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Today’s Sunday Comics entry is a page from Chris Ware’s magnificent 2012 novel Building Stories (Pantheon Books).
I had occasion to look through Building Stories again this week. I had to paint a room, which required moving books from shelves, which meant unshelving Building Stories, which unwieldy beast that it is, has been covered in other books for a few years. Building Stories takes the form of 14 different sized books in a box—it’s pretty hard to shelve in any accessible way, which is a shame (but also a pleasure). Ware’s opus seems to me one of the best American novels of the past decade, but I think its greatness tends to get overlooked because a) people are still prejudiced against comics and b) it challenges all the “reading rules” we bring with us to novels—there’s not a “right way” to read the novel. You have to put it together your self, in a sense. Anyway, for me the page above, which is the last page of the chapter called “Disconnect,” is the “conclusion” of the novel, a sort of metacommentary epilogue that (somehow) ties the narrative threads together in a moving and satisfying “end.”
It was the Peanuts collections in my grandfather’s basement office that really stayed with me through childhood and into college. Charlie Brown, Linus, Snoopy, and Lucy all felt like real people to me. I even felt so sorry for Charlie Brown at one point that I wrote him a valentine and sent it to the newspaper, hoping he’d get it. I’ve said it many times before, but Charles Schulz is the only writer I’ve continually been reading since I was a kid. And I know I’m not alone. He touched millions of people and introduced empathy to comics, an important step in their transition from a mass medium to an artistic and literary one.
When I first read the press materials for Josh Melrod and Tara Wray’s documentary Cartoon College, I’ll admit that I was mostly interested in the prospect of seeing comix legends like Art Spiegelman, Charles Burns, Lynda Barry, Chris Ware, Scott McCloud, and Stephen Bissette discuss their craft. What Melrod and Wray deliver though is much more—an intimate and often very moving look at the lives of the young artists who attend the prestigious Center for Cartoon Studies. This is a film about passion, drive, commitment, and what it means to be an outsider.
In my review, I wrote: “Cartoon College offers an intriguing story about real people trying to do something that they love, and I enjoyed that. This is a film about the impetus, motivation, and hard, hard work that goes into the creative process. Great stuff.”
Josh was kind enough to talk to me about making the film over a series of emails.
Biblioklept: How did you begin the documentary Cartoon College? How did the project come about?
Josh Melrod: In 2006 my wife, then my girlfriend, Tara Wray, had just finished her first movie, Manhattan, Kansas, and was looking for her next project. She’s a huge fan of Chris Ware and she read an article about how he’d been a visiting lecturer at CCS, which had just opened a year earlier, and that was enough to get her thinking about a cartoon school documentary. She asked me if I’d consider moving to Vermont for a year–we were living in New York, and had been for a while–and I said ok. Then we had to convince James Sturm and Michelle Ollie, who founded the school, to let us film, which took several months of emails and a couple of face-to-face meetings and a trip or two to White River Junction. Once they gave us the green light we basically packed up and moved to Vermont. That was in August of 2007, and we’ve been here ever since.
Biblioklept: So you guys were shooting for like, three years? When you started did you have an idea of the kind of story you wanted to tell in Cartoon College?
JM: Our original conceit for the movie was a year in the life of a cartoon school. It was supposed to be more about the institution and how it was helping to revitalize White River Junction, which had been a town in decline for about a century. So we shot for the 2007-2008 academic year and then started working with an editor in New York that summer. It took about six months to get a rough cut put together, but when all was said and done we weren’t happy with what we had. Part of it was that the story of the school’s impact on the town didn’t quite come together–it was an arc that was unfolding too slowly to really be seen during the year we’d been filming. But we also realized that what really interested us, much more than the school itself, was documenting the creative lives of the students and witnessing these aspiring artists at a very pivotal time in their careers. We basically scrapped the rough cut, which was a pretty difficult decision, and went back to film for what turned out to be another year-and-a-half.
Biblioklept: Some of the students, like Blair Sterett and Jen Vaughn, for example, are on screen a lot more than others. Was this because they were more open to the cameras? Were there students who were reticent to talk to you?
JM: Jen is kind of a natural in front of the camera, so in a sense she was more open than some of the others. But there were only a very small handful of people during the entire production who told us they really didn’t want to be filmed. A lot of the cartoonists we spoke with are fairly introverted, and quite a few, both the younger and the more experienced artists, discussed how they express themselves best through their comics, but it doesn’t take too long for most people to begin to forget the camera is there.
Biblioklept: I like that the film is really about the career of cartooning, and that the film focuses on the arcs of these aspiring cartoonists. You’ve got all these great interviews with people like Chris Ware and Art Spiegelman and Charles Burns, but their comments ultimately work to illuminate or enrich, through their perspectives, what the students are going through. It seems like there’s a lot of restraint and wise editing on your end here. Can you talk about how you put the film together? I’m curious how intuitive the process of forming the narrative was . . .
JM: By the time we finished shooting we had something like 150 hours of footage. I don’t remember how it all broke down, but maybe forty percent was interviews. There was a lot to go through. But it was pretty clear what the character arcs were for Blair and Al and Jen. Actually, it’s kind of hard for me to remember the process in any great detail. I was just starting to work on the rough cut when Tara and I had our twins, so for the first six months of the edit I was working from around ten at night until six a.m., stopping every couple of hours to help with feedings and changing diapers, and getting a few hours of sleep here and there during the day. It’s all very blurry, and sort of miraculous that I finished the rough cut at all. My method of working was to cut the footage down from 150 hours to just 10, which is a manageable amount of material, and from there put together an assembly that had the basic structure of a movie, and then loosely refine that into a two-hour rough cut. Then I went to New York to work with another editor, Chris Branca, who came in with a ton of great ideas and further refined the story. As for the interviews serving to illuminate what the students were going through, that was pretty organic. The challenges that a person faces when they decide to become an artist are fairly universal–the self-doubt, managing your time, coming to terms with your own limitations, figuring how to make a living, etc.–so the experiences shared by the established artists were in-line with what we documented from the students.
Biblioklept: You brought up that Tara’s interest in Ware’s work kind of sparked the genesis of the documentary. Were you a fan of comics too? How much did you know about the cartooning world going into the filming process?
JM: As a kid I loved Calvin and Hobbes and Bloom County/Outland and The Far Side, but those all ended when I was in high school and I pretty much stopped reading comics at that point. Then, after Tara and I moved in together, I’d pick up some of the books she’d leave around the apartment–like Jimmy Corrigan and Hate, I remember in particular–but I knew virtually nothing about the cartooning world when we started the movie.
Biblioklept: Have you become a fan since then?
JM: I love comics, but I’m a very casual fan. I still gravitate towards non-graphic novels, and I’m not quite sure why that is. Comics certainly demand more attention from the reader, if the reader we’re talking about is me–the interplay between the pictures and the text require a level of focus that isn’t needed when you’re just reading words, although I’m not sure I ever noticed that when I was a kid–and so maybe it’s that I don’t always have the mental energy to pick up a heavy graphic novel. I am really interested in reading comics from the people in the movie–CCS graduates are doing just incredible work and a lot of the former students we followed are starting to put out books now. Katherine Roy just illustrated a book and has a couple of others coming out soon; Jen Vaughn released a book last week; Josh Rosen is going to start serializing the project he was working on while we were filming; Joe Lambert, who we interviewed but didn’t appear in the movie, although he designed the poster, made a book about Annie Sullivan and Helen Keller that’s just incredible.
Biblioklept: What kind of movie would you like to do next?
JM: I’m working on a short, a fiction movie, with a couple of guys who used to edit a literary magazine with me. It was called theLand-Grant College Review and we published for five or six years starting in about 2002. We wanted to work on something new, and I’m really interested in doing a narrative, and they’d been thinking of doing a screenplay, so that’s what we decided to do. We’re still writing, but we have some good advisers on board and the plan is to shoot next summer. And I’m in the development phase on a pair of new docs. They’re both about personalities, as opposed to being issue-based, which is a common denominator. One follows a semi-famous performer and the other involves a family on its summer vacation. It’s still pretty early to talk confidently about any of this stuff. I just have to keep plugging away and see what happens, but these are the projects I’d like to do next.
JM: Thanks! We had a short but good run, and got to publish a lot of great writers. One of my most prized possessions is a postcard that David Foster Wallace sent me–in response to a letter I’d written asking him to send us a story–saying that he’s “just working on stuff that isn’t suitable for publication any place.”
As for what I’m reading, I just started [Erik Larson’s] The Devil In The White City, which I’d been hesitant to open for a few years since I do a lot of reading before bed and I thought it would mess with my sleep. So far so good.
Biblioklept: Have you ever stolen a book?
JM: No, never stolen a book, but I have gone a long time without paying for a book. A lot of the books on my shelf I picked out of piles left on the curb or at the recycling center near where we live now. Sometimes I like to let the universe decide what I read depending on what I find in front of me, which is how I got to read The Universe And Dr. Einstein, a lay readers guide to general relativity that I still managed not to understand.
In the opening scene of Josh Melrod and Tara Wray’s new documentary Cartoon College, aspiring cartoonist Ryland Ianelli lays out the reality that, despite all the progress the medium has made as an art form worthy of respect, comic books are still outré: “It’s gotten easier to talk to people who are open to the idea of comics being worthwhile—but at the point you say, Yes I’m going to school for comics, they’re completely ready to dismiss you.”
Cartoonists have always been outsiders—even in art schools, a traditional gathering spot for outsiders—and it’s this feeling of alienation and displacement that undergirds the emotional platform of Cartoon College. The film is not just about the Center for Cartoon Studies (CSS), a highly-selective two year MFA program founded in 2005 in White River Junction, Vermont, or the cadre of master cartoonists who inspired the school, and, in some cases teach there. For plenty of comix nerds (like me), it’s enough to see masters like Art Spiegelman, Charles Burns, Lynda Barry, and Chris Ware talk about the art, medium, and business of cartooning. But this documentary offers more. Cartoon College succeeds because it tells the genuinely moving and engaging story of its students, self-described outcasts who find a sense of community and even family in the program.
Melrod and Wray take us into the extreme demands of the CSS program. In the first year (“boot camp”), students practice fundamentals—drawing, theory, writing, history. In the second year, the students produce a thesis—a finished work of some kind—to determine if they pass the program and receive an MFA. All this work is to ensure that students “will be ready to face the uncertainty of a career in one of the most labor-intensive, drudgery inducing art forms,” as the film puts it.
The faculty (all distinguished cartoonists, including Stephen Bissette, James Sturm, and Alec Longstreth, who are featured prominently in the film) repeatedly remind students and audience alike that most of cartooning is labor-intensive drudgery: it’s not really that fun, it requires lots of discipline, and most people can’t cut it. The CSS, like most art schools, employs a workshop technique to help students grow, get feedback—and also, implicitly, as a means of maintaining quality control. Workshop scenes and other critiques are often some of the most painful moments in the film, as they highlight the very personal stakes for the aspiring cartoonists, who quite literally put their lives into their work.
Melrod and Wray wisely compose their narrative around just a few of these students, while giving us enough scenes with others to flesh out the film. Blair Sterrett gives the film a definitive arc. He’s clearly a troubled, struggling artist, trying to channel his former experiences as a Mormon missionary into a thesis, but as the deadline approaches, it’s clear his book’s unfinished. Sterrett’s scenes (particularly an early critique) are very moving, and—a bit of a spoiler—there’s a triumphant feeling when he returns to the CSS to finish his MFA.
We find another arc in Jen Vaughn, who has too many jobs and too many ideas. Of all the student artists, she seems the most open to the camera, and her self-assured posture by turns belies a greater vulnerability and depth. In one illuminating scene at the MoCCA Fest, Vaughn tries to pique a muted festival goer’s interest in her project Menstruation Station; when he walks away without seeming to say anything we catch a glimpse of weariness bordering on desperation.
There’s also Al Wesolowsky, who at 61 is the oldest student. An archaeologist at Boston University, Wesolowsky tries his hand at the CSS program despite his self-admitted limitations as a draftsman. In some ways he’s the soul of the film. At one point he delivers a brief monologue wherein he describes the loneliness he feels at having no family, but the pleasure he’s found in a makeshift family at CSS.
Loneliness and alienation are perhaps the bedrock themes of comix and cartooning, as anyone who’s read Spiegelman or Ware or Burns—or really any of the master cartoonists interviewed in Cartoon College—can attest. Spiegelman is the first professional to pop up in the film, after the filmmakers have already introduced us to the students, and one of the first comments he makes is that comix allows cartoonists to come into contact with “a bunch of other outcasts.” This sentiment is repeated again and again, by students, teachers, and masters alike; we learn that Ryland Ianelli was voted Prom Queen by the cruel students of his high school; student Casey Bohn tells us that everyone in his small town thought he was “gay or British”; Lynda Barry puts it plain: “Childhood seemed to me like it lasted too long.”
Of all the master cartoonists on screen, I was most captivated by Chris Ware, who comes across as reflective, cerebral, and even philosophical. He points out that cartoonists are always “sifting through generations”,” handing down tropes, skills, ideas. Ware, chronicler of loneliness, perhaps makes the strongest case for cartoonists-as-community.
The idea that the students need to foster a community is reinforced by Bissette, who tells the that they must share contacts, share ideas, and be colleagues. Bissette and the other CSS instructors repeatedly emphasize the publishing dimension of cartooning, paying special attention to the idea that these cartoonists can self-publish. Cartoon College is larded with shots of students hand-crafting their art, and Bissette likens what they are doing to Warhol and his Factory. He also points out that this new generation’s desire is not to draw Spider-Man or Batman but their own creations.
An energetic scene at the MoCCA Fest shows this cottage industry at work, as artists buy and trade for each other’s work. But the instructors and pros are very clear—or try to be clear—about the economic realities most cartoonists will face. Ware and Burns point out that commercial illustration is a necessity to feed their other projects. Juxtaposed with these moments, our students describe their dreams of a comfortable retirement and book deals, a moment undercut by Lynda Barry gleefully pointing out that she makes most of her moeny selling “shit on E-bay.”
It might have been tempting for Melrod and Wray to cram all the footage they had of famous cartoonists like Barry, Françoise Mouly, Scott McCloud, and others into Cartoon College, but to the filmmakers’ credit they use the masters sparingly. Art Spiegelman tells us at one point that “We think in bursts of language, not in long Jamesian sentences…the number of words that might be able to fit in a speech balloon are the core of a linguistic thought.” The insight is intended for cartooning, but the filmmakers apply it to their medium, letting the camera do much of the work for them, offering only the most essential moments (like when Charles Burns completes a sketch and the student audience breaks into applause). Cartoon College is at its best when it shows us the difficult experiences of the students intercut with commentary by the seasoned, successful professionals, who understand precisely the pain these people are undergoing.
Before I started watching Cartoon College, I wondered who it was for. My interest in Spiegelman, Ware, Burns, et al. was enough to prod my interest (and the soundtrack featuring Archers of Loaf, Portastatic, and Tortoise didn’t hurt)—but would the film appeal to, uh, non-geeks? Ultimately, I think the documentary is about the drive toward art and self-expression, and the ways that communities and relationships can form around this drive. Cartoon College offers an intriguing story about real people trying to do something that they love, and I enjoyed that. This is a film about the impetus, motivation, and hard, hard work that goes into the creative process. Great stuff.
I probably first got to know Kim Thompson’s name through the editorial and letters pages of Dave Sim’s long-running black and white comic Cerebus. Sim had this marvelous agon with Thompson and partner Gary Groth, who were, like, the voice of comix (as opposed to, y’know, comics). Their outlet for that voice was The Comics Journal, the often ornery (and often-sued) magazine that maintained the critical and artistic traditions of cartooning against the venal backdrop of superhero comics. Thompson was also instrumental in the vision and quality of Fantagraphics Books, where he edited books by Chris Ware, Peter Bagge, and Joe Sacco, among, many many others. I still have all my issues of his anthology comic Zero Zero, which was instrumental in warping my young mind. I think I’ll dig them out now.


