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eye of the cyclone

is there life on earth, or are we just dreaming…

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Was Gurdjieff Irish??

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Subject: gurdjieff’s origins
Date: 3 Jan 1996 02:46:01 -0500
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Was Gurdjieff Really Irish?

Last night a friend lent me an advance copy of a book that is supposed to be published this August in Chicago by Dharma Bums Publishing. It’s called Unmistakably Ben Bulben: the Fourth Way in Ireland and it makes some pretty wild claims. The first part of the book tries to prove that Gurdjieff is really an Irishman by the name of Michael Kiely, from Limerick, who left Ireland at the age of 16 rather than work on the family farm. It also states that Ouspensky left Gurdjieff because he found out the truth, although he never mentioned it for fear of damaging the Work itself.

Apparently, near the end of Ouspensky’s life he told the whole story to one of his students who then told it to Larry O’Nolan, the author of this book. O’Nolan checked what sources he could and then gathered whatever related to both Ireland and the Fourth Way to fill out the book.

He makes much of the episode in In Search of the Miraculous in which Ouspensky meets Gurdjieff’s father and sees a photo of the young Gurdjieff. Ouspensky says that the photo reveals something about the profession Gurdjieff practiced at the time, but Ouspensky decides to keep this to himself. O’Nolan says that Gurdjieff’s Irish origin explains this mystery. O’Nolan produces what he claims is the photo. It shows a young man standing near a horse-drawn cart. The man looks exactly like Gurdjieff with a full head of hair. His very relaxed and strong arm rests on the horse’s neck, and the cart is piled high with peat. In the background is, unmistakably, Ben Bulben. The man identified as Gurdjieff’s father was in reality his first Sufi teacher.

O’Nolan heard the story of Gurdjieff’s flight from Ireland from an old relative still living in the countryside near Limerick. There were three sons born to this farming family: John, James, and Michael (later known as Gurdjieff). One night the father pronounced the destiny of the three boys: John would go to school and become a priest, James was already working at his trade of cabinet maker, and “Michael,” he said, “you shall tend the farm.” The next day the boy was gone. After many travels he ended up in the east where he encountered Sufi and other influences, and the rest is history. (In case you were wondering, John got stuck tending the farm.)

The book goes on to talk about the success and failure of various fourth-way groups, mainly in Dublin. He gives one anecdote I’d never heard – that Gurdjieff sent Orage into Dublin to start a group but then recalled him after a month, saying that he was afraid that Orage would “dissolve” in Dublin.

The book points out Gurdjieff’s Irish traits: his garrulous manner, his love of drink, of long stories and anecdotes, of practical jokes and word play. The book ends by pointing out that Gurdjieff (as Gurdjieff) never set foot in Ireland and always avoided his Irish students for fear of giving himself away.

There has always been some mystery about the origins of Gurdjieff. When I read the above on the World wide Web I felt the time had come to reveal the results of my own researches. The reason I have not done so earlier was a fear that it would merely stimulate unnecessary and irrelevant controversy. As to Gurdjieff’s place of birth, Alexandropol, Allahabad or Ashby de la Zouche, what difference does it make? I do not claim to have proved anything, but nevertheless, the results of my researches open up some intriguing possibilities. I will tell the story as it unfolded itself to me, lest I give an impression of certainty and completeness that the results of my researches do not warrant.

I first heard the name of Gurdjieff during the exceptionally harsh winter of 1947, when I was eight years old. An old friend of my father’s, John Bowen by name, was spending the Christmas holidays with us while on leave from his duties with the Allied Control Commission in Germany. Mr. Bowen, for so I always think of him, was a man of great sweetness of temperament and kindness, and I always looked forward to his visits. Mr. Bowen and my father had met shortly before the First World War, when both were working for Badische Anilin (now known as BASF) at Ludwigshafen. Upon the outbreak of war, my father was arrested as an enemy alien and spent the rest of the war at Ruhleben, an internment camp for British civilians that had been set up on a racecourse just outside Berlin. Mr. Bowen was more fortunate as he was in Budapest at the time. The Austro-Hungarian Empire, being more civilised than the other warring nations, did not intern enemy civilians, but only required them to report at a police station once a week, and not leave the town of their residence without permission. He remained in Budapest after the end of the war as he had married a Hungarian lady, and only left in 1920, on suffering the worst tragedy of his life, the death from influenza of his much beloved wife.

I much enjoyed listening to my father and Mr. Bowen talk, for both had lead unusual and adventurous lives. It was from Mr. Bowen’s lips that I first heard the name of Gurdjieff. I will put what he said as if he were saying it, though of course I do not remember the precise words he used. However, it states all that I learnt from him and does reproduce his style of speaking. &quotIt was only about a day or two after I arrived in Constantinople that I was called in to see some Intelligence chappie. He wanted to know all about Hungary and so forth , and I did my best to oblige him. We hit it off and we spent a lot of time together. He was terribly interested in all that Oriental and Theosophical type of stuff, and he took me along to a number of their meetings. Not really my style, but I suppose I needed a good deal of consolation at the time. We met up again in London, and he was very keen on some Russian fellow called Gurdjieff who had the answer to everything and who had some sort of set up outside Paris. Thought I’d give it a try. By God, what a lot of nonsense! And that Gurdjieff fellow! Had only been there a few days when I accidentally run over his foot with a wheelbarrow. Completely loses his temper and curses me out in the broadest Cockney. Russian indeed! Born within the sound of Bow Bells if anyone ever was. Complete charlatan of course. But he certainly knew how to swear.”

I next came into contact with Gurdjieff when I was appointed to a junior position with Structural Communication Systems, a company that Mr. Bennett had just started. He quickly became my teacher as well as employer. I remembered Mr. Bowen, and asked Mr. Bennett if he had met him, relating to him the story I have set down above, omitting Mr. Bowen’s opinion of Gurdjieff. Mr. Bennett indeed remembered him, whereupon I told him that Mr. Bowen was convinced that Mr. Gurdjieff was a Cockney. Mr. Bennett gave me what I can only describe as a look of consternation, and started talking about Tibet, thus successfully distracting my attention. Anybody who knew Mr. Bennett will, I am sure, confirm that if he wanted to distract your attention, he would succeed

After spending a year at Mr.B.’s glorious gulag in the Cotswolds, I returned to India for a short time. While I was there I received permission, for reasons which it would be an unpardonable breach of confidence for me to reveal, to examine the archives of the Indian Secret Service for the years before 1922. I found a number of requests for information from a Captain J.G. Bennett in Constantinople, and two memoranda from him. However, there is no mention of Gurdjieff, and no file on him. All this left me with the impression that something was being concealed, and for good and obvious reasons. At this point I felt as if I had run into a brick wall and was on the point of abandoning my search in the Indian archives, when I discussed my predicament with a senior archivist who had already been of immense help to me. He pointed out that if there were a file on Gurdjieff, it might be under a code name, and also told me that there were certain secret registers which provided the key to this system of code names, the very existence of which he was not supposed to divulge to me, in spite of my having been given special permission to examine files that were then, and are now inaccessible even to professional historians approved by the Government of India. Knowing that my presence in the archives had been approved at the very highest level and also out of a fatherly affection which he had conceived for me, he agreed to see what he could do to make it possible for me to examine these secret registers, provided that I revealed nothing until after his death. This I swore to do, and I have kept my word.

With the invaluable aid of my friend, I examined the register of Russian agents, and the files to which they guided me. I found no mention of a Gurdjieff, and no-one whose description corresponded to him. I was in despair, when my friend asked me why I thought the man I was looking for was a Russian agent. Why not look at the register of British agents? This I did, though in a hopeless mood. There I came across the name of Georgiades. Further search revealed a very thick file on this Georgiades, in which he was described at one point as: &quotFrederick Dottle, a Londoner who for many years has been posing as a Russian subject of Anatolian Greek extraction.” I was overwhelmed by a mixture of relief and excitement. On the very point of giving up, after weeks of nervous strain and physical discomfort, for I had stayed in Delhi through the Hot Weather, I had found what I was looking for! That night I celebrated, and got blind drunk. I woke up with a terrible hangover, and by the time I had recovered from my debauch, the Monsoon had broken. The file on this Georgiades covered the years 1891 to 1907. It ended with a note that henceforth he was to be employed by M.I.6 in London, rather than the Government of India. The picture that emerges from these files is one of a man of infinite resource and fascinating character. At one time he was a starets (a wandering Russian holy man; Rasputin was another), at another a sub-contractor on the Trans-Caspian railway, and a successful and valued agent. His adventures as a British agent merit a book to themselves, and shed a fascinating light on the closing years of the Great Game. His active career came to an end in Tibet, where he was wounded at the time of the Younghusband expedition. He was rescued and brought to India by that same British force, and recovered in a hospital in Darjeeling. At that time there stood to his credit at the Chartered Bank in Calcutta the sum of 14,723 rupees and 9 annas. The last recorded transaction was a substantial withdrawal on January 23, 1906, which left a balance of 108 rupees which stands to his credit to this day.

On my return to London, I attempted unsuccessfully to gain access to the files of M.I.6, and so I am unable to say anything about his further career as a British agent, or if there was one.

