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Tag Archives: how to raise the stakes

Ask the Editor: How do I Make the Stakes Meaningful?

Dear Alex,
I got some disappointing feedback from my beta readers about my fantasy novel. They said they had a hard time getting into my book, and it didn’t hold their interest. I understand that story stakes are the way to make readers care, so I made the stakes as big as possible. If my heroes don’t prevail, the entire kingdom will fall. So why didn’t my readers care about my story?

Hi Daniel,

I’m sorry that your betas couldn’t get into your fantasy novel. I’m sure that feedback wasn’t easy to hear. But looking at the story stakes is an excellent first step toward a solid revision.

I admire your commitment to making the story stakes as big as possible, but the paradox is that bigger isn’t always better. As humans, we have a hard time wrapping our heads around mass suffering, and we tend to go numb when an entire kingdom is at stake. One death is a tragedy. A thousand deaths is a statistic.

Instead of trying to go bigger, I suggest the opposite approach. Bring your story stakes down to a human level. Make the stakes matter more by making them more personal.

Some genres have personal stakes built in. Maybe you’re writing literary fiction where the stakes are the heroine coming to grips with her family’s history. Maybe you’re writing romance where the stakes are a couple’s true love. Maybe you’re writing a YA novel about a kid overcoming a learning disability and finally getting that college acceptance. It’s awesome when the stakes are on that personal level, because when readers connect with the characters, they will care intensely about the outcome of the story.

But that’s not the kind of novel you’re writing. You’re writing a fantasy with much bigger things at stake. That means you’ll have to work even harder to make those stakes personal.

The only way that stakes matter to readers is if they’re brought down from the global to the human level. Do whatever you can to tell us why the fate of the whole world matters to this hero. Who is he fighting for? His family? His parents? His lover? In what way will those people have their lives ruined if he fails? Get very specific here. Give the readers enough details to truly understand how important this goal is to this very small number of people that the reader has come to love.

The Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien is a sprawling, epic adventure where the entire fate of Middle Earth is at stake. If Sauron takes over, everyone will suffer for generations. That’s huge. But why do readers care? They care because of Frodo. He’s walking to Mordor with barely any resources, trying to destroy the One Ring, and for what? For all of Middle Earth? No. Frodo cares about his family and friends. He cares about the other hobbits. He cares about the Shire. That is who Frodo is fighting for.

You absolutely should have stakes as big as the world if that’s what your genre demands. Readers of fantasy love to see epic battles and political intrigue and great evil ravaging the land. But make sure that you’ve also made these things matter to one person, or a family, or a small group of heroes.

Keep writing. You’re doing great.
Alex K.

About the editor: Alex Kourvo is a freelance editor with over a decade of experience helping writers. She is the author of The Big-Picture Revision Checklist, which is out now.


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Removing Unwanted Objects from Your Images in Capture One

While I have been culling images from the vacation, I noticed a hefty dose of lovely photos which were spoiled by a mass of unwanted objects, like the ones on this picture:

So, let’s see how we can fix it in Capture One!

Basically, Capture One offers two tools for retouching images:

  • Repair Layers
  • Spot Removal tool

There are two types of Repair Layers: Clone Layer and Heal Layer.

The difference is that Heal Layer works way smarter than Clone Layer; like Healing Brush and Clone Stamp in PS.

Clone Layer bluntly duplicates the masked area:

Heal Layer copies it and adjusts color and brightness to fit the target area best:

In 99% of cases, I use Heal Layer; it works perfectly when you need to remove some significant objects. Say, a person on the image:

The cool thing about Repair layers is that they have most of the features of the regular layers. Thus you can change their opacity, refine, clone, or invert the Heal layer mask.
Sadly, it comes with a limitation – you can create up to 16 layers on an image in Capture One. These 16 layers include both regular and repair layers.

That’s why I recommend using Spot Removal tool to get rid off numerous little objects.
Spot Removal is designed to fix some small issues on your images. Like these buoys:

Spot Removal fits perfectly for such a task. It works accurately enough, and you can remove up to 100 spots on an image.

At the same time, using Heal Layer, you can easily clean up many more complex images.

Here I have quickly removed all the people in the frame except for this couple:

Learn more about Repair Layers:

About Author

Alexander Svet – Professional photographer and photography instructor. Phase One Certified Professional and Capture One beta tester.

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The First Step Depends on the Last

from Amitabha by ALIO DIE & AGLAIA

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from Amitabha, released March 31, 2018

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Since the late 80s, Stefano Musso has recorded deep, evocative experimental ambient & electro-acoustic soundscapes under the name Alio Die.
His music is a shadowy, cavernous, intensely detailed fusion of acoustical elements, step-and-repeat sample treatments, sparse, echoing percussion, and deep, atmospheric sound design, textural the music's vague, entropic formlessness.
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• Compact Disc (CD) + Digital Album

    Comes in a lovely 6 side digipack. LTD 200 copies! New!

    Includes unlimited streaming of The Garland of Dissolution via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.
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from The Garland of Dissolution, released January 30, 2021
Alio Die: sitar, drones and loops, field recordings.
Remco Helbers: guitar, zither, ney, framedrum, various bells, thai-gong, angklung, sampled bonang.
Petra Helbers: jungle field recording

all rights reserved

Since the late 80s, Stefano Musso has recorded deep, evocative experimental ambient & electro-acoustic soundscapes under the name Alio Die.
His music is a shadowy, cavernous, intensely detailed fusion of acoustical elements, step-and-repeat sample treatments, sparse, echoing percussion, and deep, atmospheric sound design, textural passages..by the music's vague, entropic formlessness.
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A Content Model Is Not a Design System

Do you remember when having a great website was enough? Now, people are getting answers from Siri, Google search snippets, and mobile apps, not just our websites. Forward-thinking organizations have adopted an omnichannel content strategy, whose mission is to reach audiences across multiple digital channels and platforms.

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But how do you set up a content management system (CMS) to reach your audience now and in the future? I learned the hard way that creating a content model—a definition of content types, attributes, and relationships that let people and systems understand content—with my more familiar design-system thinking would capsize my customer’s omnichannel content strategy. You can avoid that outcome by creating content models that are semantic and that also connect related content.

I recently had the opportunity to lead the CMS implementation for a Fortune 500 company. The client was excited by the benefits of an omnichannel content strategy, including content reuse, multichannel marketing, and robot delivery—designing content to be intelligible to bots, Google knowledge panels, snippets, and voice user interfaces.

A content model is a critical foundation for an omnichannel content strategy, and for our content to be understood by multiple systems, the model needed semantic types—types named according to their meaning instead of their presentation. Our goal was to let authors create content and reuse it wherever it was relevant. But as the project proceeded, I realized that supporting content reuse at the scale that my customer needed required the whole team to recognize a new pattern.

Despite our best intentions, we kept drawing from what we were more familiar with: design systems. Unlike web-focused content strategies, an omnichannel content strategy can’t rely on WYSIWYG tools for design and layout. Our tendency to approach the content model with our familiar design-system thinking constantly led us to veer away from one of the primary purposes of a content model: delivering content to audiences on multiple marketing channels.

Two essential principles for an effective content model#section2

We needed to help our designers, developers, and stakeholders understand that we were doing something very different from their prior web projects, where it was natural for everyone to think about content as visual building blocks fitting into layouts. The previous approach was not only more familiar but also more intuitive—at least at first—because it made the designs feel more tangible. We discovered two principles that helped the team understand how a content model differs from the design systems that we were used to:

  1. Content models must define semantics instead of layout.
  2. And content models should connect content that belongs together.

Semantic content models#section3

A semantic content model uses type and attribute names that reflect the meaning of the content, not how it will be displayed. For example, in a nonsemantic model, teams might create types like teasers, media blocks, and cards. Although these types might make it easy to lay out content, they don’t help delivery channels understand the content’s meaning, which in turn would have opened the door to the content being presented in each marketing channel. In contrast, a semantic content model uses type names like product, service, and testimonial so that each delivery channel can understand the content and use it as it sees fit.