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When I became a mom I was privileged to know exactly what I was getting into. Well, I thought I knew exactly what I was getting into. Our kids were 6, 8 and 10 when we got married. I loved becoming a mom but there were things no one told me about being a step mom.
You Will Love the Kids
Yes it’s true, you will love the kids just like they were your own. You might want to have more kids but it isn’t because there was a lack of love. For me, I really wanted to experience being pregnant, giving birth and all of those baby years.
Some People Won’t Accept You
There were a lot of people who didn’t think I was a “real” mom. Let me tell you, there is no such thing as a fake mom. Some people won’t accept that you are now a mom because you didn’t give birth. Step mom’s aren’t alone in this, foster and adoptive parents face this too. A lack of either internal or external acceptance may make it harder but it doesn’t change the circumstances. You are a “real” mom.
Your Relationship with their Mom is Very Important
I assumed that my husband would be dealing with the kids mom. I didn’t think it would be my job but I learned that having a good relationship is very important. You owe it to the kids to make an effort to have a good relationship. Besides, you’ll have a life time of holidays, ball games and birthdays to share. And if there is ever an emergency, it’s easier to navigate when you have a good relationship.
It’s More Emotional Than You Think
Our kids never did the, “you’re not my mom” thing but there were difficult moments. If you’ve raised “your own” children you know there are difficult moments, throwing in divorce and remarriage only magnify them. Sharing the kids at Christmas or having them move to the other parents is really hard.
You Feel Left Out
If you’ve ever been the new friend in a group you know there are awkward moments when everyone is reliving a shared memory that you weren’t a part of. You’ll have a lot of these and they will sting. The good news is that soon you’ll have your own shared moments that you will cherish forever.
Shared Parenting Is Hard
Agreeing with your spouse about parenting decisions isn’t always easy, throw in one or two other opinions and it can be tough. Being respectful of the other parents is important. If one of the parent’s make a rule, everyone needs to know and understand it (and discuss it if needed).
3 Things New Step Moms Must Do
Pray for Them
Pray for the other parents. Pray for their faith walk, their marriage, their job, their home and anything else you can think of. The more you pray for them, the more you will love them. It’s a lot easier to see eye to eye with someone you love.
NEVER say negative things about the other parents! This may be the most important thing! NEVER, EVER, EVER. Got it! Not sure what to say, try:
- How is your mom?
- Do you have plans with your mom this weekend. That sounds fun
- I love that shirt, did your mom buy that? She has great taste.
When you talk about the other parents remember to smile.
Cultivate a Good Relationship with the Parents
Consider the kids parent and step parent on the other side to be extended family. Make small talk, text pictures, and if possible share a big family meal every once in a while. Showing your kids that you love and respect each other will make these step parent dynamics much easier for them to handle.
Being a step mom isn’t easy but it doesn’t have to be bad. The first few years may be strained but isn’t that case anytime families change.
Do you have advice to add to my list? Tell us what you think.
Holly loves spending time with her husband and kids who range in age from 5-22.

