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The Masks of the Political God by Luca Ozzano

The Effectiveness of Early Voting – A Case Study of the Republic of Korea

Political Participation
Domestic Politics
Electoral Behaviour
Political Engagement
Voting Behaviour
Luke Butcher
National Election Commission of the Republic of Korea
Luke Butcher
National Election Commission of the Republic of Korea

In 2013 the National Election Commission (NEC) introduced early voting for the first time during by-elections, and first implemented them nationwide in local elections in 2014. This system allows voters to cast their ballot at any polling station across the country on the Friday and Saturday preceding the election day itself without any separate registration. Last year saw record turnout in early voting during National Assembly elections (12% of registered voters used early voting), and with Presidential elections this year that number is expected to increase, especially as elections maybe be held early after mass demonstrations led to the ongoing impeachment process.

Research into the effect of this introduction of early voting can be compared to the introduction of early voting or pre-poll voting in other countries. For example, a study by Blais et al for Elections Canada names Potential Impacts of Extended Advance Voting on Voter Turnout found that early forms of voting tended to benefit the elderly most and ‘had a positive impact on turnout, but that the effect is somewhat weak and uncertain.’ In addition, Franklin in various work (1996, 2002, 2006) has also noted the potential high increase in voter turnout if voting methods are increased and elections take place on a Sunday, and this should be directly compared to the impact of opening voting on Friday and Saturday as well as on election day (Wednesday) in Korea. It is also worth exploring the effect on voter turnout in comparison to the adoption of an all-postal system, which both Norris in Will New Technology Boost Turnout? And James in Fewer Costs, More Votes? United Kingdom Innovations in Election Administration 2000-2007 and the Effect on Voter Turnout found can “significantly increase turnout.” This paper will use the Korean case to compare and contrast the effects of the introduction of early voting with other research of this kind to find if the data concurs with results found in other countries.

This paper will analyze how early voting in South Korea works, particularly looking at the implementation of election ICT in the process, what effect this has had on voter turnout and how this system compares with other forms of early voting in countries such as the USA and Canada in both its implementation and effect. The use of an integrated voting list and a ballot printer in polling stations has made this system possible, and the paper will explore if these additions have been effected. As stated in International IDEA’s ‘Electoral Management Design’ guidebook, any reforms or additional voting methods should “enable the additional access while maintaining high integrity in the voter registration, voting and counting processes,’ and it is important to evaluate if this system meets this standard.

Data from the NEC that details early voting turnout by age, gender, residence and the day of voting (Friday or Saturday) as well as testimony from polling staff and voters will be used in this analysis.
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My story

This is a welcoming place for you to ask your questions and share your knowledge and experiences of ectopic pregnancy.
Post Reply
Posts: 4
Joined: Sat May 30, 2020 10:00 pm

My story

Post by Sunset39 »

Hello, I'm new to this board and thought I would share my personal experience, in case someone is going through something similar:

On May 14th, I was sadly diagnosed with ectopic pregnancy (suspected on right tube)- I was 6.5 weeks pregnant and HCG was already at 4430. they gave me my 1st methotrexate injection at the ER. I should mention that I had no pain whatsoever and just light spotting, which I initially thought might have been implantation bleeding (though didn't have that in my previous pregnancy), but went in because it went on for a few days.

Follow-up HCG blood tests went up to 8590 after 4 days, then down to 7510 three days later. Given the number was still high I had to return to ER for 2nd injection. 4 days later HCG went down to 6110, then down to 3580 three days later.

6 days later (the day before my next scheduled blood test), I had heavy bleeding (large blood clots) - which none of the doctors prepared me for! I had a phone call visit with a doctor (no in person visits due to COVID) and he said it sounded like the medication was working and the body was expelling the pregnancy. Sure enough, the next day HCG went down to 1100, all sounded reassuring.

On the weekend I woke up with a sharp pain under my armpit, didn't think much of it and it didn't bother me much again until Monday afternoon. (I was googling the typical rupture pain to look out for... it didn't sound like the typical "shoulder tip pain").

So on Monday (June 8th) the pain hit me again from the armpit to my arm -- right side, which was the side of the ectopic. So I went to the ER that day and the doctor decided to do blood work and ultrasound, "just in case", as the pain below the armpit could potentially be nerve pain. Lucky that he decided to do the ultrasound, since they found internal bleeding and the ectopic pregnancy has increased in size to 6 cm (I was 10 weeks by now), and the tube was likely on the verge of rupturing. They decided that emergency surgery was required that same night to remove the tube and pregnancy via laparoscopic surgery.

In the end the gynecologist doctor said the armpit pain I reported is abnormal (not the usual symptom they look out for) - I had no other pain- but it was fortunate that I came in and that the ER doctor decided to do the ultrasound 'just in case'.

So now, almost a month since the diagnosis, the matter is finally resolved - no more waiting for blood tests, no more worst-case scenarios "what ifs" going through my mind... I felt SO alone navigating through this, and this process having been this long did not make mourning the loss of the pregnancy any easier. I feel very fortunate to have my first born (delivered via C-section 14 months ago) to make this process a bit easier but of course, I'm still in shock and disappointed about everything that just happened. I'm turning 39 this month and I'm hoping the left tube is functional and that we don't have to go through this nightmare again when we TTC again. but for now, I'm just happy this chapter is finally closed.

Bottom line - my advise is to listen to your body, if something doesn't feel right (even if it's not 'textbook' symptoms), bite the bullet and wait as long as you have to at ER, if you can't see your doctor soon enough.

All the best, be well!

EPT Host 22
Posts: 359
Joined: Fri Nov 20, 2015 10:26 am

Re: My story

Post by EPT Host 22 »

Hi Sunset39,

Thank you for sharing your story with us. I'm am so very glad that you listened to your body and received medical care (and that they listened to you.) You are right that even though there are general symptoms that are looked for, it's equally important to listen to your body for sensations that do not seem right. It was only during my 2nd ectopic, with a uterine rupture, that I felt the shoulder tip pain. I remember thinking, oh, that's what they were talking about.

I wish you continued recovery and please know we are here for you whenever you need.

With good wishes,

The Ectopic Pregnancy Trust
Registered Charity Number: 1071811
Ectopic pregnancy patient information suite: Highly Commended in the 2019 BMA Patient Information Awards
During the coronavirus outbreak, The EPT team is still working hard to provide crucial information and support to women and families experiencing ectopic pregnancy as quickly and efficiently as we can.
If we have been able to help you, are you able to help us with a small donation or by volunteering or fundraising?
Further information is available at
Email us:
We provide a call-back helpline service: 020 7733 2653
Take a look at our newsletters and subscribe to our mailing list here:
Detailed medical information can be found on our website. Please remember online medical information is NO SUBSTITUTE for expert medical advice from your own health care team

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Gearing up for fundraiser for Todd Blair

Todd Blair, whom I’ve known since 1999 through Survival Research Labs, suffered a traumatic head injury last year at the Robodock SRL show in Amsterdam. I posted previously about it here. He’s back home in the US slowly and arduously recovering. Traumatic brain injuries are probably the worst kind of injury a human being could suffer, and it couldn’t have happened to a nicer guy. To help offset Todd’s massive medical and physical therapy bills, a fundraiser event is being held this Sunday, July 20th. It’s not just an event, but a culmination of lots of work and dedication from Todd’s friends and family with some unique creative twists.

The event on Sunday will be the unveiling of the “gear wall”. The 7′ x 8′ wall consists of 25 interlocking aluminum gears built by 25 friends and artists who have committed to raising a minimum of $500 each. I have taken on one of the gears and am currently fund raising to reach my $500 goal. If you’d like to support me and in supporting Todd, that would be super awesome. You can make a donation for as little or as much as you like through the PayPal link below. Or if you prefer to write a check, this page has details on where to send it. Be sure to mention my name when making the donation so I get credit for it. $5, $10 or $20 would be really spectacular, every little bit helps. Whether you donate or not, be sure to come out on Sunday to Rhythmix Cultural Works in Alameda for the grand unveiling of the gear wall. Thanks!! Hope to see you there.

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How An Auto-Responder Makes You More Money

First: What is an Auto-responder?

The simple way to explain an Auto-responder is to think of it as program that automatically sends email campaigns to all recipients on a subscription list.

Effective sales people know that the fortune is in the follow-up.

And our Auto-responder takes care of following up with your subscribers [prospects]  automatically.

Second: Why do you need an Auto-responder?

Experts tell us that it takes an average of 7 different contact messages to close a sale.

If you are not following up with your subscribers on a regular basis, you are losing sales!

As your list of subscribers grows, it becomes more and more difficult and time consuming to figure out how to verbally connect with each prospect and which information you sent them.

In our global economy, business is being conducted 24 hours a day. It would be impossible for you to personally follow up 24 hours a day.

Your Auto-responder can manage all of your prospects, remember when it sent your last sales letter, what that letter was about, and it can do all of this 24 hours a day, 7 days a week!

Imagine being able to completely automate your sales letters.

Imagine being able to build, manage, and profit from your own online contact list.

Imagine being able to broadcast special offers or announcements.

Imagine being able to remotely update your sales letters any time.

Imagine being able to instantly test your video’s and ad copy or special offers.

With an Auto-responder, you can do all of this and more.

