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Sometimes Karma rides in on a vanilla chai latte

When you’re a single mom on a limited budget trying to renovate a home room by room, it’s best to stay out of the casinos. But if you are lucky like I am, and have a great guy in your life who took you there and wouldn’t let you spend any money, then it’s best to stay out of pricey coffee shops when you come home with about the same amount of cash you left with on Saturday.

I convinced myself that I was flush enough to order an almond milk vanilla chai latte extra hot—LARGE—and a bacon and egg breakfast sandwich on the way to my day job because I didn’t lose any money over the weekend. I was just home from my first trip to a casino (sort of a bucket list thing) where I was prepared to lose $100 gambling and also brought an extra $100 for food, silly souvenirs, and shared room expenses. Yeah, I know, I’m not a big spender. But when I got there (maybe a teensy bit late) I didn’t really have time to gamble because I wanted to see the band that was playing and then I wanted to walk around the casino and see how it was done first. Yeah, I know, I’m not that spontaneous either.

So I watched some folks play electronic poker, then I went to the off-track betting salon to get away from the cigarette smoke hanging in the air at 500,000 ppm. But all the races were over (even the ones in Australia), so instead I had a drink and ate a cheese-free flatbread and some French fries. By then I was a little tipsy and more than a little bit tired so all I could do was occasionally hold a $20 bill out to my friends who were playing electronic roulette, and bet on the wrong color or number from time-to-time. We went up and down by five or ten dollars for a very long time. We just kept playing. Man, that stuff can be addicting.

I guess my friends must have thought my money was about as good as my bets, because they never let me pay. I just stuck my $20 bill out toward them, and then stuck it back in my pocket repeatedly. Meantime, my guy found another roulette table and started applying his awesome skills, and in no time he was winning. We cashed out (way too soon probably) and headed to bed and the next day spent our winnings on good cheap breakfast food at noon (with extra sides), left the server a nice tip (and a rubber cockroach for fun), then took our time driving through the countryside home. Yeah, I know, he’s great, right?

Because I had this cash, I kept feeling like I should spend it.  So the first thing I bought was from the vending machine at a gas station. I had seriously never seen rough style condoms or “sexy toys” in a vending machine before, and since I hadn’t officially gambled on anything yet, I thought this might be sorta like playing the slots. So I shoved a bunch of quarters into the machine and got my prizes.  From the looks of the boxes that popped out, these prizes were in those machines for quite a long time. But when I got back to the car, I opened them up.

The rough style condoms where a little disappointing. The package said something about “studded” and “extra pleasure” and the girl on the package certainly looked like she knew a lot about both those things, but like I said, disappointing.

The sexy toy was a little more interesting, though. A package of Horny Goat Weed, a Chinese herb to enhance male and female libido. I’d heard of this herb before, but honestly, I thought the “horny” part referred to the horns of the goat or some kind of bristles on the weed. I had no idea it meant actual horniness. That one, I took home. So I spent $1.50 on a gamble, but I didn’t actually lose anything. So on the trip home, I kept trying to spend money but all I could manage to buy was a pair of Carhartt wool socks, and 4 egg rolls and 3 crab rangoons from Chinese drive-up window. I guess I’m just not that much of a spender. But for some reason, I’m not that much of a saver either.

I had recently, for the first time ever, looked at my budget. I was always afraid to do this because I never really wanted to know where all my money went. That way I could continue to say “I swear, I don’t know where it all goes,” and therefore continue not to know. I really, really liked this strategy. But then I met the carpenter, and it all got complicated. He had a finance degree and loved playing with money and figuring out spending strategies, and watching things grow (more about his awesome gardening skills later). Anyway, he had me write down all the stuff I spend money on and all my monthly bills and pointed out all the things I could do to save money and maybe take a vacation with him sometime. Thankfully, when I mentioned how much I spend on salon services, he told me to not to cut back on those because it was a sign I took care of myself (or maybe a sign he likes things tidy in my garden, if you know what I mean).

Either way, he was right. And one of the things I eliminated from my budget was my trips to the local coffee shop two to three times a week at about $10 each. I had convinced myself I deserved these trips because by the time I got Ben and the neighbor kids stuffed into my 2009 Honda 2-door Coupe with their backpacks and band instruments and then pried them all back out in carpool lane before the mom in the Ford Expedition behind me (with one preschooler carrying an empty pink backpack) could start honking, I was exhausted and needed a pick-me-up before I went to work. Well, you try getting a didgeridoo and a trombone in and out of a trunk that size when it’s already full of the recycling you never got around to taking to the drop-off site.

Besides that, it’s not like I was going to Starbucks or some other national conglomerate rip-off. This was a locally owned coffee shop that had almond milk AND bacon and they needed my support in the form of $8.56 plus tip on my two carpool mornings and Fridays when I celebrated leaving for work early since Ben was at his dad’s.

Here’s where Karma rode in.  This time I thought it was weird because I ordered a large latte instead of a medium, but it still cost $8.56 and almond milk is usually extra. It’s extra everywhere because apparently those of us with lactose problems never lose money at casinos.  Anyway, I didn’t think much of it. All I could think of was how it was okay to go there since I still had all that unspent cash. And then all I could think of was putting my mouth to that yummy vanilla chai deliciousness. So when I did, and it tasted extra sweet, the thought that it was real milk instead of almond milk crossed my mind for a sec, but honestly, I thought it was just the sweet taste of righteousness on my lips.

Three hours later, I’m excusing myself from meetings to hide the painful sounds erupting from my gut, and an hour after that, I’m curled up in the fetal position in the sick room. I still tried to act like everything was okay, but by day-two when the pain increased and my gut screamed in terror something about not having the right enzymes, I knew Instant Karma had knocked me right in the head. I also knew that if I ever wanted to finish my house or go on vacation with that beautiful carpenter who seems to like me, I’d better get myself together. And so, I put the rest of the cash away, and swore off the coffee shop again, and the next time I got paid, moved $500 straight into my savings account. I know, it’s not a budget, right?  But it’s a beginning and like I’ve said many times before, baby steps eventually start to add up.

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Do you love me? Simulator 1.0

20.97 MB
  Continue to app

Publisher Description

Check couples compatibility and have fun with this great prank app!

***Amazing Graphic***

*** Unboliviable Effects***

*** Lot of Fun***

This is a prank app and made for fun purposes only.

Do you love me? Simulator is a free software application from the Recreation subcategory, part of the Home & Hobby category. The app is currently available in English and it was last updated on 2016-04-22. The program can be installed on Android.

Do you love me? Simulator (version 1.0) has a file size of 20.97 MB and is available for download from our website. Just click the green Download button above to start. Until now the program was downloaded 1 times. We already checked that the download link to be safe, however for your own protection we recommend that you scan the downloaded software with your antivirus.

Program Details

Publisher AppHillStudio
Released Date 2016-04-22
Languages English

Category Home & Hobby
Subcategory Recreation

System requirements

Operating systems android

Download information

File size 20.97 MB
Total downloads 1

License model Free
Price N/A

Version History

Here you can find the changelog of Do you love me? Simulator since it was posted on our website on 2016-09-21. The latest version is 1.0 and it was updated on on 2018-01-20. See below the changes in each version:

version 1.0

posted on 2016-04-22

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Release Date: 2016-04-22
Publisher: AppHillStudio
Operating System: android
Type: Free

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AWS Management Console
Getting Started Guide (Version 1.0)

Managing Resources

This content describes legacy Resource Groups. For information about the new AWS Resource Groups service, see the AWS Resource Groups User Guide.

Resource groups provide information about your resources at a glance. You can monitor what is happening with your resources and use the links to take corrective or other actions.

Getting Information About a Resource

The Resource Groups tool displays detailed information about your resources. It also uses a red icon to indicate when a CloudWatch metric has triggered an alarm. This icon appears in multiple places:

  • Next to each resource type in the resource group’s navigation pane

  • In each row of the resource group table

                  Red icons announce alerts and potential problems

To get detailed information about a resource

  1. Open a resource group, as explained in Accessing a Resource Group.

  2. In the navigation pane, select a resource type.

  3. In the resource table, locate the resource that you want to monitor.

    To simplify locating a resource, filter and otherwise customize the table of resources, as explained in Customizing Your Resource Group Display.

  4. Choose the triangle icon to expand the row for a resource to get more information.

Taking Action on a Resource

You might need to act on the information that you see in the resource group table. For example, if an Amazon EC2 instance has triggered an alarm, you might want to go to the CloudWatch console for more details. Or you might need to go to the Amazon EC2 console to correct a problem. Resource Groups makes it easy to get to the controls that you need quickly.

To take action on a resource

  1. Display details for the selected resource, as explained in Getting Information About a Resource.

  2. Do one of the following:

    • To go to the console that controls the resource, choose the blue icon ( ) in the resource’s table row, or choose Manage resource in the details pane.

    • To take action on a CloudWatch alarm, choose the link for the alarm to open the CloudWatch console.


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Share using Windows Runtime Components

[ This article is for Windows Phone 8 developers. If you’re developing for Windows 10, see the latest documentation. ]

With Windows Runtime components, you can now mix programming languages and API technologies to build the apps you envision.

