text:
At Pilates this evening, I enjoyed a quick chat with a White Sox fan. Last season I introduced her to the cheap ticket wonders of StubHub and gave her information about the Big A so she could see her guys play – she was concerned about our “scary” freeways – and we’ve been friendly ever since. As I was leaving the parking lot, a group of guys in Pirate caps, one of them quite old school, walked by. On the freeway drive home, the usual mixed bag of bumper stickers streamed by as speeds increased in the final fade of rush hour. In and among the honor roll proclamations, fading Obama/Biden stickers and occasionally humorous sayings was an eclectic array of baseball stickers – Dodgers, Angels, Yankees, Red Sox and Phillies. Nothing new here.

Los Angeles is not like other places. The billboard signage proclaims that this is Dodgertown and that is true to a certain extent. But a sufficient number of Angels fans call Los Angeles County home to warrant equal representation in the team gear sections of our local Targets and Costcos and the same is true in reverse with Dodger fans in neighboring Orange County, home to my Halos of the absurdly lengthy and geographically challenged name. I read as many of your blogs as I can find, and more and more each week as Spring Training brings more sleepy bloggers out of hibernation, so I know that two team towns are nothing special. But Los Angeles is a little more complicated than that.

In and among the Dodgers and Angels gear, you can usually find a fair bit of Yankees and Red Sox items. White Sox caps and shirts are becoming more common as well and, if the number of Cubs fan Chicago transplants I ran into in Orange County last year is any indication, I expect to start seeing the occasional Cubs logo on the sales racks in the next year or so. Native Angelenos like myself are rare, you see. In Los Angeles and, increasingly, Orange County seemingly everybody is from someplace else. And even among the natives, most of us are only native by a generation or two. My grandparents and their families all came out to California during the Dustbowl, which is very common story.

When it comes right down to it, this is one of the things I love most about living here – so many different people bringing pieces of their home to mine and mixing them together in new and different ways. I love that I can go out for authentic soup dumplings at Din Tai Fung (the only location outside of China), hit a jazz club hosting a band from New Orleans and then finish off the evening line dancing at a club opened up by Texas transplants who thought it might be fun and profitable to bring a little bit of home to Los Angeles. Authentic street tacos, a cheesesteak place opened up by a couple of guys who moved out here from Philly, New York style delis, a German deli where more people are speaking German and Polish than English on any given day, Kansas City style BBQ joints, all of these offerings are within easy driving distance of my house, and it’s amazing.

And the sea of different baseball caps? Dodger, Angels, Giants, Red Sox and Pirates at my office’s summer picnic alone. Enough nowadays that, seriously, if I were a kid, I’d give up playing “States” and play “MLB caps” instead. It’s just one more manifestation of what I think of as the real Los Angeles – Dodgertown yes, but kind of Everytown at the same time. I know that Los Angeles is far from the only big city to experience this phenomena, but I wonder if any other city sees their diversity carry over into their baseball cap offerings at non-ESPN type stores? I would definitely be interested in learning if this is so if any of you care to share.

I went to Costco on my lunch break this afternoon and did some of our grocery shopping with this post percolating in my mind. I decided it would be funny to take a picture of the souvenir baseball jersey rack so you could appreciate the wild mix of logos we tend to stock out here but, apparently it’s a little early for baseball still at Costco. However, serendipitously enough, when I walked out to my car this is the picture I was presented with. What are the odds? Well, around here? Fairly good, actually:

Halos BoSoxIMG00071 - web.jpg

  1. crzblue2

    Take my dept at work. Out of 17 of us:
    3 born in Southern Cal, two of them Hispanic.
    3 born in England
    2 born in the Phillipines
    1 each born in China, Korea, India, Canada, Japan & Honduras (me).
    1 each born in Maine, NH, Nebraska.

  2. wrigleyregular

    I was gonna write a comment about different hats and jerseys in Chicago, or the lack thereof. But instead I just want to say that I’m really enjoying your posts. To take something as mundane as seeing different baseball hats and turn it into an interesting couple of paragraphs that people can enjoy reading is a great skill. I look forward to additional post.

  3. blithescribe

    Internet access at last! We’re spending the long weekend in Cambria (CA Central Coast) and while all this stormy weather is gorgeous, it’s more than a little hard on the internet connectivity.
    Jane – LOL, I figured you would prefer local baseball caps only in Yankee territory.
    Emma – That sounds like a really fun group of coworkers and very, very Los Angeles!
    Russel – Thank you! I always wonder how my “weird” baseball posts, as opposed to my more traditional ones are going to go over and really appreciate the comments.
    This is a very simple game…

  4. redstatebluestate

    Definitely right about the diversity. I used to live in NoHo and every time the Cards came to town I’d go all decked out and was always surprised to see so many fellow Cardinals fans show up to support. It was awesome really. Cards fans run deep everywhere, but never thought LA would be a place they’d call home… me included. Then again, I live in Chicago now…

  5. theheirloom

    In the Twin Cities, you see your share of Twins caps – but there’s plenty of others floating around. Plenty of Cubs and White Sox ones – since there are some ex-Chicagoans living here (some for political reasons that I will not get into here…). Plenty of Yankees, Red Sox, Cardinals, Brewers (darn Wisconsinites…), Tigers, Reds and, yes, Dodgers, too. But, I’m rest assured the majority of us wear the T-and-the-C around these parts…a fact I’m assured of every time I walk through the Sprawl of Pathetica (i.e. MOA)

    – Randy

  6. blithescribe

    Jeff – Come to think of it I have seen a lot of Cards caps in that part of town – I grew up next door in Burbank. Yeah, you never know where school, jobs and life in general will take you.
    Randy – Okay, so Los Angeles is not completely unique in this regard, which makes sense, given the job magnet of the Twin cities…though in the studio parts of Los Angeles (I grew up in Burbank) as you probably remember from your youth, the east coast caps come close to equaling the Dodgers caps in number.
    This is a very simple game…

  7. phillies_phollowers

    Jane is right about NYC…I wandered all over town one day in Phillies gear and could not take more than 5 steps without a comment tossed at me. It is rare to see other teams’ gear there. Most New Yorkers were very kind though. I guess it is harder to bash a silly girl with pony-tail braids than a tough looking Philly guy ;o)

  8. blithescribe

    Jenn – That’s a fun story. I think it’s more a case of it being more fun to joke around with and tease a fellow baseball fan than it is to bash them, especially when the fan is a smiling girl with pony-tail braids. 🙂
    This is a very simple game…

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FT : Satyam’s Taj Mahal-Scale Fraud

Thursday, January 8, 2009

The implications of the Taj Mahal-scale fraud at Satyam Computer Services are far-reaching.  The admission that B. Ramalinga Raju, chairman of the fourth largest Indian information technology services group, cooked the books for years, inflating the cash on its balance sheet by $1bn, strikes at the heart of a sector central to the country’s growth story.  Trust is critical in an industry based on outsourcing often highly sensitive information to far-flung locations.  With Mr Raju offering himself up to the authorities, Satyam is unlikely to survive to survive as an independent company.  Once worth nearly $9bn, after yesterday’s 78% fall in its shares, it presents a bite-sized target.  If it is dismembered, Infosys looks to be best placed among the local companies to pick up some business, but the extent to which Satyam’s 185 Fortune 500 clients opt to switch back to western IT companies will be a critical measure of the damage the fraud does to this emblematic sector.

As the Confederation of Indian Industry has acknowledged, corporate India must reflect on ways to show it takes governance seriously.  This is critical for the large number of business houses dominated by powerful family dynasties.  According to a study by Moody’s Investors Service, 17 of the 30 constituent companies in India’s benchmark Sensex index are family-controlled.  A loss of confidence in large-cap groups such as Wipro or Reliance Industries, for example, would be catastrophic for portfolio capital flows into India at a time when it is already pushed to finance a big current account deficit.  Being audited by a Big Four accounting firm is not enough – Satyam’s books were checked by PwC for the past 6 years.  Investors must use this crisis to ensure genuinely independent directors replace the legions of family friends that populate so many Indian boards.

Reference : http://www.ft.com/cms/s/1/37aa8dfc-dca0-11dd-a2a9-000077b07658.html

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Lord of the rings online

Yesterday had all the day doing Temple on my two toons. Some Anfalas scrolls, some extreme rare War Materials boxes, some trash. Alas, had to trash Tome of Vitality. It has almost zero demand on Auction house (nobody buys even for 20 gold), my tries on Trade chat to know market price have failed. It wasn’t wise decision, I know. But it does fit into my philosophy: item is either usable, either sellable for good price. If not, item just takes valuable space and should be deleted. If tome does not sell for ~100 gold and my toons cannot use it – I would delete it, not give away.

But this is not important. Today, we have Lotro’s 10th anniversary festival! My feedback below.

We get standard auto-bestowed “travel there” quest. Then, I got mail from one Hobbit near Party tree asking to arrive. Developers promised something – so I arrived. We have deed to do 7 quests daily, then – some “Scavenger” quests.

We have three of them, Scavengers. They are divided ino days and only 3 quests are offered. Yes, all about Frodo. One quest about him, then one about various locations, third – about killing enemies. Locations and monsters vary: from Shire to North Ithilien, so – mostly for lvl.105. My Stormsong had problems with this, she is not Premium, no swift travel…Switched to Naktieskarys who is premium.

Frodo memories: just need to visit some place and perform certain things, like /dance, /faint. Also, it is Frodo’s house that you should collect 3 memories (won’t miss those floating little shiny books).

Locations: this is where you need to visit almost all Middle Earth. Visit Gate of Shadows (Moria), then one location in Moria, Northdowns, then nice Anduin, Evendim…finally, Cross-roads at Ithilien.