When you’re creating a semantic content model, a great place to start is to look over the types and properties defined by, a community-driven resource for type definitions that are intelligible to platforms like Google search.

A semantic content model has several benefits:

  • Even if your team doesn’t care about omnichannel content, a semantic content model decouples content from its presentation so that teams can evolve the website’s design without needing to refactor its content. In this way, content can withstand disruptive website redesigns.
  • A semantic content model also provides a competitive edge. By adding structured data based on’s types and properties, a website can provide hints to help Google understand the content, display it in search snippets or knowledge panels, and use it to answer voice-interface user questions. Potential visitors could discover your content without ever setting foot in your website.
  • Beyond those practical benefits, you’ll also need a semantic content model if you want to deliver omnichannel content. To use the same content in multiple marketing channels, delivery channels need to be able to understand it. For example, if your content model were to provide a list of questions and answers, it could easily be rendered on a frequently asked questions (FAQ) page, but it could also be used in a voice interface or by a bot that answers common questions.

For example, using a semantic content model for articles, events, people, and locations lets A List Apart provide cleanly structured data for search engines so that users can read the content on the website, in Google knowledge panels, and even with hypothetical voice interfaces in the future.

Image showing an event in a CMS passing data to a Google knowledge panel, a website, and a voice interface

Content models that connect#section4

After struggling to describe what makes a good content model, I’ve come to realize that the best models are those that are semantic and that also connect related content components (such as a FAQ item’s question and answer pair), instead of slicing up related content across disparate content components. A good content model connects content that should remain together so that multiple delivery channels can use it without needing to first put those pieces back together.

Think about writing an article or essay. An article’s meaning and usefulness depends upon its parts being kept together. Would one of the headings or paragraphs be meaningful on their own without the context of the full article? On our project, our familiar design-system thinking often led us to want to create content models that would slice content into disparate chunks to fit the web-centric layout. This had a similar impact to an article that were to have been separated from its headline. Because we were slicing content into standalone pieces based on layout, content that belonged together became difficult to manage and nearly impossible for multiple delivery channels to understand.

To illustrate, let’s look at how connecting related content applies in a real-world scenario. The design team for our customer presented a complex layout for a software product page that included multiple tabs and sections. Our instincts were to follow suit with the content model. Shouldn’t we make it as easy and as flexible as possible to add any number of tabs in the future?

Because our design-system instincts were so familiar, it felt like we had needed a content type called “tab section” so that multiple tab sections could be added to a page. Each tab section would display various types of content. One tab might provide the software’s overview or its specifications. Another tab might provide a list of resources.

Our inclination to break down the content model into “tab section” pieces would have led to an unnecessarily complex model and a cumbersome editing experience, and it would have also created content that couldn’t have been understood by additional delivery channels. For example, how would another system have been able to tell which “tab section” referred to a product’s specifications or its resource list—would that other system have to have resorted to counting tab sections and content blocks? This would have prevented the tabs from ever being reordered, and it would have required adding logic in every other delivery channel to interpret the design system’s layout. Furthermore, if the customer were to have no longer wanted to display this content in a tab layout, it would have been tedious to migrate to a new content model to reflect the new page redesign.

Illustration showing a data tree flowing into a list of cards (data), flowing into a navigation menu on a website
A content model based on design components is unnecessarily complex, and it’s unintelligible to systems.

We had a breakthrough when we discovered that our customer had a specific purpose in mind for each tab: it would reveal specific information such as the software product’s overview, specifications, related resources, and pricing. Once implementation began, our inclination to focus on what’s visual and familiar had obscured the intent of the designs. With a little digging, it didn’t take long to realize that the concept of tabs wasn’t relevant to the content model. The meaning of the content that they were planning to display in the tabs was what mattered.

In fact, the customer could have decided to display this content in a different way—without tabs—somewhere else. This realization prompted us to define content types for the software product based on the meaningful attributes that the customer had wanted to render on the web. There were obvious semantic attributes like name and description as well as rich attributes like screenshots, software requirements, and feature lists. The software’s product information stayed together because it wasn’t sliced across separate components like “tab sections” that were derived from the content’s presentation. Any delivery channel—including future ones—could understand and present this content.

Illustration showing a data tree flowing into a formatted list, flowing into a navigation menu on a website
A good content model connects content that belongs together so it can be easily managed and reused.

In this omnichannel marketing project, we discovered that the best way to keep our content model on track was to ensure that it was semantic (with type and attribute names that reflected the meaning of the content) and that it kept content together that belonged together (instead of fragmenting it). These two concepts curtailed our temptation to shape the content model based on the design. So if you’re working on a content model to support an omnichannel content strategy—or even if you just want to make sure that Google and other interfaces understand your content—remember:

  • A design system isn’t a content model. Team members may be tempted to conflate them and to make your content model mirror your design system, so you should protect the semantic value and contextual structure of the content strategy during the entire implementation process. This will let every delivery channel consume the content without needing a magic decoder ring.
  • If your team is struggling to make this transition, you can still reap some of the benefits by using–based structured data in your website. Even if additional delivery channels aren’t on the immediate horizon, the benefit to search engine optimization is a compelling reason on its own.
  • Additionally, remind the team that decoupling the content model from the design will let them update the designs more easily because they won’t be held back by the cost of content migrations. They’ll be able to create new designs without the obstacle of compatibility between the design and the content, and they’ll be ready for the next big thing.

By rigorously advocating for these principles, you’ll help your team treat content the way that it deserves—as the most critical asset in your user experience and the best way to connect with your audience.

About the Author

Photo of Mike Wills

Mike Wills

Mike Wills leads teams at BlueModus to help customers leverage technology effectively. He’s a developer at heart but can’t resist talking about content—if not king it should be a first-class citizen. As a Kentico Xperience MVP, Mike is committed to helping the community solve content-delivery challenges. Find him on Twitter at @HeyMikeWills.

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On Changing the World

We hear it mostly from proud CEOs and recruiters, as a sweet nothing designed to tempt candidates to drop their counter-offers, or a statement in a desperate pitch deck. We’re changing the world! All it takes is a few hundred fearsome intellects and laptops. Are you in or out?

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It’s a bold claim, and when it crops up in more laughable contexts it’s easy to discount as hubris. But consider the claim more closely and it’s harder to deny. Technology loves to demolish the status quo, and it’s doing it with aplomb.

The world is struggling to come to terms with the implications of such rapid change. So far, specific industries—music, news, film—have had to pick up most of the debris, but now technology is destabilizing some of society’s central pillars: law, finance, education, defense, and politics. We’ve recently seen the rise of a rogue currency outside the global financial system. Crowdsourced vigilantism. The further erosion of the concept of ownership. State-sponsored hacking. Technologists are already making buildings busier than any hospital, and cities ten times the size of Tokyo. We’re hacking around the limitations of space and time. It’s sci-fi stuff, unevenly distributed straight into our inboxes. Today we label these feats “digital,” but before long that qualifier will no longer make much sense.

It’s hardly surprising that work on this scale challenges existing systems and behaviors.

Once you have something that grows faster than education grows, you’re always going to get a pop culture.

Alan Kay

From the inside, it’s exciting to see technology race ahead of the social frameworks that surround it. Our industry is in thrall to disruption, just so long as it happens to someone else. And although we can feign disinterest —“It’s not our fault you can’t keep up…”— power is a fresh, intoxicating phenomenon for geeks like us.

Outside our bubble, the change is more worrying. Technology is becoming the lingua franca of the modern elite, but it’s a language the world doesn’t yet fully understand. Today, a tiny clique has disproportionate influence on global culture. This group is largely young, male, white, and concentrated around wealthy urban regions, particularly the San Francisco Bay Area.