domain: psychology


text: The good news on the Senate financial reform bill these days is that we have a few provisions worth fighting for. Senator Blanche Lincoln (D-Ark.) has introduced [http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/bdquery/z?d111:SP3739: one of the most important] – a bold section in the Dodd bank reform bill (Section 106) that will force the biggest banks to spin off their swaps (or derivatives) desks into a separate entity. That entity will be regulated and can remain part of the bank holding company, but it no longer has access to the Federal Reserve’s flow of funds, FDIC insurance and the taxpayer guarantee. Help us do w hip count to make sure Lincoln’s language passes.

domain: news


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I thought that I would take a moment to share my experiences (so far) with pregnancy. Whilst I am certainly no guru and have entered this journey with humility, I merely wish to share a little of this passage towards motherhood in the hope that it might help some others to find their feet in pregnancy and parenthood.
* * * * *
I was a slower starter to the idea of becoming a mother and so too was my husband. We have been together for over eleven years and married for three of these, living an adventure-filled life running our own business, travelling frequently with our work, living in Australia’s adventure state called Tasmania, and enjoying a life in sync. So, what was a child going to do to this freedom of movement and choice? The question remained unanswered. It was easier to sweep it into the corner of my heart, mind and spirit rather than confront it head on. However, over the last two years I could feel myself shifting into a slightly different space.
Having seen so much of the world and ticked off so many of my bigger dreams (for now), I wondered how I would continue to find challenges and intoxicating experiences that would keep my life feeling rich. I never doubted the love that I had for my husband, but my love tank began overflowing and I felt this urge to share it with others. In time, I recognized that I was beginning to feel the urges to share this love with a mini version of us. A little human who would teach me to look at the world through even more playful eyes. An individual who would want me to keep stepping up to ensure that the planet we leave them custodians of is as rich as it can be. In my heart I heard this calling and knew it was pulling me towards motherhood. But it does take two to cross the fence and wade amongst the long, confusing grasses on the other side.
It was hard to discuss openly the emotions and urges I was feeling about becoming a mother. I have always wanted to ensure that I never clip my husband’s wings because it was his sense of freedom and adventure that I fell in love with in the first place. Even in friendship, some twelve years ago, we urged each other to inspire one another, to live a life that made everyday a dance. So, asking him to cross into parenthood and potentially give up a little of his gypsy spirit was terrifying! But I am so glad I found the courage. Not only did these conversations draw us closer together, but within minutes of finding out about the pregnancy, we both declared how super right it now felt.
Our journey has not been a smooth one. Mere hours after I discovered and confirmed the pregnancy, and just 6 weeks into this new world, I spontaneously began to bleed, lots. It coincided with my husband’s return from work that day and his surprised look as I rushed to the bathroom. I stood in the shower watching red water stream into the white bath below me. I howled and grieved the child I had only just emotionally met. We sat together on the couch then, staring into the wide-open spaces beyond the window, wondering if we would ever walk this path again. However, as a new day dawned my body still felt different. I sensed the strength of life deep within me and a test later confirmed this. Not only was I pregnant but our unborn child’s heart was already beating with ferocious willpower. Then the events unfolded all over again. Now at 9.5 weeks I once again stood in the shower, tears and redness streaming down into the drain. Another trip to the ICU only to confirm… the three of us were still safe and well.
In these weeks of tentativeness and concern, I found myself opening up to less black and white thinking. I began to believe that if I stepped up, somehow, something out there would keep us safe. I picked up any rubbish I begun to see, profusely thanked anyone for their acts of kindness no matter how small, took a moment to express my gratitude at the end of a day, tried to walk gently on the planet and told our growing child every day how extraordinary he or she would find this world awaiting them.
The most confusing part of this pregnancy has been how to juggle my ferocious will to play and enjoy the wide outdoors with a need to channel energy to our growing Kiddo. From as early as 7 weeks I was told many times over that I was carrying precious cargo. I was asked endlessly, ‘have you stopped running yet?’ or warned not to twist, bend, swivel or exert. Don’t get too hot. Don’t exercise too hard. Don’t do too much. Don’t go too hard. Don’t lift anything. The rules were endless and overwhelming. But in my heart of hearts I truly believe that all the work I have done over previous years to come to know myself and hear the intuition of my body has begun to pay off during my pregnancy. Despite the intense nausea that lasted all day, every day, as well as breathlessness and fatigue for the first 12 weeks, I found that when I listened quietly to the whispers of my own body I begun to discover what felt right, and what didn’t.
In the first twelve weeks I was extremely breathless and fighting fatigue, nausea and a change in palate. This made fueling and energy for exercise more challenging. However, whilst I had no urge to push myself, the fresh air and movement was a saving grace for the nausea and so I moved as much as my body willed me to. Often this involved shorter walks or jogs multiple times a day. I found that my pre-breakfast jog was the lifesaver to the nausea, whilst the evening walks or e-bike rides helped me to feel calmer and more peaceful heading to bed. I snacked frequently and focused on listening to my body’s random cravings and aversions. This intuition seemed to keep me in sync and our kiddo growing happily. From week 7 of the pregnancy I stopped wearing a watch and instead tried to move by feel. If I was done I was done. If I craved more then I did a little more. Occasionally I set a challenge just to keep myself mojo’ed. But most of the time I jogged and tried to remain as present as I could, sharing it quietly with Kiddo as we slipped through the day.
Status: Having trouble stabilizing female hormones. Irregular or absent menstrual cycles but otherwise feeling super health and very fit.
Approach: Aimed to reduce stressor loads. Reduced work to 4 days per week. The days I was at work were fuller but it allowed my body to catch up strongly for 3 days afterwards. Increased creativity with art classes and associated homework. This balanced my sense of wellbeing. Reduced exercise efforts to ‘Base Training’ approach with no sense of expectation. Played but not too hard. Missioned but not too wild. Exercised every day but not with a training mentality.
Example: Daily exercise mostly focused on running at a talking intensity and either solo or with individuals who made me feel buoyant. Up to 2hrs of exercise per day. Balanced this with plenty of yoga and yin yoga as well as maintenance strength work.
Result: I fell pregnant!
WEEKS 1 – 6
Status: Unaware or somewhat curious that I might be pregnant. Feeling a little ‘off’ and tired but nothing to alarm me.
Approach: Maintain routine from pre-pregnancy but backed off volume even more.
Example: Daily exercise focused purely on being outdoors. Occasional longer run but all at talking intensity. Reduced strength training and increased yin yoga & meditation. Walked on days when I felt too tired. Morning jogs mostly limited to under 90-minutes. Found other ways to enjoy being outside, such as working in our garden, picnics, walking to work etc. Rested as much as possible and spent many car trips napping!
Status: Found out I was pregnant at 6.5 weeks but accompanied with heavy bleeding and again at 8.5 weeks. Feeling apprehensive yet excited, increasingly nauseous and fatigued. Sleeping lots! Very breathless.
Approach: Completely stopped using a watch. Only exercising on feel but with an aim to be outdoor and active for at least 60-minutes per day. Also participated in something low-key but active in middle of day and again at end of day. Stopped yoga completely as was advised not to do too much bending or deep rotations, a classic feature of the yin yoga that I enjoyed. So, I substituted this with more time mindfully walking, self-massage and creative arts. Tried to avoid setting an alarm.
Example: Minimum 60-minute morning jog but after a light, salty snack and drink of water. Always taking sports nutrition with me on runs. Midday jog-walk if possible with a shorter walk or e-bike ride in the afternoon for the fresh air. Meditation and journaling at night where possible.
Status: Bleeding now completely stopped but fatigue and nausea are greatly elevated. No longer so apprehensive about exercising alone. Increased urge to urinate when exercising, especially on the downhills! Breathlessness subsiding.
Approach: Continue to avoid a watch and gently increase the effort of my morning jog to an aerobic run. To reduce discomfort of bladder, easily jog on the uphills and flats, and gently jog-walk on the downhills as required. Also return to strength training with a focus on safe body weight activities as guided by an exercise physiologist. Begun 1 swim session per week up to 60-minutes in length. Continue to jog-walk in middle of the day on some days, and also additional walks or easy e-bike rides in the afternoons for fresh air. Reduced exercise with others and more solo approach so that I can intuitively listen to my own body. Continue meditation, journaling and art to harmonise myself.
Example: Minimum 60-minute morning jog but growing in confidence and distance. This was always after a snack and some fluids. Still eating and drinking during the runs. Very short midday jog if possible with a short walk or e-bike in evening. 2-3 light, short gym sessions per week. Meditation and journaling frequently. Return to work in retail environment and still guiding some trail running tours.
Write something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview.

