO-MARLIES-GAME-REPORT--Saturday%2C-February-8th%2C-2020 | 818 |
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Heavy rains brought by tropical depression “Maring” triggered a landslide in Taytay, Rizal yesterday, killing two brothers whose house were buried by soil, rocks, and other debris.
The National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council reported yesterday that damage to infrastructure and agriculture in Regions 1, 2, 3, and the Cordillera Administrative Region from typhoon “Lawin” has reached more than P2 billion.Continue reading …
The National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council yesterday reported that five people died due to floods and landslides caused by heavy rains from the southwest monsoon or “hanging habagat” in Luzon and Visayas.Continue reading … | bbfecb6eda11b79386b2541dbca34231 | 169 |
Subscriber base of mobile operators in Asia grew rapidly in 2009: With an increase of 23%, a combined regional mobile customer base of 285 million has been reported by Singapore’s SingTel by December 31, 2009 which is 52 million more than a year ago. 8.4 million mobile customers has been added by Bharti India which is again 8.1 million a more than a quarter ago.
Indonesia’s Telkomsel’s mobile customer base grew by 25 per cent, or 16.3 million from a year ago, to 81.6 million. Philippines based Globe added 117,000 customers in the quarter and AIS’ mobile customer base grew 4.7 per cent, or 1.3 million, to 28.8 million.
Even Bangladesh based Warid’s total mobile customer base rose to 18.8 million as at December 31, 2009. Optus’ postpaid customer base grew a record 164,000 during the quarter, resulting in the postpaid customer base exceeding 4 million as at 31 December 2009. | 539c2a94f645d7d13b0d40664b8a8114 | 219 |
- A traditional healer was called to separate the two love birds after they got stuck It was a bitter sweet moment for an amorous man at a lodging in Mbale, Uganda when he got stuck while having fun with his lover. The middle-aged man is said to have checked into Tripple Zero Guest House to quench his thirst but he later found out that it was a big mistake when he was unable to withdraw his 'okufuaf' after strokes of happiness.
What was meant to be a memorable flight to Jerusalem in between the sheets turned to be a slide direct to hell as their escapade was laid bare in the public for all to see.
A local traditional healer was at hand to help them disentangle but it was not immediate as the two lovebirds had to endure long hours of shame still in combat, bundled on a mattress and covered in a blanket, as reported by Matooke Republic. Incidents of lascivious men and women getting stuck when cheating are not strange with such being reported across the country. Many are said to have been set up by their lovers after being suspected of cheating. | https://www.kenyan-post.com/2019/09/drama-as-amorous-man-gets-stuck-while.html | 231 |
My son has a birthday coming up soon. I have a hard time with masculine cards but I knew exactly what I wanted to do for him. He called me a couple of weeks ago and said, "Mom, you need to download this app, Wordfeud, to your Ipod. It's like scrabble and we can play online." Little did I know how addictive it is. He gave me the game names of a few of our friends and before long I was involved in 4 games at one time. One of the girls told me that she, her Mom and her sister get so aggravated with him because he has no mercy. He has none with me either. It runs in the family. Here is his card.
I used Paper Lace ll for the Happy Birthday sentiment - Page 53, Lace 1 feature. I cut it at 4.5 and decided it was too big so I cut it in half and put it to the side of the card. I found the Scrabble Prayer on the internet and thought it was so appropriate.
I went to Wordfeud.com and screenprinted their web page to get the phone image.
On the inside, I applied the other half of the Paper Lace ll image. I cut out letters using Mini-Monograms. I wanted my message to look similar to Wordfeud letters. He will have to decipher it. I couldn't get everything to intersect but you get the gist of what I'm trying to do. My message is "To my favorite Son, I love you." I only have one son and one daughter.
So Great! I love how you mixed so many different patterns, but they all work so well together. What a great card!!!
Peggy, it may be male card but it is adorable. He's gonna love it. I know what you mean by "no mercy". I have 4 sons and I have never had any mercy from them. Also any time I happen to say something wrong, it never gets by them,ever.
What a wonderfully, creative card! Thanks for the tips!
Absolutely stunning! I am mesmerized and speechless...
| http://dailygracecreations.blogspot.com/2011/09/paper-lace-iimini-monograms-masculine.html | 441 |
I think it is kind of hard to say. Obviously, each AT room is different. Each place has its different modalities, equipment, etc. I would just look at stuff that are worth having in the long haul to benefit you and your athletes or stuff that needs replaced. We could all say of stuff we enjoy having. However, I think it is key that you look into what your athletes would want and what is best for how you want to practice. With that being said, you could look into IASTM if it is something you see yourself utilizing. | cd1aa8b1fab7400f8419e21a2b20d2b2 | 115 |
Lightweight, stylish, and with a powerful magnetic motor the Andis Envy clipper is a popular alternative to the Wahl Designer. Does it measure up? Today we’ll review the features that you need to know about to see if the Andis is right for you.
