text:
19 Fantastic Combat Games Like Monster Hunter World
Monster Hunter World is one of the best games in the entire franchise. It implements combat and fighting mechanics well while still giving the monsters in the game a ton of character and unique moves.
The various weapons in the game work well alone or in a team, giving you the flexibility to use your preferred playstyle. One of the best things about Monster Hunter World is playing co-op and defeating the huge bosses through teamwork.
There’s nothing as satisfying as seeing the towering monster you’ve spent the last few minutes fighting to breathe its last breath. Especially after planning your strategy, crafting essential items, and studying the creature’s every move.
These extensive features and excellent gameplay easily makes Monster Hunter World one of the best fantasy games on Steam and consoles.
Finding a game like Monster Hunter World is definitely a tough task. However, we’ve managed to find 19 solid Monster Hunter World alternatives that can have you feeling the MHW craze all over again.
19. Horizon Forbidden West
Horizon Forbidden West is an ARPG set in a post-apocalyptic version of Western US where mechanical creatures have taken over. Although these creatures aren’t as massive as the ones in Monster Hunter World, they’re still formidable opponents and shouldn’t be taken lightly.
Defeating a Tideripper or a Slaughterspine is very reminiscent of fighting against the different monsters in MHW. Horizon Forbidden West also features a massive map, much larger than the one its predecessor had.
Horizon Forbidden West also introduced new mechanics to the series, like underwater exploration, better methods of traveling, freeform climbing, and new tools, among many others.
You can spend your time fighting the different hostile machines, riding on mechanical mounts while exploring the map, or progressing through the story in the game. Luckily, Horizon Forbidden West features an open world, so the choice is yours.
18. The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim
The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim is one of those classic games that’s hard to let go of. It was initially released in November 2011, but a ton of people still play the game like it was just released yesterday.
Skyrim features a diverse open world filled with weapons, magic, various races, factions, clashing cities, and dragons. It’s for sure one of the best medieval fantasy games like Monster Hunter World.
There are a ton of things to do in Skyrim. You can uncover the secrets of each faction, explore the various side quests and stories, or even settle down and get married. Of course, you can also level up your skills, fight various enemies and dragons, and explore dungeons and caves.
If you’ve played the game before, I highly recommend using mods for a new Skyrim playthrough to help make the game feel new again.
17. The Witcher 3
In The Witcher 3, you play as Geralt of Rivia, a mercenary monster slayer known as “Witcher.” From that alone, I’m sure you can probably already see why The Witcher 3 is a game like Monster Hunter World.
The Witcher 3 is set on The Continent where Humans, Dwarves, Elves, Vampires, and other creatures co-exist. As a Witcher, you have access to basic magical signs, knowledge about crafting potions and items, a crossbow, and two swords.
Geralt’s on a quest to find his adopted daughter. This takes him on a journey all around The Continent, where he also accepts various monster-slaying jobs. It’s set in an open-world environment where you’re free to enjoy everything that makes The Witcher 3 great.
The Witcher 3 is cited as one of the best video games ever made and is definitely worth playing.
16. Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice
If you’ve loved the difficulty level of Monster Hunter World, then you’re going to enjoy Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice. You play as a Shinobi called “Wolf” in his attempt to exact revenge on the people who attacked and took his lord.
There are no monsters in Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice, but it still has intense and amazing combat scenes mixed with stealth mechanics. It also heavily emphasizes boss fights, just like Monster Hunter World.
Sekiro also has great exploration elements thanks to the grappling hook that allows you to use unique places or simply travel faster.
Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice is an excellent game like Monster Hunter World for you if you’re a huge fan of Japanese culture. It’s one of the best games set in Japan and allows you to experience the ways of a Shinobi warrior.
15. The Surge 2
The Surge 2 is an ARPG set in a dystopian future where living and environmental conditions are atrocious, leading humanity toward the brink of extinction. The game takes place in an advanced metropolis bordered by a giant wall called “Jericho City.”
You can play as a male or female since the main protagonist doesn’t get named within the game. The Surge 2 features various weapons to attack different mechanically-empowered enemies.
One of the best aspects of Monster Hunter World is the ability to target the monsters’ weak spots and collect materials from them. This allowed players to use unique strategies to defeat monsters.
The Surge 2 offers a similar gaming experience. Your opponents’ limbs can be targeted and removed. They also drop various weapons, enhancements, and tech that you can use.
14. Dark Souls III
The Dark Souls franchise is known for its insane difficulty level and intense boss fights. It’s one of the best games like Monster Hunter World if you’re looking for a more formidable challenge.
Dark Souls III is an action RPG with a third-person POV. It allows you to choose from various weapons from 24 different categories. There are also different “special moves” in the game that stems from weapons or magic that you can use in battle.
Another great aspect of Dark Souls III is that you can play co-op with your friends. Boss fights are tough on your own, but with some friends and the right strategy, it makes it a little bit easier.
13. Toukiden 2
Next up, we have Toukiden 2. The Toukiden franchise shares a lot of elements with Monster Hunter. If you were a huge fan of the Monster Hunter series, I’m sure you’ll also fall in love with Toukiden.
The basic elements of Toukiden 2 involve you gearing up and preparing what else you need before facing a massive creature using a flurry of different attacks and combos. Sounds just like Monster Hunter World, right?
In Toukiden 2, you’ll be playing as a mysterious Slayer who had just awakened from a long slumber. The Awakening causes rifts in space and time, unleashing numerous creatures called “Oni” into the world.
Your job as a Slayer is to protect humanity and kill these Onis to free the souls of fallen heroes.
12. God Of War
The God of War series is a staple PlayStation game. That’s why it became an instant hit when it was released on PC. It’s so popular that fans who’ve finished it are already looking for new games like God of War.
One thing that MHW gives you after every monster hunt is that satisfying feeling of accomplishment. It makes you feel unstoppable; it makes you feel like a god.
God of War is centered around Kratos and him going around different locations slaughtering various gods and mythological creatures. All of this is done in an attempt to fulfill his wife’s dying wish.
Unlike previous entries in the series, most of Kratos and Atreus’ encounters are based on Norse mythological gods and creatures.
11. Nioh 2
Like Monster Hunter World, Nioh 2 also puts you against gigantic creatures that you have to defeat with various weapons. But, instead of fighting monsters, you’ll be challenging yokai instead. A yokai is a supernatural monster, spirit, or demon from Japanese folklore.
In Nioh 2, you can create and customize your own character. You can then get a variety of weapons, skills, and special abilities by progressing through the game. When defeating hostile yokai, sometimes they drop a “Soul Core” that you can use to unlock powerful yokai abilities.
One of the most beautiful things in the Nioh games is the designs of the various monsters and creatures you fight against. Most of them are based on actual yokai from Japanese folklore. They have stunning yet scary designs, adding an extra level of thrill to Nioh 2.
10. Devil May Cry 5
Like most games on our list, Devil May Cry 5 features you taking down various creatures and monsters. In this case, you’re going against demons using a unique combat system, various weapons, and powerful demonic abilities.
Devil May Cry 5 follows a trio as its main protagonists. You’ll go up against the Demon King Urizen as you attempt to stop him from destroying the world.
Monster Hunter World had a slow combat system that required precise and well-planned movements to succeed. However, Devil May Cry 5 is the complete opposite. It has a fast-paced and stylish gameplay that focuses more on keeping the combo chain alive than precise tactics.
If you think that MHW’s gameplay is a bit too slow but still want to go up against monsters, then you should try out Devil May Cry 5.
9. Attack on Titan 2 – A.O.T.2
Attack on Titan is one of the most popular anime series in the entire world. It follows Eren Yeager and his vow to rid the world of massive man-eating humanoids called “Titans.”
The game of the same name takes a lot of inspiration from the series and tackles the first 50 chapters of the manga. You can create your own character and interact with the different personalities from the franchise.
You can probably already guess that you get to attack the Titans within the game from the name itself. It’s a hack-and-slash game that allows you to use grappling hooks and swing from the various environments in the game to reach the Titans with your weapons.
It’s a fun and unique game like Monster Hunter World and is enjoyable even if you aren’t following the series.
8. Scarlet Nexus
Scarlet Nexus is an ARPG where you can control Yuito Sumeragi (male) or Kasane Randall (female). Both are members of the Other Suppression Force, whose main objective is to defend New Himuka from mindless mutants called “Others.”
The two protagonists have similar skill sets and weapons, so the choice is primarily due to preference. You’ll mainly be fighting the Others in close-range using a sword. However, both Kasane and Yuito possess psychokinetic powers allowing them to launch objects at enemies.
Scarlet Nexus offers fast-paced gameplay with a third-person POV. It has a unique combat system, mainly because of the psychokinesis abilities present in the game. This allows players to pull off insane combos incorporating weapons and skill usage to defeat the Others.
7. Code Vein
Code Vein is another anime-styled game like Monster Hunter World. It features open-world gameplay set on a post-apocalyptic dystopian planet. You can also play multiplayer co-op with a few friends.
The game is inspired by the Dark Souls series with graphics and animation inspired by God Eater 3. Code Vein is primarily a dungeon crawler game with hack n slash mechanics.
You wake up in a world that has fallen to an event called the “Great Collapse.” Due to this event, monsters began emerging around the world and attacking humans.
You play as a Revenant who risks it all to start a journey to the depths of hell and learn more about your past. You’re equipped with different weapons and abilities alongside the Gifts system that allows you to temporarily gain buffs or use specific items and equipment.
6. Tales of Arise
Tales of Arise is another game developed by Bandai Namco with action role-playing gameplay elements and an anime-inspired art style. It’s the seventeenth main game in the Tales series and features new additions while retaining the core elements that Tales games are known for.
It features a real-time combat system called “Linear Motion Battle System,” which the Tales game made popular. This LMBS allows you to set three ground and three aerial artes, with up to twelve at once. Artes are basically skills, spells, or attacks within Tales of Arise.
Planning what artes you will use in battle and chaining them allows you to create unique combos. The artes system is quite similar to Monster Hunter World’s weapon system, where each button is assigned to a specific attack. However, Tales of Arise features a ton of artes split between ground, aerial, spell, support, special, and DLC.
5. Remnant: From The Ashes
Do you like the boss fights in MHW and shooters? Well, Remnant: From the Ashes is the perfect game for you. It’s a third-person shooter game where you go against otherworldly creatures. It’s the best game like Monster Hunter World, where your main weapons are guns.
Remnant: From the Ashes takes place in a post-apocalyptic earth overrun by interdimensional creatures called the “Root.” You’re one of the last survivors in the world, forced to put an end to the Root and attack the epicenter of the invasion.
The game features mechanics from games like Dark Souls, Monster Hunter, and some shooter games. You can wield two ranged weapons and a melee weapon.
There are various guns in the game, like shotguns, machine guns, pistols, rifles, and snipers, among many others. You can also equip attachment mods to gain extra abilities or buffs.
4. Dragon’s Dogma: Dark Arisen
Next up, we have a game from the developers of Monster Hunter World themselves, Dragon’s Dogma: Dark Arisen. What better game to include on the list than one created by Capcom themselves?
Dragon’s Dogma: Dark Arisen is an enhanced and remastered version of the original Dragon’s Dogma game released for consoles in 2013. It’s a hack-and-slash RPG game where you complete quests requiring you to fight monsters in real-time.
There are various classes in the game called “Vocations.” These vocations allow you to change gameplay and skills according to the one you choose.
Dragon’s Dogma also has a party system that is often compared to games like Monster Hunter World. However, the only difference is that your party members are controlled by AI instead. These NPCs are very helpful in combat, and I wish I had their help while playing MHW.
3. Elden Ring
The monsters in MHW can be quite a challenge. However, once you’ve gotten used to the game, studied their movements, or crafted better equipment, you should eventually be able to take them down. If these fights start to bore you, look no further than Elden Ring.
Elden Ring is one of the best games of 2022, thanks to its gameplay, narrative, exploration, and difficulty. It’s highly praised by critics and gamers alike.
It has a similar gameplay experience to the Dark Souls series but with many new additions. Elden Ring is set in a free-roaming interactive open world. You can also use various weapons, learn magic spells, ride mounts, and craft items in Elden Ring.
Elden Ring presents a tough challenge for those looking to torture themselves with brutal enemies. Jokes aside, Elden Ring is one of the best games like Monster Hunter World if you think the bosses in MHW are way too easy.
2. God Eater 3
God Eater 3 is one of the best recommendations anyone can give you if you’re looking for a game like Monster Hunter World. From its mechanics, gameplay, bosses, and even its co-op mode, it feels like it’s straight up from the Monster Hunter series.
Your character is known as a “God Eater” who can absorb energy from different monsters to unleash special attacks. You can choose from various weapons; the game even has weapon classes similar to MHW.
God Eater 3 does have a faster-paced style and is more forgiving to beginners. You don’t always have to use precise attacks and execute a game plan to defeat the bosses.
The four-player co-op is also very reminiscent of MHW and allows you to build a team with different roles.
Dauntless is hands down the best fighting game like Monster Hunter World that you can play. It’s basically a copy of MHW but with more cartoony and animated graphics. I’m sure you’d feel at home with Dauntless because of its numerous similarities with the Monster Hunter series.
The game honestly feels like a simplified version of Monster Hunter that anyone can enjoy. However, it still requires a ton of time and patience to master.
One of the best things in Monster Hunter is the ability to go against goliaths and take them down. You can get that same feeling when facing the Behemoths in Dauntless. There’s nothing more satisfying than slaying your first monster.
If you can’t do it alone, you can always call for backup because Dauntless also supports up to 4-player co-op. Want to know the best thing about Dauntless? It’s completely free-to-play. All you need is an Epic Games account and start slaying those monsters.
Dauntless is among the best hunting games on Xbox, PlayStation, Nintendo Switch, and PC. It even supports true cross-platform support, allowing you to play with friends no matter your device.


