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Seed Effect: South Sudan

South Sudan - Seed Effect Sign

South Sudan - Seed Effect Sign

After literally years of wanting and trying to visit the Seed Effect team on the ground in South Sudan we finally made it! (If you don’t know Seed Effect the micro-finance ministry in South Sudan you might want to read: What is Seed Effect, Our South Sudan Visa Journey and South Sudan Here We Come). We new about micro-finance but we were ready to see it in action. We met up with Drew Mosier, Seed Effects Dallas based state-side Executive Director in Entebbe, Uganda and headed to a little air stripe between Entebbe and Kampala. After an interesting “baggage screening” (unpack everything) we meet our pilot, Dallas, and the 4 of us climbed into the only 4 seats on the plane! I got to play co-pilot. We taxied down the dirt runway and we were up, up, up and away for our two-hour flight to Arua, Uganda.

Kajjansi Airport Uganda

Co-Pilot Rick

We arrived in Aura just in time to find out that we were going to have a two, no maybe three… no, no, make that a four-hour layover while our next (and bigger) plane went and dropped off some other people that were headed to a different part of South Sudan before coming back to take us to Kajo Keji (KK), and the Seed Effect headquarters. We briefly entertained the idea of walking into town but the security guy with the gun at the gate to airport didn’t think it was a good idea to leave the airport grounds and suggested we enjoy the “canteen” on the airport grounds (we didn’t argue it’s one of our travel rules… “Don’t argue with guys with big guns”). We passed the time catching up with Drew, playing dominos, getting a briefing on South Sudan and watching the lizards catch bugs. Before long our plane was back and we were flying the short 45 minutes to KK!

South Sudan - kids at the airport

Our plane landed Kajo Keji International Airport, aka the dirt strip at the edge of town and we were greeted by what seemed like a hundred kids surrounding the plane and greeting us with “Hi-eeeeeee…!” In the middle of them all was Scovia Kiden, the South Sudan Country Director for Seed Effect, with some of the team to greet us and take us to the office. We piled into a Land Cruiser and down the dirt road into town. We arrived at the office and meet the team then it was on the compound where we’d be staying for our time in KK. Compound sounds more exciting that it is, it was the local pastor’s house and everyone seems to call any group of buildings with a wall around it a compound in South Sudan.

South Sudan - Main Street KK

South Sudan - Yes that's a snow suit

The pastor’s compound had one of the few water wells in the area so there were always kids running in and out all day every day with jugs of all kinds to fill up and carry home. We took our turn playing “water pump” a few times over the course of the next few days and the kids seems to like it when we pumped as the jugs seemed to multiple very quickly when I was pumping water… or maybe I’m just a lot slower at it than they are.

South Sudan - Water Pumping

South Sudan - Kids Playing

The next few days were a whirlwind of meeting with the team, with clients, hearing stories of life change, training, learning and encouragement; and a lot of getting used to the speed of life in rural Africa. One of the first things we learned was “gayla-tot” which is what all the kids yelled at us if they weren’t yelling “Hi-eeeeeee…” it loosely, and affectionately, translates to “white person.” We got a lot of that; driving down the road, walking through the market pretty much everywhere. Kids would run out to the road and wave at us as we drove by yelling “Gayla-tot. Gayla-tot.” Then we would wave and they would yell “Hi-eeeeee!”

South Sudan - Hi

We visited a bunch of the markets around KK and met a number of Seed Effect clients. Some were on their ninth or tenth loan cycle while others were just starting their first or second loan cycle with Seed Effect. They all had amazing stories full of suffering and hardship but full of hope and optimism as well. They want to see their country healed. We heard stories of fleeing the violence and instability of a civil war and ongoing conflicts, of families being lost in refugee camps and stories of uncertainty. But we also heard stories of healing, of kids that can now go to school, of communities being stabilized, and stories of life change. Part of Liz and I’s goal for our time in South Sudan was to document some of the stories of Seed Effect clients and share them with the world. We’ve got number we plan to share of the next few months on Seed Effect’s blog so stay tuned.

South Sudan - Fish sales South Sudan - market South Sudan - Seed Effect client South Sudan - Market

The Seed Effect team had asked if we could lead some team training on a number of topics. Liz saw a perfect opportunity to work Brinker’s and “big rocks” analogy into her training class on “Goals and Priorities” and of course there were plenty of rocks to work with. And what team training would be complete without a seminar on “Feedback is Priceless?” She did a wonderful job and had the team totally engaged. She can now add internationally known development speaker to her already overflowing résumé.

South Sudan - teaching South Sudan - teaching

I was volun-told that I would be preaching on Sunday, which was nice of Drew to tell me in advance because he said on his first trip he only found out that the American visitors were always expected to “Give the Word” when they called him up to preach so I was extremely thankful for the day or so I was able to prepare in advance as well as for Join the Journey and their daily devotions to inspire me to speak on Abraham and Isaac from Genesis 22… luckily for y’all the mango tree the church meet under didn’t have any recording equipment so we won’t be posting my “sermon” here.

South Sudan - preaching

Over and over throughout our time in Kajo Keji I was constantly reminded of 1 Peter 3:15 “…always being prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you…” It seemed as if the Seed Effect team always had the gospel on the tip of their tongue, the Word of God seasoned all of their conversations; it was truly encouraging, and more than a little convicting.

South Sudan - Seed Effect team

The second leg of our trip was a scouting expedition to Yei, which is one of the towns Seed Effect is considering for it’s third branch in South Sudan. Yei is considered by many the most stable part of South Sudan and it shows, people and groups are flocking to Yei, it’s main market was HUGE! We met with a number of groups and individuals that are based in Yei to get an idea if Seed Effect would be a good fit for the community. And three flights and another four-hour layover at the “canteen” in Arua later we were back at the airstrip outside Entebbe hugging Drew bye and jumping in a car to Kampala.

South Sudan - Seed Effect

Liz and I talk a lot about expectation these days, as we travel always wondering what the next village/country/place to sleep will be like and South Sudan was everything I expected and at the same time nothing like I expected. There were no bullets whizzing overhead but we heard stories from other parts of the country where the bullets still regularly fly. There is practically no infrastructure, no paved roads, electricity in most places is own your own with solar panels and generators and the water is pumped by hand from a well. The people are warm and inviting and proud of what they are doing. Clients view Seed Effect as a company they are choosing to give their business to, but also as part of their family. Maybe I just didn’t know what to expect but I was totally blown away.

God is working in South Sudan and he is using Seed Effect.

South Sudan - Seed Effect Team

South Sudan Here We Come!!

Seed Effect client

I’m sitting here at the Doha Airport, and can’t believe are less than 12 hours away from starting our time in South Sudan with Seed Effect (more on what Seed Effect is about)! We’ll be flying into Entebbe, Uganda, then taking a small bush plane to the rural town where Seed Effect is based. It’s been a challenging journey just to get visas and be allowed into the country, and God has used that process to remind us that He is in control and we just need to trust him. (more on that in a another post) We’re excited to have more detail around what we’ll be doing and we’re eagerly preparing!

In reality, we are not going to be there to hand out loans, or build a storefront for a new business. It’s important that the clients are being served by other South Sudanese, locals who are there invested in their daily lives. So we’ll take more of a behind the scenes role. A big part of it is for us to get to see how God is using Seed Effect and the microfinance loans to change lives, families and communities – that leads to the first thing we’ll be doing – Curating stories of individuals, families and communities that have been transformed by God through Seed Effect. Rick will do some photography and design, I’ll do some writing and content generation. What we create will be used for the website, social media, etc to raise awareness, engagement and support.

While we are there we are also going to be teaching staff training seminars to the Seed Effect staff. We’ve been asked to do seminars on time management and goal setting, attitude towards work, humility, and team building and team work.

So I’m working on a couple powerpoint presentations (déjà vu!) I’m thinking of using the Big Rocks demonstration to talk about goals and time management.

And our third area of focus will be creating a database system for clients success metrics and then analyzing the trends and making them meaningful results and insights. Basically this will allow Seed Effect to quantify the impact of the work they are doing, which allows them to apply for grants and expand their work. We plan to get an understanding for the current survey system and what the team there is working with in terms of technology, reliable internet access, etc and it will most likely be some ongoing work for us for the months following.

In reality, this is God’s trip and we may end up doing something completely different! We are excited to be part of whatever God has for us.

We aren’t sure what the internet situation will be there, so we may not be back online until after January 15, when we plan to be back in Uganda and headed toward Tanzania. But we would love to have you praying for us while we are there.

We need your prayers for us that we are completely trusting of God in all of this trip and running toward Him. Pray that God is preparing our hearts for it, humbling us, drawing us closer to him. Pray for us to recognize spiritual warfare that may be happening and be strong in it – if Satan can’t keep you away from where God wants you, he’ll try to make you ineffective, distracted or demotivated when you’re there. Pray that God is preparing the hearts of those we’ll meet in South Sudan. Pray for us as we start preparing the content we’ll be presenting there. That we take the opportunities God gives us to bring him glory through this process – whether that’s in the plan we think we have, or different circumstances God gives us. Pray that we have open hearts to hear what God wants for us. Pray that any logistics challenges of getting to and around South Sudan are just preparing us even more to be there and trust God, to know it’s him that got us there and is doing the work there.

