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global_05_local_5_shard_00000035_processed.jsonl/17488
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Religion & Ethics: Content from Across the ABC
Date/Time 03 Jun 2015 11:03:43am
What exactly is this meaning and purpose in life? This secret that only christians can obtain?
Meaning: from what I can gather, the meaning comes from the idea that you were created by a loving God (who really isn't very loving at all). So that's the meaning.
Purpose: from what I can gather, the purpose is to love your god and carry out his will.
So what christians apparently have, which is beyond everyone else's grasp, is an idea (or, as a christian would say, 'knowledge') that you were created and that your purpose is to serve god's will.
So what difference does that make? How does it better you? How are you a more effective person as a result?
As far as I'm concerned, purpose is something all individuals obtain as they proceed through life, and meaning is derived from that. That goes for you, too, christians.
Aside from that, this falls into the catch-all category of argument: i hope this is true, therefore it is.
Atheism: based on the understanding that we currently don't know where we came from, where we're going, and that nothing at all points to what christianity claims. Nothing more, nothing less. Prove god or keep it to yourself.
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global_05_local_5_shard_00000035_processed.jsonl/17489
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Religion & Ethics: Content from Across the ABC
Date/Time 03 Jun 2015 10:14:45am
Once again the authors, if I understand them correctly, appear to be doing their best to invoke the notion that Islam stands in a special position in relation to terrorism in the world and that the answer lies in being ever more concerted efforts in suppressing it. Whatever their actual motives the assertion seems prejudiced with a propaganda view in mind. I am the last person to promote the virtues of any Abrahamic ideology over any other, but to promote Islam as a special evil is to put the cart before the horse.
The mantel of righteousness supplied by Abrahamic ideologies like Josephs coat it has many narrative hues but it always serves the same purpose to serve as a balm for the distressed. Wearing it sets you above the your neighbors, it warms you when the world seems cold.
If you’re an isolated alienated Frenchman the green islamic color might make sense for you and off you go. It might lead to violence but contrary to what the article seems to be asserting no particular hue is more or less likely to make you turn to violence to express your frustrations.
If your George Bush and you want to establish a spring board for colonial dominance you might invoke the idea of a crusade for righteousness.
If you’re a leader of the major political party Shas you might point out that criticism is irrelevant because non-Jews only exist to be servants of Jews. Like donkeys*
The point is that it’s the coat itself not the colour that promotes the problem. The article appears to be attempting to simply promote a favourite colour interest in the internecine cultural wars of Abrahamic devotees.
That’s not the way it is, if it were every wearer would be a terrorist. That only seems to happen when other perceived injustices make people feel alienated. Despite the articles innuendo being a terrorist is not a religious requirement for a Muslim than for anyone else
The IRA, Irgun, Lehi, KKK, Al Qaeda, Hamas, Hezbollah they all use the same tactics all wear the same coat. The evil lies in the nature of the way the coat makes you respond to difficulties no matter who you are. The answer to the problem is to take the coat off and deal with your neighbours as real people not donkeys.
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global_05_local_5_shard_00000035_processed.jsonl/17507
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sphinx / doc / intro.rst
Full commit
The focus is on hand-written documentation, rather than auto-generated API docs. Though there is limited support for that kind of docs as well (which is intended to be freely mixed with hand-written content), if you need pure API docs have a look at Epydoc, which also understands reST.
Conversion from other systems
• Gerard Flanagan has written a script to convert pure HTML to reST; it can be found at Launchpad.
Sphinx needs at least Python 2.4 to run. If you like to have source code highlighting support, you must also install the Pygments library, which you can do via setuptools' easy_install. Sphinx should work with docutils version 0.4 or some (not broken) SVN trunk snapshot.
Setting up the documentation sources
The root directory of a documentation collection is called the :dfn:`source directory`. Normally, this directory also contains the Sphinx configuration file :file:``, but that file can also live in another directory, the :dfn:`configuration directory`.
Sphinx comes with a script called :program:`sphinx-quickstart` that sets up a source directory and creates a default :file:`` from a few questions it asks you. Just run
$ sphinx-quickstart
and answer the questions.
Running a build
A build is started with the :program:`sphinx-build` script. It is called like this:
$ sphinx-build -b latex sourcedir builddir
where sourcedir is the :term:`source directory`, and builddir is the directory in which you want to place the built documentation (it must be an existing directory). The :option:`-b` option selects a builder; in this example Sphinx will build LaTeX files.
The :program:`sphinx-build` script has several more options:
If given, always write all output files. The default is to only write output files for new and changed source files. (This may not apply to all builders.)
Don't use a saved :term:`environment` (the structure caching all cross-references), but rebuild it completely. The default is to only read and parse source files that are new or have changed since the last run.
-t tag
Define the tag tag. This is relevant for :dir:`only` directives that only include their content if this tag is set.
-d path
Since Sphinx has to read and parse all source files before it can write an output file, the parsed source files are cached as "doctree pickles". Normally, these files are put in a directory called :file:`.doctrees` under the build directory; with this option you can select a different cache directory (the doctrees can be shared between all builders).
-c path
Don't look for the :file:`` in the source directory, but use the given configuration directory instead. Note that various other files and paths given by configuration values are expected to be relative to the configuration directory, so they will have to be present at this location too.
Don't look for a configuration file; only take options via the -D option.
-D setting=value
Override a configuration value set in the :file:`` file. The value must be a string or dictionary value. For the latter, supply the setting name and key like this: -D latex_elements.docclass=scrartcl.
-A name=value
Make the name assigned to value in the HTML templates.
Do not do colored output. (On Windows, colored output is disabled in any case.)
Do not output anything on standard output, only write warnings and errors to standard error.
Do not output anything on standard output, also suppress warnings. Only errors are written to standard error.
-w file
Write warnings (and errors) to the given file, in addition to standard error.
Turn warnings into errors. This means that the build stops at the first warning and sphinx-build exits with exit status 1.
(Useful for debugging only.) Run the Python debugger, :mod:`pdb`, if an unhandled exception occurs while building.
You can also give one or more filenames on the command line after the source and build directories. Sphinx will then try to build only these output files (and their dependencies).
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global_05_local_5_shard_00000035_processed.jsonl/17519
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SMO Index.EnumFragmentation method analyzes entire database, not just the individual index - by Kyle Neier
Status :
Sign in
to vote
ID 713488 Comments
Status Closed Workarounds
Type Bug Repros 4
Opened 12/12/2011 10:28:33 AM
Access Restriction Public
When attempting to gather index fragmentation statistics from SQL Server using the SMO method "EnumFragmentation" on an index, the command that is issued to SQL 2005, 2008, and 2008R2 scans every index in the database - creating unnecessary IO and blocking when using this method on larger databases. The information returned is indeed only relative to the index in question, but on larger databases, obtaining this information can create unavailability and take significantly longer than it should.
It seems the problem is that the command sent to SQL Server limits the results sent to the client in the where clause of the query instead of populating as parameters of the dm_db_index_physical_stats function. The only parameters populated to the function are the database_id and mode ('LIMITED'). All other parameters are NULL. This forces the function to analyze all of the indexes in the database first then limit to only the one that was requested by SMO.
Using this same method on SQL 2000 behaves as expected, limiting the results in the DBCC SHOWCONTIG statement, not in the query that is run after the temp table has been populated.
Sign in to post a comment.
Posted by jyao on 11/30/2014 at 5:05 PM
I would request MS to reconsider its position to fix this issue instead of simply closing it, as this issue still persists in sql server 2012. It is indeed very bad for big database in performance.
Posted by Microsoft on 6/20/2013 at 12:53 PM
-Walter A Jokiel, Program Manager, SQL Server (
Posted by s_osborne2 on 2/25/2013 at 1:28 AM
Is there any news on this one? I ran into this problem at the end of last week. I really didn't expect the whole database to be scanned on each iteration.
Posted by Microsoft on 3/26/2012 at 6:21 PM
Alex Grach [MSFT]
Posted by Ben Miller - DBAduck on 3/19/2012 at 1:09 PM
This is a bad issue on a database that is 1 TB as in my case. The WHERE clause is executed after the DMF is executed in entirety. This should be fixed because when you use SSMS and click on the Fragmentation option you get a very specific query "from sys.dm_db_index_physical_stats(6, 797961919, 15, NULL, 'SAMPLED')" which is very focused on that index in that database on that table. It also uses SAMPLED as the default where SMO uses LIMITED.
The workaround is TSQL and that is OK, but users should not have to rely on that, there should be some consistency between the tools and SMO.
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global_05_local_5_shard_00000035_processed.jsonl/17528
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From Joomla! Documentation
Replacement filing cabinet.png
[Edit Descripton] Description:JUserHelper
Defined in
Method name Description
activateUser Method to activate a user
getUserId Returns userid if a user exists
getCryptedPassword Formats a password using the current encryption.
getSalt Returns a salt for the appropriate kind of password encryption. Optionally takes a seed and a plaintext password, to extract the seed of an existing password, or for encryption types that use the plaintext in the generation of the salt.
genRandomPassword Generate a random password
jimport( 'joomla.user.helper' );
[Edit See Also] SeeAlso:JUserHelper
<CodeExamplesForm />
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global_05_local_5_shard_00000035_processed.jsonl/17530
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Information for "JForm::bindLevel"
Basic information
Display titleAPI17:JForm::bindLevel
Default sort keyJForm::bindLevel
Page length (in bytes)1,463
Page ID19923
Page content languageEnglish (en)
Page content modelwikitext
Indexing by robotsAllowed
Number of redirects to this page0
Counted as a content pageYes
Page protection
EditAllow all users
MoveAllow all users
Edit history
Page creatorDoxiki2 (Talk | contribs)
Date of page creation18:33, 20 April 2011
Latest editorJoomlaWikiBot (Talk | contribs)
Date of latest edit20:42, 11 May 2013
Total number of edits6
Total number of distinct authors2
Recent number of edits (within past 30 days)0
Recent number of distinct authors0
Page properties
Magic word (1)
• __NOTOC__
Transcluded templates (3)
Templates used on this page:
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global_05_local_5_shard_00000035_processed.jsonl/17537
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Cookbook:Egg Slicer
From Wikibooks, open books for an open world
Jump to: navigation, search
Cookbook | Recipes | Ingredients | Equipment | Kitchen tools
An egg slicer
An egg slicer is a food preparation utensil used to slice peeled, hard-boiled eggs quickly and evenly. It consists of a slotted dish for holding the egg and a hinged plate of wires or blades that can be closed to slice.
Though primarily used for eggs, an egg slicer can also be used to uniformly slice soft fruits and vegetables like mushrooms or strawberries.
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global_05_local_5_shard_00000035_processed.jsonl/17538
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George Dealey
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Jump to: navigation, search
George Dealey at West End Historic District
George Bannerman Dealey (September 18, 1859 – February 26, 1946) was a Dallas, Texas, businessman. Dealey was the long-time publisher of The Dallas Morning News and owner of the A. H. Belo Corporation. Dealey Plaza in Dallas is named in his honor.
George Dealey's press pass for the Texas Centennial Exposition in 1936
Newspaper career[edit]
On October 12, 1874 he assumed an older brother's job as office boy at The Galveston News at $3.00 per week, for the owner, Alfred H. Belo. Dealey took evening classes at the Island City Business College and rose steadily at the News. As traveling correspondent, he sent both news stories and newspaper-business reports back to Galveston.
In 1884, he determined that Dallas would be the best market for a new Belo company newspaper. In 1885, The Dallas Morning News debuted. He became the paper's manager in 1895, a board member in 1902, vice president and general manager of the corporation in 1906, and president in 1919.
Dealey refused advertising that he considered dishonest or immoral, including ads for hard liquor. He refused ads for oilfield ventures, since he could not determine which were sound businesses. The News also opposed the Ku Klux Klan's influence in the 1920s.
Dealey's also owned the G. B. Dealey Land Co. and the West Commerce Realty Co. He founded an early newspaper-owned radio station, WFAA, in 1922.
In 1926, Dealey bought the Dallas Morning News, the Journal (an evening edition), the Semi-Weekly Farm News, and the Texas Almanac from the heirs of A. H. Belo, along with a majority of the company stock.
Civic activities[edit]
Under Dealey, the News was enlisted in the cause of civic planning. A campaign of 1899 led to the foundation of the Cleaner Dallas League, which became the Dallas Civic Improvement League in 1902. He was instrumental in the adoption of the 1910 Kessler Plan to improve Dallas and provide for its growth.
He had honorary rolls at Sigma Delta Chi (1940–41) and Phi Beta Kappa (1943). He received honorary doctoral degrees from Southern Methodist University (1921), Austin College (1924), and the University of Missouri (1925), the last of which invited him to accept a gift to its school of journalism from the British Empire Press Union.[1]
After his death, Dealey Plaza in Downtown Dallas was named for him.
Personal life[edit]
The Dealeys had three daughters and two sons. The sons were Walter Allen Dealey and Edward Musgrove (Ted) Dealey. Ted Dealey, succeeded his father as publisher of the Morning News. A younger brother, James Q. Dealey (1861–1937), was a professor of political science at Brown University and later editor of the Morning News. A nephew, Samuel David Dealey (1906–1944), was a World War II naval submarine officer who received the Medal of Honor[2] and for whom the USS Dealey (DE-1006) was named.[3] James M. Moroney III, the current publisher of the Morning News, is Dealey's great-grandson. Another grandson, Dr. Walter Allen (Al) Dealey, Jr. became a Christian minister and studied under Norman Vincent Peale.
Dealey was a Thirty-third-degree Scottish Rite Mason, Knight Templar, Shriner, and member of the Red Cross of Constantine. He was a Presbyterian and Democrat. The New York Times called him the dean of American publishers. He died at his home in Dallas on February 26, 1946, of a coronary occlusion.
He was still working as a publisher when he died of a massive coronary occlusion at his Dallas home, February 26, 1946, at the age of 86. He was buried in Grove Hill Cemetery in Dallas.
1. ^ Associated Press (18 November 1925). "Missouri State School Obtains Historic Stone: British Journalists Present Gift as Salutation of International Friendship". The Miami News. p. N-19. Retrieved 15 April 2014. The St. Paul's stone was accepted for the university by George Dealey of Dallas, president of the Dallas News, and former vice president of the Associated Press
2. ^ "Samuel David Dealey". Military Times Hall of Valor. Gannett Company. Retrieved 15 April 2014.
3. ^ "Dealey". Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships. U.S. Navy. Retrieved 15 April 2014.
Further Reading[edit]
External links[edit]
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global_05_local_5_shard_00000035_processed.jsonl/17541
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Special Olympics
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Jump to: navigation, search
For global sports competitions organized by Special Olympics, see Special Olympics World Games.
Special Olympics
Special Olympics logo.svg
Founded 1968
Founder Eunice Kennedy Shriver
Origins Camp Shriver
Area served
Key people
Timothy Shriver (Chairman of the Board)
Janet Froetscher (Chief Executive Officer)
Stephen M. Carter (Lead Director & Vice Chair)
Bart Conner (Vice Chair)
Raymond J. Lane (Vice Chair)
Ossie Kilkenny (Treasurer)[1]
Website www.specialolympics.org
These competitions include the Special Olympics World Games, which alternate between summer and winter games. Special Olympics World Games are held every four years. The most recent World Summer Games were the Special Olympics World Summer Games, held in Athens, Greece (The birthplace of the modern Olympic Games), from June 25, 2011 to July 4, 2011.[2]
The most recent Special Olympics World Winter Games were held in Pyeongchang, South Korea from January 29 to February 5, 2013.[3] At the same time, the first Special Olympics Global Development Summit was held on "Ending the Cycle of Poverty and Exclusion for People with Intellectual Disabilities," gathering government officials, activists and business leaders from around the world [4]
The next World Games will be the 2015 Special Olympics World Summer Games in Los Angeles, California from July 25 to August 2, 2015.[5] Graz and Schladming, Austria will host the next Special Olympics World Winter Games from March 14–24, 2017.[6]
In June 1962, Eunice Kennedy Shriver started a day camp for children with intellectual disabilities at her home in Potomac, Maryland.[7] She started this camp because she was concerned about children with intellectual disabilities having nowhere to play. Using Camp Shriver as an example, Shriver, who was head of the Joseph P. Kennedy Jr. Foundation and part of President Kennedy's Panel on Mental Retardation, promoted the concept of involvement in physical activity and competition opportunities for people with intellectual disabilities. Camp Shriver became an annual event, and the Kennedy Foundation (of which Shriver was executive vice president) gave grants to universities, recreation departments and community centers to hold similar camps.
Shriver and Kennedy’s oldest sister, Rosemary Kennedy, underwent a lobotomy. The brain damage inflicted by the operation caused her to be permanently incapacitated.[8] This disability is often credited as Shriver's inspiration to form Special Olympics, but Shriver told The New York Times in 1995 that was not exactly the case. "The games should not focus on one individual, she said." [9]
Dr. Frank Hayden, a Canadian physical education professor from London, Ontario whose research showed that persons with intellectual disabilities can and should participate in physical exercise. Moreover, he believed that the benefits of such activity would be seen in all areas of the athletes’ lives. And so, with the help of a local school that offered space in its gym, the first organised sport program (floor hockey) for intellectually disabled individuals became available in the fall of 1968.[10]
But Dr. Hayden didn’t stop there as he truly believed that all persons with intellectual disabilities had the right to not only community sport programs but also to high quality coaching and advancing levels of competition. With no firm support from the Canadian or Ontario governments, he took his case to Washington, D.C, to the home of Rose Kennedy, who herself had a disabled daughter. It was with her financial assistance and the powerful influence of the Kennedy family, that the first Special Olympics (as the movement came to be called) event, featuring athletes from only Canada and the United States, took place at Soldier’s Field, Chicago, in 1969.
The first International Special Olympics Summer Games were held in 1968 at Soldier Field in Chicago. About 1500 athletes from the U.S. and Canada took part in the one-day event, which was a joint venture by the Kennedy Foundation and the Chicago Park District.[11] Anne McGlone Burke, a physical education teacher with the Chicago Park District and recipient of a Kennedy Foundation grant,[12] began with the idea for a one-time Olympic-style athletic competition for people with special needs. Burke then approached Eunice Kennedy Shriver to fund the event. Shriver encouraged Burke to expand on the idea and the JPK Jr. Foundation provided a grant of $25,000.
The advisory committee to the Chicago Special Olympics included Dr. William Freeberg, Southern Illinois University; Dr. Frank J. Hayden, Joseph P. Kennedy Foundation; Dr. Arthur Peavy; William McFetridge, Anne McGlone Burke and Stephen Kelly of the Chicago Park District; and Olympic decathlon champion Rafer Johnson. Eunice Kennedy Shriver was honorary chairman. At the July 1968 games, Shriver announced the formation of Special Olympics and that more games would be held every two years as a "Biennial International Special Olympics.".[11]
In 1971, The U.S. Olympic Committee gave the Special Olympics official approval to use the name “Olympics”.[7]
In 1988, the Special Olympics was officially recognized by the International Olympic Committee (IOC).[7]
In 1997, Healthy Athletes became an official Special Olympics initiative, offering health information and screenings to Special Olympics athletes worldwide.[7][13] By 2010, the Healthy Athletes program had given free health screenings and treatment to more than 1 million people with intellectual disabilities.
In 2003 the first Special Olympics World Summer Games to be held outside of the United States took place in Dublin, Ireland. Approximately 7,000 athletes from 150 countries competed over 18 disciplines. The Dublin games were also the first to have their own opening and closing ceremonies broadcast live, performed by the President of Ireland, Mary McAleese. Most significantly the 2003 games dramatically changed the perceptions and attitudes of society regarding the abilities and limitations of people with intellectual disabilities. The opening ceremony of the 2003 Games has been described by President McAleese as "a time when Ireland was at its superb best".[14]
In 2008, Special Olympics and Best Buddies International launched the Spread the Word to End the Word campaign to encourage individuals to stop using the word "retard" in everyday speech.
In 2011, Senators Tom Harkin and Roy Blunt and Representatives Steny Hoyer and Peter King introduced the Eunice Kennedy Shriver Act to authorize federal funding for Special Olympics Programs and Best Buddies Programs.
The Special Olympics logo has gone through several changes in its lifetime. The "stick figure" is an abstract but humanistic form designed to convey the impression of movement and activity. The logo is a symbol of growth, confidence and joy among children and adults with disabilities who are learning coordination, mastering skills, participating in competitions and preparing themselves for richer, more productive lives. The spherical appearance of the logo is a representation of Special Olympics' global outreach.
Special Olympics programs are available for athletes free of charge. More than 4 million athletes are involved in Special Olympics sports training and competition in 180 countries.[17] The organization offers year-round training and competition in 32 Olympic-style summer and winter sports.[2]
People with intellectual disabilities are encouraged to join Special Olympics for the physical activity, which helps lower the rate of cardiovascular disease and obesity, among other health benefits. Also, they gain many emotional and psychological benefits, including self-confidence, social competence, building greater athletic skills and higher self-esteem.[18] The motivations for joining the Special Olympics vary from one individual to the next; yet, there are common themes among individuals and their families that encourage them to either participate or abstain from the Special Olympics.
Special Olympics competitions are open to athletes ages 8 and up. For young people with intellectual disabilities ages 2–7, Special Olympics has a Young Athletes program—a sport and play program with a focus on fun activities that are important to mental and physical growth.[19] Children engage in games and activities that develop motor skills and hand-eye coordination. Parents say their children in Young Athletes also develop better social skills. The confidence boost makes it easier for them to play and talk with other children on the playground and elsewhere .[19] A study by the Center for Social Development and Education (University of Massachusetts, Boston) found that the activities also had the effect of helping children with intellectual disabilities learn routines and approaches to learning, along with how to follow rules and directions.[20]
There are many events that families and volunteers can get involved with, but the biggest event is the Law Enforcement Torch Run. The Torch Run involves police chiefs, police officers, secret service, FBI agents, military police, sheriffs, state troopers, prison guards, and other law enforcement personnel. They all get together to raise awareness and funds for Special Olympics. Ahead of a Special Olympics competition, law enforcement officers carry the torch in intervals along a planned route covering most of the state or country to the site of the opening ceremonies of the chapter or Special Olympics World Summer or Winter Games. Then they pass the torch to a Special Olympics athlete and together they run up to the cauldron and light it, signifying the beginning of the games.
Sports offered[edit]
Special Olympics has more than 32 Olympic-type individual and team sports that provide meaningful training and competition opportunities for people with intellectual disabilities. A few are listed below:
The above list shows a few of the 32 sports that Special Olympics offers; there are several more recognized and demonstration sports, including Open Water Swimming, Kayaking, Floorball, Cricket, Netball and Beach Volleyball. Availability of sports can depend on location and season.
At competitions, medals are awarded to the first, second and third-place winners in each event and ribbons are awarded to athletes who finish in fourth through eighth place.[25]
In the Young Athletes program, children ages 2–7 play simple sports and games. The focus is on fun activities that are important to mental and physical growth.
In 1968, track and field and swimming were the first two official sports offered by Special Olympics. As in the Olympics, events are introduced in training and then added to the competitive schedule, and from there the list of sports and events continued to grow.
Famous supporters[edit]
The Special Olympics movement has attracted the support of a number of international sportsmen and other celebrities, including Rafer Johnson, Avril Lavigne, Bono, Joe Jonas, Dikembe Mutombo, Derek Poundstone, Pádraig Harrington, Jackie Chan, Zhang Ziyi, Yao Ming, Nadia Comaneci, Bart Conner, Vanessa Williams, Mary Alice Pearce DeVane, Colin Farrell[26] and Arnold Schwarzenegger.[27]
Nelson Mandela, Muhammad Ali and Quincy Jones took part in a 2003 Global Youth Summit at the Special Olympics World Summer Games in Dublin, Ireland. U.S. President Bill Clinton took part in a Global Youth Summit during the 2005 Special Olympics World Winter Games in Nagano, Japan.
In 2011, Princess Charlene of Monaco, herself a former Olympian, was named as a Global Ambassador for Special Olympics. Olympic swimming legend Michael Phelps was also named a Global Ambassador and has taken part in aquatics clinics for Special Olympics swimmers in Shanghai, China and elsewhere. Other celebrity supporters include Olympic stars Michelle Kwan, Apolo Ohno, Kim Yuna, Yang Yang (A), and Scott Hamilton, and other sport greats Dikembe Mutombo, Pádraig Harrington, IK Kim, Dani Alves and Kaká, along with celebrities including Zhang Ziyi, Yang Lan, Brooklyn Decker, Lauren Alaina, Nicole Sherzinger, and the Wonder Girls.[27] More recently, Olympic snowboarder Hannah Teter, Japanese football legend Hidetoshi Nakata, and WNBA player Elena Delle Donne, whose older sister Lizzie has multiple disabilities,[28] were named Global Ambassadors in 2014.[29]
Unified Sports[edit]
In recent years, Special Olympics has pioneered the concept of Unified Sports, bringing together athletes with and without intellectual disabilities as teammates.[30] The basic concept is that training together and playing together can create a path to friendship and understanding. The program has expanded beyond the U.S. and North America: a half-million people worldwide now take part in Special Olympics Unified Sports, breaking down stereotypes about people with intellectual disabilities.[30]
Healthy Athletes[edit]
Healthy Athletes currently offers health screenings in seven areas: Fit Feet (podiatry), FUNfitness (physical therapy), Health Promotion (better health and well-being), Healthy Hearing (audiology), MedFest (sports physical exam), Opening Eyes (vision) and Special Smiles (dentistry). Screenings educate athletes on healthy and healthy choices and also identify problems that may need additional follow-up.
Since the Healthy Athletes program began, Special Olympics has become the largest global public health organization dedicated to serving people with intellectual disabilities. So far, more than 1.4 million Healthy Athletes screenings have been conducted for people with intellectual disabilities all around the world.[32]
The Special Olympics program has occasionally been the subject of criticism. Scholar Keith Storey[35] summarized many such objections in a 2004 article.
In previous years, some have felt that the Special Olympics in itself are a form of segregation. This is because of the necessity to have a disability to participate. Storey argues that since some studies have shown that Special Olympic events do not lead to the reduction of prejudice and also reinforces negative stereotypes of people with intellectual disabilities.[35] One of the main arguments against the Special Olympics organization, according to Storey, is that there is a lack of normalization and promotion of negative images.[35] The lack of normalization comes from the differences in reaction to events. For example in previous years the Special Olympics would find people to stand at the finish line to hug the athletes once they've completed a race. Also, the Special Olympics do not announce anyone who's lost a race.[35]
There are many other reasons that people object to Special Olympics, such as perceived promotion of Handicapism, the alleged promotion of corporations, and degrading paternalism, athletic ability.[35] The promotion of Handicappism is a theory that when a set of practice is put in place to promote unequal treatment of people because of assumed intellectual disability it creates two classes of people, "normal" and "disabled".[35] The integration of Corporations within the Special Olympics does help with fundraising and creates a large sum of donations to make these games possible. Yet, critics argue, such corporate involvement in Special Olympics is shallow public relations strategy that does little or nothing to integrate those with intellectual disabilities into the workforce at companies that sponsor Special Olympics. The term Paternalism, in this context, is used to describe posited problems with how the Special Olympics Organization is run. The board of directors have recognized only two of their board to have developmental disabilities. Therefore, the people doing the decision making and have the power of running this program are the people without disabilities. This double-standard, it is argued, reflects poorly on on the Disability rights movement where people with disabilities control the service delivery system rather than relying on people without disabilities.[35]
See also[edit]
1. ^ "Special Olympics Board of Directors". specialolympics.org. Retrieved February 4, 2013.
2. ^ a b c "2011 Special Olympics Summer Games". The Atlantic Photo. July 12, 2011.
3. ^ "Main page". 2013sopoc.org. Retrieved February 4, 2013.
5. ^ "Main page". la2015.org. Retrieved February 4, 2013.
6. ^ "World Winter Games return to Austria". specialolympics.org. October 12, 2012. Retrieved 4 February 2013.
8. ^ Kessler, p. 246
10. ^ http://ottawa.specialolympicsontario.ca/about-us
12. ^ "Feature Article". Lib.niu.edu. 1968-07-20. Retrieved 2014-07-12.
13. ^ Mary Davis,[1], “How Health Checks on our Special Athletes are saving lives”, Evening Herald, Thursday, April 7th 2011
14. ^ Fiona Brady, Taskforce ON citizenship, “Her bridges built, McAleese reflects on a decade in office”, Irish Independent, Saturday, November 3rd 2007
16. ^ "USA National Games". [dead link]
17. ^ Cooper, Chet. "Timothy Shriver — Special Olympics". ABILITY Magazine. Retrieved 18 February 2014.
19. ^ a b "Young Athletes". Special Olympics. 2014-05-06. Retrieved 2014-07-12.
20. ^ "Google Drive Viewer" (PDF). Docs.google.com. Retrieved 2014-07-12.
21. ^ "Our Families". specialolympics.org. Retrieved February 4, 2013.
22. ^ a b "Volunteer for Special Olympics". specialolympics.org. Retrieved February 4, 2013.
23. ^ "Eunice Kennedy Shriver, 1921-2009: She Changed the World for People with Mental Disabilities". Learningenglish.voanews.com. 2011-08-19. Retrieved 2014-07-12.
24. ^ "Special Olympics: Divisioning". Resources.specialolympics.org. 2014-05-06. Retrieved 2014-07-12.
25. ^ "Special Olympics: Sports and Games". Sports.specialolympics.org. 2014-05-06. Retrieved 2014-07-12.
26. ^ "Famous Supporters". specialolympics.org. Retrieved February 4, 2013.
27. ^ a b "Special Olympics - Annual Report 2012". Special Olympics. 2012.
28. ^ Hays, Graham. "Finding Her Way Back Home". Outside the Lines. espnW. Retrieved February 9, 2014. Elizabeth Delle Donne, or more often "Lizzie" to her sister, has autism and cerebral palsy. She has been blind and deaf since birth and has endured more than 30 surgeries related to her conditions.
29. ^ "Elena Delle Donne Named Special Olympics Global Ambassador" (Press release). Special Olympics. February 7, 2014. Retrieved February 9, 2014.
31. ^ a b "‘Unified Gives Us a Chance’" (PDF). science.ulster.ac.uk.
35. ^ a b c d e f g Storey, Keith (2004). "The Case Against the Special Olympics" (PDF). Journal of Disability Policy Studies 15 (1): 35–42. doi:10.1177/10442073040150010601. Retrieved 9 November 2011.
Further reading[edit]
External links[edit]
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global_05_local_5_shard_00000035_processed.jsonl/17554
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Google Groups
Could not find an inode for extended directory ...
Carlo Wood Mar 16, 2008 12:40 PM
Posted in group: ext3grep
Undeleting with ext3grep relies entirely on finding block pointers
in old copies of inodes in the journal. If those don't exist anymore,
than it will fail. That is no reason to give up, but new code
will have to be written and new research will have to done; I'm
afraid that unless someone pays me, it's not going to happen that
I code/add that.
Therefore, lets assume that the needed old inode copies exist.
Also, as has been said several times before, ext3grep is currently
not taking into account file system corruptions of certain types.
Also that would have to be added.
Therefore, lets assume the files were deleted with rm -rf or
something like that and the file system is intact.
There are furthermore a few things that I know don't work:
- ext3grep currently only supports undeleting regular files
and symbolic links. Special files will simply be skipped.
- In the special case that a journal transaction wraps
around (at the end of the journal) and it's commit block
appears as first block; it's disregarded.
[ In fact -- this is exactly what happened on my firewall
machine when I had a power outage (while I was writing
ext3grep to recover my home directory!) and resulted
in e2fsck to NOT being able to recover(!). In fact,
I blame e2fsck that I lost the entire /etc directory and
could not boot my firewall anymore (and thus had no
internet!). I took the harddisk out of the firewall and
put it in another machine that supported parallel IDE,
copied the partition to my work horse (which uses SATA)
and used ext3grep to manually figure out why /etc was gone,
recovered (manually, using dd in the end) it's directory
inode and dir entry blocks and was then able to run
e2fsck to make everything consistent again. I then dd-ed
the repaired partition back to the harddisk, moved the
harddisk back into the firewall, and everything worked
again. Recovery that way took me (only) 12 hours. ]
- As pointed out in the HOWTO, (old) directory blocks
that have inodes in their dir entries that were reused
again are plenty. Those reused inode have an unrelated
delete time that easily can fall into the time window
that you are undeleting. As a result, those ancient
dir entries are "hard linked" to another file: they
use the same inode. I did not add any (heuristic) code
to try and determine if that is a mistake or not, if
at all possible; and the result is a lot of wrong
However, the reason for this post, what I will attempt
to fix is what I think is MOST broken:
ext3grep start with finding all directory blocks and
then tries to reassemble the whole tree. It does this
without using the journal (which, I think, is a good
thing). It seems to do a good job for directory blocks
that contain a dir entry with the name ".", because
that dir entry has the inode number of directory (path)
that this block belongs to, and it will also contain
a dir entry for ".." with the inode of the parent
directory, as such allowing us to build a directory
But extended directory blocks (if a directory is so large
that there are more dir entries than fit in one block, more
blocks are used; those extra blocks then do not contain
the dir entries for "." and ".." of course) have no inode
of themselves to tell ext3grep what they belong to.
I solved that as follows: if extended directory block
contains one or more dir entries for directories, I find
the directory block for that inode and then use the inode
of ".." in that block as the inode of the extended
directory block.
Um, graphical example:
Suppose we have this tree:
Suppose that the directory root/photos contains
so many dir entries that it doesn't fit in one
block, but uses two blocks:
123 .
2 ..
501 file1
502 file2
600 fileN
444 subdir
Then, finding block 1, we know that it's a directory
of inode '2' and it's own inode is 123.
Finding block 2 we know nothing.
However, somewhere else we find a directory block
with this content:
444 .
123 ..
Since Block2 tells us it contains a directory with
inode 444, we now know that Block2 belongs to the
directory with inode 123.
The REAL problem exist when we find extended directory
blocks that do not contain any subdirectory themselves.
ext3grep solves that currently by using an (old) locate
dump. Suppose we find an extended directory with
the following content:
1000 xyz4925
1001 xyz4926
1002 xyz4927
it then looks in the locate dump for paths with those
filenames, finding, for example:
it then guesses that Block4 belongs to the directory
"photos" because it contains "photos/xyz4927".
If also that fails because they are not in the locate
database, it matches all files in the extended directory
block against a table with regular expressions. When
either 10% or 70% (depends on whether or not...) of the
all files match a given regular expression, the
corresponding parent directory is returned. You need
to edit and add those regular expressions
Until you provided a recent locate database dump and
created a correct table with regular expressions
you will run into a (long?) list of the following messages:
Could not find an inode for extended directory at BLOCKNR, disregarding it's contents.