Examination of the Register of Births, Marriages and Deaths in London revealed that a Frederick Dottle had been born in Whitechapel on January 13, 1867. His mother was Margaret Dottle, a barmaid, and the father of the child unknown. Margaret Dottle died on 28 December, 1869, and the boy was admitted to the Stepney workhouse the next day. The life of an orphan in a Victorian was no joke, for harsh conditions were held to be of immense benefit to the poor, not to say the ratepayers. The sufferings of the children and other inmates of the workhouse were all the more as the Warden, a Mr. Aristotle Fringe, was a cruel and vicious man. The young Dottle escaped often, but each time was brought back by the police. His last escape was on March 14, 1879. There was a riot in the workhouse that day, which led to a commission of enquiry being appointed. As a result the warden was dismissed for “excessive cruelty and abominable practices”, to quote the official report. However, young Dottle seems to vanish into thin air. There a no records of arrests, and indeed no record of any kind of his existence in London at all. On June 5, 1879, the unspeakable Mr. Fringe was found with his throat cut at his lodgings at 17 Slime Street, Whitechapel. The culprits were never brought to justice.

At this point the scent appeared to go cold. How could one connect the 12 year old boy Frederick Dottle in London in 1879, with the British agent of the same name in 1891? Was there any connection? Were they the same person? At this point I decided to rely on conjecture, and made the somewhat hackneyed assumption that young Dottle had run away to sea. There followed several months spent finding out which ships were in the Port of London at that time, and in searching for their logs. Eventually I came across the log of the Cruttenden. In it I found the following entry: March !6, 1879. &quotEngaged today a cabin boy, name Frederick Dottle, age thirteen. Strong young fellow and a real cockney imp. A real darkie. Looks like his father was a lascar seaman. We’ll soon lick him into shape.&quotThe Cruttenden was outbound for Constantinople and Batoum, carrying a cargo of machinery. She left London on the morning tide of March 19. She reached Constantinople on 12 April, and left a week later for Batoum. The log records that the cabin boy Frederick Dottle deserted there. Perhaps the licking into shape he was subjected to was not to his taste.

The obvious thing to do was to go to Batoum and examine the archives there. This I did in 1991, when the collapse of the Soviet state made it possible. Fortunately, Batoum has escaped most of the ravages of war that have afflicted Russia, and the archives are reasonably complete. In the police records for 18 April (Old Style) there appears the following entry. &quotArrested: young vagrant, about twelve or thirteen years of age, without papers. Stocky build, dark hair and complexion. Looks Armenian. Does not understand that language or Russian. Speaks English, but gives no name. Possible deserter from an English ship. Ordered to be taken under armed guard to the British Consul for identification. Escapes en route.” I consulted the port records for that day, and found that there were three English ships in the harbour. The Cruttenden and the Olive outbound from London, and the Toutley from Bristol.

It is not impossible that John Georgiades or Gurdjieff, the man known as Gurdjieff’s father would visit Batoum, which is about 150 miles from Kars. I therefore looked for evidence of his presence in Batoum at this time and I found it, though it was of the saddest kind. The records of the Greek Church there show that on 17 April 1879 (O.S.), George, the son of John Georgiades of Kars, age 12, had been buried. The cause of death was given as fever. This is confirmed by the official register of deaths, which gives the date of death as !5 April, and the cause of death typhoid fever. The father is named as John Gurdjieff, a resident of Kars. Perhaps John Gurdjieff had taken his sick son to Batoum in the hope of finding a doctor who could save him.

This, to my mind, is sufficient to demonstrate that the man known to the world as G.I. Gurdjieff, the son of John Gurdjieff or Georgiades of Kars, was somebody else. At this point we have to rely on conjecture. The bereaved father could have run into the fugitive cabin boy Dottle, and taken him back to Kars. They each had something which the other could provide; one needed a son, and the other, at the very least needed someone to help him escape from Batoum. Of course, there is no absolute proof that the father was not another inhabitant of Kars, with the same name as Gurdjieff’s father, and that the boy who died was not likewise. But to continue our conjecture, Frederick Dottle was young enough to have learnt Greek and Armenian, the languages of his new home easily, and at the same time old enough not to have forgotten his mother tongue, English. If we suppose that G.I. Gurdjieff was the adopted and not the natural son of John Gurdjieff, it makes it easier to understand why he seemed to have no native language. He spoke Russian with a thick Caucasian accent, as Ouspensky noted, and J.G. Bennett says of him only that Armenian was the language he was most at home in. His great loyalty to his family is not surprising when one considers that they were the first people to have shown him any affection.

If we make the assumption that the Frederick Dottle who deserted his ship at Batoum in 1879 was the same Frederick Dottle who was a British agent in 1891, and that in the interim he was adopted by John Gurdjieff, this raises another question. Why didn’t the man we know as G.I. Gurdjieff declare himself to be a British subject after he had escaped from Russia? It seems likely that he could have been issued a British passport in Constantinople, thus saving himself and to some extent his followers the problems that arose from being stateless. In 1922, when he was granted permission to reside in England, most of his pupils and supporters, apart from those he had brought from Russia with him, were English, so England would seem to be the obvious place to set up his Institute. there is also the question of whether he remained a British intelligence agent after 1922, and whether this was the reason, or part of it, why he stayed in Paris during the German occupation.

However, it must be remembered that the question of Gurdjieff’s origins is a secondary one at best. It is his work that matters, and nothing that has been written here is relevant to that. One can only surmise that he did not reveal himself as Frederick Dottle on his escape from Russia because of the effect it might have on his loyal Russian followers, and also because it would attract to him a useless sensation that would overshadow his work, and tend to discredit it in the minds of some. It will be interesting to see if anyone feels the same way today.

Peter Roberts.

and if you believed that, well….”your stay here is useless”


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Athertons launch new Website

The new Atherton Racing website has launched and Rachel Atherton gives an emotional insight into both her crash at Leogang and the subsequent recovery.

Here’s a snippet:

“So, the old shoulder dislocation rears its ugly head again. At least it wasn’t my ‘bad’ shoulder from last year, so that is good. My physio is some boy, he works at a certain rugby club in manchester, and shoulder injuries are his game. Going to physio and the gym with all these huge strapping rugby guys, i feel like a right little wimp i tell you! But they are all really inspiring and reading about how to get the highest testosterone levels in the canteen is hilarious!! ”

Read the full story at

Dan Atherton sounds like he still has his sense of humour despite having a brace bolted to his skull after his nasty DJ crash.
His latest Twitter update says:” Just fell into a morphine sleep with a bottle of pee in my hand,huge dream/action twitch and threw the piss all over my self…”

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Frandom Ran-doodles

Go big or go home, which, in the following case means get buck naked and launch yourself off a massive ski jump. Imagine the bruises…
More Ski Videos >>

Some boffin somewhere discovered that this is what your favourite drinks look like under a microscope. Click here for the full story.

If only Alan Partridge was still doing World Cup commentary…

A lesson for hardcore betting fans:

These lazer cut dollar bill stacks are incredible.

Sometimes I feel like doing this when I see what the youth of today are wearing…

I bet these would sell like hot cakes in the Dirt office…

These randoms were lovingly compiled by editorial assistant Nick Mack.

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Please enter your email so we can keep you updated with news, features and the latest offers. If you are not interested you can unsubscribe at any time. We will never sell your data and you'll only get messages from us and our partners whose products and services we think you'll enjoy.

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CAF Event Shares Story of The Lost Squadron and Glacier Girl

The Commemorative Air Force (CAF) will be hosting an event this Saturday, August 20th, at the CAF Dixie Wing Museum, to share the story of The Lost Squadron. Four members of the Greenland Expedition Society, the group who located the aircraft and led recovery efforts, will be featured guests at the event. They will share their story of locating The Lost Squadron and the 11-year effort that led to the recovery and restoration of the P-38 Lightning that has come to be known as Glacier Girl.

The story of The Lost Squadron and the efforts mounted to locate and recover the aircraft is an epic story, and worthy of a much longer, in-depth treatment. (Which we hope to eventually find time for.) However, in talking about the CAF event, I feel it’s necessary to provide a (very) brief version of the events, in the hopes of inspiring anyone who has the opportunity to attend the event. This is not a story you want to miss.

The Story of the Lost Squadron – The Short Version

On July 15th, 1942, six P-38 fighters escorting two B-17 Bombers set off for the UK, as part of Operation Bolero. While en route over Greenland, the squadron encountered increasingly bad weather that eventually forced them to turn back. It was decided that before the squadron ran out of fuel, they would attempt a landing, as a group, on the surface of a glacier in Greenland.

The first P-38 to land did so with landing gears extended, but when the gears buckled, the aircraft flipped over onto its top. Having seen the result of using the gears, the next P-38 executed a successful belly landing, with the rest of the aircraft able to successfully land as well. The crew of the aircraft were all relatively intact after the landings and roughly 10 cold, hard days later (there were some re-supply drops), they were picked up by the US Coast Guard.

Due to the remote location of the aircraft, and the cost involved in recovery, the aircraft were abandoned, and became known as The Lost Squadron. And over the intervening years, they were buried under ice.