domain: literature


wolverine_173 wrote:I guess i could always go for a glock 19. Dustin, Do you think glock beats the other two guns?
For me, it does, but we all have different preferences.
The thing that I didn't like about the Sig was the DA/SA trigger; I don't like a trigger that doesn't feel the same on every shot.
As for the XD, I think they're great, but it's VERY similar to the Glock and there is nothing about the XD that makes me think it's any better. It does have the extra grip safety, but I believe that's completely unnecessary and one more part that can fail.
For me, the Glock is the best handgun out there, but again, we all like different things. I love Glock's reliability, durability, simple take down/maintenance, etc.
Just be sure to try all the guns that you're considering to see which one is best for you


Which Great US President Are You Most Like?
created with QuizFarm.com
|You scored as Theodore Roosevelt |
26th President, in office from 1901-1909
Wednesday, January 16, 2008
Posted by Mike Stajduhar at 1:53 AM
SOUTHFIELD, Mich. (AP) - Republican Mitt Romney cast his win in the Michigan primary as "a victory of optimism over Washington-style pessimism," setting the stage for a nomination battle with John McCain and others now likely to extend through the Super Tuesday contests on Feb. 5.
Posted by Mike Stajduhar at 12:04 AM


Never mind climate- or carbon-neutral, Stockholm is going climate-positive. The city’s mayor and government have set an ambitious target: Stockholm should be free of fossil fuels by 2040. But what can the rest of us learn from Stockholm’s journey? Here are ten takeaways.
The journey towards being climate positive is a long one – It requires sustained commitment over many years. Stockholm’s mayor Karin Wanngård commented recently that the city’s government has been focused on sustainability and reducing its environmental impact for more than twenty years. Carbon emissions have reduced by 44% since 1990, and the target is revised and reduced on an ongoing basis. This is a long-term commitment.
It is also only part of a wider economic picture – The ambition for climate positivity is only part of Stockholm’s aims; it is coupled with a drive for growth and sustainability. This has led to investments in technology and systems designed to make the city more business-focused and encourage companies, especially tech giants, to invest. And of course the presence of tech companies supports smart city developments and technologies, creating a virtuous circle.
All journeys start somewhere: the key is in recognising the potential for further travel – Stockholm’s journey, for example, started with work on e-government services. It was therefore very much focused on public involvement in policy-making, a key aspect of the smart city movement around the world, including Rio de Janeiro and Barcelona. The difficult part is to make the leap from improving services, to recognising the potential for onward travel and other improvements, building on the processes developed.
Sweden’s culture supports entrepreneurial thinking and innovation… – Stockholm perhaps has an advantage over other cities, because many commentators report that Sweden is very entrepreneurial. For example, in an answer on Quora, James Pember commented that universities teach entrepreneurial skills, as well as technology, meaning that graduates are alert to the possibilities of creating their own companies. The very strong welfare state also supports entrepreneurialism, because it enables failure without massive social consequences.
…and it also has a tradition of research and excellence in climate and environmental issues – It may have been the devastating impact of acid rain on Sweden’s forests back in the 1980s, but we can probably all admit that Sweden developed an early reputation for environmental awareness and activism. Alongside that, it also developed a tradition of research and innovation in environmental and information technology, which very much supports the smart city movement.
Sharing best practice with other innovators is key – Sharing information and good practice is vital to maximising success, and minimising environmental impact. Stockholm is part of the C40 Cities group, and Karin Wanngård notes the benefits of networking at events such as the C40 Climate Positive and Sustainable Urban Development Networks workshop, to be held in Wunan in November. Stockholm has also hosted good practice events, such as the recent Smart Cities Live.
‘Demonstrators’ are a useful way to test new technologies and ideas – Stockholm’s approach is to use large-scale ‘demonstrators’ to pilot ideas. Its Royal Seaport area is one of the largest urban development areas in Europe, and has become a model for sustainable urban planning. It will not be fully finished until 2030, but when complete, will be climate positive. Kista Science Park brings together public and private sectors and academia, concentrating expertise.
People are key to smart city development… Like so many of the most successful smart cities, Stockholm’s government has placed its citizens central to its thinking, and the principle drives development. Technology is simply an enabler. It has to work to meet the needs of the city’s residents and visitors.
…but early and extensive investment in technology is important – Twenty years ago, Stockholm invested in a fibre optic network that would provide high speed, high quality connections for all, at relatively low cost. By 2013, almost 100% of companies and 90% of households were connected. This reduces environmental impact by reducing traffic, and optimising resource use. But it also makes the city more attractive for inward investment and big companies.
Open data supports traffic management and planning – Traffic management and planning are crucial to helping citizens to use public transport and other more sustainable means of transport, but also to journey planning to maximise sustainability. Stockholm’s trafiklab is an open data resource community that allows developers to share data and APIs to improve traffic and journey planning. Open data was crucial, for example, to allowing Google to integrate Stockholm into its travel planning services.


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|To Downtown||7.1 mi|
|Check-in time||4:00 PM|
|Check-out time||10:00 AM|
|Payment & Cancellation||Policies vary by room type and provider.|
|Front desk number||+886 972 727 832|
With a distance of 1.6 mi between Beginning Guesthouse and the nearest airport, Taipei City Taiwan Taoyuan Intl Airport, the drive typically takes about 0h 03m depending on traffic. Be sure to check traffic trends near the hotel and airport as some areas experience higher traffic than others and can increase your expected travel time.
For the most freedom while visiting Taoyuan City, consider renting a car for about $125/day and parking it at Beginning Guesthouse where they offer parking spaces to hotel guests. Taking a taxi or rideshare service from the nearest airport, Taipei City Taiwan Taoyuan Intl Airport, to your hotel is often the most cost effective transportation solution.
Beginning Guesthouse is 2.4 mi away from the center of Luzhu District, Taoyuan City. Consider visiting Taoyuan Arena, a popular landmark that can be accessed from Beginning Guesthouse by various forms of transportation.
You can reach the front desk of Beginning Guesthouse at +886 972 727 832.
Yes, Beginning Guesthouse has Wi-Fi available to hotel guests.
The standard check-out time at Beginning Guesthouse is 10:00 AM. Guests can usually check-in from 4:00 PM. Special arrangements may be available if discussed with the front desk.
Yes, there is a hotel laundry service for guests at Beginning Guesthouse.
Beginning Guesthouse is a good place to stay to see Wenhua Yunlang. It’s 1.9 mi away.

domain: geography


Aden Batar, immigration and refugee resettlement director at CCS, said the organization tries to help refugees reach self-sufficiency in six months. He is a refugee from Somalia and says religious communities have a responsibility to take care of refugees.
Batar encouraged the community to not only advocate on behalf of refugees who often don't know the political system well enough to advocate for themselves but also educate those who are resistant to having refugees resettled in their communities, and correct misinformation about the refugee crisis.
The State Department had invited Rick Foster, director of LDS Humanitarian Services for North America, to speak on behalf of religious organizations engaged in supporting refugee work.
"The eyes of the nation are on this neighborhood," said Foster, who said Utah is nationally recognized for resettling refugees. He specifically praised the South Salt Lake community for its engagement.
"When the business owners step forward and they're willing to assist both immigrants and refugees, provide jobs for them, and be patient in that endeavor, a whole community is lifted," Foster said. "These people add to the fabric of our community."
Imam Muhammed S. Mehtar of the Khadeeja Mosque in West Valley City spoke of the importance of helping refugees adjust to the culture of their new homes while staying grounded to their roots.
Refugee children play a dual role, said Mehtar. At home, kids live traditionally, but at school, they change their clothes in an effort to fit in.
Part of his effort is to help people with the discord of transition.
"How can we help these people make a positive, good transition without sacrificing either value?" asked Mehtar.
People tend to trivialize and simplify their identities into particular groups, he said. For example, 1.6 billion people in the world identify as Muslim, and according to Mehtar, there are 119 nationalities in the Islamic Society of Greater Salt Lake. He said people are surprised to see the level of diversity in Islam.
"This is what I understand America is all about," said Mehtar, "where you can be an Iraqi, but you can also be a full-fledged, good American citizen."