text:
Dogs Deciphered LLC, based in beautiful Loveland, CO is here to help you find understanding with your dog. Trainer, Megan Wallace, B.S., CPDT-KA, CNWI, strives to offer the most innovative solutions for living a better life with your dog. Using modern, dog-friendly training techniques, she will help you communicate with your dog so that you can have a harmonious relationship. Serving Northern Colorado, including Fort Collins, Loveland, Windsor, and surrounding areas.
Megan will come to your home to help you solve your most puzzling problems, or get your new dog or puppy started on the right path. She will teach you simple exercises that will build your relationship with your dog, by teaching your dog the skills they need to live in your world.

domain: pet


text:
INDIANAPOLIS, Ind. - Participation in high school sports increased for the 21st consecutive school year in 2009-10, eclipsing the 7.6 million mark for the first time.
Based on figures from the 50 state high school athletic/activity associations, plus the District of Columbia, that are members of the National Federation of State High School Associations (NFHS), participation for the 2009-10 school year reached a record-breaking total of 7,628,377 participants, according to the 2009-10 High School Athletics Participation Survey conducted by the NFHS.
Boys and girls participation figures also reached respective all-time highs with 4,455,740 boys and 3,172,637 girls participating in 2009-10. Boys participation increased by 33,078 this year, while the girls figure increased by 58,546.
“It is a significant achievement for our member state associations that in these difficult economic times, student participation increased for the 21st consecutive year,” said NFHS Executive Director Bob Gardner. “This reinforces the values that high school sports provide as part of the education of our students. The NFHS actively promotes participation in, and support for, the programs throughout the nation.”
Based on the survey, 55.1 percent of students enrolled in high schools participate in athletics, which emphasizes and reinforces the idea that high school sports continue to have a significant role in student involvement in schools across the country.
Outdoor track and field gained the most combined participants in 2009-10, with an increase of 25,561 participants, followed by soccer with 19,597 combined participants and cross country (11,925). In girls sports, soccer gained the most participants (11,582), followed by outdoor track and field (11,445) and fast-pitch softball (9,290). Outdoor track and field led the way in boys sports with 14,116 additional participants, followed by cross country (8,156) and soccer (8,015).
The top participatory sports for boys remained the same from 2008-09: 11-player football led the way with 1,109,278 participants, followed by outdoor track and field (572,123), basketball (540,207), baseball (472,644), soccer (391,839), wrestling (272,890), cross country (239,608), tennis (162,755), golf (157,756), and swimming and diving (131,376).
Outdoor track and field continued to be the leading sport for girls with 469,177 participants. Second was basketball (439,550), followed by volleyball (403,985), fast-pitch softball (378,211), soccer (356,116), cross country (201,968), tennis (182,395), swimming and diving (158,419), competitive spirit squads (123,644) and golf (70,872).
The top 10 states based on combined participation also remained the same from last year’s survey. Texas led the way with a combined total of 780,721 participants. California was second with 771,465, followed by New York (379,677), Illinois (344,257), Ohio (334,797), Pennsylvania (317,426), Michigan (313,818), New Jersey (253,097), Florida (247,428) and Minnesota (230,043).
The participation survey has been compiled since 1971 by the NFHS through numbers it receives from its member associations. The complete 2009-10 Sports Participation Survey is available on the NFHS Web site at www.nfhs.org.
- Courtesy of the NFHS