Attempting to Recover The Lost Squadron – The Short Version

However, The Lost Squadron was not forgotten, and from 1977 to 1990, eleven different expeditions attempted to locate and recover the aircraft and failed.

But in 1988, Pat Epps and Richard Taylor made an incredible discovery. They led an expedition that was able to locate The Lost Squadron, though they found that the aircraft were now under 268 feet of ice, and they had been moved some three miles by the drifting glacier. They returned in 1990 with a drill called the Super Gopher and were able to drill down to one of the B-17s. The bomber, sadly, had been crushed by the ice and was beyond salvaging.

Two years later, however, believing the P-38s would be able to survive the ice more intact, they returned. They were proven right in their beliefs and were able to recover the P-38 that came to be known as Glacier Girl. A mere 10 years after it was pulled from the ice, the aircraft had been restored to full airworthy condition and made it’s first flight on October 26th, 2002, after 50 years encased in ice.

Details on the CAF Lost Squadron Event

It’s a great story, right? Well, the four special guests at the event will be Pat Epps, Richard Taylor, Neil Estes and Don Brooks, all members of the original Greenland Expedition Society.

The two-hour event will begin at 11 AM on Saturday, August 20th, (doors open at 9 AM) at the Dixie Wing Museum and headquarters. The museum is located at the Atlanta Regional Airport – Falcon Field, in Peachtree City. The address is 1200 Echo Court, Peachtree City, GA. The event is open to the public, and tickets will be $10, though admission is free for active and retired military personnel. For more information, and to order tickets online, you can head over to the Dixie Wing website.

Featured Image: D. Miller, CC2


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A Healthy Future

by Jeffrey Thomas

In early 2007, Gail Z. Martin and I were among the first wave of authors to release books through the then brand new imprint, Solaris Books. Well, actually Gail headed that wave, as her novel THE SUMMONER was the first novel released by Solaris. My own novel was DEADSTOCK, a science fiction thriller set in my multiverse, Punktown, with a private eye named Jeremy Stake at its center. Gail continued her Chronicles of the Necromancer series through Solaris, and they let me bring Jeremy Stake back for a second outing with BLUE WAR.

Since then, we have both gone on with other books for other publishers. My next novel set in the gritty and dangerous far-future city of Punktown – close on the heels of BLUE WAR – was HEALTH AGENT (Raw Dog Screaming Press, 2008). HEALTH AGENT also took the form of a noir thriller, but this time starring “health agent” Montgomery Black, whose role is preventing the manifold health risks Punktown can fall prey to. Black and his partner/lover are given the task of investigating a brilliant but sociopathic performance artist who calls himself Toll Loveland. Loveland’s approach to art takes the form of biological terrorist acts, such as infecting people with a lethal disease. After attending one of his performances, before Loveland’s threat is fully comprehended, both Black and his partner are exposed to and contract the aforementioned deadly plague. With time running out as the disease ravages him, Black hopes to both avenge himself and his lover, and protect the rest of Punktown’s citizens from Loveland’s threats. But Loveland’s monstrous games have only just begun…

Actually, HEALTH AGENT was written in the late eighties, but languished as a handwritten manuscript for years. At the time of its writing, the AIDS epidemic was still something new in the public eye. But this fact should hardly date HEALTH AGENT; I don’t recall AIDS having yet been eliminated, and we are always dreading the next avian flu or even biological attack by some hostile group. Another interesting fact is that I took a year off in the middle of writing HEALTH AGENT, in order to write another novel, but somehow was able to come right back into what may well be the most twisty, tricky, labyrinthine plot I’ve yet devised. In fact, HEALTH AGENT might just be my favorite of my Punktown novels to date.

As I have mentioned, HEALTH AGENT was released several years ago, but I hope it will garner more readers; maybe those who read and enjoyed the more widely distributed DEADSTOCK and BLUE WAR would be willing to check it out. I think they’ll find themselves in for a healthy dose of thrills, scares, and suspense.

So I thank Gail – not to mention J.F. Lewis, Sabrina Lewis, and Tina McSwain — for letting me stand at the podium for a while. Gail’s been very supportive of me over the past few years, by featuring me in her podcasts, so she’s well deserving of my gratitude and indebtedness. Now back to you, guys!

P.S. — If you’re interested in purchasing HEALTH AGENT, please head on over to the publisher’s web site, here: http://www.rawdogscreaming.com/agent.html

You can listen to the audio from when Jeffrey was a guest of Blog Host, Gail Z. Martin’s Ghost in the Machine podcast here:  http://www.audioacrobat.com/play/WXnzLmn4

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text:
#TOTD: Mjintheskywithglitter

Schermafbeelding 2014-08-17 om 11.46.40
Hey lovely friends!
As I mentioned in the post earlier this week [press here to read] I have created a new tag, the #TOTD tag where each day I will feature a traveler and a wanderluster by heart. I have decided to do this because I love to read travel stories and I am sure that I am not the only one.It is very inspiring to read other peoples stories, watch their pictures. Therefor I am searching for the best travelers to inspire YOU!

For this edition I have chosen my sweet IG friend, username: mjintheskywithglitter
I chose her because she is a funlovin’  traveler who in my opinion enjoys life to the fullest and visits lovely places.

1: Where did you go for your first travel experience/Holiday?
I was 3 years old when I went to Paris and Switzerland with my parents and my beloved grandfather.
I still have so many memories from that trip like it was yesterday.
I remember crying because a swan at the Lake Lucerne accidentally bit my finger as I was feeding it a piece of bread, and I remember hearing my father talking in French, so I was always pulling his arm trying to interrupt him asking him “Dad what are you saying???” hahaha!!
And I remember doing MANY bumper car rides at the amusement park with my grandfather 🙂
2: Which 5 items do you always bring on your travels?
July Favourites 1
Aside from the obvious necessities, I always bring with me
1. a LOTTT of make up – there’s nothing worse than being in the mood for creating that specific look, and not having the right lipstick for it.
2. self-tanner. In my make up blog [click here for her blog] I never made a secret of the fact that my skin is nowhere near its original colour, so I need a bottle of self-tanner with me at all times not to take any risks of starting to look like a patchy giraffe.
3. vitamins. Fizzy vitamin tablets can make for a nice drink, also depending on where in the world you are and what else you have eaten for the day haha!!
4. instant coffee bags – not that you can get too much use out of them unless you have some hot water too, but you always have to be positive and hope you can also somehow get hold of some hot water or a kettle ^_^
5. a camera – come on, not to take selfies or outfit-of-the-day pictures, I mean to take pictures of where I am!! 😀 Since I’ve had my inseparable iPhone, my camera has been my phone 🙂
3: Where are you now and where will you go for your next trip?
Now I am at home recovering and catching up on lost sleep from last night’s overnight flight, definitely the not-so-favourite part of my job!
I’m off to London next 😉
4: What is your dream destination and why?
Bali. I have already been there and I am forever yearning to go back.
The sea, the flowers, the breeze, the peacefulness, the people, the silence of the night just watching the waves and the stars…
5: What is your favorite travel picture that you took and why/what is the story behind it ?
Question 5
I will say that my favourite travel picture is the one I took at the Eiffel Tower last month. Every time, going back to my first ever holiday destination, where I first went with my most loved ones, and now being back there as a part of my job, always has a special meaning to me.
Unfortunately I can’t share this with my grandfather anymore, but I’m sure he knows anyway.
In the picture on the left, I am in Versailles at 3 years old 🙂
6: If you could take 3 celeb travel buddies on your next trip, who would they be and why?
I would love to take with me Oscar Wilde (left)
and Sigmund Freud (picture below),
I am sure they would
come up with some interesting topics
of conversation over a drink at sunset!!
And Gianni Versace to style me 😀
And can I take you with me too?? I mean, I have been following your Instagram page and your blog pretty much since you started them, now you are even interviewing me, the least we could do now is going on holiday together!! – Editors note: Yes darling, that would be so lovely! I hope we can travel one day together !
7: Are you a backpacker (budget traveling) or a flash packer (luxury traveler)? And what was the best backpack/flashback accommodation where you have ever stayed?
Question 7
I guess that anyone who has read my answers so far can answer this for me, right?? Yes, I am a luxury traveler, at the end of the day I spend more time in hotels than in my own home, so I feel it’s just normal that I try to surround myself with all possible comforts 🙂
The best hotel I have ever stayed at is Conrad Bali. Paradise on Earth doesn’t even begin to describe it. I have been dreaming of going back ever since.
Well lovely friend, this was my edition with Miss Mjintheskywithglitter. I hope you guys enjoyed it.
If you want to be featured on my website as well, take a look here: *click*
With love,

  1. Thank you with all of my heart again for featuring me, you’re already such a good friend and you really made my day with this article O:-)
    Love you xoxo ❤

    • Beauty, I am so happy that we have met. I had this instant connection with you. You are such a kind, beautiful and wonderful person. You truly rock and are so incredibly sweet! You will always have a friend n me.

      Thank you so much for allowing me to feature you. You are the best ❤ love you xoxo

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WARC-Identified-Payload-Type: application/xhtml+xml

text:
Data Movement and Integration
Also available as:
loading table of contents...

Sqoop Import Table Commands

When connecting to an Oracle database, the Sqoop import command requires case-sensitive table names and usernames (typically uppercase). Otherwise the import fails with error message "Attempted to generate class with no columns!"