What is Seed Effect?

Seed Effect

Seed Effect is a Christ-centered nonprofit microfinance organization. The mission is to plant the seeds that overcome poverty by providing access to microloans, education, and spiritual discipleship in marginalized communities. It starts with a life, impacts a family and transforms a community. Here’s a great video from Seed Effect:

Why not just give these folks some food or something?

Yep – Food, water, healthcare, and education are mere luxuries for millions in South Sudan. But when you ask the materially poor what they believe poverty really is, the answer might surprise you. They won’t always tell you that it’s a lack of things, but more often they’ll say that it’s a lack of dignity, security, opportunity, and hope. They say it is loneliness, pain, bondage, and powerlessness. Seed Effect exists because people lack access to the hand-up, the tool, the opportunity that could change the cycle of poverty in their families for generations to come.

Microfinance is a tool that can enable the poor to break the cycle of poverty by providing small loans and savings services to support income-generating businesses. With repayment of each loan, the money is reinvested as loans to other entrepreneurs, thereby multiplying the impact of each donation.

Ok, so what does that actually look like?

Here’s an example, a woman may have a business selling hand-sewn dresses in the market. While she’s very hard-working, she is only able to complete a new dress every few days. However, by providing her with a microloan to purchase a sewing machine, she is able to make more dresses, grow her business and better provide for her family.

As Milton Friedman, the 1976 noble peace prize winner, put it “the poor stay poor, not because they are lazy, but because they have no access to capital.”

Our South Sudan Visa Journey

God has really used the process of getting our South Sudan visas to remind us that He is in control and we just need to trust Him. It’s kind of a funny story now, but in the moment we were stressed, which just showed us that we weren’t fully trusting God with it.

To say it mildly, we have hit a few obstacles to getting our visa to get into the country. We couldn’t do it before we left on our trip because you have to get it within three months of when you’ll be there. So we were planning to get the visa in Bangkok or Uganda where they have South Sudan embassies. This hasn’t worked out for us. We could not get in touch with the embassies in Bangkok or Uganda. So we tried the embassy in Germany, but they will only issue visas for German residents. We then realized this may be the case in Uganda as well (but they have not answered their phone ever, in the weeks we’ve been calling). The folks in South Sudan also do not answer. And we have not been able to successfully communicate with the embassy in Kenya either. We were calculating if it was even possible to overnight our passports to Washington D.C., get them to expedite the processing (from 2 weeks to 1 week) and have them shipped back to us in Germany – all with the holidays and before we flew out. After calculating it every way we could think of, it just wasn’t going to work.

We were getting rather concerned at this point. We were really stressing out, and had to stop and remind ourselves that this is God’s trip and if He wants us there He’ll make a way.

The day before Christmas we learned that there is an embassy in Brussels (where we already happened to be going for NYE). And they actually answered their phones and said they issue visas to non-residents of Belgium. But timing was tough… it’s typically a 5 day process… with the holidays, they were closed Christmas through the 29th, and then may be closed for the new year and we needed to fly out on Jan 6. We completed their online application, only to learn a couple hours later that it no longer works. We must go in person and it takes 2-3 days.

We went early for NYE and dropped off our passports. They agreed to try to expedite our processing to make our flight, but no promises. We already had our flight purchased at this point so we were committed. We had friends praying for us though, and felt much calmer knowing God had it in control.

We planned to return on January 5th to pick up our visas and passports, less than 24 hours before our flight. We arrived at the South Sudan embassy with big smiles, knowing whatever the outcome, it was God’s doing. And we were met by very friendly staff who told us happy New Year and handed us our passports with the visas in them! We were beyond excited! What a great journey to begin our journey to South Sudan.

A Very Bavarian Birthday

Neuschwanstein Castle - Germany

Well I’m 31 now. I’m into my 30’s officially. To be honest, I’m not feeling super great about it. I liked being 30 and wasn’t totally ready for that to be over. But oh well, no real choice about it, so I figured we should get on with the celebrating!

We debated on where to go for a while – a birthday in Paris would be so romantic, a birthday skiing in the Alps would be so exciting, or maybe Amsterdam? But turns out that Europe is stinkin’ expensive!! Just the train ticket to Paris is $350 Euros! And that’s before you get a hotel. And I’m quite certain that if I was in Paris for my birthday there is no hope of me stopping myself from going out to incredible meals, eating my weight in cheese and pastries and drinking ridiculous wine – that is to say it would have gotten really expensive really fast. Same goes for skiing (plus, the snow reports say there’s not any good snow yet).

So we decided to go to one of the “must see” sights in Germany – the Neuschwanstein Castle. It’s this gorgeous castle set up on a rugged mountain surrounded by gorges, and it’s right on the border of Austria in the beginning of the Alps. It was the inspiration for Disney’s Sleeping Beauty Castle, you can really see the similarities.

Neuschwanstein Castle - Germany So that was the plan, but of course plans go awry! Its supposed to be a four hour drive to the castle, so we left early in the morning with plans to make to the castle, then spend the night in the hour-away mountain town of Garmisch-Partenkirchen. Oh important tidbit, while we didn’t get a white Christmas, we got a white day after Christmas… and every day since then! So there’s a good amount of snow already, and as we’re leaving it starts coming heavily down again. So our four hour drive turned into eight+ hours to get to the castle. We arrive there and park, but can’t see the castle because of the snow coming down. We go to buy tickets to go up, and learn that we got there 10 minutes AFTER the ticket office closed. So no princess castle for Lizzy on her birthday.

Snow Driving - Germany

Knowing it’s taken twice as long to drive as we had planned, we decide to leave for our hotel immediately since it’s going to take a couple hours and make the most of it. The drive was absolutely gorgeous and took us through Austria for the majority of the time. The snow was really fluffy and I just couldn’t help myself, when we got stuck in traffic I jumped out and made snow angels!

Snow drive to Neuschwanstein Castle - Germany

Snow drive to Neuschwanstein Castle - Germany The hotel was great and we quickly headed into town to grab dinner and figure out where to celebrate. We walked a couple blocks and found the “Grill und Wein” restaurant we were hoping for, and then found it was closed for the holidays, as were most of the other nice places in town. So what did we do??? Exactly what you do anywhere in the world when you’re celebration plans don’t work out… you find the Irish Pub! And there was one just down the street. After a birthday pint of Bavarian brew there, we went to grab pizza for dinner, promising our new Irish pub friends to be back shortly.

Birthday Bavarian style

After our quick dinner we returned to a big welcome from the Irish pub. Seriously, how is it that every Irish pub in the world consistently delivers a guaranteed good night?! We made lots of friends there and closed the place down at about 4:00 AM!

Birthday party

The next morning we were up early and ready to see this castle! We made it back to the castle and this time were able to get tickets AND we could see the castle from a distance. It definitely lived up to the hype!!

Neuschwanstein Castle - Germany It’s a 40 minute walk up the hill, which was like walking in a winter wonderland.

Neuschwanstein Castle - Germany

We took the required tour to see the inside and it was equally as impressive. Both Rick and I agreed that of all of the famous, historical buildings we’ve seen on this trip and others, this was our favorite! It’s beautifully made inside, and intricate and in great condition. Sorry, no photos allowed inside so I don’t have any share 🙁

Neuschwanstein Castle - Germany

King Ludwig II who built it was considered insane. I can see why from even just the exterior design, it’s so different from other castles. It took 23 years to build. The king moved in before it was completed… and good thing because he only got to live in it for one year before he died. King Ludwig was a recluse and built it for complete seclusion, the plan was for the castle to be “sacred and out of reach” from people… and only six weeks after he died the castle was opened to the public. It’s in the top three most visited places in Germany. Guess that didn’t work out so well for him!

It was pretty awesome to see. I’m really glad we visited while we were in Germany.

Neuschwanstein Castle - GermanySnow Flake

But I have to admit the 18+ hours of driving was kind of a beat down so it was really great to get lots of emails and Facebook comments from everyone back home! Thanks for making me feel special on my birthday! Cheers!Birthday Bavarian style


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The 2021-22 AHL schedule is here! Details

Campoli’s hat trick lifts Bridgeport

Rookie defenseman Chris Campoli capped a three-goal night with a power play score 51 seconds into overtime, giving Bridgeport a 4-3 win over Springfield in Shelton, Conn., on Monday night.

Campoli, a seventh-round draft pick by the N.Y. Islanders in 2004 out of Erie (OHL), has four goals and two assists in the Sound Tigers’ two preseason contests.

Barrett Heisten had a goal and an assist for Bridgeport, and Bruno Gervais recorded two assists. Dieter Kochan and Wade Dubielewicz, last year’s Harry “Hap” Holmes Award winners, combined for 28 saves.