This system runs 24 hours a day… 7 days a week… whether you are at the office, sleeping, having lunch, or enjoying some free time with your family.

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Because with this platform you are able to generate or purchase leads [subscribers] and more efficiently manage your follow up campaign messages.

You will have more time to develop and test effective ad copy and email marketing approaches!

Here are just a few things you can do with your Auto-responder:

* Automate Sales Letters
* Training Messages
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* Distribute Product Information
* Broadcast Special Offers
* Mailing List Manager
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* Customer Service
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Fourth: Here’s what you get when you use our Auto-responder System:

* Add Unlimited Campaigns
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* Track Your Results for Each [Video Landing Page] Sales Letter
* Unlimited Professional Training and Support

Fifth: How much does the Auto-responder cost?

Right now, we are offering a FREE 7 day Trial inside our program.

No long-term commitment! Set up your account today absolutely FREE.

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Once you see how powerful our marketing system is and how easily it can easily earn you big money. . . increasing your sales and sign-ups. . . you can select the option to continue using our system for just $8.00 per month.

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Your account will automatically expire at the end of the 7 day trial. Keep all the training information as a personal gift.

Thousands of people are using this marketing systems Auto-responder to save time, increase profits, and boost efficiency.

You have full access to this system free for the next 7 days.

Review the best Email Marketing video training lessons.

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Believe me… the email lessons inside the back office alone are worth one hundred times the price of the service.

Beside’s, the affiliate commissions scale is 30% paid to all members via Paypal ir personal bank account.

Bonus: Join ICS and you’ll have unlimited access to our members area where you will learn:

* How To Build Beautifully Designed Capture pages
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* Why Some Advertising Works and Some Doesn’t
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* How To Integrate Aweber into Your Blog and Other Webpages

This is all included with your 7 day trial along with full access to all of the other powerful online promotional tools AND the training to make it all work for you.

Please Note: When you invest in the leads program in the back office and you learn how to turn these ‘subscribers’ into paying customers and business partners.  YOUU WILL have discovered the art of Internet marketing!

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No matter what you decide at the end of your 7 day trial, you will absolutely better understand how to use an Auto-responders to increase profits, save time and boost efficiency. You win!

How do you get your own Auto-responder?

Get started within the next five minutes. And remember… you are not paying a dime to get started with this Auto-responder!  Just click the tab below.

Once you complete our brief signup, you will have full access to the back office where you can review all of the video training lessons on how to use an Auto-responder.

It’s time you experience the power of automated online marketing that can transform your life.

Author: Eddie Lutz

Webberville, Texas USA | | 737.239.4629


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text:
☘ ☘ ☘

. . .

fragility …

What is a life among so many?

the iron wheels of Dalwinni

The cold currency of commerce

where there is no time for verse

only the sharp teeth of the crocodile – bared

exposed to the rank and file

caught like brown rabbits in a snare

with an occasional bloody hare

Amid the final dance of death

appeared through angels breath

The delicacy of natures fronds

serve well as angel wands

The wind blew, away they flew

the wind that made me strong

a soldier boy his tunic ruddy

furled his hopes and diamonds bloody

We ran to meet the fullest moon

To greet a morbid, sorbet sun

Sing the stars our saddest, acrid tune

attest the quarantine of mercy

Sincerity feeds upon the leanest souls

crows stand both alone and holy

The warmth that only others feel

 resting sound in fields of plenty

A tattered, outgrown, tainted gown

patched, matched Saint Crispin’s frown

Atrophy and disdain like parched earth

applaud the entrance of dew-drop mirth

Anthony salutes the birth, now worthy sleeps

while Dante’s soul inestimably weeps

The bridge of sighs so tender a culvert

salver for the evening’s pater noster

Bees collect their pollen in priestly vests

duty buttoned daily to their blackened chests

Faithful volunteers for an Oxfam-army

rent collectors for a parish swarmy

While cavaliers and roundheads storm the gates

exiles and immigrants both Lindisfarne holy

Assemble on the tarmac to learn their fates

soldiers of fortune, angels of mercy – all must wait

Once more for England, once more for Harold

Once more for Michael at the beryl gate

Candescent and lonely,

golden hooves shod for a Royale pony

We drank sailors rum, bit Samson’s loyal thumb

Lay down to a Dylan muse, till the words ran dry

Just the tune played on in our heads by the by

something sweet that made our mother cry!

O’ the colonials reduced in the sieve

blended from once where woad-men lived

Not pioneers, engineers, men of vision

not mix-raced, mixed persons, minds of decision

only guilty amalgams who tortured braves

evil persons who once profited from slaves

Better for them if they’d drowned in the waves

Stand up then and wave goodbye to England!

About edenbray

I've always enjoyed writing and thats all I want to do... .. . I’m not sure why I stopped writing, was it 9/11? .. . Eden Bray is born ugly, wet and covered in blood, mucous and bodily functions. The effluence of my short life .. . I'm a Writer and Artist - since 1966, now a Blogger ~ I write lots of poems, written essays, articles, reviews, opinion + comment .. . please join the shebang but more importantly please leave me a marker with a comment for my ego and my encouragement :- thanks, edenbray
This entry was posted in edenbray COMMENT, edenbray OPINION, edenbray POMES, PROG-PROSE and tagged , , , , , , , , . Bookmark the permalink.

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Tales of The Swan-Dyke

March – July, 2020 – CV-19

To celebrate the launch of my 2nd self-published booklet of 11 diverse poems and essays entitled : TALES of the SWAN-DYKE along with Illustrations and Authors Notes – I am happy to offer a signed, printed hard-copy for just £5 inc. post/packing for orders within the United Kingdom and £6.50 inc. shipping for orders outside the UK !

I wrote these poems and 1 essay during my COVID-19 isolation and over nearly 4 months

#NOTE ~ please email ME AT:-

Alternatively you can post a comment in the comments box at the foot of this page and I will forward details of how to make payment ~ PLEASE include your name and the address where you would like the printed copy to be sent + PLUS indicate if it is to be a gift.

Many thanks                                                                                ~ edenbray

TO Celebrate this occasion I am re-posting all eleven parts – today I am posting the 2nd piece : OUR WORLD SO SICK!

. . .

Foreward to the Publication

In March 2020 at the recommendation of the British Governments Scientific Health Advisers I entered a period of isolation as a ‘shielding’ measure due to my previous and ongoing health issues and to avoid the threat of Covid-19, a dangerous strain of Coronavirus which attacks the respiratory system, especially of older and susceptible, clinically vulnerable persons. The full total of Covid-related deaths will not become clear for some while but it is already huge on a world-wide scale. This pamphlet of verse and writings came out of that period of isolation.

Most of the writings were composed from notes made during daily, long, walks I made in the fields at the rear of our home in Lincolnshire with either Ruth, my wife or on my own. These writings reflect wider concerns over the pandemic itself, national issues that developed during this period such as BLM but also very real and more personal matters concerning growing old, loneliness, our future – plus mental and physical health worries.

This selection from the poignant ‘This World So Sad’ to the more comedic ‘Predestination’ or ‘the dog’ may at times seem controversial, they contain ‘adult’ words but each of these works is important to me in conveying the true ‘feeling’ of the time and together they hopefully capture the full rainbow of human experience. I hope the reader will catch the humour intended as well as the more serious points of reference.

Thanks for listening                                                                                edenbray 06.07.2020

…   …   …

…   …   …

I took a walk today down where the buzzards play

Drifting in and out of the fuzzy clouds golden grey

And the truth they say is all around you,

thinking about it blinds you

Theres always someone to tell you what you ought to know

Shadowed bundles of grass stacked up in a corner of a field

The sun in my eyes consistently strong is orange, out of range

Not everything in our world is sick and sad, dying and strange

Field grasses laid out in rows are green and the river is brown

On the day I decided to write it all down

the disharmony

In a paper book with an elastic band and a few damp pages

I’ve taken to crying a lot lately but it could just be the jar

Or the curtains that wont hang together when its dark

It was an old, mottled, reddish-brown pen, with a golden clip

Like my grandfather would have carried in his inside pocket

Filled from a bottle of blue-black with a rubber topped stopper

The short, tainted lever was hard to pull, stuck fast in its casing

I’m fond of old people they carry our history in a khaki back-pack

Living out their salad days, they tell us stories in different ways

Our world so sick and sad right now is not dying,

Sick like a sailors parrot

There were two buzzards circling above the path where I walked today

I finally got to write it down on the plain, wetted paper

The sun had gone in and the ink ran in the warp and the woof

By this time things like that didn’t seem so important anymore

Not as important as old people dying, not important like that

sailors parrot

… sick like a sailor’s parrot

. . .

Dedicated to, with my sincere thanks and appreciation ~ all the brave members of the NHS and other essential workers who have laboured heroically and tirelessly during the Covid-19 pandemid to help us through this traumatic and sad time

. . .

About edenbray

I've always enjoyed writing and thats all I want to do... .. . I’m not sure why I stopped writing, was it 9/11? .. . Eden Bray is born ugly, wet and covered in blood, mucous and bodily functions. The effluence of my short life .. . I'm a Writer and Artist - since 1966, now a Blogger ~ I write lots of poems, written essays, articles, reviews, opinion + comment .. . please join the shebang but more importantly please leave me a marker with a comment for my ego and my encouragement :- thanks, edenbray
This entry was posted in PROG-PROSE, TALES of the SWAN-DYKE and tagged , , , , , , , . Bookmark the permalink.