Prior to the resolution of the issue SQOOP-741, import-all-tables would fail for an Oracle database. See the JIRA for more information.

The import-all-tables command has additional restrictions. See Chapter 8 in the Sqoop User Guide.


text:
Front Range Pipe & Supply, Inc. et al v. Pro Plumbing & Heating, LLC

Filing 3

ORDER Judgment shall enter in plaintiff's favor and against defendant in the amount of $34,206.88 plus interest through June 28, 2007, in the amount of $2,808.75 and costs in the amount of $250.00. Signed by Judge Richard P. Matsch on 8/9/07. (gmssl, )

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Disclaimer: Justia Dockets & Filings provides public litigation records from the federal appellate and district courts. These filings and docket sheets should not be considered findings of fact or liability, nor do they necessarily reflect the view of Justia.

Why Is My Information Online?


text:
Baum et al v. Maplewood City Library et al

Filing 8

ANSWER to Complaint by Maplewood City Library, University City Public Library, City of.(Dunne, Peter)

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Disclaimer: Justia Dockets & Filings provides public litigation records from the federal appellate and district courts. These filings and docket sheets should not be considered findings of fact or liability, nor do they necessarily reflect the view of Justia.

Why Is My Information Online?


text:
You can power off a vApp to power off all its virtual machines and child vApps. Virtual machines are powered off in reverse startup order.

Required privilege: vApp > Power Off on the vApp.

  1. Navigate to the vApp you want to power off.
  2. Right-click the vApp and select Power Off.

    If a delay is set in the shutdown settings of a virtual machine in the vApp, the vApp waits for the set length of time before powering off that virtual machine.


text:
The SDDC core infrastructure consists of vSphere and vRealize Suite products such as vRealize Operations Manager and vRealize Log Insight for monitoring, vRealize Automation and vRealize Orchestrator for managing workflows, and vRealize Business Cloud for costing.

The core infrastructure includes the physical layer, virtual infrastructure layer, and cloud management layer. The core virtualization is part of the virtual infrastructure layer and the service catalog and orchestration services are part of the cloud management layer. The virtual infrastructure layer enables consolidation and pooling of underlying physical resources. The cloud management layer provides the orchestration capabilities and reduces the costs associated with operating an on-premises data center. The service management layer provides monitoring capabilities to pro-actively identify and solve emerging issues with predictive analysis and smart alerts, ensuring optimal performance and availability of applications and infrastructure.

The vRealize Suite products of the SDDC infrastructure help to effectively manage performance, availability, and capacity of resources across a virtual and hybrid cloud environment. The core infrastructure helps to manage across hybrid and heterogeneous cloud environments, on premise or off premise, based on vSphere or other third-party technologies.

When the SDDC infrastructure is in place, you can extend it to provide Infrastructure as a service (IaaS) and platform as a service (PaaS) to consumers of IT resources inside or outside the organization. IaaS and PaaS complete the SDDC platform, and provide further opportunities for extending capabilities. With IaaS and PaaS, you increase the agility of IT and developer operations.

Figure 1. Stages of Building the SDDC Infrastructure

A Software-Defined Data Center includes virtualization, orchestration, and monitoring.


text:
 Introduction
Zeta Test Management Online documentation

User's manual Zeta Test Management

Welcome to the Zeta Test Management user’s manual!

Zeta Test Management is an intuitive-to-use test management environment/software tool for performing tests, including Black Box and White Box Tests, Regression Tests or Change Management Tests for software release changes.

Zeta Test Management helps you to plan, perform, log and document tests, as well as supporting you when evaluating and interpreting results.

Create and manage your test cases and test plans with Zeta Test Management. Test your software with test scripts that you created with Zeta Test Management.

That said, Zeta Test Management is not designed to function as a tool for performing automated Unit Tests. Instead, Zeta Test Management helps you to manually create test cases and then perform and document those test cases manually.

About this manual

This manual contains an introduction to the Zeta Test application and the most important functions, as well as different usage scenario examples about when and how to use Zeta Test in your projects.

The optimal way in which to use this manual is to work with Zeta Test running on your workstation; this will allow you to retrace the steps on your own.


text:
Welcome to Centreon Syslog Server’s documentation!

The Centreon Syslog project consists of several parts:

The Centreon Syslog Frontend module is the graphic user interface of the project Centreon Syslog for Centreon local server. This interface allows to configure different Centreon Syslog Server modules as well as to view the syslog events collected by the latter modules. Besides viewing in real time syslog events of the collectors, the Centreon Syslog Frontend module also allows to make a search on past events.

The Centreon Syslog Server allows to manage syslog events stored into MySQL database by Syslog daemon (Rsyslog, Syslog-ng)

The Centreon Syslog CLAPI module allows you to extract recorded syslog events from databases to CSV, XML or ODT format. The extraction made from Centreon server is stored in command line format.

It is important to note that this version no longer requires “php-syslog-ng” although it was required for the “Syslog 1.1” version.

This documentation will explain to you how to install and manage a Centreon Syslog Server:


text:
Hallgatói adatlap
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Personal data
name Zoltán Szabó-Maák
year of birth 1984
name of institution University of Debrecen
doctoral school DE Doctoral School of Neurosciences
thesis supervisor Csilla Molnár
one supervisor or with co-supervisor individual
degree PhD
starting of doctoral studies 2015/02
foreseen date of final certificate (year,month) 2018/08
Scientometric data
list of publications and citations
number of scientific publications that meet accreditation criteria:
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All rights reserved © 2007, Hungarian Doctoral Council. Doctoral Council registration number at commissioner for data protection: 02003/0001. Program version: 2.2358 ( 2017. X. 31. )


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There’s Already Some Competition Brewing Over Certain New TLDs

Applications for the new top-level domains opened up on January 12th, marking an unprecedented time in domain history. Currently, there are just over 300 total extensions and only 23 global TLDs (though some country-code extensions are globalized). This round of applications may involve hundreds if not thousands of applicants, and most who apply for their own extension will likely get it, possibly hundreds starting next year and thousands over time.

That said, there’s been a lot of misinformation, mostly about the costs involved. In the past, I’ve mentioned many costs that had generally not been taken into account by most mainstream media articles regarding the new TLDs. They usually focus only on the $185,000 application fee, and the infrastructure and marketing costs to launching and operating a new extension are each more than that.

One of the costs that doesn’t get focused on much is the potential additional cost to win an extension. Win you say? Yes, a single extension can have multiple applicants, and if they are equally qualified, then ICANN can hold a private auction for the extension.

Part of why this hasn’t been focused on much is because most of the focus has been on .brand possibilities like .ebay and .coke. Obviously those extensions would only be applied for by those respective major companies, as any other applications for them would be disputed.

However, some generic and geo extensions are already seeing some competition. According to publicly announced applications listed on, the following 12 extensions have had multiple applicants:

.Africa – 2 applicants
.Bayern – 2 applicants
.BCN – 2 applicants
.Berlin – 2 applicants
.Eco – 2 applicants
.Gay – 2 applicants
.Music – 2 applicants
.NYC – 3 applicants
.Paris – 2 applicants
.Shop – 2 applicants
.Sport – 2 applicants
.Web – 2 applicants

Most of the 3-month application period is still remaining, so some of these extensions could see even more applications. Considering the application fee is non-refundable, bidding could ultimately reach high amounts for many of these, considering the “loser” would already be out nearly $200,000 at least.

It remains to be seen how this will all pan out, whether most or all of these TLDs will go to auction and which other extensions will spark some competition. Note that only one of these 12 extensions, .web, is strictly meant to be a .com-alternative – the rest cover specific niches or regions. We’ll see what other applications come in over the next few months.

One Comment on “There’s Already Some Competition Brewing Over Certain New TLDs”

  1. Sharon Hayes says:

    Reblogged this on Sharon Hayes Dot Com.

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Posts Tagged ‘law’

Galatians 2:16 – nevertheless knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the law but through faith in Christ Jesus

Ephesians 2: 8,9 — For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; not as a result of works so that no one may boast.

We christians usually focus on pleasing God and living for Him by trying to obey the ten commandments and trying to do the right things.

We will go to church every time the doors are open, tithe our 10 percent, we will not smoke, drink, dance, go to movies, we will look down and condemn those who do not do what we feel the Bible commands. We feel guilty every time we mess up and think God is going punish us if we do not do everything we think is right to do as christians.

The truth is because of grace we do not have to be trying to keep the law at all. We do not have to try to do good works to earn our favor with God.

What happened to grace? What happened to being saved through faith in Christ and Him alone. Not Jesus and baptism, not Jesus and good works, not Jesus and avoiding certain things. We are saved through faith in Christ and we no longer have to do any of these things to be a child of God. We have freedom in Christ that was bought and paid for with the death and resurrection of Jesus.

This freedom does not mean we just live our lives doing whatever we want. There are consequences in this world for doing things that are not good for us. As it says in 1 Corinthians 10, “all things are lawful, but not all things are profitable. All things are lawful, but not all things edify. Let no one seek his own good but that of his neighbor”.