This is BAD. You don't want to see those messages.
Currently, what you want to do is edit and
set the variable test_blocknr to that number. Change all
#if 0 into #if 1. Recompile ext3grep and run the command again.
Interpret the extra output and fix/add a regular expression,
if possible. If that is not possible, you can also just
add the block number in the if() statement at the beginning
of parent_directory() in and return some non-empty
directory there.
Carlo Wood <>
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global_05_local_5_shard_00000035_processed.jsonl/17592
|
Re: Bug#51883: replies to encrypted messages are not encrypted by default
> Hi folks,
> I'm trying to reach a consensus on whether or not mutt should encrypt a
> reply by default if it contains quotes from an encrypted message. Mutt has
> an option called pgp_replyencrypt which causes all replies to encrypted
> messages to be encrypted by default, but this option is not enabled by
> default.
> I think it's a bug that pgp_replyencrypt option is not enabled by default
> because it is very easy for a user to inadvertantly reveal the contents of
> an encrypted message in a plaintext reply without this option enabled. Marco
> claims it's a matter of user preference and that I should start a thread on
> debian-devel if I feel otherwise.
I would go for maximum paranoia, set it so that by default the user is asked
if the mail should be encrypted on reply, with the default set to yes. I mean,
there must have been a good reason for sending it encrypted in the first place.
It annoys me when I e-mail people encrypted, and they reply unencrypted.
However, I do not consider this a grave bug in mutt.
while :;do read x;echo \?;done
Reply to:
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global_05_local_5_shard_00000035_processed.jsonl/17594
|
Re: Proposal: switch init system to systemd or upstart
On Fri, October 25, 2013 15:09, Neil Williams wrote:
> I disagree that this is achievable as a single switch. Backports spring
> to mind, security updates too will have to retain support for the init
> system in use in stable currently where that support existed in the
> package being backported at the version already in stable.
There is no such requirement as security updates to stable are done by
backporting only the relevant patches for the security issues at hand.
Only in exceptional cases the packaging from testing will be used as a
basis for a security update to stable.
Reply to:
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global_05_local_5_shard_00000035_processed.jsonl/17595
|
Re: apt 0.7.14: Please update the PO translation for the package apt
2008/5/4 Christian Perrier <[email protected]>:
> Hi,
> You are noted as the last translator of the translation for
> apt in Debian.
> The package's strings are now frozen and this is a perfect moment to update
> your translation and get a completely translated APT for your language in
> Debian lenny.
6-го вечером уйдёт.
Yuri Kozlov
Attachment: ru.po.gz
Description: GNU Zip compressed data
Reply to:
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global_05_local_5_shard_00000035_processed.jsonl/17600
|
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Interfaces (C# Programming Guide)
Interfaces are defined using the interface keyword. For example:
interface IComparable
int CompareTo(object obj);
Interfaces describe a group of related behaviors that can belong to any class or struct. Interfaces can be made up of methods, properties, events, indexers, or any combination of those four member types. An interface can not contain fields. Interfaces members are automatically public.
Classes and structs can inherit from interfaces in a manner similar to how classes can inherit a base class or struct, with two exceptions:
• A class or struct can inherit more than one interface.
• When a class or struct inherits an interface, it inherits only the method names and signatures, because the interface itself contains no implementations. For example:
public class Minivan : Car, IComparable
public int CompareTo(object obj)
//implementation of CompareTo
return 0; //if the Minivans are equal
To implement an interface member, the corresponding member on the class must be public, non-static, and have the same name and signature as the interface member. Properties and indexers on a class can define extra accessors for a property or indexer defined on an interface. For example, an interface may declare a property with a get accessor, but the class implementing the interface can declare the same property with both a get and set accessor. However, if the property or indexer uses explicit implementation, the accessors must match.
Interfaces and interface members are abstract; interfaces do not provide a default implementation. For more information, see Abstract and Sealed Classes and Class Members.
The IComparable interface announces to the user of the object that the object can compare itself to other objects of the same type, and the user of the interface does not need to know how this is implemented.
Interfaces can inherit other interfaces. It is possible for a class to inherit an interface multiple times, through base classes or interfaces it inherits. In this case, the class can only implement the interface once, if it is declared as part of the new class. If the inherited interface is not declared as part of the new class, its implementation is provided by the base class that declared it. It is possible for a base class to implement interface members using virtual members; in that case, the class inheriting the interface can change the interface behavior by overriding the virtual members. For more information on virtual members, see Polymorphism.
An interface has the following properties:
• An interface is similar to an abstract base class: any non-abstract type inheriting the interface must implement all its members.
• An interface cannot be instantiated directly.
• Interfaces can contain events, indexers, methods and properties.
• Interfaces contain no implementation of methods.
• Classes and structs can inherit from more than one interface.
• An interface can itself inherit from multiple interfaces.
Community Additions
© 2015 Microsoft
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global_05_local_5_shard_00000035_processed.jsonl/17601
|
Export (0) Print
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DataTable.Merge Method (DataTable, Boolean)
Merge the specified DataTable with the current DataTable, indicating whether to preserve changes in the current DataTable.
Namespace: System.Data
Assembly: System.Data (in System.Data.dll)
public void Merge(
DataTable table,
bool preserveChanges
Type: System.Data.DataTable
The DataTable to be merged with the current DataTable.
Type: System.Boolean
true, to preserve changes in the current DataTable; otherwise false.
The Merge method is used to merge two DataTable objects that have largely similar schemas. A merge is typically used on a client application to incorporate the latest changes from a data source into an existing DataTable. This allows the client application to have a refreshed DataTable with the latest data from the data source.
The merge operation takes into account only the original table, and the table to be merged. Child tables are not affected or included. If a table has one or more child tables, defined as part of a relationship, each child table must be merged individually.
When performing a merge, changes made to the existing data before the merge are preserved during the merge operation unless the developer specifies false for the preserveChanges parameter. If the preserveChanges parameter is set to true, incoming values do not overwrite existing values in the Current row version of the existing row. If the preserveChanges parameter is set to false, incoming values do overwrite the existing values in the Current row version of the existing row. For more information about row versions, see Row States and Row Versions.
In a client application, it is usual to have a single button that the user can click that gathers the changed data and validates it before sending it back to a middle tier component. In this scenario, the GetChanges method is first invoked. That method returns a second DataTable optimized for validating and merging. This second DataTable object contains only the DataTable and DataRow objects that were changed, resulting in a subset of the original DataTable. This subset is generally smaller, and thus this subset is more efficiently passed back to a middle tier component. The middle tier component then updates the original data source with the changes through stored procedures. The middle tier can then send back either a new DataTable that includes original data and the latest data from the data source (by running the original query again), or it can send back the subset with any changes that have been made to it from the data source. (For example, if the data source automatically creates unique primary key values, these values can be propagated back to the client application.) In either case, the returned DataTable can be merged back into the client application's original DataTable with the Merge method.
The following console application creates a DataTable containing rows, modifies some of the data in those rows, and attempts to merge data from a different DataTable. The example demonstrates the different behaviors for the preserveChanges parameter.
private static void DemonstrateMergeTable()
// Demonstrate merging, within and without
// preserving changes.
// In this example, take these actions:
// 1. Create a DataTable (table1) and fill the table with data.
// 2. Create a copy of table1, and modify its data (modifiedTable).
// 3. Modify data in table1.
// 4. Make a copy of table1 (table1Copy).
// 5. Merge the data from modifiedTable into table1 and table1Copy,
// showing the difference between setting the preserveChanges
// parameter to true and false.
// Create a new DataTable.
DataTable table1 = new DataTable("Items");
// Add two columns to the table:
DataColumn column = new DataColumn("id", typeof(System.Int32));
column.AutoIncrement = true;
column = new DataColumn("item", typeof(System.String));
// Set primary key column.
table1.PrimaryKey = new DataColumn[] { table1.Columns[0] };
// Add some rows.
DataRow row;
row = table1.NewRow();
row["item"] = "Item " + i;
// Accept changes.
PrintValues(table1, "Original values");
// Using the same schema as the original table,
// modify the data for later merge.
DataTable modifiedTable = table1.Copy();
foreach (DataRow rowModified in modifiedTable.Rows)
rowModified["item"] = rowModified["item"].ToString()
+ " modified";
// Change row values, and add a new row:
table1.Rows[0]["item"] = "new Item 0";
table1.Rows[1]["item"] = "new Item 1";
row = table1.NewRow();
row["id"] = 4;
row["item"] = "Item 4";
// Get a copy of the modified data:
DataTable table1Copy = table1.Copy();
PrintValues(table1, "Modified and new Values");
PrintValues(modifiedTable, "Data to be merged into table1");
// Merge new data into the modified data.
table1.Merge(modifiedTable, true);
PrintValues(table1, "Merged data (preserve changes)");
table1Copy.Merge(modifiedTable, false);
PrintValues(modifiedTable, "Merged data (don't preserve changes)");
private static void PrintValues(DataTable table, string label)
// Display the values in the supplied DataTable:
foreach (DataRow row in table.Rows)
foreach (DataColumn column in table.Columns)
Console.Write("\t{0}", row[column, DataRowVersion.Current]);
.NET Framework
.NET Framework Client Profile
Supported in: 4, 3.5 SP1
XNA Framework
Supported in: 3.0, 2.0, 1.0
© 2015 Microsoft
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global_05_local_5_shard_00000035_processed.jsonl/17604
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Shared publicly -
Free on Kindle: The Soul Sphere: Book 1 The Shattered Sphere by David Adams
If you're looking for something in the line of traditional epic fantasy this one might be worth a look. It's the first in a series, it has an ancient device, a power hungry wizard and it looks like a party who are the worlds last hope.
Micha Fire's profile photo
the short description reads like a copy from Tolkien's "The Lord of the Rings"......
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global_05_local_5_shard_00000035_processed.jsonl/17637
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global_05_local_5_shard_00000035_processed.jsonl/17655
|
Plugin Directory
Joind.in WordPress Plugin
1. Upload joindin.php to your plugins directory or install using the wizard
2. On your plugins list, you should see it listed as "Joind.in"; activate it. Activation creates a new database table called wp_joindin which is used to cache data (if you use a different table prefix it will pick this up).
3. On the widgets screen you can now drag a joind.in widget onto your sidebar(s) and configure it. It has a title and also the URL of the joind.in site - only change this URL if you want to point to your own or an alternative installation of joind.in (it assumes the API is at /api/). Choose what your plugin should display. Hot events shows the upcoming events shown in the system. Talks for event shows a list of sessions for the event identified by the ID entered in the "event id" field (get this by viewing the event on the main website and taking the number from the URL). Finally you can limit how many records are displayed.
Requires: 2.8 or higher
Compatible up to: 2.9.2
Last Updated: 2010-4-24
Active Installs: Less than 10
0 out of 5 stars
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|
global_05_local_5_shard_00000035_processed.jsonl/17693
|
There is one summary. Bill summaries are authored by CRS.
Shown Here:
Introduced in House (05/11/2005)
Veterans Outreach Act of 2005 - Rescinds a specified Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) memorandum (Status of VHA Enrollment and Associated Issues) from the Deputy Under Secretary for Health for Operations and Management. States that: (1) Veterans Integrated Service Networks' marketing activities shall be carried out without regard to such memorandum; and (2) no VA funds shall be used to carry out such memorandum.
Directs the Secretary of the VA to annually prepare a plan for VA outreach activities for the following year which shall include plans to: (1) identify veterans who are not enrolled for VA benefits; and (2) inform veterans and their dependents of benefits changes, including medical and nursing care eligibility.
Directs the Secretary to: (1) establish procedures to coordinate VA outreach activities; and (2) assign VA employees to conduct outreach program services for eligible dependents (spouse, surviving spouse (whether or not remarried), child (regardless of age or marital status), or parent of a person who served in the active military, naval, or air service).
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global_05_local_5_shard_00000035_processed.jsonl/17700
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I am interested in integrating Aegir Devshop with the BOA project
Is it possible?
Is it easy?
Has anyone done it?
I will post my notes as I progress
omega8cc’s picture
Project:Barracuda» Octopus
Component:Miscellaneous» Code
Status:Active» Closed (duplicate)
niccolo’s picture
OK, thanks for the pointers. I should of checked the Octopus issues.
However, a question
Is it possible to have each BOA site to have a GIT URL that Devshop can initialize a project with?
Am unsure how to create a GIT repo in BOA for each site?
snlnz’s picture
change to the sites directory: cd /platform/sites/foo.bar/
git init ; chmod 775 .git -R ; git config receive.denyCurrentBranch ignore ; git add . ; git commit -am "initial commit"
I found you can't push changes without the permissions of the .git directory being group writable, and though I'm no git expert I also couldn't push changes without setting "config receive.denyCurrentBranch ignore". Once this was done all worked fine.
Note: the current site owner defined in the aegir front end is the only user account that can update the repo for some reason. FYI.
Then you can clone the repo like this:
git clone octopus.ftpuser@servername:/platform/sites/foo.com/.git foo.com
We use this work around for theme updates rather than ftp with no version control.
niccolo’s picture
Was wondering if it was possible to rsync down a platform to say /static and create a new folder called /static/2.08/boa-platforms/platforms which had a git URL / repo
Then, once Devshop supports 2.x, I could GIT into Devshop and back to BOA
And from /static/2.08/boa-platforms/platformsx could then migrate using Aegir UI. Perhaps gitignore is needed here
Would be ideal if DevShop could be loaded with all BOA platforms.
Can imagine also creating a GIT repo for each platform manually and later via scripts
Thinking out loud. But after using the pagan god squad hosting platform I know now local host > Dev > test > live can be sôooooo much smoother :-)
niccolo’s picture
Thanks for the response. Must of been posting while you responded.
I was wondering whether what I am really asking is "please ADD gitorious or gitlab or gitolite to BOA?" :-) omfg !
Or perhaps, adding the Gerritt .war into Jetty... I think I might try that after the workaround above
Thanks again
snlnz’s picture
#4 sounds interesting, I'm currently testing devshop as well so I'd happily collaborate efforts with you.
#5 Not sure what you mean?
niccolo’s picture
#4 but how do I get the platform from BOA to DevShop? And then have sites within the platform? GIT submodules?
#5 there are two kinds of platforms in BOA. Managed platforms which come downstream from Drupal.org via scripts for install ands updates. The second kind is custom and lives in the static directory. How do I access the managed platforms via GIT?
snlnz’s picture
#4 The recommended workflow is to use .make files to build your platforms. So do a drush generate-make platform.make
Edit your file to suite and use this to build your new devshop platform. We manage all of our custom platforms via .make files as to allow updates to be very simple. Change one version number and re-build a platform then clone sites one by one to test them on the newer code and migrate if all works how it should. Is that what you are trying to achieve?
#5 If you mean to clone? As I mentioned you'd need to initialize the empty repo at the platform directory level first.
git clone octopus.ftpuser@servername:/data/disk/o1/static/platform_custom/.git
niccolo’s picture
Wow, thanks.
Does that workflow apply to a BOA managed platform site? What if I want to develop using the BOA managed platform Commerce Kickstart. How do I get that actual code? I know I could download from d.o the equivalent version, but how do I get the managed code from within BOA? I remember getting an rsync snippet that could de symlink and provide the full codebase for localhost type development.
Are you saying I should generate a make for the platform?
The nice thing about pantheon is there is a smooth workflow from GIT localhost to hosted Dev and then web ui work flow from Dev to test to live
Anyway, I will look into you're info and tips etc and see if I can make sense of it all
niccolo’s picture
I guess the hard thing is getting a boa platform into devshop. Not just a site, the actual platform.
Assuming you get the boa platform into devshop and build sites with it, how do you put those sites back into boa?
Devshop seems to want to consume entire platforms, but boa doesn't want to provide them.
Boa wants to import sites folders only, but devshop wants to give up platforms only
Do we use gitignore?
Am I making sense?
niccolo’s picture
There is the remote_import aegir module from Stephen Jones that is included in BOA. That might work for getting sites from devshop to boa.
But I am not sure devshop can use a boa platform as a basis for development as there is no GIT repo accessible for the platform.
Anyway, need to investigate
niccolo’s picture
I think this will pull down a local copy of a boa platform
rsync -avzuqL --ignore-errors -e ssh [email protected]:/full/path/to/platform/root /local/path/
Came via email support omega8cc a while ago
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global_05_local_5_shard_00000035_processed.jsonl/17702
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This module is unsupported due to a security issue the maintainer didn’t fix. See for details.
This is an installation profile provided by for it's free TB Neris theme
If you want to download the theme only, you can get it from the TB Neris project site.
Morel free themes and installation profiles?
List of all free themes
Name Installtion Profile Project Demo
TB Sirate TB Sirate Starter TB Sirate Theme TB Sirate Demo
TB Blog TB Blog Starter TB Blog Theme TB Blog Demo
TB Rave TB Rave Starter TB Rave Theme TB Rave Demo
TB Methys TB Methys Starter TB Methys Theme TB Methys Demo
TB Events TB Events Starter TB Events Theme TB Events Demo
TB Purity TB Purity Starter TB Purity Theme TB Purity Demo
TB Neris TB Neris Starter TB Neris Theme TB Neris Demo
TB Mollise TB Mollise Starter TB Mollise Theme TB Mollise Demo
TB Simply TB Simply Starter TB Simply Theme TB Simply Demo
TB Hadelis TB Hadelis Starter TB Hadelis Theme TB Hadelis Demo
TB Palicico TB Palicico Starter TB Palicico Theme TB Palicico Demo
If you want to build the site from scratch without the installation profile, our user guides for our premium themes are pretty similar you can check it out and build the content accordingly.
Project Information
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global_05_local_5_shard_00000035_processed.jsonl/17726
|
Disclaimer: They aren't mine. Skyy Blue is a registered trademark to someone. So is Ashbourne.
Notes: Speaking of Ashbourne irish cream, I've finished a nice third of the bottle. Blame any typing mistakes on it. For background, you know those Dove Promises? Lovely chocolate, and they have a little saying on the inside of the wrapper.
Dedication: This one's for Timey, and probably Melly, who wanted strong women. I think this qualifies, being as there isn't a single male. Well. They mention them.
Bag of Promises
by Ana Lyssie Cotton
"I cannot believe I'm allowing myself to be roped into this."
"Give it up, Dom, I see that gleam in your eye whenever someone mentions chocolate."
"Shut up, Lorna."
"Don't tell her to shut up."
"I can--hey, are those milk chocolate?"
"Never mind then."
"Ahem. If we're all done bickering?"
"Fine. Here's how it goes. You read the chocolate's message, you eat the chocolate, you drink your shot of irish cream. Who wants to go first?"
"I will."
"Hey, how come Dom's smirking?"
"I have a higher alcohol tolerance than any of you."
"Ah wouldn't bet on that, sugah."
"Fine, fine. Just give me the damned chocolate, Jeannie."
"Don't be crass or I'll make you go last."
"Yes, mother."
"I wonder which one she'll get? Probably something silly."
"Hush, Lorna."
"'Inspire the life of a child.'"
"...Dom, do you even go near children?"
"Does X-Force count?"
"Yeah, but are violent tendencies a good thing to inspire?"
"Your turn, Jean!"
"'Everything happens with chocolate.'"
"Oh, right. Sex, violence..."
"Sex, and rock, and violence and sex..."
"Driving to the store?"
"Kicking Magneto's ass. With chocolate!"
"Apocalypse's Chocolate Balls?"
"*smirk* Rogue's turn."
"Are you sure you didn't start drinking before us, Jean?"
"'Laugh out loud.'"
"Boy, they really tried when they made these, didn't they."
"What would you have them say?"
"'Oil your gun regularly'."
"Real inspirational there, Domino."
"I thought so, Bets."
"My turn. Ahem. 'Savor every moment.' Hrm. Even when you have to swallow?"
"C'mon, Jean, I can't be the only one."
"If Ah knew...."
"You're not, Lorna."
"Thank you, Betsy."
"That said, 'Be nice to a stranger.' is rather simplified."
"And makes it difficult when you're living in New York City, and the stranger you're nice to decides to stalk you."
"I know, I know, I'm being too extreme. And--*snort* Well, isn't this amusing?"
"'Go easy on yourself.'"
"How apropos."
"'There is joy in giving back.'"
"I guess we should all sign up at the Salvation Army!"
"They'll love having a new crew of mutant chicks, I'm sure."
"Fer shure, Sugah. Gah. Sorry, Rogue."
"No worries. Besides, Lorna honey, this seems right up your alley. 'Who needs therapy when you have chocolate?'"
"Right on!"
"Preach it, sista."
"I don't need therapy, I just really like guns."
"Hrm. 'Eating chocolate is like giving yourself a big hug.'"
"Pile on Dom!"
"ACK! Off! Off!"
"Jean, oh, good. Dom, we don't want to hurt you, we--"
"Just want to cuddle."
"Auuuughck. Smothered in X-women."
"Think of it this way. Every male in this mansion, and quite a few out of it would PAY to be where you are."
"I'll start taking money at the door, then."
"Oh, poo."
"'Live your dreams.' I *am* living my dreams."
"Your dream is to run around in butt-floss?"
"No. I'm snuggling up to Cable's girlfriend."
"Bets, sweetie, all you ever had to do was ask."
"OK, ladies, I think that's enough piling up on Domino. Everyone back to your chairs."
"Another round of shots?"
"I second that."
"How many have we done, so far?"
"There's a good three more rounds in this bag."
"What about the booze?"
"I think we're gonna need another bottle."
"So why isn't the oh-so-controlled Storm down here?"
"Ororo's gone out with Yukio for the night."
"Ahhh. Getting her itch scratched."
"All right. Everyone down at once."
"*glug* Oops. Refill me, Jeannie."
"*sigh* Domino..."
"Yes, yes, just give me the flonqing booze."
"Hey, I just had a thought. What do we do when we get a saying that's already been said?"
"Make one up."
"But, we have ta see that it's a duplicate."
"Bah. My cunning plan, foiled."
"Hey. Are we out of irish cream?"
"Oops. We are."
"I'll go get another bottle."
"Bye, Jeannie."
"Hey, did you notice the shot glasses?"
"Mine says, 'Pity the Fool' and there's a tiny cartoon picture of Mr. T."
"Ugh. How kitsch."
"Dave and Busters: Chicago."
"Mine's blank."
"Aw. Don't pout, Lorna."
"What is it, Dom?"
"'Gun-toters Anonymous'..."
"Oooh. Wonder if that was made up special."
"No. Scott found it when we were down in Tennessee for part of our honeymoon."
"Right, so do we start again?"
"Open the bottle, and pour, Dom."
"Heh. Bet Dom never gets a double, since she wants one."
"Oooh, sounds like fun."
"Ahem. 'Life without chocolate is too terrible to contemplate.'"
"My god, they even contemplate it?"
"How sad."
"GAH! Jeannie, this is horrible irish cream."
"It was cheap. And came with two nifty glasses."
"And that's your excuse for poisoning us?"
"You could NOT drink."
"Oh. Nah. Gimme another shot."
"'The further out of reach, the stronger the temptation.'"
"Oh, there are places I could go with that."
"God. Even the future isn't too far for temptation."
"I like a bit of temptation with breakfast. It's like a really good cup of coffee."
"...That's *my* line."
"Nothing is as good as coffee."
"Depends on what he does."
"Or she."
"Good point. Rogue?"
"Ah got a double."
"She does."
"Well, what's your sappy advice?"
"'Don't kiss unless he gives ya chocolate'."
"I can get behind that one. Are we talking first date? Because Alex was cheap on our first date. And, I don't think he *ever* gave me chocolate."
"Did he give you other things?"
"Good sex."
"But that isn't chocolate."
"Oh. Right. Hrm. Mine's a double, too."
"Every time someone says double, I want another shot."
"The bottle's right there, Dom."
"'Never give him the satisfaction of seeing you cry'."
"That's it?"
"It was all I could think of. Now give me that bottle."
"Yes, kemo sabe."
"'Never settle.'"
"And, suddenly, Betsy, we know why you and Warren are still dating."
"Bite me, Jean."
"Tell me where."
"'Enjoy life's sweet surprises.'..."
"Wasn't there another one like that?"
"Hey... There was. Can I say better advice?"
"Damn you, Jeannie."
"Been there, done that."
"Everyone should go to Hell before their 30th birthday."
"'Chocolate is the language of love.'"
"Mmmm. Nutella."
"Oh, yumm."
"You girls are making me hungry."
"There's chocolate."
"For sex, dear."
"Mmm. Yes."
"Mah turn, sugah. Hrm. Double again. 'Never forsake protection'."
"Pro--Rogue, you haven't!"
"Latex is useful, Lorna."
"Oh, this is good. Rogue, do you make him wear a full body condom?"
"'Little things can make big differences.'"
"Gee, Lorna, sounds like something you would know."
"Thanks, Dom. But of course, it's all in the genetics...."
"Oh, in your dreams, Lorna-sweetie."
"Ah can't b'lieve it. The Summers men are small?"
"That's what Warren tells me, Rogue."
"Betsy! And here you used to lust after Scott."
"Jean, dear, I lusted. I never consummated."
"Ahem. Ladies, to your corners."
"Another round of shots."
"The bottle's empty again."
"I was just getting to like that shit."
"Got anymore, Jeannie?"
"Out of irish cream. I checked when I went to get this one. There's tequila, though."
"Ugh. Tequila and chocolate?"
"We could do limes..."
"Mmmm. Margaritas."
"You put de lime in de coconut--"
"And drink it aaaaaall up!"
"I hate tequila."
"Get it anyway, Jeannie. And anything else you might have in that liquor cabinet. Like the scotch."
"Would you like the kitchen sink, too, Dom?"
"Sure. You pansies could puke in it later."
"Gee, Dom, tell us how you really think."
"Well, Bets, you've got great legs. Lorna, I know people who've paid for racks like yours. Rogue, the leaning on men--got to stop. And Jean needs to screw Scott more. Then they'll both relax."
"What was that, Dom, dear?"
"Nothing, Jeannie."
"Mhmm. Well, I've brought a bottle for each of us. Who wants the tequila?"
"Right. Scotch, vodka, whiskey, or Skyy Blue, Rogue?"
"Ah'll take the vodka."
"I dibs the whiskey, Jean."
"I'm feeling exceptionally hip. Pass over the Skyy Blue."
"Lovely. I like vodka, anyway."
"You drink enough before sleeping with Scott..."
"What was that, Betsy?"
"Nothing, dear."
"Looks like we have two more rounds left. Everyone want a shot before we begin?"
"I would assume so, Jeannie. *gulp* Ahhhh."
"OK, then. Let's begin again with Domino."
"I've got a double. 'Controlled mayhem is still mayhem.'"
"Very profound."
"You got that off a cereal box."
"Yes. Lucky Charms. They were Nate's."
"Frosted Lucky Charms, they're magically delicious!"
"'Friends are there for chocolate.' Well. Isn't that true."
"Mah turn. 'If I could, I'd bathe in chocolate.' Yum. Oh, yes."
"And then you'd make some poor sod lick it all off of you, eh, Rogue?"
"Of course, Bets. Yum."
"'Call an old friend.' Hrm. Anyone know how to get hold of Random?"
"Not I."
"As if."
"'Forgive your enemies, for they may bring chocolate.'"
"Bets, honey, would you forgive Matsu'o?"
"If he was willing to give me his sword..."
"...My god. Betsy cracked an innuendo. Call the newspapers."
"Just because I'm not crude all the time, doesn't mean I can't be, Lorna."
"Oh, of course not, anyway. Jean. Your turn."
"Hey! It's my turn, Madame. Ahem. 'All's fair in love and chocolate.'"
"Eh. This is almost getting boring."
"We've only got four more platitudes to go."
"Three. Jean's just tossed hers in the trash without reading it."
"I was hungry."
"For chocolate?"
"She looks so innocent, too."
"Bah. She once took over the world, ignore the innocence."
"Aren't we getting off track?"
"We had a track?"
"Oh. Right."
"Too much hair."
"I dunno..."
"Personally, I'd rather do Brad Pitt."
"I'd do Brad Pitt, but I'd be thinking of Anthony Stewart Head."
"Kinky, Bets."
"Ah've always wondered about Brendan Fraser."
"Purr. Yum."
"Y'know, next time, we should just rent some good movies.
"And not fucking chick flicks."
"Yes. The Mummy, for instance."
"John Hannah! Be still my beating heart."
"You can keep him. Ardeth is mine."
"I get Viggo."
"Only if I don't see him first."
"Scruffy swordsmen. Mm."
"...I hate elves."
"Then we won't make you watch the parts with elves, Dom."
"Don't like fantasy, anyway."
"I'll make sure we get something with lots of musclebound guntoting men."
"Mmm. Guns."
"Anyone for tennis?"
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(sigh) This didn't turn out as good as I wanted it too, but if you guys like it I might continue with a sequel…However, this is angsty, real angsty. I haven't written something this angsty in a long, long time. But I hope you like it…enjoy.
Warnings: Homosexuality, Heterosexuality, depressing thoughts and a bunch of other things that people might take offense too. And go get a Kleenex, if you're sensitive like that.
Disclaimer: I don't own Saint Seiya, Shun, Hyoga or anything, and am not planning to make money off this fic. And I did create Anna, but I don't care about her. I just made her up to avoid going to look up stuff I don't know about Hilda or whatever.
Marble Swan
Shun smiled to himself, unfolding the thick layers of tissue paper that incased the tiny figurine. It had taken him endless part-time jobs, slipping secretly out of the mansion when the others weren't paying attention to his whereabouts, to get this one small, stone piece. It had taken three weeks of saving every bit of his money, but it had been worth it.
The dark red layers pulled away to reveal a small, white statue, a finely-carved swan. It was completely lifelike, down to the very last feathery detail, like a living bird made entirely out pure white marble. The very edge of its eyes, its beak, and the tips of its spread wings had been painted a delicate black by it's creators own hand.
It was perfect…for him.
The young Andromeda Saint felt his heart skip a beat at his last thought, his face stretching back into a giddy grin as he dropped back into the soft pillows of his bed. He squirmed like a flighty schoolgirl at the balloon of excitement that welled up inside of him.
Hyoga was coming home today.
Shun muffled an excited squeal against his pillows, very relived that the door was shut and locked so no one could walk in on him. Just thinking about the delightful half-Russian made his heart swoon. It had taken him forever to realize how he felt about his closest, dearest friend, but after much consultation with girl's comic books, questioning Seiya and watching a few romance movies with Saori, he'd figured it out.
He was in love with Hyoga.
Not just in love, he was head-over-heels, totally and completely enamored with the slightly older blonde Saint.
He'd known it for a while now, but he'd never been able to build up his courage and tell anyone. It wasn't that he was scared, no, he was sure Hyoga accepted him…or at least would consider it. They were too close for him not to. But he found it hard to express himself that way, to actually look into those amazing, clear blue eyes and tell the object of his affection exactly how he felt.
That was what the statue was for…A swan for the Swan. A gift, to help him say what he needed to say.
Hyoga had been in Siberia for the past two weeks, as he often did during their times of peace. He'd been going back a bit more often than usual, leaving Shun a bit disappointed, but his patience for this day had finally paid off.
He was just dreaming airily about his crush's standard 'Diamond Dust' routine when he heard a car door slam outside his window. Emerald green eyes snapped open and he rushed to the window, gazing down as Seiya took up Hyoga's familiar, dark blue duffle bag onto one shoulder and lead his blonde comrade in.
Shun's heart gave an excited, eager flutter. He took care to set the marble swan gently on the dresser table…he would give it to Hyoga later, when they were alone…and, with a quick glance in the mirror to make sure he looked okay, ran down the stairs to meet them.
He jumped down the last two steps and slid into the living room with a wide, excited smile. But upon getting a good look at the room's occupants he stopped…and almost frowned.
Everyone who should have been there was there, and in their usual places. Ikki was absent, as usual, choosing instead to remain in his quiet solitude and contact only his younger brother. But Seiya was perched on the edge of the windowsill, one leg pulled up and hands behind his head with a laughing grin, Shiryu had his spot against the wall near the fireplace, and Saori was sitting in her own armchair, Tatsumi standing over her left shoulder. Hyoga was there, too, on the left side the two-person 'loveseat' couch. Normally, Shun took the place beside him…but it was already occupied.
Said disruption in the normal routine was, of all things, a young woman. She seamed to be about their age…he himself was fifteen now… and about Saori's height and build. Her hair was a pale white-blonde and very slightly wavy, falling to her shoulders and partially hiding bright blue eyes. She was dressed in warm clothing, a heavy red dress with matching stockings, boots and a hand-warmer, so that she looked like an old-fashioned Christmas card. From her overall appearance, Shun could only assume that she was Russian or Siberian…like Hyoga.
Said blonde Saint turned his head back to grin at him. "Hey, Shun! You finally made it down!"
Andromeda couldn't think of anything to say, just nodded dumbly and sat in the only remaining place, the armchair opposite Saori, to the right of the unfamiliar girl. She looked up at him and smiled warmly, which he returned, not quite so warmly.
"So, Hyoga." Seiya grinned widely. "Are you going to introduce us or what? She must be pretty important to you, if you'd drag her all the way out here from Siberia."
The young woman blushed a light pink, but Hyoga just laughed and slipped an arm over her slim shoulders. Shun bristled slightly in uncharacteristic possession, suddenly disliking the woman profusely.
"You could say that." the ice saint smiled at his companion warmly. "This is Anna…my fiancé."
The word hit Shun straight through the chest with the crude roughness of a dull blade. He his limbs went suddenly numb, his mind stopped working, and his heart simply stopped…just stopped.
The others were reacting extremely. "You're kidding!" Seiya exclaimed, nearly falling off his perch.
"Oh, Hyoga, that's wonderful!" Saori gushed, excited in a way she usually was not.
"Congratulations to you both." Shiryu smiled warmly at the couple. Hyoga grinned and pulled the girl, who was blushing profusely, a bit closer.
Shun came out of his daze enough to hear Seiya ask where they'd met. Hyoga motioned slightly to Anna, urging her to speak. She shifted slightly, adjusting her dress, then looked up at the group with a soft smile.
"We were…friends…in Siberia." she whispered slowly, stumbling a bit as the unfamiliar Japanese syllables stuck strangely in her heavy accent. "When we were… children…Hyoga promised to come back after his training…and marry me."
Seiya whistled, which made Saori laugh just a bit. Hyoga chuckled. "You know, just silly childhood promises." he sighed, brushing his cheek against the top of her head. "But sometimes they make good even after ten years…"
Shun couldn't listen anymore. He slipped out of his seat and out the door, but not before Shiryu noticed him. "Shun? Is something wrong?"
Shun forced his normal smile onto his face, covering his emotions like a female saint's mask. "Nothing. I'm just a bit…tired, that's all. I think I'm going to rest up just a bit before dinner."