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Yay! I was chosen as the winner of the zoo-inspired Friday Mashup challenge from a couple weeks ago with my sliding pop-up card of African deer and Asian rabbits - LOL! Such an honor to be guest designer, and I really enjoy it!
Holly has created a new challenge blog, still the Friday Mashup but in a new location. This is unique because there are two themes every week, and you can choose which to do or "mash" them together. This week's challenge is butterflies with dimension.
I've been wanting to make a butterfly lantern for about a year now, so why not combine two projects for a double whammy?
In these shady photos, you can pick up that I used the Very Vintage wheel for the base of the lantern. Please disregard the brown in the background. Hey, it was snowing here last week!
This rare sunny, but windy, day in NY makes for photographic troubles.
I went back and added an indoor shot.
My daughter can't wait to get her hands on this one. But she wants the butterflies IN the cage. The template for the lantern is available on the Paper Crafters Library site, use code PCSHB.
Stamps: Very Vintage wheel; Paper: Very Vanilla, Basic Black, Crumb Cake, Bella Bleu DSP, Haiku DSP; Ink: Crumb Cake; Accessories: Scallop Trim punch, Very Vanilla satin ribbon, Beautiful Butterflies die, Beautiful Wings embosslit, Big Shot, Screen netting.
Thanks for stopping by!
- Paper Pumpkin
- Free Project PDF
- Stampy Resume
- Join Us!

domain: artistic


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Book Review: Unforgiven by Sarah Barrie
I’ve read one of Sarah Barrie’s titles and enjoyed it a lot. It was what I would call a rural mystery but Unforgiven has an urban setting and is a much grittier story.
Lexi is an alcoholic prostitute who, in her spare time, hacks into the dark web, infiltrating paedophile rings. Lexi was a victim of one such ring as a child until her main abuser, a man who also murdered several young girls and went by the name of Spider, was caught. Now, 18 years later, a young girl’s body has been found in similar circumstances of those original crimes.
Detective Inspector Rachel Langley is sent to lead up the investigation and is soon contacted by a man claiming he is not only the killer now but was also responsible for the original murders and the man convicted was not the real Spider. This casts a shadow over Rachel’s entire career, considering she was directly promoted due to her cracking the original case.
I usually avoid books featuring crimes against children. Barrie managed to present the horrors of the crimes without too many graphic details but they were still unpleasant enough for me to pause reading when little Chloe was in the news. The one redeeming factor on this score was Unforgiven’s humour. Yes, I know that sounds insane but, at times, this was one of the funniest books I’ve ever read.
This comic relief mostly comes from Lexi’s neighbour, Dawny. I can’t give too many details without spoiling but Dawny really stole the show. (I imagined Jackie Weaver the whole time as I read.) Lexi also had great chemistry with Rachel’s nephew, Finn, who was also a detective working the case and Jim, a young police IT expert.
I highly recommend this fast paced Aussie thriller and I can’t wait for Lexi’s next adventure as, although most of the mystery plot was resolved, this is obviously going to be a series.
4 ½ stars

domain: library


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This pastoral, Fleet Foxes-esque folk rock album is essentially sad people singing sad songs. Thumbtacks and Glue begins with a song entitled “The Saddest Music in the World.” And while thats a lofty statement, there certainly is no sunshine to be found in this album. At times dark, at times angsty, at times just sad, its a pretty listenable and underwhelming folk album. Check it out.
RIYL: Jana Hunter, Swan Lake
CHECK OUT: 3,5,7,10


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The Billy Shears Fan Club
"Here's Another Clue For You All"
Tuesday, February 6, 2007
They Might Be Beatles
Klaatu and the Paul is Dead rumor. I remember this rumor. WROQ in Charlotte NC played out all the tracks. I ran across it again and instantly recognized all of it. Even if it is not the Beatles, it is a very cool addition to your record collection.
Friday, January 26, 2007
And Your Bird Can "Laugh" and Sing
The Beatles enjoying a little quality studio time. The song is from Anthology cd the video by thegoodthiefsremorse on Youtube.
Enjoy! You know they did! :)

domain: entertainment


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How did you start writing?
Even at the age of four I told stories of my own.
Was the urge to write poetry embarrassing to you in the beginning?
I don’t see why it should have been embarrassing ~ maybe the opposite. My poems have been published and have won competitions since I was a teen. I have always been surrounded by friends who wished they could express themselves in special ways like me.
What was your first inspiration?
Just like nowadays, nature and animals. But through metaphors ~ mere description doesn’t interest me, nor simple narration.
How does your Hungarian origins and the fact that you are living in Luxembourg influence your work?
I grew up in an era of pretexts and hidden meanings. It might be one of the reasons why my writing has always been multi~layered. Also, I love exploring betrayals.
Living in Luxembourg has nothing to do with my writing and everything to do with my day job. Mostly I write during my residencies when I have uninterrupted time.
Do you hope your readers will find in your work something specific?
My work is very different from everybody else’s (it’s not my assumption, this is what others say as well, in the reviews too). It’s partly because of the visceral voice, partly because of handling serious themes using playful language and rhythm structures, lush imagery.
The well~accomplished poet Yuyutsu Sharma described my poetry as follows:
“Agnes’ is a sanguine voice, a wounded shaman calling the mutants of the world, in rapt conversation with Nature’s secret energies, effortlessly digging treasures of love and compassion out of her fertile womb.
She is a poet with many incarnations: “The Viperfish, luring giants as prey,/ swallowing them as one,/ Springboks pronking in the air blind, mules walking the wind. /Whiteface parrots, pink sheep/ zombie-neighbored carrots./ Fused-limbed mermaid mice, /extra auricles, no tails. /The Pronghorn Spiny Lobster, sponge-dried,/ bubble-wrapped, placed in Styrofoam. /Self-addressed envelopes to eunuch larks, six-fingered poets.”
A major young European voice, a “safari soul” whose “roaring silence” and its intricately innate charisma we cannot afford to ignore or let go unheeded. Her poems race against currents of time and tangible realities in one relentless rush, spiraling earth-wise, spew out its hidden energy with the vigor of a volcano awake after a century’s sleep.
Deep, epigrammatic and corporeal, these are waves of a warm, naked ocean…”
Is there a particular part of your work that you hope will influence your readers?
I don’t think anyone would want to get any piece published or performed without the intention of touching the readers or the audience this way or that way… The intention can be quite different piece by piece, project by project. Just to mention a few, I dealt a lot with the necessity of redressing the past (it being the apartheid as it was a project in South Africa, or your personal history, or the traditions of any community), in my chapbooks I protested against Trump (but in my understanding it was rather against stupid power as such, anywhere and in any form). My band~new project is called ‘Mission Jaguar’, it is going to take place in Costa Rica and Nicaragua in 2020, to protect wildlife against mass tourism, to call people’s attention to the importance of the so~called jaguar corridors. Just like, after my residencies in the Arctic Circle and at the Scott Polar Research Institute (it’s a part of The University of Cambridge in the UK), I wrote a lot about the endangered glaciers and edited an Arctic issue of the international literary magazine The Ofi Press.
But of course the emphasis is very different in my operas and choral work, a collaboration with Greek composer Vasiliki Legaki.
What is the role of literature today?
The same role as of any other way of communication.
What keeps you writing?
I have something important to say… and then again… I’m enchanted by an image or some rhythm (usually it’s not what I can see or listen to in real life, it’s all in my head), and I can start building on it… But I also do a lot of research, science is a huge inspiration. For example I observed bats in Canada, with the help of a bat~detector I built myself, then I write a poem sequence for a bat~themed anthology called Battalion. It was published by Sidekick Books in the UK last year.
You are quite active abroad but also an admirer of the work of Marina Abramovic. Does it have something to do with your interest in coming and writing in Belgrade?
Certainly it does. I did thorough research, I might know Marina’s life and activities better than my own, every tiny nuance. Quite a few of my poems and stories use Marina as a starting point. My latest book is called ‘Postcards to Trump from the Marina Abramovic Institute’. However, I wouldn’t call myself an admirer of her work. I do find much of her artwork and constant quest essential, brave and fascinating, but besides, I admit she is rather controversial. I absolutely disagree with some of her statements in the interviews, I don’t oversee the disjointed nature of her work… An artist is human after all, I can accept all this, She is never boring.
Your impressions and feelings about Belgrade…
Exciting, bubbly art scene, friendly people.
Lastly, what is next in your writing? What can we look forward to reading from you?
The manuscript of my second full poetry collection, ‘For Waltz You Don’t Need a Compass’ was a finalist in the international competition of the Munster Literature Centre. Now I’m fine~tuning it before it gets published.
Your message to artists who wish to come in Belgrade in the future….
Don’t hesitate, Belgrade never disappoints.


The MF Global Holdings Ltd. trustee sued Breakwater Trading for allegedly breaching a credit agreement and seeks about $8.3 million plus interest, according to a court filing.
On Sept. 14, written demand was sent to Breakwater pursuant to the agreement, MF Global’s Chapter 11 trustee, Louis Freeh, said in court papers filed today in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Manhattan. “Breakwater, however, has refused to comply with its clear contractual obligation to repay the money it borrowed,” Freeh said.
MF Global Holdings, once run by former New Jersey Governor and Goldman Sachs Group Inc. Co-Chairman Jon Corzine, filed the eighth-largest U.S. bankruptcy after a wrong-way $6.3 billion trade on its own behalf on bonds of some of Europe’s most indebted nations.
MF Global Holdings’ Oct. 31 bankruptcy filing listed assets of $41 billion and debt of $39.7 billion.
The parent’s bankruptcy case is MF Global Holdings Ltd., 11-bk-15059, U.S. Bankruptcy Court, Southern District of New York (Manhattan).