This topic contains the following sections.

What is a Windows Runtime Component?

A Windows Runtime Component, sometimes referred to as a 3rd-party Windows Runtime Component, is a component you build to expose functionality to all supported languages. By using the Windows Runtime, which is supported on Windows Phone 8 and Windows 8, you can create components and call them in a simple and natural way from the language of your choice. The component is built using the Windows Runtime Component template in Visual Studio. Its functionality is output as a .winmd file, which contains the metadata needed to project the functionality automatically into C#, C++, VB and JavaScript.

When to use a Windows Runtime Component when building an app for Windows Phone 8 and Windows 8

The following list describes when you should consider sharing functionality of your app in Windows Runtime Component.

  • Harnessing the power of C++: If your app carries out computationally intensive operations, you might opt to write that code in C++ to achieve optimal performance. If the code that uses this functionality is written in C# or VB, you can package the functionality as a Windows Runtime Component and call the component from your managed code.

  • Crossing language boundaries: In general, using a Windows Runtime Component is a great way to expose your code to all supported languages. This is not necessary if your app is written in one language and you don’t intend to expose any of your functionality to other languages. Instead you can compose your app of regular class libraries, Portable Class Libraries or, depending on the size and complexity of your app, just write the whole app in the same project.

  • Using Direct3D, Win32, or COM APIs: Windows Phone 8 delivers native API to enable powerful gaming scenarios, native networking and access to camera API from native code. To use these API from managed code, you can wrap this functionality in a Windows Runtime Component. For more info, see Supported Win32 APIs for Windows Phone 8 and Games for Windows Phone 8.

  • Using third-party libraries: In the past, it was difficult to consume a third-party library, written in one language, if your app written in another language. With Windows Runtime Components, it is possible to grab a library, wrap it in a Windows Runtime Component and expose the functionality to your app written in any supported language.

The preceding list is some of the scenarios where writing a Windows Runtime Component is a very useful way of sharing code. However, a Windows Runtime Component is not a standard DLL or assembly. There are very specific requirements you must follow when creating a Windows Runtime Component. These requirements include using only allowed data types, handling collections, creating only sealed classes and many more. Visual Studio will help at compile time, and indicate clearly when something goes wrong.

Creating and consuming Windows Runtime Components

The language in which you can write a Windows Runtime Component and the languages that can consume a Windows Runtime Component vary for each platform. The following table summarizes what is supported on Windows Phone 8 and what is supported on Windows 8.

Windows Phone 8

C++, C#, VB

Windows 8

C++, C#, VB

C++, C#, VB, JavaScript

See Also

Other Resources

Windows Phone 8: Using C++ in your Applications (Build 2012)

Build 2012: How to Leverage your Code across Windows Phone 8 and Windows 8

Code Sample: Explore Windows Runtime Components for Windows Phone

Code Sample: PixPresenter


text:
Skip Headers

Oracle9i Data Cartridge Developer's Guide
Release 2 (9.2)

Part Number A96595-01
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Master Index

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Using Cartridge Services

This chapter describes how to use cartridge services, including:

Cartridge Services -- Introduction

This chapter describes a set of services that will help you create data cartridges in the Oracle Extensibility framework.

Using Oracle Cartridge Services offers you these advantages:

Oracle Cartridge Services offers you the flexibility to work across different machine architectures

Flexibility Within Oracle Environments

Another type of flexibility is offered to you in terms of the fact that all cartridge services will work with your Oracle Database irrespective of the configuration of operations that has been purchased by your client.

Language Independence

The use of the Globalization Support services lets you internationalize your cartridge. Language independence means that you can have different instances of your cartridge operating in different language environments.

Tight Integration with the Server

Various cartridge services have been designed to facilitate access with Oracle ORDBMS. This offers far superior performance to client -side programs attempting to perform the same operations.

Guaranteed Compatibility

Oracle is a rapidly evolving technology and it is likely that your clients might be operating with different releases of Oracle. The cartridge services will operate with all versions of Oracle database.

Integration of Different Cartridges

The integration of cartridge services lets you produce a uniform integration of different data cartridges.

The following sections provide a brief introduction to the set of services that you can use as part of your data cartridge. The APIs that describe these interfaces are described in Chapter 9, "Using Cartridge Services"

Cartridge Handle

Cartridge services require various handles that are encapsulated inside two types of OCI handles -

All cartridge service calls take a dvoid * OCI handle as one of the arguments that may be either an environment or a session handle. While most service calls are allowed with either of the handles, certain calls may not be valid with one of the handles. For example, it may be an error to allocate OCI_DURATION_SESSION with an environment handle. An error will typically be returned in an error handle.

Client Side Usage

Most of the cartridge service can also be used on the client side code. Refer to individual services for restrictions. To use cartridge service on the client side, the OCI environment has to be initialized with OCI_OBJECT option. This is automatically effected in a cartridge.

Cartridge Side Usage

Most of the services listed in this document can be used in developing a database cartridge, but please refer to documentation of each individual service for restrictions. New service calls are available to obtain the session handle in a callout. The session handle is available without opening a connection back to the server.

Service Calls

Before using any service, the OCI environment handle must be initialized. All the services take an OCI environment (or user_session) handle as an argument. Errors are returned in an OCI error handle. The sub handles required for various service calls are not allocated along with the OCI environment handle. Services which need to initialize an environment provide methods to initialize it.

The following example demonstrates the initialization of these handles:

OCIEnv *envhp;
OCIError *errhp;
(void) OCIInitialize(OCI_OBJECT, (dvoid *)0, 0, 0, 0);
(void) OCIEnvInit(&envhp, OCI_OBJECT, (size_t)0, (dvoid **)0);
(void) OCIHandleAlloc((dvoid *)envhp, (dvoid **)errhp,   OCI_HTYPE_ERROR, (size_
t)0, (dvoid **)0);
/* ... use the handles ... */
(void) OCIHandleFree((dvoid *)errhp, OCI_HTYPE_ERROR);

Error Handling

Routines that return errors will generally return OCI_SUCCESS or OCI_ERROR. Some routines may return OCI_SUCCESS_WITH_INFO, OCI_INVALID_HANDLE, or OCI_NO_DATA. If OCI_ERROR or OCI_SUCCESS_WITH_INFO is returned, then an error code, an error facility, and possibly an error message can be retrieved by calling OCIErrorGet:

OCIError *errhp;
ub4 errcode;
text buffer[512];
(void) OCIErrorGet((dvoid *)errhp, 1, (text *)NULL, &errcode, buffer,
                   sizeof(buffer), OCI_HTYPE_ERROR);

Memory Services

Memory management is one of the services that is required by cartridge developers.

The memory service allows the client to allocate or free memory chunks. Each memory chunk is associated with a duration. This allows clients to automatically free all memory associated with a duration (at the end of the duration). The duration determines the heap that is used to allocate the memory. The memory service predefines three kinds of durations: call (OCI_DURATION_CALL), statement (OCI_DURATION_STATEMENT) and session (OCI_DURATION_SESSION).

The client can also create a user duration. The client has to explicitly start and terminate a user duration. Thus, the client can control the 'length' of a user duration. Like the predefined durations, a user duration can be used to specify the allocation duration (for example, memory chunks are freed at the end of the user duration).

Each user duration has a parent duration. A user duration terminates implicitly when its parent duration terminates. A parent duration can be call, statement, transaction, session or any other user duration. Memory allocated in the user duration comes from the heap of its parent duration.

The Oracle RDBMS memory manager already supports a variety of memory models. Currently callouts support memory for the duration of that callout. With the extension of row sources to support external indexing, there is a need for memory of durations greater than a callout.

The following functionality is supported:

Maintaining Context

Context management allows the clients to store values across calls. Cartridge services provide a mechanism for saving and restoring context.

Most operating systems which support threads have the concept of thread context. Threads can store thread specific data in this context (or state) and retrieve it at any point. This provides a notion of thread global variable. Typically a pointer which points to the root of a structure is stored in the context.

When the row source mechanism is externalized, you will need a mechanism to maintain state between multiple calls to the same row source.

There is a need to maintain session, statement and process states. Session state includes information about multiple statements that are open, message files based on sessions' Globalization Support settings, and so on. Process state includes shared metadata (including systemwide metadata), message files, and so on. Depending on whether the cartridge application is truly multi threaded, information sharing can be at a process level or system level.

Since a user can be using multiple cartridges at any time, the state must be maintained for each cartridge. This is done by requiring the user to supply a key for each duration.

There are various predefined types of durations supported on memory and context management calls. An additional parameter in all these calls is a context.

Globalization Support

To support multilingual application, Globalization Support functionality is required for cartridges and callouts. NLSRTL is a multiplatform, multilingual library current used in RDBMS and provides consistent Globalization Support behavior to all Oracle products.

Globalization Support basic services will provide the following language and cultural sensitive functionality:

Globalization Support Language Information Retrieval

An Oracle locale consists of language, territory and character set definitions. The locale determines conventions such as native day and month names; and date, time, number, and currency formats. An internationalized application will obey a user's locale setting and cultural convention. For example, in a German locale setting, users will expect to see day and month names in German spelling. The following interface provides a simple way to retrieve local sensitive information.