Shiryu raised a confused eyebrow, but said no more. Dropping the mask as soon as he was out of range, Shun forced himself to take the stairs carefully and keep his body calm until he reached his room.
He shut the door behind him, locking it with one small move of his hand. He leaned against the hard wood a moment, then a heart-retching sob croaked past his lips. He slid down the door until he was sitting on the floor, put his head on his knees, and cried.
Fiancé…She was his fiancé. Hyoga…Hyoga was…getting married. But…he'd thought…he'd been so sure…
Dull blades of pain shot through his body with every heartbeat, as though his blood itself had been laced with poison. His heart itself was unwilling to keep up the rhythm, feeling wounded and ill, shattered like a thin pane of glass. He didn't even try to stop the tears that streaked down his soft, pale cheeks in rivers of saltwater, the tiny droplets that fell off his face catching in his hair.
Even after twenty minutes, it took all his willpower to pull himself off the floor and stumble to the dresser table. He leaned on it a moment, staring at his distraught reflection in the mirror. His eyes were already red and puffy from the tears, a strange contrast to their natural green color, and his cheeks glistened with the salty tears.
They fell sorely on the marble statue he'd set there barely half an hour before. Then, it had been the second most beautiful thing he'd ever seen, its only greater being the one it represented. Now it was a piece of untouchable ice, painful to even look at…a sign of a broken heart.
He stumbled to his bed and fell face-first into the pillows, trying desperately to find some sort of comfort in their warmth. His childhood friend…probably his first love… a girl he'd promised to marry when they'd hardly learned what the word meant. How could he…How could he ever compete with that?
Someone knocked on his door, making him jump. "Shun?" Hyoga's voice called from the other side. "You in there?"
Shun sat up, rubbing his face liberally with the blankets to clean away the tears. "Yes…Just a minute!" he called hastily, hiding the swan statue just before standing to answer the door.
Hyoga was alone, thankfully, Shun didn't know how he'd react if he saw that woman holding on to his arm or something. He couldn't help but glance at the blonde's bare arms, nicely tanned despite his usually cold climate choice, then up into a concerned, almost brotherly face.
"Shun, are you all right?" he asked, brow furling slightly. "You seamed upset…and your eyes are all red."
Shun blushed a bit and rubbed his left eye subconsciously. "It's…It's nothing. It's just…allergies. They've been bothering me a bit lately."
Hyoga seamed a little suspicious, but seamed to buy his excuse more or less. He sighed, rubbing one hand against the back of his head contemplatively. "Well, just making sure…" he said, rather lamely, then grinned just a bit. "Actually, that's just half of it…I wanted to ask you something."
"Ask me?" Shun raised an eyebrow, despite the fact that his own breath was trying very hard to strangle him. "Ask me what?"
"Well…You hear all of that downstairs, right?" Shun nodded, partially hoping that he would tell him it was all a big joke. "Anna and I…we were hoping to have the actual ceremony here, sometime next week. And I was…wondering…if you'd be willing to be a part of it."
"What do you mean?" Shun asked, his bits of confusion practically drowned in the pain of a broken heart, trying not to show exactly how upset he was.
"Actually…I was wondering if you'd consider being my best man." Hyoga's resulting grin really belonged on Seiya's face. "I mean, it is the place you're supposed to save for your best friend…"
The weight of those words was heavier than Shun had expected. Best Friend…it would have seamed like such a high compliment a few weeks ago, but now it was almost a painful insult and a sharp reminder of the truth. That was all he'd ever been to him, this man that stole his heart and made his body ache…only thought of him as a 'best friend'.
For a moment he considered refusing the offer, but his kinder side won out. He looked up at the object of his affection once more, smiling.
"I'd be honored…"
Ten days later...
Shun sighed, glancing at himself in the mirror to check his outfit one last time. It was a western-style suit, a white, collared shirt that looked like it belonged on a male ballet dancer, loose-fitting black slacks and semi-nice shoes. He wasn't used to the fancy dress, but it was a special occasion and this was the 'costume' Hyoga had chosen.
The green-haired boy sighed again, for the umpteenth time these past ten days. He didn't feel like going to this wedding. Actually, he didn't feel like going anywhere, but this was going to be hell on earth for him. Watching the man he was so in love with marrying someone else…pure torture.
He pondered a moment of feigning sickness, but brushed it aside. Hyoga would be upset if he wasn't there…he owed the blonde at least enough to make sure this dreadful thing was as perfect as possible.
A quick glance out the window would show the huge front yard of the Grande foundation, all decked out with tables and streamers and decorations, ready for the reception after the service. Saori had gone passionately all-out for the first marriage of one of her Saints and allowed the young couple just about any financial expense they needed.
He glanced at himself in the mirror, almost surprised at the face there. When he was out with the others, he wore his usual mask of the cheerful, eager young Saint, but alone it fell apart. His eyes were red and puffy with slight bags underneath them from lack of sleep. His cheeks now seamed permanently stained with salt, and he knew he must have been getting thinner…he'd barely eaten this whole time. Even his hair seamed ready to give up, hanging limp and sorrowful around his face.
With one last sigh, he made his way out the door and down the street to the chapel building.
The service itself was to be held in a small Christian church, not far from the mansion, which fascinated Shiryu and made Seiya curious…none of them had ever seen the inside of a Christian building, and none of them had ever expected to attend a traditional Christian wedding.
Shun slipped in quietly and took his place beside the alter, pretending to admire a large, ornamental cross on the wall so he wouldn't have to look Hyoga in the eye. The blonde was practically beaming, like a star in the dark of night, but looked a bit nervous. Shun supposed anybody would be and gave him a gentle pat on the shoulder.
Hyoga smiled at him thankfully.
The wedding began in due time. Music played as the bride, accompanied by another young girl Shun assumed must be her sister, approached down the aisle with shy glances to the gathered men and women. Shun didn't trust the glances, he could tell full and well the woman wasn't shy. The reason she'd had such a hard time speaking to them was because she didn't know Japanese. Inside, she had all the ferocity of a polar bear.
She was the perfect match for Hyoga. Shun could feel it, and it made his poorly-abused heart sink ever lower.
It was his own fault, he knew that. If he'd only spoken up sooner, this may not have happened. Hyoga may have understood the way he felt and given him a chance to win him over…they could have been together, shared time and love, gradually become closer and closer…
Anna stopped in front of the groom, her sister taking her place behind her. The preacher smiled at them and began his speech, but neither of the couple were paying attention. They were too busy getting lost in blue eyes that nearly, but not quite, matched the other's.
They looked radiant, happy, thankful, joyous…all the things Shun had always dreamed love should be…dreams staring himself and Hyoga.
He contemplated his own sad thoughts for so long he didn't realize the wedding was over until the whole room cheered. He looked up, then looked away again quickly, not bearing to see the happiness on their faces in mid-kiss. He felt tears pricking listlessly at his eyes as the service came to a quick end and the party began back at the mansion.
He'd never planned to stay there long. He had various outer excuses…he hated crowds (true), he hadn't slept well (all too true), he was feeling sick (yeah, lovesick), etc. But they all overshadowed the fact that he couldn't stand to see Hyoga so totally in love with someone besides himself.
After one drink with Seiya and a group toast, Shun slipped by the table which held various brightly-wrapped wedding presents. He reached discreetly into his pocket, pulling out a small bag, wrapped around a tiny stone trinket…shaped exactly like a beautiful white swan. He dropped the bag on the table, then slid silently away and back up to his room.
He changed quickly out of the clothes Saori had lent him, hanging them up neatly and returning to his usually battered outfit, and quickly checked the tattered red bag he'd back the morning before. With a slight groan, he lifted the heavy stone box containing his cloth onto his back, adjusting the straps so that he sat comfortably on his shoulder blades. He lifted the red back into his left hand, judged his weight with his right, and paused a moment to glance about the plain room, checking that he hadn't missed anything important.
For a moment he felt hesitant about his plan, his disappearing act. It wasn't really like him, so his friends wouldn't be expecting him or come looking for hours. He had just enough money to get him exactly where he needed to go, but he wasn't sure if it was a place he wanted to go to. He was comfortable here, and Japan was his home, there was a part of him that didn't want to leave.
But this place was also full of memories…memories once to precious to him, now almost like poison, killing him slowly and painfully with every beat until all he wanted to do was make it stop. If he didn't get away soon, he didn't know what it would make him do.
With a last bit of resolve, he whispered a silent farewell to his lonely bedroom and slipped quietly out the backdoor.
He paused just one more moment, looking around the corner of the house for one, final glance of the source of his pain. The face that haunted his dreams was smiling, not for him, but he was smiling. A real, true, honest-to-goodness, die-happy smile.
Shun let himself do the same, even as the last few shards of his heart were crushed. Hyoga was happy…and that was what mattered.
"Goodbye…my swan."
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Who Knew
Archive: fandomaid only until 14 march 2005
Rating: pg
Fandom, Pairing: Tortall Un. Tamora Pierce, jorenkeladry
Summary: (AU) " Neither seemed to know what to do now that they weren't directing their troops or ducking arrows of trying to set up a secure camp. Neither knew what to do now that they had time to count their losses."
Disclaimer: all belongs to she who can write fast, well and lots. In other words, it all belongs to Tamora Pierce.
Author's Notes: AU because Joren can't die or my interest in Kel fanfiction dies.
Written For: fandomaid
Beta: Cara, cause she's cool.
Word Count: 684
Joren had never seen Keladry look as worn as she looked just then, when she thought no one was watching. Both of them had been out on the frontline for over two years with out recall, and without replacements for those who fell. The return to the palace was not the happy event he'd thought it would be, nor was the relief he knew he should feel present. At the moment the only thing he could feel was weariness.
Neither seemed to know what to do now that they weren't directing their troops or ducking arrows while trying to set up a secure camp. Neither knew what to do now that they had time to count their losses.
As commanders, they'd both had to write out the messages to the families of those that had fallen. Her stack was nearly as big as his, and he wondered somewhere in the back of his mind, hoping and pleading, that she'd brought some for other groups that hadn't been recalled yet, and many of them, as well as her own. He had, and he was grateful he didn't have to look at the stack and see the exact amount of fighters that he had lost.
They called out the fief where the message needed to go and the appropriate messenger would take it. It was when he got to one of the last one's in his stack that he hesitated. It was a knights notice. "Mindelan."
Her eyes shot to him, widening as she realized just what he held. It would be for one of her brothers, he knew it. She knew it. The messenger's knew it.
She held out her hand for it and he let her take the notice. She opened it, her features schooled into the tight emptiness he knew so well from their training days. He watched as her composure fell, her face draining of color.
"Oh Goddess, Inness…" she sighed out, her eyes large and filled with tears that she wouldn't let fall. Slowly, she closed the message and held it out. "Take it to his wife," she told the girl.
They finished handing out the rest of the notices and walked side by side towards the palace. Neither had stuck around for the parade that the king had thrown for them when they'd first returned to the city, and neither would go to the feast that night. They could not celebrate the deaths of those that they had commanded.
They walked in silence until they reached the knight's quarters. Both of theirs were barely unpacked, barely used. Neither of them had spent more than one or two days in a row in the quarters since they had received them.
"Want a drink?" he asked her, the first words he'd said to her all night. Or even since their companies had joined on the road coming south, a week before. Probably the only civil one's since he'd met her on the wall, back when he was a squire and she still a page.
And even then, the sincerity hadn't reached his eyes. It all seemed so pointless now. All their fights.
They paused in front of his door, both knowing the only thing in either of their rooms worth going in for would be to drink the alcohol they had in their saddle bags which were slung over their shoulders.
She had to contemplate for barely a moment before she nodded. She didn't particularly like alcohol, but tonight she would need it.
He poured some of his whiskey for the both of them, their fingers brushing when he gave her her glass, causing a shiver to run down her spine.
She gave him the barest of smiles in thanks, but he understood. She couldn't give anymore, not after so much death.
The alcohol relaxed them, if just barely, allowing them to talk. And they talked, for hours, about nothing. About everything.
Who knew, that when faced with the same problem, the same situation, two mortal enemies could find companionship within one another.
Across the palace, in the great hall, a feast went on without their guests of honor, and no one seemed to notice.
Finished 8 February, 2005.
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Disclaimer: Ranma ½ and Pokemon are not owned by me and will never be owned by me, except the marketed stuff that I purchase at the bookstores.
Author notes: I've looked at multiple Ranma/Pokemon crossovers, (and yes quite a few Ranma in the pokegirl universe.) For one I think the best Ranma/Pokemon universe is Hung Nguyen's "Fist of the Pikachu" and I'm sure a lot of you people out there would agree somewhat or at least acknowledge that it is one of the best out there. Another thing is I like the general idea of anthro pokemon in pokegirls however the whole tamer and sex thing is totally out of my league. So I believe in making Anthro pokemon without the whole sex thing. This is a pokemorphs/Ranma crossover fic R&R please.
Ranma Saotome was contemplating his life so far. It had been a month since the wedding fiasco and Akane seemed to get worse by the day. One time at night she had got up and hit him yelling out he was a pervert and there wasn't even a real reason to in the beginning. It was all because she had a dream. She didn't even apologize just blamed him that he was probably thinking about it anyway. He was reaching the edges of his patience especially after a recent confrontation a few minutes ago.
(Flash back)
"Damn it Akane why? I fought for you, bled for you, I even killed for you I give you my word, I even try to be nicer to you, so why don't you trust me?" Ranma yelled out.
"That's because you can't be trusted, your word is just trash, you're probably trying to act nice so you can get into my skirt." Akane said each of her words stabbed and burned like a hot knife through butter. But the next words she spoke really got to him. "Besides you're supposed to do those things for me."
"Supposed… Supposed! I fought for you when you needed me, I bled countless times rescuing you and even ended someone's life, and I'm "supposed" to do that for you!" Ranma yelled out.
"Of course." Akane stated like it was no big deal. "I'm your fiancée after all."
"Akane!" Ranma grabbing both of her shoulders in his anger both her shoulders.
"Let go of me you pervert!" Akane leg went up between Ranma's legs hard and with a mighty swing with mallet-sama she sent him once again on her personal airways.
(End flashback)
"She doesn't even think I'm worth her time. She's takes everything I do for granted. Akane what happened to you?" Ranma said.
"You can't be trusted." He heard Akane's voice echo through his head. "Your word is trash." He winced as the words repeated themselves. "You're supposed to do those things for me." He gripped his hands till his knuckles were white.
"I'm nothing but a tool to her." Ranma said. "I'm actually better off dead." He said the hopelessness in his voice spoke volumes it was a voice of someone who had finally given up. Despite his nature, Ranma Saotome had finally given up a battle, the battle of the heart.
"Ranma Saotome!" Ranma's ear's perked as he heard a familiar voice of a certain duck cursed Amazon. "Prepare yourself."
Ranma smirked it was perfect so why the hell not? 'I'll just let Mousse end my suffering.' He thought and stood up. "Over here Mousse that's a T.V antenna." Ranma said to the Hidden Weapons master on the opposite roof.
"Oh it is." Mousse said putting his glasses on. He faced Ranma and put his glasses up again. "Ranma this time I'll win Shampoo from you." Mousse yelled out.
"Bring it on Mousse." Ranma said waiting for Mousse to attack instead the Amazon male pulled out a scroll.
"I realize your skill at cheating Ranma so I'll use this scroll to wipe you from the face of this planet." Mousse began to chant the words of the scroll. However since his glasses weren't over his eyes he botched the writings on the scroll, instead of eliminating Ranma he actually created a dimensional vortex before the suction of the vortex pulled Ranma in and soon after the vortex closed and Mousse was dancing all around the roof at his victory until he slipped and landed in the Koi pond below.
Pain, it's a feeling that Ranma was very familiar with, and he was feeling a lot of it right now. He didn't know what Mousse did but whatever he had tried to do had failed because Ranma knew if he felt pain he was still alive. "Damn you Mousse you just had to go and mess up didn't you?" Ranma said.
"Are you all right young man?" Ranma looked up to see the face of an older man wearing a lab coat.
"I'm okay I guess." Ranma said sitting up.
"Well that's good because you had better get off that pikachu." The man said.
"Pikachu?" Ranma said then looked down to see a cute yellow mouse head with a red dot on each cheek glaring up at him. "What the heck?" Ranma said before he got the shock of his life. He was launched off and landed several feet away. The pikachu got to its feet and began stalking toward him sparks flying from its cheeks.
The older man threw an object at the pikachu but it dodged and glared at the scientist and sent a thunder shock at him. The professor fell to the ground twitching while Ranma lunged and scooped up the object that was thrown not noticing the way his hand glowed as he held the object he threw it at the pikachu it hit right on its forehead and sucked it in much to the surprise of Ranma. The object wobbled for a few seconds and finally stopped.
"What the heck was that?" Ranma said.
"That was a pikachu." The older man said getting up looking singed around the edges.
"What the heck's a pikachu?" Ranma asked.
"You don't know?" The man said as he picked up the object. At Ranma's nod he looked thoughtful. "You better come with me back to my lab."
After Ranma told his story the professor was quite surprised. "I see so it seems you are from an entirely different dimension from us." The professor said.
"Is there a way to get back?" Ranma asked.
"Nothing like this has ever happened before so I doubt it." The professor said. "However I'll put it by my colleagues and start research on it right away."
"Where am I anyway?" Ranma asked.
"This is my laboratory in Pallet town, my name is Professor Oak leading pokemon researcher." Professor Oak said.
"Poke whatums?" Ranma said.
"Pokemon." The Professor said. "There are many types of pokemon with different abilities and skills, for example that pikachu uses electricity as a special ability."
"Yeah it was quite shocking." Ranma said rubbing his butt.
"Indeed." Professor Oak said. "Ranma since you're here why don't you become a pokemon trainer."
"Pokemon trainer?" Ranma asked.
"Yes pokemon trainers exist to train pokemon for various purposes they help control wild pokemon and even help with daily life. The majority of trainers however train to battle each other in tests of skill of who has trained their pokemon better. The ultimate goal is to win the league and be declared the league champion." Professor Oak said.
"I ain't got anything else to do." Ranma said. "Sure why not?"
"Very well Ranma." Professor Oak walked over to his computer and typed for a few minutes then picked up a red electronic device and five red and white objects. "You're now a pokemon trainer Ranma. I give you your pokedex and pokeballs."
Ranma took the items and put them in his pocket. "Is that it?" He asked.
"No I still have to get you a starter pokemon but I'm fresh out right now and… wait a second." Professor Oak took out the pokeball from earlier. "You can use the pikachu you caught earlier as a starter."
"Are you sure you want to do that?" Ranma asked remembering his first impression on the pikachu.
"It can't be helped, go ahead call it out just throw the ball." The professor handed the ball to Ranma who gulped and threw it.
The pokeball opened and the red light dumped out a figure. Ranma's gaze went down to the height of the pikachu but instead of an electric mouse he a pair of very slender legs his gaze rolled up and…" Ranma pinched his nose to prevent a nosebleed but noted the furry zig zag tail, his gaze continued upward past her… assets, to a beautiful angular face with two red dots on each cheek and a pair of furry yellow ears with brown tips sticking up from her blonde hair that flowed down to her lower back. A gorgeous pair of emerald green eyes glared at him.
"What the hell?" Ranma said, beside him the professor was struck dumb. Ranma regained movement when the girl before him squeaked as she discovered her new appearance. "Professor what happened, where's the mouse thing?"
"This is incredible." Professor Oak said. "A pokemon morphed into a human-like form. What an amazing discovery."
"Professor she's naked." Ranma said trying to avert his eyes.
"Oh yes here." The professor handed him a spare lab coat. "Put this on her."
Ranma took the lab coat and approached the morphed pokemon. "Easy there." Ranma said as the girl focused her gaze from herself to him. "I ain't gonna hurt ya I just want to cover you up it'll make us all feel easier." When he got within six inches of her her cheeks sparked and Ranma froze. "Don't worry I'm not here to hurt you." He slowly draped the lab coat over her shoulders gently pulled the flaps to cover her front and backed away.
The pikachu seemed confused and looked back and forth between Ranma and the lab coat and finally seemed to ease up on her glare.
"I will have to do more research on this." Professor Oak said with a gleam in his eye that died down when the pikachu focused her glare on him. "On second thought this may be a good opportunity to study in the field. Ranma I put you in charge of her. We'll keep this incident under wraps for now until we figure out what caused this phenomenon." Professor Oak pointed at the pokeball that captured the pikachu. "Point the ball at her and say return."
The pikachu saw Ranma complying and sparks flew from her cheeks again Ranma stopped his actions and dropped his hands away from the ball. "I don't think she wants to go back to her ball professor."
"Noted." The professor said. "But she'll attract too much attention if she stays like that." The pikachu looked at herself and then to a poster that had a pikachu picture in it, she closed her eyes and suddenly the lab coat fell piled to the ground soon after a regular pikachu came crawling out.
"I see she's able to switch between her regular form and her human-like form, most intriguing." The professor said. "Ranma you must try to keep this as secret as possible. No one else shall know of this except you, me, and a small handful of my people if word came out of this you and that pikachu would be in great danger especially for her."
"I understand professor. I'll protect her, I swear it as a martial artist." Ranma said.
The professor nodded and walked over to his closet and rummaged around in it for a few seconds and finally pulled out a worn backpack. "This pack was used in my days as a trainer I entrust it to you Ranma."
"You can count on me." Ranma said with a new sense of duty in his life he felt a lot better then he had a few hours ago.
"Good luck Ranma." The professor said. Ranma moved to pick up his pikachu when she gave him a shock he thought otherwise.
"I think I'll let her walk with me." He said with a puff of black smoke coming from his mouth. So here he was with a pikachu on an insulated string. "Look I'm sorry for before I didn't mean capture you." Ranma said but received a glare from the pikachu.
"Look if you don't want anything to do with me you can go off on your own, however remember you change now and if somebody sees that you'll be in a lot of trouble." The pikachu glared at him again and something clicked in Ranma's mind. "Wait your blaming me for you changing?" He asked.
The pikachu turned her head away and with a huffed out. "Pika."
"Hey I don't know how that happened I swear if I knew I'd try to get rid of it but I don't." Ranma said, the pikachu continued to face away from him. With a groan Ranma kneeled down and removed the string. "If you don't like me you can leave." Ranma said.
The pikachu looked at him and began to scamper away. Ranma growled, mad at himself for failing so early. He was about to walk away when he heard a loud. "Pika!" He rushed to the source of the noise and saw a flock of bird like creatures attacking the pikachu. Pointing his pokedex at the birds he got his information but he didn't really listen to it, only getting spearow and flying type, he rushed in arms whirling around swatting at the spearow.
"Hey get away from her you overgrown turkeys!" Ranma yelled out scooping up the pikachu and began retreating but he was in a clearing and there was little cover the spearow kept pecking at him. He came to a decision and slipped off his pack and put the pikachu in. "Stay inside and brace yourself." He said and closed the flap and cupped his hands before throwing them straight down at the ground. "Moko Takabisha!"
The ball of ki exploded on the ground blowing aside the entire flock of spearow and Ranma was sent flying off clutching the pack to his chest protectively and cushioning it with his body when he hit the ground. After a few minutes the pikachu worked her way out of the pack and found a battered and bruised Ranma on his side still clutching the backpack protectively. Looking him over she realized his wounds were quite bad she looked around and saw a tree. Thinking back to her time at the laboratory she closed her eyes and concentrated. A tingly sensation came over her and when she opened her eyes again she was standing at 5,2 again. Despite her increased size it was still quite a chore to drag Ranma to the tree.
After she had him against the tree she reached for the water bottle that Ranma had in his pack. Mimicking how Ranma unscrewed the cap she poured water over his scratches and did her best to try and clean them. Finally she curled up beside him and dozed off.
Ranma groaned as he stirred opening his eyes he saw the darkening skies above him. "It's evening already?" He muttered sitting up. He winced as his wounds made themselves known. "Ouch I don't want to do that ever again." He said and looked around and spotted the pikachu beside him. "She's still here." He checked himself again and found that around his scratches were surprisingly clean. "Did she do this?" He thought and espied the half empty water bottle. "She used that…" He looked over himself again and blinked. "But I haven't changed." It was true he was still slightly damp but he was still male.
"What happened to my curse." He muttered but his thoughts were interrupted when he heard a groan beside him. The pikachu was getting up, she yawned and stretched making Ranma's hands shoot for his nose at the sight. "Uh hi." He squeaked.
The pikachu stopped her stretching and looked at him and looked really happy for a few seconds before it was replaced with fear and she backed away from him.
"Did you do this?" He asked pointing at the bottle and to his wounds. At her nod he smiled. "Thank you." He said, earning a smile from her. "Are you all right did those spearow get at you when I was out?" He sighed in relief when she shook her head. "I'll be fine now you can get going." She shook her head. "You want to stay?" He asked she nodded enthusiastically. "Alright!" Ranma said at his cheerful words the pikachu moved closer to him. Ranma became a bit nervous as the cute but very naked girl approached him.
"I think you better put something on." He reached into his pack and pulled out a spare shirt that he put on the pikachu. He looked at her thoughtfully. "You know I think I should give you a name. Calling you pikachu is impractical. He looked her over and noticed her beautiful emerald green eyes staring at him in anticipation. "Emerald, that sounds nice. How bout it? Would you like it if I called you Emerald?" He asked.
The pikachu smiled, liking what she heard and wanting to reply struggled with the words she heard earlier. "L-L-Li-Like." She said. This made Ranma's eyes widened. "E-E-Emer-Emerald like." She finished.
"Holy shit." Ranma said. For the next week Ranma and Emerald stayed away from any sign of civilization there he did his best to teach her how to speak and taught her Anything-Goes martial arts. Emerald was very much like him in a way she took everything in like a dehydrated sponge and was always eager to learn more. But by the end of the work they were forced to head toward Vermilion city to restock on supplies.
"So this is Vermillion city." Ranma said looking at the small city from his perch in a hill. "Looks like a nice quaint place."
"Shall we head to the nearest store Ranma?" Emerald asked.
"Yeah we should, but first you need to change back." He sighed at Emerald's pout. "I know you want to go into town like that Emerald and I don't mind at all, but you're going to attract a lot of attention and you know what the professor said."
Emerald hung. "Yeah, yeah I know I wouldn't be very in… incun… incan… what is the word?" She asked.
"Inconspicuous." Ranma said. Over the week he eventually revealed that martial arts wasn't exactly the only thing he was good at, Ranma was actually a very intelligent young man he was able to understand what his classes at Furinkan taught he just didn't show it because if he did his father would accuse him of putting aside the art for useless junk that he wouldn't need to learn. (All those who agree that Genma never passed high school raise your hands, and believe me I will be counting.)
"Yes, that's it." She said, than looked at Ranma with teary eyes. "But please Ranma don't put me in that pokeball. Can I stay out here with you?"
Ranma fell to the look in 2.3 seconds. "Uh, sure I see no problem with that." Emerald smiled and closed her eyes again seconds later the clothes she was wearing fell in a pile and a cute little yellow mouse crawled out from it. The mouse then leaped up from the ground and with a little flip she landed on Ranma's shoulders with her arms up like a gymnast finishing a performance. "Little show off." He muttered.
Emerald stuck her tongue out at him and let out a little. "Pika."
"Alright let's get going shall we?" Ranma asked.
"Pi!" Emerald said pumping her tiny clenched paw in the air. Ranma began his sprint downhill to the small city of Vermilion to restock how was he to know that soon he would be meeting a very powerful legendary pokemon that would scare the pants off him.
To be continued.
Author notes: It's a little hasty I admit, It's my first take on a Pokemon/Ranma fic with anthro pokemon elements. I know there are a lot of questions left unanswered in this chapter, but they will reveal themselves as the story progresses. It's actually how most of my work is done if you've read most of them. Well in all this is the new fic that I said would appear. Don't worry I haven't forgotten my promise of another chapter for War Angel Ranma. Please R&R sternly but hopefully not flaming. So until next time.
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Four years later...
"Oi, Hokage-sama, where does this go?"
"Um...over there."
"Are you sure, brat? I think it would look better against that wall."
Naruto sent his predecessor an irritated look.
"Baa-chan, I've been planning this out for the last fifteen years, I think I know where I want my shit to go."
Hagane Kotetsu snorted behind the potted fern he was carrying before ducking down as the last living Sannin glared in his direction. He carefully lowered the plant by the five pictures of the previous Hokage's and scurried out of the room to get the next item to be ferried. The new Hokage insisted on bringing all his plants into his office to improve the feng shui of the otherwise bland room.
Naruto took a deep and satisfied lungful of air as he surveyed his new domain. He had done it; he was the Rokudaime Hokage of Konohagakure at twenty-one years of age—younger than even his father. The public had all but demanded that he take over once Tsunade announced her retirement, and remarkably enough the council backed his nomination nearly one hundred percent. There was a time when this scenario would have been thought laughable, but after the destruction of the Akatsuki Naruto's popularity skyrocketed.
Now he stood tall at six feet even, wearing his long white and red robes and surveying the general activity around him; Kotetsu and Izumo were moving some of his personal things into the office, Shizune was trying to get him on a head start with the paperwork, and Tsunade was just plain antagonizing him (or as she would call it, "guidance").
"You look good," the buxom blonde promised him when she saw him picking at the sleeves of his gown. She was right; those robes were made for him.
"Thanks," he smiled, directing a soft look at the triangular hat he held in his hands. It was almost surreal to be holding it, knowing it belonged to him now. For so long he had waited for this; he boasted about it even when there were times when deep down he questioned his own ability to pull through.
"I hope you've got your acceptance speech ready," Tsunade continued, giving him an appraising look, though she already knew his answer.
Sure enough, after a nonchalant shrug he replied with confidence, "I can wing it."
"Come on, baa-chan! With my charm and charisma? I don't need to prepare a speech," Naruto grinned, waggling his eyebrows at her much in the same way Jiraiya used to. She rolled her eyes, unable to keep the smile from creeping up on her face
"Or lack thereof."
Naruto spotted Sai standing in the open doorway, a mission report in his hand regarding the solo A-rank he just returned from.
"I suppose I should just go to bed early rather than suffer through your stuttering, dickless," Sai smirked, though it was at least sincere. Fortunately, his old teammate had long since stopped reacting so violently to the jibe.
"You wouldn't like it anyway," Naruto assured him, "It has nothing to do with penises."
The artist sauntered up to the desk and dropped the neatly organized folder on his desk, "Your first report. Enjoy it."
Laughing, Naruto flipped him off as he left the office and fell back into his chair, relaxing into the firm padding. He could still remember glaring at the piece of furniture in envy every time he saw the Sandaime perched in it, knowing it was meant to be his seat.
"How does it feel?" his predecessor asked, enjoying the sight of her adoptive little brother finally achieving his dream. That necklace finally pulled through for someone.
"Natural," was his one word answer. It certainly did feel as though he was meant to be sitting behind the glossy maple-wood desk—miraculously void of dents—looking out from the other side.
"Hey, Baa-chan..." Naruto started. Tsunade took her eye off of Izumo and Kotetsu who were juggling a fragile looking Pothos and turned to her successor. Naruto had his hands splayed across the fine, gloss of the desk top, "Is this desk the original since the First?"
"It is," the woman answered, impressed that he had noticed something like that, "the First created it using his Mokuton and that's why it's practically indestructible."
"That must be why it never breaks no matter how many times you threw it out the window, Lady Tsunade," Kotetsu declared cheerfully. This time he jumped behind Izumo as Tsunade sent him the stink-eye.
"I see..." Naruto mumbled, rubbing his chin in contemplation. Had a certain volatile, green-eyed wizard been present he would have immediately recognized the look as one associated with Inuyasha and a harebrained scheme.
"Why do you ask Hokage-sama?" Shizune asked. She had now moved to arranging the informational scrolls on a shelf wall so that Naruto might have an easier time finding anything particular.
"Shizune, you can still call me Naruto," he said, shooting an absent smile in her direction, "Anyway, I only asked because I was just wondering if every Hokage we've had so far has had sex on it."
"WHAT?" both Shizune and Tsunade screamed simultaneously. Izumo choked on some spit and Kotetsu was flat out laughing. The young Hokage paid no attention to their reactions.
"Yeah, I mean, it makes complete sense," Naruto continued sagely with his eyes closed, not noticing the huge tick on the right side of Tsunade's temple or Shizune clutching her chest in scandal, "This desk has probably seen it all if it's been here since the very first Hokage."
Naruto opened one eye and glanced at Tsunade, aside from her pissed off look there was also a red hue splashed across her nose.
"IT'S TRUE!" he yelled accusingly, jumping up from his chair and pointing his finger inches from her nose, "It must be! I can see it on your face, woman!"
He paused thoughtfully, looked at Tsunade again, and shuddered. Blushing further, the accused woman jumped at him with a raised hand, fully intending on smacking the idiot through the window. But Naruto had other plans and ducked under the bludgeoning appendage, now absolutely sure of his theory by her reaction. He had suspected it for years—anyone with half a mind would have sex in their own office at least once—but knowing that it was the original desk for all five hokages was even better. Admittedly disturbing, but still pretty cool.
At this point, Kotetsu and Izumo were beside themselves with laughter. Unfortunately for one particular school teacher of Konoha, Iruka chose that moment to give the new Hokage and his former student a congratulatory visit.
"Iruka!" Naruto yelled the second the brunette walked in the room; he was on a roll from Tsunade's silent confirmation, completely wound up. Iruka stared right back at him as the picturesque deer-in-the-headlight, "I demand that you put it in your lesson plans!"
"Put what in my lesson plans?" he asked, looking to Shizune for an answer, but the woman only looked away from his questioning stare and down at her feet, still blush red at the topic. He also found it strange that Kotetsu and Izumo were having difficulty breathing and Tsunade seemed beside herself with embarrassment and resentment.
"This desk," Naruto explained, "Every Hokage to ever run this village has had sex on it!"
There was a pregnant pause and then...
"NO WAY!" Iruka yelled back at him, now unable to take his eyes away from the piece of furniture in question. On that desk...had every Hokage really...?
He quickly shook his head to clear such ludicrous thoughts, "I'm not teaching children that! How could you even suggest something so perverted? You're supposed to be setting an example, Naruto!"
"It's a piece of history," the blonde argued, "As Hokage, I order you to do it!"
Izumo had to hold onto Kotetsu's shoulder for fear of falling over in his mirth.
"You're not Hokage yet brat," Tsunade growled, still slightly pink in the cheeks, "Don't make me call Sakura away from the hospital just to get you to behave. We're dropping this subject now."
Naruto wasn't even listening to her as more ideas began popping into his head the longer he thought about his latest discovery.
"Oh my god!" he cried dramatically, "I was probably conceived on this desk!"
"Will someone get my damn apprentice up here?!" Tsunade snapped to no one in particular.