Nikita Alexeev, the eighth overall pick in the 2000 NHL draft and a former teammate of Campoli’s at Erie, scored twice for the Falcons.

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Day 7

I meditate internally on what I really need. Of course, “what I want” and “what I would like to happen,” are not the same as “what I truly need.”
Here, the context of the expression “what I truly need” is very clear, and also to whom one asks, and each person carries out this Asking in their own way.
The “procedure” of Asking has to do with concentrating this wish in our heart. It is there, in our heart, where we connect with the Force. That is where the energy is, produced by the strong feelings so intimately intertwined with our real needs and capable of spurring their fulfillment. It is in our hearts that we find the Force capable of meeting our real needs.

Inspiring phrase

Remember the best moment of your life and you will comprehend that always had to do with giving without possession.

When you finish the last day, make sure to gather your notes and make a synthesis of all the things that were of interest to you. This will definitely help later as you progress. Also include your Askings!


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If like me you couldn't get away to attend this year's Automation Fair, don't fret!

Thanks to the good folks over at Rockwell Automation, you can once again freely download (most) Automation Fair 2019 session presentations and hands-on labs!

TLDR: Just click here for presentation and lab downloads (and for images of the show, checkout Rockwell's press page here.)

Step 1) Navigate your browser to http://automationfair.com, which will redirect you to the Automation Fair homepage shown below:

Step 2) Next, scroll down and click on the link in the “Session Presentations” section:

Step 3) On the next page select “Automation Fair 2019” from the list:

Step 4) Here you'll need to sign in with your Automation Fair login… but if like me you don't have one, you can use this direct link provided by the great folks in the marketing department at Rockwell.

Step 5) Now you should see a listing of all the publicly available presentations and labs:

Shawn Tierney
Automation Instructor and Blogger

Have a question or comment on this article? Join our community to take part in the discussion! You'll also find all of my courses at TheAutomationSchool.com.


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The name Julianne means “downy grace” or “youthful.” People with the name Julianne have a deep seated need to serve other people and to give to others, whether by sharing money, knowledge, experience, creativity, or love. Julianne is someone who is visionary and excited by change. She fights the outdated rules and regulations that have no meaning today. Julianne makes constructive use of her freedom.

The Barrel Shack’s The Julianne brings that need to exercise freedom and change while serving others and sharing. Our The Julianne is one of the most versatile pieces in our furniture collection. Embrace the adventure that The Julianne will bring to your home.

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The Nitty Gritty on Dyeing the 8 Year Sweater

Before I get into the low down of dyeing this type of fiber, I should really give you the back story on why I had to do it in the first place…

Picture it, Sicily 1927, a little town north of Chattanooga TN in the summer of 2009… I was in Hobby Lobby, on the hunt for a new knitting project.  I bought a magazine, some skeins of acrylic yarn, and some appropriately sized circular needles.  It’s probably fitting to also admit that it was to be my first knitted garment, not counting the crudely crafted “halter top” I designed when I was 13. (trust me, that halter top is yet another example of why I am glad the internet was not around when I was a kid, LOL!)

I had originally bought enough yarn per the pattern instructions, but over the years, the project was shoved in a plastic bag, unfinished, and left to gather dust.  And during that time, I robbed a skein or 2 for other projects, never imagining I would actually go back and finish the sweater.  Fast Forward to November 2017… Christmas is on the horizon, money is extremely tight, and I am going through my large mound of WIPs (works in progress) to select projects to finish and give as gifts.  In the back of the closet was this plastic bag containing a nearly finished sweater on old plastic circular needles, 1 skein of yarn, and a magazine that is so old it’s starting to yellow.  My sister-in-law immediately came to mind, and I knew this sweater would make the perfect gift for her!

After spending a little time reviewing the pattern and counting stitches and rows, I figured out where I had left off, and the knit & purl & cable tango began.  So far so good, right?  I mean, that’s a major accomplishment since this baby had been in the bag for years!  Finish the front shoulder that was missing – CHECK!!  Bind all that off – CHECK!! Knit the 1st sleeve – CHECK!  Knit the second slee— OH CRIPES!!!  I ran out of yarn 😦  Remember when I said I robbed skeins?  Well, it came back to bite me… and HARD!  Luckily, though, the brand and color are still available, so I sent the hubs back to Hobby Lobby to bail me out.

When he got home, I cast on the remaining sleeve, and, when it was all sewn together, it was VERY evident that the dye lots were wayyyyyy off.  Even in the poorly lit living room in the evening, I could tell.  Heck, Stevie Wonder could tell it didn’t match!  I guess color matching after 8 years between dye lots was too much to ask, LOL…

Of course the obvious solution would have been to frog back to a point where I could have added the change in yarn as a design element, but there was NO WAY IN H-E-DOUBLE-HOCKEY-STICKS that I was going to frog one single stitch…  UH-UH, NO WAY, NO HOW!  Every single stitch in this 8 Year Sweater was precious to me!

You all have seen that I dye wool blends, but I had never tried to dye acrylic.  I thought “meh – how hard could it be?”  Welllllllllllllll….  Apparently acrylic and other synthetic fibers are not dyeable in the traditional sense.  Every bit of information I found said the only way to change the color would be to “paint” the yarn with acrylic paint.  And after reviewing the process, it didn’t sound like it would make me happy.  A friend happened to recommend that Rit had a new dye for synthetic fibers called Rit DyeMore.  Skeptical but desperate, I sent a silent prayer up to the Lord, and submitted my order on Amazon.  In just a couple of days, I was ready to go!

I gathered my giant pot, the Rit dye, and the dish soap, and again said another prayer.

First, I had to bring some water to boil, and while I was waiting for that, wash the sweater in the sink to get all residue off.

When the water reached 180 degrees, I added one bottle of dye and the dish soap.  I ordered 2 – thank the Lord, and you’ll see why in a minute.  But to start, I just used 1.  Submerge the sweater and then continuously stir, scoop with tongs, dunk, swish, swirl for 30 minutes… that’s what the bottle said, and I thought “meh – easy enough”.  Well, it only took about 5 minutes for my arms to feel like they were about to fall off!  I held out for as long as I could, but after 20 minutes I couldn’t take it anymore and called it done.

Time to hand wash and rinse in the sink to get all the dye out.  And much to my dismay… ALOT of the dye went right down the drain instead of into the fiber.  Some of it did stick, but it was pretty splotchy and inconsistent.  And the worst of it was I could still tell the sleeve was a different color.  But, just like your hair looks different when it’s totally dry, I was hopeful that once the sweater was dry, the colors would appear to have blended better.  So I laid it out on the towel and let it dry.

Later in the day, it became abundantly clear that nothing changed – it was still splotchy.  My only hope was the 2nd bottle.  What did I have to lose?  If it didn’t work, the sweater was headed for the dumpster because I was getting FED. UP.  Did I mention how much of a pain in the RUMP all that dunking and stirring is?  groan!

The second time around, I made SURE that the water stayed at 180 degrees.  I watched the time and diligently stirred for the entire 30 minutes, which incidentally resulted in a really bad sprain and a visit to the orthopedic surgeon.  I’ll be going for nerve conduction studies too to determine if I have to have carpal tunnel surgery, but hey – I digress!  Suffice it to say I really have a lot invested in this sweater, LOL!

After the 2nd round of cooking, the color change looked significantly better!  There are still spots that look a bit “marbled”, but at least the sleeve and border did not look like a completely different color.  Once again, I laid the sweater out on the towel and left it overnight to dry.

The next day, having decided to be ok with the color, I held the sweater up and quickly realized I was a little over zealous when blocking the sweater.  It grew from a size L to a size 3-4X…  ENTIRELY too big for my sister-in-law.  I said a lot of swear words, and put the sweater in time out.  And my husband picked up the slack and went to buy her a gift.

Last night, I thought I would try one final life-saving intervention to see if the sweater could be salvaged.  I through it in a net bag and ran it through the machine was and dryer.  Remember – it’s acrylic so it’s machine washable 🙂  I didn’t expect it to shrink, but my hope was that at least the fibers would redistribute a little more evenly.  I am SO GLAD I was patient and held out, because, even though the sweater is still a bit big, even on me and has some marbled spots, it is finally wearable!  Yay!!!!  I need to adjust the buttons a bit to compensate for the variance in the side lengths (I told you I was over zealous, lol), but over all, I will have a “new” sweater for Spring time!

The moral of this story is this….  buy enough yarn for the entire project.  And then LEAVE IT ALONE!  If you do decide to rob from the yarn supply, scrap the project or plan how to incorporate a new dye lot IN ADVANCE.  Trust me… You’ll thank me later, LOL!  All in all, I would say the Rit DyeMore was a success, but not worth the effort unless it’s a dire emergency 🙂

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Disruption: Data Analytics, Influencers and Making 2020 Work for You

Innovation and finding your discomfort zone can make or break your business. So, how can you make 2020 work for you? Mike Berland, the founder and CEO of Decode M, an insights and strategy firm based in New York, joins The Business Communicators to discuss maintaining momentum in a chaos-driven world, data analytics, digital innovation by the professional sports leagues and brands that have pivoted successfully during the COVID-19 pandemic.