String Manipulation

Two types of data structure are supported for string manipulation: multibyte string and wide char string. Multibyte string is in native Oracle character set encoding, and functions operated on it take the string as a whole unit. Wide char string function provides more flexibility in string manipulation and supports character-based and string-based operations.

The wide char data type we use here is Oracle-specific and not to be confused with the wchar_t defined by the ANSI/ISO C standard. The Oracle wide char is always 4 bytes in all the platforms, while wchar_t is dependent on the implementation and platform. The idea of Oracle wide char is to normalize multibyte characters to have a fixed-width for easy processing. Round-trip conversion between Oracle wide char and native character set is guaranteed.

The string manipulation can be classified into the following categories:

Parameter Manager Interface

The parameter manager provides a set of routines to process parameters from a file or a string. Routines are provided to process the input and to obtain key and value pairs. These key and value pairs are stored in memory and routines are provided which can access the values of the stored parameters.

The input processing routines match the contents of the file or the string against an existing grammar and compare the key names found in the input against the list of known keys that the user has registered. The behavior of the input processing routines can be configured depending on the bits that are set in the flag argument.

The parameters can be retrieved either one at a time or all at once by calling a function that iterates over the stored parameters.

Input Processing

Parameters consist of a key, or parameter name, type, and a value and must be specified in the following format:

key = value

Parameters can optionally accept lists of values which may be surrounded by parentheses. The following two formats are acceptable for specifying a value list:

key = (value1 value2 ... valuen)
key = value1 value2 ... valuen

A value can be a string, integer, OCINumber, or Boolean. A boolean value starting with 'y' or 't' maps to TRUE and a boolean value starting with 'n' or 'f' maps to FALSE. The matching for boolean values is case insensitive.

The parameter manager views certain characters as "special characters" which are not parsed literally. The special characters and their meanings are indicated in Table 9-1.

Table 9-1  Special Characters and their Meanings
Character Meaning

Comment (only for files)

Start a list of values

End a list of values

Start or end of quoted string

Start or end of quoted string

Separator of keyword and value

Escape character

If a special character must be treated literally, then it must either be prefaced by the escape character or the entire string must be surrounded by single or double quotes.

A key string can contain alphanumeric characters only. A value can contain any characters. However, the value cannot contain special characters unless they are quoted or escaped.

Parameter Manager Behavior Flag

The routines to process a file or a string take a behavior flag that can alter certain default characteristics of the parameter manager. The following bits can be set in the flag to produce the new behavior:

Key Registration

Before invoking the input processing routines (OCIExtractFromFile or OCIExtractFromString), all of the keys must be registered by calling OCIExtractSetNumKeys followed by OCIExtractSetKey. OCIExtractSetKey requires the following information for each key:

Parameter Storage and Retrieval

The results of processing the input into a set of keys and values are stored. The validity of the parameters is checked before storing the parameters in memory. The values are checked to see if they are of the proper type. In addition, if you wish, the values can be checked to see if they fall within a certain range of integer values or are members of a list of enumerated string values. Also, if you do not specify that a key can accept multiple values, then an error will be returned if a key is specified more than once in a particular input source. Also, an error will be returned if the key is unknown.

After the processing is completed, the value(s) for a particular key can be queried. Separate routines are available to retrieve a string value, an integer value, an OCINumber value, and a boolean value.

It is possible to retrieve all parameters at once. The function OCIExtractToList must first be called to generate a list of parameters that is created from the parameter structures stored in memory. OCIExtractToList will return the number of unique keys stored in memory, and then OCIExtractFromList can be called to return the list of values associated with each key.

Parameter Manager Context

The parameter manager maintains its own context within the OCI environment handle. This context stores all the processed parameter information and some internal information. It must be initialized with a call to OCIExtractInit and cleaned up with a call to OCIExtractTerm.

File I/O

The OCI file I/O package is designed to make it easier for you to write portable code that interacts with the file system by providing a consistent view of file I/O across multiple platforms.

You need to be aware of two issues when using this package in a data cartridge environment. The first issue is that this package does not provide any security when opening files for writing or when creating new files in a directory other than the security provided by the operating system protections on the file and directory. The second issue is that this package will not support the use of file descriptors across calls in a multithreaded server environment.

String Formatting

The OCI string formatting package facilitates writing portable code that handles string manipulation by means of the OCIFormatString routine. This is an improved and portable version of sprintf that incorporates additional functionality and error checking that the standard sprintf does not. This additional functionality includes:

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text:
Saint's Day Party Ideas

contributed by Margaret Loesel

Domestic-Church.Com - Fridge Art - Saint's Day Celebrations.

We need to reclaim saint's days as holy days! Many of our local churches have put together some very clever parish parties structured very much like the Christ the King Party.

An All Saint's Day (November 1) party could use all these ideas for a parish children's fair, a home schooling group party or an elementary school fun day. Many of these ideas could be modified and adapted to suit the life story and symbols of another saint and used in a home name-day celebration.

Whether or not you award prizes is up to you, though children do like to come away with something for their efforts. It doesn't have to be elaborate or expensive; an apple, some penny candy, holy cards, or stickers would be happily received. Use your imaginations and have fun!

St. Isadore's Produce Roll

Kids rolled a pumpkin through an obstacle course made of traffic cones or chairs and labeled with temptations.

Knock Down the 7 Deadly Sins

This can be played as a variation on the traditional beanbag toss, with the holes labeled with the seven deadly sins. It can also be set up as a bowling game with plastic bowling pins, or empty pop bottles labeled with the seven deadly sins.

St. John Bosco's Basketball Toss

This game can either use a traditional gymnasium basketball net, a child's adjustable basketball set, or a set of bushel baskets arranged on the floor. If you're using bushel baskets on the floor, you could label them with the gifts of the Holy Spirit, or the Cardinal Virtues, or the Sacraments.

St. Peter's Fishing for Men

A standard fishing game, with fishing rods of dowels or yardsticks, with magnets attached to strings. The 'fish' are fish shaped pieces of cardstock with a paper clip attached for the magnet to grab. The fish could be labeled with the rewards of Heaven.

David and Goliath

The children use a ball of foil as a rock and try to hit Goliath in the head. He is like a scarecrow with a balloon for a head. You don't pop the balloon, just bobble it around. Every hit is a success for David.

St. Francis Xavier Missionary

Children board a boat to different lands (different areas on the course) and answer questions the pagans have about God (catechism questions). The missionaries are armed with a rosary and a crucifix. This was a hit at our parish party!

St. Christopher Race

Each participant carries a child on his back to safely reach the finish line. Larger children carry a smaller child, small children carry a large doll. Have the children race two by two as many times as they want.

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text:
I Won the Lottery in Southern Ohio

Just kidding… even though it’s a great dream and thought.

Like everyone else I bought a ticket. However, I like to think that I really did win the lottery when I decided to get my own lottery and financial blueprint mapped out.

I know that the odds are so high that I am sure I will never win the Ohio Lottery. However, I do know that I had to come up with my own sort of lottery system for when the time comes for retirement and business succession later in life.

I have systematic savings, investments and life insurance and systematic debt reduction plans in place.

Its important that each one of us do this and take a look at our plans at least annually.  So that you can see your blueprint in working order and your eye on the end goal.

If you need help with just starting your financial blueprint and have questions please give our office a call, stop in and have a real conversation. We are here to help and assist make your life a whole lot easier.

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How to Choose The Right Color for your Garage Door

There are numerous things that enhance the curb appeal of your house and garage door is one of them. The outdoor area of your house needs some beautiful and good looking colors. Because exterior helps you to make a good impression on your visitors. You cannot choose boring or white color, when it comes about your garage door.

Having a garage is great, but having a garage door with the right paint is a very daunting task. Most of the homeowners use loud colors to get the attention of others. It is not a good idea. Here are some colorful tips that help you to choose the right color for your garage door.

  • Material type: There are so many things to consider before painting your garage door. The material of garage door will affect your color choice. If you installed a new door, make sure you ask a representative regarding paint. Though, a steel garage door is very easy to paint. But if you have a wooden door, you can mix paint shades and you them.
  • Consider the color of your home: When you decide a color for your door, make sure you consider the outdoor color of your house. If you used a dark color to the outdoor look, use some warmer shades like red or mahogany. It gives you a complementary look.
  • Always test first: It is very hard to decide which color suits your garage door very well and look good. It is highly advisable that you paint a large piece of plywood and see it how it looks. Is it good for your garage door or is it match with your exterior look. If so, you can go with it.
  • Head to the paint showroom: If you want a real feel for the style and color of your garage door that you are choosing, it is recommended by experts that visit the showroom. They show you some sample of paint and you can choose any one of them, according to your house exterior and garage door material.

If you are fed up with your old white or gray garage door and confuse to choose the right color for your door, don’t panic. There are an array of colors available and our professionals assist you with the right information. If you are confused and want a professional assistance, then click here.

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Dense: WordPress Photo Challenge.