Doubtless many readers identify with this group, as do I. But we must admit it’s not a group that’s terribly well versed in the ways of the world. Therefore, those of us in the privileged position of affecting the course of technology have a duty to inform others of our intentions and listen to their feedback.

Grass-roots schemes like the UK’s Code Club encourage digital literacy by introducing the public to the fundamentals of programming. These are important and welcome initiatives. But as well as raw technical knowledge, we need to stir up public debate on the societal implications of technology. Who controls our data? How does DRM affect commerce and the public’s possessions? What will privacy mean in a Glass-wearing era?

The tech industry is well placed to begin these conversations—not because we understand the likely cultural impact (frankly, we’re pretty clueless there) but because we have advanced warning of emerging technologies.

As Bill Buxton has argued, new technologies take roughly 20 years to reach the mainstream. The mouse, the touchscreen, the mobile phone, wearable computers: none was an overnight success. All existed as prototypes in R&D labs and thought experiments in academic papers long before they were commercialized.

Industry insiders can all take a strong guess at what will be the next generation’s disruptive digital technologies. It’s time to talk about the potential impact of 3D printing, voice inputs, pervasive networks, and embedded computing today, not when the products hit the shelves.

We already have the tools required to begin these discussions: blogs, tweets, conference talks, conversations with friends outside the industry. We can also reach further by taking up the issues with government representatives or the media, writing books, and starting public campaigns. But soapboxes and councils aren’t the only way to raise these issues: our products can also speak for us.

One way we can clarify the function and implications of new technology is to design self-disclosure into it. Innovative products should help users form accurate mental models of how they work, and discuss consequences the user may not have considered. For example, a voice-operated technology could explain how to prevent others from triggering it, or remind the user to be conscious of her environment before issuing sensitive commands. A networked car telemetry system could notify the user exactly who has access to this data, and why sharing it with the insurance company could lead to lower premiums.

This notion of self-disclosure doesn’t sit too well with the modern preference for seamlessness. I’ve previously questioned whether the “invisible interface” deprecates style and risks homogenizing design. But there are broader questions too.

The black box model — a device or product that hides its mechanics and complexity — can be useful for designing appealing, marketable products. However, it can also act against users’ interests.

First, black boxes are harder to diagnose and debug. Without an entry point (serviceable hardware, an API, or even just some flashing LEDs) and knowledge of how the thing works, a black box can be stubborn and uncommunicative when something goes wrong. Imagine a house full of co-operating devices that all fail because an OS somewhere in that network has crashed. The designer of this system must provide some visibility into the workings of the network, allowing the user to resolve the problem.

Second, black box devices have the potential to reduce the user’s agency. It’s hard to understand a device that seems to act of its own accord. A seamless device demands trust, but offers no way for the user to decide if that trust is warranted. There’s a risk that invisible interfaces could therefore become breeding grounds for unethical design. Since the user has little insight into the workings of the system, it becomes easier to slip personal data to an unknown IP, connect to a premium-rate phone line, or perform some other hostile act.

So seamlessness may not be the right model for new genres of technology. Perhaps it’s better for the first wave of innovative devices to be explicit about their workings and implications, helping the public to understand and react appropriately. Once people become more familiar with the technology, designers can carefully taper this self-disclosure off.

It may be harder to design a slick user experience if we expose the workings of a device, but advocating transparency is about designing a good experience for humankind, not just a single user. It demonstrates an ethical, holistic mindset that’s becoming ever more important as technology becomes central to people’s lives.

For ethical values to thrive in our field, we can’t let the pace of change seduce us into thinking we’ve no time for them. Designers and engineers alike need to think deeply about the implications of the things we make, and appreciate the value of doing so. We also need role models. I long for our industry to stop fetishizing entrepreneurs and billion-dollar buyouts, and instead to praise technologists who inform the public about new technology, or companies that make tough decisions for the greater good.

Individuals within the tech industry also need the courage to do the right thing. The job market is so strong that the only response to unethical pressure from employers should be a hearty middle-fingered farewell. And where dark patterns do emerge, the industry must highlight these dirty tricks, and explain to the public how they can avoid being taken for a ride.

Finally, the tech community should educate itself about global issues. Our tiny elite needs to understand the world in order to affect it positively. Efforts to travel, to learn about other cultures and contexts, and to consider use cases beyond those of our nearest neighbors will help reduce the risk of technological imperialism. It would be a mistake to assume that a solution that works for a Western techie will work for a North African trader.

These are complex times for the tech industry, and the consequences of taking a wrong step could be severe. Let’s dedicate thoughtful time to ensure the effect we’re having on the world is positive. The results will also be good for our own industry: an informed public means a greater trust of and appetite for our work.

8 Reader Comments

  1. This is a brilliant observation, though it discretely evades the elephant in the room: the major players in the paradigm here are three-fold, not two. Indeed few would deny a relationship—a tradeoff, in this case—between slick user experiences and an advocacy of transparency, but what of the third pillar? Revenue.

    Companies are acutely aware that transparency can affect adoption—which carry implications beyond the sale of products themselves—to the wares into which those products transform their users. “Doing the right thing” is more naturally occurring than I think people realize…until it comes with a price tag…

  2. I disagree, Scotty Z. For one thing, things like DRM actually cost the user money and remove functionality, not the other way around. In fact, the giving up of rights for a slicker interface almost always comes at a higher cost: Linux is free, but not very popular.

    However, even in cases where you are correct, we cannot disregard our ethics to make money. There needs to be a balance, and if we can improve lives and not be as rich as a result, we need to choose to be good.

  3. Some interesting points raised here. For me, these are problems which occur as the distance between thought, action, and result rapidly shrinks. I think this shrinkage probably accounts for why we have tight, homogenous clusters in tech communities; they are the continuation of the original founding communities. This has allowed them better (and rapidly improving) access to the tools which enable this kind of work.

    I would add that the focus on solving problems for this extremely narrow demographic has meant that broader access to the tools and knowledge necessary to participate in tech has been limited. For instance, “natural” language coding initiatives often rely on speaking English, or the focus on social networking rather than solving real and pressing issues to do with environment, access to food, healthcare, etc.

    Technologists need to think more globally, and probably think less about the US consumer market. Unfortunately, that’s where the money is (for now).

  4. I really like the point on the honest design aspect (as Rams would probably put it). Another point to highlight, imho, is a need for ethical design. Ethically designed products inspire people using them to better themselves (as opposed to taking advantage of human’s compulsive disorders to generate revenues).

  5. Before anything like this can be discussed you need to live where I live. Web design is bad, at best a contorted amalgam of “borrowed” templates and the content reflects the literacy of the locale and culture. 50% of the county I live in does not have the ‘tubes’ and those that do, 50% have dial up access. Limited access to the tubes effects how people see and use the web. They are bound by liturgy that is 100’s of years old. They attempt to understand by importing what you big guys do but something happens along the way. They ~adapt visually but they gut the concepts and insides are replaced with the local culture and liturgy. BTW I am only 180 miles from Chicago and 16 miles from a metro population of 1 million+. You speak of tech imperialism and then you make a comparison between Western culture and N. Africa There are some common misconceptions that need to be addressed. The issues we face are just outside your door.

  6. Brilliant piece. It highlights something that often worries me – the bubble of fast-moving, exciting technological change has a special air of grassroots action, bootstrapping and ‘going against the man’ that it often ignores the wider socioeconomic global context the industry is part of. You’re absolutely right that “efforts to travel, to learn about other cultures and contexts, and to consider use cases beyond those of our nearest neighbors will help reduce the risk of technological imperialism.” These experiences and efforts to broaden our horizons don’t have to come in place of revenue-generating activities. Sometimes, simply having seen a different context of living and thinking can cajole us to design differently, to build things that work differently, and to question decisions that only make sense within our context.

    When our eyes are set toward WWDC and various announcements of new products and fancy technology, it’s easy to forget that “should I switch to the new iPhone” isn’t something the rest of the world is worried about. It doesn’t mean we have to feel guilty and quit our jobs in favor of unpaid volunteer roles, it just means we have to think a little more broadly.