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Getting Your Foot in the Door with Macy’s

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macys logoAbout Macy’s

Macy’s began in 1858 as a single dry goods store in New York City.  Since then, Macy’s, Inc. has evolved into one of the nation’s premier retailers for fashion and affordable luxury, and today, operates more than 800 Macy’s department stores and furniture galleries in 45 states, the District of Columbia, Guam and Puerto Rico. Macy’s, Inc. also operates 40 Bloomingdale’s stores in 12 states, as well as and for distinctive online shopping experiences.

Last year, Macy’s hired more than 1000 students for jobs, internships and their management development programs.

Learn more about opportunities at

dara-silverglateAbout Dara

Dara Silverglate is a Manager of College Relations with Macy’s, Inc.

She began her career with Macy’s as a Merchandising Assistant in 2006, was promoted to Assistant Buyer in 2007, and became an Associate Buyer in 2008.  She transitioned into her current role in 2010. She earned a BS in Retailing and Consumer Sciences from the University of Arizona.

Blake WittersAbout Blake

Blake Witters is a Director of College Relations with Macy’s.  He oversees hiring for the Macy’s Store Management Executive Development Program and Internships across the eight regions of the company.

Blake began working for Macy’s in high school.  He has been an associate, an intern, an assistant sales manager, a group sales manager, a college recruiter for the Store Management team, and a regional manager and regional director in College Relations, prior to accepting his current position  A graduate of the University of Georgia, Blake KNOWS Macy’s!

What kinds of opportunities do you recruit on-campus to fill?

DARA: I recruit for our Merchant Executive Development Program for Macy’s and and for our Finance Executive Development Program and for Human Resources.  We have one director and three recruiters for the Merchant and Finance Executive Development Programs and HR recruiting, and we target 15 universities across the country.

BLAKE:  I oversee recruiting for our Store Management Executive Development Program and our Intern Program. I have one regional director and eight recruiters on my team, and we target about 50 universities nationally, primarily for the Store Management and internship positions but we also work in partnership with Bloomingdale’s stores, logistics, finance and human resources for our Cincinnati offices.

How important is a student’s specific college major for these opportunities?

DARA: We are open to all majors! In fact, this past fall I was recruiting on campus with one of our Buyers, and she had been a Theology major in college.

As long as you understand business (and want to work in business), have strong analytical and communication skills and can demonstrate leadership, you could be a good candidate for us, regardless of your major.

BLAKE:  That’s right, all majors!  About two-thirds of our hires come out of the business schools, but the remaining third come from a broad variety of disciplines.  They key things we look for in candidates are a genuine interest in working in business, an aptitude for the retail business, and demonstrated leadership and analytical skills.

We’re running a business, and when you come to work for Macy’s, you are given significant responsibility for some area of our business.  We want to make sure you are ready, willing and able.

How can students demonstrate they have the qualities and characteristics Macy’s seeks in candidates?

DARA: Stand out at the career fair! Have your 90-second elevator pitch ready!

Be prepared with examples that illustrate how you excel at leadership, how you applied your analytical and communication skills with positive results, how well you know Excel.

Don’t just tell us, show us! Give examples of the things you have done.

BLAKE:  We want to see that you have been involved beyond the classroom.  Develop your leadership and analytical skills and, like Dara said, provide the examples.  Without the examples, you’re just giving us your opinion.

How do students not on your target campuses apply?

If you know someone at Macy’s, use them as a referral.  We are not going to hire you because of the referral, but we will review your application.

Apply online!  Online application systems are not a black hole for job applications. Over 15% of our hires last year came primarily through our online application system. Every application submitted online gets reviewed!

Naturally applications that get some face time – through a referral, at a career fair or at campus recruiting event – do have a certain advantage, but we do hire candidates that come to use through

Macys bannerWhat do you look for in candidates?

BLAKE: We look for students with internship experience.  Internships teach you time management and how to collaborate productively with others in the workplace.

DARA: We look for students who understand Macy’s.  Students need to understand that, while Macy’s is in the fashion industry, we are a business.  You have to be interested in business; in retail and fashion; in business strategy; in understanding what customers will respond to and delivering that. We are a $26.4 billion company, and we don’t do that just by selling clothes.  We do that by understanding business – what’s working and what isn’t – and understanding our customers.

BLAKE: We are looking for student leaders – students who are involved on campus, whether it’s a fraternity or sorority, a student chapter of a professional association, student government.  You name it!  It’s great to be a member of an organization, but we are interested in hearing how you impacted that organization for the better.  How you demonstrated leadership.

DARA: We do have a minimum GPA requirement for our programs, but don’t depend upon your GPA to get you an interview. A 3.2 students with a lot of internship and leadership experience is usually a stronger candidate than a 4.o student who focused only on their classwork.

In addition to their coursework, what do you recommend students do while they are in college to prepare to work for your company?

BLAKE: Get involved on your campus outside the classroom and look for opportunities to develop you skills.

Want to develop as a leader? Join and make an impact on a student organization.

Want to get experience? Get an internship, a work-study job or a part-time job or volunteer in a meaningful way.

Need to develop your skills?  Take a class in Excel, public speaking or time management.

Want to know your options?  Attend the career panels and information sessions your career center offers.  Go on information gathering interviews with people working in professions you are considering.  Get their advice.

DARA: If you are interested in Macy’s, come to our events on campus.  Not just the career fairs, but the employer panels, information sessions, and the guest lectures.  These events will give you an opportunity to get to know us and will give us an opportunity to get to know you.

BLAKE: There are things you need to do and learn that you are not going to get in the classroom.  Seek them out!

In addition to their coursework, what do you recommend students do while they are in college to prepare to enter the workforce?

DARA: Put yourself in situations that are uncomfortable.  Life is full of uncomfortable situations. You cannot avoid them, so you need to learn how to manage through them.

Look for opportunities to work in teams and collaborate with others.  You need to show you can work well with and depend upon others to get a job done.  You need to show you can give and take constructive feedback and criticism.

BLAKE: If you think you want to work for Macy’s, get a job in a store and see if the retail industry is someplace you fit. And, learn Excel; particularly if you are interested in our programs. You have to be able to use Excel.

What are some of the classic mistakes you have seen students make when interviewing with you?

Not being ready for the “Why Macy’s?” question. You have to do your research. When students aren’t prepared to answer the “Why Macy’s?” question, or follow up questions about our business and strategies, they show they’re not really interested our company or our industry.  And, have questions! The questions you ask at the end of the interview tell me a lot about how much you prepared for the interview.

Too much fashion! Students that wear too much perfume or cologne or dress too fashion forward.  You’re not going to a party or a club – you are going to a job interview. Dress professionally.  We are looking for business people, not astonishing!

Not connecting the dots.  Your job in an interview is to show how what you did in school relates to what Macy’s does.  Connects the dots between your qualifications and our business needs.  Don’t assume we understand what you offer.  Show us why we should consider you for employment.

What are some of the most impressive things you have seen students do when interviewing with you?

DARA: I love when candidates tell me something about Macy’s that I don’t already know.  That really shows initiative!

Also, when students can speak to our strategies and make their own observations about what these strategies mean to them as a consumer.  That’s powerful.

Students that offer their opinions on our business strategies and suggest ways we might improve or do things differently; they almost always make a good impression.

BLAKE: People who can clearly present their qualifications in ways that connect to Macy’s and our programs catch my attention. Be ready to tell me why you want to work for Macy’s and why we should hire you.

If you knew then what you know now: What advice do you have for college students as they plan for life after college and getting that first job?

DARA:  Make a lasting impression! Go to the career fair as a freshman to see what there is to see and meet the recruiters. Go back to the career fair as a sophomore and continue building those relationships. Return to the career fair during your junior year to continue those relationships and compete for the internships.  Lead the way to the career fair as a senior and compete for jobs.  I love getting to know students over the course of their college careers.

Make smart decisions about the classes you take inside and outside of your major.  Take classes that will help you develop skills and abilities you will need after you graduate.

BLAKE: Take advantage of the career services and resources at your college.  Do mock interviews. Get your resume reviews.  Seek out their advice early and often. Start this process early. Don’t wait until the start of your senior year to think about life after graduation.

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When will my parcel be dispatched? If you place your order before 12PM, we aim to process your order ASAP! All orders placed after 12PM will fall on the following working day.

Do you offer tracking services? Whenever you have completed your order, you will receive an email with your invoice. Within that invoice, you will find your tracking number. You can use it to keep an eye on where your package is.

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Moo Cards for Toki

My Moo cards have arrived!  If you’ve never heard of, they’re an amazing printing shop that prints business cards, postcards, stickers (and more) to order.  The paper has a high quality, satiny feel, and the colors are always vibrant.  The best part is that you can print a different photo on each of your cards!