A public footpath winds its way over to the ash tree on the horizon and down the other side of the field. In the summer months the path is claimed by nature. Monster nettles, that leave you with more than a slight rash and hogweed make it a safe, wildlife corridor for creatures to raise their young – undisturbed!.

Wildflowers crowd the banks of our local river the Derwent.

A fabulous summer storm brewing with the dense clouds preparing to drench the fields and anyone wandering around beneath.

WordPress ask us to focus on Dense this week.

Click on the above link to see the other entries.

Thanks for dropping by.

Dorne x

WordPress Photo Challenge: It IS Easy Being Green!

This week WordPress asked us to post on the subject of It IS Easy Being Green!

For me… that IS easy as green is one of my favourite colours.

I drive a green car, have a green front door to our cottage, have green/blue eyes, have  some green walls and I wear a lot of this wonderful, relaxing colour.

Spring in springing in my part of Yorkshireland. Although it changes frequently. So, yesterday we spring had arrived and heat. Sunday lunch was taken outside and a bit too much wine was drunk.

Today, a washed – out grey sea of clouds is hanging persistently above our heads. The coats are back on and the garden parasol is not required to shield us from the sun. In fact the sun is nowhere to be seen.

Hey ho… such is life!

But, the trees and landscape are waking up. Fresh green buds are unfolding and that virginal green will soon be everywhere. A green of hope and expectation. Gradually, it will turn to darker shades of green as the summer sets in and then in the fall the greens, oranges and yellows will combine for one glorious, last show. But, that’s for another blog post.

Click on the above link to check out the other takes on this great subject.

Time I wasn’t here. I wish I could be here more, but times are a bit more challenging these days and I’m not very good at juggling! But, I’m practising and practising. And I never give in!

Thanks for dropping by.

Dorne x

Make a wish: my take on the WordPress photo challenge.

Choose a star, a cloud, a tree, a sunset, a bird, a butterfly… in fact just about anything that appeals to you and grabs you by the heart.

Make a good, true wish and write it down on a piece of paper.

Don’t make anyone your sex slave or poison anyone… save that for your story – writing!

Burn a candle as you write your wish. ( Please be candle safe and don’t set your home on fire.)

Fold the paper up and keep it with you at all times. ( Ideally on your person – but not there!)

Think about it often and just as you’re drifting off to sleep.

But, don’t break the magic and tell anyone about your wish. ( They’ll probably think you’re mad anyway!)

Wait for the magic to happen!

If it doesn’t happen…

  • It wasn’t meant to be
  • Things like that are actually illegal
  • No – they don’t belong to you
  • You need to be more specific
  • Try again… and untie them… immediately!

This is my take on the theme of Wish – this week’s WordPress Photo Challenge

Click on the link to check out the other entries. Allow yourself plenty of time to read and enjoy.

Thanks for dropping by.

Dorne x

WordPress Photo Challenge: The Road Taken.

So, when I’m out with the daisy dog I’m thinking and making my plans. It’s my time to get a hold of myself and methodically wade through life’s mess and confusion.

Most mornings I climb the hill opposite our cottage. We’re not talking a mountain here. The climb is gradual in places and more challenging in other parts. I believe the act of pushing up the hill pushes the fresh air through my stuffy, bunged up head and may be beneficial in helping to calm down my daily headache/migraine. My aching leg muscles ache for a healthy reason!

At the top of our climb, the hound and I are afforded, if the day is clear, wide views of our part of the valley. Looking southwards you can see the Yorkshire Wolds ( much-loved and painted by the artist David Hockney).

To the far south – east are the cliffs, just below Scarborough bay.

With vistas like this I am pulled headlong into their magnificence. The skylarks warble high above me and clouds chase each other across the huge skies. My thoughts silenced: I am at once with nature. The Daisy dog watches for anything that moves in the fields.

Then we start the descent down to the valley. My thoughts and goals become more positive and achievable. I could walk forever on this: the road taken.

This is my entry to this week’s WordPress Photo Challenge

Click on the link to see the other takes on this subject.

Thanks for dropping by.

Dorne x

WordPress Photo Challenge: A Good Match.

In an attempt to feel a bit better and lose some weight I’ve been gluten-free since the beginning of this year. This week sees my hubby’s seventieth birthday and so today we gathered the kids and their kids together and headed off to our local fish restaurant – for an early birthday bash.

Some would argue that this is hardly diet food… but, what the heck. I’ll be walking the Daisy dog that bit faster and further – to walk it off. ( She can’t wait for that!)

This week the WordPress photo challenge asks us to think about a good match

I can very happily tell you that this delicious combination of perfectly, crispy gluten-free batter, home-made chips and proper mushy peas were a very good match indeed.

Click on the above link to check out the other entries to this challenge.

As for me? I need to get walking!

Thanks for dropping by.
Dorne x

Against the Odds: WordPress Photo Challenge. Roe deer.

So – I’m out with the Daisy dog (a retired racing greyhound) in what I have christened the magical valley. Not a very original name and I really must come up with something more imaginative. I can guarantee that I will spot something rather special when I amble down to it… through the glorious, thick mud at the moment.

Just a few of the things on my spotted whilst walking in the magical valley  are:

  • Goshawk
  • Red Kite
  • Barn owl
  • Kestrel
  • Hare… one – the size of a small dog
  • Rabbit
  • Rat
  • Pheasant
  • Deer
  • Buzzard

And a cast of thousands.

Back to the subject in question… Against the Odds, which is this week’s topic for the WordPress photo challenge

As the Daisy dog and I stand in the valley I spot two female roe deer in the trees, just above us. I scramble for my phone, with said dog straining on her lead to sniff at yet another blade of grass. I have to quickly delete some images as I’ve rather cleverly filled up the memory. ( What really?  Now of all times?) I wholeheartedly expect the deer, who are well aware of our presence, to move on at any moment. They don’t and I manage to get some shots… of their bottoms (white)

Does my white bum look big in this?
Does my white bum look big in this?

and their heads… seemingly growing out of the trees.

An unusual tree.
An unusual tree.

I curse the fact that I haven’t got my proper camera with me ( better zoom), but hey … I’ve managed to grab some shots of them.

On cue, they bound off over the hill and the Daisy dog and I amble back home. Inside I’m skipping and doing cartwheels!

I’d say the chances of me getting any shots of those two beautiful animals was Against the Odds!

If you want to check out the other entries for this challenge, just click on the link above.

Thanks for dropping by.

Dorne x

Solitude: WordPress challenge.

The folk at WordPress are asking us to give them our definition of solitude, for this week’s challenge

Here’s my take on it.

I value time spent alone, with my own thoughts. I guess I’m lucky in that I can find my solitude in a room full of people, or a busy environment, if I choose to. I just retreat into myself. Quite literally in a world of my own.

But, to get myself a really big dose of solitude – nature is my addiction.

hog weed seeds 1cropped-big-skies-651.jpg

view smoothcropped-blog-art-7.jpg

big skies 33Favourite lane

Whether I have an hour to roam around, or a snatched five minutes, nature works her magic every time with me.

Solitude to me is that sense of truly being connected to your body, soul and mind. The three can so often be off in different directions. To fuse them together brings with it a sense of solitude and peace. A heightened sense of just being… a pretty cool fix, I think.

We enter this world by ourselves. We live alone with our thoughts and we depart this world by ourselves.

Solitude is a gift.

I’m looking forward to seeing what other folk come up with… click on the above link to see for yourself.

Thanks for dropping by.

Dorne x


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Not until “o doju e” (in this context meaning; the point when you can take no more/ the peak of a matter), will you cry out in aggression as it were or desperation, showing a sign of urgency….

Situations arise in our lives that need not be tackled gently. Now is the time to arise and Speak to that situation!
Decree what you want and it shall be established unto you!

Only if you’re a child of GOD that GOD HIMSELF knows of course! If not, register yourself as one today and now…
Simple, go to GOD as you are, confess your sins, accept Jesus into your heart and life and totally surrender to HIM.

Miracles are coming your way as you speak and decree in the name of Jesus!

Blessed week ahead!

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Turn your brain into black hole

here it goes, here it comes! Today I want to write about Graham’s number which is very interesting number and highest number which has some usage in mathematics.

Ok first of all, what is its purpose?
Imagine square where all vertices are connected. You can connect them by two colors, blue and red. You are trying to avoid one special pattern which you can see behing the mathematician Ron Graham who invented this number about which I will talk in a while. So those points can not be connected by single color the thing is that when you increase the dimension it is little harder (you already now everything about dimensions if you read my last post).
When you have 3rd dimension as you can see on the right there are 8 vertices.
This means that there are 28 lines between those dots.
Yes it is possible to avoid the special configuration. When you continue to fourth dimension you can still do it but here comes the problem. In fourth dimension there are 2^120 possible ways to color this cube. This is such a large number that no computer can solve it, in decent amount of time. Now you need to make some better way to solve it. Through some better way which I dont know mathematicians got up to 13th dimension, now they dont know maybe it is possible maybe not but the number when we are COMPLETELY sure that it is not possible is Graham’s number.