We’ll outline these items in detail and then tell you what we didn’t like and our overall opinion so that you can decide if the Andis Envy is your next trimmer.
The Andis envy comes with oil, your clipper, and 6 guards. The unit does come with a 1 year limited warranty but we would have liked to see more accessories.
This model includes 6 guide combs for you to use. We felt the combs were a little cheaply made but if you are just giving quick haircuts to yourself or the family at home then they shouldn’t need replacing anytime soon.
They aren’t bad, per say, but made of cheap plastic that will need to replaced after prolonged use.
Andis Lithium Li – Cordless model which is lighter and comes with a Lithium ion battery.
Andis Envy Surpreme – An upgraded cordless model. Note, it still had the 2 hour battery limitation.
Limited editions – The ‘Limited edition’ varieties are simply more stylish versions of the standard clippers, in case you are cutting professionally or simply want a ‘flashier’ model. They perform exactly the same as the standards.
The first thing that you know about this model is it comes with a 7200 SPM motor. That means 7200 strokes per minute of power at your disposal. More power means less work for you but there are caveats.
If you want to switch to the cordless model you will find that the Andis Envy Limited edition release has only a 5500 SPM motor so you’ll be sacrificing a little power for extra maneuverability. With the power cabled model, you’ve got 8 feet of cable which is generally enough for home needs.
This unit weighs in at only 1.1 pound so it’s your standard barber shop weight and the housing is excellent, providing you with a solid grip.
If you want more flexibility then the cordless model can certainly provide this for you but you’ll want to keep it plugged in. This is because the cordless take about 90 minutes to give you a 2 hour charge.
As far as performance, the fitted blades allow it to cut between #000 and #1 and they are made with carbon steel, though the clipper body itself seems less durable outside of the package. This is the polymer plastic used in its construction and while it looks good it doesn’t feel as solid are many other razors we’ve reviewed.
For those employing this trimmer in a professional capacity the Andis Envy provides a good-looking and efficient alternative to more expensive models like the Wahl Designer (which is almost twice the price).
Barber shops and Beauty salons go through a lot of trimmers over the years and employing only high-end models affects overall profit. The Andis Envy gets the job done and cuts your overhead.
The taper lever for this model makes changing blade sizes easy and it is strong enough to avoid accidental tilting, so if you are experienced with a trimmer then you can exercise the control that you need.
Now that we have outlined the highlights of the product we do have a few caveats to discuss. Some are minor but there are a few that bear consideration. We’ll start with what comes in the box.
This model displays a known issue with Envy blades and that is you must keep them very clean and sharp as they do not self-sharpen like Norelcos.
Just keep them clean, zero gapped, and replace the blades every 3 to 6 months and they will perform well for a very long time but for some, the time required to do this might discourage the purchase of the product.
This clipper can sometimes get uncomfortably hot after long periods of use so it’s best for quick clips.
This is a known issue but if the clipper is being employed in professional use then keeping an extra one around easily negates this issue while providing a ‘spare’ clipper. For home use, however, constant use may require ‘rest periods’ if the unit starts getting hot.
Without a doubt the Wahl Designer is a better set of clippers. They come equipped with standard 1005 universal blades and are suited for home or professional use.
Their cordless version also weights in a .63 lbs, making them quite popular with barbers. That said, the Wahl is also considerably more expensive.
How ‘limited’ is the warranty?
A use and care pamphlet is included with your purchase but the warranty is for defective material or workmanship. Note, the warranty specifies ‘home use only’ so if you are using the Andis clippers for your business then this may be a concern.
How long do Andis blades last?
Andis blades will last around 3 to 6 months depending on how heavily they are used. It is a good idea, however, to change them every 3 months so that your blades are always nice and sharp (and won’t tug).
How often should I oil my clipper and trimmer blades?
Clipper blades should be oiled with each use. Trimmers should be oiled approximately once a month for home use trimmers and once daily for professionals. More than this is not generally needed but consult your vendor’s documentation for best results with your product.
How long does it take if my Andis Envy needs repairs?
Products which are still under warranty may be sent via UPS to any of the Andi’s service centers or any Andis factory. Repair time may vary but Andis states the clippers can be repaired or replaced generally within 7 – 10 days of time. Repairs can vary, of course, so be sure to contact your Authorized Andis service station in advance for best results.
Can I find Andis clippers at WalMart?
Yes. Andis clippers and trimming combos may be generally found at your local Walmart and may also be purchased through Amazon.
How do I purchase additional guards?
Guards may be purchased through most Barber and Beauty supply shops that will fit your Andis Envy and other Andis models.
Can I use WD-40 to oil my clippers?
We’ve seen this question online a lot and we do not recommend this. This is because WD-40 is designed for inhibiting rust and displacing water and NOT to be an oil. The same goes for heavy oils or motor oil. You will want to stick with your vendor-recommended oils for the best results and avoid accidentally voiding out your warranty.
While it has some of the features of the Wahl Designer, with the snagging issues and the overheating over time you might want to consider spending extra money for the Wahl or checking out some of Andis’s other offerings if you are in a larger shop and less worried about overhead.
