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March 18, 2011

At last count only 2,500 people had submitted written comments to the DRBC, still short of the many thousands we need to really count as an uprising against these premature, inadequate fracking regulations going into effect.  Unless we generate a tremendous response to recent revelations about radioactive toxic waste — and other dangers — from gas drilling, the DRBC would lift the moratorium after the Public Comment period ends April 15th, so we absolutely need you to comment now.  You may comment more than once, and your voice does make a difference.

If you haven’t commented yet, now is your time.  Check out our sample letter to the DRBC (which you can also print out and mail in to to make doubly sure the DRBC hears your voice) as well as the new facts revealed in the recent New York Times articles.  Feel free to cut and paste from either the sample letter or the new facts listed below and use it all as inspiration for your comments.

If you are part of the Delaware River watershed, whether you live in New York, Pennsylvania, New Jersey or Delaware, now is your moment to fight for your watershed by submitting a formal comment to the DRBC. It takes a few minutes and can help protect our own and future generations from irreversible damage created by unconventional gas drilling.

Here’s how to submit your electronic comments:

Please click here to go to the PEPC web page to comment on this proposed regulation.

Once on the NPS web site, click on the ‘Open For Comment’ link to the left hand side and select the document ‘Natural Gas Development Regulations – DRAFT’.  Review the draft and click on the comment button above the draft.

Protecting Our Waters Sample Comment Letter to the DRBC:

Delaware River Basin Commission Letter March 4, 2011

Drop-off points for paper letters you get signed: three addresses in Philadelphia!

West Philadelphia: 4808 Windsor Avenue, 19143

South Philadelphia:  805 E. Passyunk Avenue, 19147

Northwest Philadelphia: 427 West Sedgwick Street, 19119 Apartment A (drop into mailbox)

Some important facts surrounding the issue of fracking:

Here’s why this is important:  Your water is not protected, because over 1000 instances of poisoned water have been reported from shale gas drilling so far.  There has been no cumulative impacts study for the Delaware River watershed.  The Halliburton Loophole exempts gas drillers from key provisions of the Safe Drinking Water Act, Clean Water Act, Clean Air Act, Superfund Law and waste treatment laws; this is completely unacceptable.  And, greenhouse gas emissions — the vast amount of methane, carbon dioxide, and VOCs pouring into the air from shale gas drilling — are 100% unregulated which guarantees both intense air pollution and escalating climate change.

Don't allow fracking fluids to pollute your water! Comment now to the DRBC. It's easy and you can comment multiple times.

We already know drillers have injected 32 billion gallons of diesel underground, and that benzene is showing up in people’s drinking water in gas drilling areas in state after state.  We already knew about 596 contaminants in fracking fluid.  But the New York Times series added yet more disturbing data:

* 1.3 billion gallons of toxic, often radioactive gas drilling waste has already been discharged to Pennsylvania waters in the past 3 years without measuring radioactivity in downstream drinking water at all.

* In Texas, a hospital system in six counties with heavy drilling found a 25% asthma rate in children in 2010, triple the state’s average rate.

* Pennsylvania allows gas drilling waste, toxic and radioactive though it be, to be used as brine to tamp down roads; brine to de-ice roads; and to be sold in solid form as road salt — which goes straight into our aquifers and drinking water.

* The Marcellus Shale Coalition (industry PR and lobbying group) successfully deterred PA officials last year from requiring drillers to track the waste they produce from gas well to end destination.  Thus, there is no way to know whether the waste ever reaches treatment facilities.  And most of the facilities accepting gas drilling waste are not equipped to remove radioactive contaminants and other toxins.

* It has bee revealed that there has been heated debate inside EPA; some EPA lawyers actually want to intervene to stop illegal gas drilling pollution.

*  EPA recommendations — such as a moratorium on drilling in New York City’s watershed — have been removed by political pressure.

* Exemptions for gas drillers actually are being better understood: for example, coal mine operators who want to inject toxic chemicals underground must apply to federal authorities for permission, but gas drillers have blanket permission to inject toxics underground.  Also, steel plants’ air pollution is aggregated, but gas drilling facilities’ air pollution sneaks below thresholds because it is not aggregated.

First in series: Regulation Lax as Gas Wells’ Tainted Water Hits Rivers

Second in series: Gas Drillers Recycle Wastewater, but Risks Remain

Third in series: Pressure Limits Efforts to Police Drilling for Gas

Please insist that there must be a complete moratorium on gas drilling in the Delaware River watershed (complete! that means no water withdrawals, no test wells, no unconventional gas drilling, no toxic waste transport, treatment and dumping) until cumulative impacts for this watershed are studied; until the Halliburton Loophole is completely closed; and until greenhouse gas emissions from shale gas drilling operations are fully regulated by the EPA.

Whatever you do, don’t be intimidated — make your voice heard!
  1. abe permalink*
    February 7, 2011 1:26 pm

    Left a comment telling them to slow down yesterday. Yay!

  2. March 10, 2011 1:20 pm

    Stop this! It is inhumane!, Insane! Unconstitutional!
    Ban all fracking, WE BEG YOU! Look , think of the decades of catastrophic, irreversible environmental oil/gas events ! WHAT are you thinking?!?!?!?!

  1. Frack Radio: Episode Four “Mythbuster Ingraffea and Philadelphia Courage” « Protecting Our Waters
  2. Frack Radio Episode 5 ACTION ALERT CALENDAR « Protecting Our Waters
  3. Reminder to submit your comment before DRBC Public Comment period ends April 15 « Protecting Our Waters

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Tuesday, May 10, 2016

Well, you have heard me say for a while that I am working on new music, well here it is..... The Gaze LP! This has been a real experience and joy working on this project. I would say that i had the chance to collaborate with a lot of friends on this project. Artist like B.I.C., Sheim Francis, 2Edge, Tiffany Renee, Jeanny Alexandre. I also got to work with some really cool producers: Mac The Doulos, Juice 20/20, Kid Classic and even G-Styles.

I wanted to do a project with the purpose of encouraging you and myself to keep our eyes, our gaze on Christ and the work of the Cross. This was a long journey but I think it was a good one that produced both growth and maturity in me. My hope is that my friends and my fans are still out there and are still souljourning with me.
You can buy The Gaze on my website www.proverbnewsome.com

I am now booking dates for the Summer. See ya soon!

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Pruett's Blog: The Undertaker's Streak Series Part One - The Streak's Humble Beginings - WrestleMania VII - WrestleMania XI

Posted in: Pruett's Blog, MUST-READ LISTING
Mar 3, 2012 - 04:10 PM

By Will Pruett

Saturday, March 3, 2012 – 4:10 P.M. (CT)

I wanted it to end. More than anything at that moment, I wanted it to end. I sat in my seat in the upper deck at University of Phoenix Stadium in Glendale, Arizona and screamed. For a moment I remembered what it was to be an unspoiled wrestling fan. Instead of remarking on and evaluating the artwork in front of me, I participated. As I stood and watched the career of my favorite wrestler of all time come to an end, I had to applaud the man who accomplished it. This is how I remember WrestleMania XXVI and the epic encounter between Shawn Michaels and The Undertaker. This is the first thought in my mind when I think of The Streak.