    Thanks for this!

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Real Housewives of Potomac

Wendy Osefo SCAMMING Her Way Onto ‘The Talk’ PLUS Sharon Osbourne Update!

Avigail is an Entertainment blogger at All About The Tea, who specializes in The Real Housewives of Atlanta and The Real Housewives of Potomac. Avigail has a background in marketing. She's a Brooklynite living in the Bahamas, with a passion for travel, writing, reality TV watching, pop culture and spoken word.

Real Housewives of Potomac newcomer Wendy Osefo is campaigning to fill a The TalK seat which many expect to be up for grabs, amid the controversy surrounding one of the show’s hosts, Sharon Osbourne.

Wendy Osefo

Wendy Osefo, 36 dropped the idea on social media writing earlier this week — “So I hear @TheTalkCBS may be having an open seat soon. Who can connect me to the right person to fill that seat? #ClaimingIt” She captioned the share, “God’s Plan.”

Viewers know that Sharon Osbourne came under fire last week, after commenting that she had been accused of racism after voicing her support for Piers Morgan, 55, amid controversy over his response to Meghan  Markle’s bombshell interview with Oprah Winfrey.

Sharon Osbourne

Morgan was hit by backlash after questioning the authenticity of Markle’s mental health claims on Good Morning Britain. Morgan stormed off the set after being called out by his co-host, Alex Beresford, and it was later announced that Morgan would be making a permanent exit from the ITV A.M. news show.

“Did I like everything he said? Did I agree with what he said? No,” Osbourne said of Morgan’s remarks. “It’s not my opinion … I support him for his freedom of speech, and he’s my friend.”

“What would you say to people who may feel that while you’re standing by your friend, it appears you gave validation or safe haven to something that he has uttered that is racist, even if you don’t agree?” Underwood pushed back.

Sharon Osbourne turned emotional when asking Underwood to clarify when Morgan made racist remarks.

“I will ask you again Sheryl, I’ve been asking you during the break and I’m asking you again, and don’t try and cry ’cause if anyone should be crying it should be me,” Osbourne said with tears in her eyes. “Educate me! Tell me when you have heard him say racist things.”

Underwood clarified that “it is not the exact words of racism, it’s the implication and the reaction to it.”

“To not want to address that because she is a Black woman, and to try to dismiss it or to make it seem less than what it is, that’s what makes it racist,” Underwood explained. “But right now, I’m talking to a woman I believe is my friend and I don’t want anybody here to watch this and think we are attacking you for being racist.”

Osbourne later issued an apology for any harm she may have caused in her support of Morgan.

CBS announced that they were launching an internal review after last week’s tense exchange, which is underway.

“We are committed to a diverse, inclusive and respectful workplace,” the network said via statement to PEOPLE on Friday, March 12. “All matters related to the Wednesday episode of The Talk are currently under internal review.”

Press play below to watch All About The Tea’s EXCLUSIVE report on how Wendy Osefo scammed her way onto The Real Housewives of Potomac

Wendy Osefo, a proud Nigerian-American, is an assistant professor at John’s Hopkins School of education and a progressive political commentator. She has been a full time RHOP cast member for one season.

The Real Housewives of Potomac is on hiatus.

Stay Connected With All About The Tea: Twitter Ι Instagram Ι YouTube Ι Facebook Ι Send Us Tips

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ATTENTION: To All Those Who Want to Improve Their Emotional Intelligence and Improve How They Interact With Others!

"Level Up Your Confidence Speaking In Front of People So You Can Captivate and Influence"

You’ll Learn How to Get Along with Others Better Than Ever!

From: Allen Munden

Many people worry about public speaking and how hard it is to prepare for a presentation, speaking on Zoom, or interacting with others through public speaking. Fear of judgement and worry about making mistakes can turn the whole process into something that everyone dreads.

How many times have you been asked to give a presentation in school and work and actually enjoyed it? If you are like most people, you will feel nervous and may try to get out of it. Maybe you have had a bad experience with a speech in the past and do not want to relive that again.

Does Public Speaking Make You Nervous?

Sweaty hands, beating heart, and nerves up the wall. These can be common symptoms for someone who does not like or enjoy speaking in public, even if it is on a topic that they really enjoy. This can make it hard to even get up to the front to deliver the speech.

With one bad experience in public speaking, it is easy for everything to go downhill. You convince yourself that public speaking is horrible and you are just bad at it. Rather than learning some of the tips to make public speaking better, you hide right in and give up on learning techniques and skills that will make your public speaking skills better.

If you took a speech class in high school or college, you may have learned some of the tips on how to give a good presentation, but was that enough? Many teachers list out the rules and give a checklist for grading, but do not spend time actually teaching you how to give a speech that will impress. This can leave you questioning your grade and thankful when it is all over, without learning anything of value.

Just the thought of having an audience spend time staring at you, judging your words and asking questions that you do not know the answers too can be enough to make your head turn. You want to impress, but may question whether you are able to bring in the expertise and confidence that is needed to make this a reality.

The Solution

Anyone can become great at public speaking, no matter how their past with communication has gone.

Thankfully we have written a guide teaching you the skills and techniques you need to finally give a great speech and impress everyone in your audience.

Let me introduce to you...

Level Up Your Confidence Speaking In Front of People So You Can Captivate and Influence

Here's exactly what you'll get inside the course:

Here's what you'll learn in this ebook:

  • The basics of presenting with simple words that make sense.
  • How to avoid filler language that distracts from the message.
  • The importance of body language to help you present well while avoiding negative body language that makes public speaking hard.
  • How to properly do the research so you have plenty of topics for your speech, making you the most knowledgeable person in the room.
  • How to use vocal exercises to help with pronunciation and more.
  • The power of a pause and why you should choose to use them in your speech.
  • How to speak on a Zoom or other online medium in our modern world.
  • The importance of practicing to help you get better and better, building up the confidence that you need.
  • And much more!

Point-By-Point Checklist

View or print this handy checklist so that you can check off each point.

It is like a summary of the entire guide but in actionable, bite-sized points so that you can successfully get through the course.

Resource Cheat Sheet

Deepen your knowledge and learn more with this handy resource cheat sheet.

A quick glance over this mindmap and you'll get an instant refresher of all the major points and action steps from the main guide.

Does that sound good or what?

How Much Is All This Going To Cost You?

You can own this guide together with all the bonuses for a mere $7.00 .

That is a truly incredible deal!

Did I mention this eBook is only $7.00? It’s definitely a point worth repeating. You will be hard-pressed to find a more valuable resource.

I'm delighted to have the chance to share this powerful guide with you.

Again, you will receive the comprehensive and valuable insights for only $7.00.

Click the Add To Cart button right now and take ownership of this valuable eBook TODAY!

Get Instant Access Right Now!

Yes! I want instant access to Speak With Confidence which includes the following:

  • The main eBook
  • FAST-ACTION BONUS #1: Checklist
  • FAST-ACTION BONUS #2: Resource Cheat Sheet
  • FAST-ACTION BONUS #3: Mindmap

Regular Price: $27.00

Today Only: $7.00!

To Your Success,
Allen Munden


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Life Support Education
24887 Taylor St, Suite 102
Loma Linda CA 92354

We are located on the ground floor of the University Arts Building.

You are able to park in Lot X or Shepardson Lot.  If you are a medical center employee you can park in the parking structure.  Non employees/students can park in lot X or the Loma Linda Market lot across the street. (2 hour parking)

Google Maps


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Medical Center employees whose department will pay for the class:
Register online at the OWL Portal.

Students, volunteers, employees needing reimbursement or community members:
Required to pay the class fees. Register and pay at the CE Portal with a credit or debit card.

Loma Linda University Health Care employees:
Contact Brandi Evans at Ext. 22550 to register.