domain: sociology


text:
Happy New Year to all my friends and faithful readers!
The past year, everyone agrees, has been a bit of a stinker. So as a consolation prize, I am posting the first chapter of my new Outlaw Chronicles novel for you to enjoy for free. The book – Robin Hood and the Castle of Bones – begins with Alan Dale feeling a bit like I feel this morning after a surfeit of seasonal merriment. It seemed apt. Hope you enjoy it!
“Have you thought much about wine, Alan?” Robin asked me.
I turned in the saddle and squinted painfully at my lord, who was clopping along beside me on the dusty road. My head was aching more than a little, my stomach queasy from even the gentlest movements of my horse, and the bright spring sunlight seemed to spear my half-closed eyes.
My first thought was that Robin was mocking me in some inventive fashion for indulging too much the evening before at the large townhouse in Chalon-sur-Saone, in the region known as Burgundia, where we had spent the night. The wines of this area were, even to my rough, untutored tastes, quite simply delicious. And they were plentiful. And we were rich.
“Of course I have,” I said. “It would be difficult not to think about the joys of drinking when we pass vineyard after vineyard on the road and sample a new vintage at every tavern. What are you saying, lord?”
“I know you think a great deal about drinking it,” said Robin. “And from the unhealthy colour of your face this morning, and the vile, raucous bawling I heard from the hall last night after I went to my bed, I’d say you indulged the practice with enthusiasm. But that’s not what I meant.”
There had been a little joyful singing the night before. Not bawling by any means, nor was it vile or raucous. I was a serious musician in those days, a skilled player of the five-stringed vielle, and a honey-voiced singer praised by royalty, no less. But I had, in truth, stayed up late by the fire in the great hall of the house we had stayed in – a mansion owned by a Jewish merchant called Mordecai with whom Robin had some murky connection – with two companions, who were now riding behind Robin and me. Yes, we had enthusiastically sampled a few jugs of the local vintage – a sweet, strong, yellow brew – courtesy of the kindly old Jew and with a good deal of pleasure. Yes, we had engaged in some tuneful jollity; a rhyming verse or two, a mere canso or salut d’amor, perhaps, to amuse ourselves as we explored our generous host’s excellent cellar. But our merrymaking could hardly be described as “vile, raucous bawling”.
I heard the report of a prolonged belch from behind me and turned to look at its perpetrator. Hanno, a bald, much-scarred Bavarian man-at-arms, a friend of mine and mentor to me, scowled back as if he wished me to drop dead this instant, as if his discomfort today was all my fault.
His normally ruddy face was a greyish colour, and beaded with oily sweat, his body trembled like an old man suffering from a winter ague, and he gave the distinct impression of a fellow on the very edge of death – or perhaps just of bringing up his breakfast all over his horse’s black mane. He scratched angrily his unshaven jaw, rubbed his round and stubbled pate and belched deafeningly once more. I caught the revolting sweet-sour waft of half-digested wine from two horses’ lengths away.
Beside Hanno rode Ricky, a slight, dark fellow – an excellent sailor and blue-water navigator but a less impressive man-at-arms, who had chosen to take the role of Robin’s servant while we were on dry land. He, too, looked extremely unwell – perhaps even in worse shape than Hanno.
It was just the four of us on that hot, dusty road in the heart of Burgundia, walking our horses along between sprouting rye fields and cow-cropped pastures, and seeing nobody but one sullen peasant with a wagon and pair of dusty mules to pull it, and once a muttering priest on a grey mare. We were a few miles west of Chalon-sur-Saone, the largest local town, on a straight road that would lead, or so we devoutly believed, after about a day’s ride, to the more substantial settlement of Autun.
The rest of our company – more than a hundred souls under the command of Robin’s gigantic lieutenant, amusingly nicknamed Little John – was some seventy miles to the south of us, between the towns of Lyon and Mâcon in the fecund valley of the River Saone. They were advancing north only at a snail’s pace in a lumbering train containing three ox-drawn wagons. The Sherwood company, as we called it, was a mixed one, comprised more than three score English and Welsh bowmen, and a conroi, or mounted company, of thirty-seven men-at-arms, mostly Normans, recruited in Marseilles, as well as spare horses, weapons and kit, and a dozen women and their children, whom we’d collected over the past two years of hard travelling.
Hanno, Ricky and I were on a scouting mission – away from the village-like hubbub and chatter of the slow, ever-creaking ox wagons – with the self-appointed task of reconnoitering the best routes to get us safely back home to England. It was not an arduous task, to be honest, more a pleasant jaunt in the springtime. And the Earl of Locksley had decided, at the last moment, to accompany us, for reasons known best to himself. He claimed he was only seeking a break from the burdensome responsibilities of command and relief from the monotony of the journey. But, with Robin, who could say what was on his mind? Not I, for sure.
The weather had mostly been kind. The main roads in the Saone Valley, built by the Romans all those centuries ago, were still paved with big stone slabs and, for the most part, ran arrow straight. These ancient thoroughfares remained in a surprisingly good condition, despite the passage of so much time and the many generations of travellers, and allowed us to travel as a decent pace. Furthermore, the route was already familiar to us, since we had passed over this placid landscape only two years before. That spring we had come down from Normandy to Tours, then marched east, across to Chalon, and south down the valley to Lyon, with a mighty array of knights and noblemen of England and Normandy, part of King Richard’s vast host, which was bound for the Holy Land.
How many of those bold Christian souls still walked the earth, I wondered? Certainly we had lost more than our fair share of noble men-at-arms to sickness, many more than to battle, over the past two eventful years. And what had we achieved? Very little fame or glory – that was for sure – although we had won one great victory over Saladin, the Saracen warlord, at a place called Arsuf, and sent him and his army reeling back.
But even that one victory had been sadly incomplete and the news we received from the Holy Land, in March, when we arrived by sea at the port of Marseilles, was all bad. Despite his best efforts, Richard had been unable to capture the holy city of Jerusalem and his exhausted knights now spoke only of making peace with Saladin and returning to England.
“I meant with your share of the Caliph’s gold,” said Robin, loudly and a little too cheerily for my frail constitution. “Have you thought much about investing all your hard-won money in the English wine trade?”
Well, yes, there was the Caliph’s gold, of course. We might not have covered ourselves with everlasting glory on the long journey to the Holy Land and back, but we were, it could not be denied, indecently wealthy.
We had wrested, with much toil, sweat and pain, a large quantity of pure African gold ingots and several barrels of silver coin from one of the cruellest of the Almohad rulers of southern Spain and, although Robin had been forced to outlay a good deal of it since, I still had a fat purse full of silver coin hanging from my belt and in the iron-banded boxes in the three wagons, seventy miles on the road behind us, was my share of our glittering hoard, a sum to keep me in comfort for the rest of my days.
“I don’t know very much about the wine business . . .” I began.
“Except how to drain three whole casks of Mordecai’s finest in only a single night!” Robin said, chuckling away in a most irritating manner.
I didn’t care to endorse Robin’s jest, so I held my tongue.
We rode on for a furlong in silence then Robin said, in a more serious tone of voice, “You see, Alan, I know of a wealthy wine trader; a respected vintner of the City of London, a fellow called Ivo of Shoreham, who has a house on the river near Queen’s Hithe. He makes a good living in the business and owes me a favour. I thought I might invest some of our gold with Ivo; and, with luck, make a good profit in a year or two. I wondered if you would like to come in with me on this arrangement.”
“This Ivo buys his imported wine from here?” I asked, incredulous. “From the County of Burgundy? And he transports all those unwieldy great barrels back to England. It must be five hundredmiles by land!”
“No, not from here, Alan; and, once again, we are not in the County of Burgundy, we’re in the Duchy of Burgundy – they are two separate entities. Not by land either. The trade routes run by sea from Bordeaux in the Duchy of Aquitaine, west of here. The ships carry the wine across the Bay of Biscay, up the Channel then into the Port of London. Ricky knows the trade, don’t you? You served on the wine cogs for years, no?”
Robin turned in the saddle to look at his whey-faced servant.
Ricky grinned feebly and, lifting a trembling index finger in the air, he said: “Drink wine. This is life eternal. This is all that youth will give you. It is the season for wine and roses, and drunken friends. Be happy for this moment. This moment is your life.”
I dimly recognized it as a snatch of the reams of poetry that Ricky had spouted in the hall the night before. There had been a good deal more dense verbiage in this vein, I recalled. And we had applauded it heartily.
Robin grinned. “Yes, I’ve heard that silly bit of doggerel before. It’s the old Persian trouvère, Omar Khayyam – a wretch who, like you three idiots, loved wine to an absurd degree. ‘Drink! For you know not whence you came nor why; drink! For you know not why you go nor where.’
Robin swung around in the saddle to look at me. “It’s people such as that old sot Khayyam, or boozy young Alan here, who’ll make us rich!”
“Could we please not talk about this, my lord,” I said, feeling my stomach lurch. “I become ill even thinking about taking wine today.”
“Wine is the Devil’s own foul, stinking piss,” growled Hanno. “Ale is better for proper drinking. Fresh ale doesn’t make your belly sour . . . “
Hanno stopped abruptly and snapped his head round to look north. Beyond the thick hedgerow that lined the road was a patch of rough grassland, which rose gently to the summit of a knoll. There was a wide, spreading yew at the brow of the knoll and, at that moment, a small flock of pigeons had, all at once, risen from their perches and, wings clattering madly, they flapped upwards and wheeled away into the empty blue sky.
There was the sound of drumming hooves and over the crest of the hill, outlined clearly in the light, came a thick line of horsemen.
They were knights or men-at-arms with green surcoats, grey iron mail, chequered shields and full helms, and carrying long, lethal lances.
A score of hostile riders.
“Ware right!” shouted Robin. “Ware cavalry. Back everyone, back down the road. Back to Chalon! Alan, wake up, man – ply those spurs!”
The attack was so unexpected, and my brain was so dulled with last night’s festivities, that I completely froze. I sat like a lump in the saddle staring stupidly at the oncoming horsemen. And they were oncoming fast, now in the centre of the field, barely fifty yards away from us now, on the far side of the thick hawthorn hedge.
But Robin’s words did rouse me. I hauled my poor horse round, yanking on the reins. He was a well-schooled gelding called Ghost who was used to the alarms of battle and seldom panicked. Ghost wheeled and responding to the prick of spurs, he set off at a canter back down the road after the others, the same road we’d ridden up so carelessly that morning.
The four of us were spread out along the broad highway. Ricky was far in the lead, crouched up over the neck of his bay, urging her on with soft words. Then came Hanno, twisted in the saddle and looking back at the enemy horsemen thundering behind us. Then Robin and – last of all – me. I snatched a fast glance behind us, too, and saw the enemy were leaping the hedge, clearing the hawthorn like fallow deer, and gathering themselves and their mounts, before pounding up the road behind us.
I could clearly hear their excited cries – they were hallooing to each other like excited huntsmen in pursuit of some frightened hart – although the language they used between them was quite unintelligible to my ears.
That’s odd, I thought. They don’t seem to speak in French. Is that not the tongue in these parts? Why is that? Who are these folk? Then I dismissed these irrelevant notions and concentrated on riding for my life.
I was last in the line, with Robin two horses’ lengths in front of me, and now we went up from the canter to full gallop, our horses at their longest stretch. Some three miles down this arrow-straight road was the walled town of Chalon, seat of a local bishop, with whom we had dined the day before, and to whom Robin had made a generous gift of Almohad silver. This was ostensibly alms for the poor but in reality a big fat bribe.
The bishop had plenty of his own men-at-arms on the high walls of that town, and mercenary crossbowmen up in the strong gatehouse, too. Chalon meant safety for us – if only we could reach it in time. I glanced back again. We were easily outpacing our pursuers; the gap between our galloping mounts and the madly yelling men in green surcoats was growing with every pounding stride. A very sloppy ambush, I thought. Our horses are much faster. They have done no more than chase us away.
I laid a hand on Ghost’s straining neck, willing him to more speed. He was a fine, strong horse; he would never fail me, I knew that at least.
Robin was twisted in the saddle too, looking beyond me to our noisy pursuers, fifty yards away, the gap between us and the foe growing larger.
“Something’s not right,” he yelled. “Something is wrong.”
In a moment, we discovered the nature of that wrongness.
I heard a man scream, high and desperate, and saw little Ricky was now flying right over the top of his horse’s head; and the poor animal whinnying in terror and tumbling over its legs. Then the awful crack of equine bones. The horse was now sprawling in the dirt of the road, kicking a loosely flopping foreleg; Ricky lay in a heap a few yards further on, quite still. I simply could not understand what had happened.
Then Hanno, just a few paces behind, leapt his horse into the air, as if he were jumping an invisible hurdle, and came skittering to halt on the other side. There were now strange horsemen on the road ahead of us – five or six more of the green surcoated fellows, all with mail, helm and lances. I saw that a heavy rope had been stretched across the road at the height of a man’s belly, a yard high, tied to two oak trees on either side.
Robin was shouting, “Halt, halt!” and I was desperately reining in Ghost, his four hooves locked and skidding in the dust of the road. My body was hurled against his silky neck, I found I was fighting just to keep my seat, and not to slip right forward over Ghost’s grey head.
This was no sloppy, ill-conceived ambush. It was a well-laid trap.
On the far side of the rope, Hanno was already in a savage melee; sword out, laying about with his usual lethal skill. There were half a dozen horsemen milling around him and, as I watched, he cut down one fellow with two flicks of his sword. Then slashed another across the face.
But Hanno took a hard, clanging mace blow on the back of his steel helm and I saw him reel in the saddle, and suddenly spur onward, his big horse shouldering another out of his path. Hanno’s sword jabbed out and skewered an enemy through the thigh – the fellow screaming in a strange tongue, and lashing out again with the mace, and Hanno yelling back at him in the same language, as he struck again, a pounding hack into his enemy’s left shoulder, smashing his long blade into the man’s grey mail.
It’s German, I thought madly. They’re speaking a kind of German.
Our first line of pursuers had caught up with us by now. I had my own sword out and was wrestling my left arm into the tight leather slings of my shield. A big blond fellow, lance couched, was coming straight for me. The deadly point of his spear aimed right at my heart. But I did the correct thing. I gave Ghost a tiny signal with my knees, and my brave animal waited for the exact perfect moment and made a little dancing step to the right. The charging knight’s lance hit my leather-faced shield, but only a glancing blow and, rotating my body with the force of his lance strike, using his momentum, I lashed out with my sword and crunched the long blade into the back of his coif as he thundered past me.
I heard a sharp snap, like a twig underfoot, felt his iron mail give in under my powerful strike and reckoned I’d broken the bastard’s neck.
Robin, too, was engaging a knight now, sword to sword, steel scraping against steel, sparks flying in fiery arcs. I saw that Hanno was past his mass of opponents, beyond the tight-stretched hempen rope, and that three of them already lay dead in the road. He was free and clear. Yet Hanno was circling his horse now, turning it, as if to return, brush aside his foes once more, and jump back over the rope and come to aid us.
I dodged a snake-fast lance-strike at directly my face. It came out of nowhere but I felt the horrible wind of it on my left cheek. I swung my sword into a passing horseman, and felt it thump uselessly on his shield.
Robin had killed his opponent – a straight hard thrust through the fellow’s Adam’s apple, gory point bursting out of the fellow’s mail-clad neck. My lord was now yelling over at Hanno. “Ride away, man. Get back to Little John. Go! Go!” But Hanno still hesitated.
I got my shield up in time to block a vicious sword swipe from a man with a steel helm and full lattice-like facemask, the curved steel face-plate punctured with little square breathing holes. A pair of curled goat’s horns were affixed to the flat top of the helmet, giving him a unearthly, even a slightly demonic, air. I could not see the fellow’s eyes behind the mask – an effect that meant he looked to me like a living monster, like some foul creature of a deep, disturbing netherworld.
Indeed, I was so shocked by his ghastly appearance, that my instinctive counter blow was badly mistimed. He easily batted off my sword blow with his own, and struck at me again, his sharp blade thwacking against the leather face of my shield, and slipping off the surface, sliding upwards to crash painfully into my mailed shoulder.
“Yield, sirs! Surrender or die,” said the man in the hellish steel monster-mask, the words muffled but intelligible as a kind of French.
I glanced at Robin. Then looked at the road ahead, Hanno was two hundred yards down the road and galloping hard back towards Chalon. Ricky was still unconscious – or dead – lying in a heap in the dust. There were a dozen men in green all around us; some armed with lances, one man, a veteran sergeant, had a crossbow pointed right at Robin’s chest.
There was no way though them, or none that I could imagine.
“Yield or die!” the masked man repeated, shouting more loudly this time, his menacing sword raised, ready to cut me down. “Yield to me!”
“Very well,” said Robin, lowering his own blade. “We surrender.”
If you would like to buy Robin Hood and the Castle of Bones, in paperback or eBook, you can do so by clicking here.