We have freedom from the Law because of the grace of God. We do things out of love, love for God and love for others. It is no longer out of obligation or trying to follow any law.

Stop putting your faith in trying to follow all the rules and regulations of the old covenant law. Stop forcing the law on others thinking that will make them better people. Jesus fulfilled the old agreement and began a new agreement, an agreement of love and grace.

We no longer strive to please God through the law, but we do what pleases him because of love.

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When we think about Jesus, we automatically think of Christianity. Although the two are completely different.

Jesus didn’t come to start Christianity. Jesus was not a Christian. We are missing the whole point when we focus on religion rather than the real reason Jesus came to live among us. He came to show us the Father and the love He has for each and every one of us, no matter what we call ourselves or what group we belong too. He even loves those who don’t think he exists.

According to Wikipedia it is stated that according to some estimates, there are roughly 4,200 religions in the world. Buddhism, Hinduism, Islam, Jewish, Christianity and every other religion are all actually related. They are all human based ways of trying to please the God (or gods) they believe in and serve.

In regard to just Christian denominations, World Christian Encyclopedia says that world Christianity consists of 6 major ecclesiastical-cultural blocs, divided into 300 major ecclesiastical traditions, composed of over 33,000 distinct denominations in 238 countries. It certainly can’t be stated that people are not interested in some type of higher power.

We want to argue over religion and who is right, who is wrong. All the different religions of the world can’t agree on who we believe in or what is right. We even break it down more and argue within Christianity with all the different denominations, as we consider ourselves Catholic, or Methodist, or Lutheran, Presbyterian or part of the thousand other groups. We argue over whose interpretation is right and really don’t want to associate with those who feel differently.

Needless to say, we all have our interpretations, thoughts and ideas, but those just make us unique individuals. They were not intended to cause separations and divisions among us. We should be able to be ourselves and yet love and accept those who are different from us.

If we could get past the religious part of our beliefs and live in the freedom God provided, things would go much better. Rather than defend our denominational interpretations and our personal ideas, if we would love and accept others with the love of Christ, people would be more open to hear about our Father.

We are normally busy pointing out the mistakes of others, even our brothers and sisters in Christ who have a different view, and condemning those who we consider sinners. When we do so, the love Jesus told us to show everyone seems to get missed. I personally don’t think it is our job to convict people of their sins. Most people know their shortcomings already, and the Holy Spirit will convict the worldly of their sins, drawing them to repentance.

Jesus told us to love God and love others…period. When we focus on the gospels and the life of Jesus and realize that he didn’t condemn and point out the sins and mistakes of people, we can see a distinct difference from the way we act today. He only had an issue with the religious leaders who thought they were better than everyone else because of their works.

When it comes to saying I am a Christian, I am hesitant anymore because of the meaning it receives from most people. If being a Christian means a follower of Christ, someone who wants to be like Christ, and show the love of God to everyone, then I am for it. But if being a Christian is the typical church going, law following, condemning others way of life, I am done with that. In that sense, Christianity is not the answer, nor is any other man-made religion.

Jesus is not into religion. Jesus came to show the love of God to every human being no matter who they are or what they believe. Jesus crosses the barriers of religion and loves everyone. In the world today, we are the Jesus people see, and we should be ready to show the love and acceptance that he showed to everyone we meet.

You may be interested in reading an article on the same topic by my friend Glenn Hager. Read it here: http://www.glennhager.com/2013/05/17/did-jesus-start-a-religion/

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It was for freedom that Christ set us free; therefore keep standing firm and do not be subject again to a yoke of slavery. Behold I, Paul, say to you that if you receive circumcision, Christ will be of no benefit to you. And I testify again to every man who receives circumcision, that he is under obligation to keep the whole Law. You have been severed from Christ, you who are seeking to be justified by law; you have fallen from grace. Galatians 5:1-4

As followers of Christ, we have been set free. From what have we been set free? Is it circumcision? I personally think circumcision is a place-holder in this verse. It could be anything we use to try to earn our right standing with God.

It Is By Grace

It is by grace we are accepted, and when we try to do anything….keep the law or do good works, we are putting trust in our work and not the work of Christ.

It we do not trust in the grace of God, the only thing we have left is to keep the Law, and we have to keep the whole Law. Obviously, we cannot do that, because all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.

So why is this verse saying we have fallen from grace? What have we done to do so? It is by trying to keep the Law, trying to live by the Old Covenant and rejecting the grace Jesus provided.

The Old and the New

In today’s church it seems, at least for me, that the mingling of the Old and New Covenant is taught. We are told we are saved by grace, but we mature in the faith and live pleasing to God by keeping the Law. This just should not be. The above verse tells us that this is the way we fall from grace.

free from lawWe are free from the Law, we are free from the punishment for our old sin nature (still consequences sometimes, but not punishment), and we are free from trying to measure up by keeping rules and laws.

Jesus has already done all the work that needs to be done. We can now rest in the grace He provided. Good works will follow because of our love for him, not due to an obligation to measure up and earn his forgiveness.

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When we talk about the Word of God, we usually think of the Bible.

If someone says the Bible is just a book, we get all offended and ready to voice our opinion that the Bible is the Word of God.

Not to sound sacrilegious, but sometimes we can actually make too much of the Bible. People will hold it up and say it is the word of God and worship it more than we worship Christ. Christ is the true Word of God as mentioned in John 1:1. He is the living and powerful Word and His Spirit lives within us.

The Word

Many times we Christians focus so much on The Bible that we forget we have the living Word of God inside of us. The Holy Spirit, who is God in spirit form, just as Jesus was God in human form, lives within us.

In John 5:39 and 40, Jesus told the religious leaders “you study the Scriptures diligently because you think that in them you have eternal life. These are the very Scriptures that testify about me, yet you refuse to come to me to have life”. The religious leaders of the day spent so much time studying the scriptures that they missed the Living Word standing right in front of them.

There is certainly nothing wrong with reading the Bible, as it is God inspired. Through it we can learn from the past, we see the story of redemption throughout, we come to know the love God has for us and how he purchased our salvation through Christ. We learn what pleases God and we come to know that it is only by Grace that we are in right standing with God.

The Bible teaches us the Law and how we humans are completely unable to live a life pleasing to God through the law. The law was our tutor to bring us to realize that we need God’s grace through Christ.

The Bible teaches us of the freedom we now have in Christ and that only by His grace can we live a life pleasing to Him. There is nothing that we can do on our own to earn or deserve what He has done for us.

We need to focus on Jesus. He is the true and living Word of God. It is when we focus on Christ and listen for the leading of the Holy Spirit within us that the written words will come alive with power and meaning.

I like this statement by Mick Mooney, “Above all, trust the Spirit of God in you to guide you. It helps to remember that the Bible is a testimony of the life and finished work of Jesus, not the guide for your life; your Guide abides within you. Certainly the Bible has an important place in our faith walk, but it should never replace the work of the Holy Spirit in you. Christ in us is our hope. Christ in us is how we learn, and how we are led by God”.

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So many followers of Christ today live like they are under the Old Covenant.

We have been brought up in the religious system that seems more like a corporation rather than a community where the priesthood of all believers should be the norm. The church has a pastor, elders and deacons just like a corporation has a CEO, board of directors and operating committee.

We still have the mind-set that we are living in the Old way of doing things. A lot of us still think the church is a building we gather in and listen to a ‘chosen few’ tell us what God is saying.

We tell each other to ‘have a good Lord’s day’, thinking Sunday is the chosen day to set aside to worship God and rest.

We look to the bible like it is part of the trinity and we worship it and use it for all kinds of rule keeping, judging and condemning others.

We tithe ten percent to the church, thinking God requires it from us and if we do not give the tithe, we are robbing God.

Jesus completed the Old Covenant and brought it to an end. He made a New Covenant with his creation, which we are now living under.Old and New

Jesus is building his Church, which is made up of people, not brick and mortar. It is a community of believers with Christ as the head, and each of us equal, participating members in a loving group of people. Now that may happen anywhere and anytime; in a building, in a house, in a park, a restaurant and so on. The fact is that Church is not an organized meeting in a set place at a set time, but it is a fellowship and relationship among fellow believers, no matter if there are only two or three.

Each and every day is the day the Lord has made. Every day is holy and for resting in the work God has already done. The idea that the seventh day is holy is just not true in the New Covenant.

The bible is the inspired word of God. Although God inspired men to write, it is still a book written by men. It is the Spirit that gives life and meaning to those words. If the Spirit isn’t enlightening us and teaching us, the words do not have life.  Jesus is the living, all powerful, inerrant Word of God.

Tithing was a law given to the Jews in the old covenant. It is no longer part of the new covenant. Giving out of love as the Spirit leads is the way things are done now. God does not need our money, but giving to those who do, out of love, is a way that is pleasing to God and a help to others.

It is sad that men have continued to teach the Old Covenant way to believers today, although it is understandable. All of us alive today do not know anything different since this has been taught for hundreds of years. Not until the Spirit opens our eyes and leads us in His truth do we see this new way of living by his grace.

Seek God’s truth, ask the Spirit for guidance. Do not be condemning and argumentative towards fellow believers who see things differently, but be open to what God shows you. Do not be close-minded and continue to do things just because that is the way we have always done them.