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We got hit up by a homie named Steven M that came across a few articles about Hardcore Legend and Juggalo Homie: SABU! Sabu will be releasing an autobiography next month called SABU: Scars, Silence, & Superglue!
There’s a press release out about it, and it doesn’t mention anything about his time with ICP or the JCW, but that could very well be in there.
There are pre-order links for the book with both signed and unsigned editions. You can see those details here: https://www.wohw.com/sabu/
Check the details out below.
TITLE: SABU: Scars, Silence, & Superglue
AUTHORS: “Sabu” Terry Brunk & Kenny Casanova PAGES: 400 pages of brutality
PICTURES: Rare shots from ECW Photog George Tahinos
RELEASE DATE: March 2019
PUBLISHER: WOHW Publishers
FOREWORDS: RVD & Taz
GUEST PASSAGES: Bill Alfonso, Tommy Dreamer, Raven, Al Snow, Mikey Whipwreck, Mike Johnson, Justin Credible, Blue Meanie, Don Vega, Mike Johnson, Kevin Sullivan & more!
“I have said it before and will say it again, there would be no “Taz” without Sabu. I have nothing but the utmost respect for him; both for his great legacy as a wrestler and the respect he deserves as the man he is.” – Taz
“Sabu’s autobiography reads like fiction because his story seems so unbelievable, but every word is true! Nephew of the legendary Sheik, a funny intelligent guy who gave more to the business than most ever will, and a man who has both more balls and athleticism than anyone I’ve ever met.” – Raven
ABOUT THE PROJECT: Kenny Casanova was selected by Sabu to get his story to paper. As a manager from the northeast who played Kim Chee on occasion, Kenny first published Kamala’s book raising almost 60k, after he lost both legs to diabetes. Kenny has since completed autobiographical projects with Brutus Beefcake, Danny Davis, and also a long-awaited one coming from Big Van Vader (4/2019.) We have two project goals:
-Print Sabu’s Life Story to offer an autobiography from a man who changed the wrestling business.
-Create Brand Awareness and merchandise for a man who gave fans many years of his life. (As always with WOHW, the majority of the proceeds directly benefit Sabu!.)
Sabu’s actions always spoke louder than words. After training with his legendary uncle The Sheik and his big break in Japan, Sabu pioneered a new “hardcore wrestling style” on American television in the 90s. Upon his ECW debut, he immediately dazzled fans with an innovative arsenal that included breaking tables, leaping off chairs, and working highly-acrobatic moves into every match. Raising the bar, he changed the game for professional wrestlers everywhere. Discover how his SCARS from barbwire, his SILENCE on the mic, and use of SUPERGLUE for bleeding led him to every major promotion in the world. Read about being shot in the face, his battle with addiction, road stories, ribs, and his crazy rockstar life! …PLUS:
-Growing up and training with The Sheik in the territorial days of wrestling
-Training with student “RVD” Rob Van Dam
-Being considered “The King of Indies”
-Scarsfrom FMW Barbwire matches
-His silence on the mic
–Brutal use of super glue to stop bleeding
–A tell-all on his substance abuse and demons
-His ECW, WCW, and WWE runs, including heat with certain wrestlers
-Crazy rockstar-like road stories, ridiculous and horrific wrestler pranks/ribs
Check ut WOHW.com (with autographed editions available). Additionally, there is currently a pre-order incentive. If fans pre-order the book, they are entered to win some cool rare Sabu merch including a limited version of the book, signed pictures and ring-worn gear.


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As days grow cold and short, it’s refreshing to encounter a book like Kristen Tracy’s Half-Hazard, which at every opportunity orients itself toward gratefulness, luck, and wonder. Tracy’s debut collection isn’t free of darkness—it lives in the real world—but it asks the reader to acknowledge their own resilience; they’ve survived every danger, returned from every underworld, and that’s remarkable and worth celebrating. Tracy’s practiced eye for what is interesting and strange, as well as life-affirming, makes this debut a worthy light to carry into the winter season.
In these poems, Tracy is interested in transformation—something becoming more than or other than itself—and she grapples with it in her weirdest, most arresting poems like “Having It,” which revisits the goose who lays the golden eggs, speculating, “I like to think she made the golden eggs / to bridge their lives.” The speaker is drawn to transformation precisely because she herself has experienced a fundamental remaking, explored in poems like “Unofficial Lady Bible”:
At seven, I could press
a perfect pie crust with my thumb. Ta da!
Decades passed before I would open
the door to that walk-in and arrive
as somebody other than myself.
Tracy even admires attempts at transformation for their ambition and strangeness, as in “Local News: Woman Dies in Chimney,” where that woman, “either fed up or drunk or undone” climbed into a chimney and “died there. Stuck. Like a tragic Santa.” This moment also exemplifies the collection’s buoyancy, the lilting brightness that underpins misfortune and even tragedy. “YMCA, 1971,” about a man dying of a heart attack just as the timed lights on the tennis court go out, highlights an unexpectedly beautiful moment nestled within a tragic one, describing how “everyone dropped their rackets, / and began running in the dark / toward the white glow of the fading man’s clothes.”
What gives this collection such depth isn’t just its buoyancy—that would be facile, even trite—but the sense that there’s a well of grief, pain, and trauma below the surface, and Tracy keeps choosing to turn toward its opposite, not from a place of ignorance, but from one of knowledge. This darkness is evidenced in “About Myself,” where “I wear my sadness like a coat / and the coat never comes off. / Its wooden buttons are fastened to me.” Although, Tracy acknowledges that “Others have had to catch much trickier knives— / all blade, no handle” (“Circus Youth”). And this is an undertow that never goes away: in “Urban Animals,” “He felt that TV ate my sensitive heart / the way boric acid eats through the beetle’s thorax.”
Tracy’s recognition of the world’s fundamental darkness gives greater resonance to poems like “To the Tender,” which concerns a jay fallen from its nest, asserting “even if the world is half bad, it remains / half good. While some of us sleep, our hearts / lie open, turned toward the tender, dreaming up ways / to thwart the crows.” Tracy recognizes that these efforts may be in vain, as in “Sometimes This Happens,” where the speaker’s father breaks the ice on a trough to let a cow drink, but “she’s swallowed a strand of wire. / This is the third cow he’s seen that will die this way.” Still, there’s the sense that tenderness is still worth choosing; even if the world thwarts us, there’s always the possibility that growth and transformation is waiting just ahead, as Tracy’ speaker says to herself at the end of “Teton Road,” “I have given you / all these chances. Take them.”


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The State Government’s commitment to upgrading the health department’s digital health systems in the recently delivered budget should be commended.
As a new premier and health minister, Jeremy Rockliff must have had moments leading up to budget day where he wondered whether announcing $150 million health IT upgrade would have as much wow factor in the community as, say, announcing $150 million to upgrade some hospital wards, buying some new medical equipment, or employing more doctors, nurses, paramedics or allied health professionals.
Without doubt, any of those perpetual health shopping list items are arguably more likely to generate bigger headlines in news cycles where announcements about jobs and bricks and mortar investment tend to result in more clicks.
However less exciting it may be, making sure the health department can click is vital.
It’s a simple fact that digital systems underpin pretty much everything we do, whether it’s running a business, a club, or a multi-layered health system with more than 15,000 employees, four major hospitals, an ambulance service and a public health agency.
And if the digital infrastructure that is supposed to support those things doesn’t keep pace or isn’t fit-for-purpose, it leads very quickly to inefficiencies – and that is something any organisation would rather avoid, particularly the one charged with providing acute and emergency medical care to more than half a million people.
Take a situation where a patient who lives in Northern Tasmania recently had surgery at the Royal Hobart Hospital and is at an appointment with a private specialist in Launceston for a different condition. The specialist wants to prescribe a particular type of medication, but the patient thinks they may have had a bad reaction to that type of medication while in hospital, although they’re not completely sure it’s the same one.
With a new statewide patient record viewer connecting all public and private health providers, as being promised by the State Government, the specialist only needs to click the patient’s record to check, resolving the situation in seconds. Without such a system, the specialist needs to carve out time, potentially delaying other patients, to make calls or send emails requesting the relevant medical information.
In the meantime, the patient’s treatment is delayed, maybe to the point they’ll need to wait to get another appointment, which again comes at the expense of another patient trying to see the same specialist.
Multiply the scenario by hundreds of patients in a similar situation, and it’s easy to see how bogged down a health system can become just trying to manage relatively minor day-to-day administrative processes. The life-and-death examples of these stall points don’t bear thinking about, but it doesn’t take a medical degree to believe they must occur, particularly in acute care or paramedicine situations.
Digital infrastructure that allows better communication between hospitals, general practitioners, community health providers, allied health services and specialists is a fundamentally important step to increasing health system efficiency.
With increased efficiency comes the ability for different parts of what is a complex health system to work together better. That, in turn, increases the ability for effective collaboration, and ultimately, leads to better patient outcomes.
While a patient may not necessarily be aware of it, their health and the medical care they are provided can often be dictated by just how well the system as a whole works to support them and the people they are going to for care.
We know the public health system struggles to meet demand. We know it is still dealing with the fallout from a global pandemic, and we know as a community we are getting older and sicker. Similarly, we know that simply throwing more and more money at the health budget and hoping it has some miraculous effect on acute medical pressures and surgical waiting lists isn’t working.
Making a targeted investment in the infrastructure that essentially dictates how our health system can even start delivering care, not to mention potential game changers in wider use of telehealth to better treat our far-flung population, is a smart play, and one for which the State Government should be congratulated for.
It is now up to the Government to get this spend right. With almost half a billion allocated for a 10-year digital health strategy, these first steps are critical and will define how effective our system is for a generation. For all of our sakes, the decisions and implementation around digital health must be strategic, or the health of the entire state will continue suffer under the strain of greater demand.