For smaller shops or personal use this is an excellent product that will perform as-advertised as long as you MAINTAIN it. | https://topelectricshavers.net/andis-envy-clipper/ | 1,535 |
How We Work
An Executive Search Firm that does their Research
You need the Right Candidate, for the Right Role, at the Right Time. Cardinal Mark begins by helping you determine what the ideal candidate looks like, the gaps a new hire must address and the timeframe for the search. The most important time spent in a retained search is not in recruiting, it is in the time spent up-front working with you to figure out who you really need and why.
- The job description is the product of this discovery process, not the start of the search.
- Compensation has to align with the market for the industry, role and geography
- The hiring manager has to stay actively engaged throughout the entire search process
We Specialize in the ‘Impossible’ Retained Search
Who you want is a needle in a stack of needles…right? Internal recruiting and/or HR are often not sufficiently equipped, experienced or have the time for the “one-off” search. Roles requiring highly technical or specialized knowledge demand very aggressive research and passive candidate recruiting…not just a job posting on the company website. Furthermore, these often-confidential searches must take place outside the company gossip network
Getting the Best Candidates to Relocate
Relocating executives successfully requires understanding not only the candidates needs, but where spouses, partners, children, parents, in-laws and pets fit in. You can not just address what the move can do for the candidate’s career, but what the benefits are to their entire lifestyle. Does the compensation plan include a relocation package? Gaps between the package and the candidate’s reality must be closed.
Finding and attracting the best candidates for your company requires careful research, an extensive network and a compensation package that aligns with the responsibilities of the position and the candidate’s experience. Don’t make a hiring decision that you’ll regret, contact Cardinal Mark for your next search. | 2056b37570a1da29746b84febc1108db | 399 |
Think of your favorite animal. Write down three words that describe why this is your favorite animal, without using physical characteristics. For example if your favorite animal was a frog, one of your reasons could not be "green." If your favorite animal was a fox, some reasons could be "clever, fast, resourceful."
Now imagine yourself in a white room. The walls, ceiling, and floor are white. There is no furniture or other objects, and there are no windows or doors, or any other way to get out of here. Write three separate words describing how you feel in this room.
Now you are at a waterfall with a blind/deaf man. Write three words that you would use to describe the waterfall to this man.
1. The three words that you used to describe your favorite animal also describe how you want others to see you.
2. The words that you used to describe the all-white room also describe how you see death.
3. The words that you used to describe the waterfall also describe how you feel about love. | 57348a0da2faaeba5e2554ad15949d9c | 218 |
The Parks & Recreation Parks Master Plan has been drafted and we would like to hear your feedback before it's finalized. Your input throughout the planning process has been essential to the development of the plan and we would like to share the draft version and allow one more opportunity to collect your thoughts and provide feedback.
Review the Research Report.
Review the Draft Parks & Recreation Master Plan.
Please review the draft version of the plan and provide your thoughts via the feedback form below by November 22. Your input has been integral throughout the entire planning process.
Thank you for providing feedback. Your comments will be reviewed, edits to the Master Plan will be applied, and the revised version will be presented for Council endorsement. Thanks again for your participation! | http://melville.ca/p/parks-recreation-master-plan | 148 |
With the latest release of the SharePoint Framework generator, they introduced extensions. These extensions provide you a way to extend the modern site experience in SharePoint. You can, for example, add your own headers and footers, override how fields are rendered and create some custom list actions.
In this article, I will focus on how you can use the ListView Command Set extension to create your own custom list actions that are shown based on permissions and selected list items.
Info: If you never tried out the ListView Command Set extensions, I recommend you to read the following article: Build your first ListView Command Set extension.
If you followed the documentation article to create your first ListView Command Set, you created two custom commands which trigger an alert once invoked. One thing you might want to add is the ability to view or hide the custom commands if the user has certain permissions in the list.
For example: hide a delete command if the user has only read permissions to the library. Luckily the implementation for this is not that hard to achieve.
First, you can check if the user has specific list permissions via the hasPermissions method this.context.pageContext.list.permissions.hasPermission() and pass in the required permission.
Another common thing which you might want to achieve is to show or hide actions when item(s) are selected in the list. This can be achieved by checking the event.selectedRows object in the onRefreshCommand** onListViewUpdated** method.
The same selected rows information can be used for retrieving item information when you clicked on the action. This could be useful if you want to do some updates to the selected items in your code.