Monsters: big list too, from low levels to some lvl.60s. Doable, quest advices to take Niel’s bounty quests at Esteldin. I took, but it should be possible to do without it.

Bartering: this year mount shines! We have Dragon-steed. Yes, dear lovers of Istaria and Game of Thrones, something like armoured Dragon. Looks nice. Also, your standard essence reclamation scrolls and Anfalas crystals (those – toon bound and 40 tokens).

In short, Festival looks good for me. For some reason, forum is full of negative feedback, like “why stuff for lvl.105 only?”. Maybe because Frodo got to Mordor itself and we remembering what happened to him.

Thus were my experiences for yesterday evening and today’s morning. Waiting for weekend and more Festival questing.


text:
Makara Model School is a decile 10, full primary school catering for students from Year 1 to Year 8. Students come from around the Makara district and Karori on our school bus.

We are committed to providing quality experiences for students, enabling access to a wide range of educational opportunities. We offer programmes tailored to suit, in a stunning environment purpose built for learning and having fun.

As a small school, we feel privileged to  be able to offer students many unique opportunities and experiences during their primary years.

  • Makara Model School and Clifton Terrace School got together for a fun Summer Sports Day. Check out more from the day here!
  • Check out our Junior School Fair Go award entry here!
  • Wind Farm Visit
  • Makara Beach Clean up
  • Pest trapping video
  • Check out our YouTube channel here!
  • Makara students go ‘behind the scenes’ at Te Papa here!
  • Makara Model School wins 2014 State Kiwi Swim Safe School of the Year award! More info here!

DSC03680DSC03884Windffarm 2 029DSC04120Swimming 2010 011DSC01109


text:
The Man Behind Narnia

  • by A.N. Wilson
  • Narrated by James Warrior
  • 3 hrs and 24 mins
  • Unabridged Audiobook

Publisher's Summary

It looks like a wardrobe, but open it up and it leads you back into a world of childhood - of fantasy. Lewis, now famed the world over as a children's author and religious apologist, was a university Professor who kept his private life a doggedly guarded secret. Living exclusively in the world of men, his life was really dominated by women - by his mother, whose death when he was a child scarred his whole life; by Jane Moore, with whom he lived for 33 years; and by Joy Davidman, the American he married. The mystery of Lewis is deep. He was a man who professed to be ruled by his head, but was manifestly governed by his heart.
In The Man Behind Narnia, A.N. Wilson, who wrote Lewis' full-length biography over 20 years ago, returns to the theme - having made a television documentary about Lewis and his work. He opens the wardrobe and finds many demons - some are Lewis', and some are his own. A.N. Wilson is the author of over forty books - 20 novels, biographies of C.S. Lewis, Tolstoy, and John Milton, a three-part history of the last 100 years, and stories for children.

See More Like This

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful

Wilson and Lewis

Wilsons return to Lewis after he has returned to Christianity might perhaps be regarded as more of a personal memoir than an addendum to a biography. It is not. Underlying the usual Wilson hubris is a really engaging story of a man who escaped hubris to become a "Really good man" and this made the book a pleasure to read.
Read full review

- chris

Book Details

  • Release Date: 06-01-2015
  • Publisher: Audible Studios


text:
Nova and Quinton : Breaking Nova

  • von Jessica Sorensen
  • Sprecher: Jed Drummond, Stephanie Willis
  • Serie: Breaking Nova
  • 8 Std. 29 Min.
  • ungekürztes Hörbuch

The number-one New York Times best-selling author.
Today is the first day of Quinton Carter's new life. The toxic guilt of his past left him in pieces, but one girl unexpectedly put him back together. Thanks to Nova Reed, Quinton can finally see the world with clear eyes. She's the reason his heart is still kicking behind the jagged scar on his chest. And he would love to have her in his arms every minute of the day...but he's not ready yet.
Playing drums in a band and living with her best friends are just some of the highlights of Nova's life. But the best new development? Talking to Quinton on the phone each night. She wishes she could touch him, kiss him, though she knows he needs time to heal. Yet shocking news is on the way - a reminder of life's dark side - and Nova will need Quinton like he once needed her. Is he strong enough to take the final leap out of his broken past...and into Nova's heart?

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Weitere Infos zum Titel

  • Erscheinungsdatum: 02.04.2015
  • Verlag: Hachette Audio UK


text:
Doctor Who: Apollo 23

  • von Justin Richards
  • Sprecher: James Albrecht
  • 5 Std. 31 Min.
  • ungekürztes Hörbuch

'For a few moments this afternoon, it rained on the moon...' An astronaut in full spacesuit appears out of thin air in a busy shopping centre. Maybe it's a publicity stunt. A photo shows a well-dressed woman in a red coat lying dead at the edge of a crater on the dark side of the moon - beside her beloved dog 'Poochie'. Maybe it's a hoax.
But as the Doctor and Amy find out, these are just minor events in a sinister plan to take over every human being on Earth. The plot centres on a secret military base on the moon - that's where Amy and the TARDIS are. The Doctor is back on Earth, and without the TARDIS there's no way he can get to the moon to save Amy and defeat the aliens. Or is there? The Doctor discovers one last great secret that could save humanity: Apollo 23.
This is a thrilling, all new adventure featuring the Doctor and Amy, as played by Matt Smith and Karen Gillan in the spectacular hit series from BBC Television.

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Weitere Infos zum Titel

  • Erscheinungsdatum: 01.07.2010
  • Verlag: BBC Worldwide Limited


text:
Supplements and TTC

21 04 2014

I originally wrote some of this post content almost a year ago after our third loss in 6 months naturally. I’ve edited it to update how things stand now, so if it reads weird..forgive me.

After this last loss, I started looking into supplements. The Mr was totally done with this rollercoaster unless we went to the RE, but I wasn’t ready to go to the RE, and after researching our local RE, was able to convince him to give me another chance. He was going to be mostly gone for a few months anyway, and a few hundred bucks for a large supply of vitamins and supplements that would last me a few months wasn’t that much out of pocket anyway compared to going back to the doctor.

I did a lot of googling. A lot. I read more message boards and obscure forums than I can count. I talked with friends with DOR and RPL, with PCOS and Endo and many other diagnosis. I had basic labs drawn to make sure that nothing was going to be a concern and picked a few specific issues to focus on:

  • egg quality- this is hard to judge without doing IVF, but there is a lot of thought out there about ways to improve egg quality for RPL
  • hormonal balance- with PCOS, my hormones are always out of whack, so I wanted to try and naturally balance them
  • immune issues- one of the biggest unknowns in regards to infertility is immune issues. this is a very new area of research so this is all just things that people are trying

I played with various dosages based on what I had found on message boards, but ultimately added a basket of supplements to the top of my dresser and took a bunch every day.

  • Ubiquinol- a specific form of CoQ10- I take Jarrow brand
  • Fish Oil- take a high quality in pure form and large quantities. Make sure it is mercury free
  • Prenatal- good quality, there are several brands, do your research
  • D3
  • Green Tea- only before O, antioxidant
  • Pomegranate
  • Zinc
  • Super B complex
  • DHA
  • Selenium
  • Melatonin 3 mg(recommend taking this at night)
  • Inositol- also take at night
  • Fertility Blend-from vitamin shoppe, also only taken through O

I took all of these per day, sometimes multiple times a day, for 6 months. During the time I also ate healthier, was exercising more, and traveled out of town more than once. In the end, I decided I couldn’t justify continuing to take all the meds since I had yet to achieve a successful pregnancy. I’m finishing out what I have of each bottle, and continuing on with some of them. I definitely felt better on all of them, but cutting my budget down allows me to save more towards IVF.

I am continuing on:

  • Prenatal
  • Ubiquinol(slightly lower dosage)
  • Fish Oil(slightly lower dosage)
  • Pomegranate
  • D3
  • B complex
  • Prenatal
  • Calcium
  • Melatonin
  • Inositol
  • Fertility Blend- only when we are actively TTC on a cycle

All in all, I’m pretty happy about this compromise. This is the second month I am not on all the supplements and I don’t feel much different, but if I do notice a difference, I’m open to changing up my routine again. I have been sleeping better, feeling more awake in the mornings, and noticed less PMS moodiness since I started this..and clearer skin too.

In addition to my supplements, the Mr was also on a few:

  • FertilAid(because it was easier getting him to take those than all the broken down supps)
  • Fish Oil
  • Vitamin E

He has continued to take these meds, mostly because I don’t give him a choice. It’s the least he can do to avoid paying 20K for IVF, so he takes his meds with a minimum of manwhining.

Hopefully all these will pay off in the long run and bring us a healthy baby, even if further medical intervention is required to get that.

Emerging from the silence

20 04 2014

Hi. it’s been a long time.

I’ve had things I wanted to say here, but I wasn’t ready to say them.

Life has had some rollercoasters. People I thought were friends proved to be the ones I should have stayed furthest away from. Those I was wary of were the ones I connected most with. People found this blog that I didn’t want reading it.

It kept me from using my voice to share my story.

It left me feeling alone.

But the desire to come back has been strong.

I’m not hiding.

I’m staying private, but this is ME. This is my space. If you don’t like what I say here, then you shouldn’t be here.

Things are going to be intermittent as I tell the stories I want to tell, as I share the things that have happened in the last year.

My voice wants to be heard. My babies need their stories told, however short it is.

And I need some place where I belong, and that is here, as part of this community.

I’m back. Deal with it.

11 06 2013

<a summary of the past 6 months, because I don’t feel like publishing all 50+ posts I have in draft form as password protected.>

In December, I had just miscarried after a shocking natural bfp. While I was miscarrying, I got the flu, horrifically. I spent almost 3 weeks miserable in bed after meds and everything, just completely exhausted. Influenza is no joke.