The Spirit is within us and he is our guide into all truth. Be open to hear his voice and follow in the way he leads you. Do not be condemning towards your brothers and sisters in Christ who follow a different path. It is the same spirit that leads us, and we are all called to love one another.

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Growing up in the institutional church and modern Christianity, my wife and I were taught that we are saved by grace but live by law. This seems to be a fairly common way of life for the modern-day believer.

Over the past couple years, we’ve come to see that the Bible mentions that those of us who are saved by grace are now free from the old covenant law. If we still try to live by the commands of the old covenant, we are actually living under a curse. ‘For as many as are of the works of the law are under the curse: for it is written, Cursed is every one that continueth not in all things which are written in the book of the law to do them’. (Galatians 3:10 KJV).

Why is it that we can’t accept the free gift provided by the cross and forget the performance based way of trying to please God. ‘For if you are trying to make yourselves right with God by keeping the law, you have been cut off from Christ. You have fallen away from God’s grace’. (Galatians 5:4  NLT).

We now live for God because of love, not out of obligation, not trying to do more and earn our salvation.

It’s time we realize God, out of His love for us, has provided all we need; He has done away with our old sinful nature. We are forgiven of all our sins by His grace. We can now enter into his rest and rely on what He has done. We no longer have to strive to keep all the rules and constantly try to do more and more to earn a relationship with Him. ‘We have been released from the law so that we serve in the new way of the Spirit, and not in the old way of the written code’. (Romans 7:6).

Rest in Him, rely on the Spirit to teach you and guide you, through love. There are plenty of things to do, but we do them when we are led by the Spirit, and we do them through love and His strength.

Now, am I saying because we are free of the law that we can just do whatever we want? Eat, drink and be merry? No, not at all. Even though we are free from the law, and even though by keeping our eyes on Christ we have the ability through him not to sin, we are still living in a fallen world. There will be times when we take our eyes off him and commit sins. Although in Christ our sins are already forgiven and there is no longer punishment for them, there are still consequences in this world when we do wrong.

The thing is, by trying to keep the law, we are led into death. ‘The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law’. (I Corinthians 15:56 NASB). The old way of doing things was only a temporary thing. The law showed us that we were completely powerless to live up to God’s standards. It was a tutor for us until Christ came and took our sinful nature to the cross. ‘Therefore the Law has become our tutor to lead us to Christ, so that we may be justified by faith. But now that faith has come, we are no longer under a tutor. For you are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus’. (Galatians 3:24-26 NASB).

For so long we were taught that we needed to do more and more for God. We were taught to try to keep the commandments and strive to be ‘good christians’. Fortunately the Spirit has been guiding us into the reality that we cannot keep the commands. We, in ourselves, are powerless to do so, and so are you. Christ came to fulfill the law and provide freedom to all of us. We are now free to live out of love for Him and free from trying to live by the law. When Jesus said ‘it is finished’, he was saying the old covenant, the old way of trying to live by the law, was finished. He accomplished what we could not do. When he was resurrected, a new way of life started.

The new covenant, living in love through grace became the way we can live as children of God. He has put His spirit within us to walk with us daily.

When we are in love with God, we do not need rules to tell us what to do. We do what is pleasing to Him because we love Him. Laws can’t make us love, but love will let us do what pleases Him.

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Colossians 3:5, 9-11 Therefore consider the members of your earthly body as dead to immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and greed, which amounts to idolatry…Do not lie to one another, since you laid aside the old self with its evil practices, and have put on the new self who is being renewed to a true knowledge according to the image of the One who created him, a renewal in which there is no distinction between Greek and Jew, circumcised and uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave and freeman, but Christ is all, and in all…

As followers of Christ, our old nature has been killed and buried. We are new creatures in Christ. We no longer have to serve sin because Christ has set us free.

Our old sinful nature was crucified with Christ. It was dead and buried and now a new, holy and righteous creature has risen and is alive in Christ.

We have Christ living in us and we can rely on His power to overcome temptation by His strength. Because of Him we can live a life free from the guilt and punishment of sin. The sinful nature is still in the ground and a new person now lives as one with God. He put His Spirit within us and made us His dwelling place.

When God looks at us, He sees His child that has been changed by the grace of Christ. We are now holy and righteous in His sight. Not because of anything we have done, but because of the work Christ did. We no longer have to work to earn salvation. After accepting the grace of God, we no longer have to strive to keep the law. The law was good in that it was a tutor to lead us to Christ. The law was fulfilled by Christ and now that we are His, we live by faith in the grace He provided.

In Christ, we are all brothers and sisters in Christ. There is no upper level or lower level child of God. The is no Jew or Greek, male or female, clergy or laity. Each one of us make up an equally important and functioning part of the body. We are all saved by grace and living under the headship of Christ. Christ is our all in all.

May we continue to grow in Grace and let Him have the preeminence.

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Older Posts »

Mental health news, reviews and all things funny.

A Journey Out of Funda-gelicalism

Altered Call

Taking the Triune God Out of the Box

Moving The Furniture

How to beat depression and anxiety

Pure Glory

The heavens are telling the glory of God; and the firmament proclaims His handiwork. Psalms 19:1

More Enigma Than Dogma

Relationships, Culture & Current Events

The Ekklesia Blog

Jesus-centered and gospel-focused, The Ekklesia Blog asks honest questions about the institutional church and religious/church tradition.

Called Out: Now What?

Now that you've come out of the Harlot Church System

Christy Lynne Wood

Looking for the real God

Uzzah's Fall

My trip to atheism

Comfort & Challenge

a positive charge every day

The Will to be Onesself

A search for authentic faith drawing from psychology, religion, philosophy and life

in pursuit of reasonableness, thoughtfulness, & faithfulness.

Confessions of a Recovering Churchboy

What I bought before, I just can't sell

To the Saints Radio

...let us press on to maturity...

Christianity 201

Digging a little deeper each day

"For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved." Romans 10.13

hebrews1014.lp@gmail.com I don't have all of the answers to the mysteries of the bible, but I'm havin fun as God is teaching me. And I want to reflect the love of the Lord Jesus Christ to others, and to share the same hope with people that set me free from my guilt and shame. "Humble yourselves therefore under the mighty hand of God, that he may exalt you in due time: Casting all your care upon him; for he careth for you." 1 Peter 5:6,7

Diplomacy is the remedy to Tyranny.

Reflections in the midst of life.

A Grace Vagabond

Roamer, wanderer, nomad, vagabond; call me what you will

The Closet Atheist

At college, a Christian. At home, a Lutheran. At heart, an atheist.

hugely loved

"And immediately Jesus stretched out His hand and caught him, and said to him, “O you of little faith, why did you doubt?” - Matthew 14:31

The Wild Frontier

The Truth will set you free.

Emma Higgs

Ponderings on Christian spirituality, church, the messiness of life and the reality of hope

Melissa Pereira

Spoken truths, Unfiltered and Unplugged

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Just a little longer and my journey will end. Keep me on the steep path to You just a little longer, O Conqueror of death; because the higher I climb towards You, the more people try to drag me down—into their abyss. The fuller their abyss becomes, the greater their hope is of defeating You. In truth, the fuller the abyss becomes, the further away from the abyss You are.

How stupid the servants of the tree of knowledge are! They do not measure their strength in You, but in their numbers. They do not adopt a law of justice in Your name, but by their numbers. Whichever way the majority of them choose is the way of truth and justice. The tree of knowledge has become the tree of crime, stupidity, and icy darkness.

Truly, the knowledgeable men of this world know everything except that they are servants of Satan. When the last day dawns, Satan will rejoice in the number of people in his harvest. All the meager ears of grain! But in his stupidity, even Satan counts on quantity rather than quality. One of Your ears of grain will be worth more than the entire harvest of Satan. For You, O Conqueror of death, rely on the fullness of the bread of life, and not on numbers.

In vain I tell the godless: “Head for the Tree of Life and you will know more than you could possibly wish to know. From the tree of knowledge Satan fashions a ladder for you to descend into the nether world.”

The godless ridicule me and say: “Through the Tree of Life you want to convert us to your God, whom we do not see.”

In truth, you will never see Him. The Light that even blinds the eyes of the seraphim will bum your pupils forever.

Of all that thrives in the putrescence of the earth, those who believe in God are the rarest. O lake and mountain, help me to be glad that I, too, am journeying with these most rare, most unlearned, and most despised believers.

Just a little longer, brethren, and our journey will end.

Sustain us just a little longer, O Conqueror of death.


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Northern Colorado Regional Urban Renewal TIF Study Underway

6 Nov

In light of recent urban renewal projects in northern Colorado, several northern Colorado governmental agencies have agreed to cooperate in a study that aims to develop an improved process for evaluating future Tax Increment Financing (TIF) proposals. The Cities of Fort Collins and Loveland, Towns of Berthoud, Estes Park, Johnstown, Timnath, Wellington, Windsor, as well as Larimer County, Foothills Gateway District, Poudre River Public Library District, Health District of Northern Larimer County, Thompson School District, Northern Colorado Water Conservancy District have all agreed to participate in the study.