Since the initial release of the extensions and the GA version, a couple of things have changed. The article has now been updated with the new API methods and interfaces. | https://www.eliostruyf.com/showing-or-hiding-sharepoint-framework-listview-custom-actions-based-on-permissions-and-selected-items/ | 382 |
<filename>src/index.tsx
import ModelPlayer from "./components/model/model";
import VideoPlayer from "./components/video/video";
import AudioPlayer from "./components/audio/audio";
import ImagePlayer from "./components/image/image";
import HtmlPlayer from "./components/iframe/iframe";
import { mediaType } from "./utils/url.util";
type SceneType = "list" | "detail";
interface PlayerType {
sourceType: string;
coverLink: string;
detailLink: string;
scene: SceneType;
}
export default function NftscanPlayer({
sourceType,
coverLink,
detailLink,
scene,
}: PlayerType) {
const format = mediaType(sourceType);
const detailSceneType = (
<>
{format === "video" && <VideoPlayer src={detailLink} cover={coverLink} />}
{format === "audio" && <AudioPlayer src={detailLink} cover={coverLink} />}
{format === "html" && <HtmlPlayer url={detailLink} />}
{format === "model" && <ModelPlayer url={detailLink} />}
{(format === "image" || format === "unknown") && (
<ImagePlayer notCalc={false} src={coverLink} fills={true} />
)}
</>
);
const listScene = (
<>
{format === "video" && <VideoPlayer src={detailLink} cover={coverLink} />}
{format !== "video" && (
<ImagePlayer
notCalc={false}
src={coverLink || detailLink}
fills={true}
/>
)}
</>
);
return (
<div
style={{
position: "relative",
display: "flex",
overflow: "hidden",
justifyContent: "center",
alignItems: "center",
width: "100%",
height: "100%",
}}
>
{scene === "list" ? listScene : detailSceneType}
</div>
);
}
| 9721540 | 672 |
As someone that works in hospitality and has to smile at everyone and give amazing small talk during service in order to get that $$, I can tell you that no. It sucks to be asked out at work.
Yes, some people have tried it and made it not awkward after. But one time this guy asked me out, I said no, and they proceeded to wait for me in a dark parking lot after work to talk to me about it (after 11pm at night!!). Obvs. this freaked me out big time.
Then to top it all off, he came back a number of times (asking me to be his server) and then complained to my manager that I was giving him terrible service and spending more time with other patrons...which I definitely was doing on purpose to get away from this creeper. The manager wrote me up, but luckily the GM understood and smoothed everything out.
So now, when even the nicest guy asks me out at work, I have this twinge of fear that he's going to wait by my car after work. Then the whole time I'm thinking, am I smiling too much, how can I get to x table without walking past him, etc. Throws me off my game.
Point of story: You could be cool, super sweet, chill about it. But if she's even had 1 previous bad experience, it's fear triggering. And she cant just avoid it. She has to keep showing up, give great instruction, and customer service if she wants to earn that paycheck. If you bump into her outside of work (not in a dark, empty parking lot) and strike up a friendly conversation, then try it in a really nice, respectful way. If she says yes great. But be okay if she says no. | d3d1bd712e7146049fd7579ac4c1aa15 | 375 |
class AddThemeNameToCustomStyles < ActiveRecord::Migration[6.0]
def change
add_column :custom_styles, :theme, :string, default: "OpenProject"
end
end
| 1483529 | 53 |
Already closed my #facebook account, and will be leaving #twitter soon. I don't want to support these corporate controlled walled gardens any longer!
Long live the #fediverse and the #scuttleverse!!! | 7f319231fd5cf3e7624a427f084b2365 | 49 |
There would be a few important differences this time. For example, instead of subjecting myself in the worst heat wave in recorded history, I'm now facing the onset of the South Australian winter, with random showers and sea breezes sending the temperature to the floor at a moment's notice. I also don't have any public holidays this time around: I've got to keep this up for the full five days.
More importantly, I made liberal use of the trains last time, so I would have less riding to work in the morning (although I still rode home afterwards). Now that I've finally found somewhere I can have a shower at work, I want to work up to riding all the way from home to work by the end of the week.
This is going to take a bit of planning. I'm not going to take food and clothes to work on the bike every day, so I'm taking the bus on Monday to take some clothes to work, and again on Friday to take them home again. Tuesday through Thursday, I'll be riding, but I'll still have to pack food for the day. On the Sunday night, I already had everything packed: deodorant, clothes for the week, soap and towel for the shower, leftovers in the fridge for lunch; and my umbrella, of course, for the walking in between.
That's not to say, though, that I couldn't also suffer a minor setback before the week started: it was bucketing down with rain outside. Before I could take a 15-minute drive to work, I had to endure a 15-minute walk to the train stop; if it's still raining like this in the morning, I'm going to wonder how I ever survived it. For now, there's little more I can do but hope for the weather to ease before tomorrow morning.
Monday
It's always a shock when my mobile phone wakes me up at 6:15 in the morning. Let me sleep in until 6:20, at least. Make it 6:25.
With a quick twist of the blinds, I peer outside to what appears to be a break in the weather. Hopefully, this will hold until I get to work. Despite not having wanted to leave the warmth of the shower, I collected my backpack and my travel bag and headed off.