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Pan-Seared Halibut with Spiced Lemon Confit, English Peas

Wild Alaskan halibut seared in clarified butter and topped with spiced lemon confit, English peas and fresh parsley, cracked pepper and crunchy sea salt..

For the Lemon Confit (Saveur Magazine)

2 lemons
1-1/2 cups extra-virgin olive oil
1 teaspoon cracked coriander seeds
1 teaspoon cracked fennel seeds
1 teaspoon sea salt
1/2 teaspoon crushed red chile flakes
2 bay leaves

Halve lemons crosswise and squeeze their juice into a bowl; set juice aside.

Thinly slice juiced lemons crosswise and transfer lemons, reserved juice, and remaining ingredients to a 1-qt. saucepan over high heat. Bring mixture to a simmer, reduce heat to medium-low, and cook, stirring occasionally, for 15 minutes.

Remove pan from heat; let cool. Transfer lemon confit to a glass jar, cover, and refrigerate. Confit will keep, refrigerated, for 3 weeks.

For the Halibut and Peas

2 wild Alaskan halibut filets, skinned, about 5-6 ounces each
2 tablespoons clarified butter
1 cup English peas, shelled
fine sea salt and freshly-ground black pepper
2 tablespoons fresh parsley, chopped
coarse sea salt for finishing

Gently rinse the halibut in cold water, pat dry and season lightly on both sides with salt and pepper.

Meanwhile, heat the butter in a heavy-bottomed skillet over medium heat until shimmering.

Carefully slide the halibut filets into the hot pan and sear without moving for 3 minutes.

Use a fish spatula to carefully turn the filets over and cook another 3 minutes (depending on thickness), basting all the while with the butter from the pan (the fish is done when it becomes opaque and easily separates into large flakes).  Transfer fish to warm dinner plates.

Quickly sauté the peas in the fish pan until just done, about 2-3 minutes.

Spoon some lemon confit over the fish, then spoon the peas on top of that.

Finish with coarse sea salt and parsley and serve immediately.

Pacific halibut is a bottom-dwelling groundfish that nestles into the sandy seafloor, often seen with only its eyes and mouth uncovered. Primarily found in the coastal North Pacific Ocean and Bering Sea, it migrates hundreds of miles from shallow coastal waters to the deep, open ocean to spawn in winter. Most return, year after year, to the same coastal feeding grounds.

Most Pacific halibut are caught in Alaska where fishing for Pacific halibut is strictly limited to the bottom longlining method, which causes little habitat damage or bycatch. Pacific halibut is also caught using troll lines and bottom trawl nets.  —Seafood Watch

Mary had a little lamb. I ate it with curry and rice.

Freshly-ground local, pastured lamb is seasoned with sea salt and freshly-ground black pepper before being seared in blazing-hot grass-fed ghee with hulled cardamom, sweet cinnamon shards, mustard seeds, fresh ginger and green chilies, tomatoes and garlic.  The pan juices are combined with turmeric, sweet paprika and coconut milk and reduced until thick.

Short grain rice is simmered with 4x its own weight in homemade bone broth with golden fried onions, toasted cumin and coriander, fresh English peas and a pinch of saffron..

Lamb Curry with Rice and English Peas

Curry in a hurry!

Lamb Vindaloo with Cardamom Pea Puree

Lamb is slow-simmered in coconut milk, onions, garlic and coarse mustard, then topped with curry-fried onions and served with puréed peas with cardamom.  A classic Goan dish..

Lamb Vindaloo

Lamb Vindaloo with Cardamom Pea Puree

For the Vindaloo

1 1/2 pounds boneless lamb (I’m using leftover roast leg of lamb)
1 yellow onion, quartered and thinly sliced
8 cloves garlic, minced
1 tablespoon ghee
1 teaspoon cracked coriander seeds
1 tablespoon turmeric
1 teaspoon cracked black pepper
1 1/2 teaspoons cumin seeds
1 teaspoon freshly-grated ginger
1 teaspoon cayenne
2 tablespoons coarse mustard
1 tablespoon champagne vinegar
1-2 fresh hot chiles, thinly sliced
1 1/2 cups thick coconut milk

Combine the vinegar, mustard and spices in a bowl.  Stir into a thick paste.

Fry the onions in ghee until golden brown, then add the garlic and ginger and sauté 30 seconds.  Add the spice paste and fry for 1 minute, stirring continuously.  Add the lamb and fry for 3 minutes.

Reduce heat to low, stir in coconut milk, cover and simmer until tender, about 75 minutes.  Stir occasionally and add a little water if needed.

For The Peas

12 oz fresh English peas
1 tablespoon pastured butter
1/2 teaspoon freshly-ground green cardamom
1 cup filtered water or stock, approximately
1 tablespoon curly parsely
salt and pepper

Boil the peas in 1/4 inch of water with butter and cardamom until just tender, about 2 minutes.  Transfer to a food processor , add parsley and pulse until nearly smooth.  Season to taste with salt and pepper.

For the Curry-Fried Onions

1/4 yellow onion, thinly sliced
1 tablespoon ghee
1/2 teaspoon curry powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
sprigs of fresh parsley

Heat ghee over medium heat until shimmering, then add onions and curry powder and fry until crisp.  Add parsley and fry a few seconds more.  Season with a little salt and let drain on a napkin for a few moments.

To Serve

Spoon pea purée onto a serving plate and ladle vindaloo over the top.  Garnish with curry-fried onions and parsley and serve immediately.

Rosemary and Garlic Roast Leg of Lamb with Minted English Peas

Local pastured leg of lamb is coated with fresh rosemary, garlic, coarse salt and cracked pepper then slow-roasted and served au jus with fresh peas, spearmint and fried shallots..

Rosemary and Garlic Roast Leg of Lamb with Minted English Peas

Rinse leg of lamb and pat dry.  Remove the fell (a thin membrane covering the fat) if present, then coat with extra virgin olive oil and liberal amounts of fresh rosemary, garlic, sea salt and cracked black pepper.

Chop enough equal parts celery, white onion and carrots (mirepoix) to cover the bottom of a cast iron skillet to a depth of 1/2 inch.  Pour in 1 cup of Cabernet Sauvignon then set the lamb on top.  Roast uncovered in a 325 degree oven until an instant-read thermometer inserted into the thickest section reads 125-130 degrees, about 75 minutes depending on size.  Transfer lamb to a cutting board, cover loosely and allow to rest 30 minutes.

Meanwhile, add 2 cups cold filtered water to the roasting pan and stir to scrape up the brown bits.  Place over medium heat and cook until reduced by half.  Strain into a clean pan and adjust flavor with salt and pepper.  Keep warm.

Blanch fresh English peas in 1/4 inch of filtered water for 2-3 minutes, then immediately transfer to a bowl of ice water.  Heat butter in a heavy skillet and add a thinly sliced whole shallot. Fry until golden, then add minced lemon peel and cook 30 seconds.  Add drained peas and lots of chopped fresh mint and heat through.  Season to taste with salt and pepper.

To serve, spoon peas onto a serving plate and arrange 1/2 inch-thick sliced of lamb over the top.  Dress with reduced pan juices and serve immediately.


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‘Bette Davis Eyes’ Is Given A Fresh Taste Thanks To Max + Johann

Taking Kim Carnes’ pop smash hit of the 80s ‘Bette Davis Eyes’ and giving it an electronic feel this week is German production duo Max + Johann. Both hailing from Berlin, Universal Music Germany has snapped up their blissful remake and it is ready to purchase or stream now.

The infectious lyrical vibes of the original are still there, this time with Sweden’s Pearl Andersson delivering some super sweet, softly spoken tones. Sparkles of melody and summery riffs are back up with barely there bassline grooves, making for a gloriously feelgood finished sound.

Don’t hesitate to stream ‘Bette Davis Eyes’ – you can do so here.

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Delegation of the European Union to Iraq

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Transformations for Abstractions (Looking for a Postdoc or PhD student)

May 10, 2006

Recently I got notice from NWO, the dutch research funding organization, that the project proposal `Transformations for Abstractions (TFA)’ that I submitted last September was accepted. (In a very competitive round; only 15% of proposals was accepted this year.) As a consequence, I have funding for a three year postdoc or a four year PhD student position. The topic of the project is language extensions (abstractions), in general, and extension of transformations on/for language extensions, in particular. Here is the summary of the proposal:

This proposal is about techniques at the intersection of two areas of software engineering. (1) In order to automate software engineering we would like to automate the process of producing programs by means of automatic transformations, thereby computing with programs as we do with other data. (2) In order to improve the expressivity of programming languages to the concepts and notations of specific application domains, we would would like to extend general-purpose languages with domain-specific abstractions. Combining these desiderata leads to the need to extend transformations for new domain-specific abstractions.

The goal of this project is to develop a systematic approach to the extension of general purpose languages with domain-specific abstractions, integrating those abstractions in the syntax and transformations of the programming environment. This requires research into the following issues:

  • strategies for the definition of domain abstractions
  • mechanisms for open extensibility of transformations
  • methods and patterns for design of open transformations
  • constraints for independent extensibility of transformations
  • derivation of transformation extensions from definitions of abstractions

We approach this goal by analyzing a variety of existing domain-specific languages and transformations, developing generic extensibility mechanisms, and validating these first in an `in vitro’ setting and then in a programming environment for the Java language. The project builds on a solid body of work from the Stratego/XT project that will allow us to concentrate on the core of the problem, rather than being distracted by infrastructural issues.