We knew we wanted to ttc again but weren’t going to really try anything. no opk’s, nada…just pretending we were naive and innocent people. We figured come spring we’d try again and hope for a late fall due date. We went home to visit in january for a few weeks and since we were staying with family, didn’t really have much of a chance to dtd much less think about ttc. We got back to where we live supe.rbowl weekend and I tested just so that I could have a few drinks without worry. It was positive. 3 weeks later I miscarried again, days before my pren.atal appointment. and then that weekend my friend lost her sweet baby that I posted about.

Needless to say I was a completely and emotional wreck. As much as I desperately wanted to be pregnant and have a baby, emotionally I was in a place where I just could  not handle the thought of TTC. We avoided for my march cycle and then DH convinced me to try again in April. However my body was beyond fucked up with stress and hormones, so it took forever for me to O. I wasn’t even sure if I had ever O’d and was thinking it would be an anovulatory cycle.

Nope. Mother’s Day brought a faint BFP. The next day it was darker. One beta was good..the second not so good. I miscarried less than a week later. At that point DH said enough. We either had to be done TTC naturally or I had to be willing to go back to the RE. I can’t be done, so I guess we are heading back to the RE.

However, I’m not willing to do IUI’s right now. I just can’t spend that kind of money for now. I’d love it if they’d give me meds to ovulate, a trigger shot, and progesterone, and tell me to come in for bloodwork and monitoring. Let me do what I want please…but I’m not hopeful. I think we’ll start in July..just depends on when we can get in to the RE.

so. uhm. hi.

10 06 2013

I’m still alive. still ttc. still being shit on by the universe.

a lot has happened in the months since I last really posted. a lot has changed. I’m not sure this space is my happy place or safe space anymore.

i don’t know what to do in this space.

do I share and know that people who I don’t necessarily trust are reading it?

do I leave it be and just let it die until they forget?

do i blog behind a password?

i don’t know what to do. after 6 months away, i have things i want to say. things i want to get out before i forget. but i don’t know what to do anymore.

Why does the universe constantly shit on good people?

6 03 2013

Warning: loss mentioned. Please don’t scroll down if you can’t handle it.

Sometimes, the world just can’t catch a break.

This story starts way back in 2007 or so, when I joined a message board and found the “waiting to try to conceive” group and joined since my husband was currently gone. There I met some incredible women. As time passed by, we moved from WTTC to being WTTC grads. Some of the group welcomed their first babies, and others of us continued to try for our own. Fast forward a few years, and we moved over to Facebook, a group of 50 women strong.

One of our sweet members, Lauren, and her husband have been through so much. Multiple miscarriage, POF, a failed IVF cycle, and then last year they moved to adoption. They were matched with a birth mother, attended all her appointments, and were there when their daughter was born. 11 days later, the adoption was contested, and they had to return their daughter to her birth mother.

In a twist of fate and miracles, that same week, miraculously and naturally, they found out they were pregnant, completely unexpectedly. As time went on and the pregnancy went well, we all grew to hope that finally this family was getting their happy ending.

Lauren’s due date was this week, and on Monday, sweet baby Rhiannon was born sleeping. Their happy ending has ended in a complete nightmare. Life is just not fair.

30 12 2012

This Christmas was rough. Right after I wrote my last post, I got horribly sick. I was feeling fine on Monday, woke up on Tuesday feeling like I had a cold, and then Wednesday I woke up with a fever of 103 on meds and wanted to die. 7 hrs in the ER later, I got a diagnosis of Infl.uenza type A. Yuck.

Going over my personal history was so much fun(heavy sarcasm noted). Never before have I hated the questions of  “when was your last period” and “is there any chance you could be pregnant” so much, especially considering the fact that I was bleeding like crazy and every time I coughed it made it worse.

I don’t know where we go now. I don’t know what we can cope with anymore. We’re looking at natural meds but still planning on getting a referral done after our trip home soon.

I know this post is kind of rambling. and kind of not clearly stated. but I don’t know if I trust a certain person anymore with regards to reading my blog. and I just don’t know what I want to share publicly right now. But I don’t want everything to be password protected.

So yeah. thats where we stand. back in limbo. back to missing all our angel babies. back to feeling like life fucking sucks.

Say what?

4 12 2012

This post was written over a week or so.

(monday night)
This has been an extremely strange couple of months, reproductive wise.

Late September AF showed up(the day we moved, actually) and was horrendous. Like, change the ta.mpon and p.ad every hour bad. End of October, I started spotting. and spotting. and spotting. AF finally showed on November 1 but lasted forever(10 days of heavy bleeding but hardly any cramping).

I started feeling weird at the beginning of Tha.nksg.iving week, figured it was the flu or something from all the stress we had going on, but just ignored it. By the day after turkey day, I couldn’t ignore it anymore. I wasn’t getting sicker, just feeling off still- water was giving me hea.rtburn, etc. I felt like I have when I was pre.gnant, but considering the odds of us conceiving on our own are less than my odds of winning the lottery, I just assumed it was all in my head. I started looking for my stash of pee sticks so I could follow rule #1 of infertility: As soon as an IFer pees on an expensive stick, their symptoms disappear along with the BFN and AF shows up moments later. I couldn’t find any, so I picked up a box of store brand tests when running errands that Sat.urday. I just peed on one as soon as I got home, since I was following rule #1.
But this happened:

To say I was in disbelief is the understatement of the century. I hate blue dye tests and hadn’t realized I had picked them up, so I turned to my best IFer friends for their opinions. Lots of yelling at me ensued, and assurances that not only could THEY see a line…their HUSBANDS could see the lines. Man eyes could see the lines. (please note in all this that I DID tell my husband about this, but he doesn’t believe it unless the lines jump off the tests and hit him in the face). I snuck out Sunday and got real tests and peed on one that morning. I couldn’t see a line but when I uploaded the pic, my girls did see one. and so I looked again. and yes, there was a squinter. holy fucking shit….is this for real? The blue dye showed the same line as the day before so I wasn’t sure if they could be trusted..and after all these years of using the good tests, I swear I can see lines on them before they are peed on.

And then Monday…no squinting required. Showed up easily within the time limit. Uhm. WTF????

To say I am shocked is insane. I am beyond flabbergasted. I’m pregnant??? With no medical intervention???? It’s been years since this happened. The only thing I was taking was a prenatal vitamin, nothing fancy like I have taken in years before. I don’t have a doctor in this town. I’ve not even requested my medical records yet. I have no idea when I ovulated for sure, just a best guess based on when we DTD and when I had CM..but I have no idea for sure. The last 6-8 weeks have been so chaotic that I barely managed to track that much. With that said, I feel very pregnant. My symptoms are all here. Water is only my friend at ice cold. My boobs are incredibly painful and already fuller. I am nauseous and starving at the same time. I was dizzy for  most of the morning today. I don’t know how long this will last. I just know I am trying to cherish it for as long as it lasts. I’m going to keep testing until I get a positive digi and then try to step away.

Needless to say, I am keeping this super super quiet. Not going public. Not going on message boards. Nothing. Not until I have a first scan.I’m such a fucking cliche right now. I stopped trying, I quit paying attention, and we ended up fucking pregnant. I have told 3 people other than my husband, and I don’t intend to share it with more ‘real life’ people until Christmas or New Years. Best guess is I am due around 6 August. Please baby bean, stick. We want this miracle so badly.

a positive digi? oh crap, this is feeling real. can I keep my mouth shut?

i’m cramping and spotting. this isn’t going to end well. why the fuck did I hope.

(update tuesday)

A few days after I started this post, my tests started getting lighter and went negative, and finally, I started miscarrying. To say we are devastated is inadequate. Why were we given this miracle for such a short time?  Why did we not get to keep this baby here with us? This pregnancy was conceived against all odds. what does this mean for us now?


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Vodpod videos no longer available.

“Baby what’s happenin’, listen, life is fantastic, beautiful, tragic, plain, classic, long as I’m alive I’ma never stay rappin …. Psyche, super nice”

Mos Def is one of the coolest individuals in the game. New release date for the long-awaited 24 Hour Karate School …. September 7.


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Tag Archives: fashion designer

Stella Jean: fashion rising star

Stella Jean: fashion’s latest rising star

The Haitian/Italian designer and ex-model counts Armani and Suzy Menkes among her greatest fans. And this is only the beginning..

Stella Jean

Stella Jean Photo: Jonathan Frantini

Last summer Stella Jean, the 34-year-old half-Italian, half-Haitian fashion designer, was driving her car along a motorway in Italy when her phone rang. It was Sara Maino, the senior fashion editor at Italian Vogue whom she had come to know after winning 2011’s Who’s On Next, the fashion talent competition set up in 2005 by Italian Vogue and Alta Roma, an organisation that supports young talent.

Sitting in a cafe in Rome, just after her spring/summer 2014 show, Jean explained how the conversation went. Maino asked, ‘Stella, are you sitting down?’

‘Yes,’ I said.

‘What’s your plan for September fashion week?’

‘I’m not sure. It’s not easy for a young designer to put on a fashion show so we’re still not sure.’

‘Well, Giorgio Armani just called and he’s chosen you to show at the Armani/Teatro.’

‘I started to scream so loudly. I had to stop the car, get out and start jumping up and down. Then I called her back and had to ask if it was a joke.’

It wasn’t. Armani chose to support her spring/summer 2014 collection in September by lending her his 550-seat show space in Milan and his communications team – the first time he has ever shared both with another designer. They had never met, but this was Armani’s opportunity to promote new talent in Milan. ‘The new generation of Italian designers needs our support,’ Armani said. ‘It is for this reason that I continue to make my theatre on via Bergognone available to them. Stella Jean will be the next designer to organise a fashion show at the Armani/Teatro, and I hope this experience brings her luck.’