domain: medical


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Christopher Bailey Dedicates His Last Burberry Show to the LGBTQ Youth
It’s an end of an era: After 17 years as a head of Burberry, Christopher Bailey is leaving. The designer presented a vibrant collection full of symbolism at LFW. The colors of the rainbow were everywhere from clothes to accessories in honor of the LGBTQ youth. See the biggest highlights of the show in this short video.
Photo Credit: Getty Images


[JURIST] A Brazilian federal judge on Tuesday dismissed a lawsuit against Chevron [corporate website] after approving a negotiated settlement, closing a lengthy legal battle over a 2011 oil spill. The leak occurred in November 2011, when a Chevron appraisal well leaked 155,000 gallons of oil, and the following March, when oil resumed leaking from the well and Chevron suspended production in that oil field. Brazilian prosecutors sought [Reuters report] USD $18 billion in damages from Chevron and drilling company Transocean Ltd [corporate website]. The judge rejected the prosecutors’ criminal charges but prosecutors plan to appeal. The settlement deal with Chevron commits the company to spend money in compensation, and the accord stated that Transocean had no responsibility.
A federal court in Brazil ordered [JURIST report] Chevron and drilling company Transocean to suspend all oil drilling in Brazil within 30 days in August 2012 days in the wake of two oil spills off the coast of Rio de Janeiro. In April that year a Brazilian prosecutor filed an $11 billion lawsuit [JURIST report] against Chevron after the company reported a new leak in the Frade oil field. Chevron initially appealed the $18 billion fine [JURIST report] in January 2012 for pollution in the Amazon jungle. The judgment against Chevron was upheld in January by a three-judge panel of the Provincial Court of Justice of Sucumbios in Lago Agrio, Ecuador. The $18 billion fine, one of the largest in the history of environmental contamination suits, was originally set at $8.6 billion [JURIST report] in February 2011 but was more than doubled for Chevron’s refusal to pay “moral reparations” to the Ecuadorian government, as required by the original ruling.


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WASHINGTON, December 22, 2023 – The World Bank Board has approved a Second Additional Financing for the Rural Economic Transformation Project (RETRAP-AF II). This financing is funded by an International Development Association (IDA)* credit of US$76 million from its Scale-Up Window (SUW) and $9 million grant from the KfW Development Bank through the Liberia Reconstruction Trust Fund (LRTF). It will scale-up work on establishing basic road connectivity, which is vital to food production, livelihoods strengthening, social inclusion, resilience building, and the overall competitiveness of Liberia’s economy.
“Road infrastructure development is critical to unlocking economic growth. This RETRAP AF-II will assist in the transformation of the agricultural sector, providing farmers with access to markets and financially empowering them to participate in national development,” said Georgia Wallen, World Bank Country Manager for Liberia.
The RETRAP-AF II targets an estimated 900,000 farmers and users of road transport services, mainly rural households and communities who will benefit from access to an all-weather road. Improved road conditions along the additional 85 km of the corridor will also directly benefit transport service providers through reduced vehicle operating costs and travel times and increased demand for their services and access to new markets. Those living along the southern section of this road corridor will be connected to the rest of Liberia.
This project will complete the missing link spanning the Côte d’Ivoire Border – Toe Town – Zwedru (85 km), on the Southeastern Road Corridor of Liberia, which is key to provide an economic lifeline for inaccessible rural areas with high and worsening poverty. It will also support economic integration of the region with the rest of Liberia and neighboring countries and foster regional trade with Côte d’Ivoire and Guinea.
“It is noteworthy that this project will improve the enabling environment for agribusiness development in Liberia through capacity building of public agribusiness services to deliver quality services to private investors, including smallholder farmers, enhancing value chain coordination and public-private dialogue, and supporting agricultural research and development and extension,” said Tojoarofenitra Ramanankirahina and Kadir Osman Gyasi, Co-Task Team Leaders for the project.
The 85 km road from Toe-Town to Zwedru and Cote d'Ivoire border under this proposed additional financing will complement the following achievements and on-going activities financed by the World Bank in Liberia: 248 km road corridor improvement from Monrovia to Ganta and the Guinea border; 100 km Southeastern Corridor improvement from Ganta to Saclepea and Tappita; and 40 km Southeastern Corridor improvement from Tappita to Toe-Town (parent project).
The original RETRAP was approved by the World Bank on June 4, 2021, while the first additional financing from the Bank’s Crisis Response Window – Early Response Financing (CRW-ERF) came online on December 22, 2022, to help the Government of Liberia to respond to food, employment, and resilience crisis. The current closing date is of the RETRAP is June 30, 2029.

domain: finance


text:
Easy moist chocolate cake that never fails, scales easily and comes with a story!Tim and Tracy met at work, fell in love, and decided to get married. One...
This recipe is from Wilton and was printed on the packaging to my new bundt pan. With 2 cups semi-sweet chocolate chips, it can't be all bad! I glaze...
baking soda, +flour, +butter, +eggs, +sugar, +milk, +salt, +semisweet chocolate chips, +vanilla extract
Make this cake for when you want to enjoy a fine flavoured textured cake thats worth the time to make. This is not your gooey heavy extreme chocolate taste,...
baking soda, +butter, +flour, +chocolate, +brown sugar, +cocoa powder, +eggs, +salt, +sour cream, +vanilla extract, +sugar
"After I couldn't find a recipe for chocolate sour cream pound cake, I made this recipe by combining three cake recipes and using some suggestions from...
baking soda, +cocoa powder, +cream of tartar, +eggs, +flour, +salt, +semisweet chocolate chips, +sour cream, +butter, +vanilla extract, +sugar
"An easy pound cake with German, or semi sweet chocolate chips."
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"This is a chocolate lover's dream! It will definitely satisfy any chocolate craving you may have. I often make this cake for birthdays or other special...
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A sweet, moist, delicious winner for you chocolate lovers!
Recipe from: The Lady & Sons Just Desserts "In the early days of The Bag Lady, this cake was definitely one of those foods on the top of my customers'...
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An old-fashioned cake gets a new treatment: Some of the trimmed cake crumbs are mixed with chocolate-cookie crumbs and pressed onto the frosting. Fresh...
baking soda, shortening, +buttermilk, +flour, +cookies, +cocoa powder, +eggs, +coffee, +raspberries, +raspberry jam, +salt, +sugar, +vanilla extract, +water
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From Chocolatier magazine...a dessert lover's paradise! I don't even know where to start with these...the melted butter brings out a wonderful flavor,...
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domain: food


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MBDC is exhibiting at Sustainable Brands, San Diego from June 6th to 9th, 2016.
Come and talk with MBDC’s President of Certification Services, Jay Bolus, about the business value of Cradle to Cradle® design. Cradle to Cradle is the qualification of the emerging circular economy. Learn how to innovate, reduce risks and costs using Cradle to Cradle design principles.
MBDC will also be sampling the new Gold level Cradle to Cradle Certified™ Fragrance “PuraVita® from International Flavors and Fragrances (IFF). We’ll explain how in this era of radical transparency, it’s vital that you understand the hazards and risks of materials and ingredients used in products and packaging in the context of their use.
MBDC has assessed a diverse range of products from cosmetics to cardboard; furniture to fabrics; batteries to bark; diapers to desks and solar panels to seating! Ask Jay about how your products can be assessed and certified.
MBDC is the originator of and leading assessor for the Cradle to Cradle Certified™ products program administered by the Cradle to Cradle Products Innovation Institute.
Note: Cradle to Cradle® and C2C® are trademarks of MBDC. Cradle to Cradle Certified™ is a trademark licensed by the Cradle to Cradle Products Innovation Institute.