If you are interested in the project, either as a candidate for the position or as a collaborator, I would like to hear from you. Further information (such as the full project proposal) is available on request.


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Gebreegziabher, Zenebe

Zenebe Gebreegziabher is a Research Fellow at the Environment and Climate Research Center (ECRC) at the Ethiopian Development Research Institute (EDRI). He contributes to energy and forestry research programs of the centre. Zenebe is also an assistant professor of economics at the Department of Economics, Mekelle University. He completed his PhD in economics at Wageningen University in 2007.

Expertise/Research interest:

  • Environmental and resource economics,
  • Household behavior in general,
  • Macroeconomics, monetary economics, and public policy,
  • Energy, Climate change, and institutions/governing the commons
People | 3 February 2011


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International trade is the flow of goods from seller to buyer and the flow of payment from buyer to seller

One of the most common methods of payment is documentary credit.

UCP stands for Uniform Customs & Practice for Documentary Credit.  These guidelines were first published
by the International Chamber of Commerce in 1933.  The latest revision UCP600 was published in 2007.

We encourage our customers to take the time to familiarize themselves with UCP600 as they affect many aspects of the Import and Export processes.  We specifically refer you to Articles 10, 14 & 17-30.

For more information about applying UCP600 to your shipments, please Contact us.

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EITI webinar: Oil sales in Guyana

Guyana just started production of oil. The first revenues from Guyana's oil have already flowed into government coffers, including oil royalties and revenues received from the sale of profit oil. In this context, the EITI International Secretariat is pleased to hold a webinar on commodity trading transparency in Guyana. It will include a discussion on Guyana's oil sector to-date, the EITI Standard and its work on commodity trading transparency and give the opportunity for questions from participants.

Date:  Wednesday 15 July 2020

Time: 10:00 – 11:00 Georgetown time/16:00 – 17:00 Oslo time

Who:  Parliamentarians, civil society organisations, government and industry representatives, and the general public.

Registration: Please register here

Language: Please note that this event will be held in English.

Please contact JTaquiri@eiti.org with any questions.


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LEVC Announces Electric Van Trials To Begin Next Year

LEVC (London EV Company) has announced that it is due to start trials with potential customers of its new electric van in London in the second half of 2019.

The business is currently in discussion with a number of major public-sector fleets about joining the trials of prototype vehicles. This includes the Metropolitan Police Service and the London Fire Brigade – both of whom have ambitious programmes to clean up their vehicle fleets, with a target for all new vans being zero emission capable from 2025.

Earlier this year, LEVC announced it would be entering the van market with a zero-emission capable product.  The van will combine a fully electric powertrain with an economical petrol range-extender. This approach means cleaner vehicles that are able to go the distance but also lower running costs. LEVC expect that the vehicle – for its size – will deliver a competitive total cost of ownership.

LEVC have previously announced that this product is not intended for ‘last-mile delivery’ and will instead focus on fleets where vehicles undertake demanding duty cycles – for example, travel over 100 miles a day. This is a segment currently dominated by one tonne medium sized diesel vans.

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text: ERRATA Playmaster 300W Subwoofer amp (April 1995): The amp module's schematic on page 61 shows C6 in the wrong position. It should be shown connected between the base of Q4 and the collector of Q6, rather than between the main output and the collector of Q8. The PCB artwork and overlay diagrams are correct as published.


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Troy Bilt Jet Blower Review

Troy-Bilt Jet Blower Review | Compare it to the best leaf blowers on the market

Harness the power of the wind with one of Troy-Bilt’s most powerful handheld blowers: the TB2MB Jet mixed-flow gas leaf blower. The 27cc motor offers you air speeds of up to 130 mph, more than enough to clear even the peskiest of debris.

The 2-cycle engine, variable speed settings and innovative switch design ensures that you remain in control of your work, despite the impressive power on display. The ergonomic handle and excellent weight distribution mean any job can be accomplished in one go and without unnecessary strain on your hands and back.

Reviewed Model:  Troy-Bilt TB2MB

Overall Rating:

Build Quality:

Look & Feel:

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    Simple design and easy to use
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    Easier to start than most gas-powered leaf blowers
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    Extremely powerful motor
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    Nozzle excellently angled for perfect control
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    Ergonomic grip and well-balanced design
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    Cruise control option for longer blowing jobs

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    Heavier than similar models
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    Bulky feel in hand
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    No protective feet around the engine, increasing risk of damage to engine upon start-up
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    Can vibrate excessively when in use

The impressive-looking TB2MB Jet Leaf Blower is a throwback to the “good old days” when it comes to hand held leaf blowers. However, the performance is seriously impressive, with one of the strongest motors on offer churning out an industry-leading 650 cfm at a max speed of 130 mph, more than enough to shift even the most stubborn of leaf/debris piles.

Importantly, this power is available regardless of the speed setting chosen, meaning you have maximum control at all times, without losing effectiveness that sets this product apart. The wide nozzle is perfect for swiftly dealing with big jobs. The control set is simple and easy to use, even for beginners, which is unusual for gas powered blowers, which are usually a little confusing to start. The cruise control option is great and allows you to focus completely on the job at hand, without needing to constantly regulate the motor.

Key Features

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    Mixed flow fan pulls pressurized air at an industry-leading 650 cfm
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    Powerful 27cc 2-cycle engine gives a max speed of 130 mph
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    Multiple speed settings
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    Cruise control option for longer blowing jobs
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    2-year warranty

To indicate the strength of the Troy-Bilt TB2MB Jet Blower’s engine, here’s a really cool clip of a compression test on the motor:

The TB2MB Jet blower expels an impressive amount of air – reportedly 650 cfm worth. At a max speed of 130 mph, this means that the machine makes clearing a path a dream, easily dislodging leaves, grass shavings, pine needles, sticks and stones, and even clods of wet garden/soil. This is comfortably one of the most powerful hand held blowers I’ve ever worked with.

The speed is not directionless and the angle and balance of the machine give it great control over what you’re blowing. The variable speed settings (accomplished through an intuitive throttle switch) give you added control, although reducing the speed doesn’t reduce the strength of the compressed air. The wide nozzle is great for clearing a large space, but is a little lacking for more refined spaces, requiring a more narrow stream of air.

The Troy-Bilt TB2MB Jet Blower only comes with three pieces: the blower engine unit and a two-part blower nozzle. All of which snap in right out of the box. Despite this easy assembly, the pieces are secure, so much so that a screwdriver is needed to detach the pieces.

This means that it is important to ensure that everything is correctly lined up when assembling. Being a gas powered blower, first time users will likely be unfamiliar with the type of fuel and oil to use and the ratios needed, but these are well set out in the user manual.

The manual is in English and is straightforward and easy to follow. A sample pack of fuel is included with the unit. For a pull start blower, the TB2MB Jet Blower is very easy to start, requiring a gentle pull of the primer, an opening of the choke and a pull of the cord.

Even beginners are usually able to start the engine with just a few pulls. The speed control throttle can be locked, which significantly assists beginners when using the product.

Build Quality

Nothing about the TB2MB Jet Blower feels cheap or brittle. The sturdy design is complemented by quality parts and the machine feels strong and dependable in use. Whilst the nozzle is easy to attach, it is very secure when fastened and requires a screw to dislodge, which gives me great peace of mind when using the product.

All of the working parts for the pull start motor are simple and sturdy and can take repeated use. The only drawback to the design is that, given its weight, many people will need to start the machine on the floor. There are no protective feet to support the motor when starting and this feels like it may put strain and potentially damage the motor over time.

Look & Feel

The blower is very striking and attractive, with a classic/retro look given its gas-powered motor that still doesn’t look or feel like a relic. The semi-opaque nozzle displaying the inner workings of the air compressor looks very impressive, especially when in use and the machine cuts a striking figure when being held (one-handed).

The ergonomic handle is very comfortable and the machine feels very balanced when in use. However, it is not the most comfortable machine to use over extended periods. Its weight (which is consistent with gas motors) makes it difficult to operate one-handed for more than 10 minutes, even for stronger individuals.

The design is quite bulky and requires you to turn your whole body around when blowing in different directions. The motor gets very hot with extended use and the vibrations can be a bit off-putting over time.

The TB2MB Jet Blower is one of the most powerful leaf blowers available and will be more than powerful enough for even the most ardent of blowing tasks. The parts are sturdy and of a high quality and the machine comes with a 2-year warranty, backing up the feeling of good engineering.

The product is very competitively priced compared to similar models and often comes out cheaper in comparison. Given the amount of power afforded by this machine and the solid engineering standard, the TB2MB is great value for money.

How does it compare?

The Hitachi RB24EAP 23.9cc leaf blower is designed with longevity in mind. It comes with a 7-year consumer warranty, which is one of the best I’ve seen on any leaf blower. It is also certified 300 HR EDR, which is the highest seal of longevity possible.