Armani’s gesture proved to be a cornerstone moment in her career. The collection that Jean sent down the runway was full of bold colours and mismatched patterns in ladylike 1950s and 60s silhouettes. The models wore knotted fabric headbands and coloured flowers in their hair, shirts were knotted over colourful bras, waists were nipped in and the oversized accessories were as riotous as the clothes. Jean took her final bow wearing a T-shirt that read grazie mr armani. They had met two days previously at an event organised by Italian Vogue and Jean was so overwhelmed that she cried in front of him. ‘I felt so small talking to such a giant,’ she told me. During the show he wasn’t sitting in the front row, but appeared backstage to congratulate her. He had watched from behind the scenes and loved it.

‘He was very complimentary,’ Jean said. ‘He gave me great feedback: to have faith in what I am doing, not to follow the mainstream, and not to be afraid to follow my own vision. It was good advice for me because sometimes I doubt myself. I think maybe I should be more commercial, but his advice gave me the strength to go on with my unique ideas.’

Stella Jean on the catwalk after her s/s 14 show in Milan

Jean was raised in Rome to a Haitian mother, Violette Jean, and an Italian father, Marcello Novarino, with one younger sister, Manuela. She admits it was hard growing up in a ‘black and white family’. No one believed she was Italian, but she didn’t feel Haitian either. As a teenager she vowed to leave Italy for France or the United States where multicultural families were more accepted.

Jean didn’t finish her political science degree at La Sapienza university in Rome because her interest was drawn to fashion while modelling for Egon von Fürstenberg, the Swiss-born aristocratic fashion designer and ex-husband of Diane von Fürstenberg. He was a friend of Jean’s mother and introduced her to other well-known Italian designers from the 1990s, such as Valextra and Gattinoni. In 2003 Jean had the first of her two children, Grande Marcello Maria, with her then-husband, the art gallery owner Filippo Brando Sproviero (their daughter, Mirella Gaia, is six). But while Jean felt the fashion studio was the right place for her, the role of model was wrong.

With no formal training or drawing ability – she pins fabric on to a model to create her designs (as did Paco Rabanne and Coco Chanel) – it was hard to establish herself as a designer. In 2009, with the help of a seamstress friend, she entered Who’s On Next as Stella Jean (she uses her mother’s maiden name, rather than her given surname, Novarino, for the brand to express the two parts of her heritage, as Jean is one of the most common surnames in Haiti) with three looks aimed at emphasising the locally sourced artisan crafts of hand-painted and hand-embroidered fabrics. But her application was rejected, two years running.

‘They were beautiful, colourful clothes but they didn’t need beautiful clothes,’ Jean said. ‘There are plenty of those already in the world. They needed clothes with a story.’ The talent scout at Alta Roma, Simonetta Gianfelici, the Italian model from the 1980s, advised her that if she was going to enter for a third time she should try to be more sincere and true to herself. ‘That was the first time I applied my own story to my fashion,’ Jean said of her winning collection of 12 looks. Jean’s mix of Italian and Haitian was a unique one.

‘Stella’s unusual ethnicity and her desire to make ethically sound clothes, helping the poorest women in the world, makes her bold and colourful clothes as beautiful inside as out,’ Suzy Menkes of the International Herald Tribune, a firm supporter of Jean’s, said after the show in September.

Stella Jean’s spring/summer 2014 show at Armani/Teatro during Milan Fashion Week.

Who’s On Next rewarded Stella Jean with €5,000, which gave her the chance to establish her label and produce her next collection, which she showed in Rome, with the help of a Milan-based showroom. ‘It was pretty tough at the beginning. I didn’t even know how to buy fabric, pay factories, how much fabric was needed, and so on. But I had constant support from Alta Roma and the editors at Italian Vogue.’

Jean’s label was viable from the outset, with each collection financing the next, but it was her third collection, which she showed at the Armani/Teatro in Milan, that attracted international buyers. Natalie Kingham, the head of fashion at Matches, loved the collection as soon as she saw it in the lookbook that was sent to the office in late 2012. ‘There is a playfulness but it also looks very fresh and grown up,’ she says. The autumn/winter 2013 skirts and dresses sold out instantly. Jean adds, ‘The showroom said it was the first time since the 1980s that a small label started from zero, then doubled after the first collection, and tripled after the second, and so on. I know it’s not a good moment for international finance but our sales have been really surprising.’

Multiculturalism remains the crux of Jean’s work. ‘I want to communicate through clothes a concept of opposite worlds and traditions fusing together in a sophisticated way and standing side by side with equal importance, not covering the other up,’ Jean says. She is not the first fashion designer to be inspired by Africa or the Caribbean but she represents a new school of designers that seek to use fashion in a smarter, more ethically sound way.

For her spring/summer 2014 collection, Jean travelled to Burkina Faso, west Africa, with the International Trade Centre’s Ethical Fashion Initiative, a United Nations project, to source local fabrics in underprivileged areas. She met artisan weavers and embroiderers and, overwhelmed by the wealth of talent, returned home brimming with hand-woven striped fabrics and ideas.

Above yellow and grey coat, £558, gingham skirt, £325, at Matches Fashion .

Still based in Rome, where she lives with her children, Jean employs a producer for her biannual womenswear collections. She launched her first menswear collection for spring/summer 2014 and has more projects in the pipeline. She travels every week to her showroom in Milan and her factory in Cesena, while her children stay with her ex-husband, with whom she has a very good relationship.

Above blue jacket, £445, green dress, £498, atMatches Fashion .

Jean’s heritage and family continue to inspire her. For womenswear she cites photographs of her mother and grandmother, hence the 1950s and 60s silhouettes of her clothes, with a cinched-in waist and exaggerated fullness at the hips. For her menswear line she draws on memories of her late father’s classic Italian style. She calls it a ‘wax and stripes philosophy’: the wax fabrics from her mother’s heritage combined with the stripes from her father’s shirts from Turin. She describes her own personal style as ‘mannish’. ‘I do wear feminine circle skirts on occasion, but I’m usually dressed like a man, often in men’s clothes. I was very close to my father so I wear some of his things. And I love Church’s shoes.’

Jean plans to continue melding cultures together using fabrics from all over the world, including India, Mongolia and South America. For autumn/winter 2014 she has set her sights on Japan, adding its fabrics to her pot.

‘It is so far from Africa. It will either work or be a disaster. I don’t know.’

Stella Jean is stocked at Matches Fashion (matchesfashion.com )

More from I SPIED »


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Accord Mortgages Fixed 2.72% until 31/05/2023

Accord Mortgages Fixed 2.72% until 31/05/2023
Overpayments allowed Portable Initial rate Reverts to Max LTV
Whether the deal allows you to pay more than you have to each month so you can pay your mortgage off more quickly and save on interest.
Whether the deal can be transferred to a new property if you move so you don’t have to pay charges for paying the mortgage off early.
The interest rate you'll pay during the initial deal period.
The interest rate you'll pay once the initial deal period ends.
The maximum amount you can borrow as a percentage of the property value.
Yes Yes 2.72% 4.99% 90.0%

Assumed borrowing of £125,000 over 25 years, representative 4.3% APRC. Total amount payable: £203,208.92. Includes interest of £77,213.92, Valuation fee of £0, Booking fee of £0 and Administration fee of £995. Repayments: 62 monthly repayments of £574.72 at 2.72% (fixed), then 238 monthly repayments of £699.92 at 4.99% (variable).

Accord Mortgages customer satisfaction scorecard:

How do we work this out?
Clarity of statements Flexibility of payments Transparency of charges Customer service Overall customer score
n/a n/a n/a n/a

Not rated

n/a = sample size is too small.

We have not been able to rate this provider as our customer satisfaction survey didn't generate a big enough sample of its customers but we aim to rate as many providers as possible

Maximum age 75
Minimum age 18
Location Any
Restricted location note N/A
Existing customer note N/A
Eligibility notes N/A

Mortgage product details

Mortgage types Purchase, Remortgage, First time buyer
Deal type Fixed
Tracker type N/A
Payment options Repayment

Mortgage product features

Overpayments allowed Yes
Overpayment limits note Up to a total of 99.9% are allowed without charge
Offset mortgage Yes
Help to Buy mortgage No
Shared ownership mortgage No
Shared equity mortgage No
New-build mortgage No
Self-build mortgage No
Portable mortgage Yes

Product fees

Arrangement fee £995
Arrangement fee can be added to loan Yes
Booking fee £0
Telegraphic transfer fee £0
Insurance fee £0
Other fees £0

Rate information

Minimum borrowing amount £75,000
Maximum borrowing amount £500,000
Minimum term (years) 5
Maximum term (years) 35
Initial deal end date 31.05.23
Initial deal length (months) 60
APRC 4.25%
Initial rate 2.72%
Revert-to rate 4.99%
Maximum LTV 90.0%

Other charges

Exit fees £90
Valuation admin fee £0
Valuation fee From £145 for property value above £100,000
Early repayment note 4% then 3% then 2% then 1% until end of fixed period

Standard benefits

Valuation admin fee excluded from any refund offer Yes
Maximum free valuation £0
Cash back amount £0
Further notes about benefits N/A

Remortgage benefits

Cash back on legal fees No
Free legal work No
Valuation offer Free

Purchase mortgage benefits

Cash back on legal fees No
Free legal work No
Valuation offer Free


text:
Yorkshire BS to take over Egg - Banking - News | moneyfacts.co.uk

Moneyfacts.co.uk News brings you the latest financial & economic news & reviews of the best products in the UK by our team of money experts.

Yorkshire BS to take over Egg

Yorkshire BS to take over Egg

Category: Banking

Updated: 30/05/2017
First Published: 26/07/2011

This article was correct at the time of publication. It is now over 6 months old so the content may be out of date.