domain: literature


text:
LA ROSE DES VENTS, private beach, Monaco, French Riviera
About the beach
Situated on the tranquil beach at Larvotto in Monaco, La Rose des Vents private beach is a very relaxing place to escape the busy centre of Montecarlo. The bright red sun lounger cushions are a contrast to the turquoise blue water of the Mediterranean sea and the fine white sand. Visitors can relax under a parasol or enjoy swimming in the sheltered water. The beach restaurant offers a refined setting to enjoy lunch or dinner by the water’s edge on the Côte d’Azur.
Beach beds/ umbrellas
Sun Lounger = €20 for 1 person, or €35 for 2 people
Towel = €7
Umbrella = €5
Monaco is a diverse, multicultural country, which exudes wealth and glamour. As such it is no wonder that this Riviera destination provides a multitude of exciting things to do, offering something for everyone.
Visitors should take a trip up to the old part of the city (Le Rocher), where they can explore the little winding streets that hide some wonderful shops, restaurants and cafés. There are various examples of beautiful architecture to be admired, such as the Prince’s Palace and the Monaco cathedral. The old town is also home to some interesting museums, the best of which is the Oceanographic Institute, where 4000 species of fish are displayed, including some that have never been successfully kept in captivity elsewhere in the world.
Casino Square is a must do for visitors to Monaco, which is renowned for its sophisticated poker, roulette and blackjack tables. Start the evening with drinks at Café de Paris, before heading for a night of glitz and glamour at the Casino. To ensure entry to this prestigious venue, it is important for visitors to dress smartly, and to carry a passport with them. Next to the casino is the beautiful Allée des Boulingrins, where interesting sculptures and rare plants are spread out amongst the impeccably maintained gardens.
Les Jardins Exotiques, set up in the hills above Montecarlo, is home to over 1000 species of cacti, as well as an impressive cave, where bizarre rock formations can be seen. The views from the gardens are tremendous, taking in the stunning Côte d’Azur coastline below.
The famous Monaco Grand Prix, which attracts rich and famous people from around the world to the principality every year, is one of the things for which Monaco is best known. When the race is not on, it is still possible to walk around the famous circuit, which holds so many years of history.
Monaco is well known on the Côte d’Azur for its animated nightlife, and crowds of young party-goers flock to the streets every evening to enjoy the many bars, restaurants and nightclubs. Join the crowds of people dancing until the small hours at the likes of Jimmy’z, La Rascasse and Black Legend. If the morning after is taking its toll, it might be an idea to pay a visit to the Thermes Marin spa and wellness centre, for some excellent relaxation and pampering.
How to get there
By car: Exit the A8 motorway at the Monaco junction. Head for Larvotto Plage. Park in the Larvotto Plage carpark. For more information please contact Easy Car Booking.
By bus: Buses numbers 4 or 6 from the centre of town will take you to Larvotto beach. Monaco is well connected with other nearby towns by bus.
By train: Take a train to Monaco, then either get a taxi to La Rose des Vents, or walk around the coastline in the direction of Italy, and you will reach it.
The beach restaurant is open year round for lunch and dinner, and serves a simple, but delicious selection of Italian dishes and traditional Monaco food. Their warm salads and fresh prawns are highly recommended. There is a selection of good set menus as well as an à la carte range. It is possible to hire the beach for seated meals of up to 150 people.
Easy Beach Booking tip: Dive into the Mediterranean Sea with Easy Dive Booking and chose a dive site near to your private beach. Enjoy one of the world's most unique underwater diving experiences this year with Easy Dive Booking.
La Rose des Vents beach contact details:
CALL NOW TO MAKE A BOOKING: 0033899490444 (1,35€ call cost, 0,34€ cts per minute)

domain: geography


Cincinnati officials have been challenging Census projects for the past couple years and have been successful at the same time. In 2008 City leaders were able to successfully have Cincinnati's 2005 population estimate revised to 331,310 up from 308,728. The successful challenge showed that Cincinnati’s population trend was in fact quite stable from the 2000 Census count of 331,283.
As the 2010 Census count nears City officials are gearing up for a major effort called Cincinnati Counts
which is a combined initiative of Cincinnati's Complete Count Committee and the Urban League of Greater Cincinnati with the participation of partners throughout the community.
City leaders cite that more than $300 billion is allocated based on Census results, and that millions is allocated in Cincinnati alone. This means that a low population count could result in the loss of significant federal funding for the city of Cincinnati and the larger region.
The initial Census challenges stemmed from a statistical analysis of city records, including building permits, demolition permits, and conversions of buildings into apartments or condominiums. That analysis showed that the city’s population was significantly higher that the Census estimate and has had officials hopeful that a higher 2010 Census
count could be in order.
"There is too much positive activity and development in Cincinnati for the city to be losing people," said Mayor Mallory following the successful challenge, who has also led the city and regional effort to push for a full count in 2010.
Cincinnati's Complete Count Committee is emphasizing how easy the Census is to complete to encourage higher response rates, and cites that there are only 10 questions that take about 10 minutes to complete. Committee organizers also say that your responses are confidential and that the Census count only counts people, regardless of citizenship or legal status.
As of right now volunteer drives are underway to get people to help with the Complete Count Committee. Those interested can get more information by following Cincinnati Counts on Twitter
, or by contacting the Mayor's office.
Writer: Randy A. Simes