My daily detour to the local bakery was met with a few spots of rain, which I hardly noticed at all. By the time I'd bought breakfast, the rain had started anew, and with umbrella in hand, I braced myself for the walk to the interchange. When I reached the footpath, I saw a bus coming - the only bus that runs from the shops to the train at that hour of the morning, no less. I hadn't planned on catching this, given the reliable tardiness of buses - particularly when I need to catch one at a particular time to make a transfer further down the road - but it stopped right in front of me and was going the right way.
The Mawson Lakes railway station itself does its best to shield waiting passengers from the elements, with wide metal roofs and an enclosed lounge for city-bound passengers. The elements were winning today, though: with the strong easterly wind, you had to stick to the west side of the stairs not to get wet. Across the track, the city-bound passengers anxiously awaited their vessel, a rainbow to the south marking its destination.
There seems to be a marked difference between the people travelling north and those travelling into the city, with the latter group seemingly better endowed with attractive women. Sure, they have nicer clothes and accessories - or, at least, more expensive clothes and accessories - but they have nicer faces as well, or at least there is a greater proportion of nice faces. Do these people have good jobs in the city because of a better genetic predisposition? And what does that even mean? Perhaps it's my longing gaze across the tracks, my wondering about the inner-city lifestyle only matched by my disappointment that they best-looking ones are never going the same way as I am.
Then again, perhaps I'm also disappointed that I'm going the same way I am. The defence sites can be pretty drab, especially if your office is as isolated as mine. I'm glad I don't work for the Department any more, but working in a private company for the same industry is often just as taxing on one's moral compass. My current project is at something of a crossroads, but since none of us knows with path to take, the whole thing has come to a grinding halt. I've got a few things to work on today, but I can't help the impression that I'll be entertaining myself for half the day.
Getting ready to go home, I had a quick glance at the news. This morning's cold snap broke temperature records across the state, and it wasn't so long ago that South Australia was suffering the longest heat wave in national recorded history. I also noted that the crew from The Chaser's War On Everything have all had the charges against them dropped, news which brought a knowing smile to my face. I grabbed my backpack and headed home.
I've certainly appreciated the change in bus timetable, which got me arriving at work ten minutes earlier and leaving five minutes later - just enough leeway to put in a full eight-hour day. Outside, the intermittent rain has made way to sunshine so brilliant that it almost hurts to look where I'm going. Not that I need to, mind: there's not much traffic to dodge, and I've only got Muse on my iPod to keep me company until I get to the bus.
Tomorrow will be interesting. I took the bike out tonight to get some food to bring home. The bike's still going strong, but the evening air was freezing. It's going to be worse at 8:00 tomorrow morning. Fortunately, I won't have anything to carry except food, since all my work clothes are already at work.
Tuesday
The plan today was to ride my bike to the train, take the train to Elizabeth, and ride back to work. I've done this a few times before, and both stretches on the bike are pretty leisurely.
I once saw someone riding across the bridge at Elizabeth at the same time as me. He was riding on the road, and I stuck to riding on the footpath. Now that I've ridden on the road, I don't know how anyone ever put up with it. On top of the constant flirting with rush-hour traffic, the bitumen is cracking at the seams, which makes for one hell of a bumpy ride on a bike. Next time, I think I'll stay on the footpath.
The good part about this stretch of road, though, is that the way from here to my office is a sealed road that is, for some unknown reason, closed to all car traffic. There's a section of East Avenue that's blocked off, starting at Bellchambers Road at the northern end, and ending at an assortment of offices of Defence contractors. Actually, the road runs from there all the way through DSTO, but much to the chagrin of the early-morning commuters, the north gatehouse is very rarely open.
As is so often the case, it wasn't until I'd gotten to work that I realised I'd forgotten something. Word to the wise: if you aren't going to wear your work shoes on the way to work, /leave them at work/. So I was in my good work clothes, and a pair of sneakers. Really, there wouldn't be anything wrong with wearing my work shoes on the bike: they're little more than black sneakers, after all, and I've walked many a mile in them already. The problem is deciding whether to wear them to work every day or whether to take them to work once and leave them there all week - and sticking to that one plan. I didn't bring a belt, either, but I've got no excuse for that.
I'm starting to look forward to the ride home each day now. Leaving at twilight, you see the colours change over the Edinburgh bushland. On Tuesdays, you get to laugh at the people queued up for cheap petrol; on Wednesdays, you get to laugh at the people who forgot to fill up their cars on Tuesday. It's not that I'm not a sucker for the gas-guzzling lifestyle: I still own a car, after all, but I drive so little in it that I feel that I'm making that evolutionary leap beyond oil with every day that I choose an alternative. Remember, peak oil is largely an economic phenomenon, so the weaker your dependence on oil is, the weaker the effect of its price will be on you, particularly in the long term. Almost paradoxically, I consider what I'm doing such a good investment that I will neither need nor want whatever money it returns to me.
I felt as though I was making record time on the way home today, but it turned out not to make any difference. It still took me 40 minutes to get home, and I didn't feel any more or less tired and sore than I usually do. Normally, I would be inclined to rest on the laurels of a day like that, but I'm determined to get up tomorrow and do it all over again.