Yorkshire Building Society has announced that it has agreed a deal to acquire Egg Banking's savings and mortgage businesses.

The deal will see the mutual take on Egg's £2.5 billion savings book and £430 million mortgage book.

All Egg customers will become members of the building society once the deal is rubber stamped and will have access to Yorkshire's 178 strong branch network.

It is the latest in a line of acquisition deals completed by the provider.

It merged with Barnsley Building Society in 2008 and Chelsea Building Society in April last year, while it is also waiting for the go ahead to complete its takeover over Norwich & Peterborough Building Society.

The building society said the acquisition of the Egg savings and mortgage books was in line with its strategy to take advantage of opportunities which it considers to be in the long-term interests of its current and future members.

This process is subject to approval by the High Court, which amongst other considerations will take into account the opinion of the Financial Services Authority (FSA).

The acquisition is expected to complete in the fourth quarter of 2011.

Yorkshire Building Society said the deal would enhance its position in the savings market and boost its lending capacity.

"We are looking forward to welcoming Egg's mortgage and savings customers to the Yorkshire," Iain Cornish, chief executive of Yorkshire Building Society, commented.

"Continuing to provide them with the outstanding service, administration and value that they have been used to, and which is consistent with our own approach, will be a priority for us and we will work closely with Egg to ensure that customers are kept fully informed throughout this transfer process."

Disclaimer: Information is correct as of the date of publication (shown at the top of this article). Any products featured may be withdrawn by their provider or changed at any time.


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3D printing

From Monoskop
(Redirected from Category:3D printing)
Jump to: navigation, search

Additive manufacturing or 3D printing is a process of making a three-dimensional solid object of virtually any shape from a digital model. While 3D printing technology has been around since the 1980s, it was not until the early 2010s that the printers became widely available commercially. The first working 3D printer was created in 1984 by Chuck Hull of 3D Systems Corp.

Maker communities[edit]

  • Thingiverse, a software repository for open source hardware designs. Launched in November 2008 by Zach Smith and Bre Pettis.
  • RepRap (replicating rapid prototyper), an initiative to develop an open license 3D printer that can print most of its own components. Founded in March 2005 by Adrian Bowyer. First open-source 3D printer in 2007.
  • MakerBot initiative, a New York-based company founded in January 2009 by Bre Pettis, Adam Mayer, and Zach Smith producing open source hardware, specifically 3D printers. MakerBot builds on the early progress of the RepRap Project with the goal of bringing desktop 3D printing into the home at an affordable price.
  • Ultimaker, an open source 3D printer.

Articles and videos[edit]

See also[edit]

Fab labs, Hackerspaces, FLOSS, Open hardware.

movements and cultures

3D printing, Art servers, Circuit bending, Copyright activism, Cypherpunk, Data activism, Demoscene, Digital libraries, DIY biology, File sharing, FLOSS, Game art, Hacker culture, Hackerspaces, Hacktivism, Internet activism, Internet of things, Libre graphics, Live coding, Maker culture, Media archives, Media labs, Net art, Neural aesthetics, Open hardware, Software art, VJing, VVVV.
See also Artists' cultures.

Artists' cultures
or, sets of techniques and practices bringing together communities of artists, makers and writers

Avant-garde and modernist magazines, Artists' publishing, Graphic design, Photography, Typewriter art, Multimedia environments, Design research, Video activism, Urban practices, Zine culture, Demoscene, VJing, Live cinema, Media labs, Cyberfeminism, Community television, Hacktivism, Art servers, Hackerspaces, CD-ROM art, Circuit bending, Pure Data, Media archives, VVVV, Maker culture, Glitch art, 3D printing, Live coding, Locative media, Libre graphics, Electromagnetism, Surf clubs, DIY biology, Post-digital, Neural aesthetics.
See also Art styles and movements.


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Hinge Mount Types (PDF)

Hinge mount typesThere are several different mount types for specific hinges. Please review the hinge mount types and let us know any questions.

Top Mount - Hinge Knuckles are set above the face

Flush Mount - Hinge Knuckles are set below face

Swaged - Hinge Knuckles are evenly staggered above and below the face

180° - Dual Knuckles allow hinge and hatch to completely open 180°

Offset - These Hinges allows for mounting the uneven surface

About Monroe

Over 60 years of manufacturing experience to best server our customers

Monroe provides custom manufacturing solutions to clients throughout the world

Our knowledge, customer service & processes are structured to reduce delivery times, improve quality & cut costs

We are ISO 9001:2015 & AS9100D certified and have a customer base in many diverse industries

The information contained in this website is for general information purposes only. The information is provided by Monroe Engineering, LLC, Inc. (Monroe) and while we endeavour to keep the information up-to-date and correct, we make no representations or warranties of any kind, express or implied, about the completeness, accuracy, reliability, suitability or availability with respect to the website or the information, products, services, or related graphics contained on the website for any purpose. Any reliance you place on such information is therefore strictly at your own risk. All users should evaluate product suitability for each intended application of that product under actual use conditions. In no event will we be liable for any loss or damage including without limitation, indirect or consequential loss or damage, or any loss or damage whatsoever arising from this information.

How can we help? Submit an RFQ


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Lovely Luxembourg

Oh, Luxembourg. You and your gorgeous views.

Saturday, we set off to the East to check out Luxembourg City, Luxembourg. It’s full on fall here and as we were driving through the trees with their every autumn shade showing off, we passed an exit sign for Paris. Oui. We live in an area of the world where there are exit signs for Paris, France. Man, we’ve got a lot of ground to cover in our two years here!

We spent the day walking through the cobblestoned streets, checking out the Notre-Dame Cathedral, the Grand Ducal Palace and the Casemates du Bock.

Filed under // Day Trips, Luxembourg

4 responses to “Lovely Luxembourg

  1. Beautiful pictures. Looks like you are enjoying your new home. Two years will have passed before you know it.

  2. Thanks Beverly! No kidding! I can’t believe we’ve been here for a month already!

  3. Pingback: Luxembourgatory | MontgomeryFest

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One of three escaped inmates added to TBI’s Top 10 Most Wanted list

Courtesy of the TBI

Courtesy of the TBI

MACON COUNTY, Tenn. — One of three escaped inmates from Macon County has been added to the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation’s Top 10 Most Wanted list.

Dylan Ferguson was charged in connection to a 2016 homicide and is considered armed and dangerous.

Authorities said Ferguson escaped from the county jail Wednesday morning along with Jeffrey Strong and Matt White. The trio is believed to have stolen a white 1990 Ford F-250 with Tennessee tags 3B5-7V2.

According to the Tennessee Highway Patrol, one of the suspects has been caught, but didn’t release a name.

Mugshots were not immediately available for Strong and White.

There is reward of up to $2,500 for information leading to Ferguson’s arrest.

If you can help, call the TBI at 1-800-TBI-FIND.

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Port Natal – Durban Harbour 40s, 50s and 60s

February 27, 2013 — 1 Comment

Durban_Harbour_Photo Hi-ResA tad of nostalgia? No, this is relevant and historic. Look what Africa’s busiest seaport looked like 60 (or more) years ago. I am very grateful to Lois Crawley and Cecil Gaze (fellow customs colleagues in Durban) for sharing these historic gems. For purposes of contrast see the modern-day harbour (above). Real estate in the harbour area is in short-supply and significant operational expansion over the last 10 years has placed huge strain on the road and rail networks and the surrounding industrial areas. In recent times the expansion of containerised handling facilities has radically affected the traffic flows, even in nearby residential areas such as the Bluff. With increasing demand for premium containerised port handling facilities, the old Durban airport has been sited for development of a new port, perhaps the biggest and most ambitious construction project yet in South Africa. While one can marvel at the development over what is a relatively short period of time (a generation), spare a moment and view the seemingly archaic slideshow of Durban harbour purportedly between 1940 and 1960 – which some amongst us can even remember. Enjoy!

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One response to Port Natal – Durban Harbour 40s, 50s and 60s

  1.

    Hey! Someone in my Facebook group shared this site with us so I came to check it out.
    I’m definitely enjoying the information. I’m book-marking
    and will be tweeting this to my followers! Outstanding blog and
    amazing design.

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Grilled cheese failure

I fail at making a simple grilled cheese sandwich. Its too much for one person to handle when they find this fault in themselves. What do I have to do to not burn the bread but yet manage to not melt the cheese in the slightest? Do I need to find the secret door to Narnia in order to find the mystical grilled cheese maker? Do I need to burn sage over the oven? Sacrifice a gnome in a Pagan’s god’s name???

I have talents, and melting cheese between two pieces of bread is apparently in the “Nope” category.

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Posted by: mutantpoodle | August 17, 2009

The Black Hole

Public OptionI’ve shared a rant about my health care history, which is, of course, unfinished, and a more temperate analysis here.  And now, from the official mother of Mutant Poodle, her own story, from her column in the Suffolk Times (subscription, so no link):

I once had a friend who remembered her doctor father making his rounds in a horse and buggy. He carried what he needed in a small black bag – instruments, medicines, bandages. He was paid whatever his patients could afford, on the installment plan.

Except for the horse and buggy, the delivery of medical care wasn’t much different in my childhood or that of my children I’m not sure when it changed, but in the early 1980s I was diagnosed with an autoimmune disease and was stunned by the thousands of dollars billed to my insurance company for the necessary tests – amounts I couldn’t imagine paying myself. I realized then that seeing a doctor was only part of my health care cost and that insurance was a necessity. I also learned that to an insurance company , I had become Typhoid Mary – I’d acquired a pre-existing condition.