To show you how large is Graham’s number I first of all have to explain Knuth’s up-arrow notation.
That’s about it when you have one arrow. It gets better when you have two:
3↑↑2=3^3=27 , easy.
3↑↑3=3^3^3=3^27=over 7 trillions   \begin{matrix}    a\uparrow\uparrow b & = {\ ^{b}a}  = & \underbrace{a^{a^{{}^{.\,^{.\,^{.\,^a}}}}}} &     = & \underbrace{a\uparrow (a\uparrow(\dots\uparrow a))}  \\       & & b\mbox{ copies of }a     & & b\mbox{ copies of }a   \end{matrix}
Lets see three of them:
2↑↑↑3=2↑↑(2↑↑(2↑↑2)=2↑↑65536   \begin{matrix}    a\uparrow\uparrow\uparrow b= &     \underbrace{a_{}\uparrow\uparrow (a\uparrow\uparrow(\dots\uparrow\uparrow a))}\\     & b\mbox{ copies of }a   \end{matrix}
Easy it continues and it gets hella huge.
So when I found out that Graham’s number needs arrow notation to be written I was like: “Easy, there will be few arrows, arrow notation is such extreme tool.”
Then after I found out how big is Graham’s number I was just like: “Oops!” You will se why.
So lets define the number g1

=3↑↑↑(3↑↑(3↑27) i think that this is enough for ilustration.
now lets define g2=3↑↑↑↑↑↑↑…3 number of arrows equals to g1

Surprised? We are not even in beginning.
g3=3↑↑↑↑…3 number of arrows equals to g2 … so you know the process, this continues up to g64 which is Graham’s number.

Ok this is extremely large number and to remind you it is number of dimensions, which means that the combinations are even much higher, not kidding.
The Graham’s number has real meaning but I am not really able to understand so if you want to check it, somewhere in the video Ron Graham explains it. Also Numberphile has some other videos about it so check them out.
Next time I will write about Ackermann function. After that you will get this XKCD joke:
Thanks for reading,

PS: I found lot of people trying to liken stuff to Graham’s number. Dont even try that, you wont get very close.

2 thoughts on “Turn your brain into black hole

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Why 1-1+1-1+1-… could equal to 1/2!

this post is made according to Numberphile video which is pretty cool and you can check it out here.

Lets jump right to the problem of sum: 1-1+1-1+1-1+…

The problem with this sum is that it does not converge into some value like this sum:

We know this because for infinite amount of adding we get 2. The problem appears when you have sum like the one above which does not converge at all but rather oscilates between 0,1,0,1,0,1,0,1…

To get the solution we can do few things, we can give brackets there:

(1-1)+(1-1)+(1-1)+… this gives us 0 because all the brackets equal to 0.

1+(-1+1)+(-1+1)+(-1+1)+… this equals to 1 because all the brackets are 0 but there is this 1 on the start.

There is third solution:

In the video they do not say much more about it but I found that this is a method called Cesàro summation. This is just a method so yes you can say that this sum equals to 1/2 according to the method.

In math stack exchange they say this. And on wikipedia they say that Grandi’s series (1-1+1-1+1…) can not be solved like this:

“It can be shown that it is not valid to perform many seemingly innocuous operations on a series, such as reordering individual terms, unless the series is absolutely convergent.”

Though this is probably that much I can say for this sum since I do not yet understand the higher mathematics involved in all those proofs.

4 thoughts on “Why 1-1+1-1+1-… could equal to 1/2!

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Learn More

At certain times we are faced with challenges affiliated with drainage issues and these problem's offer disruptions and serious complications as well as hazards to our health.

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Home > Uncategorized > Reflections on my Seventieth Birthday

Reflections on my Seventieth Birthday

January 28, 2010

Eeh-gods, I’m seventy.  How did that happen?  These are some of my reflections as I enter true elderhood.

First, I apologize to anyone writing me with some excellent questions and requests that remain unanswered because of the sheer volume of emails coming in.  Meredith and I also confess to being old-fashioned by not embracing the latest in computers, communications and marketing bells and whistles in Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, or this or that software, cell phone, Wi-Fi, Blackberry, maintaining mailing lists, etc.  And I almost always trusted the business world but never really “got ahead” as an entrepreneur before we moved to Ecuador.  I trusted others in marketing and promotion too much.  So, mostly these days, I’ve been doing my own thing, with the understanding support of Meredith and many others to whom I’m grateful, and sometimes I may act aloof and unsocial as I work toward my goals.

In other words, I am a creature primarily of the 20th century sometimes kicking and screaming into the 21st century.  As a new elder, I can now understand the point of Marshall McLuhan’s prescient remark that “the medium is the message.”  But for me, the message is the message, although in today’s tower of Babel, it’s often difficult to spread the word now that we here in remote nature are largely cut off from state-of-the-art media and business practices.  In this world of competition, distraction and consumerism, I constantly ask myself, which tail is wagging my dog today?  What is the larger context for what we’re doing?

I defiantly search for deeper meanings behind why the suffering of human suicide and genocide can go on in the presence of possibilities such as free energy and the power of consciousness, healing, meditation and the positive intention of bonded groups.  Mr. Obama has obviously not (yet anyway) come anywhere near heeding my plea posted on www.brianoleary.info a year ago, when I had still expressed hope that he would lead us into a world of systemic change.  He seems to have taken the opposite path, no doubt under the secretly-delivered duress and direction of the powers-that-be who ever more consolidate their own hegemony at the expense of nature and everyone else.  Yet our programs for 2010  will reflect a determination to persevere in our work unabated, pouring on all the coals—unless or until the music stops.  Meanwhile, there is always hope. We live our precious lives one day at a time, with gratitude for our health, the beautiful surroundings, and the good guests who come here—and fulfilling our purpose to support Mother Earth.

I’ve always sought solutions to our challenges outside the box, for example, my childhood desire to go to the Moon or Mars (which I would have accomplished with a slight re-scripting of history). Now my passion is to save the rainforest from exploitation by means of responsibly-managed radical innovation.  I seek to replace our sense of value towards those things that will truly serve us, for example clean energy and pure and abundant water. Most of my academic colleagues don’t agree, and so I’ve been the recipient of varied evaluations of who I am or who I appear to be—for instance, “Brian, don’t be so open-minded your brains spill out,” or “Brian is an iconoclast with a checkered career.” So, yes, the first half of my life was focused on exploring outer space as a visionary in mainstream settings, and the second half of my life brought me back to Earth and its precious environment, always seeking answers beyond conventional thinking and implementing these answers in unconventional ways.

Regarding my seventieth, I have a lot of reflections.  Thirty, forty and fifty were frivolous occasions but sixty and seventy were more philosophical with some offbeat attempts at sattvic satire thrown in, such as pig puppet theatre .  I recall that at thirty, I acted out transforming myself from being a long-haired hippie to a be-suited, martini-swilling Member of Society, symbolic of my new responsibilities as an adult with a career and young family.  My fortieth was spent in a snowbound Appalachian Mountain Club cabin in New Hampshire drinking Mother Goldstein, Silver Satin and Thunderbird wine with buddies.  My fiftieth was a large semi-surprise party with many friends and a live birthday pig sporting balloons rented for the occasion.  My sixtieth was celebrated at an ashram with a ceremony in the Hindu tradition of going out into the world to teach—something I continue to do to this day.

But I see the seventieth as coming into true elderhood.  On the one hand, some of my most fervent wishes in this lifetime have been to establish and fulfill a destiny of service to the world.  I am glad that I can now review a life mostly well-lived and a legacy to leave to younger others.  On the other hand, I often feel sad about a deteriorating and unsustainable environment and, sometimes I lament an aging physical body to match it.   I especially feel sad about how humans have gone so far off track.  It seems that if we want to make a difference in the world, we will have to confront our individual and collective dark sides.  The malevolence of the powers-that-be and their suppressions of new paradigm possibilities are unpleasant but necessary to face.  I feel a rush and giddiness of foreboding that we may need to enter a deep darkness before we can emerge into the light, and I sense many others feel this too.  So the best I can do is to observe, acknowledge, and, if necessary, encounter that darkness, while I continue to work with the light, to continue learning and teaching for as long as I’m in this body.  No retirement condos or golfing for this kid.

One thing that I’ve learned in this long lifetime is that life just doesn’t happen to us.  Whatever you think or don’t think will happen in 2012 or whenever, we won’t experience it all by simply watching it happen in a passive awe or wonder or fear or boredom.  We are not only spectators:  We are all co-creators of our future if we so choose to participate.  Otherwise we all really face a grim future.  So at Montesueños my experiential educator friend of thirty years, Terry Tillman and I will be co-facilitating a workshop, Transforming the Dreamer on March 19-23.  This resident retreat intensive is designed to evoke action for participants to become responsible transformational agents for the Earth.

The magic of Montesueños unfolds but the daily activities and exchanges are not mere happenstance.  They are greater, more organized by a higher consciousness than I or we could have done by ourselves.  Life seems to be a balance between letting it happen and taking actions–cooperating with a higher purpose that is sometimes elusive to our ego-selves.  In my experience, a corollary is that, while the emotions of daily life wax and wane, as always, the deeper feelings come up in dreams.  They are dramatic and might be a preview to the “other side” toward which I inevitably head.  I go to bed early at night, around 8, read until 9, dozing off to my other vivid astral life, as if I were in both places moving back and forth between them in a daily rhythm.  My Dreamtime has become increasingly important, not just to interpret but to experience.