How did we get to this? For two years I have pondered that. Now, I am searching for it. It is so easy to just call matches a part of "The Streak" but not to see them as they are. We see clips and moments. We see pivotal turning points in matches and memorable shots of outfits and entrances. We rarely look at the full picture.

With this series, I want to see the full picture. I have never gone back to watch all of the matches in The Streak. I've poured over some, but I've ignored others. I want to track the momentum, the moments and the magic that The Streak gained as it went from a random collection of matches to the most important prize in wrestling today.

WrestleMania VII - Undertaker vs. "Superfly" Jimmy Snuka:

This match took place just four months after Undertaker's debut at Survivor Series 1990 and he was still operating under the original rules of the character: invincibility with a whole lot of no-selling and zombie-walking. Jimmy Snuka was in his awkward goatee phase but had yet to turn heel. That man should not have rocked facial hair.

This match was an extended squash match. At five minutes long, it was hard to resist the urge to get up and grab a beverage from the refrigerator. Undertaker comes to the ring in all of his grey-gloved glory with Paul Bearer and the mysterious urn accompanying him.

Snuka's job in this match was to make Undertaker look like a monster in what would be a meaningless squash match. He did just that. Imagine if this had been another wrestler in this situation. Would we accept "Pretty" Paul Roma, The Warlord or Dino Bravo as a part of what has become one of the greatest achievements in wrestling history? That easily could have happened. Instead we have a name that looks impressive, but a star that was in the twilight of his career.

This is more of a number than a match one can emotionally connect with. Odd as it may seem today, if this match had been left off of the show no one would have cared.

WrestleMania VIII - Undertaker vs. Jake "The Snake" Roberts:

Now this is an opponent in their prime up against Undertaker. In fact, Roberts was coming off of the most important and best feud of his career with "Macho Man" Randy Savage. This match occurring on this show was caused by the trickle-down effect of the scheduled Hulk Hogan vs. Ric Flair main event for this show being canceled.

Since March 1991 things changed quite a bit for The Undertaker. He was still dead and fairly invincible, but he was also a former WWE Champion. The urn was still mysterious and his in-ring work was still lacking.

This feud started with Undertaker not allowing Jake Roberts to hit Elizabeth with a chair. This babyface turn would stick with him well into 1999; when everyone would lose the base of their character and play shades of gray.

The Undertaker mentions that today will be "Black Sunday" for Roberts in his pre-match promo. This is a less gravely and slower paced delivery from him than we are used to today. The deep voice still felt put on.

When the gong hits, the crowd erupts, showing just how over you can get not allowing a woman to get hit with a chair. It is daytime for his entrance so we don't see a normal Undertaker entrance. The match is slow moving. Undertaker still has not found his working boots. In fact, I'd say he would not find working boots until he found purple boots. If 'Taker's in gray, you best stay away.

The final moments of this short match do get mildly exciting. Undertaker falls victim to Jake's lethal DDT not once, but twice. He does his classic sit up each time. Jake then decides that Undertaker's strength must be coming from the urn (the only logical choice) and chases Paul Bearer. This leads to Jake suffering a Tombstone on the outside of the ring, being rolled inside and pinned.

More interesting here is what could have happened to The Streak in its second year. If WrestleMania had not been politically reshuffled due to Flair and Hogan, who knows what Undertaker would have been doing? Would he have still been a babyface? If he was not, would he still go over on the happy ending pay-per-view? These are questions only a lost notebook that belongs to Vince McMahon and is probably buried in a graveyard of Muscle Milk bottles and Rockstar cans can answer.

WrestleMania IX - Undertaker vs. Giant Gonzalez:

From my original inspiration to write this blog series, this was one of the matches I realized I had never seen. It was also the one I wanted to see the least. I remember an old WrestleMania highlight VHS tape I owned had highlights of this and those were more than enough, even for 11 year old Will.

Now modern day Will was tasked with watching this one. There was a lot of good surrounding this match. Las Vegas looked majestic for WrestleMania. The unique atmosphere was one of the only worthwhile things about this show, but being a nerd for production values, that was all I needed.

This is a notable WrestleMania for Undertaker for a number of reasons. The first is that this is the first real, true Undertaker-style entrance at WrestleMania. There may not have been Druids and fire, but we saw greenish-black smoke, a chariot and a vulture. This more than made up for a lack of darkness and is still one of the coolest entrances that Undertaker would get.

This is also the first match in The Streak called by Jim Ross, who was debuting with WWE that night. Ross still sounded like a WCW-style announcer and had not found his sports-entertainment groove. This is the first appearance of the man who would call the most important matches in The Streak.

Giant Gonzalez, who debuted in WCW as El Gigante in 1990 was originally a basketball player signed to the Atlanta Hawks. Unfortunately he could not play basketball in the NBA (at least not well) and Ted Turner made the call to transfer him to WCW. He moved from WCW to WWE in 1993 and found his true calling: wearing airbrushed muscly bodysuits with strategic hair placement. He launched straight into a feud with Undertaker under the guidance of all time horrible manager Harvey Wippleman (seriously, why did this guy have a job?). His entrance at this show was far less impressive than Undertaker's.

It is interesting to see what happens with Undertaker's in-ring style in this match. He is still the no-selling Deadman, but he is now the no-selling outsized underdog babyface Deadman. This got complicated quickly. This is the story for the first part of the match. Undertaker takes punishment, then no sells it, then takes more. Well, that was part of the story. The rest was a never-ending chinlock that would make Randy Orton circa 2005 blush.

All of the chinlocking and no selling lead to the one thing that can take a horrible match and make it comedic gold: chloroform. Giant Gonzales was given a rag by his manager, and shoved it in Undertaker's face for a long period of time. The announcers sold the smell like there was a rapidly decaying body at ringside and Undertaker slowly passed out. Of course with the smell and the fading Deadman, the referee put two and two together and called for the bell.

This was the only match in The Streak that ended in a disqualification. This was also the first time that Undertaker left the ring on a stretcher (I'll count the WrestleMania XXVII cart as stretcher-esque). Of course, he was (and still is) undead, so as the stretcher reached the backstage area the gong hit and Undertaker came roaring back. He clotheslined Gonzales and was forced to the back by security.

The fluky disqualification win could have easily been a fluky pin-fall loss following chloroform and referee ignorance. The match and post-match angle would have been the exact same, but there would have been a WrestleMania loss on Undertaker's record. We could be talking about Giant Gonzales' WrestleMania streak today.

WrestleMania XI - Undertaker vs. King Kong Bundy:

This is another match that I have managed to avoid until this project. Can you really blame me? My general rule when it comes to WWE in 1995 is not to watch matches that don't involve a football player or a ladder. I knew going in that this project would be a challenge.

This match was a part of the larger story that dominated WWE at this moment: Ted DiBiase's heel faction The Million Dollar Corporation and their feud with the top babyfaces. While they were the heel component of the main event scene, their place in history is marred by the down period WWE was in.

The Undertaker had an interesting couple of years between WrestleMania appearances. He feuded with Yokozuna in 1994, proving himself to be the most patriotic zombie in wrestling history. He was thrown into a casket by Yokozuna and about 100 others then was not seen from January to August. This created the first gap in The Streak, as Undertaker didn't appear at WrestleMania X. When he was seen again, it was for the all-time classic Undertaker vs. Undertaker match. By "all-time classic," I mean horrible horrible match.