text:
The pattern was created by Aoibhe Ni Shuilleabhain and was featured in issue 5 (Dec./Jan.) of the UK magazine Inside Crochet. I'm not normally a fan of crochet magazines. Most of the time I find they only have one pattern per issue that appeals to me so I try to resist the temptation. After picking up the magazine to look at these Dragaon Gauntlets during three different Christmas shopping trips to Chapters, I knew this was one temptation I couldn't resist. While the gloves are by far my favorite thing in the magazine, I also really liked this issue's featured article on Tunisian crochet and accompanying patterns. The scarf on the cover is also starting to appeal to me, even though I'm not a scarf wearer by nature.
I made my Dragon Gauntlets with Patons Kroy Socks FX in Clover. It's not the luxurious yarn recommended in the pattern materials, but I was considering these a practice pair since this was my first attempt at following UK crochet directions and the pattern was listed as "Intermediate." Thankfully the patten turned out to be quite simple to follow. If you've ever crocheted a shell stitch, you can make these. They are also fun and quick to work up. I finished this pair in a single weekend and now that they're done I'm considering them a belated Christmas gift to myself.
Those. Are. Awesome.
I think I need to make myself some.
Thanks! It's definitely hard to resist making them:)
These are great aren't they! I made these for a friend for Christmas with King Cole Zig Zig in a varigrated browny, grey! These turned out really well, but took me ages to do the second one cause I keep muching them up. They were worth it though, my friend really loves her Christmas Presents.:D
I know what you mean Jelibe, I had some trouble with the right glove too, but managed to fix it up. I didn't realize until after I was finished that the pattern designer had a couple of corrections posted on her website, here and here.
Those are really nice. I might have to find that magazine to check it out. But I feel the same way about magazines. I usually require at least two patterns that I really like. I figure most for-sale patterns are around $5 (ish) so if I can get two patterns out of something that is 7-9 dollars, I came out on top. And I really like that yarn too. My friend made a pair of socks out of that colorway and I made a pair out of the pink/gray/blue color.
they look very very beautiful! love the colour of the yarn you used
beautiful... I want the pattern...
I want the pattern too. But I'm looking and I can't find it. She doesn't have it on her site, just a link to where it appears in the magazine and a Ravelry link. And I know I wouldn't be able to find the magazine anywhere. I love long gloves and those are pretty awesome :'(
The pattern itself isn't on the designer's blog, only some corrections to typos in the printed copy. I found my copy of Inside Crochet at Chapters here in Canada. I'm not sure where you could find it in the U.S. I guess try stores that have a large selection of magazines and typically carry stuff from the UK? Not sure if this would work, but you could also try the "contact" link on this Inside Crochet page and ask about ordering the issue individually.
Post a Comment

domain: hobby


text:
I'm very sad that I didn't pick up the two bunches of collards left in my CSA's trade box. I'll have to wait until tomorrow to see if we get more collards in our weekly box. Why am I sad that I didn't take somebody else's rejected collards? Because they're so seriously yummy! And out of this world when it comes to their nutrients. They're a great source of vitamin A, vitamin C, folate, calcium, and, get this...one serving has 593% of your RDA of vitamin K.
Now that we're not in veggie month anymore, I've been experimenting with bacon and what I've discovered is that almost anything tastes good when it's cooked with bacon. Except maybe beets (I even tried putting beets in a chocolate cake and...yuck...tastes like mud pie...but I'm going to try again). So, here's my second excellent recipe for collards. It's very complex...I don't know if you'll be able to manage it. Chop up two strips of bacon and sauté them. (You could probably even get by with just one strip.) While you're cooking the bacon, wash, dry and tear up your collards. When the bacon's almost crispy, drain off some of the fat and save it for another lucky bunch of greens or a fried egg. Throw a few smashed up cloves of garlic into the pan. Let the garlic get fragrant and then throw in your pile of collards. Collards cook down like spinach, so throw in a big heap of collards. Season with salt and pepper. Eat. Admire yourself for making something so healthy in under ten minutes.

domain: food


text:
She talks about a writer’s relationship to an ongoing book as though it’s a marriage, with all the attendant ups and downs – and sometimes the divorces. If you think writing a novel is all exalted inspiration and Visits By the Muse, do read her hilarious account of a marriage, separation, near-divorce, and reconciliation.
I gave that book my heart and soul and it was like, “Whatevs.”
So I threw all its clothes out on the lawn.
We stopped speaking to each other.
When people say that writing – real writing – is work, they know what they’re talking about. But Ms. Summers does give us all hope that, like any marriage built on The Real Thing, it’s often possible to work things out and make the relationship not only work, but be happy too.

domain: artistic


text:
The Chinese import of coal, one of the dry bulk industry's most important growth markets, is poised for further decline in 2016 according to analyst forecasts. India also looks disappointing, writes Alphabulk.
BY KATRINE GRØNVALD RAUN
Log in to read our articles
Welcome to ShippingWatch. A part of our content is exclusive and reserved for our users.


text:
Bride T-shirts, Personalized Wedding Gifts, Favors > Bride T-shirts, Bride Gifts, Tote Bags > Bride T-shirts and Gifts with Pink Flower > Bride Field Bag
Bride Field Bag
Bride t-shirts, clothes, mugs, bags and wedding gifts featuring pink and green flower design.
- Field Bag
- 100% heavyweight cotton canvas
- 12" W x 16" H x 3.5" D
- Front flap with antique brass buckles
- Inside hanging zippered pocket
- Cotton-webbed shoulder strap
- Enzyme washed for a vintage look
Drag the square at the left to choose the part of your image you want to use. Tips: Click and drag any corner to resize; click and drag from the inside to move.
Click done if you're happy with the way it looks.


text:
We coordinate your retirement plan so you can focus on your business.
As a fiduciary to your Plan, Meridian takes on your liability.
Our advisory staff offer services to each and every participant, in person, on site.
We hold ourselves accountable for earning your business and do not hide any fees behind closed doors.
Meridian serves as Discretionary Trustee and Named Plan Administrator for all our retirement plan clients. As a fiduciary, we vastly minimize the Plan Sponsor’s liabilities. We are ethically and legally obligated to independently act in the best interest of your plan and its participants. You will not find a financial services provider that does more for you in the realm of retirement plans. Outside of using due diligence in Trustee selection, Plan Sponsors are only expected to provide accurate demographic and payroll data. That’s it! We do the rest.
YOU TELL US WHAT YOU NEED.
We Handle the Rest.
We believe our services provide a wealth of value to each and every saver and plan sponsor. We hold ourselves accountable for earning your business and review fees with every Plan Sponsor, every meeting. We offer personalized investment advice to all plan participants. At a minimum, we cover contribution amounts and asset allocations designed to align personal savings habits with specific retirement goals.
The Meridian retirement team makes it a point to do in-person enrollments so that each and every participant gets started on the right foot with a savings plan in place. During periodic visits to each Plan Sponsor, Meridian advisors will offer one-on-one meetings to all interested participants year after year.
Our retirement services team does all the plan administration so you don't have to.
Meridian serves as a Discretionary Trustee and Named Plan Administrator for all our retirement plan clients. From plan design, eligibility tracking and compliance testing to filing and signing your 5500, we have you covered year in and year out.
As a Plan Sponsor, you are expected to provide accurate demographic and payroll data to our retirement services team. That's it! We do the rest.
A Plan Sponsor's liabilities
are vastly minimized when Meridian serves as trustee to the Plan. We are obligated to act in the best interest of your Plan and its participants. This mentality serves as basis for all the work we do for our clients.
Our advisory team periodically visits each Plan Sponsor and works with your schedule to meet with every participant. We make it a point to do in-person enrollments so that each and every investor gets started on the right foot with a saving plan in place.
We believe our services provide a wealth of value to each and every saver and Plan Sponsor. We know we are privileged to have your business, and therefore we review fees with every Plan Sponsor, every meeting.
LET US HELP YOU WITH YOUR CORPORATE RETIREMENT.
Get in Touch With Us.

domain: finance


Who thought it'd be a good idea to build a Jeep Liberty!? Well after almost a decade of faithful service on some of the toughest rock trails around the country its safe to say #ProjectKJ is a capable wheeler. It turns heads everywhere it goes and is definitely unique. Join me as a give you a walk through of this one of a kind Jeep Liberty CRD originally build for the Ultimate Adventure back in 2013.
A few years back we overhauled a worn out, run of the mill, grocery getter of a ’05 Liberty CRD to take on the 4Wheel & Offroad Ultimate Adventure. The plan was simple, start with the most hated Jeep that we knew of at the time (to many the KJ that replaced the beloved XJ) and turn it into something cool, different, and most importantly capable offroad. Using a mix of off the shelf parts and some custom fabrication the BDS R&D build a low slung diesel rock crawler that is ready for Moab or a trip to the dunes. Check out our latest overview video on BDS’s Project KJ and to see more on hos this Jeep was transformed from stock to what it is today check out the blog thread complete with photos, videos and writeups at https://blog.bds-suspension.com/?cat=393&paged=6
This past weekend the BDS crew made the trip up to Drummond Island in the Upper Peninsula (UP) of Michigan for the 3rd Annual JeepEnd Adventure. With Project KJ in tow behind Project Ascension the guys made their way of for a weekend of incredible views, challenging 4wheeling and great camaraderie. Rather than read through a long winded recap from the event, check out the recap video to take in the sights and sounds of JeepEnd. Enjoy!
Each year the crew from BDS Suspension loads up and heads West to that magical offroading Mecca known as Moab, UT. Maybe its the red rock terrain, or the warm spring time temperatures after a long Michigan winter or maybe even the thousands of Jeepers (and other 4×4’s) that flock to the town each Spring for a week of 4wheeling, but its one of our favorite places to attend each year during Easter Jeep Safari (EJS). When it comes to media coverage, this event has plenty, from Jeep in attendance with their much anticipated concept builds to just about every offroad media outlet from magazines, to forums, and TV shows.
This past EJS marked the 50th annual year of the Red Rock 4Wheelers hosting the trail ride and gathering. BDS made it out in an assortment of vehicles including the BDS Colorado, Project Raider (Chevy HD), BDS Crawlorado, and of course Project KJ. During the week we met up with friends, customers and industry partners to hit that trails and test out the equipment. Along the way we met up with Ian Johnson, host of Xtreme Offroad TV and ran Pritchett Canyon, one of the quintessential Moab Jeep trails. View breathtaking views and hardcore terrain, this is one of those bucket list type trails that you don’t pass up on. With Ian in his BDS leaf sprung M715 project Lockjaw, us in Project KJ and a handful of other rigs in the mix we set out to run the trail with Ian and his camera crew. The trail lived up to its reputation and challenged not only our group, but all the groups that made it out to the trail head before us that morning that caused a bottle neck getting through the single file through the 4-mile trail. In the end over 11 hours spend on Pritchett Canyon, but made some friends along the way. Outside of some body damage, the only trail damage our group had was a front ring and pinion on Ian’s M715 towards the end as we climbed out of the canyon. For more on our week from the 50th Annual Easter Jeep Safari head to our official recap on the BDS Blog.
This past weekend BDS loaded up the rigs and headed east for the Bantam Jeep Heritage Festival. Held just north of Butler, Pennsylvania, this event brought together thousands of Jeepers, for a weekend of family fun activities in the hometown of the birthplace of the Jeep. The event came about a few years ago to celebrate the town and the company that led to the WWII “Jeep”. Back in 1940 the American Bantam Car Company won the bid from the US Army to manufacturer a 4WD reconnaissance vehicle. You can read more about the history online, but ultimately the task of building nearly 600,000 “Jeeps” went to Willys-Overland and Ford to meet the US Army’s deadlines.
The 3-day festival includes tons of activities out at the fairgrounds by day and nightly activities like the Jeep Invasion of downtown Butler. By day the fairgrounds were filled with thousands of Jeeps enjoying the nice (at times windy) weather, hitting the trails and obstacle course, stoping by vendor booths and swap meet looking for hard to find items, checking out demonstrations, checking out the Jeep history museum, show-n-shine competition, and entering to win swag in the raffle.
BDS was out at the event set up in the vendor area with Project KJ, our 2013 and 2014 Ultimate Adventure tested diesel Jeep Liberty along with the #EverydayChase F250. Along with showing off new products, answering questions and handing out swag, we held a raffle with our friends at FOX, Zone Offroad, and JKS to giveaway gift certificates, and a set of shocks. Around the show we spotted tons of BDS equipped Jeep in the crowd and wanted to thank all everyone that stopped by the booth to say hi. Its pretty safe to say the highlight for us was taking over downtown Butler for the invasion party. With over 1500 Jeeps setup along the streets of Butler is was a mix of old vintage and new school Jeeps. A big thanks to the town of Butler, the staff that organized it, and the law enforcement officers for their support. Now back to the office, the 8-5 grind, until next time Butler…
Michigan is typically home to cold, snowy winters which makes for great conditions if you’re into winter activities like ice fishing, snowmobiling, skiing, and winter 4wheeling. This year, however, its been warmer than usual. This winter has seen more rainfall than snowfall and consequently the deep fresh powder just isn’t there.
Each winter, around the last weekend in January, the Soldiers of Fortune Offroad club (SoFo) holds a trail riding event known as SnoFari. The event consists of a day and a half of winter wheeling, great food and good people. Celebrating 10 years strong, the event has grown over the years and is limited to around 60 vehicles plus trail guides and sponsors. This was BDS’s 4th year attending and we have a blast each year. We hit the road in the Project Raider, our 2015 Chevy HD towing Project KJ, our 2005 Jeep Liberty CRD to hit the trails. With daytime temps predicted in the upper 30s we weren’t sure what to expect, but to our surprise there was decent snowfall on the ground, and the sunny 38 degrees made for pleasant trail riding. Plenty of hill climbs, tight trails and off-camber obstacles for use to put Project KJ to use.
Saturday is the main event and after a full day of action out on the trail we headed in to clean up and get ready for the banquet dinner. They have an awesome spread catered each year, give out to SoFo awards and raffle off tens of thousands of donated items from Sponsors. Congrats to everyone that brought home a SoFo awards and sponsor swag. SoFo once again hosted a great event, they go out of their way to make sure everyone has a great time. We look forward to attending next year, but curious if its too early to make a request for more snowfall?