Working for a small nonprofit in Washington, D.C., I was able to get insurance, but I was the one who put our group’s rate up. My payments steadily escalated as I grew older, and soon they were more than my rent. I began counting the years before I was eligible for Medicare. Eventually I solved the problem by joining an HMO. But now I could no longer go to my regular doctor, and when I needed to make an appointment, I had to call the branch in Virginia to request permission from not one but two “nurses” – one to route the call and the other to approve my request. Naming my doctor was part of my identification. When the HMO ownership changed many doctors left, mine among them, and I found myself sick but with no way to make an appointment.

That in-between age, 55 to 62, is critical for many people. They are likely to be diagnosed with a chronic illness that, although not life-threatening if treated, makes insurance unobtainable or cost prohibitive. I think of what a cliff-hanger it was for me at 59. These days a healthy friend who’s 60 pays an insurance premium that’s more than her mortgage. And I’m not even touching on the special difficulties of younger people and children.

Working with the frail elderly, I knew Medicare was there for them as a backup, but many times I met people who hadn’t reached the magic age and who either were not sick enough to be considered eligible for medical disability or were caught up in the backlog of pending cases, just as bad today as it was then. Public resources offered patients only trips to D.C. General, a long distance to travel, long waits, more travels and waits for diagnostic tests and medicines. They never saw the same doctor twice.

At work I sometimes collaborated with a free medical clinic where doctors, students, nurses and other volunteers cobbled together free health care for people who couldn’t afford to pay. It was a living, working diagram of the complexities that have come with medical progress. A measure of the clinic’s struggle was that a core founder eventually resigned to become a contemplative nun , believing she could do more good in that role.

Now, as the health care bill is being shaped in Congress, scary scripts advertise that anonymous bureaucrats will dictate our care if we have a government option. I wonder what world the people who write them live in. I have been on Medicare for over 13 years, and the only time anyone dictated to me was when I subscribed to a Medicare “Advantage” program through an insurance company. These days, on the East End, we are seeing an insurance company using its clout to try to shortchange our local hospitals, using the people who rely on its insurance as bargaining chips.

I am still waiting for the conservative solution to all this.  Is it permanent access to COBRA?  Access, to any citizen, to the US Governments’ (privately provided) health care plans? Is it dropping the age requirement for Medicare?

Tell me it’s tax cuts, and I’ll laugh in your face.

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Prince of Tennis: Eikokushiki Teikyuu Shiro Kessen!

Alternative Titles

Synonyms: Gekijouban Tennis no Ouji-sama: Eikokushiki Teikyuu Shiro Kessen!
Japanese: 劇場版テニスの王子様 英国式庭球城決戦！

Type: Movie
Episodes: 1
Status: Finished Airing
Aired: Sep 3, 2011
Producers: Nihon Ad Systems
Licensors: None found, add some
Studios: Production I.G, M.S.C
Source: Manga
Duration: 1 hr. 27 min.
Rating: PG-13 - Teens 13 or older

Score: 7.561 (scored by 3,183 users)
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Seigaku travels to England to play a tournament representing Japan but they are attacked by a group of street tennis players who were banned from playing official tournaments because of their rough play.

Note: 10th Anniversary Movie of the Prince of Tennis anime.

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Tada, Shunsuke
Hiramitsu, Takuya
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Konomi, Takeshi
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Feb 22, 2014
AnimefreakXD1 (All reviews)
This movie is definitely a treat for any Prince of Tennis fan. After Seigaku wins the National Championship comes along this movie. The artwork pales in comparison to the National Championship animation but still is nonetheless good. As far as the soundtrack goes, little to no music was used and i feel that it was extremely plain in contrast with the original soundtrack from the original series. Despite this movie being 2 hours, i feel that the story was rushed. I didn't feel sorry for any of the new characters. Namely being Ling Xiu and Keith. The story was simple. Far too simple that you'd read more

Recent News

Anime Movie of Prince of Tennis Announced

Anime Movie of Prince of Tennis Announced

Publishing company Shueisha revealed that the production of the anime movie of Prince of Tennis has began. The announcement has been made on the cover of the January...read more

Recent Forum Discussion

Poll: Prince of Tennis: Eikokushiki Teikyuu Shiro Kessen! Episode 1 Discussion
Blackbird - Apr 17, 2012
20 replies by Toua »»
Sep 10, 2016 9:41 PM
When the DVD is available??
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3 replies by alchemist11 »»
Jan 4, 2012 12:51 PM


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Itsuki "Ikki" Ikeda

Itsuki Ikeda

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Itsuki Ikeda
Ikki, an optimist who isn't afraid of anything, begins working at a small restaurant when he finds himself charmed by the owner. It's there that he runs into Ryuu, and from Ryuu, he hears Toshimitsu's name, one that's oddly familiar.

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Is Garcetti really running for president? Next up is confab with Democratic National Committee

Mayor Eric Garcetti in his campaign office. Courtesy of the mayor

Is Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti really running for president?

He is leaving Southern California Friday for a short trip to Las Vegas to attend the fall meeting of the Democratic National Committee.

Garcetti, who is an elected member of the DNC, also plans to hold speaking engagements at a fundraiser for the DNC in support of Democratic candidates nationwide and at the College Democrats of America National Convention. He will also tour a carpenters union training facility.

“Despite the GOP majority in Washington, we Democrats will continue our progress on jobs, equality and fairness in cities across the country as we prepare to take back the House in 2018,” Garcetti said.

The trip is likely to cause more speculation that he is preparing a run for president. The mayor has not ruled out a run when directly asked by reporters in recent months, but also has not ruled out a run for governor next year. A recent trip to New Hampshire — traditionally home to the first presidential primary — to support a local mayoral candidate added to the speculation.

Garcetti is due back in Los Angeles on Saturday.

–City News Service


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Napa Valley Cricket Club 2014 World Series

Napa Valley Cricket Club World Series April 2014

Join us for our 3rd Annual Napa Valley Cricket Club “World Series” as we open our 2014 season in traditional style.  See the 2-time winners, Australia / America, take on the Rest of the World in an intra-club game of cricket that starts at 10:30 a.m. on Sunday 13th April.

Join us at the Fairgrounds in Calistoga for a day of cricket with wine from club sponsor CLOS du VAL, food from REBEL DOG and beer from NAPA POINT BREWING.

Bouncy House and other activities for the kids and an Instant Cellar Drawing!

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NVCC vs Caribbean All-Stars

The Napa Valley Cricket Club will host the Caribbean All-Stars in what is sure to be quite the exhibition match. The Caribbean All-Stars will boast an incredible team including ex West Indies International and Captain Alvin Kallicharran.

Toss at 10.15am by Calistoga Mayor, Chris Canning.

Food and wine available from NVCC Sponsor Clos Du Val.

Activities for the kids. Live Caribbean Music.

Alvin Kallicharran

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7 Days of Cricket with Radio Calistoga

Join Radio Calistoga host Dennis de Vilbiss as he interviews some of the Napa Valley Cricket Clubs characters in the run up to the 2013 NVCC Season Opener “World Series”

Saturday –Phil Bourke, (NVCC President), Australian and Director of Contract Management at Treasury Wine Estates – Listen Here

FridayClive Richardson, English and owner of the Calistoga Roastery – Listen Here

ThursdayBill Nancarrow,  New Zealander and Exec. Winemaker at Duckhorn – Listen Here

WednesdayHarish Karsan, English and IT Manager at Domaine Chandon – Listen Here

TuesdayRob Bolch, Australian and Director of Grape Supply at Treasury Wine Estates – Listen Here

MondayAndrew Healy, Irish and Owner of 3 rock marketing – Listen Here

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Welcome to the Napa Valley Cricket Club

Welcome to the Napa Valley Cricket Club. Formed in 2011 as the first Cricket Club in the Napa Valley we have moved to our new ground in Calistoga. We are a “social” Cricket Club made up of ex-pats and locals alike and it is our goal to introduce the game of cricket to as many people as possible in the Napa Valley.

Join us for our 2013 “World Series” Season Opener

Sunday 28th April – Details Below

If you are interested in scheduling a fixture with the Napa Valley Cricket Club please contact us here and we’ll see what we can arrange.

One thing is for sure…….you’ll always be made very welcome here in the Napa Valley!!

And please support our sponsors and if you fancy a drop of some great Napa Valley wine make sure you buy it from our 2013 Sponsor Clos du Val

Clos Du Val

Check us out here. We’re pretty “social”

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AP JPEG and the Muscatine PDF – Resolved

The ‘pièce de résistance‘… Color adjusted inside Photoshop… While our poor friend was way off in his speculations about the AP JPEG, I was actually working diligently, one my sidekick Kevin had sent me the jpeg, to repeat the experiment that Hermitian should have done before making poorly supported accusations. Compare this with the Muscatine version (on the right). Not bad for a quick adjustment…

AP JPEG 2012 Muscating


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New Tradition For Morell’s Scott Morrison

New Tradition For Morell’s Scott Morrison

Source: Jason Malloy. The Gaurdian

Scott Morrison grew up in a religious family where the reason for the Christmas season was evident. But Dec. 25 also brought another gift to the Morell family’s household: A marathon of basketball games.

“That was a big part of the day in our house,” Morrison told The Guardian this week. “Even if we went to visit family . . . we always had the game on.”

Now when basketball fans across Prince Edward Island flip on the TV on Monday and nestle in for a slew of games, they will have a chance to see Morrison on one of the biggest stages of the season.

Morrison is in his rookie season as an assistant coach with the Boston Celtics, who host the Washington Wizards in the first game on Dec. 25 ever at the Garden.

“I’m excited for the game this week on Christmas Day, and hopefully it will be a pretty good atmosphere in the Garden,” Morrison said.

Morrison, a UPEI graduate, got his big break while studying at Dalhousie University in Halifax. Morrison was a graduate student there when women’s basketball coach Carolyn Savoy hired him as an assistant. She took a sabbatical the following season and trusted her team to Morrison, who was in his mid-20s at the time. The Tigers had a good season, and it led to an opportunity to become Lakehead University’s men’s coach in Thunder Bay, Ont.