Kotetsu wiped a tear from his eye and shared a look with his best friend.
There was no doubt about it; life under Uzumaki Naruto's reign would be anything but boring.
Naruto swallowed down a bubble of apprehension that rose in his throat, now wishing he had written something down. He tugged a bit at his collar as he stared down at the sea of smiling faces from the balcony of the Hokage administration building. Behind him stood his predecessor Tsunade, her assistant Shizune, his teammates Sakura, Sasuke and Sai, their old sensei Kakashi, and the last two elders Mitokado Homura and Utatane Koharu.
The excited and animated chatter fizzing around the gathered village slowly began to die down as more and more people noticed Naruto step up to the railing. The Rokudaime took a deep break to calm his nerves and began speaking in a loud, clear voice that carried over the hushed precinct.
"You know," he began, "I had this all planned out when I was ten: I was going to work hard, rise through the ranks, gain respect, become Hokage, and then spend a good ten minutes laughing in your faces for ever doubting me."
Laughter erupted throughout the crowd in a ripple and the warming sound gave Naruto a bit more confidence.
"My dream to become Hokage was started for the wrong reasons," he continued, once the noise level calmed down, "I only wanted respect; I wanted people to acknowledge my existence because they had to. It wasn't until I gained my own precious people did I learn that respect should not only be earned, it should be deserved. Great accomplishments will only mean so much in the long run, what really matters is the reason you fight."
He paused for a moment, thinking about how he wanted to continue.
"As you know, the shinobi world is experiencing a time of piece—the first one since the five great nations were established."
More cheers from the crowd interrupted his speech because the majority of them knew he was largely responsible for the aforementioned 'peace'. Naruto waited patiently for the noise to drop again before he carried on.
"But like all good things, this time of peace will eventually come to an end; it may be in ten years, or it may be in a hundred, but eventually the time to fight will resurface," he spoke these words with a grim face and a somber voice. The mass listened silently; not a single person could be found even whispering to his or her neighbor.
"However, if there's one thing I've learned from growing up in this village, it's that we can never be destroyed," a soft smile was expressed through his eyes as he acknowledged the rapt attention he held from his supporters.
"Even if tomorrow the walls are torn down and the buildings crumble, Konoha will still exist as long as the will of fire burns within the people. This village is not defined by its structure or who leads it—it's you, the people, who are the power behind the symbol of the leaf we carry, you are the inspiration and motivation for what we fight for. And as long as I'm Hokage I will protect and represent everything its citizens stand for, both ninja and civilian."
The end of his speech was met with an explosive tide of whistles, cheers and clapping. The ground below him was an animated sea of approval; had he been a lesser man he would have cried tears of joy. Instead, he smiled and waved down to his charges as Sakura pulled up at his side and slipped her hand in his, squeezing it to express her own excitement. Tsunade walked to his other side and began to assess the spectacle.
"Representing the people huh?" Tsunade mumbled wryly out of the corner of her mouth, making sure the keep a sincere enough smile on her face for the villagers.
Naruto could understand her dubiousness; ever since the very first ninja village was established the government has always been a borderline dictatorship. Like all beginnings, the leader of a society was determined by the strongest; as time progressed and the ninja economy flourished, communities grew into villages and that type of government stayed somewhat true to this day, having the strongest ninja prevail over the rest. Though eventually there was the addition of a council of elders, they're purpose was more for more consult than action.
Naruto knew the council wasn't congress but, with a little tweaking, maybe he could get the villagers more involved with decisions of Konohagakure's government. He could possibly have them decide who was on the council through a voting system, or limit the terms of council positions to keep certain clans from prevailing over others. Okay, so maybe it would take a little more than tweaking to change the basis of a century-old government system, but hey, he was immortal. He had some time to kill.
Naruto continued waving and grinning when he replied with a question.
"You know what I liked best about America?"
"What?" Tsunade asked, deciding to humor him.
"The Republic."
The pain-filled howls of a twenty-eight year old woman in labor with her first child thundered throughout waiting room of Mass General Hospital, causing its occupants to cringe.
"Is Alaina okay, dad?" Caleb asked the man in the chair next to him with genuine concern. He knew his half-sister was having a baby, but he didn't think it would be this noisy. His mommy and Gavin, Alaina's husband, had gone in the room a long time ago and said that he wasn't allowed. Since then he had been bored out of his mind with only his sister's swearing to keep him entertained.
"She's fine," Inuyasha answered. He gently put his youngest child, who he was holding on his lap a moment earlier, to the ground. Fishing around in his pockets for a minute, he pulled out some loose change and handed it to his son.
"Cal, why don't you take Maddie to the vending machine down the hall and get yourselves something to eat."
"Okay!" Caleb exclaimed, wasting no time in snatching the money from the outstretched clawed hand, "Come on Maddie."
Madeline "Maddie" Nagasaki clutched her big brother's hand dutifully and followed after him. She at curly black hair, human ears and her father's amber eyes; she looked a lot like Bridget in many ways but her face was already resembling that of her mother's. At four years old she would follow her older sibling everywhere, and Caleb took his responsibilities as a big brother very seriously, often times becoming a little too over protective.
Now it was just Inuyasha, Harry and Bridget who were waiting outside the room for the newest arrival of their family. It was last summer that the raven-haired pair were married and officially mated, and Naruto was summoned to be a part of the wedding. Though time and worlds had kept the good friends separated, they still made an effort to summon one another from time to time for special events and get-togethers. Despite the prolonged periods of disconnection, their relationships stayed much the same; Kagome still made a show of mothering Naruto, Naruto still annoyed Harry, Harry still picked on Naruto, and Inuyasha still corrected Naruto's grammar and messed up his hair.
Bridget turned to her mate and said in all seriousness: "We are never having children."
Harry was about to make an argument to that when another horrific scream sounded from behind the closed doors. He shut his mouth and sat back quietly. Inuyasha quirked his eyebrow at the obedience and smiled.
"You sister is dramatic," he comforted Bridget, "I have never had a wife who has screamed as much as she has giving birth."
"She was always loud," Harry nodded wisely with his arms crossed.
"You're loud."
"Your mom's loud."
Sakura squealed as her stomach jumped into her throat after a taking particularly sharp plunge. Pink tresses were steadily ripped out of the clip holding her hair up and whipped around her face and neck. Flying with Naruto was unlike any other experience. It didn't take much for her to convince her lover to take her for a ride in the sky; just a hip-shake here and a whisker stroke there and she'd be piggybacking him two hundred feet in the air in no time.
Their velocity slowed as her joyride began to end, but the drop still had her squeezing her eyes shut against the tickling sensations in her stomach. The wind around her stopped and she was jolted out of the airborne feeling when they landed—only then did Sakura trust herself to open her eyes. His arms loosened around her thighs and she slid off his back, looking around their surroundings.
"Why did we stop here?" she asked, still panting from all the screaming she did. They had taken off from the balcony in front of the Hokage office window, but she now found herself on top of the Hokage Mountain—the fourth's head to be more precise.
"Because," he answered, grabbing one of her wrists and pulling her by the waist close to his body with his other arm as if he were about to dance with her, "this is where I first kissed you."
Sakura looked around once more and clearly remembered that rainy day after Asuma's funeral.
"You mean as a boy?" she asked, her eyes glittering in mirth. She snaked a hand up and brushed her thumb along his whiskers, "How could I forget? It was when I first discovered these."
Naruto released a small moan between slightly parted lips and nuzzled into her hand.
"Stop abusing them."
He suddenly grabbed the hand touching his face, lifted it up and twirled her around. She laughed with carefree abandon as she was spun and then dipped. She loosely wrapped her arms around his neck to help hold her weight as she relaxed her neck back into the horizontal pose. Slowly, she pulled her head up to look into Naruto's smiling, mischievous eyes. They were so beautiful, so blue that they sparkled when compared to the open sky in the background. And the sky, it was just a beautiful, perfect day—
Sakura gasped out loud and almost let go of the man holding her.
There, behind his head, high above in the cerulean troposphere was a string of clouds in the unmistakable form of words.
Marry Me?
Her eyes sought Naruto's, her face a mixture of elation and shock.
"Will you?" he asked softly, knowing what she had seen. She vacantly realized he had yet to pull her back up from the playful dip she was still held in but perhaps it was because time was now standing still for her. She felt weightless, like she was floating through life, just a spectator to the perfect events that by. The question she had been waiting for was written out in the heavens for all to see.
"Is—is that a serious question?" she whispered, finally finding her voice.
"Is that your answer?"
She laughed and threw herself up at him, pulling his neck into her grip; caught somewhat unawares Naruto tumbled forwards, just barely catching himself before his superior weight crushed her against ground. Sakura wasn't concerned in the least that she was now laying in the dirt with the back of her clothes sure to be stained.
"Yes!" she cried, keeping her death grip on her new fiancé's neck so he would stay on top of her. A hard kiss met his lips before she pulled back and yelled again, "Yes you big dork!"
Another kiss soon followed, this time her tongue snaked forwards for some action of its own, but before he could properly respond she pulled back again.
"What took you so long?"
"Hey, the question mark was hard," he pouted, "I had to practice."
Sakura giggled and rubbed her nose against his in an Eskimo kiss. The wide smile wouldn't leave his face; she was just too adorable for him sometimes. He pecked her quickly and rolled off of her so that they could lay on the ground side by side, their bare arms brushing against each other; even after all these years a simple contact between the two could send tingles down their spines. The wind was starting to pick up, and the overjoyed couple watched as the billowy proposal was gradually wiped away. It didn't matter; it had served its purpose.
At that moment Naruto felt that his life couldn't get any better. He was Hokage, he not only had the respect of the village, but of the world, and he was marrying the very same girl he swore he would when he was just nine years old. How many people can do that in their life?
Wondering at her future husband's silence, Sakura turned and propped herself up on her elbow so that she could face him. She studied the strong profile that was gazing pensively up at the sky, knowing she couldn't have asked for a better man to marry.
And for them, it was hardly the beginning. With that thought in mind she began to idly trace her finger through the dirt.
"Hmmm, Uzumaki Sakura...I like how that sounds," she hummed to herself. Naruto mirrored Sakura's position, rolling on his side and using his elbow to prop himself up so that he was facing her as well.
He had meant to say something racy relevant to other ways her name could sound given the right situation, but the scribbles in the dirt made by her finger caught his words before they could leave his throat.
Mark me?
His tell-tale foxy grin was set wide across his jaw and the enchanting sparkle in his eyes magnified.
"Tonight?" he asked and Sakura nodded enthusiastically.
"Yes, tonight."
He stared at her a moment longer—the demon in him rearing up at the prospect of attaining a mate—before he tackled her back to the ground. She squealed and laughed as he nearly ravished her on the spot—right there on top of his father's "head".
"I said tonight! Not now!" she cried pitifully, but her words were as weak as her efforts to stop his hand from creeping up her shirt.
Naruto planned to rule as Konoha's Rokudaime Hokage for several decades, raising a family with his mate and watching his children grow up and move on with their own lives. He would appreciate the changes of time as his and Sakura's love was preserved through the eternal bond of immortality.
When their friends had grown old and departed, and Konoha had passed so many generations that their story became one molded from history into legend, they would go to Harry and Inuyasha's world and spend a couple centuries with old friends and family who weren't limited to a mortal's fate. By that time Inuyasha would have developed his gate-keeping abilities to the point where he was allowed to take another along with him without almost killing them. Harry still had quite a ways to go.
Wars would come and go throughout ever changing eras, and even if they didn't age that wouldn't stop them from growing. Naruto was a bringer of peace, as were Inuyasha and Harry; it was their destiny to keep evil at bay without extinguishing it, the precarious duty of keeping the balance, and they accepted it with grace. And behind each of their legendary power was the strength of a woman.
But even during those times of peace, the parallel souls were never meant to be idle. There was always the possibility of being thrown back into an apocalyptic war or a battle against the evil of another universe. After all, the Scroll of Heroes was purposely dropped between worlds by Inuyasha; it was known to be lost in translation with the possibility of falling into any corresponding world of Earth. Perhaps one day it would accept someone worthy of their summons.
To whom it would befall, only time would tell.
Well, that was it! It's done—finished—over. I almost can't believe it.
Wow, I don't know where to start. When I first started Demon Hunter I had no idea I would write a sequel, let alone a trilogy. I can't believe it's come this far; it's been like, what? Three years working on this series? Looking back, I feel like I've come a long way as an amateur writer.
I know the end sounds like I'm making a fourth installment, but I'm not. I've gotten a lot of good suggestions for continuations, but I feel if I drag things out any longer I could just end up ruining it. Of course I have a bunch of ideas of what could happen in their futures (one person even suggested I have a new story focusing on Caleb—he is pretty B.A. for a toddler) but I also have other things on my mind.
Actually, I think many of you will be happy to know that I am already working on my next chapter fic. It is purely Naruto, and has nothing to do with crossovers or any of my other stories (though I may take a few ideas out of them, just little things—like Naruto's whisker details—that I like). It will be called Medicinal Lullaby, so keep your eyes open for that in the next couple months or so!
A special thanks goes to strider714 for improving the quality of my grammar halfway through this. Seriously, you have to be some kind of man to put up with my irrationality.
Most of all, thank you all so much for reading, especially those who have been with me the whole way through. It's been a lot of fun and I've gotten some great feedback from a lot of you!
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-1A/N: Okay, so this is my first songfic. I'm sorry if it sucks. Also, I'm sorry if Derek and Casey seem a bit out of character, but I don't think it's too bad. I got this idea and had to write it kinda quick, because I'm going on vacation and I don't know if I'm going to have internet access for my laptop down there.
I had to go back and make some changes, because I actually read the story on the site for the first time, and saw that the first part of the song was missing. This is the way that I had it written originally.
Disclaimer: I don't own Life With Derek, or Sic Transit Gloria…Glory Fades by Brand New. You could sue me about borrowing them, but I only have 47 cents in my bank account, so it's hardly worth it.
He heard her sneaking into his room. It was late, of course, after everyone else had fallen asleep. They were both still awake, though, just waiting for this.
Keep the noise low.
She doesn't wanna blow it.
Shaking head to toe
while your left hand does "the show me around."
Quickens your heartbeat.
It beats me straight into the ground.
You don't recover from a night like this.
A victim, still lying in bed, completely motionless.
A hand moves in the dark to a zipper.
Hear a boy bracing tight against sheets
barely whisper, "This is so messed up."
As she leaned in to kiss him, he thought back to the night that had all started this.
Their parents had gone out of town, and the younger kids had gone off to various friends and family members houses. Naturally, with that much freedom, Derek had decided to throw a party. He had expected a fight from Casey about it, but she had agreed and even helped him set up for it. He was shocked, but decided not to push it.
Later that night, the party was in full swing. Derek figured out why Casey hadn't fought about the party, she was cuddled up in the lap of some football player. Something about seeing her there made him cringe. He was fine until the guy followed her into a bathroom. Then he started to freak out a little bit. He had realized long ago that he had a crush on Casey, but he didn't think that her being with other guys would bother him this much. He decided to take a walk.
Casey came out of the bathroom, looking slightly peeved that Gary had the nerve to try something like that. She wasn't the sort of girl to have sex with a guy in a bathroom at a party, especially if he hadn't even bothered to take her out beforehand. Sam told her Derek had started acting all weird and went for a walk. She didn't think much of it until she heard the rain start and saw him walk back in through the front door.
Upon arrival the guests had all stared.
Dripping wet and clearly depressed,
he'd headed straight for the stairs.
No longer cool, but a boy in a stitch,
unprepared for a life full of lies and failing relationships.
She watched him go upstairs, and decided to follow him. She walked into his room without knocking and saw him lying on his bed. She asked him quietly, "Are you okay?"
"No Casey, I'm really not." He replied, sounding sad.
"Is there anything I can do to help?" She asked gently.
"I doubt it." He replied, and rolled over on his side.
She stood for a second in the doorway, unsure of what to do. She walked over to the bed and lied down, curling her body next to his.
He jumped off of the bed, surprised. "What are you doing?"
"Trying to make you feel better. Come lay back down." He stands where he is for a moment longer, unsure of what to do.
He keeps his hands low.
He doesn't wanna blow it.
He's wet from head to toe and
his eyes give her the up and the down.
His stomach turns and he thinks of throwing up.
But the body on the bed beckons forward
and he starts growing up.
He laid down next to her, and she leaned into him. She kissed him, gently at first, then more urgent. She ran her tongue over his lips, waiting for them to part and grant her access. He did, reluctantly. She shoved her tongue into his mouth, exploring every nook inside. He was unsure of whether or not he wanted her to continue. Yes, he liked her, but this wasn't quite what he had imagined his first time being like. Regardless of what people thought, he hadn't had sex with any of the girls he had taken out, he just made out with them.
She hits the lights.
This doesn't seem quite fair.
Despite everything he learned from his friends,
he doesn't feel so prepared.
She's breathing quiet and smooth.
He's gasping for air.
He gently brought his hands up to her sides, and she began to remove his clothes. He wasn't sure that he wanted to be with someone who didn't want a relationship outside of sex. He decided that he couldn't be with her after tonight.
She fakes a smile and presses her hips into his.
He keeps his hands pinned down at his sides.
He's holding back from telling her
exactly what it really feels like.
He didn't know how she had gotten complete control over the situation. Not having control was not something that he was used to. He started telling her how beautiful and smart she is, even though all he really wanted to tell her was how much he loved her, but he didn't think that was what she wanted to hear.
He is the lamb, she is the slaughter.
Nothing that he tells her is really having an effect.
He whispers that he loves her,
but she's probably only looking for...
He asked her what she wanted. "Duh, Derek. Isn't it a little obvious?" She looked at him pointedly. He nodded his head and let her continue what she was doing. He knew that as long as he was doing this with her, he would love her, without her loving him back. It would probably wreck all his future relationships before they even started.
So much more than he could ever give.
A life free of lies and a meaningful relationship.
He keeps his hands pinned down at his sides.
He waits for it to end
and for the aching in his guts to subside.
In that moment, with Casey rocking back and forth on top of him, he realized that he had become an adult. One with serious issues, but an adult nonetheless.
Up the stairs: the station where
the act becomes the art of growing up.
The next day, when everyone came home, Edwin had asked him about girls. "What's it like, really?"
Derek thought to himself, "What should I tell him? Should I tell him about how your brain overheats when you think about them? How hard you focus on them when you want them?"
The fever, the focus.
"What about how you feel when one of them forces themselves on you, and you feel like it's not the first time they've done it?"
The reasons that I had to believe
you weren't too hard to sell.
"What about how it actually feels to be around girls in the moment? And then how it feels after, when you realize it's not all it's cracked up to be?"
The tickle, the taste of...
It used to be the reason I breathed
but now it's choking me up.
Just then Casey walked into the room, and gave him a smoldering look. Derek knew at that moment what to say to him. "Edwin, trust me on this one,
Die young and save yourself."
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Disclaimer: I don't own the Twilight series. That right belongs to Stephenie Meyers.
Read and Review
I never fancied myself in love before. Perhaps it wasn't love, but instead lust. Even I didn't know the answer. When I first laid eyes on Carlisle's son Edward, I was infatuated. He had a cute, boyish face and was flawless. Of course he was. Edward was as much a vampire as I was.
Our clan settled in Alaska and I took on newcomers who wanted to change their way of life. My past is very little, but my future is so vast. I have lived through the years and seen the world. I have traveled through time and dived into the deepest of oceans. I was invincible, beautiful, and unstoppable.
That was until I met Edward.
He changed my point of view. I use to think I could get what I wanted by merely manipulating another with my charm and beauty. His sister Rosalie was far more beautiful than anyone I had ever seen, but that was all she was to him, a sister. No competition would be made. I adored Rosalie, partly because she wasn't anything more to Edward as intended.
I sighed softly and breathed in the artic wind of Alaska. Twilight settled upon the great land that I had learned to live and adapt. My clan wasn't anything like those filthy, sadist vampires; we consumed animal blood. Another thing I had in common with Edward and the Cullen family. We were a perfect match. Both beautiful. Both smart. Both charming.
Sadly he wasn't as attracted to me as I was to him. Nothing seemed to appease him. Nobody turned his head or even made him look twice. Not even me. The time I had spent with the Cullen family taught me a few things. I learned of the unique abilities that Alice and Jasper had. I was mortified when I learned of Edward's ability. My thoughts weren't exactly chaste.
Nevertheless, Edward allured me. Something about handsome, polite boy caught my attention. Perhaps it was how he could be polite one moment, and then arrogantly haughty the next. Maybe it was the way he gave that devilish little smirk of his. I didn't know what attracted me to Edward, but all I knew is that I wanted him. I desired his attention and yet I wasn't satisfied when he gave me said attention.
I knew our feelings weren't mutual. Edward was far too civil in the company of a lady. When I confided in Alice and Rosalie, they told me that he hadn't taken a liking to anyone as far as they knew. I grimaced and hoped that Edward wasn't indifferent. That would be a pity; such a waste of Adonis.
I couldn't understand my sudden impulse. There had to be something. Anything. Edward just had to feel something for me; it wasn't possible that he didn't. I constantly yearned for his company and he complied with my every whim. How could there not be any attraction? Edward was simply playing hard to get, I concluded. Even my false delusions didn't ease my urgency to be with him. Pathetic, I know.
A petulant sigh escaped my lips as I walked back inside my room, passing my mirror. I stopped. Yes, I was vain. I walked a few steps back and stared intently at my reflection. My pale figure enhanced my topaz colored eyes to the point where even I was entranced. Wisps of strawberry blonde hair framed my perfectly angular face, cascading freely down my back. I was slender in my black dress, but I wasn't as small as Alice. Never once had a birthed a child, so an absence of curve was inevitable.
I couldn't understand why Edward wouldn't give up and confess. Plenty of men praised me for my beauty-well-human men. They were hopelessly pathetic. None could compare to Edward; not a single person. I growled and turned around furiously, but froze in placed.
"Hello Tanya," he said softly.
I stared at Edward, shocked that he was in my room. If my heart wasn't stopped for all eternity, it would be beating profusely. "Edward," I gasped. "It's nice to see you."
He smiled and nodded his head. "I wanted to bid you farewell before I was off with my family."
"What?" No. It couldn't be. The time passed so quickly that it seemed as if the Cullen's had only arrived weeks ago instead of months.
"Yes, I know." He laughed and I caught on that he read my thoughts. The boy was nosy. "But we won't be that far. Esme found us a wonderful home in Forks, Washington."
I bit my lip. "Edward, please…"
His eyes hardened slightly as he shook his head. "Don't."
"I love you," I blurted out foolishly. A wave of relief washed over me as I finally admitted my affections out loud.
Edward stood still. His eyes softened, filling me with a sense of hope. "I'm flattered Tanya, but I must apologize." My eyes widened slightly. "I don't return your affections."
"But you must-"
"No." Edward said gently. "I'm very sorry if I led you on Tanya. I will take my leave now." He turned his back and walked towards the door.
"I know you love me Edward," I sobbed tearlessly. "You do."
"Tanya, please-"
"You can't deny what is there." He turned around at my comment and stared back at me sadly.
"But you can't accept what isn't there," Edward whispered. He then walked back out of the door, closing it quietly.
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Author's Note: I do not own the characters nor am I pretending to be Stephenie Meyer. I am merely a fan who wanted to tell how I believed the story would go. ) Please enjoy! I'm sorry it took so long. I will probably update within the week. Thank you to all who favorited and reviewed! -J.A.
I woke up in Edward's arms but I did not feel his ice cold skin against my own. I opened my eyes to see his face and was immediately met by his beautiful topaz eyes. I smiled as the pain subsided. I no longer felt the fire in my veins. That must mean I was finally a vampire. I put my hand on Edward's cheek and pulled his face to mine. We kissed for a few minutes not coming up for air. Edward no longer needed to be gentle with me, and he didn't need to use control. This was our first kiss as a vampire couple, and it was amazing. Full of passion and love and desire. After a few minutes I pulled away. I looked at Edward with a look of incredulity. His skin no longer felt cool to my touch, instead he now felt warm and human.
"What's wrong?" He asked, his velvet voice full of concern and fear.
"Your skin!" I replied, my voice full of shock.
"What?" Edward asked confused. "What's wrong with my skin?"
"Nothing," I answered quickly. I didn't want him to think anything was wrong with him. It was everything but! "You're not cold anymore. You're warm!"
He laughed and smiled his crooked smile. My breath caught in my chest. Glad to know he still had that effect on me. I raised my eyebrow at him.
"No, I'm not." He continued to smile at me. "Well, not to you anymore, at least."
I gave him a confused look. This wasn't making any sense. Why was he not cold to my touch? He could tell I wasn't following so he continued.
"You're a vampire now. Nothing you touch will be cold to you. You'll feel warm things, as I felt the warmth of your skin, but you will never be cold."
I took it all in. Never be cold again? That sounded pretty awesome to me! And now I would be able to hold Edward and not shiver. This was starting to sound even more amazing than I could have ever believed. I threw my arms around him and hugged him. Our life together started now.
"Can I go see the others?" I begged him. I wanted to see Alice, Carlisle, Esme, Emmett, Jasper, and even Rosalie. I wanted them to see me as a vampire. Edward smiled at me before he answered.
"Of course. Hold on a second, though." He leaned in to kiss me. I kissed him back, throwing my whole self into the kiss. I looped my arms around his neck, and slid my hands into his hair. I kneeled on the bed as he slid his arms around my waist and pulled my body closer to his. I was shocked at how normal he felt as I pressed my body against his. I felt his mouth open and his tongue slide across my lower lip, I shivered, not because it was cold but because it felt amazing. I opened my mouth and our tongues met, deepening the kiss. He tasted positively delicious! After a few moments he pulled away and rested his forehead against mine.
"All right," he said a little breathless. "Let's go."
I grabbed his hand and began to pull him towards the door. I was surprised at how easy it was to pull him with me. Must be my newly acquired vampire strength. I smiled and skipped out of his bedroom and down the hall without tripping. This was going to be awesome! I made it down the stairs in blur and stopped dead in the entrance of the Cullens' home. I gasped. I hadn't realized how fast I was! I could keep up with Edward's pace without breaking a sweat.
"Wow!" I squealed. "This is going to take some getting used to!" Edward threw his head back and laughed loudly. I started to laugh with him. It was kind of funny.
Suddenly I heard someone come up behind us. I turned around to see who it was and found Alice and Jasper hand in hand grinning at us in the entry of the kitchen.
"What's so funny?" Jasper asked curious as to why Edward and I couldn't control our laughter. Alice's face opened into a little "o" of surprise.
"Bella! Wow! You look amazing!"
I looked at her in surprise before looking quickly to my body. I hadn't thought of looking at myself in a mirror before seeing everyone. I had no idea what I looked like. I hoped I was as beautiful as them. I studied my body. I was still wearing my old faded jeans and black t-shirt I had on the night Edward changed me but it fit better than it had before. My arms were toned with muscle that I hadn't had before and my skin was pallid. I assumed my eyes were a bright crimson red, but I couldn't be sure without looking in a mirror. I ran up to Alice and threw my arms around her and hugged her tightly. She hugged me back and then held me at arms length to look at me.
"Wow" she muttered silently, but I could hear her now.
I smiled as she grabbed my hand and tugged me towards the kitchen where I believed the rest of the Cullen family was. We walked in together – Alice actually bounced in, I was the one walking, with Edward and Jasper trailing along behind us. I smiled as I saw Edward's family, my family, all sitting at the table talking. As I walked in Emmett bounded out of his chair and caught me in one of his bear hugs, squeezing me so tight I thought I might explode.
"Bella's so hot now!" Emmett boomed. "Edward, why did you wait so long to change her?" I giggled at the irony of Emmett's statement as Edward punched Emmett in the shoulder, sending him flying onto the floor next to the table. This time I could see the fast punch that sent his brother flying. I laughed harder. Rosalie glanced at me before glaring at Emmett. I couldn't stop laughing and suddenly I felt Jasper calming me down. I looked over my shoulder and smiled at him and which he returned. Edward put his arm around my waist and we stepped closer to the table. Esme got up from her chair and glided towards me, embracing me softly before kissing me on the forehead with a soft "Congratulations". Carlisle followed suit, coming up and giving me a hug, and clapping Edward on the shoulder as men often did. I smiled. I saw Rosalie shift uncomfortably in her chair before hesitantly getting up and kissing my cheek. We all sat around the table for hours just talking and laughing and having a great time, I even noticed Rosalie joining in and laughing, when I noticed a dull ache in the back of my throat. I didn't know why it was there but I hoped it wasn't an after-effect of my change.
"Edward," I whispered into his ear. He gave a small "Hmm?" of acknowledgement so I continued. "The back of my throat feels funny."
He smiled his crooked smile and chuckled.
"That is because you are thirsty." He kissed my forehead. "Shall we go hunting?"
"Yes," I replied. My first hunting trip. This was going to be an experience I wasn't likely to forget. It could go wrong in so many ways for me. What if I couldn't catch any game? I could be running and smash into a tree! It was a legitimate concern in my mind. I may be a vampire now, but that didn't mean my criminal clumsiness just disappeared. No, for all I knew it was hiding in the wings waiting to overcome me at the worst possible moment. My silent musings were interrupted by Alice.
"I wanna come!" Alice's shrill voice pierced through my reverie. "Oh, please Bella, may I come?" She begged.
"Of course!" I replied excitedly. I did want Alice to come with me.
"Would you mind if we all came?" Carlisle asked me. I knew if I said I didn't want them to come with me, he would respect my wishes. But I truly did want them all to come. I wanted to spend the day hunting with my family. I saw Edward look at me questioningly out of the corner of my eye and I gave him a smile.
"The more the merrier." Edward answered for me as he correctly judged my reaction.
I started to plan it all out, my thoughts spilling out of my mouth like a can of paint that had been tipped over. We would need hiking gear, possibly tents, depending on how long we would stay. How would we catch the animals? Probably with traps. I'd heard of people using them before, but I didn't know how to set them up. Or guns, though I had no idea how to use one.. Good thing everyone is immortal. That could prove to be highly dangerous. Whose car would we take? Probably Emmett's jeep. Not all of us would fit in it, and that might present a problem.
"So, you have the gear in the garage, I assume, right?" I started to ramble off what I assumed we would need on a hiking trip. "We'll probably need guns and traps to get the animals and..." I trailed off when I saw the looks of hilarity across their faces. What was so funny? Emmett burst out laughing and Jasper laughed with him. I heard Edward stifle a laugh beside me. He did his best to control his voice as he stopped me from continuing.
"Bella, we don't need anything." Edward told me in a quiet voice which I knew he was using because if he spoke louder he would break into laughter. "We have everything we need on us." He flashed his sharp teeth at me.
"Well, yes," I told him. "But we'll need to drive there and Emmett's jeep isn't big enough for us all."
I heard Jasper laugh and mutter something that sounded a lot like "This should be fun" to Emmett to which he replied "Oh, I've gotta see this". I shot a glare in their direction.
"Bella, love," I whipped my head back at the sound of Edward's voice. "We run."
"Oh." Was all I could manage. Now that he said that it made sense. Of course they would run. It was much faster. If I could still blush, I would have. I felt Edward's hands as he cupped my face. He kissed me gently before asking me if I was ready to head out. I nodded and we ran out the backdoor into the beautiful sunny day.
We finally reached a forest that was overpopulated with mountain lions when Edward and I slowed to a walk. Edward and I had run hand in hand the whole way here and I was reluctant to let his hand go. Now that we were finally here I was overcome with nervousness. I didn't know how to hunt, and I didn't know my own strength. I looked around me at the moss-covered trees that surrounded us. It was beautiful here. The sun shone through some of the trees and lit up the forest floor. It was covered in pine needles and pine cones, leaves and bushes and ferns. There was a slight breeze in the forest that rustled the branches of the evergreen trees that encompassed us. Alice and Rosalie had gone off together to hunt and Esme had gone with Carlisle. Emmett and Jasper stood together ten feet away from where I stood next to Edward, no doubt making bets about how I would fair on my first hunt.
My nose tingled with the scent of the wildlife that was around me. I could smell birds, rabbits, and deer, though they were a less potent smell than the scent of the lions and bears that were in the forest. I felt the ache in my throat deepen until it felt like a burning fire. Not a painful sensation but one of discomfort. Edward's hand left mine and I heard him whisper in my ear.
"Let your instincts take control." I nodded and closed my eyes, willing my instincts to do the work.
I caught the scent of a mountain lion in the breeze. My eyes snapped open and my body ran on instinct towards the scent. When I was twenty feet away from the animal, I stopped. I watched the lion as it stalked it's prey. It was hunting, just as I. I felt myself lower into a crouch. I heard a low growl in the air. It took me a few seconds to realize that the growl had come from me. I stalked the lion, coming from behind and sprang onto its back. I grabbed it around the neck with my hands and sank my razor sharp teeth into its neck.
Warm blood flowed into my mouth and seeped down my throat to relieve the burning ache in my throat. I drank greedily from the lion though I didn't particulary like the taste of the blood I was drinking. My instincts only fueled how fast I drank.
I finally finished with the lion and stood up, wiping the blood from my lips. I looked around me and then at the lion I had just killed. Three days ago I would have been filled with such remorse that I would have collapsed onto the forest floor in tears over the fact that I had just killed and drank the blood of one of God's creatures, but it did not hit me as hard as I had thought it would. I did feel terrible about it but I knew I could not survive without it.
Edward's POV:
I replayed the events of the morning in my head as I ran with Bella to the forest where she would have her first hunt. I had been laying with my cheek against Bella's chest, listening to the sound of her heartbeat. It had slowed significantly until it no longer beat. I listened as her heart gave one last feeble beat. I knew that if I could cry, I would have. My favorite rhythm had just ended, and I was melancholy. The heavenly scent of Bella's blood had been replaced by a scent that was just as enchanting. As I breathed it in, savoring it, Bella had opened her eyes from her unconcious slumber and I had been in shock. Though I had known her pulchritudinous brown eyes would be replaced by a crimson red, it had surprised me. I don't think I really believed they would change. Bella put her hand on my face and we had kissed. It was our first real kiss, and I had been blown away. It had ended too soon. Bella had been astonished to feel that my skin no longer cooled her. I had laughed at that, for it did not surprise me. I explained to her that nothing would ever feel cold to her, though she would still feel warmth, as I had felt the warmth of her skin. She seemed to like that idea. She had thrown her arms around me in a hug before asking to see our family.
We had spent a few moments locked in a passionate kiss before we descended the stairs together to see everyone. Bella had come to an abrupt halt at the bottom of the staircase. She hadn't realized how fast she was until then. She gasped.
"Wow!" She had squealed. "This is going to take some getting used to!"
I threw my head back and laughed and Bella joined me as Alice and Jasper came up behind us. Jasper was curious as to what was so funny, but Alice was stunned as she looked at Bella.