Sen. Bob Corker (R-TN) painted a grim picture Sunday of ongoing negotiations to re-open the government and increase the debt limit.
“I think things are not moving now,” Corker said on Fox News Sunday. “The last 24 hours have not been good.”
In the last 24 hours, Senate Democrats and the White House have formally rejected the House GOP’s latest pitch, which raised the ceiling but didn’t fund the government. Senate Republicans filibustered a clean debt-limit increase, and a long-term deal forwarded by Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME), which would have delayed Obamacare’s medical device tax, was rejected by Senate Democratic leadership.
Corker placed blame for the gridlock on both sides, criticizing Republicans for attacking Obamacare and Democrats for reportedly aiming to replace the automatic budget cuts known as sequestration.
“Republicans started off in a place that was an overreach, to defund a law that was central to the president’s agenda was not achievable,” Corker said. “Now Democrats are I think getting too cute. They now are overreaching.”
“It’s not clear to me how this ends because there is such disarray.”


text:
In March 2018, in his London studio, Kreol had the pleasure to meet Armando Alemdar Ara, an artist and the co-founder of Neomodernism, an artistic movement that places particular importance upon the aesthetic and spiritual attributes of painting. Armando has embodied in his art the ancient mystical beliefs in inner spirituality. The world he presents in his paintings is unique, creating the image of an inner world in continuous movement. His paintings present harmonious, flowing forms, but also powerful tensions, conflicts and breakthroughs; complexity and simplicity, contrasting improvisations, overlapping shadows and parallel dimensions. He aims to strike a balance between the subjective and objective. In this way Armando’s optimism and holistic way of thinking are made transparent to the viewer through the mastery of his technique and his subtle uses of colour.
Armando’s artistic output has been attracting many art lovers and collectors across Europe and the USA for the past twenty years. In observing his mystical imagery we discover a classic and cultivated artistic palette. Confidently controlling any expressive elements that may arise in the heat of creation, Armando engenders a feeling of contemplative intellectual confession. Creating abstract and associative compositions that reflect lyrical and spiritual feelings, Armando relies on his subtle use of colour that makes transparent his optimism and his intimate, and at the same time, collective thinking. Easily recognisable with the curvy shapes and rich colour sense, Armando’s pictures effortlessly create a harmony that ennobles everyone’s soul. Clear in his concepts, confident in the expression of his idea, but also unimposing in his message, Armando appears as a mature artist whose work stand out from the work of other abstract artists, both past and present.
What compels you to be an artist?
Well I just see it as the very reason for my existence. I could not live and not be an artist. But ultimately I think it is to show the world what I have learnt – as I learn when I paint.
I learn about life, I learn wisdom.
Is there a reason why you focus on philosophy so much?
I think that it has always been in me to try and better myself. The best way to better myself, my mind, is through philosophy. We don’t use enough philosophy in our lives and there is a lack of spirituality generally – lack of will to better oneself as a result.
Do you hope that your artwork will encourage people to do this – is this one of your aims?
That’s definitely one of my main aims. Art has essentially a communicative function, although a work of art never bears a direct effect on the viewer. Instead, it has an indirect, subtle effect.
What’s your idea of the Absolute Ideal – the concept that you regularly mention… What do you feel that is?
It is the energy that is in us, and around us; it’s the constant flow of life which has two spheres – the material one in which we all exist, and the spiritual one.
Is that what you try to do in your own work – combine the two elements?
In my pictures I want to show the spiritual that is around the physical body; that is the more pragmatic aim.
With regards to these elements that have been within art works throughout the centuries, what has attracted you to introduce ancient methods? Is this why you invented Neomodernism?
I’m not introducing at all, I am just rewriting; rewriting traditional art values that have always existed. And in this sense Neomodernism is just a new way of looking at art, not as an art movement per say – it is rather a philosophy of art.
How do you consider Neomodernism to be new and original?
Because it is a fresh look at art; it looks through the ‘isms’ of all art movements that preceded it. It allows one to look at an ‘old master’ at the National Gallery with intimacy and sensibility as one would have for any other work that contains the necessary qualities.
This is quite clear in your style. It has a new element to it which is really interesting. Your art presents something so new and yet has traditional grounding. I don’t think that I’ve seen any abstract paintings that have been done which have the depth that yours do. I mean depth in both senses: spiritually and artistically, but also like in that three dimensional sense of depth that we find in Renaissance painting. I can’t think of any other abstract painting that does that.
As an art historian I have considered other abstract paintings, but they’ve often failed the test when works were reproduced in black and white – like Kandinsky for example. It just loses the impact of the depth when in black and white, somehow the form is lost and the image becomes flat. But this is normal for Modernist Art and Kandinsky has remained a major inspiration for me. Modernism has always promoted this idea of flatness of the canvas surface. But to me a painting must be some sort of a window that you can go into, that your whole being can go into, and that’s the beginning of an adventure into an another world.
That is the brilliant quality that you achieve I think – one feels that one can just go in there and be in your pictures like Alice in her mirror; it is wonderful, it is a whole new world.
That is indeed my aim!
Is that why you feel the spiritual element is so important in a piece of work? Do you feel that that is something which is in everyone?
Of course it is, and that is the one dimension which everyone can pick up in a work of art – a real work of art This kind of an art work could speak to everybody. A work of art has got to do that – it has to speak to absolutely everyone – from the layman to the art critic.
How do you go about constructing your pieces of work – the stages?
Starting from realism, with realistic sketches. First I draw the nude realistically – I don’t know whether I see or imagine the shapes or the thoughts around the body – depending on the model and how she or he feels. I present these energy/thought forms as visible as the actual body – equalize them in order to reach abstraction. I have never made a ‘decision’ about a colour. The first colour that comes to mind is actually always the right one. I’ve never made a mistake with colour – never. I’ve made mistakes with form – the form can change throughout the process, but not the colour. However, in the last ten years I have been painting in the Renaissance technique of glazing so I achieve the colours by using several transparent glazes. Each layer has to be completely dry before I apply the next one, which means the process is painstakingly long and time-consuming.
This is I guess unusual for today’s fast modern lifestyle. Do you think it is a handicap in your working and personal life?
Time is relative. Art is timeless. I have to create the way I do regardless of circumstances. Sometimes is difficult and challenging to keep up with daily life and all the responsibilities but these struggles are there to be faced with courage and determination.


text: The unforgettable friendship of two unforgettable men. The tension and terror of the former South African regime is powerfully portrayed in director Richard Attenborough's sweeping story of black activist Stephen Biko (Denzel Washington) and liberal white newspaper editor Donald Woods (Kevin Kline) who risked his life to bring Biko's story to the world. In this explosive, emotional and thrilling film, Woods slowly reveals the true horrors of apartheid through Biko's eyes. When the South African authorities begin to view Biko as a major threat to their government, he is arrested and silenced by the police. Determined not to let Biko's message go unheard, Woods undertakes a perilous quest to escape South Africa and bring Biko's remarkable story to the world. This riveting, true story offers a stirring account of man at his most evil and most heroic.