The blower is designed to tackle big jobs with ease and has an impressive output of 441 cfm and a max air speed of 170 miles per hour! The big nozzle and high pressure makes it perfect for people who need to complete one or two big jobs quickly.

The commercial grade, PureFire, low-emission engine promises fewer fumes, making the machine safer for those using it and less harsh on the environment. The lightweight design and easy grip handle make the blower very comfortable to use one-handed, even over a longer period of time.

A shoulder strap can be purchased as an optional extra, which makes the blower even easier to use. The lack of a lock button/cruise control option is a little frustrating, however.

To see product images

The Husqvarna 125B 28cc leaf blower is a light-weight powerhouse. Weighing in at a tiny 9.4 lbs, it delivers an extremely competitive 425 cfm air volume and has a max speed of 170 mph!

Like the Troy-Bilt Jet Blower, the Husqvarna comes with a cruise control feature, which makes it a breeze (pun intended) to use over extended periods, allowing you to really take advantage of the lighter weight. The nozzle is adjustable in length, which gives you great control when trying to dislodge debris in tighter areas, like steps.

The nozzle has also been angled so that it’s inline with the handle, simplifying the process of aiming the powerful gusts of air at your debris. The ergonomic design of the handle and button placement, as well as the weight distribution, is specifically designed to reduce fatigue on hands and shoulders.

The tube/nozzle’s flexible length does minimize the security with the device as a whole, and the heavy vibrations during use can dislodge the tube from the motor.

The Remington RM125 is powered by a 25cc gas powered motor. The motor is extremely powerful and has a power output of 400 cfm and reaches max air speeds of 180 mph!

The 3-step start-up is similar in design to the Troy-Bilt TB2MB and is quick and intuitive, which is great for novice leaf blower users. It also comes with a built-in cruise control setting, which is great for longer jobs and for improving control.

A little heavier, although still comfortable to use, the Remington is backed by a 2-year warranty. The vibrations in the handle, like most products in this class, can be a bit jarring. The pull start can also be a bit difficult to get the hang and feels a little low in quality.

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Elekk: Gameing and Other Delightful Pursuits

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Colombian Decaf

Red Apple, Toasted Walnut

SKU: N/A Categories: ,

The notion that decaf has to be wimpy is, well, weak. We believe that a coffee should hold its own, even without the caffeine.

Our current decaf is a sugar cane processed coffee from our friends at Cereza Coffee.
The sugar cane process (also known as EA decaf) is a natural decaffeination process.
EA decaffeinated coffees usually have a vibrant sweetness as the process avoids the high heat & high pressure of other decaf processing methods.
We taste notes of red apple & toasted walnut in this balanced, jitter-free cup.

Country: Colombia

Producer: Various Smallholders

Elevation: 1600 MASL

Process: Sugar Cane Process

Variety: Caturra, Castillo

Additional information

Weight 1 lbs
Dimensions 8 × 4 × 4 in

Whole Bean, Coarse, Medium, Fine

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Truvelle Brand Shoot – Turkey

A few months ago I was in Turkey with Canadian bridal brand Truvelle Bridal to do hair and makeup for the beautiful bridal model on the shoot for their 2018 look book! We travelled to Cappadocia in central Turkey, a stunning destination wedding location!  The whole shoot was shot on film by insane wedding photographers Blush Wedding Photography and the results are even more dreamy then I could have ever imagined!

On the day of the shoot we were up at 4AM to do hair and makeup (oh the glamour!) as the balloons set off around 5.30AM for sunrise.  While the early start may have felt tough before hand as soon as we saw all the balloons it made it all worth it! Not only was it one of the most magical experiences I have ever had we also got to record it all as a photoshoot!!

All the hair and makeup was kept really natural and relaxed to compliment the simple flowing gowns that Truvelle’s lastest collection is full of.  I adore the fashion forward bridal option that totally does away with some of the traditional bridal gown styles and pre-conceptions.  The loose tussled waves suited Alice perfectly and flowed beautifully in the breeze.  For makeup we kept in natural with glowing skin and a little eye definition.

Images: Blush Wedding Photography.

See the whole collection here


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How PEBB’s Virtual Lifestyle Management (VLM) Works
Make small lifestyle changes that make a big difference with this year-long program.

© 2020 Canary Health®

What You Get
• Pedometer to track your daily steps
• Digital scale that automatically records your weight
• Personal health coach
• 16 weekly lessons and 8 monthly lessons
• 24/7 access to online tracking tools
• Safe environment where your identity remains private
• Technical support
Still not sure if the program is right for you?
You must be a PEBB medical plan member with qualifying health conditions. For ages 18 and over only.
Track Your Food & Activity
Track your daily food intake and log your physical activity with simple tracking tools.
See how VLM has helped others.
John | Age 74 | Lost 80 Pounds

“I used to dread going to the doctor because I knew I was going to get a lecture. I was sick, I didn’t know it. When I went on VLM, I was 295 and went down to 216”
Click to See if You QualifySign UpLoginLOGINVLMPRIVACYQUESTIONS? CALL (844) 862-1697

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Meet Jen Matthews, Health Coach, M.A.

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Take advantage of your time at home.

PEBB offers you a diabetes prevention benefit called VLM.

Register for VLMAlready enrolled? Click here to login.

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Color Doodle

I am old enough to know my numbers because Mom points to the black and white alarm clock on the bedside table and tells me I can wake her when it says 3-1-5.  She is trying to catch a nap while I play with her tin of necklaces—strings of beads and shells that clatter against the metal when I tug at the tight lid and it finally gives way.  The numbers of the clock are white on small black plastic rectangles that flip like cards in a rolodex.  There is a small click as a number falls into oblivion.  Do I understand the concept of time, or am I just watching for 3-1-5?  I am waiting and doing something grown up.

I am lying in bed, waiting for sleep, listening to the hollow flow of the Edens Expressway. It sounds like someone breathing or like a heart beat or like Mom’s rocking chair after being tucked in–someone is there even though I can’t seem them.

I am seven, and my younger brother is five and a half, and Mom and Dad and I have a secret.  Each night when Noel falls asleep, I sneak into my parents’ room and join them on the bed.  Sometimes they are watching Masterpiece Theater.  Sometimes they are doing needlework or reading.  Sometimes Mom and I play a game.  She takes a yellow legal pad and scribbles random lines—zig-zagging-, swirling-, figure-eighting-lines—all over the paper.  Then we look for things in the random shapes.  “I see,” Mom says, holding the “see” like a whole note, “a house.”  Then she takes the pen and traces certain lines to reveal a house.  “I see,” I say, holding the “see” like a whole note, “a flower.”  Mom hands me the pen, and I trace the lines that make a flower.  Bees, dogs, rabbits, faces, socks, windows, and leaves, we find a whole world in the 8.5 x 14 space of one yellow legal pad.

I am lying on my bed, watching the red and white lights of planes blink across the sky.  I watch to see where the next blip of light will appear, what line will be revealed, and when it will be drawn beyond the frame of my window.

I am sixteen.  I want to paint like Van Gogh.  I go through my bedroom window onto the roof to work on a canvas.  A deer appears in our yard, and because deer do not come to our neighborhood by the highway, I feel doubly lucky to be on the roof where I can see its whole tawny form against the greenery like one of the found creatures on a legal pad.  It pauses and looks back as though something is pursuing it.  It leaps the viburnum bush, darts across the street and disappears into the margins of other homes.

The Tyranny of Productivity

A couple of weekends ago was the State Department’s annual book sale fundraiser where, for four bucks, I picked up The Golden Ring: Cities of Old Russia because I liked the photographs of medieval architecture and thought it might be fun to draw them.  I almost didn’t buy it, fearing I might not ever get around to drawing and that even if I did, it was a lame reason to buy a book that, if not expensive, would still take up valuable bookshelf space.  But I did buy it, and then it sat on the kitchen table for a couple of weeks.  “I should draw already,” I told myself yesterday.  “Why?” I thought.  “What’s the point?”

Does this one ever get you, this tyrannical assumption that everything we do must be productive, not in a creative sense but in a getting-things-done sense?

Yesterday in my English Conversation Class one of the students talked about time management.  Students in this class have a standing assignment to come prepared to talk about something they watched or read–TED talks are a favorite.  This student, like others before her, had chosen to watch one of the TED talks on time management, and the three women in class all shared how they don’t feel like they get anything done, how they feel like they waste their time.

One of these women has a full-time job and several other family-, house-, and school-related responsibilities.  The second is newly married to a diplomat and newly moved to the U.S., missing her job and feeling she has too much time on her hands.  The third is also new to the U.S. and has a part-time job.  Their lifestyles seem to represent the full spectrum of busyness, yet none feels good about her time, which left me feeling that we must be making some fundamental error in our approach to this topic.  Maybe we expect too much from ourselves.  Do we think we should be getting things done every moment because our technology allows it?  Or maybe we don’t stop to reflect enough.  Are we so caught up in the flow of activity and connectivity that we don’t take the time to appreciate our experiences and celebrate our achievements?  I realize these questions and ideas are hardly new, but I find myself and my students coming back to them again and again.