The desire of the municipal and special district executives participating in the regional TIF study is to develop and agree to a process for future TIF proposals that will provide for the economic well-being of the people of Larimer County. The goals of the study are threefold: to develop a method to qualify and quantify the economic benefits and financial risks of TIF proposals; to identify and address the differences of TIF proposals and corresponding financial effects on taxing entities; and to adopt formal agreements that balance the benefits and risks among the participating Larimer County entities.

All of the participating municipalities and special districts agree that economic vitality is an important component of community well-being and tax increment financing is an important redevelopment tool for urban areas, because blighted conditions that are not remedied or prevented can impact economic vitality. Services needed to support other important components of community well-being are dependent on property tax for funding, and tax increment financing can impact funding for these services. The regional TIF Study will develop tools to better quantify the impacts (positive and negative) of TIF proposals on the region.

Tax increment financing proposals are necessarily variable because of the many factors that influence an optimal balance between urban redevelopment objectives and other broad public interests, so it is understood that the regional TIF study will need to recognize and address critical differences between major types of TIF proposals. Furthermore, the cooperating entities appreciate that consistency and predictability aid understanding and long-range planning for all parties involved in TIF proposals (municipalities, property tax dependent entities, developers, and citizens). As a result, it is the intent that the regional TIF study will result in intergovernmental agreements regarding the process and parameters of future TIF proposals.

A Requests for Proposals was released in the early fall and the study group is currently in the process of hiring a consultant to assist in the evaluation and analysis. It is anticipated the study will be completed by mid-summer 2015.

Author Tom Leeson is the City of Fort Collins’ Redevelopment Program Manager overseeing the Fort Collins Urban Renewal Authority and assisting with redevelopment projects across City departments. Tom Leeson, AICP, is a land use planning and real estate development professional with 15 years’ experience. Tom has extensive knowledge in both public and private sector planning, and practical real estate development experience. He has worked in multiple other jurisdictions, as well as for Clarion Associates in Fort Collins.

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Home Tanya Nadin, Baker Deane & Nutt

Tanya Nadin, Baker Deane & Nutt

Tanya grew up on a rural property in Braidwood NSW. She completed her secondary schooling at Loreto College in Normanhurst (Sydney). Upon leaving school she started studying law through the Legal Practitioners Admission Board. From 1998 to 2001 Tanya worked as a legal secretary in Sydney for a number of Senior and Junior barristers at Jack Shand Chambers.

From 2001 to 2002 Tanya worked as a paralegal for PricewaterhouseCoopers Legal. At the end of 2002 she decided to move back to Braidwood and commenced working at Baker Deane & Nutt as a paralegal while completing studies. Tanya was admitted as a Legal Practitioner of the Supreme Court of New South Wales on 3 December 2004 and completed a Master of Applied Law (Family Law) in 2016.

In year 10, Tanya did work experience for a highly respected Barrister in Sydney and was fascinated by the law deciding that was what she was going to do. At Baker Deane & Nutt, Tanya works in a variety of areas of the law however specialises in family law.

Her job passions include being able to help clients resolve their legal disputes quickly and where possible without wasting the client’s time and money going to Court. Tanya considers herself problem solver and works with clients to achieve the best possible outcome.

In terms of growth within the role and the business Tanya comments,

Sadly within Australia, as more and more couples are separating, family law matters are more common. I would like to continue to work in the area of family law because I think I can make a positive contribution and help people work through the legal issues involved when a relationship breaks down and move on with their lives.
Often family law matters are very stressful and full of emotion for clients, Tanya feels a sense of satisfaction when she can work with a client and assist them in bringing what can be a very difficult time in their lives to a final resolution on terms that everyone can live with.
It is difficult to see my clients going through pain and stress as a result of a relationship breakdown. This is particularly the case when children are involved.

When Tanya is not in the office she enjoys spending time with family. Her children are very active in sports and other activities keeping Tanya and her husband very busy. They have a boat and enjoy skiing and spending time on the water. Her parents still live on a rural property so their children are very lucky to be able to also spend time at the farm riding horses and motor bikes.


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Earthshaking_Strike.png Two-handed_weapon.png
Your great blow tears open the ground with a shockwave that batters enemies caught in its path.

  • Number of Hits: 2
  • Damage per Hit: 150% Weapon Damage
  • Area of Effect: 12 Meters
  • Cooldown Time: 20 Seconds
  • Cost: 50 Stamina

Earthshaking Strike can be modified by Shattered Ground, setting enemies caught in it on fire.

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Bani Amor and India Harris on "Decolonizing Travel Writing"

Bani Amor and India Harris have created the "ABC's of fucked up language in travel writing" to help "decolonize travel writing." The two have a discussion at about why they created the ABC's, what they see wrong with travel writing today, and ideas for how travel writers should think about the language they use in writing.

Words like ‘authentic,’ ‘exotic,’ ‘g*psy,’ ‘native’ and ‘tribal’ are used in ways that are either exoticizing local people or diminishing their culture. These words are often misappropriated by leisure travelers as monikers or identities to take on which, because of their privilege, is seen as something positive, while nomadic peoples throughout the world face discrimination, systemic violence and have had their lands handed over to settlers. These writings look very similar to the journals/records kept by colonizers otherwise known as ‘explorers’ from the 14th, 15th, 16th and 17th centuries.

Similar to these issues is the "poverty porn" that some writers promote when writing or photographing Indians on the rez. Rather than humanizing its subject, these writers tend to create more of a mythical subject that diminishes the subjects instead of accurately reporting on them. Check out the rest of the fruitful discussion on travel writing here.


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Category Archives: Practice

Line Drawings

Line drawing, like writing, can be declamatory or expository; a way of persuading viewers or a means to simply engage with the world beyond the self. The searching, tentative quality of a sketch is more like a soliloquy than a sermon, the artist’s interior dialogue groping toward a mystery. John Berger wrote that for Vincent Van Gogh drawing was  “a way of discovering and demonstrating why he loved so intensely what he was looking at…”

At the beginning of a drawing class we focus on line and all of the various ways it can be played. Working with line is like the visual counterpart of MTV’s “Unplugged” series where musicians leave all their technological wizardry at the door and just play the music. In the absence of recording-studio colors and effects, the integrity of the basic idea is revealed. The ensemble stands or falls in that clarifying light.

A linear drawing builds its riffs from a similarly austere palette, drawing its unique power from elimination, reduction, and distillation of the rich sensory experiences of the eye. Unaided by the seductive romances of tone, color and texture, the play of line in a drawing can inform us about what we are and are not seeing, allowing us to address problems before they’re embedded in complicated visual embroideries.  The relative spatial positioning, directional movements, and scaling of one part to another can be tested and worked out. Like a house under construction, a line drawing is more about the foundation than about the furnishings. The understanding of relational structure, built over time through constant practice, is the foundation of our powers of expression as artists.

On its march toward resolution and clarification of intent a linear drawing leaves in its wake a clamoring of linear hypotheses that can produce a remarkable beauty, as can be seen in many of the drawings below. The ghostly images of abandoned positions, proportions and directions function almost like the sonic qualities of reverberation in music. Tonal drawings have an epic feeling and grandeur about them. Linear drawings, by embracing certain constraints on their means, can achieve a very different kind of poetry, not unlike the sparse syllables, internal rhymes and rhythms of haiku.

Tone speaks directly to the emotions. Line speaks to the mind. Or, rather, it speaks to the emotions through the mind by distilling the idea of the thing. Lacking the mimetic immediacy of tone, which is a closer approximation of the actual way that we perceive the world,  the abstractness of a line drawing can never look like its subject in any literal sense. It can only look like itself, however much it may remind us of things seen. But, what we give up to line’s austerity, we gain back from its unique power of transformation. When we begin to draw, the motif is, as Henry James said of nature, a “blooming buzzing confusion.”  As our lines negotiate and articulate that empty space everything changes – our perceptions, our emotions, even the motif itself. The provisional becomes the inevitable.

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Filed under Contemporary Artists, Old & Modern Masters, Practice, Uncategorized

The Winter of Discontent

Self-Portrait by Katsushika Hokusai, 1760-1849

Self-Portrait by Katsushika Hokusai, 1760-1849

Six weeks into a semester a student expressed to me her observation that she “wasn’t getting any better.” Students often believe that their frustration is unique to them; that their struggle is evidence of a lack of “talent.” In the journey we make as artists there are many well-known landmarks. Frustration with our seeming lack of progress after an optimistic beginning is a big one. Let’s just borrow from William Shakespeare and call that one “the winter of my discontent.”

We enter this barren landscape typically at those times when we are taking on new concepts, new images, and new practices. These strangers in the room challenge our comfortable, familiar habits; they upset what we thought we were doing. Lurking behind the curtains of consciousness, ready to spring forth in judgement of the child that lies at the heart of every artist there is often a soured, old, adult intelligence, even in very young people. Our rational intelligence is no help; in fact it’s the problem. A great pianist doesn’t “think” about every note in the moment of playing it. The dancer at the barre is not the dance. The pianist playing scales is not the concert. Larger patterns and instincts guide the artist and only practice can develop these instincts. Practice is not sexy, but it’s crucial because only by ritual application to the problem of taking materials in hand and attempting another drawing does the process become familiar enough for it to seep down into the subconscious.  I’ve noticed that progress in making art does not happen gradually. It happens in quantum leaps, not unlike the way seeds grow, invisible to the eye, under a hard crust of earth until a soaking rain softens the ground and seemingly overnight, the field is green with new growth.