I saw Alice's face opened into a little "o" of surprise.
"Bella! Wow! You look amazing!" Alice exclaimed.
Bella quickly looked down to see what Alice was talking about. I looked too. Bella no longer looked helpless and fragile, but strong and defined. Her arms were now toned with muscle, and her face had more definintion to it. I had thought Bella was the most beautiful woman before but nothing could compare to how entrancing she was to my eyes now. She took my breath away. Before I could say so Alice grabbed Bella and they walked into the kitchen together with Jasper and I following behind. The instant we entered, Emmett had bounded from his chair and enfolded Bella in a bear hug. He finally set her down and looked her up and down.
"Bella's so hot now!" He boomed before turning to speak to me. "Edward, why did you wait so long to change her?"
Bella giggled. I couldn't believe he said that. I punched him and he flew backwards onto the floor behind Rosalie's chair, to which Bella laughed harder.
I know where to find you, I heard Emmett think menacingly. I'll get you back.
Jasper had had to calm her down. Esme had been the first to offer her congratulations, Carlisle followed after his wife, and Rosalie was last. I was surprised by Rosalie. I hadn't expected her to acknowledge Bella, but she had. She had gotten up from her chair, a bit hesitantly, and walked over to kiss Bella's cheek. Bella had been surprised at that, but I knew she was elated by it.
She's family now, Rosalie thoughts said. I may as well try and make her feel welcome.
We had sat at the table for a few hours, talking and laughing together – Rosalie had joined in, and I was glad to see that she was coming around, when Bella whispered in my ear.
"Edward," she had whispered. I gave small "Hmm?" for her to know I was listening. "The back of my throat feels funny."
I smiled and gave a chuckle.
"That is because you are thirsty." I kissed her forehead. "Shall we go hunting?"
"Yes," Bella replied and her face was thoughtful.
"I wanna come!" Alice's shrill voice pierced through Bella's thoughts. "Oh, please Bella, may I come?" She begged.
"Of course!" Bella responded excitedly.
I was happy that Bella wanted company on her first hunting trip. I had expected her to avoid hunting for a week or two. I didn't know how she would feel about it. Carlisle asked if the rest of the family could join and I shot Bella a questioning look. She smiled, and I took that as a yes.
"The more the merrier." I had answered for her.
Bella had gotten a contemplative look on her face. I wanted to know what she was thinking about, but I could not read her thoughts. I had never been able read her mind. It drove me crazy when she was silent and did not tell me what she was thinking or feeling. Suddenly Bella began to ramble on about what we would need for our hunting trip. Guns, traps, and tents, she gushed. Emmett and Jasper burst out laughing and I had to hurriedly stifle a laugh that threatened to escape my throat.
Guns, traps, and tents, oh my! Jasper thought.
Jasper's thought only made it harder for me to remain serious. She looked at me with a puzzled look on her face.
"Bella, we don't need anything." I told her in a quiet voice. If I spoke any louder I would break into laughter. "We have everything we need on us." I flashed her my teeth.
"Well, yes," She spoke to me slowly as if speaking to a child. "But we'll need to drive there and Emmett's jeep isn't big enough for us all."
I heard Jasper laugh and mutter "This should be fun" to Emmett, to which he replied "Oh, I've gotta see this".
Bella thinks we need guns, traps, and a car to hunt! I caught Emmett's thoughts. She'll surely be the one eaten by a bear, not the other way around.
Bella shot a glare in their direction.
"Bella, love," She whipped her head back to face me at the sound of my voice. "We run."
"Oh." Bella breathed. I gently cupped her face and kissed her gently before asking if she was ready to head out. She nodded and we ran out the backdoor into the beautiful sunny day.
Bella and I slowed to a walk as we reached the middle of the forest. Alice and Rosalie went off together, heading towards the East, while Esme and Carlisle went South. Bella took in her surroundings but I kept my eyes on her. I watched as her face registered the trees, the sunlight and the bushes. I could tell she was nervous. Jasper and Emmett were behind us making bets.
I bet she'll trip over whatever animal she's hunting. Emmett thought.
I let go of Bella's hand and whispered in her ear. "Let your instincts take control."
She nodded and I watched as she closed her eyes and took a deep breath. Suddenly she caught the scent of a mountain lion. Her eyes snapped open and she set off running in the direction of the lion. I followed behind her to see how she would react. I stayed a good distance behind her so that she wouldn't know I was there. I was curious to see how she hunted. I hid behind a tree fifteen yards away from her as she skidded to a halt twenty feet away from her prey. It was also stalking its prey so it didn't notice Bella come up behind it. She lowered herself into a feral crouch. A low growl escaped from her chest and she was startled when she realized it had come from her. I swelled with pride as I watched her slowly circle around the lion. She was quite positively frightening as she sprang onto the back of her prey. She snatched it around the neck with her hands and sank her teeth into the neck of the mountain lion. Bella lowered herself and her prey onto the ground and she began to drink from the animal. A look fluttered across her face that I had never seen before, but it quickly went away as she continued her feast. She stood up and wiped the blood from her lips. She had a peculiar look on her face. I was at her side in an instant.
"Bella," I said her name. She jumped a little at the sound of my voice but relaxed immediately. She turned around and wrapped her arms around me. I held her to my chest. "You were impressive."
She sighed against my chest. I lifted her face with my forefinger so I could look into her eyes.
"What's wrong?" I asked.
"Nothing. I guess I just think I should feel worse about this." She motioned to the mountain lion behind her. I nodded, I understood what she meant. I knew that she felt sadness for what she had done, but she did not feel such strong remorse that she could not do what she needed to to survive. I didn't think there were any words I could tell her to ease her confusion so I just kissed her forehead and walked her away from the lifeless animal that was lying motionless on the ground.
We walked in silence for a while before Bella asked me if I had caught anything yet. I told her I had not, and she insisted that I hunt now. I listened to her advice and let my instincts take over now that I knew Bella was in no danger from seeing me let go.
Emmett's POV:
It was night-time at the Cullen house and we were all hanging out in the family room watching TV and joking around when Bella turned to me.
"Emmett, I believe I challenged you to an arm wrestling match before I was changed." Bella grinned.
"Yeah," I said. "What about it?"
Bella just smiled and said, "Want to?"
I didn't know what to say. On one hand, I wanted to see if I could beat Bella's newborn strength, but on the other I knew that she would win. Did I really want this to go on my permanent record? If Bella beat me no one would let me forget it. They'd forever throw it in my face that a girl had beaten me at arm wrestling, and in our family, forever wasn't just a saying. It was literal. I shook my head. I couldn't wrestle her. It would make me look weak if I lost, and I couldn't take that chance.
"Oh, come on, Emmett!" Bella begged me. "It'll be fun!" I snorted. Fun for who? Not me if I lost.
"He's just afraid you'll beat him. His ego can't handle it if you win." Edward joined in. "When you win." Edward smirked.
I growled. It was just like Edward to read my mind.
"Not cool, Edward." I said angrily. "Stay out of my mind."
I heard Jasper laugh on the other side of the couch. I punched him in the arm and he fell off the couch. He landed on the floor with a thud, but quickly jumped up and crouched into a defensive position.
"Boys!" Esme scolded. "There will be no fighting in my home!"
"Yes, ma'am." Jasper drawled before sitting back on the couch next to Alice though his eyes never left me.
"Hey, Jasper," Bella turned to look at Jasper. She had a mischevious grin on her face and I wondered what she was up to. She had to be up to something with the way she was looking at Jasper. I saw Jasper turn away from Alice to look at Bella.
"Yeah?" He asked confused.
"What about you?" She asked. "Will you arm wrestle me?"
Jasper contemplated her offer for a moment. I was pretty sure I knew the internal debate he was probably having with himself right now. I didn't need Edward's mind-reading power to know. He was thinking about testing her newborn strength, the way I had been, and what it would do to his pride if he lost. He thought about this for a few minutes before answering Bella. He turned back to Alice, his eyebrow raised in a silent question. She nodded to him and he looked back to Bella.
"Sure, where are we doing this?" No way. He could not be arm wrestling a newborn! He was insane! Maybe Alice had seen him beating Bella. Hmm. I wonder what she would have seen if I had said yes. Bella beamed at his words and they kneeled on either side of the coffee table in the middle of the room. Bella and Jasper rested their elbows on the table and clasped their hands in between their bodies on the table. Esme was the referee. She would make a fair call.
"All right." Esme said. "On the count of three. One. Two. Three!"
Bella's face narrowed in intense concentration. The muscles in her arm flexed as she tried to push Jasper's arm to the table. Jasper's face imitated Bella's, his brow furrowed. Bella grunted. How was she not kicking Jasper's butt? She should have slammed him by now! Maybe she wasn't as strong as everyone thought she would be. Interesting! Maybe if Jasper beat her, I would challenge her. I thought about this as I watched them fight it out. Jasper had Bella closer to the table, but Bella would quickly throw in a spurt of strength and she would gain control over the match. It went back and forth like this for five minutes before Jasper finally gained the upperhand and slammed Bella's arm onto the coffee table triumphantly. Bella's face was stunned. She hadn't expected to lose. She rubbed her arm where it had smacked into the table as if it hurt. Alice raised Jasper's arm and declared him the champion. I laughed. She wasn't as strong as we had assumed! Yes! I decided then that I would take her up on her offer.
"Okay, Bella. I'll take you up on that challenge now." I said a little too giddily.
"No, I don't think I want to." Bella pouted.
"Oh, come on! It'll be fun!" I begged, using her words she had used on me against her. Bella sighed in defeat and put her elbow on the table again, signaling that she would wrestle me. I smiled and quickly took my spot across the table from her. She obviously knew I wouldn't give up till I had beaten her. I gripped her small hand in mine and Esme referee'd again.
"Are you both ready?" Esme asked, glancing at Bella. She nodded, and Esme looked at me. I nodded also, and Esme started to count. "One. Two. Three!"
I felt Bella push my hand closer to the table. I hadn't expected her to be this strong! She was stronger than Jasper had made her seem. I used all my strength and I managed to get the upperhand in this match-up. I almost had her arm pinned when Jasper's hand grabbed our hands and slammed my arm down onto the table.
"Damn it, Jasper!" I yelled. That wasn't fair! I would have won! I would've beat Bella fair and square! Bella just laughed.
"That's not fair! I call for a re-match!" I huffed angrily.
"Fine," Bella managed to say through her laughs. We resumed our position, our hands clasped together in the middle of the table between us.
"No interruptions this time," Esme said and I could tell that she thought Jasper's interruption had been funny. I scowled.
Esme counted to three and Bella and I went at it again. Battle of the sexes, who was stronger. This match was close, we went back and forth in a volley for ten minutes before I once again gained the advantage. Bella's arm was an inch away from the table when she put a burst of strength into the match and slammed my arm down easily against the table once again, but this time without Jasper's help. Bella jumped from the table whooping and bounced around, doing a little victory dance.
"Yay! I beat Emmett!" She gloated.
I stood up from the table and stalked away from my family angrily. No way had a girl just pulverized me! It was unfair! It would never have happened before, I was sure of it, and I knew I would have to issue her a challenge when she no longer had her newborn strength. There was no way she could beat me then, Bella was too weak. I growled. When I was upstairs I heard Bella worrying about how she had offended me and that maybe she should come up to talk to me. I didn't know how I would feel if she came up to apologize.
"Serves him right." I heard Edward say. "He's always going on about how no one can beat him. He deserved what he got."
I punched the couch I was laying on in mine and Rosalie's bedroom.
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AN: Sorry it's been over a year since I've updated anything. It took me a while to get some things in my life straightened out and fanfiction ended up ranking relatively low on my priorities list.
Abz, need u 2 stall 4least 1hr, keep Ziva away.
Abby closed her phone and cursed a little under her breath. She knew that she and Ducky would have to keep Ziva away from the house until they were finished setting up but it wasn't supposed to take this long and she didn't wast Ziva to suspect that something was amiss. Why did they have to be so slow?
Upstairs, Ducky sat with Ziva sharing a cup of tea, "I am sure that it will be fine. You worry too much, my dear."
"I know, and he means well," Ziva shook her head, "Every time I feel sore or tired he panics! I know he is only being protective of me and the baby but I can take care of myself."
"Ah, Abby was there something you needed?" Ducky noticed Abby standing behind Ziva trying to signal something to him. He assumed that her gesturing was sign language but he didn't know nearly as much as Abby or Gibbs.
"Um, not needed exactly." she paced, her usual nervous habit especially, when on a caffeine high, " The director said since there aren't any hot cases right now that we can take the afternoon off."
"Really?" Ducky was skeptical and he was certain that there was more that Abby was trying to tell him that wasn't meant for Ziva's ears. "So I suppose since we have a little time off, I would like you girls to accompany me to go and have some lunch."
Abby nodded eagerly, giving Ducky a thumbs up.
Ziva shook her head, "Thank you, Ducky. But I am tired and having the afternoon off means that I might be able to get some rest. He has been keeping me up at night." she caressed her stomach, talking to her restless son, "Yes, I mean you."
Ducky noticed Abby shaking her head a little bit, trying to be discrete. "Hm, are you sure that your lethargy is due to inadequate sleep? What all have you had to eat today?"
"An apple, some toast, and an egg, why?" Ziva shrugged.
"I believe that your blood sugar may be a bit low," Ducky stood up and gestured for the girls to follow him, "Come with me, down here."
Down in autopsy, Ducky rummaged through a few drawers until he found what he was looking for. "Ah, here we are. Most women experience some degree of change in glucose tolerance during pregnancy and in around five percent of cases this can lead to gestational diabetes."
"You think I am diabetic?" Ziva asked, "I was tested last week and it was negative."
"That doesn't guarantee that your blood glucose level is normal," he picked up Ziva's hand and gently pricked the tip of her finger, "I simply worry about you, my dear. And I want to make sure that it in only nothing."
"Ducky's right," Abby assured her, "Better safe than sorry, right?"
"Let's see," Ducky tested the strip with Ziva's blood, "95 isn't bad but a tad bit low. Let's get you something to eat and then I will drive you home so that you may get some rest."
Ziva agreed, if nothing else to placate their concerns, "Alright, let me grab my jacket and I will meet you down in the garage."
After Ziva left, Abby turned to Ducky. She felt a little guilty about tricking Ziva, but she hoped that after she saw the surprise that was being set up at her house, all would be forgiven. "Tony needs us to stall for another hour or so because they're not ready yet."
"I figured that, however if you had been a bit clearer I wouldn't have had to scare the poor thing into thinking that there may be something wrong that could put her or her child at risk!" he was more frustrated at the situation than upset with Abby. "She really shouldn't worry about diabetes. She's as healthy as a horse and if her test last week was negative, she shouldn't be concerned. High blood sugar is more of a concern than having it be low five hours after eating breakfast."
"So Ziva's fine, right?" Abby asked nervously.
"Yes, she's perfectly fine from what I can tell," he put the supplies away and grabbed his jacket and hat, "Her blood glucose level is actually 110, which is healthy, but I still would feel better if she ate more than apples, toast and an egg."
"Probie? How's it coming?" Tony finished putting the bedding on the crib mattress along with a bumper on the railing to keep his son from bumping into the wooden bars.
"Almost done," McGee was perched on a ladder, hanging the banner for Ziva's baby shower. "There, how's that?"
"Crooked, McGee." Gibbs pointed out, sipping coffee in the kitchen. "Your end needs to be up about two inches."
"Damn." he pulled out the nail and moved it up, trying for the third time to get it right. "Third time's the charm, right?"
"I know of a lovely Italian bistro a few blocks away, how does that sound?" Ducky offered.
"Sounds nice, Ducky." Ziva smiled, "And thank you. For everything."
He smiled warmly at her, "My pleasure. I know you hate the feeling of having people dote on you, but you may as well try to at least enjoy it a little? Pregnancy is not a disability and you shouldn't feel like you're an invalid for having people care for you."
Abby nodded, "Enjoy it while you can. Plus, Tony's your bitch until that baby comes!"
"Abigail!" Ducky scolded gently.
Ziva laughed, "She is not wrong. He has been very...I do not know how to describe it. He worries about me, and has been very protective. I am no longer on bed rest, but he seems to still be watching every move I make to see that I am safe. He glares at any man who looks at me, and it almost seems like he has been more affectionate since I have gotten pregnant." Most women worried about their men not finding them as attractive during pregnancy. However Ziva had the opposite problem. To Tony, bed rest meant keeping her content at all times to the point where neither of them ever wanted to leave the bedroom. He made sure to let her know that he thought she was beautiful, and he never let her forget it.
"Aw, how sweet!" Abby cooed, "That's not because you're pregnant, or on bed rest. The guy's head over heels." Off Ziva's puzzled look, she elaborated, "Smitten, lovestruck, dumbfounded, pussy whipped?"
"I'm sorry, 'pussy whipped'?" Ziva was almost afraid to ask.
Abby demonstrated by making whipping noises. "The man's in love, Ziva."
After lunch, as promised Ducky drove Ziva home. She had eaten a little more than she'd liked. Whenever she ate, the baby would always wake up. In spite of her odd and often intense cravings, it was still at times difficult to eat while she could feel something moving inside her.
"Here you are," Ducky pulled into the driveway and got out and walked around to open the door for her.
"Ducky, always a gentleman." Ziva smiled.
She agreed to let Ducky walk her to her door, even though it was less than twenty feet because she had begun to accept the fact that regardless of what she said, he was always going to be chivalrous to her as he would with any woman. "Now, there is one more thing before I go."
"And what would that be, Ducky?"
"Surprise." Tony opened the door, and lead his fiancée inside.
Ziva gasped looking around. The table was covered with gifts, balloons, blue ribbons and streamers decorated everywhere she looked, and everyone was standing around waiting. Director Shephard, who had given them all the afternoon off, stepped forward and embraced her friend, "It's a baby shower, Ziva. Surprise!"
AN: Sorry if there are any discrepancies, keep in mind it's been over a year since I've done fanfiction so I may have gotten a few things mixed up that don't match up with previous chapters. I hope it was worth waiting! Review please?
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Fuu was playing her video games, as usual, wasting her life away while she only exercised her fingers while pressing buttons a
Fuu was playing her video games, as usual, wasting her life away while she only exercised her fingers while pressing buttons and moving around characters. She was playing one of the best video games ever created for mankind, Final Fantasy XII. Ever minute, she what admire Balthier's sexiness…sometimes zoom in on his ass for fun…heheh…naughty Fuu…well, naughty me, actually…the name's Fuu…as I continued playing my beloved game, it suddenly shut off.
"What the heck?! I didn't save yet!" I screamed at the TV, scaring my cat half to death. After a long time of cussing at the black screen, it finally lit up in a light blue…scaring me was the main title of the game appearing on the screen.
"Hello Fuu…" The screen spoke. Can you believe it, it SPOKE! I blinked and looked around to see if my big sister was just trying to scare me…again. I then looked at the screen; pointing at it, translating as "Did you just talk?"
"Yes, I did, thank you very much…I am the guardian spirit of this game, my name is Fini. I've watched you play the game, leveling up your characters, watching its video sequences…you name it. Well, since you have played the game long enough, the time has come to show you into the world of the game…you know, bring you inside of it…" The guardian game spirit named Fini said. At first, I didn't believe any of this.
"Are you on crack? I can't go into the world of Final Fantasy XII! That's so god damn crazy!"
"Then why is your television screen speaking to you? That's pretty crazy, too…"
"Hmm…good point there…" I tapped my finger on my chin and looked up to the screen. "This isn't a joke or anything like that?"
"Swear on my mother's grave…if I had a mother, at least…fine, I swear on my grave, this is no joke…" Fini swore on her life, so she must not be joking, I thought.
"Well…I can't go to the FF world like this…" I pointed to my outfit…bunny pajama pants and a loose Rolling Stones shirt…and no bra, how adventurous. Fini sighed.
"Go change your garments and then return and I will take you to the world…" Fini said. I gave the TV a thumb's up and quickly sprinted up the stairs to change. I wore a simple outfit…white camisole, black long-sleeved jacket that ended at my ribs, blue jeans, and sneakers (With checkered socks, too!). I also straightened my hair with my hair straightener, put on some powder, eyeliner, and mascara, and put on my favorite choker. Before heading downstairs back into my basement, I decided to bring some stuff to the world, too. I grabbed an old pink backpack from the fifth grade and stuffed it with my deodorant, toothbrush and toothpaste, Neutrogena Wave, make-up, pads ("She" could pop up at any time!), and my iPod! I headed downstairs and finally met up with the TV screen again.
"Took you long enough…"
"Sorry, I was bringing extra materials, too!" I said. Fini sighed, and then the screen turned a dark burgundy.
"It's time to leave now, Fuu. Hope you enjoy your time…I'll accompany you, too…" Fini said, her voice fading away as a yellow light shone from the screen, sucking me into the television set without any mercy shown on it. Even though my adventure had just begun, I had already thought that I was dead. Before the thought could continue, I landed butt first on concrete. Opening my eyes, I saw what I saw…the Royal Palace of Rabanastre!! I stood up, tucking back my neck-length long hair.
"Well, this looks pretty exciting!" I said stupidly. Before I could grin at nothing any longer, I heard an explosion behind me.
"Fuu, watch out!" A voice squealed. Before I could even ponder on whom the voice was, a cell-phone tall girl with two antennae popped out of my camisole!
"HOLY CRAP! WHO ARE YOU, AND MORE IMPORTANTLY, HOW THE HELL DID YOU GET DOWN THERE?!" I screamed. The "Pixie" flew out of my cami and flicked my forehead, which actually hurt a bit.
"It's me, you idiot, Fini!" The pixie said. Fini had long, wavy brunette hair, a blue tank top, white short shorts, light blue sandals, and small blue bat-like wings flickering on her back. Oh, yeah, her antennae were also blue. Hey, I know her favorite color now…
"Oh…yeah…sorry about that…so…what's up with everyone?" I asked. More explosions were heard and guards were surrounding the premises down below near the entrance of the palace. Before I heard a reply, something pushed me down onto the ground once more, which hurt just as much as the first time I landed on the evil ground. I looked over and saw the blonde, belly-showing man. Vaan. He looked at me with wide eyes like I had a poisonous snake crawling out of my ear, but he got up and scurried away, nearly tripping himself. Obviously, he was pretty scared.
"What a wimp…" I said aloud. Just for fun, I decided to follow the distressed Vaan. With jogging speed, I caught up to him as we quickly sprinted on a large bridge.
"So…what's with the hurry?" I said panting every few seconds. Vaan didn't answer, which made me growl. Without thinking, I grabbed his wrist and brought him over to where I was standing. "Hey, I'm talking to you!" I said angrily. Vaan looked at me now like I just broke his favorite toy or ripped off his favorite teddy bear's arm. He looked pretty pissed off now.
"I'm really in a rush, let go of me!" Vaan whimpered.
"Not till you tell me what's up, Vaan!" I shouted. Crap, I said his name…I thought. Vaan now looked at me like I had spaghetti coming out of my nose. I gave him a stupid smile and an innocent chuckle. Vaan then looked up and began sprinting again, making me let go of his wrist.
"What a bastard! He just runs off when I'm trying to introduce myself!" I spat while looking at Fini, who rested comfortably on my shoulder.
"Stop running!" I heard. I turned around and saw a figure running towards me…I squinted closer and saw the figure's…well…figure…it was the one and only, sexy Balthier!! I gasped and quickly dabbed some blush on my face, and I pushed up my bra a bit more, too.
"It's such an honor to meet you Balth—…" I began to say while I bowed down to him, but he ran right past me! I paused and turned around, angry, as I stomped over to him, since he stopped his running, too. I then saw Vaan, surrounded, as I also saw Fran on her hover blocking Vaan's path.
"You have something that belongs to me…" Balthier said to Vaan, who I know noticed was holding a pretty jewel.
"Fuu, what are you doing?" Fini whispered. I ignored her, stupid pixie, and ran over and stood in front of Balthier. He looked at me oddly and I began bowing again.
"It's such an honor to meet you, Balth—…"
"MORE THIS WAY!" Guards began to shout as they ran towards us. I growled in anger, as I was about to throw my backpack at them.
"Don't interrupt me!" I spat at the guards.
"Damn! Fran, let's move!" Balthier said as he grabbed me and then Vaan! I'm surprised he could carry that much weight…well, I understand myself, because I'm only 89 pounds, but Vaan had to be pretty heavy…! I was in heaven at first…Balthier, resting his hands on me…only if he would touch my—…before I could dream in heaven any longer, I was thrown off of the bridge and into the air! How rude! Vaan was thrown off, too, and he was screaming his lungs out…I don't blame him, I was, too. We both landed hard on the hover bike, thanks to Fran driving it, and Balthier landed on it, too. With Balthier's landing, I fell back into Vaan, and I was hanging on for dear life on the hover while Vaan was hanging on for dear life on my leg, which he was pulling rather hard. Thank God I didn't wear a skirt before I left…
"Hang on, Fuu!" Fini screamed.
"At least help me out here, you bitch!" I screamed at the pixie, how useless she was! Well, I understand that she was as tall as my cell phone and probably wouldn't help much, but at least show some kindness! What made things worse than hanging onto a hover for your dear life was that Balthier thought I asked for help and called him a bitch. Ouch…surprisingly, he grabbed my arm and tried to pull me up, but my jacket was pulling off, showing my shoulder a bit… and I still had a blondie holding tightly on my thigh…and then my ass…probably by accident, but, still, my ass
"YOU PERVERT!" I shrieked. I was trying to shake Vaan off of my leg, but I stopped when the hover was struggling.
"What's going on Fran?" Balthier asked his partner.
"I don't know…it's not heeding me…" Fran said as she tried to gain control of the hover bike.
"Ugh! I don't have time for this!" Balthier grunted, still trying to pull me up from danger…I swear, if I didn't have Vaan clinging onto my legs, things would be much easier…
"I-I'm slipping!" Vaan screeched.
"Yeah, and you're going to take my jeans down with you!" I snapped at Vaan. Although it wasn't his fault that he was going to plummet into the fires beneath us, but still, I was pretty angry during the entire situation.
"Not good!" Balthier said as Fran continued having troubles gaining control of the bike. When we thought all was bad, it was worse. A cannon fired at us, nearly hitting me, and the hover bike lost control completely, and we all headed down into a disgusting sewer…a perfect landing area…yes, I was using sarcasm…I shut my eyes tightly as I thought we were all toast…and I fainted…
I woke up when I felt water in a very unpleasant place…I immediately stood up and looked around…oh, the sewer…heaven never looked so grimy, I was expecting daisies and pearly gates…but I felt my heartbeat and my leg had scratches all over it, so I must be alive. I stood up and looked around, and then saw Vaan walking over to Fran and Balthier. Before I walked over, I noticed that I was stepping on something squirming underneath my foot…oh…crap…
"Fini! Are you okay?" I dug into the water and grabbed the pixie game guardian, who was hacking and coughing like crazy.
"You almost killed me, you meanie!" She screamed at me, punching my nose.
"Hit me again and I'll drown ya, ungrateful scum!" I spat at her. I then saw my backpack and picked it up and put it on my back safely and walked over to Vaan.
"Thanks a billion, blondie, now I've got red marks all over my thigh…just…just great, why didn't you just pull off my leg while you were struggling?" I scolded Vaan, who didn't even see me coming towards him. I then glanced over at Fran and Balthier, who stared at me.
"Er…hi…" I said.
"Aren't you the talkative one?" Balthier said, giving a cute smile at me. I blushed.
"Er…uh…blergy-blee…" I said. God, I'm such an idiot. Blergy-blee, what the hell?
"Yeah, you girl, how did you know my name?" Vaan said. I put my finger to his lips.
"Tut-tut-tut, monsieur, the name is Fuu. And I know you because I practically play the game everyday!" I said, clueless that the three main characters even knew that this whole story was truly a video game. Fran looked up.
"Game…according to a story long ago, King Raithwall said, "The girl in strange clothes shalt be the one who knows all…and the one with hidden powers…"" Fran stated. I blinked and started bursting out laughing.
"R-Raithwall said that?" I paused because I was laughing too much. "No way! Are you saying that the girl he mentioned is me?" I pointed to myself, and they all nodded.
"I mean, you're clothes are pretty weird." Vaan pointed out.
"It's called an outfit, thank you." I said. These people were nuts.
"Never mind, if she doesn't believe it, I don't believe it." Balthier said standing up. I nodded and adjusted my backpack as I stood beside him. I saw Vaan looking at Fran…perv…
"Not many viera where you come from, thief?" Balthier said.
"It's Vaan…" Vaan and I said at once. We both glanced at each other and decided to not say anything about what just happened…smart boy…
"Fran is special…in that she'd deign to partner with a Hume." Balthier stated.
"Oh? Like a sky pirate that steals through the sewers?" Fran said raising an eyebrow.
"Pirates? You guys are sky pirates? Do you have an airship?" Vaan continued annoyingly asking questions to Balthier.
"It's Balthier, by the way…" Balthier stated. I kept walking beside Balthier, who turned and looked at me.
"Listen you two…if you two want to see your homes again, you do exactly as I say, got it? Myself, Fran, and you two…Vaan and…whatever your name is again…we're working together now, understood?" Vaan nodded, but I wasn't very convinced with Balthier's utter rudeness.
"At least call me by my name! It's Fuu! F-U-U!" I said. Balthier nodded.
"Fuu it is, then…forgive me…" He said, slightly bowing, then walking away. Fran followed behind, then Vaan. I glanced over at Fini, waiting for me to walk away with them, so I did. I was traveling through the sewers…how adventurous…
To Be Continued…
Well, please review if you liked it. If you didn't like it, so be it. Well, I'll update the next chapter soon!
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Airports, Emotions, and Anger
Part Two- "Fear"
There is love of course. And then there's life it's enemy~
-Jean Anouilh
"Where is she?"
The first words out of Edward's mouth surprised no one. He had spoken calmly enough but if one knew Edward then the slight under lining was very clear, as was the flash in his eyes when they still couldn't see that certain face.
My mind was running wild and I knew he wouldn't be able to read any coherent thought and I had no idea what he was getting from Alice. If the panic I began to feel from him told me anything it was that he was getting something.
And for the life of me I couldn't speak… I had fought for my life and killed mercilessly for centuries, seen too many horrors to count and yet right now, facing the person I had come to love like a brother, I couldn't form any words.
He had grown to love me back just the same, he trusted me. And after reading all the dark thoughts that ran through my head on a daily basis, thoughts that craved my other life… a life of killing innocents for my own selfish cravings… even over all that he respected me.
Edward had never asked anything of me, had never asked anything of anybody. Then when he finally asks me this one favor, trusted me in this one duty and I had failed.
What could I possibly say when I was the one who let her get away.
But why in the hell did she leave?
She should have known she would be safe with us. Alice and I had told her so more than once in the last couple of days. Did she finally freak out and run, decide to get away from everything while she still could?
If that was the case I couldn't blame her, it would have been safer to remain with us, but she was only a human and a very young one at that.
But something told me that that wasn't possible, because if I was sure of anything it was the fact that the human girl actually loved Edward.
"Edward I…" Alice began pulling me back to the current situation.
"Alice where is she?"
Edward's growling voice made me step forward. If he was going to be angry at anyone it should be me, but before I could speak Alice was talking, the words tumbling out over top of another. The guilt and pain that radiated off her made my chest tighten. I could tell by her tone that if they could her eyes would be full of tears.
"I'm so sorry, Edward… I thought James...I thought he was the one to get to her, that's what I was looking for. I didn't know…it never crossed my mind that she would try to get away from us, I didn't know till I saw it…she was running, and…"
Edward gave a roar of frustration and stepped into Alice's face "I told you to watch her !…you weren't suppose to let her out of your sight!"
His yelling had begun to draw the attention of the passing people. I pushed myself between them, trying to spread out as much calm as I could. It was a bit difficult as I was not only fighting my emotions but everyone else's as well, Edwards in particular was making my head spin.
"Cut the shit Jasper!" He spat in my direction.
"Edward clam down" Carlisle said putting a restraining hand on his son's shoulder
This only seemed to make things worse, I felt Edward's anger rise but his building panic had reached its peak and dominated all else. It was so strong I swear I could see it…A dense cloud chocking him and now me.
Not able to look away from the frantic eyes, eyes that still searched in vain for something that was not there, I answered truthfully.
"I don't know"
It happened so fast I didn't see any movement. A loud roar echoed off the walls and high ceiling and I suddenly felt a wall slam into my back. It crumbled under my stone form, huge junks of cement and plaster falling to the ground at my feet.
Before I could even catch up to my current situation or register the few female screams that followed the echoing crash of my body into the wall, I felt a strong hand wrap around my shirt collar. People from all around had stopped their rushing and were now standing and staring in horror at the scene in front of them.
But I barely noticed them for Edward's face was mere inches from mine, livid and wild. Though none of us technically needed to breathe, he was gasping thick and heavy and I suddenly found myself just as breathless.
I had no defense against these emotions…there was no blocking… no altering.
"Edward!...Edward stop…!"
Alice's small fists were beating on Edwards's back, the noise sounded like a rock hitting a brick wall, but it seemed to have no effect. He just continued to glare at me through his gasping. I could have fought him off but it would only cause an even worse scene.
Right now I knew he didn't see me though, didn't see the watching bystanders, did not feel Alice's vain attempts to get him to let go, nor did he hear her pointless yelling. I knew what he saw for I saw it too…red.
The raw panic and anger had combined to form a desperate rage so strong I could taste it like acid on my tongue. It seemed to be everywhere and yet aimed at no one in particular; regardless of the fact he was currently holding me up against the wall.
This lasted only for a few seconds before Carlisle, Emmet, and Alice managed to pry him off and shove him towards the bathroom. I stood there for a second trying to put my mind back in order, and oddly enough catch my breath.
It seemed nearly impossible to separate my feelings from Edwards; I wanted to fall to my knees and scream in agony and at the same time tear this huge building apart.
Sure I had seen and felt Edward angry before and I knew he had a huge rage issue when pushed the wrong way, but it seemed today I had gotten a full taste of it, and personally I didn't want to feel it again.
I looked around and realized some of the people had phones out and were probably calling the police, and I knew some would be getting security guards soon, if some had not already left to do so.
This was not going to help our problems.
Dusting myself off a bit I walked shakily into the bathroom where I could hear the yelling. To my slight surprise it was Carlisle's raised voice that I heard, it was very foreign to my ears.
"Calm down Edward this is not helping matters!"
I shoved the door closed behind me, hoping it would by us some time. Then turned to see Emmet holding Edward from behind, his thick arms wrapped around his brother's trembling form while Carlisle held on to his shoulders from the front.
If anyone could drill any kind of since back into Edward's head it was Carlisle.