In anticipation of my visit to the America’s Family Pet Expo this weekend in Orange County, I decided to print a batch of calling cards for The Daily Toki, with our blog name, URL, and my name and contact email.

Your cards arrive neatly wrapped and packaged in a convenient card holder.  Toki approves.

Moo is one of my favorite indulgences.  I also used them to create mini-cards for my outdoor/adventure blog  (Check out the mini-cards on the Moo website).  You can also order a free sample pack of 10 cards, with your own images, to take for a test spin.

Wheee!  Toki overload!  If nothing else, I’ll make my friends and family take some.

(PS: has a referral and affiliate program, so if you’d like, you can use this link for MOO Business Cards, MiniCards and Postcards, and I’ll get credit.)

This post is part of the BlogPaws Wednesday Blog Hop!

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16 Responses to Moo Cards for Toki

  1. Kimi says:

    Those are great! I love how they allow you to use different photos. I’ve never heard of but would love to try it out. I raise assistance puppies and these would be great to pass out to the public with my pup’s picture on it! I will definitely put you down as a referral if I purchase some 🙂

  2. Sugar says:

    Woof! Woof! Golden Thanks for this … YES my mom have checked out MOO n was not sure about the quality n service. Happy Wordless Wednesday! Lots of Golden Woofs, Sugar

    • furfilled says:

      Thanks for stopping by Sugar. From my last three orders from Moo, I can vouch for their quality and customer service. But you can also try out their sample 10-pack for free, which is nice.

  3. Jennifer says:

    These are awesome CK! Thanks for the information. I’m going to check it out and will definitely use you as the referral source!

    • furfilled says:

      Thanks Jenny – I thought you’d like it! If you end up going through the referral, all you have to do is click on the link I provided at the end of my post, and it automatically keeps track of any purchases made through that link. By the way, they do stickers!!

  4. What a great idea. And they turned out so beautifully.

    • furfilled says:

      Thanks Sabrina – I’m so happy with how they turned out. There are always a few pictures that don’t look quite how you want them in real life, so it’s sometimes a good idea to do a smaller order before committing to a huge one. In this order, I had 47 (!) different photos, and only one was a dud on paper.

  5. Chandra says:

    Thanks for the Moo tip and details! I’m already loving the option to do different shots and different sizes and I’m a sucker for that adorable card holder!

    Have a blast at the pet expo. Looking forward to reading about it.

    -Chandra at Daley’s Dog Years

  6. These Moo cards are great…I spotted them in the blog world awhile back but had no idea they did free samples. Thanks for the tip!

    If we decide to order, we will most definitely use your referral link!

  7. Ann says:

    I’d like to collect ’em all!

  8. Anna says:

    Lucky dog.. I JUST missed their sale… and I am major bummed as I could use more cards. So far I love moo
    Have fun at the expo

  9. How ironic! I was just looking at Moo Cards today. I was going to order their samples but I 1) couldn’t figure out how to design my own cards and 2) couldn’t seem to make fit on may of the card text lines. I wish I could figure it out. I would like to try their cards. Yours look awesome.

  10. M.C. says:

    OK I’m glad I’m not the only one who’s considered business cards (I like your term “calling card” much better, since my pet blog is not my “business!”) for my dog blog. *laugh* I’ve ordered Moo cards before for my “proper” work and yes, they do a great job! And with photos like yours, I’m sure yours came out fantastic, too.

  11. Pingback: Pawliday Cards by | The Daily Toki

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Children and young people are being encouraged to take part in an inspiring new poster competition, launched by London North Eastern Railway (LNER) to capture their visions of eco-friendly travel through fun artwork.

The competition focuses on the importance of sustainable travel, with winning entries brightening up stations and concourses ahead of and during UN Climate Change Conference (COP26) later this year.

Ahead of COP26 in November, LNER, which serves 53 stations across the East Coast Main Line, is encouraging children aged seven to 17 years of age to think about what sustainable travel and the environment means to them.

As the world’s eyes are set to be on the UK, LNER is keen to welcome delegates in style, demonstrating the importance that taking action against climate change has for children and young people across the country.

The poster competition has two age categories and criteria:
• Ages seven to 11 for posters with a theme of ‘the eco-friendly train’
• Ages 12 to 17 with a focus on ‘connecting low carbon rail with your environment or community and public transport’.

The winning entries – two from each age group – will receive a printed version of their unique design; a photograph opportunity alongside an Azuma; £50 prize; a family pass to use on LNER services; and a LNER goodie bag containing limited edition LNER merchandise.

Five runners up in each category will also receive a LNER goodie bag.

Warrick Dent, Director of Safety and Operations at LNER, said: “Rail is one of the most environmentally friendly ways of travelling to COP26, and we know climate change and sustainability will undoubtedly be at the forefront of the minds of everyone taking part.

“This new poster competition seeks to exercise the creative minds of children and young people across the country and populate our stations with colourful and engaging imagery to provide a different view of the green credentials of rail and the importance of taking action against climate change.”

The competition is open to residents of the UK only, and entries are encouraged from children living in communities on the East Coast Main Line. The deadline for entries is noon on 15 September 2021, with winners contacted no later than 30 September 2021.

Terms and conditions apply. To find out more information about the competition and submit an
entry visit:


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I’m better than me

A couple of years ago, shortly after I quit work, I joined a local running club.

There is a wide range of running abilities at the club. Some of the runners there think nothing of running a marathon in under 3 hours.

But there are also many people there who are out of shape, new to running and just looking to lose some weight.

I was a bit worried that in my 40s and after many years working a desk job, I was being hopelessly optimistic by joining a running club. After all, what if I was slower than everyone else and they all laughed at me?

I shouldn’t have worried.  As is often the case, my fears were groundless. I was quickly struck by how friendly and welcoming the atmosphere is. It’s a bit like a social club that does some running on the side.

There are many parallels between improving your personal fitness and improving your personal finances.  Both can be made simple. Both require work. Both are easier with coaching and like minded people around you.

At the running club, one thing I quickly noticed was that everyone kept referring to something called “PBs”.  Initially, I wasn’t sure what everyone was talking about but the penny eventually dropped and I realised that PB is short for Personal Best.

Everyone in the club seemed focussed on their personal best. Clearly everyone has a different genetic inheritance and not everyone can be the fastest runner in the club. There is some friendly competition between the fastest runners but the overwhelming focus is not on “beating” everyone else, it’s on being the best that you can be.

If you can accept this, the idea naturally follows that we are not optimising for status (nor for convenience or luxury).  We are trying to be the best that we can be.  The implication of this is that challenge, effort and sweat are not things to be avoided. They are an essential part of the process.

The club contains some inspiring people. One impressive lady there is in her 60s and only took up running in her 40s.  She now runs for Great Britain in a veterans age category and attends international competitions.  She cycles to training and to local races in all weathers. She runs training sessions turning up every week and is incredibly generous with her time.

People like this lady have helped show me that everything I previously thought I knew about ageing  was wrong.  The decline in our physical capabilities caused by ageing is incredibly slow and completely outweighed by the rapid decline caused by a sedentary lifestyle.

Having read The New Evolution Diet, I’ve come to believe that we don’t stop exercising because we age, to a great extent we age because we stop exercising. If you watch a documentary about hunter gatherers, the men remain capable hunters into their 70s: slim and fit with good muscle definition.  Use it or lose it.

This is all fresh in my mind at the moment because at the weekend I got a new personal best at my local Parkrun.

I want to talk about Parkrun i) because it’s a great British institution and ii) because there are so many parallels between physical fitness and getting your finances in shape.

Parkrun (www.parkrun.org.uk) is a 5k running event, held every Saturday at 9am in your local park.  Once you have registered at the website, you can just show up on the day. No need to pay, no need to enter in advance.  You can turn up at your local event or any of the 400+ events that operate all across the UK and, increasingly, the world.

Parkrun is a grass roots organisation started by individuals: real people and not by a commercial company looking to sell product or some bossy government committee. Thanks to the volunteers that help out, the event is completely free and almost 100% free of bureaucracy.

The event is incredibly well organised. You get a barcode and so your time is accurately measured and then emailed to you every week.  I recently ran my 50th event and got sent a high quality Parkrun T shirt. The price for all this? It was free.

Parkrun is running at its most natural. My local Parkrun is an off road course through a forest. There are hills and there is mud and puddles.  You often see deer in the forest and can hear the birds singing.

Parkrun is a easy social and friendly environment.  For anyone who naturally tends towards introversion (I am INTJ), this is a great and natural way of meeting people in your local community. Remember that you are the average of the 5 people around you. Everyone who is there has made a conscious choice to put down the doughnuts and get off the sofa even if only for one day a week.  These people deserve our respect.

Whenever possible I take my children with me to Parkrun. I don’t claim to have this parenting thing down yet but I’ve found that my oldest son will trade time on the Playstation for physical exercise.  No doubt if I was a better parent, he’d be running for the joy of self-development, inner peace and seeing the morning dew on the wild flowers.  I tried pitching him that, but sadly it doesn’t cut any ice with him. More tangibly, one Parkrun buys him an extra hour of killing aliens on the Playstation.  I go with what works.