Wednesday
I'm putting the stakes up a bit higher today. Instead of riding from the Elizabeth interchange to the office, I'm getting off at the Salisbury interchange and continuing from there. In real terms, instead of riding 3km to work, I'm now riding close to 7km. I'm still planning on riding all the way home as well, which is still more than double that. This is all part of the build-up for this week.
After yesterday's stellar weather, the showers have finally come. However, it was only Adelaide rain, which was too faint to see from inside. When I ducked outside to see just how hard it was raining, I could barely feel it on my hand. I can live with that, I thought, remembering that there is indeed hot running water at work. I made sure I had the shoes and belt I forgot to leave at work on Monday, and grabbed the water bottle I forgot yesterday.
It turns out that the sleet is considerably more noticeable when you're riding through it that it is when you stick your hand into it from under the cover of the front porch. By the time I got to the bakery, I was starting to regret not having worn contact lenses today; waiting for the train, I used up the last tissue I was carrying with me, getting as much cleaning and drying out of that as I could.
Salisbury Interchange is interesting. The railway line crosses the highway, high above the underpass of regular traffic. There's also a foot bridge into the northwestern suburbs, from which you get a unique view of the highway; at rush hour, you almost get the impression of living in a major city. The foot bridge connects with a paved track that appears to run between a school and the main roads. I've taken this path once before, but I couldn't remember where it ended up, so I was navigating based almost entirely on my sense of direction, heading in the rough direction of work, picking up the suburban backstreets on the way. It's a shorter distance, but I'm not convinced it's any quicker, especially when you end up turning across heavy traffic afterwards.
Salisbury, as its name suggests, is high up on a plain, whereas Mawson Lakes, formerly known as The Levels, is quite close to sea level. There are no steep hills along the way to suggest such a difference; moreover, it's a steady incline that gains some 50 metres of altitude over the 7km voyage. Heading west into Edinburgh, the climb continues; and with the rain still falling, I'm talking to myself to keep going. It's not much further. There's hot running water. Just a little further.
I get into work bang on 9:00. Of course, I'm in daggy clothes that are soaked from both directions, so I can't much hang around the office like this. One of the buildings here is equipped with a proper change room, presumably recalling the days when actual military personnel were here and had to keep fit as a matter of duty. Really, though, the difference is only that my duty is to a higher calling than Queen and country.
In any case, that shower was worth it, without question. I can feel my legs stiffen up, now that I'm only using them to stand on the spot. I can already tell that I'll spend half of today doing squats and going for random walks around the office to loosen up my knees.
Having spent 15 minutes getting cleaned up and getting changed, I'm starting to calculate in my head how long it's really taking me to get to work. I left today at about 8:10 to get to the office at 9:00. I reckon I could ride in that amount of time: it takes me 40 minutes to ride home, and the climbing wouldn't add that much time to the total. The only problem is that I should really be at work and in a working capacity by 9:00, so really, I should be leaving ten or twenty minutes earlier. That said, we don't get many visitors here, and none of them ever wants to see me, so unless I'm specifically meeting someone, I don't think anyone cares if I start and finish a bit later, as long as things get done.
As you can probably tell, work isn't really capturing my attention today. My boss called me at around lunchtime to try and arrange a meeting with me, and again about an hour later to cancel it. We'll try and meet again tomorrow morning and see what progress we can make. I've scribbled down some ideas regarding a direction that I don't really know we should be taking, just in case that's what we end up deciding.
I left a little bit earlier today than yesterday, catching a break in the showers, as well as wanting to get back to the shops before the bakery shuts. I didn't buy much, and there wasn't anything I needed urgently, but the bakery was offering me free stuff and I wouldn't have gotten it home before the weekend otherwise. The things we do, I suppose.
To cap off a pretty trying day, I thought it would be a really good idea to do a stir fry when I got home. After eating that in front of Spicks And Specks and washing up everything, I wasn't done with it much before 22:00. At least I don't have much that I need to do to prepare for tomorrow.
Truly, I'm tiring from this, and not just the cycling. On the way home, I felt that the cycling was getting easier, but my legs were like jelly through the night, and I can't run all the way up the stairs as easily I could a few days ago. Maybe organising this is getting easier as well, although I wouldn't know it today, without an array of frozen meals that I can just grab on the way out.
None of this has stopped me wanting to continue, though. Seeing petrol jump to 154.9c/L today helped a bit, and I now find myself heckling people with my bell as I ride past petrol stations, so I can always look forward to that. We might get more rain again tomorrow, so I'll have to see what I will be able to do. I'll be interested to know how I feel physically and mentally as well.
Thursday
I wasn't sure what I'd do today. I had noble goals of riding all the way to work, but I had three concerns about whether I'd manage it. My first problem was that the Bureau of Meteorology had forecast showers for the morning, and I could only hope that they don't coincide with my ride to work. My second and third problems were that my knees were aching like anything.