King Kong Bundy was returning to the WWE ring after a six year absence. After main-eventing WrestleMania 2 and crushing midgets at WrestleMania III he dropped out of the mainstream eye. This was until he showed up as a part of the Million Dollar Corporation.

Going into this match, Undertaker's urn had been snatched by DiBiase and there was a question of whether his strength would still exist.

When it came time for Undertaker's entrance, we saw something resembling what we see from him now. The lights went out, the gong hit and Vince McMahon proclaimed that it was "thundering and lightning-ing." Undertaker appeared in purple for the first time at WrestleMania (the purple look debuted at SummerSlam 1994). This entrance also features the first mention of The Streak. While it is not referred to reverently, Vince McMahon does mention Undertaker's lack of defeat at WrestleMania.

The referee for this match was a baseball umpire who was out of work because of a labor dispute. This would be the only special referee that would grace an Undertaker match at WrestleMania (at this point, at least).

The true entertainment of this match occurs outside the ring when Paul Bearer and Undertaker reclaimed the urn from Ted DiBaise. This would not last long as "The Supreme Fighting Machine" Kama would come down, hit Paul Bearer, steal the urn and run to the back. Jim Ross confronted him about why he would steal the urn and Kama revealed his plot to melt it down into a necklace. I do believe that this affinity for gold chains would cause him to turn into "The Godfather" about three years later.

As the finish approached, Undertaker looked like he was attempting to get Bundy up for a Tombstone, but opted for a slam instead. This was followed by a clothesline and a pin for Undertaker. Undertaker celebrated his victory by dimming the lights and ominously posing for the first time at WrestleMania.

The urn business saved this match from being a true throwaway, but Undertaker was in a down period and it showed here. Bundy was the opponent of the hour. He looks impressive as a former WrestleMania main-eventer that joined The Streak, but the full picture reveals that this match is far less than than what that entails.

The Verdict at 4-0:

So what did I actually learn from watching this set of matches? The most ordinary of matches can become extraordinary in the lens of history. They are the humble beginnings that the most coveted prize in wrestling today stemmed from. They also showed just how deficient Undertaker was as a worker in this time. He was saddled with some poor opponents (only Roberts could be considered in his prime or a great worker), but Undertaker's own work does not hold up.

These four names are major ones on the list of victims Undertaker and his opponents have run through for years, but the actual matches lack the notoriety The Streak would eventually gain.

Of course, every story must start somewhere...

Special thanks to Dot Net Staffer Ryan Kester for his awesome editing skills and assistance as I went through drafts of this blog.

This is part one of five of The Undertaker's Streak Series. New parts will be posted up until March 31, the day before WrestleMania.

Let's do some good old fashioned talking about this blog and Undertaker's Streak! Feel free to email me at or to follow me on twitter at

© Copyright 2012 by PROWRESTLING.NET


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Novicorp WinToFlash Professional 1.6.0001 + Portable

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Novicorp WinToFlash Professional 1.6.0001 + Portable Installing Windows from a flash drive! An application that allows you to completely transfer the setup Windows XP, Windows 2003, Windows Vista, Windows 2008, Windows 7, Windows 8 on the USB drive in a few mouse clicks. This means that you can install Windows from a flash card, HDD or other storage device to your computer or netbook. And itâ™s not all she can do. WinToFlash can transfer your live CD / DVD onto the USB drive, for example, BartPE. After all the technological manipulation, you can completely clear the flash card and format it in Windows for everyday use.

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Mr. Blunkett: I thank my hon. Friend for his question. I have already said this afternoon that we will uprate the amounts as per the income support changes. Children will, of course, receive 100 per cent. of income support levels. We have no current plans to change the 70 per cent. level, although I have changed the ratio to £14 cash instead of the £10 currently paid. I appreciate the concerns that have been raised about the 70 per cent. ratio and that is why the accommodation centres will be so crucial. They will, of course, offer the full board, lodging and support system, plus the pocket money that will enable people to live comfortably.

Mr. Andrew Lansley (South Cambridgeshire): The Home Secretary will know from the debate in Westminster Hall last week that I welcome the introduction of reception centres more generally for those applying for asylum. Does he intend that those accommodation centres, as he now terms them, will be established using the powers under the Immigration Act 1971 and the Immigration and Asylum Act 1999—which allow the Secretary of State to do so by order—for those granted temporary admission? Does he intend that the Oakington centre in my constituency should remain a place of detention legally or will it, too, be a reception centre using those powers instead of remaining a place of detention with all the difficulties of legal challenges that might ensue?

Mr. Blunkett: On the latter point, leave was granted to appeal to the House of Lords—as the hon. Gentleman will know, being so close to the situation. It is not my intention to address that issue this afternoon, except that I did say that we intended to continue to use Oakington for those entering the country for whom detention and fast-tracking is appropriate. On the other point, both the 1971 and 1999 Acts facilitate the setting up of accommodation centres. Should any legal challenge arise

29 Oct 2001 : Column 636

on the obligation to take up such a place if offered or the denial of financial support to an individual or family, we will legislate in the Bill that I announced in my statement.

Mr. Neil Gerrard (Walthamstow): As one of the few hon. Members who argued against the introduction of the voucher system, I welcome my right hon. Friend's announcement that it will be scrapped and that we will return to a cash-based system delivered through the smart cards. In relation to his proposals on reception centres, which will take some time to phase in—they will need to be built and that will not happen overnight—what will be the implications for the continuation of the National Asylum Support Service?

If NASS is to continue supporting significant numbers of people for some time, as seems likely, what can be done to improve its efficiency while it continues? In addition, what can be done to deal with the many people who are still being looked after by local authorities?

Mr. Blunkett: I appreciate the thrust of my hon. Friend's question. Multiple systems have operated for a long time and will continue to do so. That is inevitable, whatever system is introduced and whatever the speed of change. Therefore, it is crucial, as outlined in the dispersal and support review that we published today, to ensure that measures are taken on regional decentralisation, streamlining administration and co-ordination with local authorities and voluntary organisations. The system should be geared effectively towards ensuring that we take the service out; that is what we are doing in the appeals and support process in Scotland, rather than flying people from Scotland to London. Those measures, together with a toughening and tightening up with regard to private providers—whose service and accommodation, although often satisfactory, has in some instances been deeply unsatisfactory—will be the prime concern of the next 12 months.

Mr. Edward Garnier (Harborough): The Home Secretary said a moment ago that he wanted to reduce multiple opportunities for delay in the courts, streamline the appeals system and achieve a 50 per cent. increase in the system's capacity. To achieve those laudable aims, will he not need the co-operation and support of the judiciary and the legal profession, 99.9 per cent. of whose members are interested in the efficient and humane administration of justice and in faithfully applying the laws passed by this House and Parliament as a whole? Does he not think it unwise and counter-productive to spend too much time insulting and making offensive remarks about the very people whose co-operation he will need to achieve the new policy?