It is becoming closer to the time for me to pass on the dream of a healed Earth to trusted others younger than myself. My legacy is not only the co-creation of Montesueños.  It is taking action on a higher purpose to enact true sustainability on the planet I’ll be departing one day in the not-too-distant future.  My seventieth is a segue to larger, more focused actions to achieve a sustainable abundance while I’m still alive and breathing.  I feel more urgency to do that than ever before.

When I recently spoke at the University of Loja (in Ecuador), I said to the students that they will need to take up some of the work I’m talking about, that it’s my legacy and their heritage.  I also said that a 20-year-old now would be my age in the year 2060.  What kind of world will those of us left behind and newly born experience in 2060?  The choices ahead will be a co-creation among ourselves and with Mother Nature.

To that end, my seventieth celebration literally kicks off the foundation of an Ecuador Initiative  and Innovation Alliance to create “innovation sanctuaries” for inventors and creative others to develop truly clean technologies that could replace the dirty extraction of nonrenewable resources (e.g., oil, gold, copper, wood, water, unsustainable agriculture, etc.).  In this way, Ecuador and other nations could become economically viable while leaving the indigenous peoples and bio-diverse rainforests, highlands and wetlands alone. That is the dream which has barely begun, and it will be for others to carry out the work in future decades.

But time to shift our gears is running short.  To help speed up the process of change we are feeling, I have just accepted an invitation to serve as Official Director of Ecuador Affairs for the United Nations Intergovernmental Renewable Energy Organization, effective immediately.  I take this position not only as an honor but as an opportunity to take part in a new level of access and education of the great possibilities that lie ahead by transitioning to a renewable energy society both here in Ecuador and worldwide.

So I want to stick around and look after my health as long as possible.  In support of this, I stopped drinking alcohol more than a year ago.  This and other behavior changes serve me well.  It couldn’t be any other way, really.  I hope what Meredith and I have created here will go a long way in founding efforts to change the paradigm, for this has been the purpose closest to our hearts.

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Beamer’s Knob

~ Beamer’s Knob ~

Just past dusk
fireflies sparkling
Against a majestic wood
A little girl
Just about five
Screams in delight
At the moonlit night
Great Uncle and Dad
Talking game
The little girl
Trying to catch night-bugs in vain
Beagle puppies barking
And chasing shoestrings
As she rolls down a steep hill
A starry eyed girl
Mom and Grandma in the kitchen
Little brother by Daddy’s hand
The little girl laying in the grass
Falls in love with the stars.

This poem was wrote about my Great Uncle Ballard’s Beamer place on Beamer’s Knob.  This is dedicated to my Great Uncle Ballard and my Grandmother Higgins who have both passed on to the Summerlands.

Stormy Weather

~ Stormy Weather ~

The rain was icy
The wind was chill
The lady stood there on the hill
Immune to the freezing rain coming down
Wearing nothing but a silken gown
Her eyes fixed to a spot on the horizon
A flash of metal had caught her vision
Could it be, after all of this time
That her prince was coming to set things right?
Long ago he went away
A kiss of promise was all he gave
No words or letters to seal their pact
Nothing but a kiss to promise that he would be back
All these nights she has been alone
Looking out into the unknown
Dreaming dreams of a life that could be
If her prince returned on his gallant steed
The sound of hoof-beats jarred her mind
And took her back to that kiss goodbye
Off to war is where he had gone
No word was said as to his return
Just a kiss was all he left
Just a kiss that lingered on her breath
Sounds of laughter brought her around
To the vision before her on the ground
Her prince was on his bended knee
With the ring of Claddaugh for her to receive
Tears escaped her as she touched his face
The promise in his hand she happily embraced
The sign of forever, the circle of time
The Irish wedding band now joined their lives
Hearts entwined, hands together
Into ever after in the midst of stormy weather.

Winter’s Night

Meet me by the wooden bridge
Meet me as twilight falls
Carry with you a single white rose
And I shall wear the colors of fall.

Meet me in my dreams
Meet me just past midnight
Carry with you a candle
And I shall wear a gown of white.

Let us escape to dreamland
Let us enjoy our enchantment
Let us embrace our fantasy
Let us partake in destiny.

Meet me by the wooden bridge
Just at the edge of the wood
Meet me just past twilight my love
Listen for the sound of my flute
Carry with you a single white rose
And I shall wear the colors of fall
Meet me on a winter’s night
And claim me as your own.

Sleepy Shadows

Sleepy shadows
Take Me home
Back to the quiet of the forlorn
I will dance in midnight meadows
Alone with moonlight and my sleepy shadows
living life is much to hard
Facing reality will leave you with scars
So I will dip in darkened streams
And I will fly on dark blue wings
My sleepy shadows take me home
To the quiet world of the forlorn.

She Saw The Moon

~She Saw The Moon~

A sigh escapes from bluish lips
A feather falls
to the dungeons floor
A hand so pale
Touches leaden bars
A tear so small
Is lost in the dark
A threadbare gown
Once frothy white lace
A shock of hair
Covers her face
She looks at the only glimpse of the Moon
Allowed in this Demons keep
Her feathers once of midnight blue
Now fall to the floor in ones and twos
A pile she uses to place her head
As nightmares take her away

Bonnie Jean Higgins ~ 2003


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Tag Archives: olive fruit oil deeply repairative hair pak

Haul: Kiehl’s Face and Hair Products

Kiehl's Products for hair and face

I bought these yesterday at the 3rd Avenue location.

It has been raining every day in NY. Sometimes a mild drizzle, but more often than not – monsoon like downpours.  Also I am currently on a no-make up ban (more on that later), so I walked into the store really looking like I desperately needed these two products.  >.<

Both are highly reviewed so I felt confident getting them despite their ‘venturing into expensive territory’ pricing of $23 and $25.  Usually I like to spend no more than $10 … plus or minus a dollar or two.

So far I’ve used the hair conditioner once and yup, it is very good.  : )

I kept refusing the SA’s offers of free samples, thinking it would be similar to Sephora’s where they scoop some out from a jar and put it into that little plastic container … Very glad she slipped one into my bag at the last minute because it has it’s own normal packaging!  Nice!

click on the links below to see detailed ingredients and reviews :

in other news …

I’m done with my final, took nostalgic photos of campus, and have completed my 2nd B.A. in Communication Sciences and Disorders.  If I round up juuust a smidgeon, I can say I have a cumulative gpa of 4.0!  I will be going to graduate school in Brooklyn.  Hopefully grad school will be a whole different animal as opposed to undergraduate courses on steroids.  Some of my professors have said it would be the former so … here’s to hopin’!


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Open Gallery

2019 Aston Martin Vanquish spied looking cool in Lapland

If the DB11 is a gentleman, the Vanquish will be a hooligan

Following the launch of the DB11 and Vantage, Aston Martin continues the complete renewal of its range with the next-generation Vanquish.

While the Vanquish still on sale today is a souped-up DB9, the upcoming model will be based on the DB11. These images of a Vanquish prototype snapped by our spy photographers in Finland's Lapland prove that, as the car looks very similar to the DB11.

There are, however, some details that set it apart, and that's normal because the Vanquish will spearhead Aston Martin's GT lineup. For example, you may notice the different bumpers that look way more aggressive than the DB11's, the completely different headlights and taillights, as well as the wider sills and massive rear diffuser — to name only the most prominent changes. We have to state the obvious here and say that the Vanquish looks extremely cool, something the -25 degrees Celsius temperature has nothing to do with.

The aggressive design hints at a performance upgrade over the DB11, and that will come courtesy of a tuned version of the 5.2-liter twin-turbocharged V12 engine. While in the DB11 the power plant makes 600 hp, in the Vanquish it will deliver significantly more firepower as the super GT will have to go against models such as the Ferrari 812 Superfast, Mercedes-AMG S 65 Coupé and Bentley Continental GT Speed.

Expect the Aston Martin Vanquish to be officially unveiled late next year or in early 2019.

In the mood for more British grand tourers? Check out the latest Bentley Continental GT.

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A little toolkit to help make progress explicit..

Progress mat, put these back to back and laminate..

Making progress explicit mat

10 p’s

Evaluation tree– I have several versions of this (trees, thermometers, ladders and even the Burj Khalifa) basically anything you can climb! The basic idea..students place a post-it note on the tree according to their confidence level against the success criteria. Encourage them to independently move themselves up as the lesson progresses.

Evaluation Tree

Reflection matReviewing progress against the lesson objectives


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Oh come on, this "bubbling" that DDG now does is annoying. I just searched "ebay hackers", without asking for !news or anything, and I get three pages of pure news, then actual search returns. Stop it! Bad DDG!

Is "Instant Answers" the bug/feature that's doing this? Why would I want that, if it was?

Nope. How do I turn off the "targetted" returns?
posted by <hidden> • 3 years and 9 months ago Link


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Spread a little love

November 7, 2012 by gemmalunn

This is a bit of a cheesy post but I thought I’d spread some warmth and positivity on this breezy winter morning.