domain: design


Replacement for "Clouds". Central Research Institute Tochmash has developed a new protective ammunition
A promising jamming system designed for mounting on armored combat vehicles has been developed and is being tested. In terms of its composition and principle of operation, it is similar to the widespread system 902 "Tucha", but it uses a new protective ammunition with wider capabilities.
New generation system
The development of a new means of protection for armored vehicles was announced on June 4 by the state corporation "Rostec" and the Central Research Institute Tochmash, which is part of it, which created this project. Basic information about a promising product, some of its characteristics and information about current work are disclosed. In addition, photos and videos from the field tests have been published. At the same time, the name of the sample has not yet been disclosed.
Official reports mention that the new ammunition was created to protect armored vehicles from various high-precision weapons enemy. When a threat is identified, a combat vehicle must shoot such a product in the right direction, after which a combined aerosol-dipole curtain is created.
The appearance of the ammunition has not been disclosed. At the same time, it is indicated that it is made in a caliber of 76 mm and weighs 2,8 kg. The product uses a new pyrotechnic composition, due to which the density of the created curtain is increased by one and a half times. The ammunition, together with the appropriate launchers, can be used on any types of armored vehicles, providing an increase in its survivability and stability.
By now, the new protection system has managed to enter field tests. Moreover, the shooting with experienced ammunition was already considered possible to be shown to the public. By the end of the year, TsNII Tochmash and Rostec plan to complete state tests, the results of which will determine the future of the new development.
In August, the new ammunition will be shown to the military at the Army-2021 forum. Rostec State Corporation believes that this product will attract the attention of potential customers. In particular, foreign armies planning to develop their armored forces may be interested in it.
Rostec and TsNII Tochmash have not yet shown the protective ammunition itself and do not disclose most of the information about it. At the same time, its main features are named, the launcher, the process of firing and the formation of a curtain, etc. are shown. All this already makes it possible to draw up a fairly detailed picture.
The launcher of the new type resembles the serial "Tucha", but differs in appearance and design. The shown sample is built on the basis of a box-shaped body, on which mortar barrels of 76 mm caliber are fixed outside. An interesting feature of the system is the short barrel length. However, the mortar can be longer, and its breech is located inside the body. The barrels are positioned with a certain elevation angle and with horizontal retraction - for shooting in a wide sector.
The rig shown has four shafts placed at the same level. Probably, other configurations with a different number of launch mortars and with other options for their location are possible.
An obscure protective ammunition is made in a caliber of 76 mm and weighs 2,8 kg. From the announced data, it follows that this is a compact, but rather heavy grenade with a combined charge. It is based on a completely new pyrotechnic composition that forms a denser curtain for protection in the visible and infrared ranges. Taking into account the development and spread of radar, miniature dipole reflectors have been introduced into the product.
Outwardly, the work of the new protection system does not fundamentally differ from the use of the "902" product. The carrier armored vehicle fires off the ammunition, it moves away a certain distance, after which it is undermined. The pyrotechnic charge disintegrates into separate elements, which, falling to the ground, burn out and form a dense cloud of smoke. Separate dark elements can be seen against the background of the white curtain. Probably, these are reflectors for countering electronic systems.
It should be recalled that in the recent past, the Central Research Institute Tochmash reported on the development of a promising complex for the protection of armored vehicles from guided weapons. It was planned to include attack detection tools and a control system, as well as protective aerosol ammunition. Perhaps the new system presented the other day has the most direct relation to this project. However, then it was only about optical-electronic countermeasures, and interference with radars was not mentioned.
It can be assumed that tests of protective ammunition were carried out using advanced control systems and other new equipment. In this case, it cannot be ruled out that not only firepower will be shown at Army-2021, but also the entire range of protection.
At the moment, the main means of optical-electronic countermeasures on domestic armored vehicles is the 902 "Cloud" system in various modifications. It includes the necessary control devices and 81 mm smoothbore mortars. The number and method of placement of launching devices are determined in accordance with the characteristics of the carrier. Various versions of detection and warning sensors and shooting controls are also used.
"Cloud" uses smoke grenades 3D6 (M) and 3D17. These are products with a caliber of 81 mm and a length of 220 mm, weighing from 2,2 to 2,34 kg. The grenade is fired at a distance of up to 300 m, after which it is blown up and forms an aerosol curtain. The size of the cloud and the time of its formation depend on the type of shot. 3D6 products provide masking only in the visible part of the spectrum; 3D17 have a wider range and also block infrared radiation.
The "902" system was adopted in 1980 and since then has occupied the place of the main means of its class in our armed forces and in a number of foreign armies. "Cloud" has long established itself from the best side, but its capabilities no longer fully meet the current requirements.
Its main disadvantage can be considered the ability to protect only from optical surveillance equipment. At the same time, the design has a high modernization potential, and its characteristics can be improved solely by creating new shots.
A complex approach
However, the new project of TsNII Tochmash does not provide for updating the existing sample. Was created its own launcher for the new ammunition and the development of other units is possible. This comprehensive approach has its advantages. First of all, the task of creating a new protective ammunition with improved characteristics was successfully solved, and a significant contribution to this result was provided by changing the caliber and form factor of the product. This was followed by the development of other components.
Prospects for a new protection system, for obvious reasons, have not yet been determined. However, it can be assumed that the army will take an interest in such items. For all its advantages, the old "Cloud" no longer corresponds to the typical threats of the modern battlefield and needs deep modernization or replacement. The new project from Rostec and Central Research Institute Tochmash offers an effective and modern solution to this problem.
According to the results of state tests, which are scheduled to be completed by the end of the year, the new protective ammunition and related equipment may receive a recommendation for adoption. The result of the future "Army-2021" may be orders from third countries. Thus, a great future can await a new Russian development. However, one should not hope that it will be able to replace existing analogues in the shortest possible time. For a long time, the army will have to use the Tucha system - not the most perfect, but massive and well-mastered.
- Ryabov Kirill
- Rostec, TsNII Tochmash
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Pocket Bingo 1.0
the author of this app says:
This is a bingo game based on typical corporate buzzwords such as "game plan," "bandwidth" and "synergy."
- Pocket PC or Pocket PC 2002 OS with ARM processor
Macromedia Flash 5 player
uCorder IRDC250 hides in a shirt pocket, gives grainy video
Andy and Sean are joined by their good friend Amber Mac, who passes along her top tips for building a social media presence online and building your brand, whether corporate or personal.
Sean Carruthers heads to San Francisco to HP's launch of its new webOS-based devices, the Veer and Pre 3 smartphones, and the 9.7-inch TouchPad tablet.
Free software to create the perfect wedding seating plan
CES 2010 video coverage - Andrew Moore-Crispin talks with one of founders of Pocket Radar Inc about their handy little gadget.
The Boogie Board can be likened to a high-tech chalkboard slate or Magnadoodle. It uses no power and erases with the press of a button. Andrew takes a Gadget TV First Look.
CES 2010 video - Creative Labs releases the Vado HD pocket Video camera and Sound Blaster World of Warcraft headset
CES 2010 video coverage - Sean Carruthers checks in with Creative Labs and finds the Vado HD Pocket Video Camera and the Sound Blaster World of Warcraft headset
CES 2010 video coverage - Andy Walker looks at a laser pocket projector from Microvision
The smaller sibling in the Sony Reader line
Miss Download takes a look at Ultimate Business Planner software


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Save Money This Christmas With These Simple Tips
There are a lot of things that you can do to save money when Christmas time rolls around. For some people, it is one of the most stressful times of the year, and this can put a lot of pressure on us financially, But, it doesn’t have to be such a big stress if you don’t let it become one, and that’s why we’ve written this article. Down below, we’re going to be taking a look at some of the things that you can do in order to save money this year, so keep reading if you would like to find out more.
Make Use Of Coupons
First, we’re going to recommend that you make use of coupons. Some people think that coupons make you cheap, or that it somehow diminishes the value of the gift, but this is not the case at all. In fact, all coupons make things more affordable, and allow people who are struggling financially to afford nice gifts for those that they love. For example, you can get a Capucinne coupon code to spend online, meaning that you are able to afford something that you might not have been able to otherwise.
Look Out For The Sales
We also recommend that you look out for the sales. Of course, some of the biggest sales of the year include Black Friday and Cyber Monday, and while they have already passed this year, there is always next year! However, other businesses have different sales all year around, and this helps people be able to afford the gifts that they want to purchase.
If you start looking in the sales as soon as you notice that they are on, you will be able to find some fantastic deals. In fact, you can even set alerts at some sites and they will let you know when the stores are having their sales. This is extremely helpful to keep you in the loop, ensuring that you’re not missing out on any good deals.
The final thing that we’re going to say is that you can buy multiple of the same thing when they are on sale, and give them to different people. Or, you can use the multiples for yourself down the line if they are something that you want or need. It helps you because with a lot of stores, they have offers where if you purchase a certain number of items, you get one free or a certain percentage off the price of the last item. Bulk buying is great for businesses, and it’s great for you if you’re trying to save money.
We hope that you have found this article helpful, and now see some of the things that you can do in order to save money this Christmas. These simple tips will make your life so much easier, ensuring that you don’t spend more money than you have to buy gifts for those people in your life. We wish you the very best of luck, and hope that you manage to get off without spending a fortune this Christmas.


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Sen. Dick Durbin is opening a new front in his battle with freight railroads over their alleged interference with Amtrak operations, interference he says is a major reason why trains on one Chicago-based route arrive late as often as 94 percent of the time.
Durbin, D-Ill., filed legislation this week that would let Amtrak directly sue the freight lines to enforce current law, which requires them to give preference to passenger trains on track used by both.
The legislation has a long, steep hill to climb and is unlikely to resolve a battle that goes back decades. Freight operators have argued they’re doing their best but don’t have the capital to add new tracks and otherwise expand.
But the prospect of snapping lawyers and expensive lawsuits may get someone’s attention.
“This bill provides Amtrak with the power to improve its passenger rail service and efficiency,” Durbin said in a release, citing a recent report by Amtrak’s inspector general that says its trains are late 27 percent of the time, mostly due to freight interference.
"By empowering Amtrak to hold the freight railroads accountable when they don’t follow the law, we can improve Amtrak on-time performance and save taxpayer dollars,” he added.
Durbin's release on the matter notably includes an attaboy quote from Amtrak CEO Richard Anderson, whose performance Durbin has not always praised.
Durbin last month wrote both Anderson and the Canadian National Railway asking both to take corrective action on Amtrak’s Illini and Saluki lines between Chicago and downstate Carbondale.
The IG report found on-time arrival rates for the lines, defined as within 15 minutes of the schedule, run from 6 to 21 percent, depending on the direction and whether the Illini or Saluki is involved. As many as 21 percent of trains arrive at least an hour late to their final destination.
The proposed bill would not directly affect commuter railroads, such as Metra. But they, too, have blamed freight traffic for causing some operational delays.
Durbin’s bill comes as Amtrak and Metra continue to battle over who will control operations at Chicago Union Station.

domain: law