I have to admit sometimes I've been jealous of their relationship. They truly seemed like father and son. Edward trusted Carlisle and looked up to him. They had been together the longest compared to the rest of family and it showed, at least to me... things like that never went unnoticed around me.
They seemed oddly dependant on one another and despite Carlisle's age there were times he needed Edward's guidance just as much as Edward needed his. It was something I never quite understood but something I secretly craved to have. Because I knew my life would have been different if I had had someone like Carlisle, or even Edward, from the beginning.
But it seemed even Carlisle wasn't working at the moment. Edward continued to struggle in Emmet's grip his eye's still wild, full of rage and panic. Not ever had I seen him this out of control, it seemed nearly unreal that this was the same Edward I knew.
My fears from earlier this week, of him finally finding love and it being in such a fragile being were confirmed. Edward had finally let his guard down, opened his heart and he was now feeling the consequences of such a risk and it was too much… I could feel it.
Carlisle roughly grabbed Edward's face in his hands, forcing him to make eye contact.
"Please son, please…" he whispered fiercely " I know, I understand… but this is not helping... we need to figure out what needs to be done, where she went… what we have to do before it is too late, "
Edward finally stilled and squeezed his eyes shut. A few moments passed where the only sound was his shaky breaths.
Carlisle let go of Edward's face and stepped back as he turned to Alice his eyes questioning. She swallowed and walked forward holding out that crumpled piece of paper.
"Edward I think you should read this" Alice's voice was still trembling slightly and I yearned to hold her but I kept my distance not wanting Edward to go off again at seeing me.
Edward looked at her and then jerked away from Emmet, who had loosened his grip, and snatched the paper.
It took no time to read it, but the sudden emotional change nearly knocked me backwards. I took a step back and squeezed my eyes shut. Sometimes I really hated my so called gift. Sure it had its advantages but a body, Human or immortal, could only hold so many feelings at one time.
Edward's roaring rage was gone in the blink of an eye and was replaced by such a strong wave of guilt I nearly sank to my knees.
Somehow I remained standing, bracing my hand against the tiled wall. It seemed Edward had no such luck though, a long agonized groan escaped his chest and he slumped to the ground. His hands balled into fists, one holding the crumpled letter as he pressed them into his eyes.
"I'm so so…sorry Edward…please I…" Alice said taking a wary step forward and reaching out a hand like she wanted to comfort him but thought twice and dropped it.
"What do you see?" He said it so quietly no human would be able to hear.
"I still see the same room, the last one I had was of her running into her mother's house, she was…"
Edward was on his feet, "Where?"
"Edward she's probably not there now we have to…"
"Then where is she now!?"
Alice closed her eyes; I could tell she was concentrating. Then she gasped her eyes flying open,
Alice shook her head, despair written all over her face.
Edward growled and grabbed her by the shoulders. 'What?...What did you see?...Where is she?....SHOW ME ALICE"
"We're going to be too late" Alice said in a far away voice, "She's almost there, she was running down the sidewalk, she fell...but she got up, the studio ...Bella…she…"
Apparently saying the girls name was not a good idea, or maybe it was whatever Edward had finally seen in Alice's mind, because he in the next second he had yelled out again and slammed his fist into the wall.
I knew that was more than audible to the growing crowd outside.
"We have to get out of here" Emmet said; he was looking out the first exit. "We have liked seven security guards running this way.
"Where is this studio Alice…this room!?" Edward yelled, oblivious to Emmett's warning.
"58th street and cactus…but I think we're…"
And he was gone.
"…too late." Alice whispered to the empty air in front of her.
We all stood there, a mere half a second of hesitation went by where we just stared at each other. And then, quite suddenly time seemed to stop for me and the two times I had actually talked to the girl…to Bella… jumped to the front of my mind.
I was staring at her from across the room. Edward had just left and her feelings of guilt and confusion were washing through me. I knew what she was thinking and I knew it wasn't true.
"You're wrong you know"
"I can feel what you're feeling now…and you are worth it"
Her brown eyes met mine, looking much older than they should. "I'm not" she mumbled and I could feel the thick wave of guilt washing through her and straight to me. "If anything happens to them it will be for nothing"
Once again I simply stated the truth "You're wrong"
We were sitting in the hotel room and her rising panic was steadily surrounding me.
"…what if something goes wrong, and they get separated? If something happens to any of them, Carlisle, Emmet…Edward…if that wild female hurts Esme…"
She was slowly becoming hysterical now, but underneath all that I couldn't help but feel slightly grateful, this human girl was truly scared for my family, more worried about them than her own well being.
"How could I live with myself when it's my fault? None of you should be risking yourselves for me…"
Her heart was racing, her breathing fast and shallow and I knew I needed to step in,
"Bella, Bella, stop" I poured waves of calm towards her along with my words, hoping the combination would do the trick. "You're worrying about all the wrong things, Bella. Trust me on this…none of us are in jeopardy. You're under too much strain as it is: don't add to it with wholly unnecessary worries."
She turned her head away from me and I pushed back my aggravation, she was such a stubborn little thing.
"Listen to me…Our family is strong. Our only fear is losing you"
"But why should you?"
It was Alice who spoke next, and she seemed able to explain much better than me.
In the truth of Alice's words hit me full force in this second.
I would never be able to look my brother in the eye after this day.
It was my fault.
If Edward lost Bella today it would be all on me.
"Alice…" Carlisle said breaking the short silence. "Will we be too late?"
She hesitated and then looked miserable as she shrugged her shoulders "I don't know…something hasn't been decided yet…something that obviously changes things, I can't see beyond that point…I…I just don't know."
Then her eyes went wide and she said quickly. "But we need to go he's about to steal a car"
Carlisle nodded and we all ran out together, only a couple seconds behind Edward.
I looked at my family as we ran and what I saw on their faces made my own words run through my head again…
"Our only fear is losing you"
I didn't need to use my ability to understand what they were experiencing.
Because I feeling the exact same thing.
For we were in the process of losing Edward forever.
Review? I'd Luv to hear what you think and helpful comments are always welcome. ;)
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Kissing practice
Shimizu Keiichi and Hino Kahoko were sitting on one of the rooftop benches, talking. He was telling her about the music of the Renaissance period, particularly about the tradition of Courtly Love. As he explained how a young suitor would woo a lady by writing poetry or serenading her with a song, Shimizu thought about his own crush. As a growing teenage boy, it wasn't surprising that he had fledgling feelings for the sweet violinist that he spent time with every week.
On impulse he leaned over and kissed her cheek. She couldn't have been more surprised. "Shimizu-kun!" He was gazing at her with a beatific smile on his face. "Sempai, may I kiss you?"
"You…you just did!"
"May I kiss you on the lips?"
"What?!.....But I don't…I don't feel romantically about you, Shimizu-kun."
"That's OK, Sempai. I just want to try it. I've never kissed a girl before."
It was odd, how she was actually considering it. She had never been kissed either. She was curious. The guileless demeanor of her friend and the privacy of their location convinced her.
"All right, Shimizu-kun."
He put his hands on her shoulders and pressed his lips tenderly to hers. His eyes sparkled as he leaned back. "Your lips are soft, Sempai."
"So are yours." She was blushing.
"May I kiss you again? I want to practice so I will know how to do it when I have a girlfriend. I think this kiss was too short. What do you think?"
She actually agreed with him. It was a sweet little kiss, but not her idea of one that would win a girl's heart. She nodded and leaned toward him a little.
This time she could feel butterflies in her stomach he administered a series of slow sensual kisses. He was definitely getting the hang of it. Hardly had he pulled away when they heard the shuffling of feet nearby.
"Hello Hino-san, Shimizu-kun." Azuma was at his friendliest as he let the door close behind him. "Do you mind if I practice up here?"
The two younger students were thinking that it was a close call. Had he seen anything? He didn't seem to have.
"Hello Yunoki-sempai. You can practice up here. We're just leaving." She and Shimizu gathered their things and headed for the door. Kahoko kept her head down as she passed the school prince, trying to hide her flushed cheeks.
Azuma put his hand on her shoulder. "Hino-san, can you spare me a couple minutes? I want to talk to you about something."
She certainly wasn't comfortable with the idea, but had enough experience with this young man to know that he wouldn't be denied. "Go ahead Shimizu-kun." she said "I'll see you later."
When the cellist was out of sight, Azuma grabbed her wrist.
"What do you want to talk to me about, Yunoki-sempai?" She tried tugging her hand away, but his grip was tight. He moved toward her and she backed away, bumping into the wall.
He smirked, enjoying what he was about to say. "Well, I want to know why you and the cellist were kissing."
* * * * *
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Hey guys! This is the longest chapter I've ever written, so I hope you like it!
The car ride to school was nearly silent. Brooke was staring out the window, still mad at herself for letting Rachel read her like a book. Rachel was trying to concentrate on driving while letting her mind wonder. Today was going to be the day from hell. They were going to tell some of their friends about their relationship and after school Rachel was going to find out what exactly was happening to her girlfriend.
As they pulled into the schools parking lot, Brooke turned to open the door only to be stopped by Rachel.
"Brooke I want you to listen to me." Rachel said, her usually playful tone replaced with a serious one.
"I'm crazy about you. And no matter what your friends think of this, I'm still going to be crazy about you. I don't care what they think or say, I like you for real. Don't ever doubt that babe." Rachel finished with a smirk, kissing Brooke on the cheek.
Brooke let out a sigh. "Thanks Rach, I guess I really needed to hear that. Look I'm sorry I got mad at you this morning. But I feel the same way. I know I'm not the easiest person to get along with but I really, really like you. And whatever my friends think about our relationship is their problem. I'll still want to be with you, whether this goes fantastic and they accept it or it all goes to hell and I need some new friends." Brooke joked, hesitantly pulling her red haired girlfriend into a tight hug, during which Brooke bit back a scream. Rachel had to force herself not to question her girlfriend; she knew she'd get answers tonight.
Brooke and Rachel exited and casually walked over to Brooke's usual group up friends consisting of Peyton, Haley, Nathan, Lucas, and Jake.
"Hey Brooke." Nathan called from his seat next to his wife. Confusion was evident on his face at seeing Rachel with her.
"Hey Tigger!" Haley greeted enthusiastically.
She received several similar greetings from all of her friends before standing in front of all of them. She pulled Rachel along with her, gripping her hand for support. Several group members noticed the action but didn't comment.
"There is some I need to tell you guys." Brooke began, her voice shaking.
"Okay, what's up Brooke?" Nathan asked curiously.
"Rachel and I…we're kind of dating now." Brooke stuttered out, taking a deep calming breath.
Rachel squeezed her hand, hoping to provide some kind of support for her girlfriend.
Peyton was the first to recover from the shock. The curly blonde started to laugh as if she'd just been told the funniest joke ever.
"Come on Brooke, that wasn't funny. You had us all going there for a second." Peyton said as she continued laughing.
"It's no joke P Sawyer." Brooke said, using her old nick name.
"Wow, congratulations guys." Jake said slowly, getting up and pulling Brooke into a loose hug, which as usual, Brooke fought the urge to scream and her body was tense. He politely shook Rachel's hand and sat back down next to Haley.
"Brooke…are you serious?" Haley questioned angrily. "This girl has made your life a nightmare! How can you trust her?"
"Tutor-girl, I'm crazy about Rachel. We only "hated" to try and push away these feelings we have. But the truth is, I'm tired of fighting them. I found someone I want to be with so I'm going to for it." Brooke said, looking at Rachel the whole time.
"Rachel…I swear to God, I'm not a violent person but I'll kill you if you hurt her or don't take this seriously." Haley growled.
"I wouldn't dream of it." Rachel promised, kissing Brooke's forehead.
"So Hot-shot, what are we thinking?" Brooke asked Nathan nervously.
"Well, to each their own. If she makes you happy Brookie Cookie, I support you. How could I not? You're practically my sister." Nathan said, getting and pulling both girls into a tight hug.
"And Rachel, you hurt her and I'll kick your ass." Nathan said in a playful tone, although he was completely serious.
"Noted." Rachel smirked and turned to Brooke, whose eyes held fear and panic from the hug and impeding opinions from her friends.
"This is disgusting and wrong." Peyton spoke out.
"Peyton come on…don't be like this." Brooke begged.
"No! I think you dating another girl is disgusting. Especially a whore like her." Peyton said viciously.
"Peyton…" Haley said in a warning.
"Don't you call my girlfriend a whore Peyton Sawyer!" Brooke shot back angrily.
"Brooke, babe don't get all worked up." Rachel whispered, discreetly wrapping her arm around Brooke's waist to restrain her.
"This is a new low, even for you Brooke." Peyton spat at her before getting her backpack and leaving.
Brooke's body began to tremble and Rachel tightened her hold on her girlfriend. Rachel could feel the muscles in Brooke's back tense up. Sensing an episode coming, Rachel tried to deflect.
"Wow, I see Peyton is still a bitch." Rachel said loudly, earning a small chuckle from the group.
"I'm going to go talk to her." Jake said awkwardly, getting up to leave.
"Luke?" Brooke asked, her voice quivering.
Lucas finally looked up and made eye contact with her. His piercing blue gaze that used to make her heart race met her own nervous hazel eyes.
"Well Brooke, I love you. I know we aren't together anymore, but I love you. Not romantically of course, but I want you to be happy." Lucas paused to get up walk over to the new couple. "And if being with her makes you happy, then I'm completely happy for you. If anyone deserves to be happy, it's you, pretty girl." Lucas finished with a smile, pulling his ex girlfriend into a loose, friendly embrace.
"You have no idea how happy that makes me. And you'll find the girl for you Luke, I know you will. And she'll be the luckiest girl on the planet." Brooke whispered into his chest. For once, Brooke didn't tense up during his hug. This shot a surge of jealously through Rachel, who quickly shook it off and met Lucas's gaze.
"You take care of her alright? I don't want to have to join Nathan in kicking your ass." Lucas said seriously, with a playful hint. He reached out and shook Rachel's hand as she nodded.
"By the way Brooke, you've got some pretty good taste in women. Rachel's hot." Luke said with a smirk, sending a playful wink to the girls.
The group let out a laugh, the obvious tension in the room seemed to disappear for the moment.
"Thank you guys so much. It means that world to me to have your support, well most of you." Brooke trailed off, suddenly finding the ground interesting.
"I know it'll take some time, getting used to me and Brooke but I'm crazy about her. So thank you guys, for giving me a change." Rachel said honestly.
The group hugged and began walking to their first class, math. Haley, Lucas and Brooke all had math first while Jake, Rachel, Nathan, and Peyton started with science. As the group split into two, Nathan kissed Hayley goodbye and Rachel gently kissed Brooke on the forehead.
"I'll see you at lunch." Rachel whispered before joining her new friends on the way to class.
Brooke let out a sigh of relief as she walked to class. All of her friends, except Peyton, had taken the new well and supported her relationship with Rachel.
Rachel…even the thought of her girlfriend brought a smile to Brooke's face. The brunette didn't think she'd ever been this happy before. Granted, that was all about to go out the window after tonight. Telling Rachel the secret she'd never told anyone, the secret that could put them both in more danger. But if she didn't tell Rachel, she could lose her and that just wasn't an option for Brooke.
The young brunette shook off these thoughts and joined Lucas and Haley in their math class.
The day seemed to pass by all the quickly. The rest of the day was relatively uneventful, the two girls sat together at lunch. The new couple sat next to each other, their fingers intertwined underneath the table. Their friends laughed and joked with them, trying to maintain some sense of normalcy. Peyton and Jake never showed up for lunch, much to Brooke's dismay.
Before either girl had realized it, the bell had rung and the two girls were standing outside Rachel's locker, getting ready to cancel cheer squad practice.
"Rach, do I really need to cancel practice? I mean we can talk after." Brooke begged.
"Yup, you do. Listen, I know that you're not exactly looking to having this talk with me. I get that, trust me but I do have other reason s for wanting you to cancel cheer practice." Rachel said, checking to make sure the hallway was deserted before lacing her fingers through Brooke's.
"Oh my God, please don't tell me you're jealous already?" Brooke asked teasingly.
"Not exactly what I meant Brookie. I am worried about you though, I know I said we'd wait until tonight to talk but the fact that you're pretty seriously hurt isn't really a secret anymore. Cheer practice puts unnecessary stress on your body and frankly, I don't think you can handle that right now." Rachel said seriously.
"Look I get that you're trying to look out for me, but I'm a big girl Rach, I can make my own decisions." Brooke snapped back.
"Obviously you don't make very good ones, or you whatever is hurting wouldn't be hurting you!" Rachel yelled angrily.
Tears pooled in Brooke's hazel eyes and she turned to leave only to be stopped by Rachel.
"Wait, Brooke, wait. I'm sorry. I didn't mean that, at all. Whatever is wrong, it isn't your fault. Its just been an emotionally intense couple of days and I didn't mean to snap at you. I'm sorry." Rachel murmured out sincerely.
"I understand that this is hard for you Rachel. This is by no means a "normal" relationship, we both know that. But did you ever stop to think for a second that this is hard on me too?" Brooke hissed back.
"Of course! All I do is think about you! Don't you know that?" Rachel asked, exasperated.
"I don't want to have this fight with you in the school hallway." Brooke said dismissively.
Rachel groaned in frustration before pulling Brooke along to the gymnasium. The two girls walked in silence, their fingers no longer intertwined. As the pair entered the gym all eyes fell on the two girls. Brooke took her usual stance in front of the cheerleaders.
"So..um, I know this is a little unorthodox, but I'm canceling practice tonight." Brooke said awkwardly, her eye darted over to meet Rachel's, who nodded in agreement.
"Why not? Got better things to do Brooke?" Peyton asked sarcastically.
"Family emergency." Brooke muttered out quietly.
Most of the other girls nodded in sympathy, wishing Brooke the best before exiting into the locker room to change out of their cheer clothes. The couple was left standing in the gym alone. Brooke looked down, suddenly taking an interesting in the shiny gym floor and Rachel just stood next to her and watched.
Still without addressing her girlfriend, Brooke exited the gym swiftly. The limp in Brooke's step was almost unnoticeable to anyone except Rachel, who of course was looking for one. The red head rolled her eyes and followed her stubborn brunette out of gym and quickly caught up to her. The pair walked in silence back to Brooke's car.
"I'm driving." Brooke announced, brushing by Rachel and getting into the driver's seat.
Rachel bit her tongue and fought the urge to protest. She understood that Brooke was a 16 year old girl that was perfectly capable of driving, but that didn't mean Rachel wanted her to when she was upset. Rachel nodded slowly and sat in the passenger's seat. The brunette started the car and drove out of the school without a word. Rachel turned on the radio to break the awkward silence that had filled the car and stole a glance at her girlfriend. The younger girl's posture was tense, her hands where so tight on the steering wheel that her knuckles were white. Needless to say, Rachel was concerned but didn't want to overwhelm her girlfriend, she'd be doing that tonight.
After ten painfully slow minutes, the two girls finally arrived back at Brooke's huge house and got out of the car. Both girls walked up the driveway and Brooke pulled out her key and began to unlock the door. Rachel zoned out, looking around Brooke's yard and enjoying her last moments of normalcy before the intense stuff started. Realizing it was taking her girlfriend longer than it should to unlock the door, she glanced at the brunette only to find that her hands were shaking too bad to get the key in the lock and the younger girl close to tears.
"Damn it, just work." Brooke whispered, her voice shaking.
Rachel reached over and put her hand on top of Brooke's, forcing the girl to look up and meet her gaze. The hazel-eyed girl stopped her motions and locked eyes with the red head, who gently took the key and quickly unlocked the door, ushering her girlfriend inside.
Almost as if she were on autopilot, Brooke walked into the house, through the kitchen, up the stairs and went straight into her bedroom. It was almost as if she didn't notice or care what Rachel was doing. The brown eyed girl followed her girlfriend worriedly. Rachel sat down on the bed as Brooke paced nervously back and forth around the room. This went on for a couple minutes as silence filled the room until Rachel stood and pulled her brunette girlfriend onto the bed with her and wrapped her arms around her waist. Brooke tensed at the sudden contact and tried her hardest not to scream at her girlfriend to let go. Taking several deep calming breaths, Brooke finally locked eyes with Rachel.
"You want to know why I'm like this. Why I have bruises, why I flinch when anyone touches me, what made me like this." Brooke stated calmly.
Rachel nodded silently.
"It was that sick bastard's fault. He made me like this Rachel! He did this!" Brooke shouted, getting out of Rachel's arms and shaking him rage.
"Brooke, baby I need you to calm down for me. Take a deep breath, sit down and tell me what's happening." Rachel said soothingly, taking Brooke's hand and leading her back over to the bed.
"When I was young, I never saw my parents." Brooke began, her voice already shaking.
"They were never around, not even for my birthday. I wouldn't even know what they looked like if there weren't pictures up in the house but it never bothered me because I always got what I wanted. And I always had P-peyton."
Rachel nodded sympathetically and gave Brooke's hand a squeeze.
"One day when I was 14, my Dad came home. Of course I was happy to see him, that he was paying me any attention at all. I didn't even notice that he didn't bring bitchtoria along. God I was so stupid. He told me that he had an important business deal the next day and that he wanted me to t-tag along." Brooke relived the story, tremors shaking her body and Rachel was too afraid of the younger girl's reaction to touch her.
"He brought me into this building and it was sketchy and dark, like in downtown. I thought it was so cool, spending time with my D- him." Brooke whimpered, unable to call the sick man her dad.
"He traded me to these men as a business deal. T-they took me into this room and it was d-dark and they did things Rachel, t-terrible t-things and I-I can't talk about t-this anymore." Brooke spoke through her tears as strangled sobs took over.
Rachel tried to pull her distressed girlfriend into her arms but immediately stopped when the brunette began to resist and begged her to stop. Brooke was in a flashback and Rachel was helpless.
"Brooke? Brooke! Baby I need you to be here with me. Now, in this moment. It's just you and me. You don't have to talk anymore okay? You're here with me, you're safe." Rachel chanted.
Slowly, Brooke's tremors turned into subtle shakes and her sobs died down to quiet cries and silent tears. The two girls held eye contact for a long time before Brooke hesitantly pulled Rachel into a tense hug, which the red head happily reciprocated.
"God, I'm so sorry Brooke. I promise you, I won't let anyone hurt you anymore." Rachel vowed, tears leaking out of her eyes.
"Will you stay with me tonight? I don't want to b-be alone." Brooke muttered, her eyes filled with such innocence and the vulnerability was so evident in her voice that Rachel felt her heart break for her girlfriend.
"Of course." Rachel murmured, pulling the girl closer.
Not much later, Rachel felt Brooke's body relax and her breathing even out to a sleeping pattern. The red head let out a sigh of relief and felt her own body relax against her girlfriend's. So it was these men, theses strangers that were hurting her beautiful, sweet girlfriend? Hell no, Rachel wouldn't stand for it. Granted, she needed Brooke to finish her story but tonight they had a breakthrough. Rachel would learn some of the things that trigger those memories for Brooke as well as details tomorrow, but the fact the Brooke had open up and trusted her put her on cloud nine.
"You're amazing Brooke. And I'll never let anyone hurt you again, I swear." Rachel whispered in Brooke's ear before drifting off to sleep.
WOW that was a long chapter! Like 3,000 words! Defiantly the longest I've ever written. Well there you have it, Brooke's secret is out. You'll learn more on the details in the next few chapters. Maybe some more interaction with her friends? Please let me know what you think, what you liked and would like to see. Sorry it took so long, I kind of hit a wall about half way through. Thank you for reading and please review.
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"I still don't understand why you are making me wash the stupid car with you!" Ziva whined as she stepped out of her side of Tony's Mustang.
"Because," he answered, stepping out of his own side and leaning on the roof as he whipped off his favourite pair of sunglasses. "It's more fun than paperwork. This whole thing's gonna take a lot of documentation. Bancroft was outside my apartment, and we ended up chasing him down a dirt road when my baby got dirty." He ran a finger across the dusty metal, examining it closely.
"Sometimes I think you love the car more than me," she said, and he looked up.
"Not true. I love you both equally." Ziva rolled her eyes. "Besides, you were with me when it got dirty."
"Does not make it my fault!"
"You've never have a problem with dirty stuff before," he said, and winked at her.
"Can't you just use one of the drive-through ones?" she asked.
"But Ziva," he protested, walking over to a nearby bucket and picking up a sponge. "Cleaning's half the fun."
"Then what is the other half?"
He grinned. "Doing this," and he threw the sponge in her direction, only for her to catch it in one hand and wring it dry with an evil grin on her face.
"You are going to regret that, DiNozzo."
Before long she had hosed him, bombarded him with sponges and tipped buckets of water over his head, while the car had received very little attention. He threw his hands up in the air.
"OK! I surrender!" he said. "I'm sorry for bringing you, to be honest."
"You should be," she smirked, and tapped his nose. "Well, at least you are clean."
And from nowhere, he pulled a sponge out and squeezed every drop of water from it onto Ziva's head. Vengeance, finally. "And now, so are you."
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They weren't the bloodthirsty Career Tributes everyone viewed them as. Cato and Clove laughed and cried and felt like everyone else. The games took that away. But they will never take away their undying love for each other.
Maybe after reading this tale you'll think that perhaps there was a tale of more woe than that of Juliet and her Romeo. We now end this tragic tale of Cato and Clove. Their souls will always be together now.
A/N: There, that's the end. So sad DX Well…I'm thinking of another one. Anyways Review! Please? :)
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And now we start the Resurrection of Cybres Trilogy. This takes place after the Prime movie, but will not allude to anything in it until I actually see the thing. So, for now...we get to see Dusk finally return home to Cybres! Awesome! That means meeting her parents...oh that's gonna be awkward...huh.
Dusk: AGH! Elhini, stop babbling just to make the chapter a little longer! *Smacks hands* Shame on you! Bad Elhini! Bad!
Me: Well it worked didn' it!? ANYWAY, enough with the craziness of the voices in my head meaning you Ms. Dusk! we go!
Dusk: You forgot something.
Me: Eh? Oh, right. Duh. Disclaimer: I do not own Transformers: Prime, only the OC's and the realm of Cybres.
Dusk: Primus, Prima, and the Maker save us from her craziness.
Chapter 1
Don't Wake Me
Dusk POV
"Good morning beautiful," I heard a familiar voice croon as a light servo traced my wing.
I let out a contented purr as I onlined and turned around to face Ben.
"Really, this early?" I yawned.
He kissed my helm, "Cybertron's not going to rebuild itself,"
I sighed and got out of my berth.
Unicron had finally been defeated the previous day by Dad and Jack and everyone and everything was normal…for us anyway.
My pedes touched the cold ground and I sat there on the edge of my berth.
"Hey, c'mon," Ben said, "We need to get going…Magnus will have our helms if we don't get movin'."
"Tell the Commander to shove it," I mumbled, "Ben, it's been three months since you became an Autari, don't you miss Earth?"
"Well, yeah," he admitted.
"Don't you ever wish you could go back?"
"Every day,"
"Then why do you stay?"
"Because of you," he said, "I know you'll never leave Optimus, 'Lita, Jack, 'Cee and 'Bee,"
"Beeeen," I groaned.
"Come on, let's move," he repeated again.
I shook my helm.
He raised an optic ridge.
"Did you just tell me no?" he asked.
I looked at him and gave a curt nod.
"Fine…" he started, "I was hoping I wouldn't have to resort to this buuuut…"
He ran his servo across my wings and I shivered in delight.
"Stoooopppp," I moaned.
"What, this?" he asked as he traced the tips of my wings.
He traced the area where my wings joined my b-back and I ohhhh.
My purr rumbled through my frame and I melted into his arms.
"I take that as a surrender?" he asked.
"I hate you," I murmured contentedly.
"I know you do honey," he purred, kissing my helm, "Now, go on and get ready, I'll be outside."
As soon as his servo left my wing I jerked it out of his reach, both wings standing on edge.
"Awww, look at the pretty kitty cat," Ben teased.
It was too bad Cybertronians had no need of pillows. I couldn't throw one at him.
So I settled for a mental slap upside his helm.
"OW!" he yelped, rubbing the back of said helm, "That hurt,"
"It's a Gibbs Slap sweetie," I grinned, "It's supposed to,"
He shot me a look and then went out the door.
I got up and stretched, wings arching up and then relaxing easily on my back. I looked at the sparse room and started spacing out.
Wonder what Amber and Sean and the others are doing now? What havoc are our Wreckers unleashing? How is Sirius?
My spark leapt up in my throat. That poor dog, he's probably miserable.
Amber probably is the same way. She looked kinda betrayed and sad that both Ben and I were leaving. Me she expected…Ben…
I sighed started towards the door…
When a searing, burning, twisting pain entered my spark.
And I fell, writhing in pain.
I chuckled to myself.
Messing with her wings…worked every time.
I leaned on the doorjamb of our temporary housing, waiting.
And waiting.
And to change it up a bit…I waited some more.
I finally sighed and knocked on the door.
"You ok in there?" I asked.
There was a loud crash.
"DUSK!" I shouted, trying to open the door, "DUSK ARE YOU OK!?"
No answer.
I heard the sound of a transformation and then of a weapon charging.
I looked down and saw my servo…er…blaster now. I took aim and blasted the door off its hinges. I had to get to Dusk!
"Dusk!" I yelled, "Where are…"
I found her.
She was lying face down on the ground…a vibrant blue glow emanating from her chassis.
I ran over to her and propped her up.
"B-Ben?" she asked weakly, optics flashing in time with her spark.
I heard the sound of many pedes thudding on the ground.
I looked up to see everyone there. I looked back to Dusk.
"Help her, please!" I begged.
Right as Dusk's optics flicked off.
"JOLT!" I screeched, "Help her!"
My former guardian knelt down, examining my girlfriend. He frowned.
"What!?" I demanded, "What is it!?"
"She's ok…for now," he said, "But, I don't know what went wrong…Ratchet knows more about her than I do."
"So that means…" I encouraged him to continue.
"We need to go back to Earth for him to take a look at her,"
"I think we'll all go," Jack said, "It'll be nice to see everyone again."
"And leave Cybertron abandoned?" I asked.
"There are new arrivals coming every day," Elita said, "They'll continue repairing the planet while we go back to visit our family and get our daughter taken care of,"
I cradled Dusk's still, yet still alive form in my servos.
I hoped Ratchet knew what to do.
He had to!
Didn't he?
Some of the chapters are long, some short, this one is obviously a short one :P Next time, Dusk wakes up back on Earth...and finds out what is happening.
Song in title: Don't Wake Me (Pull Remix) by Skillet
Anyway, hope you liked it. If you did, please R&R! :)
Qui vállë tóquetë, ván tecë (If no review comes from y'all; no story comes from me)
Máriessë ar mára tecië
Farewell and fair writing
Elhini Prime signing off.
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• jqp
The news of Intel’s death has been greatly exaggerated. Intel has the ability to change the rules of the game in ways that most competitors will be hard pressed to match.
• Jay Dillon
still no clarification of why Intel named its Atom computer that way, copying the Atom Chip Corporation which has a patented quantum optical computer currently available only to US Army research at $20,000 or so each. Meanwhile Intel’s Atom computers are not quantum optical computers, as far as I know. They just ripped off Atom Chip Corp’s product brand name, apparently angry at Dr. Shimon Gendlin who used to work for Kappa Numerics in Israel whose lab was largely controlled by Intel. But Dr. Gendlin has the patents.
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How profitable is advertising on How-to-Forge?
Discussion in 'Smalltalk' started by MrCompTech, Jul 22, 2010.
1. MrCompTech
MrCompTech New Member
I'm getting into Internet Marketing/Affiliate Marketing.
I was just wondering if offering online advertising after building up a popular website would be profitable for me.
How profitable for How-to-forge is it's advertising?
Last edited: Dec 30, 2010
2. zcworld
zcworld New Member
its comes down to an number of things
but its may just pay the hosting bill ....
like the no. of vistors / ad clicks on
the rank of your site
hits per day
so on ...
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Emile Vernon art prints and posters
Emile Vernon was a figurative painter born in Blois, France, in 1890.
Little is known about his life, except that he was a pupil of Bouge and Truphème, that he exhibited at the Paris Salon in 1898 and that he died at a young age in 1920.
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37 U.S. Code § 374 - Regulations
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This subchapter and subchapter II shall be administered under regulations prescribed by—
(1) the Secretary of Defense, with respect to the armed forces under the jurisdiction of the Secretary of Defense;
(2) the Secretary of Homeland Security, with respect to the Coast Guard when it is not operating as a service in the Navy;
(3) the Secretary of Health and Human Services, with respect to the commissioned corps of the Public Health Service; and
(4) the Secretary of Commerce, with respect to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
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Unit 6: Day 2, 2 Nephi 6–8
Book of Mormon Study Guide for Home-Study Seminary Students, (2012), 53–55
Nephi’s record of the first part of a sermon taught by his younger brother Jacob is found in 2 Nephi 6–8. (The second part of Jacob’s sermon is found in 2 Nephi 9–10.) Jacob prophesied that since the time Lehi left Jerusalem, the Jews had been taken captive and scattered because of their wickedness. However, the Lord would mercifully gather the Jews back to Jerusalem. Jacob also prophesied that the Jews would be scattered a second time after they rejected the Savior during His mortal ministry; again the Lord would show mercy and gather them in the last days as they come to a knowledge of the Savior. Additionally, Jacob quoted Isaiah’s prophecies showing the Savior’s loyalty to His covenant people, His mercy, and the greatness of His promises to the faithful.
2 Nephi 6
Jacob prophesies of the scattering and gathering of Israel
How would you act if people you loved treated you unkindly? What if they showed by their actions or attitudes that your relationship was no longer important to them? Ponder if you have ever acted this way toward the Lord. In 2 Nephi 6–8, Jacob taught how the Lord responds to those who, by their attitudes and actions, have turned away from Him.
Read 2 Nephi 6:3–5; 9:1, 3, and look for reasons why Jacob gave this sermon.
As you study today, look for how Jacob’s teachings can help you “learn and glorify the name of your God” (2 Nephi 6:4), better understand the covenants you have made with the Lord (see 2 Nephi 9:1), and give you reason to “rejoice, and lift up your heads forever” (2 Nephi 9:3).
1. journal icon1.
Answer the following questions in your scripture study journal:
1. a.
Jacob begins his sermon by prophesying what happened to the Jews after Lehi left Jerusalem because they had rejected the Lord. How did he describe it in 2 Nephi 6:8?
2. b.
Lehi, Jeremiah, and other prophets prophesied about this destruction. When the Babylonians conquered the Jews in about 587 B.C., many were killed and others were taken captive into Babylon. The Jews eventually softened their hearts toward the Lord. According to the first sentence of 2 Nephi 6:9, what did Jacob prophesy would happen to them?
3. c.
Jacob prophesied that the Savior would live His mortal life among the Jews after they returned from captivity. According to 2 Nephi 6:9–10, how would the Jews act and feel toward the Savior?