I’m having one of those weeks – not the frustratingwhat am I doing? weeks (that was last week!) but an I love my jobhow could I ever want to do anything different week! For the past 6 months I’ve really been trying to focus on getting lower level students more involved with activities. I teach mixed ability classes of up to 36 students, so trying to challenge more advanced students whilst keeping lower levels engaged is somewhat demanding!  I’ve been consciously trying to give extra, individual support and plenty of encouragement.  I also asked higher level students to help the lower level ones on their tables, thus creating a pack of mini teachers!  They relished the chance to help explain words and tasks and it’s lovely to see them helping each other.

And it’s paid off, with my grade 3 girls (15-16yr olds) at least.  I had a ‘moment’ a couple of months ago when during a speaking activity I noticed every single girl was getting involved, speaking English and enjoying it, I was so proud it even bought a tear to my eye!  I think it was Harmer (2005) who said, after stating the challenges of teaching teens, that there’s nothing more rewarding than watching a group of teens getting involved with an activity; and he’s right! I made sure I gave the whole class a lot of praise at the end and I have had high levels of participation with grade 3s ever since.

Grade 2s (14-15yrs) have been a different matter, they are your typical teenagers and I do sympathise; I can still remember what it was like being a teenager. Last week I was feeling really frustrated as I’ve been putting so much effort into these classes trying different activities and techniques to keep them interested and participating but I was getting poor results and running out of ideas; thinking maybe there was nothing I could do they are just teenage girls! However, I bought this up at Saturdays Reflective Practice meeting and it helped to talk about the problem and get some perspective.

So, I went into yesterday’s grade 2 class feeling slightly more optimistic, (even more so after reading Ratnavathy’s post ‘the eyes of your mind’). This particular class have been branded by other teachers as ‘the worse class’, yes they are challenging but I’m not for negatively labelling students and classes, surely this only exacerbates their behaviour.  Anyway, it was the 6th and last time I was doing the lesson that after much reflecting and tweaking still hadn’t been a great success. So imagine my delight when this class, albeit in a noisy way, happily and enthusiastically completed all the activities and played the game properly- the first class to do so! Finally, a breakthrough! I told the class how proud I was of them and that they had been the best class in the last week (something I’m sure they don’t hear very often) they all cheered and looked pretty pleased with themselves and left saying ‘thank you teacher’ and ‘I love you’!

I returned to my desk and happily told my co-teacher the good news; she was relieved as I think she thought I was about to walk out last week! That’s when she told me she had spoken to some grade 2 classes and told them I was ‘sad and depressed’ I suppose she couldn’t say frustrated and pissed off! They were shocked and worried, then it made sense as why so many otherwise nonchalant grade 2s had been saying hi and smiling at me lately, clearly worried!

Maybe the breakthrough came about as a result of my persistent efforts or maybe because of my co-teacher appealing to students’ more sensitive side. I suspect it’s both. This particular journey has taught me a lot, above all to never stop caring or showing your students that you care.

2 thoughts on “Spread a little love

  1. Dearest Gemma,

    I was completely astounded to find my name here on your blogpost! And the best part is I was actually so absorbed into what you’ve written and feeling the way you feel…:) What an honor it is to be mentioned here, thank you so much!

    And THERE YOU GO! You see? Eventually the class DID warm up, they did achieve something. Most of the time it’s the element of time. We need to give learners the time. More often than not, we’re so hard on ourselves and our expectations upon ourselves as teachers, but this is not the real deal, is it? I hear you completely because I do the same thing as well!

    AND…..also, I don’t quite agree with what you’ve said about “MAYBE” the change came about with your persistence…OF COURSE it came about with your persistence. You’ve done it girl! I can feel how fulfilling this must be for you.

    So give yourself a pat on the back, and take a break, have a nice, warm cup of coffee on this cold cold day. And another one on behalf of me.

    Oh yea……please call me Ratna from now on. Friends are not supposed to be very formal with one another, right? 🙂

    have a jolly molly day, Gemma, because you deserve it!

    Warmth and lots of warmth,

    • gemmalunn says:

      Hi Ratna 😉

      Thanks for your kind words and encouragement I really agree that we need to give learners time and be more confident that our efforts will pay off!
      Hope you had a great day,

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The Holistic Blueberry

Living life healthily and happily

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#LoveMadeVisible: Giveaway Roundup!

It’s been a LOVE-ly February here on Eastern Penn Points! Several of our contributors have generously offered giveaways – everything from critiques to books to artwork. Below, you’ll find links to the giveaway posts. Winners will be announced on Wednesday, February 28, so comment on each post to be sure you’re entered to win!

*Win a Critique by ARA and Blogmaster Lindsay Bandy!

*Win a copy of the book FOR BREAKFAST I ATE A PEANUT CHEW, illustrated by Berrie Torgan-Randall!

*Double Giveaway! Win a critique OR a print of DANCE AMONG PAINTED TREES by Charlie Eve Ryan!  (There will be two winners! Your odds are great!)

*Win a 6-pack of Punny Valentines (not just for V-day – these cards are perfect for telling someone you love them any day of the year!) by Cynthia Oswald!

This could be YOU!

That’s all for now!

Stayed tuned for the winners, as well as some exciting new event announcements!

Posted in #LoveMadeVisible, Uncategorized | Leave a comment

#LoveMadeVisible: Love’s Lessons, By Diane Hanington

If you had a love and the love was lost

There’s a lesson in the loss of that love

What you can learn from a love that’s been lost

Can lead you toward a larger love

If the lesson you will learn from a lost love isn’t learnt

Then the love that was lost was just lost

But if the lesson from the lost love is learnt

Then the love lost wasn’t a loss

Don’t lose the lessons you learned from lost love

Those lessons heal the love that was lost

One day you’ll leap into a lasting love

So long to that lingering love loss

About Diane: I’m a writer of picture books and middle grade books. I am currently working on my first MG fantasy novel. Besides writing, my passions are watching the Tennis Opens, playing tennis, researching my genealogy, browsing flea markets, crossword puzzles, and reading.

Posted in #LoveMadeVisible, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , | 6 Comments

#LoveMadeVisible: Dinosaurs Living in My Hair 2, by Anni Matsick

Here’s a spread by Anni Matsick done for the sequel to Dinosaurs Living In My Hair! by Jayne M. Rose-Vallee, showing five friends who love sharing time together. Kids spend a lot of time focusing on their differences. DLIMH2 takes a look at what happens when five friends discover what they have in common: first grade challenges, curly hair, and . . . dinosaurs? The fun begins when these “surprising similarities” help them find the courage to stand up to classroom bullying. The book will be available this spring from Rosevallee Creations.

Anni Matsick is a children’s illustrator who lives and works in Boalsburg, Pennsylvania. She was a presenter at eastern PA SCBWI’s 2017 Fall Philly. Two of her watercolor paintings of children are included in Splash 19: Illusion of Light to be published this spring by North Light Books. You can see the most recent picture books illustrated by Anni on her website at www.annimatsick.com

Posted in #LoveMadeVisible, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , | 11 Comments

#LoveMadeVisible: A Volcano Dessert, by Laura Marinakos

Vanilla, chocolate, strawberry
Pick any flavor you love!
In fact, pick two, or even three
No need to stop with one!
Grab a bowl
Make sure it’s large
Try not to make a mess!
Fill it up with melty cream
This stickiness is fun!
Hot fudge, caramel, butterscotch
Feel free to pour them all!
Watch the stream run down the sides
Look, a volcano dessert!
A burst of whipped cream
Is all that you need!
And a sprinkle of peanuts
You must!
One more step
You’re almost done
Add a cherry or two to the top!

Laura Marinakos is an aspiring picture book writer who was first introduced to writing poetry for children during a graduate course in children’s literature. Her love for poetry has only grown from there. What Laura most enjoys are poems that evoke a true and deep image of childhood and all of the emotions that go along with it.

Posted in #LoveMadeVisible, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 7 Comments

#LoveMadeVisible: Confused Valentine, by Erik Ammon

I got this Valentine

In my bag,

But I’m not sure why.

I do not like her,

And she’s mean.

She stole my jello,

And she pushed me in the mud.

But, she gave me this card

That says I’m hers.

I peek over and

She’s staring at me.

Here she comes

Over to my desk

(I hide the candy that I like best).

And the next thing she does,

Is the worst thing yet:

She gives me a hug and

Says, “You’re my Valentine.”

Erik Ammon is a father, husband, teacher, and writer.  He had received numerous rejections from many agents and publishing houses, until 2017.  Both of his previously self-published picture story books, The Rabbit Who Wished He Could Fly and The Lost Squirrel, were picked up by a new, small publishing company.  (Release date soon to be announced!) Erik hopes to land an agent in 2018 (or 19, or 20- I mean, come on, the Eagles finally won a Super Bowl!).