For any other questions please call 909-558-4977.

Authorized by the American Heart Association

Go Red for Women


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JR Wheels JR19 17×9 ET-25-(-10) BLANK Matt Black

Among the most popular wheels we offer, the Japan Racing JR19 offers retro looks with modern build quality at a highly affordable price point.

Available on back-order

Please allow up to 7-10 days for delivery

SKU: JR191790XXM2574FB Category:
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Mosaic Collection winner in 2017 AD Great Design

Indusparquet won the 2017 Architectural Digest Great Design Award, as Graphic Flooring in the kitchen category!
These prestigious awards recognize a kitchen that has all the ingredients to be functional and eye-catching!
Take a look at the gorgeous winning flooring: Indusparquet Amendoim Coterie Mosaics

Find the article here: AD Graphic Flooring Photos

Leave a Reply


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Loading Events

« All Events

Walk and Meditation at Alnoba

December 1 @ 10:00 am - 11:30 am

Join Alnoba Peace Foundation founder Manny Muros for a meditative walk through Alnoba’s forests, trails, and art collection.

Connecting with the land is a powerful way to center yourself, gaining the peace and focus you need to face the world bolder, braver and stronger than you were before.

As the most unique and introspective site in New England, Alnoba’s 400 acres are ideally situated for this important work.

Our Walk and Meditate events will take you through Alnoba’s peaceful forests and fields. View pieces like Andy Goldsworthy’s Watershed Boulder and Beezy Bailey’s 1000 Year Dance Cure as you let Alnoba’s natural beauty clear your mind and open your heart. Get inspired by the words of wisdom from great leaders throughout history engraved in wood and stone across our ten miles of trails.

You’ll be led on this experience by Alnoba Peace Foundation founder and spiritual teacher Manny Muros. He’ll guide you into entering a state of deep listening, surrendering your inner dialogue to the peace and harmony of the natural world. With practice you’ll learn to immerse yourself in the beauty inherent in each moment, finding in that a source of strength and a spark for inner transformation – a transformation that will better equip you to take on the challenge of changing the world.

  • Meet Manny in the Main parking lot promptly at 10 AM. The class will depart the parking lot at this time – those who are late will need to exit the property.
  • Wear footwear appropriate for forested trails.
  • Portable restrooms are available in the parking lot.
  • This event is rain or shine. Alnoba’s landscape is as lovely to explore in a light rain as it is in the sunshine.

Tickets $15. Proceeds are donated to support Sawyer Park.

Tickets are non-refundable. Please note that all events at Alnoba are rain or shine. If an event is cancelled due to extreme weather you will receive an email notification. If you do not get an email notifying you that the event is cancelled, that means the event is still going forward as scheduled.

From climate change to the impact of technology on our minds and the economy, our world is in crisis. A winner-take-all society isolates us from each other and from the earth that sustains us. Our communities are broken, consumption and waste run rampant, and we are severed from the healing power of the natural world.

Both we and the world need a change. Start that change on the inside. You can overcome the harmful and destructive patterns imposed on you by this broken world we’re living in, opening to a more natural and authentic way of engaging with yourself and our planet.

There are both ancient and pioneering tools you can use to rewrite your patterns, breaking free of the old way of thinking and being as you tap into something stronger: a way of living that connects us harmoniously to both each other and the earth we share.

Manny Muros has spent decades studying, practicing and sharing the spiritual techniques that lead to greater self-awareness and self-realization. His wisdom teachings are insights gained through a lifetime of deep practice and exploration. Through meditation and affirmative practices, he teaches students how to center, deconstruct old patterns and recover a truer way of being.

The sacred land of Alnoba, with its pristine fields and forests and inspiring collection of outdoor art, serves as a potent space for undertaking this journey of transformation.

To use the ancient words of wisdom: as it is above, so it is below. The world we cultivate inside ourselves makes a real impact on the one that surrounds us. By changing one, we impact the other.

Step forward into your own change, breaking free of a paradigm that destroys both our well-being and that of our planet. Discover a healthier, more authentic alternative that empowers you to be the change you seek.

December 1
10:00 am - 11:30 am
View Event Website

24 Cottage Road
Kensington, NH 03833 United States


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Aloha’s First Raffle — Powered by Chainlink VRF on the Polygon Network

Aloha is excited to announce the release of its first Aloha Raffle! Powered by the Chainlink Verifiable Random Function (VRF) on the Polygon network, users will be able to purchase raffle tickets that give them a chance to win several exciting prizes! The prize for this first raffle will include $5000, with future raffles focusing on a varied set of prizes.

Each raffle ticket will require a minimum of 5000 ALOHA in the wallet, with the more ALOHA a user has, the more a chance to win the prizes. This raffle will run for two weeks, starting on October 14, with the first draw taking place on October 31 at 1 PM UTC.

Aloha first integrated Chainlink’s VRF earlier in October 2021. Through this integration with the market’s leading decentralized oracle network, we now have access to a tamper-proof and auditable source of randomness needed to select winners from Aloha’s upcoming raffle and giveaway events. This ensures that all prizes are distributed fairly with complete impartiality.

With Chainlink CRF integrated, users can rest assured that the giveaways are indeed fair and not interfered with by the Aloha team or any outside party. With a previous integration with Polygon network’s full-stack scaling solution, we have also given users a low-cost, speedy way of transacting within the Aloha DeFi ecosystem, which hosts a myriad of services.

Get Ready To Earn

Aloha’s raffle contest is one of many new features that is set to launch in the coming months. The team is hoping to give users as many ways for them to earn and reinvest their funds as possible. Most recently, we launched Surf Invaders, a play-to-earn game that uses Aloha NFTs. With this wide range of DeFi services, Aloha expects that players will find multiple ways to compound their earnings.

For more information on Aloha DeFi, visit our website, read our blog or follow us on Twitter or Telegram.

A decentralized open WiFi powered by the community for the community.


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Schliersee: Huberspitz trails mtb - June 21

1 minute read

We had limited time the previous weekend, we were looking for shorter ride. Schliersee offers couple of shorther trails like Huberspitz trails.

You need to climb to Almbad Huberspitz first. We stopped for a minute and we continued further about 1 kilometer to get to the starting point for the busline trail. There’s bigger open area with a small wooden open structure (looks like a bus stop). The trail starts with smaller uphil section and then just goes down all the way to the Hausham. There are few difficult spots, mainly due to recent rains although as I read most of the days it is muddy. I would rate this as S2. Few branches or smaller trees were layed down crossing the trail. Someone intentionally place them there.

The second round starts by climbing again the same way up, this time we stop at Almbad Huberspitz. The hut was closed eventhough it was Sunday afternoon and it should be opened (no reason give, just it’s closed).

The second trail is easy way down via 682a path (rated as S1). We met locals at the trail beginning who told us this path will be closed for bikers soon. There were no signs at the moment but as we heard and later read online, it was decide to be for hikers only and the signs will come soon (June 2021).

Schliersee Huberspitz trails mtb - June 21

Tour info

45 minutes from Munich
Alpengasthof Glück auf, free
2:00 hours

Activity view


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You’ve got to be carefully taught

We were heartened last week when the Guilderland school superintendent, Marie Wiles, told us, “If we do not seize this moment to make real changes, shame on all of us.”

Wiles and other Guilderland school leaders had listened to the painful experiences of recent Black alumnae who had reached out, in the wake of George Floyd’s death, to say that Guilderland needs a comprehensive plan to address racism in its system. Guilderland is not alone.

Wiles and school board members sounded eager about pursuing changes in curriculum, policy, and staff training. We fervently hope they follow through.

They could serve as an example for other schools that need to embark on this difficult but essential journey.

Much of racism begins at home so schools need to be a place where young minds can learn larger truths, rather than having narrow racist views amplified.

To their credit, the Guilderland School Board members are now reading “Stamped: Racism, Antiracism, and You,” a remix of Ibram X. Kendi’s “Stamped,” written by Jason Reynolds to appeal to young readers.