4. d.
According to 2 Nephi 6:10–11, what would happen to the Jews who rejected the Savior?
Read 2 Nephi 6:11, 14, and look for phrases that describe how the Lord feels about the house of Israel even though they rejected Him. You may want to circle the phrases “merciful unto them” and “recover them” in your scriptures.
1. journal icon2.
In your scripture study journal, write your answers to the following questions:
1. a.
What does it mean to “recover” someone or something?
2. b.
How does the Lord’s willingness to recover Israel a second time show His mercy?
In these same verses Jacob taught what the Jews must do in order to receive these blessings from the Lord. Read 2 Nephi 6:11, 14 again, and find the phrase “when they shall” in each verse. Highlight the words that complete the phrase. According to these verses, how will Israel qualify for the Lord’s mercy? These verses teach the principle: The Lord is merciful to those who return to Him.
1. journal icon3.
Ponder ways you have witnessed the Lord’s mercy and willingness to forgive those who return to Him. In your scripture study journal write: I know the Lord is merciful because … Then complete the statement with your own thoughts and feelings. You may want to repeat this exercise as you think of different ways the Lord has demonstrated that He is merciful.
In 2 Nephi 6 there is a great promise of hope for Israel—which includes all of us. Read 2 Nephi 6:17–18, and complete the following promises made by the Savior:
“The Mighty God shall _____________________________________________” (2 Nephi 6:17).
“All flesh shall know that _____________________________________________” (2 Nephi 6:18).
2 Nephi 7–8
Jacob quotes Isaiah’s prophecies about the Savior’s loyalty to the covenant people and His ability to redeem us
As recorded in 2 Nephi 7–8, Jacob quoted Isaiah’s prophecies concerning the Lord’s desire and ability to redeem Israel from the sufferings caused by their sins. Read 2 Nephi 7:1–2, and identify questions the Lord asked Israel that indicate He still loved them and wanted to redeem them.
It may be helpful to understand that the Lord used symbolic language relating to divorce and slavery, and the social customs familiar to people of that day, to teach them in an impactful and memorable way. The phrases “put thee away,” “the bill of your mother’s divorcement,” and “sold you” refer to the idea of breaking or severing a covenant. The questions could be rephrased as follows: “Have I turned away from you? Have I put aside the covenant we have made?” The answer to these questions is, “No.” The Lord will never turn away from us or forget the covenants He has made. His questions are a way of emphasizing that He will never break His covenant with Israel.
At the end of 2 Nephi 7:1, underline the Lord’s explanation of why Israel was separated from God and suffering in captivity.
1. journal icon4.
Answer one of the following questions in your scripture study journal:
1. a.
Why is it important to understand that our thoughts, decisions, and actions can separate us from God?
2. b.
Why is it important for you to know that the Lord never forgets or forsakes us, even though we may forget and forsake Him?
In 2 Nephi 7:2 the Lord asked Israel a vital question that applies to each of us. Find and highlight the question.
What do you think the Lord meant when He asked, “Is my hand shortened at all that it cannot redeem?” To help you visualize this, imagine you are stretching out your hand, trying to reach someone in need. If you were to lengthen your reach, what would you be trying to do for the person in need? If instead you shortened or pulled back your hand, what would it say about your desire to help the person? With this imagery in mind, another way to phrase the Lord’s question to Israel is: “Am I holding back and not reaching out to redeem you?”
The phrase “have I no power to deliver?” invited Israel to ponder on their faith that the Lord had the power to deliver them from the suffering caused by their sins.
In the remainder of 2 Nephi 7–8, Isaiah gave several examples of the Savior’s desire and power to redeem His covenant people.
Read 2 Nephi 7:5–7, and look for phrases in this prophecy that tell what the Messiah would do and experience as part of His atoning sacrifice to redeem us. In 2 Nephi 7:6, footnote a, there are cross references that explain and show the fulfillment of this prophecy. You might want to mark Matthew 27:26 in the footnote; then read Matthew 27:26–31, looking for ways Isaiah’s prophecy was fulfilled.
1. journal icon5.
Answer the following question in your scripture study journal: What does 2 Nephi 7:2, 5–7 show us about the Savior’s desire and willingness to redeem us?
To help you discover further evidence of the Lord’s mercy and power in the remainder of Isaiah’s prophecy, imagine you were asked to give a talk in church on the principle: The Savior desires to redeem His covenant people and has all power to do so. To prepare for your talk, read 2 Nephi 8:3, 11–13, 16, 22, and choose phrases that you feel offer assurance of the Lord’s desire and power to redeem us.
1. journal icon6.
Make an outline of your talk in your scripture study journal by:
1. a.
Listing two or three phrases that stood out to you and explaining how each phrase is an example of the Savior’s desire to redeem us or of His power to do so.
2. b.
Choosing one of those phrases and describing how you have either experienced, or would like to experience, that blessing in your life.
As you finish this lesson, remember that Jacob taught the truths you have studied today “that ye may learn and glorify the name of your God” (2 Nephi 6:4), “that ye might know concerning the covenants of the Lord” (2 Nephi 9:1), and “that ye may rejoice, and lift up your heads forever” (2 Nephi 9:3). Look for an opportunity today to share your appreciation for the Lord and His love for you with someone.
1. journal icon7.
I have studied 2 Nephi 6–8 and completed this lesson on (date).
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H.R.6641 - To authorize the Secretary of Transportation to establish a pilot program to study the benefits of using hair specimens for preemployment controlled substances tests of commercial motor vehicle operators, and for other purposes.
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global_05_local_5_shard_00000035_processed.jsonl/17811
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Clotel and the Historicity of the Anecdote
Article excerpt
In Clotel or the President's Daughter; A Narrative of Slave Life (1853), William Wells Brown makes use of several authenticating documents that are supposed--in the context of the novel--to be real. That is, these newspaper articles and advertisements, letters, legal tracts, religious publications, and the prefatory narrative of the author's own life and escape from slavery are assumed to exist "outside" the fiction of the novel. Although these documents are sometimes as much fictions as the rest of the novel, they do tend to have "authentic" counterparts, and the existence of such counterparts seems to have the effect of authenticating Brown's story about Thomas Jefferson's slave mistress and slave daughters.
As early as 1979, Robert Stepto delineated the characteristics of the authenticating machinery in Brown's narrative, arguing that in his personal narrative Brown "authenticates himself" and the autobiographical narrative tends to authenticate the novel: "Brown's personal narrative functions ... as a successful rhetorical device, authenticating his access to the incidents, characters, scenes, and tales which collectively make up Clotel" (30). In "The Novelization of Voice in Early African American Narrative" (1990), William Andrews re-asserts the notion that Brown uses authentic discourse and argues that it calls into question or problematizes the notion of stability of the line between "natural and fictive discourse." Brown subverts "the relation of privilege that makes natural discourse the ground for fictive discourse" (27). According to Andrews, "the voice of black narrative broke most profoundly with discursive conventions and white expectations in an attempt to find new ways of authorizing itself" (24).
Other readers also elaborate the notion of authenticating in Brown's novel.(1) Richard O. Lewis, for example, argues that Brown's authentic "documentation ... supplies enough credibility in Brown's works to sustain his ironic situations and metaphorical characters" (153).(2) Despite their careful analyses of the force of historical authentication, however, none of these essays contrasts Brown's own era (the 1850s) with the first third of the century, during which the novel is ostensibly set. Nor does any one of these recent readings pay attention to the chronological and historical inconsistencies of the authenticating documents themselves.(3) Perhaps even more significantly, none takes into account what Brown chooses to authenticate and what he leaves unsubstantiated. Given Brown's need as an ex-slave to authorize himself, one must still ask questions about what the writer chooses to or decides not to authenticate.
In that he seems to apply it inconsistently, Brown's use of authentication appears problematic. The very premise of the novel's argument rests on hearsay, on the rumor that one of Jefferson's daughters by a slave woman was "sold in New Orleans for one thousand dollars" ("Sale of a Daughter" 4). As he does with other "facts" in the history of slavery, Brown could have authenticated this assertion. But he evidently chose not to. Indeed, despite all his other allusions, quotations, and references and despite the availability of newspaper accounts concerning Jefferson's having a daughter sold into slavery, Brown makes no attempt to authenticate what would seem the single most important aspect of his narrative. Rather than authenticate, he simply asserts that Jefferson's relationship existed, letting that assertion stand on its own: "The gentleman for whom she [Currer, Clotel's mother] had kept house was Thomas Jefferson, by whom she had two daughters" (64).
Brown's choice not to authenticate this aspect of the novel by reference to newspaper and other accounts raises an interesting question about his use of authenticating documents generally. If Brown uses "authentic discourse to buttress the fictive claims" (30) as Andrews suggests, the fictive claim of Jefferson's paternity would seem to be absolutely essential. …
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Jean-Francois Lyotard
Jean Francois Lyotard, born in 1924 in Versailles, France, was a literary theorist and philosopher. He is most noted for his analysis of postmodernism in his 1979 work, The Post Modern Condition: A Report on Knowledge. The ideas and philosophies set down in his many other works depict a wide range of interests from culture to politics and the arts. In all these disciplines, Lyotard's writings focused on issues of justice and freedom.
Lyotard studied philosophy at the Sorbonne, and his master's thesis analyzed the various forms of indifference and detachment displayed in Buddhism, Taoism, Stoicism and Epicureanism. Many of Lyotard's philosophies give an important role to aesthetics. Particularly towards the end of his career, he focused on this branch of philosophy, which deals with the nature of beauty, art and taste.
In 1950, he taught philosophy in East Algeria, was then a French colony. He joined the struggle of Algerian workers against their French rulers. In 1954, he joined the Socialisme ou Barbarie movement, a libertarian socialist group that emerged after World War II. These experiences helped shape Lyotard's philosophical view and ideas.
Lyotard was one of the founders of the College International de Philosophie in Paris. In his later decades he taught at the University of Paris VIII, lectured in Critical Theory at the University of California at Irvine, and was a visiting professor at a number of institutions including the University of California at Berkeley, John Hopkins University, Yale University, the Universite de Montreal and Emory University.
Lyotard authored a number of philosophical works. His first noted work was The Postmodern Condition: A Report on Knowledge. In this book, Lyotard studies the advances of communication and the status of knowledge. He demonstrates that knowledge is a commodity that will become, if it is not already, the most significant factor in worldwide competition for power. As an example, he brings the case of pharmaceutical companies who sued the South African government because it produced generic anti-AIDS drugs for citizens suffering from the disease. In that case, the pharmaceutical companies were fighting to protect their rights to the knowledge that their years of research had produced.
Lyotard contends that science and knowledge are inextricably linked to politics and ethics. The changes in the way that people relate to knowledge mark a change in the nature of society and the human experience.
In The Postmodern Condition, Lyotard introduces the term postmodern. He defines postmodern as incredulity towards metanarratives. Metanarratives had previously been the "quintessential form of customary knowledge."
To illustrate a metanarrative, he introduces a tribe whose members tell the stories of their tribal history in a specific format. Through these narratives, the rituals and structure of the tribal society are organized. In addition, their historical narratives construct their group identity and define their societal rules.
Lyotard was a believer in the fact-value distinction, which is a controversial issue in philosophy. The distinction argues that facts denote an actual state of affairs, e.g. the sun is hot. Different from facts are values, which emerge from the human relationship with the state of affairs, e.g. it is uncomfortable to stand in the heat of the sun. A conclusion of the fact-value distinction is that different cultures can have different values, e.g. some cultures may value the sun's intense heat. Lyotard contended that ignoring this distinction may give rise to totalitarianism.
In his book The Differend, Lyotard develops some of the ideas he had written in his two earlier books The Postmodern Condition and Just Gaming. Lyotard's innovative term "differend" refers to a judgment in which it is impossible to apply one set of rules to satisfactorily litigate the case. In such cases, the different cultures and values represented on each side make it impossible to satisfy both parties. A judgment would automatically wrong one of the parties.
Lyotard also stated that a wrong is a damage accompanied by the loss of the means to prove the damage. This loss can occur if a victim dies, is deprived of his or her liberties, or if their words are not believed. One of Lyotard's later works was titled Inhuman. In this work, Lyotard discusses the process in which people are dehumanized by the forces of development and technological progress.
Jean-Francois Lyotard: Selected full-text books and articles
Jean-François Lyotard
Simon Malpas.
Routledge, 2002
Judging Lyotard
Andrew Benjamin.
Routledge, 1992
The Bounds of Reason: Habermas, Lyotard, and Melanie Klein on Rationality
Emilia Steuerman.
Routledge, 2000
Lyotard and the Political
James Williams.
Routledge, 2000
Marx and the Postmodernism Debates: An Agenda for Critical Theory
Lorraine Y. Landry.
Praeger Publishers, 2000
Librarian’s tip: Chap. 5 "Lyotard"
Education and the Postmodern Condition
Michael Peters.
Bergin & Garvey, 1995
Librarian’s tip: Includes discussion of Jean-Francois Lyotard in multiple chapters
Postmodernism and Education
Robin Usher; Richard Edwards.
Routledge, 1994
Librarian’s tip: Chap. 8 "Telling Stories: The Legitimising of Knowledge: Lyotard in Context"
The Postmodern
Simon Malpas.
Routledge, 2005
Librarian’s tip: "The Postmodern Condition: Jean-Francois Lyotard" begins on p. 36
After Poststructuralism: Reading, Stories and Theory
Colin Davis.
Routledge, 2003
Librarian’s tip: Chap. 3 "After Knowledge: Lyotard and the Postmodern Condition"
Philosophy and the Maternal Body: Reading Silence
Michelle Boulous Walker.
Routledge, 1998
Librarian’s tip: "Jean-Francois Lyotard: The Differend" begins on p. 68
Wittgenstein: Philosophy, Postmodernism, Pedagogy
Michael Peters; James Marshall.
Bergin & Garvey, 1999
Librarian’s tip: Chap. 7 "Metanarratives, Nihilism, and the End of Metaphysics: Wittgenstein and Lyotard"
Debates in Continental Philosophy: Conversations with Contemporary Thinkers
Richard Kearney.
Fordham University Press, 2004
Librarian’s tip: "Jean-Francois Lyotard: What Is Just?" begins on p. 192
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Trust, Credulity, and Search Engines Is Google Over?
Article excerpt
SOME recent articles and blog postings are finally starting to challenge the Google search religion. I've provided a bunch of links for you in the webliography at the end of this column. The real issue is one of search engine spam and the serving up of questionable results. This is a real issue for any kind of searcher, learner, educator, or researcher. It runs the risk of ruining the usefulness of search engines and, in particular, Google. Some scenarios could happen:
1. Google could become a massive dark hole of lousy content driven by the needs of advertisers, marketers, and special interest groups. Users may or may not notice.
2. New competitors could arrive and address these weaknesses and create market options for search that drive improvements across the board. Perhaps Bing or blekko are already starting this.
3. Search engine optimizers could become regulated or self-manage to address the threats to their own interests.
4. Content reputation management systems that have been tried over the years (like a Good Housekeeping Seal) that have been tried over the years may finally come alive.
5. Recommendation systems that rely on the value of the recommender, your own social connections or respected groups, leaders, or professions could influence the relevancy of search results. This shows some potential in recommendations tied to your own contacts in such environments as Facebook; Linkedln; StumbleUpon; Digg, Inc.; Quora; or even a renewed Delicious. Peer recommendations are already working better in music, movies, and recreational reading than they are in the research and question and answer space.
Each of the above potential opportunity scenarios has some chance of occurring. Some are desirable goals, but most also run the risk of being double-edged swords. While you could get better answers under some scenarios, it comes at a cost of narrowness, a dependence on group-sourcing answers, and/or a reduction in innovative thought and serendipity. So, what to do?
I'd suggest that what is most important, in the near term, is to build credulity skills in learners and researchers about what's behind the results they get from web search engines. To do this, we must add a greater dimension to the teaching of searching and information literacies. We must move beyond the teaching of raw searching skills and the retrieval of information, simple content quality evaluations, and the narrowly based search training for media literacy to avoid the dangerous, prurient, and gambling aspects of the web. These skills are important, but there are more fundamental insights that can be gained by understanding the business models behind search engines. Learners and researchers should know and be able to ask themselves who or what chooses to promote that link on the pages of search results they are seeing. Are those links driven by simple mathematical relevancy or a search algorithm? Are special interest groups, political parties, individuals, lobbyists, or commercial advertising interests determining the results searchers are finding?
So, here are some insights into what we need to be teaching, in addition to all the good stuff we're already doing now.
First, every hour, 1 million spam pages of content are created. Spammers are out to harm users, steal publisher traffic, and defraud legitimate advertisers. A new search engine has created a spam clock to highlight this issue (see Figure 1).
For starters, every searcher should know who creates spam pages, why, and how they influence search results. For instance, did you know that Yahoo! owns one of the largest content and article creation companies that are designed to drive traffic to advertisers? Can you name the other majors? This is an important issue. These so-called content farms are companies such as Demand Media and Each creates thousands of pieces of content per day. This content may actually be correct . …
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An Introduction to Web Services
Article excerpt
A web service is a software application on a network that has an interface through which other programs can gain access. Web services can be as simple as a mortgage calculator or as complex as software applications made up of component modules located all over the world. They are currently being used to help large and small entities get the most from their IT resources by allowing the integration of diverse software applications, from desktop programs to large enterprise-wide systems. Not only is this useful for day-to-day operations, it is especially helpful in integrating systems after a merger or acquisition.
Finance and Accounting Web Services
Finance and accounting-oriented web services are proliferating rapidly. A particularly interesting one can be found at: This web service uses the delayed stock quote web service provided by Xmethods ( to download specific stock quotes directly into a Microsoft Excel spreadsheet. Finance and accounting professionals often need data about a company's financial performance to use for further analysis. The normal process is to get the required data either online or from a printed document, manually enter it into the appropriate cells of a spreadsheet, and run the analysis. This web service, however, uses an Excel spreadsheet to "talk" to a database of stock quotes on the Internet, downloading specific data as requested.
Another finance and accounting web service is a subscription service that provides real -time access to the Edgar database of SEC filings. Created by XigniteEdgar (, this web service enables users to monitor the SEC Edgar database for submissions and then download recent filings.
Yet another is a web service provided by Inkostar, which translates accounting data in XML (Extensible Markup Language) format to IIF (Intuit Interchange Format) for input to a QuickBooks application (
Flexibility of Web Services
Web services do not require extensive modification of existing software. Dun & Bradstreet offers :Tracking Folders," a web service that allows subscribers to continually monitor customer, suppliers, competitors, or business partners, for credit checks, collection processes, and more. Subscribers to the Dun & Bradstreet tracking web service maintain folders on their local computer and automatically receive information that could affect business decisions. Essentially, the service plugs various Dun & Bradstreet software applications into software applications on a subscriber's computer. The subscriber pays an ongoing fee for the service, and can add additional applications or drop them at any time without modifying or disabling software applications.
How Do Web Services Work?
The key to making web services work is data, process, and communication standards. The communication protocol standard is the same as the Internet, TCP/IP. All computers can "talk" TCP/IP. The data standard is XML, a set of syntax rules for adding meaning to data and for building other XML standards. The process standards are actually a set of evolving XML standards: SOAP (Simple Object Access Protocol), for packaging messages from one software application to another; WSDL (Web Services Description Language), for describing the web services processes in terms a software application can understand; and UDDI (Universal Description, Discovery and Integration), for describing how to find and use an available web service. …
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Reason Foundation
Reason Foundation
Out of Control Policy Blog
Accessibility Vs Mobility
Samuel Staley
January 24, 2010, 8:59am
My most recent post on's blog Interchange takes up the question of whether mobilty and accessibiliy are the same thing. Planners have become enamoured with the idea that accessibility and mobility are independent of each other. Since mobility is usually considered auto-mobility, and therefore care dependent, they aren't so concerned about reducing mobility. The implication is that people are indifferent between living in places that are autodependent (low densities) versus transit-oriented (high density, mixed use) as long as services and other things are "accessible" via other modes.
I challenge this idea and make the case that mobility is a key to accessibility, and this is one reason why the popularity of the automobile persists. I point out:
"Unfortunately, by conflating mobility, accessibility and transportation modes, we leave out the crucial discussion of the trade offs implied by consciously shifting from one transportation mode to another. Simply adding transportation modes to an existing built environment will not necessarily increase mobility or accessibility. If the buses run empty, and bicycle paths go unused, the provision of these alternative modes provides neither greater mobility nor greater access. Indeed, by shifting resources from more productive public investments, including greater capacity for the modes that make sense, overall accessibility may decline."
The discussion threat, as always, is as informative and entertaining as the post itself!
Samuel Staley is Research Fellow
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global_05_local_5_shard_00000035_processed.jsonl/17822
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On Tue, Aug 09 2011 at 1:51pm -0400,
Tejun Heo <tj kernel org> wrote:
> Hello,
> On Tue, Aug 09, 2011 at 01:43:47PM -0400, Mike Snitzer wrote:
> > [cc'ing dm-devel]
> >
> > All of these issues have come to light because DM was not setting
> > flush_flags based on the underlying device(s). Now fixed in v3.1-rc1:
> > ed8b752 dm table: set flush capability based on underlying devices
> >
> > Given that commit, and that request-based DM is beneath the elevator, it
> > seems any additional effort to have DM flushes re-enter the flush
> > machinary is unnecessary.
> Hmmm... what if the underlying devices have different featureset? Use
> the lowest common denominator?
Yes, for DM, if any device in the stack requires FLUSH/FUA then
the upper request_queue's flush_flags will be set to reflect that.
Bio-based DM _could_ end up issuing a flush to a device that doesn't
need the flush. But once the bio emerges from the bottom of the
bio-based stack it'll get handed to the flush mechanism where it'll be
Bio-based DM may stack ontop of request-based DM (think LVM ontop of
mpath device). Request-based DM may _not_ stack on bio-based DM.
Request-based DM, the cause of all this discussion, is only used for the
multipath target and I'm not aware of any plans to provide more complex
stacking via request-based DM. Doing so would require splitting a
request that spans target boundaries, etc.
So we're left with request-based DM only allowing a single target,
meaning: even if request-based DM were stacked a couple times the
flush_flags would still reflect the underlying physical device's queue.
> The flush mechanism is designed to
> deal with stacking by going through flush at each level. Stacking
> queue can simply export support for both REQ_FLUSH and FUA and the
> lower lever queue will decompose them according to the capability
> supported by the actual device.
> IIUC, what's broken here is some insert functions aren't using
> ELEVATOR_INSERT_FLUSH when needed and there are some issues due to the
> special nature of the stacked requests which I think should be fixed.
OK, conceptually pure, just seems the fixes are multiplying.
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global_05_local_5_shard_00000035_processed.jsonl/17865
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Arcade Longplay [045] War Gods
Rating is available when the video has been rented.
Uploaded on Oct 28, 2008
Played by: Ironclaw
Many, many years ago, a spaceship carrying precious life-giving ore crashes to Earth. The chunks of ore scatter across the planet, and over the years, ten humans each find a stone of the ore, and are transformed into powerful beings, into War Gods. And now, they are fighting each other to possess all the stones and become the ultimate super-warrior.
Great beat-em-up game. I couldn't get this game to emulate 100%, had some sound and speed ussues which you might or might not notice.
Ok, so I have played this game for some time now, my favorite is Vallah, as I just plainly like her for some reason :). Turns out she is (in my opinion) the best character in the game (not counting the bosses). She has lots of kick ass moves, instant attacks, like the Gator Skull Trap. Anyway, when I decided to record this game I didn't want to play with her as she is the most powerful one and I didn't have too much trouble beating the game with her, so I went for the next coolest looking char, which was Warhead. I played some 2 player rounds solo and learned his moves, then went on to record the game.
This game is pretty damn hard. It all went well to the 7th opponent: Maxiumus; had to use a continue on him.
1. Opponents 1-6 went pretty ok, no continues used on them.
2. The 7th opponent: Maximus did not go to well, had to use a continue on him. I think he sounds a bit like Arnold Schwartzenegger :), specially when he says "I kill you and I take your power" and when he gets leg swiped.
3. The 8th one went ok.
4. Then at the 9th opponent I was face to face with Vallah (yikes), had to use 5 continues on her till I found out her weakness; crouch-blocking till she does the Shield Dash then uppercut her (if I played as Vallah she would be no match).
5. After Vallah came Warhead, had to use 2 continues on him and kept all the rounds.
6. Now it was time for Grox (sub-boss). Never played against him (or any other character) with anyone but Vallah before, so didn't know a good tactic... so I died FAST :P. I spent 14 continues on him!... and during that time I was sooo close to use Vallah to take him, till I found a nice weakness: jumpkicks :P. With Vallah I would just have jumped around, skull trapped and shield bash etc. Could have let myself die on the second round to make another attempt at winning 2 in a row, but nah... I just wanna beat the game and don't care about looks.
7. EXOR - the final boss, too hard! Spent like 20 continues on him as I SOOOO wanted to finish the game with Warhead, as I've beaten all other chars with him. The best I could do was to use uppercuts when he was in the air shooting lasers, but that wasn't fast enough damage to beat him, as the game has NO DRAWS. I easily when every match ended had more health than Exor, but lost them all as there was no DRAW. If he wasn't beaten in one round when the time was out, I lost, even if I had more health... LAME. I had no choice but to use Vallah on him, didn't go as good as it usually does, but I won and that's what matters :).
So, I used lots of continues and cut all the fights except the first and final one for each opponent, except for Warhead, kept his.
Like I said before, I didn't play with Vallah as it would be too easy to beat the game then (usually is anyway), so it's RESPECT to me for beating this game with WARHEAD, really :). Did the same in my Dune 2 vid where I played with the weakest house, and in Elfmania where I played with the girl, while most others played with the king (he makes most dmg of all chars and can take most beating too). I want these movies to mean something so.... playing with the most powerful character is no fun :).
This was the arcade version, the toughest of them all, as this game also exist on PlayStation, Nintendo 64 and Windows. All of them have combo breakers, but not the arcade (weird, but true), also, the arcade need more directions and buttons pressed to perform fatalities and maybe other moves aswell, and the fatalities requires perfect button execution... can't press too fast, or too slow. I wanted to add all the fatalities at the end of the movie, but even though I had the list with all of them, I couldn't do them, too damn hard... I have no problem doing advance stuff in any other game.
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global_05_local_5_shard_00000035_processed.jsonl/17882
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Facebook Buys WhatsApp for $19 Billion
The social media giant absorbs the messaging application in the biggest tech deal in years.
3:00 | 02/20/14
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Transcript for Facebook Buys WhatsApp for $19 Billion
Give it up to you. A blockbuster tech deal. Facebook is gobbling up whatsapp for an eye-popping -- are you ready for this -- $19 billion. ABC's Rebecca Jarvis has the story. Reporter: Why is mark Zuckerberg paying these two guys $19 billion to join Facebook when just a few years ago, his company wouldn't give them a job? Because they started whatsapp, an app that lets people text unlimited messages from their smartphones on the internet and not only that, Zuckerberg is paying 18 billion more than he did for instagram making this the biggest start-up deal of all time. But whatsapp is huge growing facer than Facebook at the same stage and actually twice the size of Twitter. Reporter: Even if you haven't heard of whatsapp your kids probably have. Its 450 million users exchanging billions of texts a day. Its co-founders engineers who once applied to work for Facebook and got rejected. Plan B, starting their own company, whatsapp. Working for free completely draining their bank accounts eventually caught Facebook founder mark Zuckerberg's eye. He took the CEO of whatsapp out for coffee and the CEO said, nah, no thanks. Mark stayed in touch with him over the next two years. Reporter: The deal which gives the world's largest social network another dominant mobile communication tool will make whatsapp's 55 employees newly minted millionaires, at 19 billion buck, that's $345 million apiece. And not only that, the founder picked a special place to sign the deal, the social services office where the Ukrainian immigrant would wait in line to collect food stamps just a few years ago. For "Good morning America," Rebecca Jarvis, ABC news, new York.
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global_05_local_5_shard_00000035_processed.jsonl/17891
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Sparrow Guitars: Shine
Shine on stage. Not in the basement.
Stop playing games. Start playing guitar.
In 2009, more Guitar Hero guitars were sold than actual ones. We thought that was kinda crazy, so we created this poster campaign for Sparrow Guitars to remind people there¹s just no substitute for the real thing.
Advertising Agency: Rethink, Canada
Creative Directors: Ian Grais, Chris Staples
Copywriter: Keri Zierler
Art Director / Designer: Rory O'Sullivan
Studio Artists: Richard Parkes, Justine Renvoize
Photographer: Clinton Hussey
Account Manager: Louise Ritchie
Guest's picture
twice the same ad? Or am I missing details?
Jotacef's picture
219 pencils
its a campaign
niniasufle's picture
407 pencils
wrong file I think...
Guest's picture
writer should break a guitar over their own head. a toy one, or a real one.
Dzsoi's picture
6312 pencils
This line sucks. You can practice on a real guitar in the basement as well. A valid difference would be like... Do you want geek admirers or hot chick fans? Something like this.
Guest's picture
What about people who play real guitar and play rhythm-games for fun?
Guest's picture
cause insulting a potential customer is always a good idea.
juli_cuq's picture
2 pencils
More bicycles were bought in the first quarter of 2009 than cars. I don't remember a Ford campaign against this.
Guest's picture
Oh my god you guys are way to sensitive! Try reading the fine print under the image where it says "in 2009, more Guitar Hero guitars were sold than actual ones..." Then think about the ad. It's just like all those "get out and play" ads they've got goin. In my opinion this is very clever.
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global_05_local_5_shard_00000035_processed.jsonl/17897
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EDUKAN, where do you find the descripton of courses
1. 0 I don't see any info like I'm reading here like go to lab at the college etc or even if they have a lab?? Advice please.
2. Visit mom2twinsplus1 profile page
About mom2twinsplus1
Joined Feb '10; Posts: 33; Likes: 6.
1 Comments so far...
3. Visit tparks profile page
It depends on the class. For a&p you buy lab software called ADAM and do the workbook that comes with it along with all of your other assignments every week, but you never physically do a lab at the school. Microbiology you attend a 1 day lab in great bend, ks. Hope that helps. I think that if you click on the class you can see a syllabus maybe?
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global_05_local_5_shard_00000035_processed.jsonl/17898
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Free Kaplan Nursing eBooks (NCLEX, Math for Nurses, etc) - page 2
Just wanted to give everyone a heads up that Kaplan is running a promotion giving away over 130 eBooks for free, including some nursing ones, for your Nook, iPad, or Sony eReader Jan 4-10. To get... Read More
1. Visit lvnibclc profile page
Thank You soooo much!! Downloading some now!!
2. Visit fralou profile page
I missed the offer
3. Visit lhibby profile page
hello everyone, unfortunately i didnt get this free kaplan ebooks for there any ways that i too can get this? i have nook ereader to use for this ebook...can anyone help me on this? Is it lendable or anyone can give me a copy??? dont know which one should do...???
4. Visit BacktotheBeach profile page
they usually do the freebies again at back to school time, usually mid August.
msiegel and mumarada like this.
5. Visit lhibby profile page
Thanks for the info
6. Visit coonkine profile page
Quote from Start2
Thanks so much for sharing this....
How did you do on your TEAS?
Got a 94 (99th percentile) (:
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global_05_local_5_shard_00000035_processed.jsonl/17925
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A screenshot from 'Gone Home.' / The Fullbright Co.
While Rockstar's Grand Theft Auto V is enjoying its time in the spotlight - after all, it's rumored to be the most expensive video game ever made and marketed at about $265 million - on the other end of the spectrum is an independent computer game also garnering its fair share of attention.
The Fullbright Co.'s debut title Gone Home has sold more than 50,000 copies in less than a month and has earned an average review score of 89 (metacritic.com).
After spending a couple of days wrapped in this indie hit, it's easy to see why it's winning the hearts (and wallets) of PC gamers - especially for those with a nostalgic leaning toward point-and-click adventure games popularized in the '90s.
While the slower-paced exploration game isn't for everyone, and it has no replay value, it's a refreshingly fun and atmospheric experience worthy of your time and $20 investment.
In Gone Home, it's 1995 and you arrive at your Portland home after spending a year away in Europe. Problem is, your family isn't there to welcome you. While roaming the rooms of the empty Greenbriar mansion - reading notes on crumpled pieces of paper, listening to cassette recordings and bypassing environmental obstacles - you'll eventually piece together the mystery of what happened here and why. Without spoiling anything, the story gets increasingly interesting the more you unravel it.
Called an "interactive exploration simulator," Gone Home borrows elements from the once-popular adventure game genre, such as figuring out how to enter a locked room or cabinet, manipulating objects you find and placing clues in your inventory. You'll use the mouse to look around and click on objects (and right click to zoom in), while the WASD keys are used to move around.
While not too difficult of a game, it is possible to get stuck. Gone Home has so many rooms, closets, drawers and secret panels to sift through, and on three floors (and an attic), you will likely need to revisit areas to comb through for additional clues. But because the story is so engrossing, you won't mind clicking through the mansion a few times. (Worst-case scenario, the Web has text and video walkthroughs, if needed.)
In fact, the detailed environments, roaring rainstorm and convincing voice acting all make this first-person game an immersive, atmospheric experience. It's also fun to step back into 1995 and see archaic machinery like VCRs, cassette decks and answering machines.
Gone Home is the kind of game best played with the lights out and speakers (or headphones) cranked. As long as you have some patience, you'll no doubt lose yourself in this unique, story-driven adventure.
If you need a break from twitchy shooters or sports games, Gone Home proves indie games can compete with the big boys for your entertainment dollar.
Gone Home
Platform: Windows PC, Mac, Linux
Genre: Adventure/Simulation
Developer: The Fullbright Co.
Publisher: The Fullbright Co.
Web site: gonehomegame.com
Price: $19.99
Rating: "Teen"
Score: 3.5 stars (out of 4)
Contact Saltzman at [email protected].