Posted in #LoveMadeVisible, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | 8 Comments

#LoveMadeVisible: Love is All You Need, by Suzanne Gaadt

Suzanne Gaadt owns an eco-friendly graphic design studio and is an award-winning designer, writer, and illustrator with more than two decades of experience in visual communications. Recently she began focusing on writing and illustrating a children’s book. She also creates art for her line of stationery she named “Give A Fig.” In addition to creating books and cards, she hosts inspiration groups for young and old alike. Suzanne lives in the bucolic Brandywine Valley near the home of famed American illustrator N.C. Wyeth in Chadds Ford, PA. Nature, travel, and art are also sources of inspiration to her musical husband and two talented teens.
Follow Suzanne at “Give A Fig Cards” on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, and Pinterest.
Posted in #LoveMadeVisible, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 7 Comments

#LoveMadeVisible: The Inevitable, by Lindsay Bandy + Giveaway!

The following is an excerpt from my YA Magical Realism novel, THE INEVITABLE, which features three narrators, including one in verse. The story is about a girl cursed to die young three times, a boy cursed with foreknowledge of and the inability to prevent her deaths, and the Three Sisters of Fate whose very existence depends on their lives and deaths going to plan….

Once Upon A Time…
Electricity buzzed through Three great parks:
And Dreamland.

Crowded side-by-side on Coney Island, they were jealous sisters,
competing for attention, always trying to outdo one another.
Each of them was grand in her own way:
Luna had coasters, and sugary pops of cheerful color.
Luna had stars and a moon.
Steeplechase had a pier for dancing on top and kissing below.
Steeplechase had horses for racing and fortunes for the taking.
But Dreamland was white and black.
Dreamland was made of angels and demons.
Dreamland was lovely and dangerous and doomed.

It was in this place,
in the year 1910,
that a Boy made of color
a Girl made of night…

Hell Gate was a real ride at Coney Island’s Dreamland Park, where the fire of 1911 began–and destroyed the park.

Lindsay Bandy is the ARA and blogmaster for EPA SCBWI, and has two poems slated for publication in Highlights Hello. She lives in Southern Lancaster County with her husband, two daughters, and cat, so when she’s not writing or SCBWI-ing, she’s momming.

Comment before February 28 for a chance to win a manuscript critique!

(Picture book or novel, up to 10 pages via e-mail)

Posted in #LoveMadeVisible, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | 23 Comments


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December Themed Photo: Do you want to build a snowman? A Kyla snowman?

This month, I built my own snowman. Well, I made her about 23 months ago, but I built her into a snowman a week ago. This month was to say the least, a struggle. Making the costume was pretty simple…actually it involved ZERO sewing. From the tulle skirt, to the shirt and the frosty hat, it was nothing a few knots and glue gun couldn’t handle.  What I couldn’t exactly handle was, the beginning of the terrible 2’s. Let’s just say she did not want to be in that snowman costume. We had a “costume rehearsal” which resulted in a couple snowman meltdowns. BUT, after some prepwork of telling her we’d go to her favorite place–the beach, AND bribing her with a candy cane, we finally got some decent shots of this snowgirl:IMG_3601 IMG_3621 IMG_3634 IMG_3647 IMG_3654 IMG_3671

What Kyla the snowgirl would have literally looked like if she had a meltdown without the tears and tantrum face:IMG_3677


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Archive for the ‘Tomatoes’ Category

Recipes from the Farmers’ Market: Mushroom and Asparagus Toss

A couple of weeks ago I bought some mushrooms (from the regular grocery, I’ll admit) and asparagus (from the Market).  But I bought too much food in general that week, and they sat longer than they should have.  By this last weekend, the asparagus was dried out and the mushrooms were ALLLLLMOST yucky.  But I’m trying really hard not to waste food.  So!  I roasted them!  I wasn’t sure what I would do with them afterward, but knew that roasting would buy me a few more days before the vegetables died completely.  As it turned out, I tossed them with some pasta, sun-dried tomatoes and mozzarella tonight, but I could also have mixed them into some eggs for a frittata.  So I have two recipes tonight: the mushrooms and asparagus, and the pasta toss.  You can cook them at different times or all together, and it will work just fine.

20 oz sliced mushrooms
2 small bunches of asparagus, broken into smallish pieces
Olive oil
Salt & Pepper

The Recipe:
Preheat the oven to 375F.  Toss all the ingredients together and cook uncovered, stirring once, until the mushrooms are brown and the asparagus look dried out, about 45 minutes.

On to the next!  Now, had I known I was going to put those in the pasta, I would have also tossed in some garlic.  I ended up adding garlic powder to the pasta after it was all said and done, but that’s really not the same.

1 batch Mushroom and Asparagus Roast
8 oz dried whole-wheat pasta, long-cut (I used spaghetti, but any long-cut pasta will do.)
4 oz Mozzarella, cut into pieces
1/2 cup sun-dried tomatoes in oil, roughly chopped (or buy one of those little jars that are already julienned)
Extra-virgin olive oil, for drizzling
Garlic powder, salt and pepper to taste

The Recipe:
If you’re making it all at once, start with the Roast recipe above, but add 2 cloves minced garlic.  After that’s been in the oven about 20 minutes, heat the water for pasta and bring it to a boil.  Add a generous amount of salt (don’t skip this step; it really DOES make a huge difference, especially with whole-wheat noodles) and the pasta.  When it’s done, grab 1/4 cup of the cooking water out of the pan with a glass measuring cup, and dump the pasta into a colander.  Don’t rinse it; put it right back into the pan, and toss the cheese, tomatoes and Roast in there.  Toss it all together, and taste.  Add salt and pepper (and garlic powder, if you didn’t add the garlic to the Roast).  Add some olive oil, a couple of tablespoons at a time, and a little cooking water until you get a consistency and flavor you like.

If you like, you can top it with a little Parmesan cheese and some red pepper flakes.  YUM.

How Did it Go?
Better than I expected, actually.  Not as good as the chard pasta, but still good.  I think if I had leftover mushrooms and asparagus again, I might also try putting them in some eggs and milk and baking them up like a quiche.  In that case a mild white cheddar (and maybe a little Dijon mustard) would be amazing mixed in.  You could also just serve the roasted veggies alongside a piece of steak, chicken or fish, with a little cheese sprinkled on top.  Served warm, they might also be good spooned over some salad greens, with the pan juices as a dressing (although that one might need a little salt), and a glass of white wine.  Lots of options on this one!

Recipes from the Farmers’ Market: Chard and Tomato Skillet Toss

Sometimes I start dinner by figuring out what the heck I have in my cupboard.  (Usually I’m a decent planner, but sometimes . . . )  So the other night I knew I had to use that giant bunch of chard I’d bought, before it went bad.  I’d had various plans for it, but hadn’t settled on anything, part of the problem being that I didn’t really know how it would taste, plus most of the recipes started out by BLANCHING the stuff.  I’m of the opinion that I don’t generally want to cook my food before I, you know, COOK MY FOOD.  (I don’t blanch spinach for the same reason.)

But I had some onions from the Market (as always – my kitchen is not complete without 5 or 7 onions lurking somewhere), and canned tomatoes (not so much local, but at least they were organic).  So I went to town.  Note below that I did NOT throw away my chard stems.  I found a couple of recipes that used them, so I stuck them in the fridge for the weekend.  I’ll let you know what happens.  🙂

2 Tbs olive oil
1 onion, halved and thinly sliced
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 large bunch Swiss chard, any color, stems removed and leaves coarsely chopped
1 14-oz can diced tomatoes, drained*
Salt and pepper, to taste
a TINY TINY TINY sprinkle of nutmeg

The Recipe:
In a large pan, heat the oil over medium heat.  Add the onions and garlic, and get to work chopping chard while they cook.  Give them a shove around the pan once in a while to keep them from burning.  (If they look a little unhappy, just lower the heat.)

When the onions are soft, but not brown, add the chard.  Toss it around until it’s all well mixed, and the chard starts to wilt a little.  Now (this is KEY), lower the heat to medium-low and put a lid on the pan.  Let it sit there for about 2 minutes – you just want the chard to cook without losing all the moisture in the pan.

Take the lid off and give it all another stir.  Add the canned tomatoes and mix together.  Taste, and add salt and pepper to your liking.  Add the nutmeg (don’t forget: TINY TINY TINY sprinkle) and heat the whole thing until it’s nice and hot.

If you like, you can serve this over polenta, or mix in some protein.   You could double the recipe for 4 serving-size portions.  You could also add some chicken broth and maybe another can of tomatoes to make soup.  Or you could do what I did and toss in about 8 oz of cooked whole-wheat pasta.

*If you use pasta, don’t drain the tomatoes.  You’ll want the extra juice to coat the pasta when you toss it.

How did it go?
Man, sometimes you hit the jackpot.  This was AMAZING!  I figured it would be ok, but it definitely became more than the sum of its parts.  And if you use pasta, definitely go with whole-wheat.  Not because I’m a health nut (HAHAHAHAHA), but because the toothsome-ness of the chard and tomatoes cries out for something equally substantial to stand up to them.  White pasta just isn’t going to cut it here.

The chard was a little fiddly to chop, but you can buy it pre-chopped at most grocery stores now.  You’ll need a fairly large package (though not a warehouse-store-sized one) to get enough vegetables, just FYI.  But even if you decide to chop your own, it’s TOTALLY worth it.  Seriously.