Mr. Blunkett: I am not going to enter into banter about one of our more powerful pressure groups. Last week, I quoted Professor Sir William Wade and recommended "Administrative Law" to which I referred. Of course we need the co-operation of the judiciary. They will co-operate with us because, like me, they are doing their best to ensure that the system works. However, the massive increase in the capacity of the adjudication system will be welcomed not only by asylum seekers but by those operating it. Speeding up the process, taking out

29 Oct 2001 : Column 637

opportunities for considerable delay, including judicial review, and allowing on a point of law a further appeal seem to us eminently reasonable.

Ms Diane Abbott (Hackney, North and Stoke Newington): The Home Secretary has made a detailed statement which will require detailed appraisal. Obviously, the whole House welcomes the review. I speak as someone who served on the Committee stage of the Immigration and Asylum Act 1999 and voted against it, largely because of the arrangements for vouchers and forced dispersal.

I have three questions for my right hon. Friend. First, are the proposed reporting centres intended to supersede or run alongside existing arrangements for some categories of immigrant and asylum seeker to report to the police? Secondly, I understand that smart cards are entitlement cards. Will supposed asylum seekers be stopped on the street and asked for their card? Finally, to repeat what was said earlier, removals look clean and simple on paper but in a diverse community such as mine in Hackney, the police are anxious to have a considered approach to the subject. They are well aware of the tensions and disorder that could arise from removals involving families with small children being dragged out of tower blocks.

Mr. Blunkett: On the latter point my hon. Friend is correct. That is why the protocol signed with the police in September is crucially about ensuring that the process is handled with great sensitivity. I entirely take that point.

The cards would not allow people to be stopped in the street; they are not about policing. On my hon. Friend's first question, we are trying to speed up the system and make it more humane, not to ensure that what we put in place will make life more difficult for people who are already struggling.

Mr. Kenneth Clarke (Rushcliffe): May I first congratulate the Home Secretary on the skill as well as the speed with which he has so far executed, on taking office, this necessary policy U-turn, and also on the way in which he carried out the necessary formalities of praising his predecessor, the present Foreign Secretary, which he did with taste but without excessive enthusiasm?

I return to the question put by the right hon. Member for Manchester, Gorton (Mr. Kaufman) about the large number of applications from people who have been resident in this country for many years, but who are probably illegally overstaying as visitors; who have probably acquired a partner, a residence and some kind of job; who apply for asylum when pressure is exerted on them; and who are usually granted not asylum but indefinite leave to remain. How will the Home Secretary's policy statement actually affect such cases? Presumably they will not be removed to accommodation centres to be processed. Does he propose that a higher proportion of such cases should in future be removed rather than given indefinite leave to remain, and how does he intend to achieve that?

Mr. Blunkett: The right hon. and learned Gentleman has not lost his touch, although I remind him that if, when he was Chancellor of the Exchequer, he had given some of the resources that my right hon. Friend the Chancellor gave my predecessor to invest in the system, it might have worked much better.

29 Oct 2001 : Column 638

I think that the right hon. and learned Gentleman refers to exceptional leave to remain, often granted when it is not safe to return someone to their country of origin. In those circumstances, we would obviously not place people in a detention removal centre. However, there is a real issue underlying this point: ensuring that our actions globally are intent on opening up those countries again so that people can be returned safely to them. That is why exceptional leave to remain rather than asylum status has historically been granted.

Kate Hoey (Vauxhall): Does the Home Secretary realise that many local authorities, such as mine, will welcome the radical changes that he proposed today, especially those for the accommodation units which will relieve the difficult housing situation in boroughs such as mine where it has been possible to transfer very few people? We welcome that. Will he give us more detail on how he will speed up the current huge backlog? Much of what he said refers to what will happen in future. How does he think that we can speed up the process practically for the thousands of people—hundreds in my constituency—who are awaiting decisions and have been told that they may have to wait for at least another year?

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Adoption and Children Bill

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Column Number: 674

Mr. Shaw :The hon. Gentleman is criticising the Bill for its bureaucratic processes, but I have never heard of a more bureaucratic process than the one proposed in the amendment.

Mr. Djanogly: The hon. Gentleman might think so, but he will have heard me say that the process is ''necessarily'' a bureaucratic one. It is not possible to describe the process of adoption, which is purely a creation of statute, as anything other than bureaucratic. We aim to make that bureaucracy work as well as possible. We want a system that caters for the needs of all parties and speeds up the process.

Mr. Hilton Dawson (Lancaster and Wyre): I acknowledge the hon. Gentleman's sincerity, but to describe adoption as a bureaucratic process is wrong. It is about understanding, sympathy, building relationships and working with people. My hon. Friend the Member for Sheffield, Heeley (Ms Munn) says it is an art; I think it is a craft. In any case, it is far beyond a bureaucratic process and we should not describe it as such.

Mr. Djanogly: I take the hon. Gentleman's point. I hope that having heard several of my contributions, he appreciates that I do not see the adoption process—from the point of view of the adoptive parents, the child or the natural parents—as a bureaucratic process. However, surely he recognises that the mechanics of adoption involve bureaucracy; that is all that I mean.

Tim Loughton: My hon. Friend has touched a raw nerve among the professionals on the Labour Benches. Of course, adoption is a bureaucratic process as it stands: were it not, we would not be considering a Bill to make it less bureaucratic. The fact that the average time for adoption has fallen from two years and 10 months to all of two years and nine months suggests to any right-minded person that the process is excessively bureaucratic and that we need to bring those times down. Notwithstanding all the sensitivities involved in dealing with individual cases, to which the hon. Member for Lancaster and Wyre (Mr. Dawson) refers, it is bureaucratic. The Bill aims to make it less so.

Mr. Djanogly: I thank my hon. Friend for that clarification and agree with him.

That being so, the adoption authorities should be aware that if they slow things down, if they do not allocate adequate resources to the process, or if they do not proceed as envisaged under the Bill, we will be able to call them to account. However, that should be done not in an annual report of the sort that notes that X authority takes on average 20 days longer than Y authority to complete some part of the process, because that would be meaningless to the people caught up in the system. It may be a bureaucratic process, but our aim in the amendment is more to achieve a better appreciation of the human aspects of the process, than to provide individuals a right to cut through the bureaucracy. The people caught up in the system should have an outlet through which to voice their concerns. That is the purpose of the amendments.

<<675>>12.15 pm

Proposed paragraph (h) deals with parental consent. We have debated the matter and I shall not go over old ground. I do not need to remind the Committee of the complexity of the issues, but I note that there should be a straightforward forum such as the panel that can review the circumstances surrounding consent if that is required.

Proposed paragraph (i) goes to the heart of the Bill because it would maintain the paramountcy of the interests of the child. The Committee will know that I have argued on several occasions that the Bill needs to give children the right to consent to their adoption. I acknowledge that that suggestion has been repeatedly beaten down by Labour Members, but that makes it more, not less important that the Bill provides specifically for children to have the right to take their concerns to the panel. They should have the chance to say that the process has not adequately considered their views. We have heard about people's right to seek judicial review, but that route is all but impossible for children to take given their age and financial standing. The most appropriate forum for them would be a relatively informal panel hearing.