“I have drawn things since I was six. All that I made before the age of sixty-five is not worth counting. At seventy-three I began to understand the true construction of animals, plants, trees, birds, fishes, and insects. At ninety I will enter into the secret of things. At a hundred and ten, everything–every dot, every dash–will live”
― Hokusai Katsushika   (from Anne Harris, fb)

“It’s as simple and complicated as this: if we want to make our best work, we must believe that what we have to say matters. We must believe wholeheartedly in our own vision of the world. We must be willing to be imperfect, vulnerable, playful, uncertain, and authentic. Doing is the creative habit that separates those who go places from those who spin their wheels.” Sol LeWitt, in a letter to Eva Hesse (from Alan Rushing, FB)

Filed under Artists on Art, Practice

Finding the Middle Ground

“It’s so fine and yet so terrible to stand in front of a blank canvas.”  -Paul Cezanne

When we think of paper we usually think of a clean white page, but working on white paper is a relatively recent convention in drawing. Throughout the centuries drawings have mostly been executed on toned papers of various sorts. A toned paper has one advantage over white in that its darker tone immediately addresses nature’s preponderance of middle values, allowing the artist to move off in both directions from the middle-ground, toward the upper reaches of the value scale by adding white, or toward the darker end by using a dark medium.

In the hands of the masters of any time period two compelling qualities stand out in works on toned grounds. The first is unity. The pervasiveness of the toned ground in all parts of the drawing generates a virtual atmosphere in which all parts “live, move, and have their being.” The color of the page is like family blood, so to speak, tying the whole together in ways that are much more challenging to do when working on a white drawing page. On white, the entire value scale must be added and calibrated without the reference of the middle ground. The dominant lightness of a white drawing page can deceive the eye in the initial stages of the drawing, making even relatively light marks appear much darker at first.

The second quality is economy. Economy of means is almost always a quality of great drawings, of any sort, but drawing on toned paper makes it easier to do more with less. In toned-ground drawings whole parts of the drawing are effectively untouched, yet they participate fully in the expression of form and space. The added darks and lights activate the recessive nature of the ground, shaping it, giving it form and inviting it to participate in the whole.  Like the silent intervals between musical notes, the ground becomes an active player in the structure of the drawing by the action of the dark and light notes.

And finally, with a nod to Cezanne, a toned paper is somehow just not as blank at the beginning as a white one!

A selection of drawings, past and present, that demonstrate the unique potentialities of drawing from the middle ground.

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Graphite Drawings

Ubiquitous in every art school and artist’s tool box, the humble graphite drawing pencil has an interesting history. In the 16th century graphite came into use as a marking medium in England where large deposits were discovered and first put to use by farmers to mark sheep. The slippery properties of the mysterious dark substance also made it an ideal lubricant for releasing cannonballs from their molds. Hardware stores today still sell powdered graphite as a dry lubricant for locks and other machinery. Because of its crumbly, friable texture, the first graphite “pencils” were made by encasing the soft material in sheep skin. Germany developed the graphite stick in the 1600s. Originally graphite was thought to be some form of lead, which it is not, but the reference to pencil “lead” lives on. The modern wooden pencil dates to the 19th century when graphite began to be mixed with clay as a binder, a discovery that some attribute to Henry David Thoreau whose father was a pencil manufacturer. The hardness or softness of the composite graphite-clay mixture could be moderated by baking which led to the development of the familiar grading system we use today for drawing pencils. The tonal range of graphite makes it a uniquely beautiful drawing medium, distinguishable from chalks and charcoals by its characteristically silvery color. The variety of its effects can be seen in this selection of drawings from different artists and periods.

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Brush Drawings

From the sinopia drawings that served as preparatory designs for Italian fresco paintings, to the stream of consciousness drawings of modern abstraction, drawing with brush and ink or other liquid media has a long tradition and appears universally in both eastern and western cultures. Drawing with wet media can be challenging for students who are used to the traction and forgiving nature of a pencil or charcoal. Unlike drawing with dry media where you can endlessly probe, plan, measure and erase, wet media seem to have a will of their own. Once the mark is made there’s no going back. You’re committed. In eastern traditions brush drawing is an extension of long meditation on the subject, which includes not just the objects one is drawing but also a keen sense of the instrument’s nature. This is an idea that still bears up for anyone trying his or her hand at working with ink and brush. Like putting a bridle on a wild horse, it works better if you understand and work with the horse’s nature than if you try to impose your own will for absolute control. Let the brush have its way, guide it where you can, and be open to what can happen. The ride is often more exciting than the destination.

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Hank Buffington

Hank Buffington is a Lancaster, Pennsylvania artist who works as a digital illustrator and graphic designer. A few years ago he began drawing and painting outdoors, executing quick, one-shot studies from observation. About himself he says:

“I was born in Pennsylvania but did most of my growing up in a somewhat rural part of New Jersey close to the Delaware River. I didn’t appreciate the bucolic charm of the area when I was a kid and a lot of my drawings were fantasies to take me away from it to a more exciting life. Those drawings eventually took me to the Rhode Island School of Design and after graduating with a BFA I returned home to begin a career as a graphic designer and digital illustrator. For the past several years I’ve taken time off from being a commercial artist to be a full-time dad to our five kids. The forced break from the computer gave me the opportunity to resume painting after years of pushing a mouse. In the summer of 2009 I began painting plein air landscapes to retrain myself in the craft of painting and try to break some old habits… not to mention get me out of the house for some much needed quiet time!”*

“With drawing I’m trying to be more spontaneous and courageous. These are relatively quick drawings that focus more on what I think is important in my subject; eliminating extraneous information and superfluous details.”

For more work and discussions of his process check out Hank Buffington’s blog  and *website .

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Filed under Contemporary Artists, Practice, Sketchbooks

The “Expectant Landscapes” of Charles Kanwischer

I saw the drawings of Charles Kanwischer for the first time yesterday at the Toledo Museum of Art. Had I simply gotten back in my car and made the two-hour drive home it would have been a day well spent. To call his small scale drawings “modest” would not do justice to the large-scale impact of these powerful and poignant images. All of the drawings are roughly 12 inches by 15, some even smaller. His subjects are the old working class neighborhoods of cities, the housing tracts on the outskirts of those cities, and the new  subdivisions in the making on the ever expanding rings of development around the cities of America.

A reviewer states that Kanwischer’s drawings “criticize the banality of standardized suburban landscapes…” but I didn’t see them that way. The artist’s attitude toward his subjects is more forgiving, more aware of the fragility of what we have made as a culture in our struggle to define the concept of shelter and, more elusively, “home.”

A review of Charles Kanwischer’s drawings from The Plain Dealer, 7-18-10, by Steve Litt
Veteran artist Charles Kanwischer, a faculty member of Bowling Green State University since 1997 and a 1989 masterof-fine-arts graduate from Yale University, is a master of what might be called “the expectant landscape.” Though devoid ofpeople or action, his meticulous, photobased pencil drawings of suburban subdivisions-in-the-making seem to be waiting for something to happen. The result is a palpable tension… Kanwischer’s drawings are a visual lexicon of suburban sprawl. Bridge abutments, culverts, grading equipment, half-finished foundations — the artist catalogs each subject like a collector. Each image is drawn with great integrity. Kanwischer mounts sheets of paper on thick slabs of plywood and slowly builds his drawings out of thousands of tiny comma-like pencil strokes, slowly building images of great tonal complexity. The finished works criticize the banality of standardized suburban landscapes, while drawing attention to America’s seemingly endless supply of land, which constitutes a new frontier. Out of boundless possibility, the country is building cul de sacs.

The final word goes to the artist:

“…houses give form and structure to the most intimate aspects of our lives. Over time our daily routines are embedded in their spaces and surfaces. To a large degree the relationships, memories and desires composing our sense of self borrow the form of the house. In their transposition to physical form they acquire presence, but also a certain vulnerability. Ironically, the more we seek in our homes a source of refuge and well-being, the more we are brought up against the uncomfortable truth of their profound fragility.

Ultimately, I seek in my work consolation. By constructing a history of dwelling based upon fluidity and change in the landscape,  I am better able to accept my position in it. I view my work as an invitation to others to take up the same challenge ” and perhaps even reach very different conclusions. I m not sure this fully assuages the anxiety created by existential pressures currently bearing down on our homes, for me or for others. I do know that the measure of solace I find in the act of drawing arises from my understanding of drawing as an act of communion. I mean by this that no matter what it nominally represents, the subject of a drawing is equally the mark of its author. A drawing is an accumulation of touches referring simultaneously to objects in the world and to the consciousness of the artist pressed into material permanence. When I use the medium of drawing to substantiate the traces of lives left in empty places and empty houses by previous dwelling, my own dwelling on the work leaves behind its trace as well. In this way drawing serves a mediating function, bringing together that which is separate in time and space. This attempt to establish communion between what is not present but invoked, and what is actually present in the facts of the material serves as the guiding principle of my work.”  – Charles Kanwischer

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Filed under Criticism, Practice