When I visit my family in Kyrgyzstan I always marvel at how much they (and others in their country) value down time, except they don’t call it down time.  “Down time” reflects an American sense of relaxation as a temporary respite from the inevitable march of productivity.  In Kyrgyzstan people just say  they’re relaxing, and relaxing seems more like an ideal state of being than a special allowance.  During a two-week visit, my family is happy to relax as much as possible the whole time–watching TV, doing crosswords, talking, eating, being together.  I’m usually good for about a day and a half, and then I can’t take it anymore.  I have to read, write, draw, study Russian, or even work.  I used to think that I would enjoy relaxing more if my Russian was better, but over time I’ve realized that it’s just hard for me to not be “productive.”  I like feeling productive, and I don’t think there’s anything wrong with that until it keeps me from enjoying family time or from writing or drawing or doing other things that seem non-essential.

I realize that wanting to be productive could just be an excuse for not writing and drawing. After all, concerns about productivity do not keep me from watching TV (although we accept “down time” as important for “recharging”).  So that leads to the question: Why do we make excuses not to draw, write, be creative?  I know this is not a new question either, but I’ve never heard a satisfying answer, perhaps because it’s such an illogical thing in the first place–to resist something that makes us happy.  And I was happy, drawing medieval Russian architecture.  Does it show?

When I see buildings like this, which took decades to build, I wonder how people in other time periods have thought about productivity and relaxation.  Did everyone talk about time management in the 1100s?

Jumping Fences

Hybrids.  Grotesques.  Chimeras.  Today I’m thinking about the drawings of Eduardo Galeano in The Book of Embraces.  Have you read this book?  I love it—its playfulness and seriousness, its range, its voices, and its visions.  It celebrates art, imagination, and the human spirit through beautiful vignettes and whimsical illustrations such as a man with an octopus for a head holding a hula hoop, a pensive donkey wearing a suit and spectacles, a fish carrying an umbrella.  These images were the catalyst of my MFA critical thesis, “Seeing in Embraces,” which was published by Assay Journal this month.  Check it out to learn more about The Book of Embraces.

I’ve used the illustrations in The Book of Embraces as prompts in creative writing classes, and it’s always gone well.  I keep it really simple, just ask everyone to choose an image and write from it.  I write too, and I always find that the image catapults me into the middle of something interesting.  I write something I had no intention of writing, follow a trail of associations I’d had no idea was there.  I love the surprise and the weightlessness of having jumped the fences of the self.

These hybrids had been such great springboards for writing that I thought I’d apply them to drawing.  I grabbed my journal and some pens, walked to Java Shack, ordered an Iced Tea, and sat down at a table to draw some hybrids of my own.  There was a dog with a flower for a head and a plastic cup with a parking-meter-straw.  But it was not going well.  My hybrids lacked the vitality and poetry of Galeano’s creations.  I imagined Galeano’s combinations came from intuition, intention, or spontaneous play.  Mine felt forced.  And my drawing style seemed ill suited to the depiction of wild hybrid creations.  In my article, I say that Galeano’s style doesn’t strive for verisimilitude.  But as I looked at my own drawings, I realized that Galeano’s illustrations project a certain authority nonetheless.  Maybe it’s the authority of his draftsmanship or of a style reminiscent of 19th century news sources, pre-photographs.  At any rate, my hybrids lay flat on the page like the drawings they were while Galeano’s creations inhabit the page.

A few days later I tried again.  A face from a magazine sprouted a stem.  The stem sprouted a leaf that required another leaf, which would require another stem.  Was I going to do this?  It looked nothing like a Galeano hybrid, sharp and self-contained.  Should I turn the page and try again?

When I was an art major at the University of Illinois, I heard a piece of advice I often think of: sometimes you should see a piece through even if it doesn’t seem promising.  So that’s what I did, and eventually I fell into the zone—an hour passed like a minute.  That’s another kind of fence jumping.  But in this case I didn’t escape myself but rather came home to myself in a hybrid done my own way, in my own style.

This makes me wonder: Do we ever really escape the self?  When we say we’ve escaped it, maybe we’ve actually enlarged it or discovered it to be something different from what we thought it was or just done something outside our usual habits.  Maybe it’s a particular sense of the self we escape, and not the self itself.

The End of Summer Owl

More decoration than decoy, the owl did not seem to take its job seriously, leaning against the fence like a summer hire in the last week of August.  The sparrows saw a slacker and hopped around under the awning, cracking seeds against the pavement, skittering about the dogs’ water bowl, beating the heat with their open-beaked bird pant.  But the end of summer owl had a message for me: eat all the raspberries, go swimming, go barefoot.  What does the end of summer owl say to you?

Child Sense and Clover

I was trying to think of something to draw or do for this blog.  A while ago I’d taken a picture of clover weeds with the idea that I’d make a small painting, but I thought I could do better.  Maybe I’d go to a café and sketch something or just think of something else.  Days passed, and inspiration had not struck.  The heat index was regularly in the 100s, and that didn’t make me want to sketch at a café or hit the streets.  A couple more days passed, and I bemoaned my lack of ideas.  But then I remembered that I did have an idea and had had an idea all along—the clover painting.  All I had to do was accept it.  So I did.

Does this kind of thing ever happen to you?  I’ve taught and practiced freewriting long enough to know the power of first thoughts, yet I still fall into psyching myself out sometimes, insisting on some theoretical better thing, instead of just saying yes to what’s at hand.

Clover.  It represents summer and childhood, IMG_3273minutes meditating the way children do—with such intense interest and rapt attention, like falling down a rabbit hole, totally absorbed.  I long for such intent looking.  That’s why I love travel.  We get our child sense back through the strangeness of things.  I picture myself, maybe six, squatting in the world of a suburban driveway, pondering a fissure in the asphalt where the prairie of a prior century showed through.  Big brother clover, expert on the way things are here, tell me what you know of storms and earthworms, sneakers and basketballs, dandelions, ants, and the lilies’ white bells, of inhabiting margins and claiming a place, of the right to exist, a calling into summer, a sprawling meekness, marvelousness, symmetry and pattern, subtlety, delicateness, of the touch of tiny fingers.

So, Donkey Ears

I got such pleasure from playing Pictionary with four ESOL students last week.  It wasn’t the pleasure of playing Taboo, which gets everyone excited, energized by competition and the pressure of a three-minute timer.  And it wasn’t the pleasure of playing Apples to Apples, which gets everyone feeling silly, trying to be clever.  It was a quieter pleasure, and it felt special, out of the ordinary, even intimate.

We played our own version without teams or time limits, each of us taking a card and drawing on the white board, trying to get anyone else to see what we saw in our minds’ eyes.

It’s a curious process.  You go to the board with a vague image of, say, a donkey.  You see a pair of nostrils, hoofs, a tail.  You start with the head, and as you draw, you find your hand making those pointed donkey ears you hadn’t pictured along with the nostrils, hoof, and tail, but which are suddenly materializing as if from the drawing itself.

I suppose it’s like how words beget other words, like how, when I worked at the Library of Congress as a writer and couldn’t think of a word, I’d call my mom and say, “Help me with a word, it’s like . . .” and as I tried to put words to the idea, I would inevitably remember the word.  So, donkey ears.  It was like my hand knew what to do before I did.  Actually, I think it’s just a super-fast process of responding to the line as it’s traced on the board with a new thought of what to do next that comes so fast we don’t catch it.  It’s such a fast thought, yet so still and calm we hardly notice it.

Sometimes when you see a great movie, you exist in its afterglow for the rest of the day, maybe the next day even.  This game of Pictionary was a bit like that.  It gently haunted me.  Why was it so special?  Was it because we weren’t competing, just enjoying the act of drawing, the fun of guessing?  Was it because we’d given up the pretense of competition, admitting to ourselves and each other that these simple things gave us pleasure, that these frivolous things were worth doing?

Maybe I’m making too much of this.  Maybe to the students we were just killing time and taking a break from the text book.  But the drawings.  I feel like if I’d just taken a few pictures of the drawings, they’d speak for themselves.  There was a stunning deer with muscley legs, a triumphant entrance to the magic kingdom, a cute piranha, a mountain landscape, a jungle, an ape, a flying monkey.

But I didn’t take pictures, though I kept thinking about it as we played.  I didn’t have a blog post in mind, was just enchanted by the drawings.  But I told myself to just pay attention and enjoy the game.  Maybe it was the right call.  Maybe taking pictures would have changed the experience, made us self-conscious, when the beauty of the drawings was their complete lack of pretension.  Direct and fresh, the drawings were not actually an attempt to communicate so much as an act of conjuring.

I’m reminded of the cave paintings in Lascaux. I remember being told in an art history class that the Paleolithic painters depicted animals to conjure them, make them present, maybe in the cave or maybe later, for dinner.  I always struggled to wrap my head around that idea.  But comparing Taboo to Pictionary, I begin to get it.  In Taboo you try to get your audience to think of a certain word.  You throw associations at them, trying to push the right button.  It’s a manipulation.  In Pictionary you turn your back on your audience and just try to do justice to thing itself—to that deer or donkey.  You try to bring it into the room.  This also reminds me of children’s drawings, which are tributes to the big blue Earth and all it contains, to cousins Sun, Sky, and Moon.  Maybe the intimacy is between the drawer and the drawn.

Paint What You See Not What You Know

woman with ear ring and wordsI just spent ten days at Vermont College of Fine Arts as a graduate assistant at the summer residency for creative writers.  With equal parts hope and skepticism, I’d packed my big sketchbook and a set of oil pastels, but they never left my backpack.  I did, however, do a little sketching in my journal.