I had my alarm set for 6:20, in case I bailed on the bike ride and had to take the bus. The weather was moving in from the west, seemingly blowing the rain clouds away, and I could see what I swore were blue skies over the horizon. The bike ride was on, and I was back to sleep for another hour.
Leaving at 8:05, I could feel my knees arguing with me before I got to the end of the street: they're going to hate me for this. I had thought about taking the elevator at Mawson Interchange rather than riding up over the bridge, easily the slowest part of the whole journey, but some roadworks had sprung up overnight, and taking another detour from the one they had established wasn't worth it. Anyway, the bridge is quite an apt metaphor for peak oil: the climb is much easier in a car, but the descent is far more satisfying on a bike.
Navigating Salisbury Highway on a bike, you notice it's only straight and true on a map. The quality of the road surface varies wildly from smooth finish to seismic anomaly. The bike lanes are either generous or non-existent, so the trip combines peaceful, uninterrupted cycling with the white-knuckle terror of mingling with rush-hour traffic. In some parts, I'm not convinced it's safe to be on the road at all - and it's bad enough taking my chances with oblivious pedestrians on the footpath, thank you very much. Maybe I need a bigger bell, but then I'd have people chasing me to buy ice cream.
The meeting with my boss has been postponed again, and it might not be today at all. Since I still don't know what I should be doing, the frustration is setting in. You'd think this would be discouraging me from making an effort to get work, and I'd be lying if I were to say it wasn't having some effect. It's just as well that riding has been so much fun and so satisfying. The key, I think, is to persevere with work as much as I do with the bike: just as I know that some parts of the ride are more difficult than others, I know that the current inactivity will eventually make way, and I'll be off at a frantic pace again. Still, the slow points on a bike last minutes, not weeks. That's kind of a downer.
Today was classic autumn weather: bright and sunny for a while, then raining, then sunny again. In most parts of the country, this phenomenon is referred to as "Melbourne weather", but Adelaide's weather is not much better at this time of year. I got a few spots of rain on the way out, but I could still see the brilliance of the sunset through the bush to the west, at least for the first few minutes. That said, the sunset lasts a bit less time every day, and I left a bit later than I'd hoped today.
I was pretty hungry by then as well, so rather than get there and start foraging, I stopped in for junk food on the way home. It seemed that everyone else in the entire city did as well: I've never stood in line so long for "fast" food. To make matters worse, everyone in the queue ahead of me seemed to be catering for a family reunion, except for the couple ahead of me, who spent ten minutes disputing an order because they got something more than what they ordered. At least someone had a busy day at the office.
It was nearly 20:00 when I got home, and I could feel the air getting cooler. I couldn't wait to have a hot shower, get rid of my dirty clothes, and just stop for a moment to rest on my laurels. A colleague told me today that you can well be surprised by what you can do when you're committed to it, and of course, he's absolutely correct about that. A few days ago, I could have seen myself regretting an experiment such as this - arriving at work one day, for example, and being so weak and tired that I couldn't even walk, let alone concentrate on work. Now that I'm on the home stretch, all that remains is to get the stuff I've left at work this week, bring it all home, and wash it - perhaps even in preparation for next week. I can taste the finish now; not even fried chicken and cheesecake could mask that.
Friday
Well, this is it: one last early start, one last dash for the train. Followed by a weekend of washing clothes, no doubt.
On the way to the bakery, fittingly, I caught up with the friend of mine who lent me the bicycle that made this little experiment of mine possible. I let him know what I'd been doing and that the net result of it may be my purchasing of a new bike. I'll try to catch up with him and pick his brain about what I should be looking for. I can't see there being a paradigm shift from what I've already got; it's more about designing something for me and for my needs.
When I got on the train, I saw one of my old bosses from my previous job at Defence. I don't know whether he saw me, and frankly, I don't much care either. He and I had a falling out when one of his yes-men, who was scared to death of me (and possibly still is), tried to blame me for screwing up a project, and when he stepped in, he turned out to be no more honourable than the coward he was defending. Usually, I just act as if I don't know them; they should be so lucky, in reality. Fortunately, he didn't change to the bus today.
It's weird, actually. He's a keen cyclist, he uses public transport whenever possible, he's multilingual, he buys organic produce, and he's got a positively evil sense of humour. Before the disputes came up, we got on famously. Afterwards, he decided that pecking order of his subordinates was more important than their ability to work together, and the disputes got out of hand. Now, I'll never speak to him again. It might seem like a shame, but I don't really want to be associated with people that harbour such resentment of me, and I'm just glad I don't have so many of them in my life any more. I am, admittedly, morbidly curious to know how these people think of what happened, but only as much as a passing driver slows down to look at a car accident: you might want to know, but there's a good chance you won't like what you find out.
The office is always very quiet at 8:15 in the morning, which allows me to concentrate better on my work. That is to say, it would allow that, if I actually had that much to do. In the absence to a solution to any of my problems, I'm trying to find ways of filling up my days at work, and I always feel guilty about doing that, even if I didn't cause the problems in the first place. It makes it difficult to appreciate your own ability to do something worthwhile with your life, to leave on the world a mark that is truly yours, to be a person you can improve stuck in a place that you can't.