It’s much more powerful to show your children what to do rather than just tell them what to do. Not only does my son get the exercise himself, he gets to see his Dad running and the subliminal message I hope he takes from this is that exercise is a normal and regular part of life to be sought out and not something to be avoided as you get older. My children would love to pronounce me old and decrepid and send me off to the glue factory, but it’s harder for them to do this whilst my 5k time remains better than theirs.  Their day will come.

Parkrun teaches me humility every week.  I got my personal best this week and I came 17th out of a field of 279 people.  But I was still soundly beaten by at least one guy who looked 20 years older than me (ouch) and by a young girl (double ouch).

Your PB is a bit like your net worth. There is always someone quicker than you…just like there is always someone richer than you. Unless you are Mo Farrah or Bill Gates, you have to make peace with this. Personally, I have no problem with that.  But that doesn’t mean that I’ve given up on getting faster or richer: my goal is to achieve the best self that I am capable of achieving.

Everything on this site is true. But because it’s on the internet, I guess that a lot of people don’t believe it.  After all, the whole concept of financial independence seems too good to be true.  So wherever possible, I try to show not just tell. Here is a screenprint of my official Parkrun result email:

Parkrun result.png

I think of my finances a bit like I think about my fitness.  I want my money to work hard and to grow as much as possible. Sure I could afford to relax and stop focussing on my investment returns.  But over time I’ve come to enjoy the process of getting wealthier not just the outcome.  When it comes to finance, I don’t compete with anyone else but I am always trying to improve myself.

I know from giving financial coaching that one of the worries people have is whether they’ve left it too late to learn about investing or to achieve financial independence.  The answer is that it’s never too late to learn. We are where we are.  We can’t change the past but we can always focus on being the best we can be.

So, like exercise, personal finance is a path to self-improvement.  I sometimes think that some of the angry comments you see on FI sites are missing this point.  I’m pretty sure that the reason that some people describe FI websites as “preachy” (mistakenly, I think) is that they feel on some level as if they are being judged and found lacking.

I’m not judging you. I don’t think I’m better than you.  How could I when I don’t know you?

But here’s what I do know: we can all get better. And I’m better than me.

  1. suffolkshandy · · Reply

    Respect for that time young man. I am looking into park run but initial aim is to a) get my rear to the start line and b) finish by any means necessary. Ty for posting.

  2. Steve · · Reply

    Inspiring stuff to be reading on the last day of my 30s… I feel slightly better now! Thanks!

  3. I just ran 5 rounds around a local track couple of days again on an impulse and in part due to me being on leave as well. I must say regular exercise of any form can be difficult to start off for someone like me who has neglected any exercise for last few years. The times when I had regular exercise in my life are when I was in a Uni running club or in high school uniform groups/Physical education sessions. Regular Running/exercise on your own takes a certain motivation and force to shake off the inertia (similar to investing). And life moves along with work responsibilities and adult burdens and exercises falls further and further down the priority list such that exercise requires an impulse for me to carry it out. Same for daily diert I guess.

    Enough reflection. Time to shake off the bum wrinkles and check out my local park run!! Motivation is key! C’mon!

    1. Thanks for the comments Suffolkshandy and Steve. And FIREplanter, I like your style and love your call to action!

  4. This is a great post & you have an amazing site I look forward to reading more from you in the future!

  5. zeejaythorne · · Reply

    This is what I love about the running community. We all want everyone to do what is best for their body and just encourage and support one another. I can’t look at you and know how fast you’ll be. You can’t look at me and know that my legs inexplicably feel like lead this morning and the fact that I feel like I’m running through rising dough means that I mentally won the day even if my time is awful. This parallels so much with FI. I don’t know where you started and what your financial health is like. I just know that you are trying and your trying does not harm me – it just encourages me.

  6. I’m finding running really hard in my fifties. Partly because my mind tells me I should be as fit as I was in my thirties but my body – especially my knees – tells me otherwise! I also can’t say I’ve ever really consistently enjoyed doing it, although some of the highs after some of the runs have been enough to keep me motivated to keep trying. I’m also going to check out Parkrun as I like your description of it and agree with many of your reasons for attending – social, motivational, taking action and implementing a routine. (Plus it will make justifying my Friday night pints a bit easier.)

    1. Good for you…I hope you enjoy Parkrun and report back. If your knees keep giving you problems then cycling may be better as its really easy on the body.

  7. FI Warrior · · Reply

    Yes, I was just going to make the point that each to their own, some people find running very off-putting, but are Ok with swimming or something else, so readers should keep the principle in mind, the main point is health. With most people only engaging with others in stressful, superficial, probably contrived work scenarios and then staring at screens for entertainment to de-stress at the end of the day, health is neglected, mental as well as physical.

    On the parallel to FI, it is the weirdest feeling when someone aggressively tells you you’re deluded if you think you can be financially dependent before ~60 without extraordinarily random/lucky circumstances. This actually happened to me, I don’t know what I said that hit some guy’s personal trigger, but it would have been mild as the conversation was with a stranger in a social setting. The individual implied I was lying (at least to myself) that this was even possible and clearly found me irritating for the suggestion. So I learned to shut up in public, because most people can’t handle the truth, they simply assume you’re judging them by effectively saying their financial problems are their own fault. I remember standing there dumbfounded, shocked at being called a liar and thinking ”Well if it’s impossible, how is it that I’m living it right now Pal?” But I dropped it because that would probably lead into the ”You should still work to be useful on earth” argument that nobody seems to throw at the pointlessly wealthy elite that rule us. (even when they’re ostentatious about it)

    I love the point about what people can do when they don’t know any different and being from a medical background absolutely agree it’s use it or it’ll atrophy. I saw a documentary clip on a hunter-gatherer tribe in Tanzania where these 3 guys brazenly steal food off a pride of wild lions by brazenly walking up to them without fear, then leaving fast before the lions get over the confusion. The leader was well into his 60’s if I remember correctly. The attitude is totally that if you are still here with the gift of life, you should be living it to the full and as for courage, I don’t know if I’ve seen anything more impressive: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QDubMeNlSxc

    1. Yes! Ballsy move by those hunters….

  8. Love it! My gym motto is “Better Than Yesterday” and we call them PRs as opposed to PBs but what high correlation to your story! Our members range in age from 27 to 72 and they do the same programming, but scaled to their strength and ability. You are right that you need to use it or lose it and there’s something incredibly motivating about someone 20 years your senior kicking your butt. Sometimes, we just need to get a taste of what might be.

    As for performance and achieving goals, I just finished reading ““Peak” by Anders Ericsson with Robert Pool and WOW! That book has lead me to set new goals for myself at age 40 by developing a better understanding of what he calls “deliberate practice”. I’m more focused on what I need to improve and have a new focus that I know will lead to many more PRs in various areas of life (fitness, finance, writing and more). I highly recommend it. It’s definitely making the cut as one of my “Top Life-enhancing Books” recommendations.

    1. Thanks for the book recommendation…I recently came across the term “deliberate practice” in So Good They Can’t Ignore You which he credits to Ericsson

  9. Rowan · · Reply

    thank you for the inspiring content! – another parallel between personal finance and personal fitness is that -you can lose it all in an instant but with steady work and determination you will regain it all back. similarly, you can start from nothing and work your way up. it’s all about replacing habits

  10. PhysicianOnFIRE · · Reply

    Good for you! Staying fit is a key component of a lengthy, enjoyable early retirement, even if the exercise itself isn’t always enjoyable in the moment.

    In the US of A, PB in peanut butter. I’ve been to the U.K. We brought 5 pounds of real American PB to our American hosts who were desperate for it. As free2pursue points out, a personal best is a personal record, or PR, which could also be Puerto Rico, or per rectum as in where to put the Tylenol suppository.

    Another thing we have here that’s every bit as awesome as peanut butter is the Brewery Running Series, which combines running, beer, and charitable giving. http://breweryrunningseries.com/ Cue the music…these are a few of my favorite things…

  11. A very good post – it’s all about taking responsibility for ourselves in all areas, really, isn’t it!

    I took up running 3 years ago at the age of 57, when I ramped down to part-time work. I’d not been on an athletics track since I was 15…

    I do 3K, 4 days a week, and I always run first thing in the morning – when the air is cleanest and there are fewer people around. To protect my joints, I only run on a proper running track. The 10 min walk to and from the track is my warm up/cool down.

    It’s done wonders for my fitness and stamina. I’ve got an old spinal injury, and the increased muscle strength has really helped with that (my physio says the muscles of my back, legs and bum have been transformed, lol).

    @ SHMD – if you’re anything like me, you’ll find that the initial painful knees, ankles, etc, gradually disappear if you persevere.

    Oh – and you know that silly warning which everyone ignores about checking with your doctor before taking up an exercise programme? I actually did it.

  12. Excellent time TEA

    Your park run sounds a lot like mine, off road and hilly and a bit through the forest, it’s a very pleasant run. I’ve only done it about 5 times though so am well off of getting my 50th T-Shirt!