The first morning, I woke at 4:30 and, not able to fall back asleep, went outside with my journal and wrote for awhile as the sun rose over the evergreens.  Then I sketched the house next to the dorm I was staying in–it has an amazing garden in front, thick and deep like a night of frog song or a garden by Van Gogh.

montpelier garden

I drew more quickly than usual, going for the main shapes and not concerning myself too much with details, perhaps because I knew I could never account for the abundance of leaves, stems, and blossoms.  I once had the privilege of taking a painting class with David Coughtry, who advised, “Paint what you see, not what you know.”  On this early morning, that’s what I did without thinking about it.  I wonder if it helped that I was up so early and knew the whole day was ahead of me.  Not one to get up with the sun, I felt like I’d received a gift of extra time–a slice of splurge time that didn’t need to be productive or have anything to show for itself.  Maybe that mindset made it easier to see.

Another day, I drew at one of the picnic tables outside College Hall.  I spent many extended moments there and realized it was one of my favorite things to do at residency, the pleasure of loafing out there enhanced by the knowledge that I was missing some fantastic lecture or reading because it made clear the great value of having time to spend in contemplation at a picnic table in proximity to others in conversation, dedication to a sentence, or meditation on a passing moment.

montpelier street

From the picnic table, I drew the street–a busyness around a center of stillness and spaciousness, not that I consciously saw it that way at the time.

My favorite drawings are blind drawings, or somewhat blind drawings, sketched in lectures–mostly heads and faces.  Drawing blind is when you keep your eyes on your subject as you draw, not looking down to see how you’re doing.  That’s what I did–but I cheated a lot.  Blind drawing creates a line with a lot of flow, a relatedness between shapes, and a spaciousness.  Gesture is its genius, simplicity its signature, and accident its anima.  There’s a weirdness, an inaccuracy, that gives a blind drawing life and often captures the subject better than an accurate and thorough rendering would.  At least, that’s my opinion.

What would the writing version of a blind drawing be?  Surely it would be generative, with minimal self-correcting.  But it would also have to be playful, prone to happy accidents and perfect inaccuracies, fast and loose with a devil-may-care attitude.  It’s probably a how, not a what.  And how about writing what you see, not what you know?  What would that look like, and how would that go?

Seeing Poppies

In 2002 I left my job at the Library of Congress, moved in with Mom and Dad for a few months, and then spent the summer backpacking in Europe.  It was a life-changing trip, though I couldn’t point to anything specific.  It’s more that the impact it made was too strong for me to doubt that it influenced the small and big decisions since.

For a month I was in Italy, hitching a ride on an Evergreen State College study abroad as an alumna.  I lived in an apartment in Florence for three weeks, walked everywhere, saw everything, had an incredible art history teacher/tour guide, filled my journal-sketchbook,  learned enough Italian to shop at the market, order at restaurants and cafes, and ask for directions when I got lost.  I people-watched in piazzas, ate incredible cheese, pastries, and pasta, took twilight strolls with a scoop of gelato, took photos of Italians at their windows, sketched Michelangelo’s Pieta.  Beauty, beauty, beauty.

After Italy, it was Barcelona, the Pyrenees, Chamonix, Freiburg, Paris, and London.  On my weekend in Freiburg, I decided to go to church, and I met a couple who invited me to lunch and then to join them for a swim in the Rhine.  We stopped at their home, and I remarked on the beautiful paintings on their walls.  I learned that my hostess was an artist in her spare time.  She showed me several pieces, and my favorite was a small expressionistic painting of poppies.  I couldn’t describe it now–I don’t remember it well, but I remember the impression it made: I loved it, and it made me love poppies.  Since that painting in the home of generous strangers, poppies have had a special place in my heart.

Once, when I was in the Peace Corps in Kyrgyzstan, I went on an excursion with a group of students that took us through fields of poppies.

The photos don’t do justice to the feeling of dumb luck when standing in a green field flecked with deep-bright red.  Poppies are such a bold red that I’m always surprised by how delicate their petals are, and how modest–poppies aren’t a fancy flower, just a four-petaled, open-hearted, wide-eyed creature.

Across from our apartment building in Arlington is a community garden.  Walking by it the other day, I was arrested by a song-burst of poppies.  I had to take some photos.  And even though in high school we aspiring artists considered it cheating to work from photos instead of from life, I used one of the photos to make a little painting.  One watercolor paper greeting card and a cheap set of water soluble paints–8 circles and 1 brush–yielded much pleasure and brought me back to a time and a painting that taught me to see poppies.

Poppies Small

Never the Whole Story

On Saturday I spent a couple hours with an ice coffee and sketchbook at Java Shack.  After three weeks of nearly incessant rain, sitting outside in a shady spot on a sunny day felt profoundly good.

With a brush tip marker, I drew my view from the wrought iron table for two—a parking lot behind some buildings across the street.

About a year and a half ago, I drew the same view.  It was some time in the fall.  I was frequenting Java Shack on Fridays, when I would write a poem on a postcard and send it off to a friend and fellow writer from graduate school.

IMG_3091 - Copy (2)

Now I rarely go to Java Shack.  I’ve finished graduate school and have a job on the other side of the city.  My writer friend and I have a different project.  A lot has changed for me since my Java Shack days, and I thought the two sketches, a year and a half apart, might depict some significant change too, but I don’t find that they do.  Maybe the “Towing at Owners’ Expense” sign was gone on Saturday.  If it was there, I missed it.  And maybe that’s a new bike rack next to the tree.  But someone still keeps a couple flower pots out in the parking lot.  Nothing’s been painted.  The black awning is still going strong.

So what could I say about these two drawings?  I started writing about them in my journal: The tree gives structure and is the star of the drawings with its gesture, form, aliveness.  But the cars have personality.  Maybe they steal the show.  Both drawings feel crowded, especially the early one, which is toppling in on itself.  In the latest one, I left things out—the telephone poles and wires.  I cared less about the details of the buildings—the pipes along the walls, the corners, angles, precise dimensions and relationships.

It was somewhere in that last sentence that an image flashed into thought: Afsoon’s back yard.  Afsoon was my best friend from about 4th to 9th grade.  She was the only person in her immediate Iranian family who was born in the U.S.  What made me think of her yard?

Maybe it was the tree.  Once we were in her yard—she was sitting on the thick branch of a tree—and her father came out and literally pulled her off the tree.  I don’t remember why.  I just remember feeling uncomfortable, feeling it was wrong for her father to be so rough with her but wanting to trust him because he was the father and grown up.  Maybe it was the tree.

Or maybe it was the fence.  Once Afsoon’s mom took us out the back yard and across the street to the back of a neighbor’s house to pick grape leaves from the bushes along a chain link fence.  She was making dolmas for dinner.  It felt weird to scavenge food on Old Glenview Road with the cars passing.  It felt like stealing and trespassing, poking my hand through someone’s fence.  Maybe it was the fence.

Or maybe it was the cars.  Afsoon’s brother, who always played “Rainy Day Woman” at top volume, who always left the house with a slammed door shutting down a yelling match with his mother, was always working on a car.  Parked in the front yard of their suburban home, a black Trans Am, an orange Corvette looked as out of place as a toothbrush in a candy dish.  Maybe it was the cars.

Or maybe it was the leaving things out and caring less about details—whether the width of the awning was a third or a fourth of the width of the building, how many branches were on the tree and how many windows on the wall.  Maybe it was the acceptance of ambiguity.

One of the hardest things for me when it comes to drawing is not overworking a piece.  Overworking kills the life inherent in gesture.  But I feel a drive to clarify and define that’s hard to resist.  I did a better job resisting on Saturday, leaving out the telephone poles, letting architectural details go unseen behind the tree, putting the fence in the wrong place, which is maybe the right place as far as the drawing is concerned, because in a way what we see is sacred, but in another way it isn’t.  In another way, what we see is never the whole story.

Covering Reading Girl

The hardest part of preparing Reading Girl for publication has been creating the cover.  At first I wanted to use one of Matisse’s images, and it seemed serendipitous that the title’s namesake was a painting made in 1922, putting it in the public domain.  But a little research quickly suggested that public domain wasn’t that simple.  A New York Times article, “Museums Seek to Protect Art Images on Internet,” used Matisse’s work as a case in point: “In the case of 19th-century artists and their predecessors, back to the cave painters, no protection is needed: Their art is already in the public domain. But in the case of someone like the modern master Henri Matisse, things are less clear.”  A couple of calls to the rights & reproduction folks at the Baltimore Museum of Art (which has the biggest Matisse collection in the world) and MoMA made it clear that whether and how I could use Matisse’s Reading Girl was really extremely unclear.  Due diligence seemed to require going through at least two organizations and paying one or more fees to secure reproduction rights and obtain an image up to the standards of the Matisse estate.  Meanwhile Finishing Line Press was moving forward on their end, and before I knew it I needed a cover.  So I dropped the idea of using a Matisse image and set about creating a Matisse-esque image of my own.