Kendi writes, “A racist idea is any idea that suggests something is wrong or right, superior or inferior, better or worse about a racial group. An antiracist idea is any idea that suggests that racial groups are equal.”

The book looks at three racial positions — segregationists, assimilationists, and antiracists — to see how each has rationalized racial inequity. Kendi writes simply, “The antiracists say there is nothing wrong or right about Black people and everything wrong with racism. The antiracists say racism is the problem in need of changing, not Black people.”

The path ahead for the Guilderland school leaders will not be an easy one. We’ve written many times about Black students who felt that discrimination against them wasn’t recognized by school staff. Two of those Guilderland students went so far as to file lawsuits; in both cases, the white judges found the cases without merit.

Over the decades of covering Guilderland schools, we have written about the need for more staff members of color — how they can serve as role models for students who may feel marginalized.

We realize it can be hard to recruit minority faculty, which is in short supply. But something Guilderland, or any school district, can do is carefully examine its curriculum to see that its teaching of Black history is fair and meaningful. A teacher of any race, if well informed, can teach Black history.

We’ve also written for years about the need to change curriculum.

In 2005, we hailed the state’s creation of the Amistad Commission. The legislation said that the commission, to be led by the state’s education commissioner, was so named “in honor of the group of enslaved Africans led by Joseph Cinque who, while being transported in eighteen-hundred-thirty-nine on a vessel named Amistad, gained their freedom after overthrowing the crew and eventually having their case successfully argued before the United States Supreme Court.”

It’s an apt name if the commission was meant to overthrow the decades of poor teaching of Black history. But the commission’s great mission was never fulfilled.

Without funds to finance the commission members and their efforts — including a website with resource materials that appear not to have been updated in ages — the research that led to the development of a rich curriculum is worthless.

Wiles told us last week that one of the Black alumna complained that, in taking Guilderland High School’s course on global studies, she was taught a lot about Europe, a little about Asia, and nothing about Africa.

“It’s true,” said Wiles, surmising that the state Regents exam on global studies does not have one question on Africa. “What gets tested, gets done,” said Wiles.

We asked if Guilderland will act on its own, apart from state guidelines, to teach more about Africa. Wiles said, “The State Education Department doesn’t exist in a vacuum.”

The State Education Department, like other government entities, is now dealing with potentially devastating cutbacks as the economy reels from the shutdown to stem the spread of the coronavirus. So we have little confidence funding will suddenly materialize to support the curriculum proposed by the Amistad Commission that has languished for so long.

In the past, Guilderland has bucked the trend to teach to the test, deciding it was more important to let faculty pursue teaching in more creative and individual ways, perhaps sacrificing the better scores that would result from strictly teaching for tested materials.

We hope, as Guilderland’s curriculum cabinets view what is being taught and what is lacking, they have the courage to forge a path that may differ from material on state tests. Such courage, especially if enough schools follow, may force state education leaders to follow.

A 2017 paper by LaGarrett J. King, published in the National Council for the Social Studies Social Education, “The Status of Black History in U.S. Schools and Society,” looks at how, through the first half of the 20th Century, social studies curriculum either largely ignored black history or misrepresented it, with textbooks typically classifying Black people “as docile, uncivilized, and lazy.”

This changed with the civil rights movement as, across the United States, Black students, teachers, and parents began to demand Black history be taught, writes King, an associate professor at the University of Missouri, noting, “Today, the legitimacy of K-12 Black history as an academic subject for schoolchildren is largely unquestioned.”

We are now in the midst of another racial reckoning, during which we can build on the curricula that emerged after the civil rights movement. There is much work to be done.

A 2015 study by the National Museum of African American History and Culture that found only 8 to 9 percent of total class time is devoted to Black history in United States history classrooms. While students are now aware of famous Black leaders like Martin Luther King Jr., Rosa Parks, and Harriet Tubman, the Southern Poverty Law Center gave the majority of states grades of D or F for their approach to teaching the civil rights movement, with five states neglecting the subject altogether.

King notes questionable class activities such as student participation in mock slave auctions and cites a recent McGraw-Hill textbook distributed in Texas that describes the Trans-Atlantic slave trade as the immigration of “millions of workers from Africa to the southern United States to work on agricultural plantations.”

To describe enslaved people, ripped from their homeland, transported in bondage and sold like chattel as immigrating workers is morally reprehensible and simply not the truth.

A 2016 report on the New York State Amistad Commission, which outlines the way African-American history and culture could be infused into each grade level, notes in one of five findings that instruction aligned to the state’s social studies framework is ultimately controlled by local school districts.

On this page, we previously encouraged our local school districts, all of them, to make Black history an integral part of social studies curricula as well as lessons taught in other subjects.

We are repeating that call with more urgency now.

Kendi wrote “Stamped” before George Floyd’s death on May 25, before a white Minneapolis policeman knelt on a prone, handcuffed Black man until the life was choked out of him. Before American streets — including right here in Altamont — were filled with protesters demanding racial justice.

But it’s as if Kendi knew what would happen because he’d seen it so many times before. “Racist ideas cause people to look at an innocent Black face and see a criminal,” he wrote.

Schools are a good place to teach antiracist ideas. We reiterate Kendi’s definition: “An antiracist idea is any idea that suggests that racial groups are equal.”

To have children learn about Black history primarily as slavery is dehumanizing not just for Black students but a disservice for any student. Black history should embrace the history of myriad African cultures as well as the rich contributions made to American culture.

King writes correctly, “We should ask how we can truly represent Black history in more humanizing ways … In many ways, we teach about Black history and not through it … Enslavement should not be the first contact school children have with Black history. Thousands of years of Black history existed before Western contact.”

History, King notes, is not just about where and what people have been but it provides a blueprint for where they will go and what they will be.

We wholeheartedly endorse King’s powerful conclusion and we hope our local educators heed his words: “As was the case in the early twentieth century and the 1960s, Black history is needed to allow society to comprehend Blackness through the record of Black agency and advancement in the context of systemic notions of White supremacy and racism.

“Our teaching should be centered on how Black history improves our understanding of contemporary circumstances, and how it can stimulate us to improve our democracy.”

More Editorials

The Altamont Enterprise is focused on hyper-local, high-quality journalism. We produce free election guides, curate readers' opinion pieces, and engage with important local issues. Subscriptions open full access to our work and make it possible.


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Contact us

Alterola Biotech is headquartered in the historic Hamilton Square, Birkenhead, UK – the largest collection of listed buildings outside London. Birkenhead is positioned across the River Mersey with commanding views of Liverpool’s cherished waterfront. Plans are already in place for offices in Ireland, USA, China, Netherlands, Thailand and Singapore.

If you require any further information please complete the contact form on this page or use the listed email addresses.

Alterola Biotech Inc.
47 Hamilton Square
CH41 5AR
United Kingdom

    Privacy Statement
    Alterola is committed to protecting the privacy and accuracy of confidential information to the extent possible, subject to provisions of state and federal law in the United States and GDPR in the UK and Europe.

    Concerned about privacy? We are too.
    Although there are many applications and websites that collect information and other statistics about their users, we DO NOT collect any personal information about you when you visit this web site.

    What happens if the privacy statement changes?
    This Privacy Statement was last revised on 1st July 2021 . We may change this Privacy Statement at any time and for any reason. We encourage you to review this Privacy Statement each time you visit the web site. If we decide to make a significant change to our Privacy Statement, we will post a notice on the homepage of our web site for a period of time after the change is made.

    What about privacy on other web sites?
    This web site may contain links to other web sites. Some of those web sites may be operated by third parties. We provide the links for your convenience, but we do not review, control, or monitor the privacy practices of web sites operated by others.
    We are not responsible for the performance of web sites operated by third parties or for your business dealings with them. Therefore, whenever you leave this web site we recommend that you review each web site’s privacy practices and make your own conclusions regarding the adequacy of these practices.