    I would think about joining a running club when I’m FI but don’t seem to have the time right now, but I have to say I actually enjoy just getting out there on my own and clearing my head, it’s a great reboot for mind as well as body.

  13. Mr Zombie · · Reply

    That’s some inspiring writing Mr Tea.

    My Sunday cycling route takes me through a local park run, it’s awesome to see how it’s grown over the last few years.

    I completely agree on your points about humility and ageing because we don’t exercise. I was burying myself up a climb on the bike, pretty sure I was part way to giving my self a hernia, when two older dudes whizzed passed with a breezy “Good Morning” like it was no big deal. I saw a couple of sets of hardened mountain goat legs through sweat but couldn’t reply.

    Office life is a f*cking killer. Too many people sat still working long hours that means they are knackered. Too many people rolling out of bed, into the car, into the car park below work, into the lift and then 10 steps to their desk. And too many people blaming a lack of fitness on age rather than lifestyle. And relax.

    1. “And relax”

      Very funny!

      1. Mr Zombie · · Reply

        Well spotted 😉

        When I first started in an office I was told that I was thin as I was still young by an overweight 28 year old. And that age would catch up with me. I remember thinking at the time “but you do no exercise”.

        Strange. It’s almost as if people want to blame any one but themselves.

  14. I was a tailrunner at our local Parkrun on Saturday. The tailrunner runs/walks behind the last runner, stays a respectful distance behind, offers encouragement where required, makes sure they are safe etc.

    The lady who was in last place was doing her first Parkrun. She was being encouraged by her son and she found it really tough going. She kept apologising for being slow but we simply reminded her that she might be behind the 250 other runners on the course but she was ahead of about 65 million who were sitting on their backsides eating crisps watching the telly. She has promised to come back this week. If she does and makes it a habit, it will probably transform her life.

    Much like you, TEA, in your own field 🙂

    Well done on the PB!

  15. I feel like the world loves to judge people that are frugal. “Why aren’t you coming out to brunch? You never buy other people drinks at the bar! Why haven’t you been to the Amalfi coast yet?” When someone has the other side of all those assumptions, its so radical that people view it as judgment

  16. Great article TEA. I read this at 9.30pm last night, registered for Parkrun at 10pm and did the run at 9am today. First running event and 5k for about 6yrs (but some base fitness). Thanks for the prompt! Oh, and Parkrun was excellent and all for free.

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text:
Living Well: Balancing Friends and a Significant Other

I’m going to be honest, ever since I met my Mister (and especially since we’ve been engaged) I’ve let my friendships slide a little.

I spend so much time with him that I see my friends less often.

But after visiting my Grandpa last weekend, I realized that even if we are to have a wonderful, lifelong journey together, there may come a time where we are on our own. Whether that be from a breakup, or as in Grandpa’s case, my Grandma’s passing, we are not promised to be together forever, no matter how much we might try.

This realization has led me to understand in a whole new way how important friends and family truly are. You cannot put all of your time and energy into one person and have a full life.

Furthermore, I have realized that much of the spark and love that I feel for my Mister comes from appreciating his passion for building bikes, creating tech apps, and hanging out with his friends. But when we spend too much time together, that spark can dull just a bit as he steps away from those activities to be with me.

And I’m sure he feels the same way.

Which means spending regular time with friends can actually improve our relationship!

And for someone like me who’s always trying to improve and enjoy my relationship that means it’s in my best interest to make my time with friends a priority.

So here are three ways a relationship girl like myself can make sure to strike a balance:

1. Create a Weekly Date Night

No, I’m not talking about a date night with your honey. I’m talking about a date night with a friend.

Since I’m so focused on my relationship, I totally get the importance of a scheduled date night. By applying the same concept to my friends, I can easily get into the habit of seeing them once a week with the same enthusiasm I have for my lover.

Or, if your friend is far away, an annual trip could be a great way to make your friendship a tradition you look forward to.

2. Get a Workout Buddy

When I look back at some of the closest friendships I have post-high school, I have found that my friends often evolved out of a shared workout, such as running or even long walks along Chicago’s shoreline.

By exercising with a friend, you are killing two birds with one stone: you are staying healthy and connected. And since a workout class or training schedule can become a routine, it means you have friend time automatically built into your busy schedule.

3. Split the Night

For someone like me, who wants to be around her other half as much as possible, the idea of spending a whole weekend night apart doesn’t always sound appealing. But by scheduling dinner with the girls early in the evening and meeting up with the boy or girlfriend afterwards, we can have the best of both worlds.

Sometimes just knowing that I still get to see my guy later in the night makes me appreciate being out with my friends even more.

So whatever you do to make sure you regularly connect with friends and family, remember, it’s good for your life and your relationship.


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text:
G. R. O'Brian

G.R. O’Brian is a writer from Southern California. He lives in Washington DC.

The American Identity Is Not Just About Ideas, But Also Its People And History

America is no longer a nation in any meaningful sense—because it has neither Europe’s ‘blood and soil’ nationalism, nor a robust ideas-based nationalism.

The Right Needs To Get Past Demanding Free Speech On Campus

‘Diversity of thought,’ ‘free speech,’ and ‘academic freedom’ are simply lack of standards by other names. Conservatives need to do better than these to re-take the college campus.

Feminism Is Its Own Worst Enemy

Gender theory will be the death of feminism. And feminists came up with it.


text:
Haunter 4:2

The decision was too important to make on my own.

Andy’s session had gone surprisingly similarly to how I’d envisioned it.  We’d held hands while I talked about my gift, explained the uses that I put it to and such.  I’d felt a sensation that was hard to describe, kind of like an inner warmth that shifted within my flesh?  It never got all the way to burning, but I could definitely feel that his gift was doing something.

From what he said, however, he hadn’t actually made any changes.  Our interview had been all about him discovering what capability for change was available, and making that information known to me.

It had been a lot like what I’d speculated, actually.  He could increase the amount that I could manifest, or the solidity of my manifestations.  He wasn’t actually able to extend the ease with which I made connections, for reasons that he couldn’t explain in any manner that made any sense.  There was also another ability that he could give me, one that I hadn’t really given any thought to.

In the same way that he could improve my ability to manifest shades, he could also upgrade my ability to let them possess me.  He could make it faster, letting me put them on and off as fast as I could think it, and he could increase the total amount of shades that I could wear.

A tempting offer, to be sure.

Andy had made it clear, without that ghastly smile for once, that there was a price to this.  I’d need to pick another trait to weaken in order to compensate for the one that would grow stronger.  I could manifest more shades, but lose the ability to wear them at all.  I could make my shades more solid, but manifest less of them.  And so on.

I’d decided to sleep on it, and, the morning after, found myself daunted by the responsibility.

The Colonel was gone.  The mission was mine.  There was no reason to think that Andy would always be around to fix this if I messed it up.  Using Andy would, in all probability, factor heavily into whether I was ultimately able to save my passengers or not.

They deserved a say.

Looking out over Redo from our barracks, watching the sun come up, I addressed the reserve directly.

“Go back to the start of the Rotation, and tell me what you think about this.  You all heard what Andy said, you’ve all lived this misbegotten life with me.  If you were me, if you were the one who was responsible for all this, what would you do?”

I kept them hushed for a second after that, thinking about my next words carefully.

“This isn’t a vote.  I’m not trying to pass the responsibility onto you.  I’m done with that.  My gift, my choice, is ultimately how this is going to go down.  Whatever I decide, it will be on me.  But I believe in democracy.  I believe, fundamentally, that the wisdom of the masses is a real thing.  This pertains to your futures, so your domain expertise is something that I’d like to avail myself of.”

Another hush.  Outside, a kid was playing a makeshift bowling game with a round rock and a bunch of suspiciously regular rock pins.  Indulger’s work, almost certainly.

“Don’t use your time to tell the people who went before you what to do.  This isn’t about you arguing with one another.  Don’t expect me to respond, there are too many of you.  Speak your piece and let the next one go.  Irene will be tallying your input, taking note of any particularly eloquent arguments that anyone comes up with.  You will be counted, heard, if you speak.  Go.”

With that, I relaxed the restrictions and let the rotation commence.  I listened long enough to hear that things were going smoothly, then pulled my attention away from it with the ease of long practice.

The day wore on.

I spent it in a leisurely fashion, bumming about.  I manifested shades as requested by the people of Redo, making certain that I didn’t choose any that would interrupt the rotation.  The former inhabitants of the town were clustered at the end of the order, so that wasn’t terribly hard.

Truthfully, this was the lot of the mighty Ultras of the Regime.  We were beings of fear to the rest of the world, often imagined or portrayed as malevolent demons or Gods, and yet on any given day we were likely to be amusing ourselves in idleness, the same as the privileged of every land.

I’d long since gotten used to it.  The world of my birth would regard an aristocracy determined by a medical process as obscene, indecent.  The Ultra Force had felt a genuine obligation, an onus to make the deaths of their fellows in the Process count for something.  We had channeled that fervor into public service, into defense of country, into anything that came at hand.