After a decade there he was hired as a scout and in player development with the Maine Red Claws for 2013-14 NBA Development League season.

He became the bench boss the next season and held the role until the Celtics hired him as an assistant coach earlier this year.

To read the full article, click here: New tradition for Morell’s Scott Morrison


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Sexual Orientation Consensus Guidelines Include Ex-Gays

News Release:  March 15, 2006
Contact:  Regina Griggs, PFOX Director, 703-360-2225

New public school guidelines endorsed by gay group GLSEN and Christian organization CEAI

WASHINGTON, DC –  The First Amendment Center has released the first consensus guidelines to help public schools develop sexual orientation policies.  The new guidelines advise school officials to include the viewpoints of all participants in order to develop policies that promote fairness for all.  According to Charles Haynes, a primary drafter of the guidelines and Senior Scholar at the First Amendment Center, the ex-gay viewpoint in public schools is protected by the First Amendment and should be heard.

Haynes explained that incidents such as the one last year in Montgomery County, Maryland, might have been avoided had guidelines like these been in place.  In that case, Parents and Friends of Ex-Gays & Gays (PFOX) successfully sued the Montgomery County School Board for failing to include the ex-gay viewpoint.  Haynes said, “Americans are deeply divided over homosexuality in our society.  But if public school officials and community leaders use the ground rules of the First Amendment, they can reach agreement on how public schools can guard the rights of all students in a safe learning environment.”

One of the endorsers to the guidelines also agrees that school officials should consider the ex-gay viewpoint.  “The strength in the framework of the guidelines is that all sides should be heard and this does include the ex-gay perspective, ” said Finn Laursen, director of Christian Educators Association International (CEAI).

“As PFOX continues to work for inclusion and respect of the ex-gay viewpoint in public schools nationwide, we are assured by the consensus guidelines that the ex-gay viewpoint is protected by the First Amendment,” said Regina Griggs, PFOX Director.  “In too many schools, the ex-gay viewpoint is censored or marginalized.  Now school districts are held to a standard of respect.  According to the new guidelines, actions by educators to exclude some views merely because they disagree with them constitute viewpoint discrimination in violation of the First Amendment.”

The guidelines have also been endorsed by the Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network (GLSEN), American Association of School Administrators, and Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development.

PFOX is a non-profit organization supporting families and the ex-gay community.  The First Amendment Center is associated with the Newseum and Freedom Forum.  The guidelines are available at

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76-719.01. Deposit of award; payment of amount to condemnee; remainder; how treated; waiver of appeal, effect; judgment against condemnee for overpayment; interest.

Upon stipulation of the parties in interest, the county judge shall order that the amount stipulated by the parties of the money deposited by the condemner in the county court be paid forthwith for or on account of the damages the condemnee has sustained or will sustain by the appropriation of the property to the use of the condemner. When the money remaining on deposit after stipulated payment to the condemnee is five thousand dollars or more, the county court shall place such amount in a savings account of a bank or other financial institution or in interest-bearing obligations of the federal government. The condemner may submit to the court any preferences or suggestions it may have as to the manner and place of such deposit. The amount so deposited shall be insured by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation or other federally chartered or guaranteed form of deposit insurance. The risk of loss of any funds so deposited shall be on the condemner. Interest accruing from such deposited funds shall be paid to the condemner.

If all the parties in interest waive the right of appeal, the county judge shall distribute the money deposited by the condemner forthwith in accordance with the award of the appraisers and as soon as deposited by the condemner. If the compensation finally awarded in respect to the property is less than the amount of the money so received by the condemnee, the court shall enter judgment against the condemnee for the amount that the condemnee has been overpaid, together with interest at the rate provided in section 45-104.02, as such rate may from time to time be adjusted, compounded annually from the date of withdrawal.

Source:Laws 1959, c. 351, § 4, p. 1241; Laws 1961, c. 369, § 3, p. 1143; Laws 1969, c. 329, § 13, p. 1184; Laws 1978, LB 917, § 4; Laws 1985, LB 36, § 1; Laws 1992, Fourth Spec. Sess., LB 1, § 13.


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Posts Tagged ‘Andy Hoare’

Book Reviews

July 5, 2008

Well I have been reading like crazy this week.

First up is.

Rogue Trader Lucian Gerrit learns the true meaning of profit and loss! Andy Hoare presents an epic adventure in his debut novel for the Black Library. Lucian Gerrit is a rogue trader – a starship captain granted ancient trading rights along the Eastern Fringe of Imperial space. But his family’s fortunes have been steadily declining for many generations and his inheritance amounts to little more than a pile of debt and misery. In a final desperate gamble to restore his family’s former glory, Gerrit strikes a deal on a forgotten Imperial world to aid its commander in a long-standing war with his rival. As Gerrit commits his family’s assets to the escalating conflict, he may lose more than his livelihood.

I Really like space opera, I especially like space opera set in the 40k Universe. This is a good book that even if you don’t know the 40k universe it is still accesable.

Rogue trader patriarch Lucian Gerrit and his family get swept up in an Imperial Crusade to track down and exterminate the alien tau. Having crossed the desolate area of space known as the Damocles Gulf, the fleet arrives on the borders of the tau empire. Can Gerrit’s resourcefulness save the day when the Imperial forces find themselves outnumbered and outgunned, thousands of light years from home?

This being the followup, works well. Now comes my problem with the Black Library. Try contacting them you get a stock answer. These books are popular but they won’t commit the writers to finish series. OK that may be harsh but thats my observation, you may have years between books.

First Officer Ward of the Imperial Navy cruiser Relentless, on patrol in the Eastern Fringe, is less than pleased when a new commander, hardliner Captain Becket, is appointed above him. To protect his own corrupt schemes and ambitions, the first officer arranges to have the new captain assassinated.

Unbeknown to him, though, Becket survives and embarks on a ruthless campaign to fight his way up through the ranks to seize back control of his ship.

This is Richard Williams first work and foray into the Warhammer 40K universe and as such I was surprised at how the characters unfold and how effortlessly he jumped into the subject matter.

First let me just say that I love books about Rome, And I really loved this book. However after reading Simon Scarrows series I did kind of feel that I had been here and seen it before. That being said, this is a first rate book and one I would recommend anyone who is a fan of Rome to read.


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After the ball was over….

There is something quite heady about being on stage in a glitzy floor length gown, singing with world-class operatic superstars. “Richard and Friends” from all angles was hugely successful, and it was wonderful to be able to just kibbitz with Richard, Val, and Lauren once again. Lauren is a miniature Richard all over- except female of course. She is fast following in her father’s footsteps, having signed on to the Decca Label, and will be recording jazz remakes of some old Sinatra tunes (to start). This is a world that I can not even begin to comprehend. I love to sing, but I don’t think I would want to make a living by it.

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Tag Archives: food labels

Reading food labels in the classroom

Just wanted to make a quick report from the front lines of Fitch Middle School, where I was blessed last week with the chance to develop my own lessons and teach a unit on nutrition.  Nutrition is part of the science curriculum, and because one of the teachers I work with knew my interest in nutrition she allowed me to take her class over for the week.  Believe me, we weren’t just learning about the food pyramid.

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☰ Menu eFinancialCareers

Meet Dan Avery, the new 28 year-old MD at Goldman Sachs

goldman sachs managing directors

Goldman has a history of promoting young traders to managing director. Kunal Shah, who was bumped up to partner last year, was 27 when he made MD. Dan Avery, an index trader in London, has just been promoted at the tender age of 28.

Avery joined Goldman Sachs straight after graduating from Oxford University with an undergraduate degree in maths in 2008. Seven years after joining as a graduate recruit he’s been promoted to managing director.

Avery is the youngest new MD we found, but he’s not the only one under 30. Sam Berberian, a high yield trader graduated from MIT with a Bsc in Mechanical Engineering in 2007, making him 29. Murtaza Ahmed, who works in emerging markets structuring and graduated from Cambridge University in 2006, meaning he’s just hit 30 this year.

Goldman Sachs promotes its employees to MD level faster than other investment banks. On average it takes 12 years to become managing director there, compared to 14 years at Morgan Stanley – it’s nearest competitor. It can take up to 20 years at French banks.

If you want to get rapidly promoted at Goldman Sachs it helps to work in trading – which is largely comprised of young men anyway. Kunal Shah, the famously youthful Goldman trader who was promoted to MD aged 27 and partner aged 31, worked in a prop trading role focused on emerging markets.

Traders in banks are rewarded based on their contribution to the firm, and it’s therefore possible to move up the ranks more rapidly if your performance merits it. Investment banks’ trading floors have also long been feeder networks for hedge funds, so promoting star traders is a way of stopping them fleeing to the buy-side. In this sense, Ahmed, who works in a structuring role, looks like the exception.

This year’s MD promotions suggest that a quantitative degree at a very top university also helps for promotions.

It’s worth bearing in mind that not all Goldman’s MD promotes are youthful. The bank says that a third of its newly minted managing directors are millennials, born after 1980. Two thirds, therefore, are not.

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England’s largest Jazz radio station, Jazz FM, has increased its potential audience today by launching nationwide on the Digital Audio Broadcasting (DAB) platform.

Jazz FM Logo

The jazz music radio station,which disappeared in 2005 after its parent company changed its format to ‘Easy Listening’, has gone from strength to strength since its relaunch in 2008, broadcasting only in London and parts of the North West.

The latest RAJAR listener data, Jazz FM had a weekly audience of 446,000 listeners in the last three months of 2010, an increase of 7.2% from the last quarter.