Proposed paragraph (j) deals with the contents of and access to the two existing registers and the new register to be set up under the Bill. There will be circumstances in which one party or another feels that too much or too little information has been included or not included in the registers, or that the information is not accurate. Are regulations are being prepared to deal with such situations? The panel would be a good forum for such discussions, whereas dragging such cases through the courts would surely be inappropriate.

Proposed paragraph (k) deals with the process of intercountry adoptions. The issues surrounding such adoptions have been discussed by the Committee at some length, and I am sure that hon. Members agree that they are often complicated. We have heard that prospective adoptive parents sometimes feel that their case has been made overcomplicated by the relevant adoption agency, or that their applications have been put to the bottom of the pile for some reason. It is right that such people should have the right of access to the panel.

I have attempted to explain to the Committee that the amendment would give the various parties to adoption the right to seek redress through the relatively informal and cheap mechanism of the panels. It would be helpful if the Minister were to give the Committee some idea of the difference in cost between access to such a panel and access to judicial review. I assume that the difference is massive.

The amendment is designed to give people greater confidence in the system. People will be encouraged to adopt if they are able to have confidence in a process that characterised by transparency, because they will know that their concerns about any cases in which they feel that they have been dealt with unfairly will be listened to. That is why I commend the amendments.

Column Number: 676

Jacqui Smith: Opposition Members, despite complaining about the amount of time available for consideration of the clauses, have taken us on a considerable detour around a range of issues, some of which we have previously debated, some of which will be discussed in relation to later clauses, and some of which are only tangentially related to adoption and children and the principles of the Bill.

The argument enshrined in the amendments comes down to whether the Government are right in their intention to focus in the first instance on the two key issues of the ability of prospective adopters to get a review of a decision to turn them down, and the ability to have adoption agency decisions relating to access to information independently reviewed. I believe that the Government are right to focus their attentions on those issues.

Mr. Brazier: Is the Minister saying that that rules out appeals on individual matchings? She said that couples who have been turned down would be able to appeal, but I presume that by that that she means instances in which they have been turned down for a place on the register rather than for a particular matching with a child. Will she clarify that point?

Jacqui Smith: I am going to talk about matches. The hon. Gentleman misunderstands which determination would be reviewed. The review will not deal with the determination on whether a couple should be placed on the national adoption register, but with the approval of a couple as prospective adopters. That approval will be a prerequisite to a person's inclusion in the national register.

The argument is about whether the Government should focus on certain important issues—which, as hon. Members have rightly said, we need to tackle—relating to the independent review process, or whether we should widen significantly, and in some ways inappropriately, the extent to which the independent review mechanism is to be used.

In response to the hon. Member for Huntingdon, I would like to reiterate the view that in legal terms the matters to be reviewed do not need to come under the clause 9 regulations. Any determination made by an adoption agency could in theory—should the consultation suggest that it is appropriate—be eligible for review under the independent review mechanism. The question we need to ask is whether that is appropriate and whether it will deliver the objectives that we have set for the independent review mechanism. It is right to focus our action on certain areas.

The hon. Member for Canterbury made a range of points relating to some of the paragraphs in the amendment. Proposed paragraph (f) deals with

    ''the suitability of a child for adoption with particular prospective adoptive parents''.

I am sympathetic to the cases he raised, but the independent review mechanism is not the appropriate place to consider that issue. In the national adoption standards, we have already stated that children who need adoption should not be left waiting indefinitely

Column Number: 677

for a perfect family, and we discussed at length in relation to clause 1(3) the need to ensure that there is no delay in the process.

The hon. Gentleman asked about foster parents deprived of the ability to adopt. If a foster parent applied to be approved as an adopter for the child that he had fostered and was turned down, he could use the process that we are setting up to have the decision reviewed.

Mr. Brazier: The Minister has moved on from the point about couples turned down for a specific matching when no one else is available. She says that there are guidelines, which I accept, but the central point is that there is no other recourse for such a couple. If, as in the case of Natasha, they see a two and a half-year-old baby for whom there is still no adopter in sight, where else but in the appeal mechanism could they find new recourse? No one could argue that the mechanism is to address delay, as the delay is all in the care system.

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Study of cores of upper Carboniferous orthoquartzites and subgraywackes from a deep boring at Smeekley, north Derbyshire, England, shows that the principal cementing materials are abundant authigenic quartz, indicating predominantly acid waters at the site of deposition, and subordinate calcite indicating local development of alkaline conditions, perhaps induced by decomposition of plant material. The data suggest that the deltaic depositional environment postulated for the Millstone Grit in northern England also obtained in north Derbyshire.

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Access DeniedTwo words. That’s all. The phrase they make up is small. Tiny, even.  The impact it has – on my personal inspiration and on productivity – is enormous.

I’m talking about the phrase: Access Denied.

In my old life (working at an ad agency) I could look at anything. And I mean anything. Even rude things clearly marked NSFW – although I suspect that anything more than the briefest view of certain content would have been met with a brusque call from someone in IT. I can’t say for sure.

Now, I see two words and a brief explanation. The two words that will haunt every click I make from this day forth: Access Denied.

Almost everything I used to look at is now unavailable. This has its positives and its negatives. Let’s deal with the latter first.

The easiest way to get around the access issue is to use my iPhone. The downside to doing this is I’m using up my meagre allowance of 1GB of data that O2 lets me use each month. And I’m doing it at speed, having already burned through a fifth of it in three days. This is, however, having a positive effect, more of which later.

I also run my battery down a lot. It’s okay, I am allowed to plug in my charger.

I can’t access links that I think would help me in my job. This isn’t about social networks – I can, funnily enough, access them – it’s about URL shorteners. They are the bane of my life now as they all bring up the dreaded phrase, even if the link behind them is useful to me.

I’m not being as creative as before. This is a moot point, though. My new job is less about massive campaign ideas and big thinking and more about delivering a solid message in either a tactical execution through a number of channels, or a slightly smaller idea related to a big brand thought. If that makes sense.

There are a few positives I’ve noticed from my decreased usage of the Internet. In no particular order:

I’m writing more. A lot more. Not necessarily for this blog or for work, but for personal pleasure. I have definitely managed to blog more – I have more time to think and consider things, after all; I’ve also written a couple of short stories that I felt awake enough to finish. There will surely be more.

I’m also reading more. I mean, I always read a lot anyway, but now I’m getting through books and magazines quicker than before. Devouring them. All this despite having a short commute on a packed train. It’s because I’m using my time effectively instead of wasting it online. There’s a positive side to one of the negative points.

I’ve got out of the office much more. Even with the terrible weather it’s worth getting out of the office to see the sites that the City of London has to offer. St Paul’s Cathedral is up the road, for example. Tower Bridge a short ride on my push-along scooter. I intend to do more walking/scooting around the area as the weather improves. Not to mention use my leaving gift of a Tate subscription to get to see more art – the Tate Modern is one bridge up from my new location.

I’m sleeping better. Probably not because of being denied access to things, but it’s something I’ve noticed since I stopped looking at a screen as much as I used to. Actually, considering my commute is a quarter what it used to be and I’m not using a computer as much as I used to, I’m actually more tired. Perhaps I’m playing catch up?

So, that’s it. The positives and negatives of two words. They drive me mad, but they are also having positive effects on me in the short-term. Let’s see what happens in a month or two.

Watch this space, as the old adage goes.