domain: library


text:
Since Barack Hussein Obama took the oath as the 44th president of the United States in 2009, as part of a historic election victory, Joseph Biden stood alongside, serving in a presidential capacity for eight years.
In 2020, Biden is seeking the highest office in the executive branch of the federal government, having previously served as a U.S. senator for Delaware before his tenure with Obama.
Despite impressive early-voting results from various primary elections, indicating possible dominance in the general election in November, some Democrats are not conformed with an older white male as the presumptive nominee, but many still back him as their candidate of choice, according to new research.
In a survey, conducted by Pew Research Center, researchers gathered responses from more than 2,000 Democratic or Democratic-leaning voters in the U.S.
Based on their assessment of the respondents, voters considered more likely to negatively perceive the nominee were mostly of younger age, leaned more toward liberalism, and had higher educational attainment.
“Democratic voters who are bothered that the likely nominee is an older white man are more liberal, more educated, younger and more likely to be white than those who are not bothered, according to the survey, which was conducted just after Bernie Sanders suspended his presidential campaign,” the Pew Research survey determined.
Among the voters with higher educational attainment expressing botherness of the Democratic nominee as an older white man in his 70s, most, or 58%, held a postgraduate degree. Many with no college background or only with some college experience exhibited less annoyance over the characterization of the nominee.
“These views also differ by race and ethnicity. About seven-in-ten black (72%) and Hispanic (70%) Democrats say they are not bothered the likely nominee is a white man in his 70s,” the survey also found. “By comparison, white Democrats are divided on this question: 49% say they are bothered and 51% say they are not.”
Pew Research Center is a US-based nonpartisan think tank devoted to public opinion polling, demographic analysis, and social science research.


text:
Osprey Skimmer 28
WOMEN’S HIKING | HYDRATION
The Skimmer 28 is a lightweight and durable women’s-specific pack capable of handling any adventure around town, on the trails, and beyond. The included 2.5-liter reservoir holds plenty of water for all-day hydration, mesh side pockets keep snacks and other small items conveniently close by, and the front panel pocket is the perfect spot to store your raincoat. Compression straps pull everything in tight, lower loops secure your trekking poles, and there’s even an ice axe loop if things get vertical. With a timeless rucksack design and user-friendly packing solution, the Skimmer is the ultimate town-to-trail companion.


text:
Two individuals have been arrested and charged after Red Wing Police Department received multiple reports of vehicle damage this past weekend that was determined likely to have been done by someone shooting a BB gun.
The more than 20 complaints of broken vehicle windows and/or body damage from October 20 through October 22 resulted in damages estimated at approximately $45,000.
With the help of citizens who aided officers in the investigation, the Red Wing Police Department arrested Ray Jerome Meyer and Taylor Isaiah Donaldson, both 18 and of Red Wing, in connection with the incidents.
Meyer and Donaldson were booked and held in the Goodhue County Adult Detention Center on charges of first-degree criminal damage to property and carrying a BB gun in a public place.
Red Wing Police were assisted by Goodhue County Sheriff’s Dispatch and Goodhue County Patrol Deputies in this case.
If anyone has any additional information, they are asked to contact Red Wing Police Investigative Captain Brian Metling at 651.267.2662

domain: news


text:
Recent News from (OTC: BRSYF)
|Brainsway reports FY results|
|Brainsway ( OTCPK:BRSYF ): FY Revenue of $11.1M (-3.5% Y/Y) Press Release More news on: Brainsway Ltd., Earnings news and commentary, Healthcare stocks news, ,|
|Date: March, 19 2018 16:35|
|Brainsway reports Q3 results|
|Brainsway ( OTC:BRSYF ): Q3 Non-GAAP income of $0.36M Revenue of $3.4M (+87% Y/Y) Press Release More news on: Brainsway Ltd., Earnings news and commentary, Healthcare stocks news, ,|
|Date: November, 28 2016 11:17|
|Brainsway reports Q1 results|
|Brainsway ( OTC:BRSYF ): Q1 net loss of $0.4M. More news on: Brainsway Ltd., Earnings news and commentary, Healthcare stocks news, , Read more ...|
|Date: June, 21 2016 09:06|
About Brainsway Ltd. (OTC: BRSYF)
BrainsWay is dedicated to developing and providing advanced technology solutions for the treatment of a variety of brain disorders. The company was established in , and became a public company traded on the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange in January . BrainsWay s flagship technology is Deep TMS, or Deep Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation, which launches a new era in brain disorder treatment.
Current Share Structure
- Market Cap: $53,230,365 - 05/11/2018
- Issue and Outstanding: 11,828,970 - 12/15/2011
Daily Technical Chart for (OTC: BRSYF)
Stay tuned for daily updates and more on (OTC: BRSYF)
More to come on (OTC: BRSYF)
Do your DD and if you choose, be ready to go!
The Research: All source information contained in this email is from the public sources mentioned below.
Disclaimer: Monsta Trader publishes reports providing information on selected companies. Monsta Trader is not a registered investment advisor or broker-dealer. This report is provided as an information service only, and the statements and opinions in this report should not be construed as an offer or solicitation to buy or sell any security. Monsta Trader accepts no liability for any loss arising from an investors reliance on or use of this report. An investment in BRSYF is considered to be highly speculative and should not be considered unless a person can afford a complete loss of investment. Monsta Trader has received up to $100,000 worth of crypto currency from a non-affiliated third party for the publication and circulation of this report. Monsta Trader does not own any shares of BRSYF and does not buy, sell, or trade any shares of BRSYF. This report contains forward-looking statements, which involve risks, and uncertainties that may cause actual results to differ materially from those set forth in the forward-looking statements. Copyright 2018 by Monsta Trader. All rights reserved. Our Full Disclaimer: http://monstatrader.com/disclaimer/

domain: economics


text:
Several programs operated by the Bloomington-Normal YWCA rely heavily on state funds. Liz German, Vice President of Operations at the YW says the impasse in Springfield has many of those programs on hold.
"We have been told that, as of January 1, there is no more money," German said during Sound Ideas. "Theoretically there are hundreds of thousands of dollars we won't be getting. This hurts because it means federal matching dollars won't be available either," she added.
One position has already been eliminated, German said, and other cuts are on the way.


text:
Oshiomhole rode to power on the wings of great expectations following the exit of his predecessor, John Odigie-Oyegun, who was literally hounded out of office. Having secured the endorsement of the President and a former Lagos State governor, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, Oshiomhole’s emergence as party chairman was a done deal.
At his formal declaration in Abuja, Oshiomhole pledged to make the APC the envy of other parties in Africa, saying he would always ensure a win-win solution “rather than a loser and a winner.” He added, “If I am privileged to become the chairman, I would help the executive and the legislature to find common ground to win together. Let me say that I think with all sense of modesty that I am well prepared for this kind of role.”
He added that as a former President of the Nigeria Labour Congress, he had the skills to negotiate, persuade and “make consensus.”
Oshiomhole’s fight to stamp his authority on the party started quite early. From his well publicised face-off with the Minister of Labour and Employment, Chris Ngige, whom he threatened to sack from the party for not constituting the board of the Nigeria Social Insurance Trust Fund to the threat to sanction the Minister of State for Aviation, Hadi Sirika, for a similar offence.
He said, “If the President condones disrespect for his office, I will not condone disrespect for the party. And when we expel the minister, we will prevail on the President that he can’t keep him in his cabinet; people who have neither respect for his own decisions nor have respect for the party without which they would not have been ministers. No minister is above the party and they have taken undue advantage of the President’s fatherly dispositions.”
The rippling effect of what was considered as his intemperate outbursts had yet to abate when he launched a verbal offensive against Governor Samuel Ortom of Benue State for defecting to the Peoples Democratic Party. Describing him as a failure, the APC Chairman said he was relieved that the governor left. Ironically, Oshiomhole had persuaded Ortom not to leave the party about a week earlier.
“I am relieved as national chairman, and I believe that the leadership of the party in Benue is also relieved that Ortom has left the party and returned to the club he belongs, a club whose philosophy is to share the money and not develop communities,” he said.
Like a warrior without an armour of discretion, the APC boss yet again got involved in a fresh political tango with the Senate President, Senator Bukola Saraki, who had defected to the PDP. He issued torrents of threats against Saraki and admonished the APC lawmakers in the Senate to impeach the Senate President.
In reaction, Saraki said “the day two-thirds of our members no longer have confidence in us, we will leave this place.”
Oshiomhole, however, insisted that Saraki should immediately resign as Senate President or be impeached. “The only way Saraki can avoid impeachment is for him to do what is honourable, which again leads to the issue of character,” he stated.
There were reports that the party chairman met secretly with the APC lawmakers where they perfected plans to impeach Saraki. The invasion of the National Assembly by operatives of the Department of State Services on August 7 was attributed to some Presidency officials in cahoots with Oshiomhole to pull the rug from under Saraki’s feet. The plot failed and the then Director-General of the DSS, Lawal Dauda, took the hammer for the failed conspiracy.
The loud accusations and protests that trailed the congresses which had resulted in litigations had put the chairman in a tight spot and provided the oil needed to roast him. Disenchanted party leaders and members in Bauchi, Zamfara, Rivers, Ogun, Imo and other states have either called for his removal or were working with other aggrieved colleagues to ease out the APC chairman from office.
Critics also cite the Lagos State governorship primary, which produced Jide Sanwo-Olu as winner after Clement Ebri, the Chairman of the National Working Committee electoral panel, had earlier said no election had been conducted and that the electoral materials were still with him. Less than 24 hours after, Ebri made a volte-face after he was told to accept the results by Oshiomhole, obviously in deference to Tinubu, who had kicked against the re-election of the incumbent Governor, Akinwunmi Ambode.
The recent news about his encounter with operatives of the Department of State Services has also raised the stakes. Allegations and counter allegations about financial impropriety with respect to the concluded party primaries led to the alleged intervention by the DSS.
Political analysts say that incident and other actions taken by the APC chairman are responsible for his woes which may hasten the downfall of the party in the 2019 general elections.
From great expectations, the chairman is currently facing strident calls on him to resign from office by several aggrieved party members.
A political analyst and author, Charles Onunaiju, said the APC crisis was simply about “safety of political investments and an indication of a bankrupt party system.”
He observed that the PDP faced the same kind of crisis when it was in power, describing it as a sickness that afflicted the ruling party in the country.
“What is at stake is not service to Nigerians but safety of political investments. Each time, it was always more toxic, the same thing happened in the PDP when it was the ruling party.
“Politicians have conditioned their minds that power is the only way to guarantee comfort, influence and wealth. It is not about ideology, or ideas or core value. What is happening is natural fallout of a bankrupt party system, a free-wheeling system that has no structure,” Onunaiju said.
A political watcher, Dare Atoye, observed that the APC leadership was involved in a supremacy fight with about four governors which might not augur well for the party in the 2019 polls.
“It is already late in the day to convene a meeting to assuage those who are aggrieved in the primaries. I think it’s going to take them a lot more to get out of the problem which has been compounded by litigation and I blame it on the President.
“If he had done the right thing, they wouldn’t have been in this mess. So, as it is, they are not likely to have Imo, Zamfara, Rivers, Ogun and other states. I think they have not managed party politics very well. If they are able to survive it (crisis), they would pay for it in terms of electoral fortune in 2019,” Atoye stated.
A social commentator and human rights activist, Mr Ebunoluwa-Olu Adegboruwa, advised Nigerians not to take sides with the warring chieftains of the APC, saying the issue tearing them apart had nothing to do with the common good of the masses.
Describing the ruling party as an amalgamation of strange bedfellows, the lawyer, however, said the disintegration of the party was too early.
He said the sharp disagreement between Oshiomhole and APC governors could have a negative effect on the chances of the President and other candidates of the party in the next general elections, which are a few months away.
Adegboruwa added, “I believe generally that the events going on presently in the hierarchy of the APC are just a signpost of things to come as we move closer to the 2019 elections. It is a political party of strange bedfellows. When you talk about (former members of) the CPC, ACN, APGA and ANPP, these are people with different understanding coming together to deceive themselves that they have a coalition. We know that sooner than later, things will soon tear apart and we have not seen anything yet.
“But I think the lesson of the crisis in the hierarchy of the APC is the inability of political parties in Nigeria to be driven by ideology. If there are ideologies targeted toward the common good, even if there are personal disagreements, they will not affect the common goal of the party. So, political parties in Nigeria have nothing to offer in terms of principles and ideologies and that is why we witness the reign of godfathers and the reign of tinny gods within political parties. This is not just within the APC but the PDP and other political parties.
“I think Nigerians should be careful to not join the fray in the seeming division within the APC. They don’t deserve our sympathy because the issues between them have nothing to do with the masses but their selfish interest. It is the self-interest of Governor Rochas Okorocha; it is the self-interest of Governor Ibikunle Amosun; it is the self-interest of Governor Rotimi Akeredolu and Comrade Adams Oshimhole. So, Nigerians should be careful not to be drawn to their battles.
An APC member in Ondo State, who spoke with a Correspondent on condition of anonymity, argued that the party was already falling apart due to the crisis in the party.
He added, “Look at what is happening in the party now … it has caused disintegration in the party. We may be punished severely for it if nothing is done to assuage the feelings of the aggrieved parties. We need to go into the 2019 poll as a united party. But with the way he is running the party now, it may be difficult.”
Although the spokesperson for the APC, Lanre Issa-Onilu, agreed that any crisis allowed to fester in a party could affect the chances of such party. He dismissed insinuations that the ruling party could lose the 2019 elections.
Speaking in an interview with The Punch, Issa-Onilu said, “Whatever disagreement that is not resolved before elections will have impact on the chances of the party but that doesn’t necessarily mean that the party is going to lose the elections. However, you don’t underrate any disagreement.
“As I have continued to say, we have a unique and robust way of resolving matters and we are doing that. We are doing that on a daily basis. Whatever grievances arise, we’ll continue to resolve them and address them. The matter is already simmering now and it won’t take long to see the end of the matter.”