To cap off a particularly trying week, I nearly missed the bus on the way home. It seems that not everyone at Adelaide Metro got the new timetable, and as I was trying to cross a busy street at rush hour, I could see the bus turning to drive away. It's at times like these, when you're running across a congested roundabout to a bus stop, that you notice how much heavier wet clothes can be than dry clothes.
Even so, I couldn't stop congratulating myself all the way home. A couple of friends invited me out to dinner that night, and I had to order something decadent and expensive as a reward for my efforts. It would be especially ironic if that meal undid all the healthy things I've done for myself during the week, but I don't really care.
* * * * * *
What I have done is to prove to myself that, in spite of my obvious physical unpreparedness, I could still do it with little or no ill effect. My legs still ache, but that will fade over the next day or two, and what will remain are the memories of what I have achieved.
On that note, I wonder how many people will read this and fail to imagine themselves undertaking such an exercise. I can only respond in the words of Antoine de Saint-Exup?ry:
"If you want to build a ship, don't drum up people together to collect wood and don't assign them tasks and work, but rather teach them to long for the endless immensity of the sea."
I have no special skills in this department either. To me, this was simply one more exercise in building a plan using very basic tools and materials. The rest comes from my passion, my commitment to leaving a mark on the Earth of which I can be proud. See the Earth in a different way, and consider all she has done for you, and you too will be pleasantly surprised by what you find.
2 comments:
Hey, that's great! I had to laugh at several comments, but overall kudos to ya for keep going with the insane project to prove the Oil Companies that you can live without them ;)
Keep it going!
Thanks for your support, daris, but bear in mind that this insanity is controlled insanity. :) Glad you had fun reading it.
Cheers,
Aaron | f420004f4f0a8063d0d1225d6c28cc3f | 5,325 |
>War universally traumatizes people, yes. When they are kids forced into it it’s worse.
That's true. It isn't a sentence that applies to the Israeli teen who says they aren't interested in combat and becomes a mechanic on a base two hours from their house which they go home to every night or at the very least on weekends.....
>I don’t think Israel is some exception to that.
I don't either- that was my point. You hear "draft" and think Vietnam and war movies. That has no bearing on what happens in Israel.
>You might argue that it’s necessary, though.
The draft in Israel? Yes, I do.
>It’s funny because I try to convey empathy and in this conflict more than any other it’s often met with defensiveness and hostility. I guess it’s the nature of the wounds from this conflict or something.
I can't speak for other people, but if you say something inaccurate in a sympathetic tone, that quite often comes off as sarcastic, condescending, deliberate attempt at trolling....there's an example of that right here in this thread from someone else. Its often quite difficult to distinguish between someone who means well but has for some reason been misinformed, and someone being a troll or trying to paint Israel in a bad light with deliberate lies.
If my tone has been hostile I apologize. Basically, Israel needs an army, they don't force anyone to do anything they don't want to, and the entire structure of the army is designed to accommodate the fact that more then half of the soldiers are between the ages of 18-21. There's no trauma unless you're in combat or in a serious place in intelligence, and if you're there you signed up for it...and there's still a good chance you'll go your entire service without doing anything at all. | 08bced371c3741c39c2bae0a24b96b69 | 411 |
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Pediatricians provide primary care pediatricians provide pediatric care services for infants, children, adolescents and their families. Pediatricians can provide basic preventive health care and medical treatment for a wide range of health problems including, but not limited to, ear infections, allergies, asthma, dental problems, diabetes, obesity, learning disabilities, viral skin diseases, sexually transmitted diseases, and infectious diseases. For more information about specific disorders, you can contact your local pediatrician or consult your physician. Find out more details in relation to this topic here: https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pediatrics. | https://5fde523edf31f.site123.me/blog/pediatric-care | 749 |
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Man v. Food
‘Thinspiration’ Post Costs TV Star
Stephen Lovekin
The latest celebrity rant has come with a cost. After going berserk on June 25 for being called out for using the hashtag #thinspiration on an Instagram post about weight loss, Adam Richman has had his new show postponed by the Travel Channel on Tuesday. Richman, the popular host of Man vs. Food, was told on his Instagram page that the hashtag is used in pro-anorexia and pro-bulimia circles, to which Richman responded “DILLIGAF?” (translation: Do I Look Like I Give a F*ck?). Richman told another critic, “Grab a razor blade and draw a bath. I doubt anyone will miss you.” Another was told that the only messed-up thing was “your dad’s choice to go without a condom.” Richman tweeted two apologies that he later took down. “In real life, if you say stuff you regret in anger, you cool down, apologize & move on. If you’re a celeb on social media—it becomes a blog,” which was then followed by, “Yes. I’ve responded to Internet hate recently with vile words directed at those hating me. I am sorry, I should know better & will do better." | 37dc0a45e60bb0dbd4188212decab7bf | 287 |
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