    How to contact us?
    If you have questions or comments about this Privacy Statement, please use the (Contact Form/Email) on this web site.


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I Support Her, OK I Said It: Or, One Voter Steps out of the Hillary Closet

By Kaitlyn Kraybill-Voth

I voted for Bernie in the California primaries just to tell my friends I did, hung my head in what I hoped was convincing dismay when he lost, and quietly buzzed with excitement over the idea of giving my vote to Hillary in November, what I hoped from the start. I’m playing the long game here.

But this is a secret. Whenever I say anything remotely positive about Hillary to a Bernie supporter, the air instantaneously drops 20 degrees, storm clouds roll in, fists curl, and those little cartoon flames start shooting out of orifices. OK, that might be a slight exaggeration. But a Bernie vs. Hillary conversation with your best friend can feel a lot like that time you tried to convince your Republican uncle that trans people should be able to use any bathroom they want.

I don’t get it, I really just don’t. Her voting record is 93 percent in synch with Bernie’s according to a New York Times analysis. She’s further left of him on a few key issues including gun reform. If elected, she would join the ranks of John Quincy Adams, James Monroe, Martin Van Buren, and James Buchanan as one of the few presidents to have served in the Senate and as Secretary of State. To me, Hillary is not the least-worst option, but a historic and profoundly qualified candidate. She’s not perfect, but that’s a silly standard to begin with.

A few weeks ago I was on my way to get sandwiches with a friend. He’s one of those people who has waited for me during surgery, slept in my childhood bed, and come to the rescue with an iPhone charger when I forgot mine at work. We started talking about claims of uncounted ballots in California, and suddenly we were down each other’s throats. He couldn’t understand how Hillary had the popular majority, insisting on voter fraud. “How can she have the majority when I never hear about a single person who likes her?!” he lamented. It’s because her supporters learn from experience that open Hillary love will inevitably be met with condescension and anger, so we stay quiet, I wanted to say, but didn’t.

Then later that day, when my Bernie-loving boyfriend showed me an unflattering Hillary ‘meme’ on Facebook, I sighed dramatically. “I can’t do this again,” I said moaning, “I’m not going to talk about my politics anymore.”

It was halfway through writing this essay when I started to put together how all these disputes seem to end. With me not speaking up and then hosting a pity party in my head. “Bernie Bros are impossible to talk to. No one listens to me, poor Hillary with her silent supporters, poor me.”

But wait, I didn’t really say anything in the first place.

I imagine this is the kind of epiphany Taylor Swift might wake up to in the middle of the night when she realizes she is the common denominator in her string of failed relationships. But I digress. I can only control my own discourse. I need to listen more compassionately, speak more openly, and instead of defaulting to defensive silence, I should be grateful my friends are so passionate about their politics and join in.

If this essay gets published anywhere, I’m going to post it to social media to come out of the Hillary closet I in large part built around myself. If you also like her, I encourage you to do the same. Then when we’re all out in the light of day, skeptics can see that a Hillary supporter could look like their neighbor, their co-worker, or even their friend.

Filed under: Perspectives
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I am with you Kaitlyn! Excellent journalism, you are admired.
———— as am i … Big
Kaitlyn, I’ve been volunteering with San Francisco for Hillary (find us on Facebook) for ages, and this spring I started telling people at Farmers Markets etc. that it’s time for us Hillary supporters to come out of the closet. I got a universal response, everyone gave me wry looks, chuckled and agreed…and we came out, we voted and the rest is history. I continue to love Bernie too, and hope his efforts to bring his supporters on board succeeds.
Kaitlyn, I am also an avid Hillary supporter dating back to 1994 when I first met her. Although our encounter was brief - handshake then on to the next right hand. I followed her work and supported her in 2008. Her passion for public service and her ability to keep standing in the midst of all the scrutiny, criticism and negativity from many directions are testaments to a strong leader. She’s very well-prepared to lead this country. I will definitely vote for her.
P.S I can sum up Hillary with these three Cs: COURAGEOUS, COMMITTED, COMPASSIONATE.
Now if we can just get the Republicans who support Hilary over Trump to do the same.


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Stop planning
Last week we celebrated my daughter’s birthday. A day beforehand, I asked her what flavor cupcakes and ice cream she preferred. Surprise me, she said. For a Type A planner, this kind of response causes my heart to race and my palms to sweat. OK, not really, but why make things more complicated than they need to be? In my writing life, I demand certain conditions be met before I write. And, unless I have an outline in place, forget it. Plus, my days must be planned from beginning to end. But, when I don’t allow wiggle room into the equation, I miss out on the opportunity to improvise; to practice patience. To be kind(er). Perhaps instead of crossing every T and dotting each I, we apply a simplified mindset to the moment: a go-with-the-flow approach. A skeleton idea, of sorts—to our day; our (personal) story. Then let the rest be a delicious surprise. P.S. The birthday sweets were a hit.

Do you practice a go-with-the-flow mindset?

Image courtesy of nattavut at


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Alzheimer’s Association Money Matters Guide

A guide to making financial plans after a dementia diagnosis.

Alzheimer’s Care Grant Program

Grant Program

Apply for a grant to provide in-home respite care.

BenefitsCheckUp is a comprehensive, free online tool from the National Council on Aging. The tool connects older adults with potential benefits.

Center for Medicare & Medicaid Services

The official website of Medicare & Medicaid.

This Administration on Aging website provides planning resources and information pertaining to long-term care.

Social Security Administration

The official website of the SSA.

State Health Insurance Assistance Programs

SHIPs provide free, in depth, one-on-one insurance counseling and assistance to Medicare beneficiaries, their families, friends, and caregivers.

The veterans Aid and Attendance (A&A) pension provides benefits that reduce the cost of care for veterans and surviving spouses who require assisted living.

Veterans Benefits Administration

The official website of the Veterans Administration.


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Africa: Four Olympic Athletes Who Stepped Up for Child Nutrition

ROME — Athletes headed to the Olympic Games in London have more in common than talent and hard work. Whether they’re sprinting the 100 meters or diving off a springboard, they know that without eating the right foods, they can’t give their best.

Nutrition is just as important to children. They need it so that their minds and bodies can grow and so that they can learn in school and reach their full potential.

As excitement builds around the Olympic Games in London, here are four renowned athletes who’ve seen first-hand the difference nutrition can make in the lives of hungry children.

Dayron Robles – Hurdler

As a child, Cuban hurdler Dayron Robles suffered from anemia, a form of malnutrition that left him tired and weak. Thanks in part to meals provided to him at school, he overcame the problem and became one of the fastest hurdlers in the world. Robles won a gold medal in the 100-metre hurdles at the 2008 Beijing Olympics and then another at the 2010 IAAF World Indoor Championships. Read more

Paul Tergat – Marathon Runner

WFP Ambassador Paul Tergat says he came to school as much for the meals as for the lessons. Growing up in impoverished rural Kenya, he remembers what it was like to go to bed hungry. But with help from those meals, he was able to become one of the greatest long-distance runners of all time, winning two silver medals at the Olympics and breaking the world record for fastest marathon in 2003. Read more

“As an athlete, I know how important good nutrition is for healthy growth,” said Chinese gymnast Li Ning, who was dubbed The Prince of Gymnastics after winning 6 medals at the 1984 Summer Olympics. Li Ning says living in a country where hunger was once widespread, but that now contributes to WFP’s work around the world helped him understand the long-term impact nutrition can have. Read more

Robert Korzeniowski – Racewalker

One of the most successful race walkers of all time, Robert Korzeniowski won three consecutive Olympic gold medals for the 50 km walk between 1996 and 2004, and a fourth gold medal in the 20 km walk in 2000. He said that his memories of receiving international aid as a child in Communist Poland were behind his decision to support WFP school meals programs.