Our children’s children had none of that.  I’d never seen Preventer betray any sign that She was conscious that the world didn’t owe Her absolute comfort at all times.  Indulger, well, he might be excused on grounds of general inability, but Fisher and Nirav were similarly heedless.

I headed down to lunch, bemoaning the fate of the present.  I was aware that I was fulfilling a very particular stereotype about old women, namely that we are  dissatisfied crones grousing relentlessly at those who replaced us , but I didn’t particularly care.  It was something to distract myself from the rotation’s deliberation.

Indulger called me over as I arrived at the ground floor.  I took a seat beside him and Shover.

“Jane, are you doing all right?” he asked.

Shover looked a bit scandalized at a Fist using human names.  Or rather, since she had been Pantheon up until recently, Gods using mortal names.  She didn’t say anything though.

“Not really,” I told Indulger.  “I’m…”

I thought for a second about how to phrase my dilemma in a way that Indulger would understand.  Ennui?  Angst?  A growing realization that I might have been fooling myself for half of my life?

“Sad.  I’m really sad.”

Shover spoke up.

“That’s awful.  It’s like the famous story about the guy who went to see a shrink, and the shrink told him to go to a clown, but he WAS the clown.”

I was a little surprised that she knew that one, actually.  Or what a shrink was.

“What do you mean?” asked Dale.

“Haunter made everybody happy by bringing back the people who got burned up, but now she’s sad and there is no one to bring someone back to make her happy.”

From the way she phrased things, I suspected that Dale had met a kindred spirit, or at least someone who shared his rather limited vocabulary.

“Can’t you just bring them back yourself?” she asked.

“Shover,” I said.  “I’m not sad about any particular person dying.  I’m sad…. I guess I’d say I’m sad that people die, in general.  Not that we don’t have one person still with us, but that I don’t have a lot of people still here.  I’ve lived for a long time, and a lot of people are missing that I wish, very much, were around right now.”

Dale nodded his understanding.

“That has got to suck.  It’s too bad that you couldn’t bring them back.  Are you blaming yourself about that?”

That was unusually perceptive for the big man.

“Maybe a little.  I mean, not really.  I’m not holding myself responsible for not putting everyone who died into my reserve.  I’m just…I just wish that things could be different, you know?  My gift proves that there isn’t some grand purpose to death.  It’s just an accident of the way things are.  If She had gotten my power instead of Her strength, maybe we’d be in a deathless world by now?”

Shover shook her head.

“I think She would just use it to bring dead people back and torture them again or something.”

“I meant the first Ultra having a gift like mine, not Prevailer in specific.  I guess, I mean…”

I was having trouble saying it in a way that they would understand.

“Do you wish that you were the first Ultra, instead of Her?” asked Shover.

“Well, obviously, but that’s not the core of what I’m saying.  What I mean is this.  My gift exists, so it might have been the first one.  It might have been what set the stage, what changed the world.  Not brute strength, not the power to kill, but the power to prolong our existence.  This could have been a golden age.  It isn’t, and it isn’t because of any profound reason.  I don’t suffer like this for any profound reason.”

I moderated my tone, kept myself from breaking into a shout.

“It’s just bad luck.  All of it.  The world is a ruin, half of everyone is dead, and we live under the thumb of a madwoman, all because of one tiny piece of bad luck.  And that makes me sad.  I’m numb to the facts, but talking to Andy reminded me of how meaningless it all is, so I’m sad.  You get me?”

Shover nodded, got up and scurried away.  I couldn’t blame her.  If I’d run into a Fist raving about how unfair the world was in public I’d have had to walk off too.

Dale didn’t go anywhere, but he sat silent for a long time.  His brow was furrowed in thought.

I didn’t mind the silence.  I stuffed some rations in my mouth, enjoyed the quiet.  Venting was cathartic, but it didn’t really change anything.

Nirav approached us, wearing shades he’d swiped from some old gas station or other.

“Dale, come outside for a sec.  Some people said that they saw some trucks coming into town.”

Indulger was out of his chair in a heartbeat, striding towards the exit.  I followed right along with, introspection momentarily banished.  Trucks meant one of two things.

“Regime,” he said.

I put my hand out, grabbed him by the arm.  He looked down at me.

“Are you sure?  We have to be more careful.  What makes you think they are with us?”

He grinned.

“Company trucks, and coming from the Northeast.  But mostly the Company trucks thing.  They use a particular one, just duplicated over and over.  One of the wheels is not aligned right.  I learned that a long time ago.”

“That’s evidence,” I said. “But not conclusive.  I wouldn’t put it past Krishna to circle around and have some of her goons hijack a Pantheon truck or two.”

The rest of the Fist had gathered round as we spoke.  We’d all been at headquarters, and we’d arranged a ‘meet out front’ system in response to any kind of trouble.

“It is almost certainly the Company” asserted Preventer, “but Haunter has a point.  No reason to be anything less than safe.  Let’s meet them in force, shall we?”

Indulger took us through the city on one of his platforms, skimming the stone across the surface of the old roads, merging it through the rubble.  The novelty of this kind of thing had long since worn off, and we simply clutched at the surface beneath us and prepared to meet our guests.

It didn’t take long to intercept the Company trucks.  There was only one navigable path into Redo for a wheeled vehicle, and we met on it.  They stopped, by fell coincidence, near the building we’d sheltered beneath while we planned Thor’s ruin.

Company Men climbed out, recognizable anywhere by their uniformity and our long familiarity.  One of them walked over.

“Hi” said Dale.

“Greetings Indulger.  We’ve been dispatched to reoccupy this city’s Company Facility.  Honorary Vice President of Operations Martin has tasked us, by proxy, with resuming Processing operations.”

“Ok.” Said Dale.

The Company Man stood silently before us, content to let us lead the conversation.

“I’d like to inspect your vehicles.” I said, before I could stop myself.

I didn’t really suspect that anything was wrong in a Company vehicle.  It was something else.

From the moment that my session with Andy had ended I’d been haunted by a vague suspicion that the world would find a way to strike at me before I could consummate my intentions.  I wasn’t sure if, at my very core, there wasn’t part of me that hoped for an interruption.  But that part of me would never gain ascendancy.

After the ambush with the Union no one accused me of being too careful.  The Company Men stepped aside and let us check over their trucks.

Nothing untoward seemed to be present.  They had some protein powder, a bunch of what the Jury told me were authentic equipment that biologists would find useful.  Nothing was amiss.

We waved them on, huddled up as they passed.

“I’m actually glad that we double checked,” said Preventer.

I’d expected her to take the opportunity to make a dig at me about jumping at shadows.  Even the worst people will occasionally surprise you.

“No reason to take chances,” said Fisher.  “We weren’t doing anything important anyway.”

That provoked general agreement, then suddenly Indulger held up a hand.

“More trucks, Southwest.  Probably Pantheon.”

I didn’t even feel surprised.  Somehow I’d known.  If Andy raised to my lips the cup of salvation, then of course it would be dashed away.  My burden was not one that I could ever set down.

“How many?” asked Fisher.

“Just 8, 9.  Sorry, they are far away, I don’t have very good sense at that distance.”

“Just wait a second,” I said.  “They’ll be closer soon enough.

This black mood was different than the blankness that had enveloped me after the incident up north.  I wasn’t numb now, I was angry.  The ire that I’d been trying to communicate to Dale and Shover was still in me, and now it found its utterance.

“I’d like to say that I don’t know what possible reason would drive Krishna to send her forces against us, but that’s too kind.  I know the reason.  It is the same damnable reason that set us against Thor.  The orders of her master.  Well they’ve-“

Indulger’s hand descended on my head, patting the top of it like I was a pet.  I fell silent, startled out of my gathering monologue.

It is easy to forget just how big Dale is.

“They’ve stopped,” he said, giving me a quick, apologetic look.  “Except for one truck the rest have stopped.”

“Some kind of stratagem?” asked Preventer.

Indulger shook his head, frowning furiously, all of his concentration bent upon his gift, trying to decipher something that only he could sense.

“The lead truck is out of control?  I’m not sure…” he paused a second.  “No, wait.  I’ve got it.”

When Dale realizes something the smile which crosses his face actually transcends that stupid mask.  You can actually SEE the idea take hold, the pieces come together.

“It is spelling out words.  They are trying to talk to me.  They want to talk!”

5 thoughts on “Haunter 4:2

  1. Speak your *peace* and let the next one go
    => Speak your *piece* and let the next one go

    “Jane, are you doing all right?” *she* asked
    =>“Jane, are you doing all right?” *he* asked.
    Probably. Because is Shover is scandalized by the use of a normal name and Jane is the only other female there, it is probably spoken by Indulger.

    These are the ones I noticed. I’ll add others if I find them

    Thanks for the chapter, pretty interesting story so far.

      1. I hadn’t even known that there was a delay this week, I’m still catching up :p
        Anyway, thanks again for your efforts. Keep up the good work!

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