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text: paginate Divides large result sets into pages for easier browsing This module helps divide up large result sets into pages or chunks. The user gets displayed one page at a time and can navigate to other pages. It is especially useful when developing web interfaces and showing the users only a selection of information at a time. Christoph Haas 056df3b70361ccbc4eab9a6c64c9777eeef739a2 0.4.1


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License Information

Aug 17, 2011 at 11:27 PM

Can this be used in PAID products, or it needs to be used in FREE ones only?

Are there any limitations/restrictions laid out by the license?

Aug 18, 2011 at 5:01 PM

First and foremost, I advise you seek a professional assessment of the license, as I cannot provide that. Setting that aside, the Common Development and Distribution License (CDDL) is the most compatible for all developer's needs. Depending on your needs, I am happy to provide licensing or written agreements allowing the use of this software in your applications, open source or proprietary, paid or free, by teams of any size (1+); however, the CDDL I selected should already allow this. If there are specifics in the license you (or your company) object to, I am open to negotiating details and providing a custom license. If you have company policies that prohibit the use of free software, I am open to providing a paid license. This should enable you use the software however you see fit, and I will never pursue any legal action against users, developers, or distributors; however, I will never allow the use of this software if I am to be held legally liable for the failure of the software.


text:
Interview with HP Mallory & Giveaway!

I’ve mentioned H.P. Mallory a couple times already — but for those not in the know, she’s an indie urban fantasy & paranormal romance author who has authored two novels, Fire Burn and Cauldron Bubble (review) and To Kill A Warlock (review).

Today she joins QAZ for a quick interview, and two of you lucky readers have a chance to win a copy of her books!

A little about yourself, first: give us three crucial facts about yourself.

HPM: I have a horrible sweet tooth and pie is my favorite thing on the planet.
I love anything to do with the paranormal.
The best thing in the world is being a mom to my 17 month old son.

Why did you choose the independent publishing route, and how have you found the experience so far?

HPM: Well, I started off with a big NY agent and when that went nowhere, I decided to take my career into my own hands. I first self published on amazon in July of 2010 and hoped to sell a few hundred copies of both my books and I’ve been astounded by the response to them. It was the best decision I could have made and I haven’t looked back since. I love the fact that the reader can decide how good my books are rather than some agent or publisher…

You write two series, one following crime-buster Dulcie O’Neil and the other following powerful witch Jolie Wilkins. How do the two characters compare?

HPM: Dulcie and Jolie are really quite different but where they are similar is that they aren’t perfect. It was really important to me to create heroines who aren’t cookie cutter ideal–that is, each has her own faults. For Jolie, she has to overcome self confidence issues and for Dulcie, she has to get over ex boyfriend issues. The only other similarities between the two are their comedic outlooks on life. It was really important to me to instill in each book a sense of comedy to help balance the paranormal and sometimes dark aspects of each.

Fill in the blank: readers who hate ________ will love my books — and explain your choice.

HPM: Science…LOL because my books are not based in science at all. I don’t really explain how Jolie or Dulcie’s magic works…it just does. LOL

Out of all the sexy men in your books, who is your favourite and why?

HPM: Oh, man. This one is a hard one and it’s getting harder as I write the follow up to Fire Burn, which incorporates the vampire Sinjin extensively. While I’m a definite lover of Rand, the warlock from Fire Burn, Sinjin and Knight from Warlock are close seconds.

If you were not an author, what would you be?

HPM: Well, in my full time job, I’m on online marketer so I guess…an online marketer! LOL

Finally, and most importantly, boxers or briefs?

HPM: Boxers definitely! LOL

I have two ebooks up for grabs — one copy of Fire Burn and one of To Kill A Warlock.

To enter the giveaway, leave a comment by Monday October 25th detailing which book you would like to win and why! HP will pick the winners.

About A.M. Harte

A.M. Harte writes twisted speculative fiction, such as the post-apocalyptic Above Ground and the zombie love anthology Hungry For You. She is excellent at missing deadlines, has long forgotten what ‘free time’ means, and is utterly addicted to chocolate.
This entry was posted in Author Interviews, Giveaway and tagged . Bookmark the permalink.

7 Responses to Interview with HP Mallory & Giveaway!

  1. Jan Oda says:

    Yay! Giveaway!
    I can totally relate to the pie sentiment of HP. Though maybe I’d give my first spot to coffee…
    I pick To kill a Warlock because I adore that cover, but also because that story seems more up to my alley.

    Question for HP, why did she pick this kind of covers for her books?

  2. Bailey says:

    I would love to read “To Kill a Warlock” because Dulcie looks like a wonderfully fun character to read about right now, since I’m dealing with some ex issues of my own. I need a little magic in my life!

  3. Don’t enter me, as I already own both books. I’m having a hard time between Sinjin and Rand too! I’ve read a little of book two (of Fire Burn) and if you loved the first book, you’ll love the second even more.

  4. HP Mallory says:

    Hi Guys! Thanks for the comments and Lori, thanks for the shout out!
    Jan, to answer your question, I wanted to find covers that were different to what is out there and were spunky and fun like I think my books are. So I went the character route! LOL

  5. PinkStuff28 says:

    Fire Burn would be a great win for me …I’ve heard only amazing things about it ..So i’m curious about it :)

  6. Ami says:

    I would love to dive right in to the world of “To Kill a Warlock”. I’m a HUGE fan of Paranormal PI novels. Dulcie sounds like one tough firecracker! Different authors always seem to have such unique takes on what a fairy is like, I’m really interested to see what vision Mallory has for her character and her world. :) Thank you for considering me.

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The Book Thief: Review

I really want to write a long review for this book, but I can’t find the right words- ironic. You could easily pass it off as just another Holocaust story, except, the thing about ‘The Book Thief’ is that its written so beautifully, that it is anything but.

Death, the narrator of the story is explicit from the start about how the book is going to end. There are no cliff hangers, bated breath moment about what’s going to happen next. The reader is made to know chapters before it happens. This book is about the story of Liesel Memminger and all the lives she touches on Himmel street, but its also about words and the power they hold.

This theme ties in with the story line through the story , ‘The Word Shaker’, that Max writes for Liesel. But more so this theme is demonstrated by how Zusak uses words to tell the story. You don’t just read the sentences, you savor them, you roll them about in your mouth and you swallow them. Each description evokes synaesthesia by not only making the reader  visualize what the words say but also hear and smell them.

The book was released gloriously from his hand. It opened and flapped, the pages rattling as it covered ground in the air. More abruptly than expected, it stopped and appeared to be sucked towards the water. It clapped when it hit the surface and began to float downstream.

Its a lovely book, and I would recommend that you all read it. It gives you a very different perspective of Death, and its gets you thinking.

p.s some advice: if you are wearing mascara, make sure you take it off before you finish reading this.

*I really do apologize for how terribly and halfheartedly this is written; I just can’t seem to find the motivation to write these days. However, I still do try to write just to keep in practice. Please bear with me. ❤

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A few minutes with Magdalena Lewy-Boulet

Magdalena Lewy-Boulet, 37, needs no introduction. But here’s one anyway. Originally from Poland, she became a US citizen on September 11, 2001. She is a regular top 10 finisher at the marathon and was this country’s half marathon champion last year. She stood out in the 2008 Women’s Olympic Marathon Trials by immediately rocketing out to a sizable lead that she would hold for 24 miles before being passed by Deena Kastor. She lives and trains in Oakland, California where she is also one of the founders of the Bay Area Track Club. She is coached by Jack Daniels.