The official statement says, “Now you can listen in colour and enjoy the finest jazz, soul and blues across the country on your DAB Digital Radio.” You can also listen online, at http://www.jazzfm.com


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I can’t smoke right now or until further notice because I am a God-freak who hears the actual Voice of The Lord, mostly when I’m high. The last time I heard, “Enough already!” was as I raced down the BQE leaving Queens headed towards the Williamsburg because I was too cheap to pay the toll at the Triborough. The particulars of this might be a bit too New York for some people, but the logic of it shouldn’t be.

I had to quit cigarettes again too, even though I deluded myself into thinking that it wasn’t a biggie that I was smoking again ’cause they weren’t 100s. Hell, they weren’t even really cigarettes, they were them black joints that the young white cat pulled my coat to and he was right: they are smooth and they do crackle.

And you do everything in a rush, though. Or slow. Whatever the pace, you stick to it. It’s not a sloppiness at all like with alcohol. And there’s no feeling of being conned like with the prescription stuff. It’s the place you’ve been looking for in your own mind that you couldn’t find sober. All of a sudden, it’s RIGHT THERE for you the moment that you inhale.

And I’m stone sober now!

But let’s be honest, we think weed is a bad thing because it’s illegal, never mind that slavery was once very legal, never mind that it’s illegal NOT to wear a seat belt, never mind cigarettes—which are much worse—are legal and alcohol—which is much worse—is legal.

What is legal is some company making up stuff to put in a pill to give you that you don’t need but your doctor will prescribe so that company will pay him or her. And we take the pill and we don’t feel better and we wish we had a blunt but we can’t cause its illegal.

Does any of that make any sense?

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Writing without “I”

If memory can only be subjective – and writing can be an aspect of the subjective – then why aren’t all nonfiction writers bound to including themselves in their stories? To preface with an acknowledgment that they aren’t telling an all-knowing truth, but one that is limited to their own experience? This is the question I’ve been deliberating over in the past few days. Why don’t all writers reveal their own thoughts midstory? Are they trying to play God?

One acclaimed nonfiction work that doesn’t acknowledge the writer’s presence and subjectivity is Katherine Boo’s Behind the Beautiful Forevers. A narrative set in a slum in Mumbai, this book tells the interwoven stories of a dozen or so inhabitants. The scenes are ugly, intimate. The exchanges between characters are utterly human. Only once did I feel the presence of an outside observer, when one mother explains to her son the extent of their poverty as if to someone who has not experienced it his entire life. We learn in the acknowledgments in the back of the book that Boo spent three years in the slum to try to understand the people and their environment. Why doesn’t she ever refer to herself? Why is she invisible? I am reminded of American anthropologist Margaret Mead, who documented what she thought were foreign cultures, but what turned out to be foreign cultures responding to a Western outsider.

So why would writers like Katherine Boo “omit” themselves from the text? Obviously it isn’t a taboo decision; a choice must have been made, at some point in the writing process. How far did Boo venture into her project before this decision was made? I can only speculate as to why this omission may be appropriate, or even beneficial, to the nonfiction work.

If we acknowledge the humanness (and consequent fallibility) of the writer, will readers be less likely to gain a moral “truth”? That is, would the focus of Behind the Beautiful Forevers have been taken away from the tragedies of the slum and instead cast upon the Westerner having to live in these conditions? Would the truth of the story, the truth of the poverty of the Third World, not reach a reader? If Boo aimed for positive change in the world of Western readers, is the “omission” of her subjectivity – thus, a demand for belief – an ethical decision? Or was Boo’s intention simply for her readers to become immersed in another world, minus literary “voiceover” reminding them they’re reading a book?

With these questions in mind, I wonder what the implications are of a self-conscious /self-reflexive narrator? What would I gain (and what would I lose?) by writing with “I”?

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Post Holiday Haul

I did something pretty crazy over the holidays. Yes, I made the leap to the gel manicure. However, while I purchased it, it was actually a gift from my parents for me. Walgreens had a killer deal, and made another coupon available to me, so I paid just about $30 for the starter kit above […]


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Challenge accepted week 5.

So as regular readers know, I’m trying to set myself a challenge each week for the whole of 2014. They can be anything – diet or exercise related, reading books, not using Facebook for a week, etc. One friend has challenged me to go a week without buying anything with plastic, and another has set a challenge of not using my bank card, only withdrawing cash from the bank when I need it.

If you want to look at past challenge posts just click on the tag “challenge accepted”. And if you have any suggestions please comment with them. Rules are pretty basic – it has to be achievable, keep within my vegan ideals, and also it has to be practical e.g I can’t do a week long vow of silence due to work. Each week I’ll post a review of the week gone and let you know what challenge I’m doing this week.

Last weeks challenge was to make a sourdough starter and bake a loaf of bread. I started this one early to give the starter time to develop before attempting bread. It’s gone really well!

I used the River cottage method. It’s a bit wordy on the link but really it’s very simple. I think I baked my first loaf a tad too early as the sour flavour was too strong. I made the sponge on day 6. For the next loaf I fed my starter (named Tim) as normal then made the sponge on the night of day 8 and let the bread rise all of day 9. It was better tasting, and the starter was smelling more yeasty and less acid – in fact on day 9 it smelt like beer!

My second loaf was superior in taste however I made it a little too sticky and didn’t prove it in a tea towel lined dish as recommended. This meant that when I wanted to remove it, it stuck to the (floured!) bowl and I had to handle it too much which knocked some of the volume out. So it was a little more dense than it would have been.

I’ve achieved the lovely crunchy crust I wanted so I’m pretty happy. I will continue my adventures in sourdough.

Lil’ Timmy version 2.0

so, for the week ahead… I’ve spontaneously set this weeks challenge, pushing aside another challenge because I feel I need this one more.

Unfortunately, this is not the case. I am saying I have been watching too much Doctor Who.

I need a bit of a Doctor Detox. I finally decided to get off my butt and watch some of it and I’m four seasons down in a week and a half. There’s plenty more to go so it’s time for a break. I used to read the books multiple times when I was a kid so I’m familiar with the book Doctor, I just hadn’t seen any of the show yet (although the “geek” category on Pinterest keeps me well up to date with it… And supernatural… And Sherlock… None of which I had seen).

I would like to point out that I use my tablet all the time to watch things off my hard drive while I’m cooking or cleaning or whatever. But it’s usually things I’ve seen a gajillion times before (eg Game Of Thrones) and I can just listen – it’s background noise for me. But being that I haven’t seen this before it’s incredibly distracting and instead of washing dishes I’m standing there holding the same plate for 40 minutes.

So my challenge this week is no Doctor Who. And in fact, no TV with one exception – if Gary wants to watch a movie with me on the weekend.

Let’s see how I go!

Sourdough Tim.

So I have made a sourdough loaf.

Tim has given birth!
I’ve been using the River Cottage recipe… Closely enough anyway.

I figured my starter was 6 days old and using Gary’s superior sense of smell we determined the started was at the “yeasty” point. To me it smelt like apricots. Sometimes I have a hard time pinpointing smells. I can tell you if things smell good or bad but can’t always work out exactly what the smell is. It is supposed to start smelling “fruity and yeasty” when it’s ready so between me thinking it smells like apricots (fruit) and Gary saying bread (yeast) we thought it might be time to trial some bread.

I moved Mr Tim to a glass jar. Firstly so I can have my mixing bowl back, and secondly because it’s interesting to be able to mark the starting point for the day and then see how much he grows by the next morning.

I started with mixing some starter and fresh flour into the “sponge” according to the recipe linked above. I used plain flour and a touch of spelt because I ran out of plain flour (whoops).

Mr Spongy sat and bubbled away all night.

Then in the morning I brought some bread flour (higher protein than standard flour, apparently). I added this into the sponge with some oil, salt and water and kneaded it till nice and smooth.

I let the dough sit and rise.

Then I showed the dough who was boss and punched that sucker back. I let it rise once more then the magic happened.

I put a pan in a rather hot oven, popped the bread into the hot pan and sprayed some water in the oven. 40 or so minutes later and it was done.

It did crack near the bottom.

And it was maybe a tiny bit more dense than I would have preferred, but certainly not too dense.

20140203-213803.jpg also apparently there was also a small lump of flour in the middle.

The bread was also a little too much on the sour side but it was fantastic toasted with the lentil Spag Bol that I made last night. All in all I’m pretty happy. And tonight I’m making a start on lil’ Timmy 2.

Challenge accepted week 4.

Whoops. I ended up missing week 3.

There’s no excuses really – work was flat out, I felt unwell and unmotivated and it just didn’t happen.

So back on the horse for week 4. My challenge actually started yesterday so it’s kind of the Monday and Tuesday of week 3 and then all of week 4.

Which works well as my challenge is to grow a sourdough starter and then bake a sourdough loaf. This may take up to a week to develop the starter. Given the forecast heat for the week – high 30s and low 40s it may not take that long.

Meet Tim:

apparently it’s bad luck not to name your starter

I started with about 100g of plain flour and enough (filtered) water to make it the consistency of thick paint. I let that sit most of yesterday to activate then added 100g fresh flour and water to maintain consistency this morning.

Then it’s a matter of refreshing it daily for up to a week by discarding half and adding fresh water and flour each day until it’s ready. Then I can start baking!

I love the idea of sourdough as it’s making bread with just flour, water, and a touch of salt. The starter ferments and grows the natural yeast in the air and that’s what makes the bread rise. It’s vegan in the sense that there’s no animal products involved and great because there’s no additives unless I put them in. Mind you, the starter is often considered to essentially be alive and people refer to feeding it and looking after it. Kind of like making yourself a little bread friend… And then eating it…

Anyway, creepiness aside, it sounds like a fun challenge! I’ll try and report every few days and let you know how Tim is going.