Ironically, one of the drawbacks I’d anticipated of using Matisse’s 1922 painting is that it isn’t recognizably Matisse—at least, I assume, for most people.  It had seemed the obvious choice for the book’s cover, but I had questioned whether it was the best choice.  So when I abandoned it and turned to creating an original cover that would somehow say “Matisse,” I decided to emulate his cut-outs.  I’ve never been drawn to Matisse’s cut-outs as much as to his paintings, and only two poems in my book are based on cut-outs.  But I presume that when most people think of this famous French artist, they think of his crisp, colorful, paper compositions—a google search of “iconic Matisse” suggests as much.  So I bought a package of colored paper at Michaels and tried my hand at a cut-out.

Call me a purist or a craft nerd looking for an excuse to by colored paper (guilty), but I thought it was important to emulate Matisse’s method.  I suppose I could have used a drawing app to create the look of a cut-out digitally, saving a lot of time, but I thought it would be more fun to use paper and scissors.  I also thought I’d learn more about Matisse’s work.

Reading Girl Cover Lavender SmallThe first cut-out I created was based on the 1922 Reading Girl.  And this made my cut-out a departure right off the bat, because I don’t believe Matisse’s cut-outs are nearly so literal.  I worked at the scale of the book cover, which meant using tiny sewing scissors.  But in photos of Matisse “painting with scissors,” he’s shown handling a pair of long silver shears.  And while he was able to draw his shapes directly with scissors, I found I had to draw my shapes with a pencil first.  I gained a greater appreciation for how Matisse was able to draw in such an irreversible and blind manner—or perhaps he could see his shapes in a way I could not.  Another departure was in my choice of paper.  Mattise’s assistants colored paper for him using gouache paints, no doubt to get just the colors he wanted.  My palette was pre-set by Michaels.  And while Matisse would sometimes spend months arranging, and rearranging his compositions, I made only a couple of adjustments before I called my cut-out “done.”  After all, I was on deadline.

It took most of the day, but in the end I had what I thought of as a translation, or cover, of Matisse’s 1922 painting.  What was interesting to me was that I’d tried to translate Matisse’s image using his own language, not mine—the translator’s.  Yet, the interpretation of the image was my own, and the process of listening to the original and transcribing what I heard was intuitive and fun in a way that only visual art is for me.

Paul_Elizabeth_COV2 (2)I am always telling students to keep writing when they think they’re done with something because you never know what else you might have to say until you say it.  Perhaps that’s why I couldn’t stop with one cut-out.  Plus I was having fun.  But at the same time, I was tired, especially of manipulating the tiny scissors, so I told myself I wasn’t necessarily making another cover, just a shape.  But one shape led to another, and then suddenly I found I had a second cover indeed—two vegetal silhouettes against a Matisse-blue background.  After all the work I had put into the first cut-out, it was this second, far-simpler one that I chose for the cover.  Vive la process!


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Supporting ELT or ESOL students with Aspergers

The video is designed to show us what it’s like to live with sensory over-sensitivity. Not everyone on the autistic spectrum will experience this to this degree, or even at all, but it does give a sobering insight into the difficulties that some people face.

It is estimated that about 1 in a 100 people are on the autistic spectrum so the chances are very good that some of your students are, whether you, or even they know it or not.  In fact, because it’s a spectrum we are actually ALL on the autistic spectrum, it’s just a question of how pronounced those features are.

If you work with people with more severe forms of autism you probably already know plenty about how to support them , but many, often highly intelligent, people have traits of ASD without ever realising it. What they do realise is that life, and by extension learning in a classroom setting, is just that bit harder for them.

I’m by no means an expert on all of this, but since my son was diagnosed a few years back, my awareness has grown significantly and I realise how under-prepared/informed I think many language teachers are (me included).  Looking back, I can remember quite a few students that I would now recognise as probably having been on the autistic spectrum, and I now know that there are a lot of things I could have handled differently and more successfully.

There are three main areas where people with Aspergers or high functioning autism (not the same thing, technically, but similar) have difficulty :

Social communication

  • Being very literal. They may have difficulty in understanding jokes, metaphor or sarcasm. Generally speaking, these are things that most foreign language learners have problems with in a second language, but if you have Aspergers, you may also feel like that in your first language.
  • It can be hard for them to tell if someone is affectionately teasing, or being nasty, partly because of the being literal, but also because they may find it hard to read facial expressions of tone of voice.
  • Turn-taking and spotting when someone has lost interest can also cause difficulties.

So, if you have a student who easily takes offence or gets upset, for example, it might be worth considering whether what was said might have been mis-interpreted in this way. You could also try being more careful in your use of metaphor etc.

Turn-taking skills can be taught and practised- and most students can benefit from this, so no need to single anyone out. You could try some of the ideas in Jill Hadfield’s excellent book, Classroom Dynamics, such as passing round a ball of wool so that you can see the pattern of interaction in wool at the end of a conversation, or allowing the person to simply listen and take notes before feedback to the whole class at the end.

Social interaction

  • Many people with Aspergers have difficulty in starting conversations or interactions with others, or in sustaining them by asking questions.
  • They may find others unpredictable and confusing, leading to withdrawing and preferring to work alone.

I think as a language teacher, we need to respect that some students, whether with ASD or not, may sometimes prefer to work alone.  People on the spectrum can often be very sensitive to noise as well, and this combined with the unpredictability of others’ behaviour can be absolutely exhausting. So, despite what you may have learned on your CELTA course 😉 , don’t force people to work with others.

When you do ask them to work in pairs or groups, think about how you can structure the task to make it more predictable and less overwhelming. For example, getting the group to make a list of five points, or ranking things in order of preference etc makes the task more concrete and manageable. It’s also good for everyone else, and having a clear outcome tends to produce a better quality of interaction.

Make sure that your instructions are absolutely crystal clear, and only give one instruction at a time. Again, this is useful for everyone, but people with ASD can find it particularly difficult to hold more than one instruction in their head at a time.

Because the world can be confusing and overwhelming, people with ASD often like to stick to routines. Again, this is generally good practice with all classes, especially young learners, but you might like to remember that changing the routine radically might have a negative impact on someone on the spectrum.

Social imagination

  • This is sometimes characterised as lack of empathy, but I think that’s not a very useful way of putting it as, in my limited experience, people with Aspergers definitely do feel for others, they’re just not always very good at imagining how others might feel.

So role-play type activities might cause problems for some students, as this involves imagining yourself in another person’s position. This certainly isn’t true of everyone with Asperger’s, but it’s worth keeping an eye out for such difficulties, and having an alternative up your sleeve.

A couple of other points

People with Aspergers often have what are known as special interests- subjects they are fascinated by and love to talk about. While you need to set up a clear structure- as otherwise they may find it hard to judge when they have lost their classmate’s interest- allowing a bit of space for the to talk about these subjects can also be rewarding, and gives these students a chance to show off their knowledge on the area.

As mentioned before, people with Aspergers may find noise difficult, so a calm atmosphere really helps.  They may also have other sensory difficulties with things such as bright lights. Obviously you don’t want to make the whole class work in silence, but it’s worth being aware that a student might be finding the atmosphere stressful so that you can change it or give them options.

Obviously if any of this is ringing bells with you in regard to a particular student I am NOT suggesting that you should be rushing in to offer a diagnosis! But you could try some of the tips and see if they have a positive effect. If nothing else, it might help you to empathise more with the student.

As I said at the beginning, I am certainly not an expert, so if anyone would like to offer any further ideas or corrections in the comments, that would be very welcome.

Filed under Differentiation, Teaching methodology, Working with groups

10 Responses to Supporting ELT or ESOL students with Aspergers

  1. Very interesting and thought provoking. I can understand now…. thank you!

  2. Gaby

    My 4 year old son has extremely high functioning autism as well, and I think it’s great to raise awareness about it because it’s certainly not covered in any teacher training courses that I’m aware of, certainly not in the CELTA.

  3. Pingback: Supporting ELT or ESOL students with Aspergers ...

  4. Reblogged this on English with Kirsty and commented:
    An interesting article with tips on how to create a more inclusive and positive learning environment for students on the autistic spectrum.

  5. Kate Pickering

    Very interesting Rachael – thanks for this. Here at IH Madrid we’re looking at how best to support the increasing challenges our teachers face in managing and integrating children with different needs so this article is very welcome. If anyone out there has any sources/ideas for children with ADHD and or dyslexia that would also be very useful.

  6. Hi Rachael,

    I’ve only just discovered this post, but I’m so glad I did!

    In the past, I’ve worked with learners who share some of the characteristics you describe above – I think the point you make about not forcing people to work with others is a really important one. A couple of years back I had a learner (who I strongly suspect was on the spectrum). He loved creative writing activities, but didn’t ever want to work with a partner or a group. Luckily, the rest of the class respected his decision and so it wasn’t ever an issue.

    Thanks for raising awareness of this very important issue. I will definitely be sharing this post with my colleagues!

Leave a Reply


text:
On the Usean continent, tensions continued to rise between the Kingdom of Erusea and the Osean Federation.

In 2019, frustrated by Osea’s interference and iron rule, Erusea declared war and struck first.
They used countless drones to counter Osea’s military might, pushing the Osean forces to the eastern coast of Usea in no time at all.
Osea’s repeated attacks on the wrong target placed public opinion on the side of Erusea, whose military strategy left civilians unaffected.

The protagonist: a pilot in the International Union Peacekeeping Force (Osean Air Defense Force), who joined the mission to rescue for President Harling, former leader of Osea.
However, just when everything seemed to be going according to plan…

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