After smoking the Rotterdam course.

In your preparations for Rotterdam, a breakthrough race [2:26:22, for second place and making her the fourth fastest American female marathoner] for you earlier this year, it sounds like you were doing a lot of work on your top end speed.
Because the World Cross Country Championships were two weeks before that, we definitely incorporated a little bit more of that work into this preparation. I really enjoyed it. But I still maintained all the other marathon stuff that we’ve done in the past. Not much has changed. I think it was just a little more balanced this time around.

I know you did a lot of training for the 2008 Olympic Marathon on the treadmill. Did you find doing all that running inside difficult to deal with mentally or physically?
Not really. As a marathoner, you’re already doing a lot of repetitive stuff. Long runs, out and backs, loops. I started running on the treadmill when my son was born and I was progressively spending more time on it. But I learned to do workouts on the treadmill, which I’d never done before. I don’t have to run on the treadmill, but I still incorporate it at least once or twice a week now. I do hill repeats, actually. Because I don’t have to run downhill.

Do you think regular runners can benefit from incorporating the treadmill into their training to do those different kinds of workouts?
Yeah, a lot of people have a very limited amount of time and sometimes limited access to do a track workout. Over the last few years I’ve learned that you can take any track workout and convert it to the treadmill. Having a child at home, you might plan to do a track workout, but then something comes up and you have to cancel your plans. But there’s always the treadmill, so that’s a good option to have. It saved my training many times, where I was able to get the work done.

What are you thinking about when you’re racing?
I actually think about a lot of stuff when I race. It kind of goes in and out. Sometimes I reflect on workouts that I’ve done that remind me that I’ve done some workouts that are harder than this race. It keeps you at ease because it’s the feedback that you’re well prepared. My last marathon was the first one where it was marked every kilometer. It was really going by quickly, versus miles — you get all this feedback. I coach, so I started designing workouts [that use kilometers rather than miles] for the athletes that I coach.

I don’t really have a strategy for what I think about. I just try to go with the flow. But I’m never out of touch with what happens in the race. It’s usually not until the second half that my mind fully tunes into the race that’s happening. The first half, it could be anything. I’m thinking about the dinner I’m going to make for my son the next day, or the workouts that I’m going to give to my athletes, or my own workouts. And then the second half is usually all about the race.

Can you tell early in a race whether you’re having a good day or a bad day? And are you ever wrong?
Usually, in the first part of the race you can tell. I’ve had races where I was warming up and feeling awful, just awful. I remember a couple races on the track where I was warming up and thinking, “There’s no way if I keep feeling like this…” but it ends up being a PR day. It happens. When you do feel bad, you always have to give another shot at changing something within the race to make sure that it’s really not happening today. Sometimes, you can change the outcome, hopefully.

After you bashed your knee, before the Olympic marathon [which Lewy Boulet could not run], you seemed really accepting of the situation. You were upset, but you seemed to take it in stride. Do you generally have a positive attitude when you have a setback like that?
You know, my coach is just an unbelievable person. Jack is really positive. It doesn’t just start with just races, when you don’t do well at the Olympics. It’s day in and day out — I’ve learned that I need to take something positive from each workout. He’s gotten me to always learn something from each situation and turn it into something positive. Making the Olympic team — even though it was a horrible outcome — I still learned so much from that experience. Something as simple as the logistics of how things work at that level. When I do make another team, I know what to do.

Is the marathon your favorite distance, or just the one you’re best at?
Usually, they go hand in hand. You always love events that you’re good at. I do love the marathon. More than anything, I love the preparation required for a marathon. It’s very rewarding when you do run well. And you don’t get too many chances. A 5K you can do once a month, or a mile every other week. With the marathon, you only get two shots a year. But I did love cross country. Racing at Worlds this spring was a lot of fun. The fact that it was in Poland, that I made the team and got a medal was pretty super cool.


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13 easy ways to lose weight without dieting

Not many people look forward to an Atkins diet or running 6 miles each day.  So the good news is that there are other ways to cut down body fat without hardcore dieting.  That’s exciting, right?

Serving sizes are something that our society is great at overlooking.  Whether we go out to eat or have dinner at home, portion sizes are easy to ignore.  ½ cup of rice is a serving?  Nah, just cover the plate!  ½ cup of cereal is a portion?  Who cares, just fill up the bowl!  Eating second servings is a bad habit, too, that will undoubtedly pack on the pounds!

Teaching yourself to eat less is just that – it is something that needs to be learned.  Cutting back on portions sizes is not something your stomach, mouth, or brain is going to want to do.  You must teach your body to be satisfied with less.

Exercise is another key factor.  Anything that gets your heart rate up or makes you breathe heavy is a great start.  The key to losing weight, in general, is negative input.  Say I eat a banana and ingest 105 calories.  If I ran a mile, I would burn about 113 calories.  So I worked off 8 more calories than I ate.  Any time there is a negative number (I burned off more than I ingested), weight is being lost.  This is how exercising and eating should work.

Here are a few tips, and good habits to get into, to keep your body fit and healthy without running 10 miles a day or dieting constantly.