Posted by on Aug 12 2012. Filed under Sports. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry

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GIAMA Shows Transparency

Film makers and fans have had issues with award organizers based on the selection of it winners. As a result, owners of movie rights no longer submit their movies because it is assumed that the winners have already being chosen thereby the call for submission is an indirect mockery of their intelligence.

On the other hand, GIAMA has defined the various categories and criteria on which a winner could be determined. Having done a thorough research, the GIAMA jury and Screening and Nomination Committee (SNC) will select the final award winning entries leaving four categories for movie fans to decide.

From the derived facts, voters vote based on like and not because one is a natural actor/actress. It was discovered in GIAMA’s research that some fans actually vote for beauty and handsomeness and for that matter the true winner perish. “The Jury and the SNC are technical people made up of film lecturers, professional directors and film makers. With such team, we promise the best result ever in any Africa Movie Awards” Bode Ojo declares.

In the Viewer Choice categories, fans get the chance to vote online for their favorites in the Best Male Act, Best female Act (Nollywood/Ghana) and the Best Male Act and Best Female Act (Hollywood). A creative category, ‘GIAMA Image Awards’ shall be awarded based on an individual’s image off screen thus the ability to keep one’s family together, (depict an off screen image of a good citizen in the community, bearing in mind the responsibilities associated with being a recognizable public figure and a role model).

Considering all the odds in the movie industry, the one who balance his/her public life with the family lifestyle will take the category’s plague home.

Posted by on Oct 18 2012. Filed under Artcultainment. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry

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Benefits of Getting a Wireless Microphone System for Church

The church has long been a center for the community it serves, providing people in the neighborhood with a place that they can turn to at low points i

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The church has long been a center for the community it serves, providing people in the neighborhood with a place that they can turn to at low points in their lives for guidance and resources that could help them uplift themselves.

One of the ways that the church can support people in the community is by making it a comfortable, welcoming environment where they feel like they can put their concerns to the side and feel some sense of relief. With this considerable responsibility, it is important that those involved in church operations do their best to improve the church as best they can over time, with the funds they have available to them. Out of all the ways that one might improve on church services, some ways are simpler than others. You can improve heating and cooling systems, bring in more comfortable seats, repaint the interior of the building, and improve audio or visuals of the services.

Once your church has it within the budget to invest in a wireless microphone system for church services, you should definitely take it into consideration as a viable option. It could be something that genuinely benefits the congregation and is fairly affordable, making it a great option to consider.

Hearing Impairments
Being considerate and mindful of those with any kind of disability is critically important for any organization that serves the public such as a church.

You should do your best to ensure that everyone is able to enjoy the service in a similar capacity and is accommodated for. Having a wireless microphone system for church could really help those who are struggling with hearing impairments, especially if you have a larger congregation with more attendees and a larger venue. Often people with physical limitations will not speak up about their concerns right away, so you have to preempt that and make the space accommodating for all so that anyone attending your service repeatedly or for the first time will feel like they can be comfortable. It is something as simple as purchasing and setting up a wireless microphone system for church, but for many people, it can make a huge difference in how they enjoy service.

Speak to the Room
Even when you consider the rest of the congregants who do not have hearing impairments, a wireless microphone system for church still has its advantages. A better audio system could help speakers command attention better as people will naturally give more focus to those making announcements through speakers and microphones.

This helps everyone involved from the person at the front speaking to the congregation to all of the attendees listening in, even from the back of the room. The volume does not have to be incredibly high either, but turning up the volume just enough so that everyone hears clearly can make a great difference in the experience for all present. This also helps in neighborhoods that tend to be loud outside and distract from speakers on occasion.

There are plenty of ways that you can slowly improve the church’s offerings and resources over time to make it a more welcoming place for everyone in the community, but we have to take things step by step.

An easy thing that you can do in the short run is to improve the audio quality of services by providing a wireless microphone system for church. It does not cost nearly as much as some larger expenditures might and it is definitely something that you can realistically implement without difficulty. Check out some of the microphone systems at emiaudio.com for reference and see if your church should consider adopting one into its regular proceedings to better serve the public.

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Some Important Gift Sets for Women

Some Important Gift Sets for Women

Regardless of whether the crate with a major, sparkle bow is for your sweetheart, your mother or in any event, for you (treat yourself, am I right?),

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Regardless of whether the crate with a major, sparkle bow is for your sweetheart, your mother or in any event, for you (treat yourself, am I right?), it can now and again be hard to tell what to add to your truck. Particularly, assuming that you or the lady in your life just has everything. Indeed, this isn’t your normal gift guide. Loaded up with down to earth, regular things that the come to cherish or one of the most-shopped things we have seen for the current year, you will find extraordinary solace in knowing we have cut out everything for you.

Bookmark this page genuinely. We have tried, explored and searched out the best gift sets for women you can purchase, as a large portion of our proposals have independent audits and testing notes close by them. Basically, we organized an all inclusive resource so you can shop to dazzle. Beneath, observe the 65 best occasion gift thoughts for ladies, from luxury bedsheets to stylish plant memberships. What’s more, make certain to look at our gathering on the best commemoration gifts and the best extravagance gifts for individuals for considerably more.

Diamond Stud Earrings is particularly known for its excellent jewels, and its lab-made precious stone hoops are no special case. Additionally, at James Allen, its lab-made jewels can save you up to 30% off contrasted with earth-made precious stones you are as yet giving quality. Get the Our Place Always Pan that we evaluated. Its totally exquisite, will supplant eight conventional bits of cookware in your kitchen and will make anybody roused to cook more.

Our Place Always Pan

Additionally, Our Place as of late came out with another pot that everyone discussing. Both make exquisite things to gift for love birds or to remember for a wedding library, as well.

Super Flare Pant

Disconnected by Aerie has probably the coziest and complimenting pieces out there, particularly its Fleece Super Flare Pant. They fit perfectly, are lightweight and extraordinary for working out and running erands. Everybody should encounter these, TBH.

Tiled Margot Monogram Mug

Subsequent to preparing a new cup of Donut Shops mix in my Keurig, I generally remove my V monogrammed mug from my bureau. Its quite possibly the most pragmatic and customized gift I have been given. Also, its one of Anthropologies stock administrators top 30 gifts from the organization.

Cotton Napper

A comfortable cover. I have as of late began utilizing my Cotton Napper and, subsequent to utilizing other weighted covers, this is by a wide margin the most breathable. Furthermore, its thick weave surface looks dazzling as a finish of-the-bed toss.

The Olive Oil Set

On the off chance that your gift beneficiary loves to cook (or, is essentially intrigued by quality, eatery like fixings), Bright land ought to be on your radar. I have been partaking in The Essentials Capsule, which is at present sold out, however you can buy The olive oil set is a good Glamour Hair Products and Pair vinegar assortment.

As a California-based brand that is all over Instagram, they have tasty character blends and plans to match with every one of its items. I utilize the olive oil for cooking and plunging bread into, alongside every vinegar as a plate of mixed greens dressing or part of a marinade.


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Ford Mustang Shows Off Custom Red Kumho Tires

For fans of awesome burnouts (we know there are some of you out there) check out what happens when you mix an SN95 Ford Mustang and a set of Kumho colored smoke tires. A pretty wicked burnout, that’s what. We love these Kumho tires, and they really show off when pulling off a burnout or participating in a drift race. You’ve gotta give the crowd a little something different, right? This seems like a cool way to do it.

These Kumhos are awesome competition tires, and we love the effect of the colored smoke. They could come in handy in a variety of ways, not just showing off in front of spectators. Find yourself in a combat zone and need a care package air-dropped? Kumho colored smoke tires to the rescue! Stranded on the side of the road? These work just as well as any flare could during broad daylight! But just remember – you probably won’t get the same respect if you throw these bad boys on a stock Nissan Sentra, so keep it to performance cars, only. Anybody have experience using these tires? Share your impression in the comments, and don’t forget to like and share.