A cool resource…from the EPA, of all places!
Long time Lean buddy Gary Stewart of just passed along to me a very nice Lean resource which is new to me.
The Environmental Protection Agency has published a free handbook, Lean and the Environment. No, it’s not about Al Gore’s new weight loss program. Rather, it is a very nicely prepared introduction to Lean with specific applications to identify and eliminate hazardous waste usage and discharge. It covers the basics of Lean, Value Stream Mapping, Kaizen Events, 5S and other useful topics. It is printable and, at 90 pages, has substance while being accessible.
It is encouraging to see a resource like this from the public sector. I hope you find it useful.


text:
Finola Graham // Will O’Kane // Sheila Vollmer // Jackie Askew // Judy O’Sullivan // Christine Porter // Seán Guinan
21st July – 1st September 2018
Opening reception: 7.30-9.30pm Friday 20th July
Seven artists self-curate this exhibition of new and existing work, including painting and sculpture, which will be opened by Úna McCarthy, Director/Curator of Limerick City Gallery, on Friday 20th July at 7.30pm
The idea for the exhibition, Teeth Stronger than Diamond, originated when two of the artists, Judy O’Sullivan and Christine Porter, thought of inviting other artists with similar work approaches to exhibit as a group. Some of the artists had already worked together in the past, or had long standing friendships, and were familiar with each other’s work.
The title for the show came about during a group conversation relating to how limpets leave a ‘home scar’ on rocks with their teeth, marking their place. This seemed an apt metaphor for their own personal obsessions within their work processes. In a related internet search they found the expression Teeth Stronger than Diamond.
“Teeth Stronger than Diamond, as an exhibition, asks questions about us as artists returning continually to our obsessions and the emotional experience that we have while working. These themes were spun out of conversations we had about our work processes, shared histories, and how we all intuitively arrive at what makes a work good, or strong, or successful.
We have also considered the autonomy of the work, and the audience’s connection with the work being outside of our control. The picture is painted, the sculpture is made, but how exposed, and vulnerable, and less than the inspired impulse that generated it, only the artist knows.”


Longtime Venice resident Jerry Leiber, whose 60-year partnership with Mike Stoller produced one rock and roll hit after another, died Monday of cardiopulmonary failure at the age of 78.
Leiber was born in Baltimore on April 25, 1933. He was a senior at Fairfax High School in 1950 and Stoller was a freshman at L.A. City College when the two met and hit it off with a love of music. They began writing together to amuse themselves but within three years they were turning out R&B hits for the Drifters, the Coasters, and others.
Leiber wrote the lyrics and Stoller the melodies for dozens of songs, including their first number one hit, “Hound Dog” performed by Elvis Presley, but originally written for Big Mamma Thorton.
It was Presley who brought Leiber and Stoller to a much wider audience, as seen here in a memorable performance on the Milton Berle Show in 1956. Leiber and Stoller were seminal figures in the birth of the then-new genre of rock and roll.
Their songs include "Kansas City," "Yakety Yak," "Smokey Joe’s Café," “Poison Ivy,” “Jailhouse Rock,” “Love Potion No. 9,” and “Is that All there Is?”
Collaborating with others bore fruit as well. The duo wrote “Stand By Me,” with Ben E. King, “There Goes my Baby,” with King and George Treadwell, “On Broadway” with Barry Mann and Cynthia Weil, and “Spanish Harlem” with Phil Spector.
A revue of the songs of Leiber and Stoller, “Smoky Joe’s Café” opened in 1995 and ran for 2,036 performances. It won five Tony Awards including best musical, and the soundtrack won a Grammy Award.
Leiber and Stoller are in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and the Songwriter’s Hall of Fame, and they have a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
Lieber lived for years on Ocean Front Walk. His creative presence will be missed.


text:
About the Author
Cameron Taylor and Alistair Murray have designed and developed the King Macbeth project www.kingmacbeth.com based on the real history of Macbeth, King of Alba, storytelling across landscapes and media. Cameron Taylor followed his history degree with a career in the Civil Service before returning to his native Orkney to become CEO of Orkney Tourist Board. His first book, Rooted in Scotland, was published by Luath Press in 2007. He now lives in Moray where Macbeth's ghost still haunts the landscape. Alistair Murray established Atlantic Marketing in 2004 after a varied career spanning three continents and ranging from oil exploration to running manufacturing and media companies. He pursues a number of interests in the creative industries and undertakes strategic consultancy from his Caithness base, in the far north of Scotland, where surging Atlantic tides wash the jagged edge of Europe.


text:
- Weight: 3.5 kg
- Power: 600
- Loot bonus +25%
- Durability : 1000 uses
- +10 melee weapons skill /use in battle
- 1x Steel axe
- Forging skill +10
- Can be used to chop Firewood (~8-23 / use) if there is Firewood in the location. (average total firewood for full durability ? 8000-23000? 15000?)
- Always carry 1 Steel axe to keep the loot bonus high.
- It is the melee weapon with the highest damage, though I do not recommend fighting with it if you have a stronger ranged weapon.


text:
There is more to Goa
than seashells and port wine. Bargain hunters can have a gala time shopping in Goa for it is home to some of the most famous street markets, night markets and flea markets in Asia. While almost every beach in Goa is lined with stuff for shopaholics, here is the best of local markets in Goa. Skip the souvenir shops and boutiques, and try out these five markets for a quintessentially Goan shopping experience. These shopping places in Goa are for those who know how to bag a great deal. Bargain hard, and you will have bags full of souvenirs to take home. Chapora fish market is the ideal place for a seafood lover. For fresh seafood ingredients, you must head to this place along the Chapora river. Local fishermen come with their daily catch to this market and you can get the best of kingfish, crabs, mussels, prawns, pomfret and lobsters. Located on Arpora Hill, between Baga and Anjuna beach, Saturday Night Market is famous for its casual atmosphere which is an extension of Goa’s evergreen image. This place is the perfect destination if you are looking for some funky jewellery, clothes, bags and other accessories. The market is also home to many bars and restaurants and you can spend your time here amid good food and live music. The Wednesday Flea Market of Anjuna is also a perfect Goan market example. A renowned daytime market, this place is a mix of Kashmiri, Gujarati and Tibetan shops, selling clothes, accessories and some of Goa’s ethnic art work.

domain: travel