  1. Eat less.  Eat one serving and then wait a little while to see how you feel.  It is better and healthier to eat a little less than you want/need than too much.
  2. Use a smaller plate or bowl.  Our eyes play optical illusions with our brains when it comes to portion sizes and plate or bowl sizes.  Instead of using a large bowl for your oatmeal, get a size smaller and fill it to the same place.  To your eyes, it looks like the bowl is full, and while it may be, it is still less oatmeal than if the larger bowl was full.  The same goes for dinner; if you use a small dessert plate instead of a larger dinner plate and fill it full, it will still look like you are eating a plate full, but in reality, it is only half the amount of the larger plate-full.  This trick is great in helping to manage portion sizes.
  3. Do not go back for seconds.  Again, you must train your body to eat less and be satisfied with less.  Second portions are usually access, more food that you don’t need.  Any food that your body does not need for energy will be stored as fat.
  4. Get a take-out container.  Save leftovers and avoid stuffing yourself.  Restaurants are notorious for ignoring serving sizes.  Many places give a person up to twice or three times the average portion size.  Ask for a take-out box instead of trying to eat everything on your plate.  In fact, if you seperate the meal in half right away, you will not be tempted to over-eat.  Then, eat those delicious leftovers in the take-out for lunch the next day.
  5. Eat slower.  If you eat slower, you will feel fuller faster.  Have you ever been at a buffet where you eat as much as you can as quickly as you can?  It’s usually not until about 15 minutes after you feel “full” that you realize you are, in fact, stuffed!  Whereas, if you are at a fancy dinner where you take your time and enjoy each bite, you are content sooner.  Teach yourself to eat slower and it will prevent you from over-eating.
  6. Eat less, more often.  It is better to eat 4-5 smaller meals each day than 3 large ones because it keeps your metabolism up and running at a consistent rate.  Eat a small amount of healthy food every 3 hours.
  7. Drink 2 cups of water 15 minutes before you eat a meal.  This will fill up your stomach so you eat less.  Again, it will make you fuller faster.  It is a physician recommended tactic for tricking your body into thinking it is full without eating as much food.  It also keeps you well-hydrated…which brings me to my 7th point.
  8. Drink lots of water throughout the day – and only water.  No juice, soda, etc.  Water will keep you feeling satisfied without eating food.  Water has 0 calories so you are replacing calorie-stuffed food with healthy, 0-calorie water.  Water is also proven to aid in weight loss because it dilutes calories and flushes out impurities in your body.  It’s a win-win!  (If you drink from a straw, it is far easier, and more fun, to drink so much water.)  Add lemon juice or other flavors to your water, or boil some fresh mint to add a refreshing taste to your water and make it more enticing.
  9. Eat healthy food.  Pizza, nachos, and pasta do not count.  Eat salads, casseroles with meats and veggies, vegetable soups, etc.  Try to cut out carbs like spagetti, noodles, and potatoes.
  10. Snack on healthy foods.  Instead of grabbing a bag of potato chips, eat apple slices.  Instead of cake, eat a handful of carrots and broccoli.  Even nuts are a great, healthy snack as they contain protein and other nutritious elements.  Also, another cool hack  for healthy snacking is, if you always feel the need to snack between meals, chew a stick of gum. It does wonders for curbing the impulse to snack.
  11. Cut out sugars.  Sugar is one of the worst things for your body: from your teeth to your metabolism, sugar is unhealthy.  Instead of ice cream, make a fruit smoothie with no sugar except that which is in the fruit.  (If you add vanilla extract, it will taste like ice-cream!)  Instead of soda, make Kool-Aid and only add a fraction of the sugar – it will give you something other than water but without much sugar.  Instead of hot chocolate, make tea and add a small amount of honey.  The less pre-made desserts and sugary snacks (cakes, cookies, etc.) you have lying around the house, the less tempting it will be.  We very rarely ever buy desserts.  If we do eat dessert, I have to find the time to make it myself.
  12. Do not add all that sugar.  If you do make sweets: cake for a party, desserts for friends, or the occasional family treat, add less sugar.  When I bake, I never add the entire amount of sugar the recipe suggests.  If it calls for 1 cup of sugar in my loaf of banana bread, I add only 1/2 cup.  The difference is barely noticeable, but I am still eating less sugar.  When I drink juice, which is very rarely, I add water to it to dilute the sugar.  I mix the concoction to contain about 1/2 – 1/3 water.  It’s not much, but it’s less sugar and more water.
  13. Exercise when you can.  If you are on your lunch break at the office, instead of remaining sitting at your desk, finish your lunch and go walk the remaining 20 minutes. Getting your heart-rate up does not have to be dreary or irritating.  Walk the dog outside, or watch a movie while you do crunches and other exercises on the living room floor – your favorite show will distract you from the fact that you are “working out.” Any bit of exercise you get is a good start.  Maybe it’s not the recommended 30-60 minutes a day, but if you can walk the stairs instead of taking the elevator to the third floor, or park near the end of Wal-Mart’s parking lot and walk instead of parking right outside, is a step in the right direction (pun intended.)

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How my 2 year old learned about deer and death.

dead deer in a gardenIt’s not every day that you wake up to the sight of a dead deer in your garden!  I was first alerted to the fact when my dogs hadn’t come to whine at the door after being let out. My 7-year-old went to find them and see if they had gone into the woods at the bottom of our garden.  She returned and said that there was something lying down behind the dog,  I asked how big and she said she didn’t know.  I was expecting to find a frog or maybe a bird but was confronted by the above.

I wasn’t sure whether to let my 2-year-old see it,  she really wanted to see the ‘reindeer’ but I thought she might be frightened.  However, I’m always keen to avoid sheltering my children so we went to the bottom of the garden so that I could gauge her response.

She was in fact absolutely fascinated by it.  It isn’t often that you will get the chance to see a deer that close so we could look at it and talk about it.  I pointed out its hoofs and she said

maybe it will get proper feet – does it have to go like this? (standing on tiptoe).

From the outset I talked about how it was dead.  I think children are very matter of fact about such things and their questions should be answered honestly but in a sensitive manner.  She saw that it had hurt its legs and was very concerned,

Maybe we could put it in the shower or in the bath and make its leg better?

I explained that we couldn’t put it in the bath and that we didn’t need to make it better because the deer didn’t hurt anymore, he couldn’t feel it because he was dead

Does it have arms?

No it has 4 legs like the dogs. Most animals don’t have arms.

But we have arms.

Perhaps when we talked about the deer not feeling hurt, she was thinking of feeling as touch.

Not that it’s likely that many of you will encounter a dead deer in your garden, but would you know what to do if you did? Probably not, well neither did I and it took about 2 hours to find the answer. First port of call  the vets – I thought they might be able to point me in the right direction.  They gave me the number of the RSPCA and the local council.  According to the council a wild animal can only be collected from the roadside or public place, if it is on private property then the disposal is your own responsibility.  If I couldn’t find anyone to collect it then it became an environmental health issue and they would come and collect it.  The RSPCA suggested I contact DEFRA .  They said that they would normally advise people to dispose of animals in normal refuse, but that a deer probably wouldn’t fit! Their advice was to call the council again. The senior staff at the council finally authorised collection free of charge.

The men arrived and my 2-year-old delighted in showing them the way, saying ‘we think it is dead’.  I think they had visions of an animal that as soon as they moved it would start kicking out – I reassured them that it was dead.  The small antlers were caught around the tree and the deer was too big to fit in the bag they had brought so they carried it up the garden.

Oh look it’s awake now

my daughter said when she saw its eyes wide open.  She wanted to see them put it in the van and know where it was going.  I told her that they would probably bury it.  They put it in a yellow bag and onto the truck.

Are the mummy and daddy reindeer dead?

I don’t think so, they might be looking for it – poor deer

It’s alright reindeer you’ll get better soon.

We waved goodbye to the deer and the men.  So that was her first experience of death – we will see what other questions it raises in the coming days.  For now she has gone to bed with her cuddly reindeer kissing it’s legs and telling it she will give it a plaster to make it better.

One thought on “How my 2 year old learned about deer and death.”

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Stafford, Kansas Radon Information

Stafford, KS and the 67578 zip code are located in Stafford County, which has an EPA assigned Radon Zone of 2. A radon zone of 2 predicts an average indoor radon screening level between 2 and 4 pCi/L, which is within the recommended levels assigned by the EPA. Stafford is located in a moderate risk area of the country. However, with any household or business, regardless of Radon Zone, it is suggested your home be tested for unsafe levels of radon.

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RAGE Open House/New Member Orientation

Posted: November 6, 2013 in Uncategorized

Have you heard about the efforts of R.A.G.E. and want to learn more? Or did you recently joined and don’t know where to start?? Either way, you are invited to a R.A.G.E. Open House/Orientation…

Please plan to join us, Saturday, November 9th at Kelly Library located at 6151 S. Normal Blvd at 11am to learn more about our initiatives and membership expectations.  Any questions contact us at 866-845-1032 or email us at joinrage@gmail.com.

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