Copyright 2015 USATODAY.com
Read the original story: Review: 'Gone Home' an immersive indie adventure
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of mitt romney serving under president obama. according to the "boston herald" there's a lot of buzz, maybe a little buzz, about a possible cabinet position for the former massachusetts governor. >> it's just an interesting talker, right? >> the president did offer to sit down with mitt romney during his victory speech and he's already proposed creating a new secretary of business cabinet position, something romney dismissed during the campaign. mitt romney's close friend and adviser tom raft says quote, if there were other areas of service, i think he, romney, will look at all of them. mitt romney's father did go into the cabinet after george romney was governor he was secretary of housing and urban development under richard nixon and you know how much mitt romney loves his father and respects him. and i do expect he will be involved with this country going forward. >> you just wonder how. i don't know that -- we'll see. all right, 19 -- 20 minutes past the hour. it might be time to rename black friday. why? because it's not even on friday anymore. the new york daily news says this,
heading into boston last night. he thought he was going to win too. he said he had no regrets and was proud of his campaign. but as for why this campaign went down in defeat, that adviser tells me that they are pointing to what the obama campaign was predicting, they were going to have a good turnout in the word of the adviser, the obama campaign was right. as for the future of the republican party, i talked to a top conservative leader inside the republican party who said the gop will have to do a better job talking about immigration reform with latinos if they have any hopes of winning a presidential election in the near future. john? >>> presidential race is settled, but we're still looking at key races to determine the final numbers for the balance of power in the united states senate and the house of representatives. our chief congressional correspondent dana bash is with us for breaking news in north dakota. >> cnn can project the democratic candidate for senate, heidi heitkamp, in north dakota, has won that seat. she's kept that seat. it was an open seat in democratic h
. >> and briefly, candy, one final question to you. you're just back from boston. you were y thereto romney campaign last night. they went in pretty upbeat. they thought they might have a good chance of winning, didn't they? >> they did. but i have to tell you that there was a certainty about the obama campaign even two weeks out. i talked to a senior strategist who said i'm not, you know, i'm not kidding you here. that's cleaned up version. i'm not kidding you here, candy,ly show you the figures afterwards. we have this. they were certain. there was an optimism in the romney camp. but it wasn't based on the numbers. it was based on the feel of things. and one thing you know when you cover a campaign, the feel of things can be really deceiving. >> numbers are more important than an -- >> if there is a mandate coming out of this, it is that you saw in the exit polls by a two-to-one margin, people believe there should be a path to citizenship for immigrants in this country. and i think if there's any mandate for republicans and democrats coming out of this, it is to get immigration reform don
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Issue 14.09 - September 2006
Subscribe to WIRED magazine and receive a FREE gift!
The Pitchfork Effect
By Dave Itzkoff Page 3 of 3
Two years after the furor ignited by the Travistan write-up, the site has become more careful about doling out such brutal reviews, says Pitchfork's managing editor, Scott Plagenhoef. When Pitchfork reviewers took on Morrison, he says, they were no longer "little guys on the Internet throwing rocks at big artists" – they were picking on one of their own. Though Plagenhoef says the site has to be more cautious about the power it wields, he still downplays Pitchfork's ability to make or break new bands. "We probably accelerate the process," he concedes. "But people will like what they're going to like regardless of how they found out about it."
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He isn't the only one who's skeptical about the idea of a "Pitchfork effect." So are some of the bands that have received raves from the site. "Putting too much weight in somebody else's opinion of a piece of art, that is a dangerous thing," says Richard Reed Parry, a musician for Arcade Fire, whose album Funeral received a rapturous 9.7 rating from the site. "It's just a reaction. It's the last piece of the cultural puzzle, not the most important part."
Still, it isn't hard to find evidence of the impact that Pitchfork has on music journalism. In the record-review formula used by the aggregator site, which calculates a weighted score drawn from nearly 50 different publications, a review from Pitchfork is given as much weight as a review from Rolling Stone.
It's also possible to see Pitchfork's influence reflected in the ambitions of larger media companies that once again see the potential in connecting listeners to new music online, using content generated by name-brand critics. There's eMusic, a subscription-based service that combines a massive library of DRM-free independent music with recommendations and critiques from about 150 well-known writers, including MTV News correspondent Kurt Loder. "On an editorial level, I tend to think we're the 800-pound gorilla," says eMusic editor in chief Michael Azerrad.
And MTV Networks recently beta-launched Urge, which also offers millions of licensed tracks plus editorial content from its own pool of some 25 writers and bloggers. Van Toffler, president of MTV Networks' music group, doesn't consider Urge a challenge to Pitchfork, but he acknowledges, "When you have trusted names – trusted as music experts – as well as your peer group and like-minded music freaks around you, that will be such a comforting environment that you might not go to many other places to get your music."
At the opposite end of the spectrum, Pitchfork is being nibbled at by tiny MP3 blogs that are so below the radar that they can directly link readers to all the tracks they write about without worrying as much about music clearance issues. Though none of these diary-like blogs may ever have enough traffic to challenge Pitchfork, there may come a day when every niche audience has a blogger that speaks directly to it. "The only way we would be in trouble," says Jason Dietz, music editor at, "is if there's so many people posting their opinions on the Web that people totally stopped caring about what professional critics have to say. Which may have already happened."
If Pitchfork should somehow lose its dedicated following, Schreiber says he's prepared to go back to the scrappy, DIY roots that first spawned the site. In fact, it almost sounds as if he's spoiling for the opportunity. "We survived for years on a very, very small readership and virtually no budget," he says. "It's still something that I could do independently, even if I didn't have the means to support a staff."
Seated at a nearby desk, Plagenhoef can't let this remark pass without comment. "That's encouraging," he says.
"It's the reality," Schreiber says.
Dave itzkoff is a New York City-based freelance writer.
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[TSJ] Team Strawberry Jello - Hard Shots
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Yippie Skippie,
Borged 2 machines and moved one to a friends house. Too bad the stats are not working.
Did I hear that the DIMES stats were not working?
Jamilla, that was an anouncement on the 6th from Ohad. What ever they did seams to knock the server up side the head, because sometime after 2:30 AM CST it goes down. Additionally, if you are just starting a client you get the following message; "DocumentException Error on line 1 of document : White spaces are required betwen publicId and systemId. Nested exception: White spaces are required between publicId and systemId.".
I have posed to their forum asking what's up.
Maybe they need some Viagra.
I have always wondered about those stats. Oh, BTW >>> I did a clean install of DIMES on my Dell Precision and DIMES is running fine and not freezing up my computer. I have been tempted many times to just quit running DIMES because of this issue in the past. I keep a close eye on DIMES now.
I need some help, here.
Yesterday the stats were down for awhile, correct?
But the work collecting computers were up, right?
So today, everyone should have had a small surge in stats due to half stats yesterday and 1 and a half stats today. But it doesn't do that. Does the work done when the stats are down just disappear??
It looked like if your machines had work to do, they were doing it. If they needed to transmit and get more work, they didn't. Mad
Yay 1 million.
Took long enough
Congrats, Habz! Smile
Comcast people will be coming by my apartment complex Friday to do an inspection of the lines. A slimly disguised witch hunt to find cable cheaters, I'm sure.
But the result is the same, I will be shutting down all my Dimes clients so I don't stand out.
They should be back up on Friday night or Saturday.
Hmmm...new agent available. The "User Scripts" page looks like it was just what someone asked for earlier. Now I can try to find some far off section of the internet where there are no DIMES agents and try to mine the IPs there.
BTW: I auto-updated all of my 6 machines and had zero issues. Worked great!
looking at the netdimes page there seems to be a linux and macos client. trying the linux client tonight.
updated 2 clients with no problems also
Only had issue with the new client on one box, the only one that wasn't an upgrade, but a download and install from scratch. Causes my video to go to something like (guessing) 320x240 or even less when I try to use the overlay. Plus all the text seems like it is cleartyped or fuzzier than the other text on my screen. Could be the Java I installed with the automatic install moments earlier, dunno!
edit: windows client is the one in question.
edit: to clarify, when I say overlay, I am assuming that. It could be any graphics. It just seemed to happen only when trying to watch video with either WMP or winamp. Confused Confused
I wrote alittle quikie script to output one range of IP addys to a text file so you can feed them into the DIMES agent.
Only edit the value of "strSubnet" in the format given. Yes, you need the trailing period as the numbers in the loop are just tagged on the end then spit out ot the text file.
Create a file with the name 'ipaddy.vbs', edit it and paste the following into it:
Dim fso, intStartingAddress, intEndingAddress
Dim strSubnet, IPAddyOutput
Const ForReading = 1, ForWriting = 2, ForAppending = 8
Set fso = CreateObject("Scripting.FileSystemObject")
strSubnet = "192.168.1."
intStartingAddress = 1
intEndingAddress = 254
Set IPAddyOutput = fso.OpenTextFile("DIMES-Input.txt", ForWriting)
For i = intStartingAddress to intEndingAddress
strComputer = strSubnet & i
IPAddyOutput.Writeline strComputer
In the same directory, create a text file with the filename 'DIMES-Input.txt' or the script won't have a place to output the results. You need to have file extensions visible or your could name the vbs file wrong.
This script could be improved by querying the user for the range(s) used to include both the upper and lower bounds. Also, having this in a webpage and then sending a text file to the user or outputing to a text box that the user could copy/paste from would be good too.
Well I just tossed together a php script that replicates the above with start and end ranges.
I put it up on my website here. There's basic error checking in there, but I haven't thrown in the error checking I normally put in something I'm exposing to the induhviduals of the internet.
If javascript is enabled it'll select the outputted text and brower permitting, place it in the clipboard.
Note, that if you choose large ranges (changes to the first or second octets) that it'll be slow. It's just a quick hack, so nothing is optimized. Source code is available here.
Edit: Spelling and Grammar
Nice one fellow c0der. Wink
Reminder to all:
After you update the client, the traceroute/ping frequency and type will be set back to defaults. If you're like me and drop the slider down to the minimum and you forgot (like me) to check that...you'll notice your stats are lower today (like me again).
Edit: (This is intended as constructive feeback) On the php code above, I'd add the ability to output the zero and 255 in the fourth octet if the address range spans more than one /24 range.
IP range is to -- don't output the zero and 255 (probably the network and broadcast addys)
IP range is to -- output the zero and 255 addys internal to the range like,,, etc.
Here's an example of what I'm talking about
When I 'mine' this provider's netblock, I'd like to ping all the IPs in the range minus the upper and lower addy. I know this doesn't take subnetting by the provider into account, but what can ya do. Wink Maybe we should "Ping 'Em All" and let the routers sort them out.
I'll post more info later as to how I'm tryin to do "targeted IP mining" and find more ASNodes and ASEdges than I would by random fate. I have to see if my ideas work first before I post... Big Grin
I like this new client. Much cleaner visuals. No pairs and loops left over.
Also increased my numbers a bit.
I've just updated the script to comply with what you suggested in your post BuddhaMan. I did a couple brief tests on the code, and it appears to function correctly.
I wasn't quite sure what was intended with the original script so if you want any more tweaks let me know. Currently just spending time writing proposals for contracts, so some coding to distract myself is appreciated Smile
Also after posting the last message, I removed the basic error checking that was inside the code, as it had faulty logic when going beyond a single /24.
Thanks man. I'm just "throwing ideas out there". Big Grin
I upgraded all my boxen to the new client and everything seemed good.
Now, some of them are shutting down all by themselves.
Does anyone know if this is supposed to happen or is something going wrong with the client.
I've only had one client shut down on me after the upgrade (so far). I had a long streatch prior to the upgrade where the clients "just worked" and not one shut down on it's own for the longest time.
Nothing unusual here. The clients seem to work just fine. I have a couple machines that were running the new client 24/7 since the update with no problems.
I managed to kill my virtual machine setup (deleted the wrong file, and all of the clones were linked to that machine), so my production has faltered. That was my fault however, not the client's!
Oh, wow. I'm in the top 10, and top 50 overall. Just noticed! Now I have two pieces of pie. Big Green
Congrats outlnder 5 mil, totally cool! Have a beer, or 3+.
No problems here with the new client, with as much as I can run them, with my wife shutting down computers. So far no unexpected client shut downs.
I remembered reading this thread at Free DC. With the new version of the client it may be easier now to generate lists of addresses to crawl in some of the more exotic areas of the globe.
We need another front page mention.
If anyone wants to try the technique described in that free-dc thread, feel free to try my new Google Result Link Scraper. Should make the process much less mind numbing.
Enjoy Smile
I only skimmed that thread's first few posts, but I attacked the issue a different way the first day the client came out.
I did a search for ISP business webpages in South Africa and Kenya and they linked to numerous ISPs and so I had a bunch of IPs to scan. Korea and other hightech Asia countries don't have local Dimes agents present so good results might be found there.
It's demoralising to see PY222 and cheerleaders pull so far ahead. We're producing twice that of the rest of them.
Well I almost hate to say it, but I have quit running DIMES because the new client was taking up too much memory. And I have 1 1/2 gigs on the box I am using now and 1 gig on my other two boxes and 2 gigs on my new laptop.
Close the graph window on the clients to save memory.
On my virtual machines the client is only using 14MB each and on the gaming rig it uses around 38MB.
Originally posted by BuddhaMan:
Close the graph window on the clients to save memory.
I have been doing all of that and it still seems to mess with my computer. I was running it with Seti Classic.
I may try again after this seti race is over.
Originally posted by Biggles 266:
Yeah, I know. PY222 is the FreeDC team, for all intents and purposes. The rest are a bunch of small fry.
Originally posted by Jamilla:
Wow, that's a lot of memory! I only have 512 on my main rig, and less on the other 3 machines. I wouldn't consider more than 1 gig for my machine, even if I had the money for it (which I don't, right now).
Even so, I am running six virtual machines on the thing, and still do useful work with Word, Firefox, e-mail, IE, and a bunch of other stuff open. The machine isn't thrashing, either - works just fine. I'm using WinXP Pro.
I think (actually, I'm sure) your problem isn't a lack of memory - it's more likely a problem with your configuration, unless you have HUGE memory suckers open (Photoshop with a very large TIFF, 3DMax or Maya, AutoCAD, etc.). Even so, 50-70 extra MBs should't make a difference on a 1 gig machine. It doesn't make any difference whether your machine is a DELL, Gateway, or anything else. They all work the same.
Originally posted by Xelas:
I guess that having 5 of the top 7 spots doesn't count then ? Though a lot of people have slacked off on it recently, myself included Smile I'm sure if there was any kind of threat we'd ramp up Wink
I'm finding that some of my clients aren't doing anything. These are the newest release. Every ping results in "Destination host did not reply".
Anyone else getting this?
Yes, I'm seeing it.
Your clients are doing work, but they're "wasting their time" both pinging and tracerouting to the same address.
That is, if you're having the same issue as me.
Shutting down the clients as they fail.
Well I am running DIMES once again but with my own lists of URL's. My two P4's, my XP 2600 and my new Dell Inspiron 6000 laptop.
I make my own lists of URLs from sites in China, Belrussia, the Middle East, most all countries in the Far and Near East.
my DIMES works on my lists all day until I turn two of my computers off (two will run 24/7 as I am in a Seti race until the end of Novemeber when "supposedly" Seti Classic will finally come to a close.
Where have I heard that before I wonder?
Ever since that latest patch came out my clients are dying on me at random times. This sux. Maybe 4mil points will be my goal and then I'll quit...we'll see.
As far as I know, all my clients are still running perfectly well. Everyone using the latest version of Java?
I think it might be a server issue. I was having the random shutdown problems last week, but this week everythig is going well.
...until this morning when the server is unavailable to send out more target IPs.
What's going on? Everyone's production is way off, to the point that I have the 3rd highest output with only 4 machines. Has this project become pointless? Or is there a larger problem?
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Opposable Thumbs / Gaming & Entertainment
Let your geek flag fly: a review of Eye of Judgment
Eye of Judgment takes many ideas from past games, adds in collectible cards …
A cold winter morning, in the time before the light
Eye of Judgment
Sony Computer Entertainment
Developer: SCE Studios Japan
Platform: PlayStation 3
Price: $69.99
Rating: Teen
A few days ago I had an experience of such intense geekiness that I felt like I was back in high school, in a garage somewhere, listening to a Led Zeppelin tape and playing Dungeon and Dragons. What caused this intense and oddly freeing embrace of the best parts of being a geek? I sat down with a good friend, set up Eye of Judgment, and played for hours upon hours. The cheap pot may have been traded in for a nice bourbon, but the overall feeling was the same.
Eye of Judgment is a game that doesn't just require you to be a geek, it demands that you give yourself over to the sheer insanity of the experience. You need a PlayStation 3, a nice television, the PlayStation Eye, a bunch of cards, a table near the PS3 so you can hook up the camera and lay down the mat, and, in an optimal situation, a friend sitting across from you.
When you're holding your deck of cards, staring into the eyes of your opponent before laying down that Biolith God that will lay waste to his entire force, you'll know that not only are you playing something that embraces many clichés of games you've played before while doing something completely new, you may have just reconfigured your entire room to do it.
What the players see on the left, what the television displays on the right
I lay my card down on the mat. The camera scans it, and on the television runes explode from the card's face before the deity emerges and destroys two of the four creatures my friend has laid down. He removes the "dead" cards from the mat, places them in his graveyard where the vanquished rot, and takes a sip of his drink. Only then do I realize I just blew all my mana, and he's been banking his for an equally impressive attack. He lays his card down, and our eyes turn to the screen to see what carnage his attacks will cause. Heavy metal music is playing is the background.
This is awesome. This is Eye of Judgment.
My Judgment. Let me show you it
Eye of Judgment is a little bit Magic: The Gathering and a little bit of the chess game from Star Wars. The new webcam from Sony looks down on the game mat, which features a 3x3 grid of squares. You lay down cards on the squares, summoning creatures to allow you possession of each slot. When you own five spots, you win. Sounds easy, doesn't it?
While you lay down cards on the mat, the actual play area may not look like much, but on your television you'll see a creature on top of each card, you'll see information on the hit points that each creature has left, as well as their attack strength and which direction they're facing. Each time you turn a creature, attack, or summon a new monster you use mana. You gain two mana points each round, and there are cards that allow you to gain more mana points by discarding creatures in your hand. Management of your mana points is a major piece of strategy: do you summon a bunch of weak creatures early in the game or save your points to lay down the serious ordnance?
There is a spell card that costs no mana to cast and simply spins a character around. Since creatures can only attack in certain directions and spinning this particular creature cost six mana for every 90-degree turn, I effectively wiped out my opponent's mana pool in one swipe. The strategy is deep; you'll be learning new tricks and getting ideas for how to play your cards for a long time.
Give your living room to Eye of Judgment
Learning how to play and what the numbers and information on the cards mean takes a little bit of a time investment, although the printed manual and video-based tutorials make the process easier. Just a warning, the video tutorials aren't interactive, and they're incredibly boring. They actually explain to you that when someone brings cards over, they are the "owner" of those cards. I'm surprised they didn't explain that the cards were made of "paper" which is made from "pulped trees."
The game itself is not overly complicated. You can explain things and play a quick game in about an hour, and after that, players catch on rather quickly to the subtleties of strategy. Eye of Judgment could have been a complicated mess, but I'm happy to report the rules make sense and are easy to comprehend while not limiting play. Each battle is a series of questions. Do you use mana now or later? Each square matches with an element, so if you play a water-based card on a water square you get a bump. Do you play a card now or wait for a better elemental slot to become available?
These are questions that will haunt you at night as you listen to Dragonforce and plan your next deck.
I've got a BA in mana management
How well the card game plays is a worthless thing to try to judge if the hardware doesn't work; if the camera has issues with the cards, then the whole set up is a waste. It can take a minute or two to calibrate the camera and to make sure the mat is lined up correctly, but the tools built into the game do a great job of making this painless. You'll also want to make sure the room you play in has plenty of light. After these two things are done, the camera does a fantastic job of seeing the cards and reacting quickly to your play.
This is made even more impressive by the fact that cards in play aren't the only things the camera has to keep track of. To attack or end your turn, you have to show the camera "action" cards to tell the game what you'd like to do, and this process is quick and easy. Sometimes the camera does lose track of the card, but when this happens you get a clear warning, and a slight adjustment is usually all that is necessary to make things right again.
We did bump into troubles once or twice with cards that the camera refused to recognize, but this was a very rare occurrence. Overall, the PlayStation Eye camera was more than up to the task of keeping play quick and fun.
My one complaint—and this will only become an issue in future games—is that even with good lighting the actual image the PlayStation Eye picks up is pretty muddy and indistinct. This won’t bother you in Eye of Judgment, where the screen is covered with overlays and you will only see your hand on the screen when you lay cards, but it doesn’t bode well for later games that will feature more video interaction. The picture is better than the last-generation Eye Toy, but the jump isn’t as large as I had been hoping for.
The camera stand breaks down quickly and easily for storage, and set up only takes a minute or so. You may want to flatten the mat when you first unpack it, as the little ridges from being packed are slightly annoying while laying down cards.
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Scientific Method / Science & Exploration
How NASA steers the International Space Station around space junk
Jockeying 400 tons of space station around debris ain't like dusting crops, boy.
Orbiting about 250 miles (400-ish km) above our heads is one of the most complex and expensive engineering projects that the human race has ever put together: the International Space Station (ISS). The station masses around 450 tons (400 metric tons) and is a bit larger than an American football field. Its assembly required dozens and dozens of launches by Russia and the US (including 37 space shuttle flights), and it took astronauts and cosmonauts 155 spacewalks to get the whole thing bolted together—2.5 times more spacewalks than had previously occurred since the beginning of space flight.
Enlarge / The International Space Station compared to the size of an American football field.
The ISS has taken 13 years and as much as $150 billion to build and fly; to call it valuable real estate is an understatement. As we Americans are relaxing for the Fourth of July and drinking beers or lighting off fireworks, high above our heads, six human beings are working in space. But the station isn't just sitting up there, static and unmoving. The ISS' orbit decays due to atmospheric drag at the rate of about two kilometers per year; it must periodically be boosted in order to maintain its height. Moreover, the entire massive structure is mobile—it can be rolled and pitched and yawed, or even moved ("translated," in NASA parlance) in three dimensions to avoid a potential collision with debris.
Enlarge / The International Space Station Flight Control Room on the second floor of Building 30 at the Johnson Space Center.
Lee Hutchinson
Ars Senior Science Editor John Timmer wrote back in May about the complex process behind moving unmanned satellites around in orbit—specifically, what it took to move NASA's Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope out of the way of some debris in its orbital path. But the ISS isn't an unmanned satellite; its mass is much larger. More importantly, it has six living, breathing human beings on board. How does one move 400 tons of fragile space station when there's an asteroid or something bearing down on it?
Ground control to Major Tom
To find out how to throttle-jockey the ISS around in orbit, I took a drive over to NASA's Johnson Space Center and met up with Josh Parris, a NASA ISS flight controller. Parris is one of the people tasked with manning a console in the ISS flight control room—or "Mission Control" as it's more commonly known. His station name is TOPO—Trajectory Operations Officer. As has been the case since the earliest days of manned space flight, the ISS flight controllers are all highly skilled individuals; Parris and his coworkers have all undergone years of specialized training to reach the point where they are trusted with "sitting a console."
Enlarge / Josh Parris, ISS Flight Controller.
Lee Hutchinson
"TOPO is in charge of maintaining the knowledge of where the space station and visiting vehicles are, where they're going to be, and to make sure they don't get hit by anything," he explained. There aren't a lot of operational satellites at the ISS' normal flying altitude of about 400 km, but there is a fair amount of debris circling the earth at about the same height. There have been hundreds of potential "conjunctions" in the last couple of years—that is, warnings by ground-based radar sources about potential collisions between the station and some debris. In 2013 alone, there have been 67 potential conjunction notifications.
"What exactly makes up the debris?" I asked Parris. "Is it from the Chinese blowing up satellites?" "That's a big chunk of it," he confirmed. "Also, the collision between the old Russian Kosmos satellite and the Iridium satellite is a source of a lot of the debris we see. And that's just the stuff that's made it down to our orbit; there's plenty of debris still above us, just waiting to come down."
"Who tracks these things?" I asked. "Is there a big computer map like you see in the movies with fancy graphs and stuff?"
"USSTRATCOM, at Vandenberg Air Force Base," he replied. "They maintain a catalog of all pieces of debris—all objects in space—and routinely, three times a day, they screen the ISS trajectory versus that catalog. They're the ones who notify us if there's a close approach."
A "close approach"? That sounds scary. I asked Parris to elaborate, and he explained that there is an imaginary "pizza box"-shaped perimeter around the International Space Station. This perimeter extends two kilometers above and below the station and 25 kilometers "cross-track" and "down-track" (track here refers to the orbital path the station traces). If a piece of debris is expected to come anywhere within that box, USSTRATCOM notifies NASA.
Enlarge / The main display at the front of the FCR, showing the station's position, orbital path, and the various ground stations with which it can communicate.
Lee Hutchinson
The TOPO controller keeps track of everything inside that pizza box-shaped perimeter, and they compute the probability of collision for all of the objects that they're tracking. TOPO assigns cautionary thresholds to each object depending on how likely a collision is. Any object with between a 1-in-10,000 and 1-in-100,000 chance of colliding with the station meets the "yellow" threshold. Flight rules say that the station must be moved out of the way in response to a yellow threshold object unless such a move results in a mission impact—"Like, if we do the burn, we're going to miss an opportunity to launch a Soyuz, for instance," explains Parris. "Do we delay the Soyuz, or do we do the maneuver?" A "red" threshold is assigned to any collision with a likelihood of between 1 (in other words, absolutely certain) and 1-in-10,000. Flight rules are more strict for maneuvers in response to red threshold objects: the station is always moved for a red threshold object, regardless of mission impact, unless a maneuver represents more risk than not maneuvering (for example, if there's a piece of equipment that's damaged on the ISS and a maneuver would exacerbate that damage).
Thrusters and gyroscopes
The ISS, for all its size and apparent fragility, is actually pretty agile. It has four gyroscopes, called Control Momentum Gyros, or CMGs, which allow it to change its attitude. These gyros fall under the responsibility of the ADCO (Attitude Determination and Control Officer) flight controller, with whom TOPO often works when figuring out how to handle incoming debris.
Enlarge / ADCO: the Attitude Determination and Control officer. Notice the baseball bat, for attitude adjustment.
Lee Hutchinson
Additionally, the station has several sets of thrusters that allow it to rotate and translate. The Zvezda service module is equipped with thrusters, and there are thrusters on docked vehicles like the Progress resupply craft and the ESA ATV that can also be employed. Space shuttles could also be used when they were still operational. For a typical debris avoidance maneuver, the station will be subjected to delta V of between 0.5 and 1 meter per second.
One of the parameters TOPO keeps track of is the station's mass, since the precise amount of thrust required to generate the required delta V varies depending on the mass that must be moved. The ISS' mass varies primarily when vehicles dock and undock. The level of delta V generated during a typical avoidance maneuver isn't enough to disrupt the routine of the crew—they're aware of when the maneuvers are happening, but it's all controlled from the ground and they don't have to do anything special. "They're not up there with joysticks zooming the station around, are they?" I asked. "No," laughed Parris. "It's all commanded from the ground."
Listing image by Lee Hutchinson
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global_05_local_5_shard_00000035_processed.jsonl/17955
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Scientific Method / Science & Exploration
Quasiparticles carry entanglement, breaking speed limits
In a new experimental system, the concept of "light cones" doesn't apply.
To make these observations, the researchers lined up seven ions and targeted the fourth ion, exactly in the middle of the line, with a laser. The laser changes the ion’s quantum spin direction.
Changing the spin of the fourth (middle) ion sends out quasiparticles in both directions, much in the same way that a pebble, dropped into a pond, sends out a ripple in all directions.
John Timmer
In this case, the "quasiparticle" was essentially a wave of altered spin states. Before beginning the experiment, all ions had the same spin direction. But once the first ion’s spin had been reversed, it quickly changed the spins of the two ions that flanked it, starting a chain reaction—a wave, or quasiparticle, moving in each direction. The quasiparticles generated are called magnons.
As the two magnons moved away from the middle of the line, entanglement moved with them. That is, as the magnon moving to the right passed over ion 5, and as the one moving to the left passed over ion 3, ions 3 and 5 became entangled with each other.
The scientists were able to measure how the entanglement changed with time as the two magnons propagated away from each other. Their results agreed very closely with prediction—pairs of ions were briefly measured to be entangled as the pair of magnons moved over them, and then ceased to be entangled once the magnon was gone.
The experiment also had a second layer. The scientists were able to “tune” the range of interactions between the ions in the system. In other words, they could adjust how far one ion’s influence on its neighbors reaches. In the first part of the experiment, each ion’s spin essentially only influenced its immediate neighbors’. In the second, the researchers were able to adjust it so that the ions’ spin can jump over adjacent ions, changing the spins of more distant ones.
The resulting collective behavior of the ions still produced quasiparticles, but quasiparticles of a different sort, moving at a different speed. As they tuned the system to three different interaction ranges, the quasiparticles became faster and faster, ultimately approaching infinite speed.
Actual infinite speed is not possible, even in a quantum system, due to a speed limit called the Lieb-Robinson bound. The actual top speed of a quasiparticle may vary depending on the system it inhabits, but it is always finite. However, according to the researchers, the Lieb-Robinson bounds are “trivial” in certain circumstances, such as in their tuned system, meaning that there’s essentially no restriction on the speeds of the quasiparticles under certain circumstances.
The unbounded speed also breaks down conventional notions of time. A relativistic model called the light-cone is often used to understand time. Light-cones are graphs of the furthest light beams that can reach an object given a certain time. Nothing can travel faster than the speed of light, so only objects in the “past” part of an object’s light-cone can possibly transfer information to that object.
This model holds in the first part of the experiment, but once the researchers had tuned the interaction ranges of the ions, they found that the speeds of the quasiparticles were such that they could no longer be described in terms of light-cones.
The experiment is significant not only for its findings, which agree closely with prediction (and are the first time entanglement due to quasiparticles has been observed), but also because it lays the groundwork for many future avenues of study.
Experiments like this one, involving many-body systems, are crucial to our understanding of a wide range of quantum phenomena.
Nature, 2014. DOI: 10.1038/nature13461 (About DOIs).
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global_05_local_5_shard_00000035_processed.jsonl/17957
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Freedom agenda to freedom doctrine
February 14, 2011|By Charles Krauthammer
WASHINGTON — Today, everyone supports the "freedom agenda." Of course, yesterday it was just George W. Bush, Tony Blair and a band of neocons with unusual hypnotic powers who dared challenge the received wisdom of Arab exceptionalism — the notion that Arabs, as opposed to East Asians, Latin Americans, Europeans and Africans, were uniquely allergic to democracy. Indeed, the left spent the better part of the Bush years excoriating the freedom agenda as either fantasy or yet another sordid example of U.S. imperialism.
Now it seems everyone, even the left, is enthusiastic for Arab democracy. Fine. Fellow travelers are welcome. But simply being in favor of freedom is not enough. With Egypt in the midst of transition, we need foreign policy principles to ensure democracy for the long run.
No need to reinvent the wheel. We've been through something analogous before. After World War II, Western Europe was newly freed but unstable. The democracy we favored for the continent faced internal and external threats from communist totalitarians. The U.S. adopted the Truman Doctrine that declared America's intention to defend these newly free nations.
This meant not just protecting allies at the periphery, such as Greece and Turkey, from insurgency and external pressure, but supporting democratic elements within Western Europe against powerful and determined domestic communist parties.
Powerful they were. In France, they rose to largest postwar party; in Italy, to second largest. Under the Truman Doctrine, U.S. presidents used every instrument available to keep the communists out of power.
As the states of the Arab Middle East throw off decades of dictatorship, their democratic future faces a major threat from the new totalitarianism: Islamism. As in Soviet days, the threat is internal and external. Iran, a mini-version of the old Soviet Union, has its own allies and satellitesand its own Comintern, with agents operating throughout the region to extend Islamist influence. That's precisely why in this revolutionary moment, Iran boasts of an Islamist wave sweeping the Arab world.
We need a foreign policy that not only supports freedom in the abstract but is guided by long-range practical principles to achieve it — a Freedom Doctrine composed of the following elements:
4. Therefore, just as during the Cold War the U.S. helped keep European communist parties out of power (to see them ultimately wither away), it will be U.S. policy to oppose the inclusion of totalitarian parties—the Muslim Brotherhood or, for that matter, communists — in any government, whether provisional or elected, in newly liberated Arab states.
We may not have the power to prevent this. So be it. The Muslim Brotherhood may today be so relatively strong in Egypt, for example, that a seat at the table is inevitable. But under no circumstances should a presidential spokesman say, as did Robert Gibbs, that the new order "has to include a whole host of important non-secular actors." Why gratuitously legitimize Islamists? Instead, Americans should be urgently supporting secular democratic parties in Egypt and elsewhere with training, resources and diplomacy.
We are, unwillingly again, parties to a long twilight struggle, this time with Islamism. We should be clear-eyed about our preferred outcome and develop policies to see this through.
Tribune Media Services
Charles Krauthammer is a syndicated columnist based in Washington.
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global_05_local_5_shard_00000035_processed.jsonl/17973
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I'm forever blowing bubbles... and wishing I wasn't
June 30, 2008 3:36 AM Subscribe
How do I reduce the amount of bubbles in soft drinks?.... um, you might call them sodas or pop or aerated beverages....
Heavens to Betsy, the morning sickness!
I'm finding myself with nothing to drink most of the time. I really want ever-so-lightly aerated soda water. I've no idea what that is called in your country.... it's basically fizzy water but isn't mineral water. You used to be able to make it in soda siphons. Maybe you do call it soda water in your country. I have no idea. God, I'm rambling. Sorry.
So... if I'm out and about and want to buy a small bottle of bubbly drink, how do I reduce the bubbles to almost nothing? If I'm in a cafe and don't have the bottle/lid... just a glass of said noxious gaseous fluid, how do I reduce the bubbles significantly.
And if I'm ever well enough to drink it with absolutely no bubbles, how do I remove all bubbles?
The quicker the solution is, the better.
Sorry if this is obvious... but I had no idea how to google this.... I promise I tried. And yes, I did do physics at school... .but that seemed to be largely about trucks and brick walls... more than bubbles. Thank you in advance possums!
p.s. if any of you want to suggest beverages for the heavily morning sicknessed, I'm desperate to hear those also. Bearing in mind, if it's a brand name... I'm in Australia... and I don't do caffeine.
posted by taff to Food & Drink (24 answers total)
Adding sugar will remove most/all of the bubbles, and if you're in a cafe it's pretty easy to get.
posted by Paragon at 3:44 AM on June 30, 2008
Stir. Stirring cabonated beverages helps remove bubbles. You can stop when there are 'some' bubbles, or keep going until there aren't any left. Might take awhile, but it works. And no added sugar.
posted by sandraregina at 3:50 AM on June 30, 2008
Heat will also do the same thing, btw, but I'm presuming that you don't want boiled cola.
posted by Paragon at 3:50 AM on June 30, 2008
Leaving it open for a long time works as well. (This is what I do when I accidentally buy carbonated water instead of still.)
posted by Comrade_robot at 4:00 AM on June 30, 2008
You can still buy soda siphons! I have one. They tend to make soda water with much less bubbley-ness. Also, you can adjust the bubbly-ness by how much you shake the bottle when you make it. Look in a fancy cooking store, that's where I got mine.
posted by miss tea at 4:12 AM on June 30, 2008
When I order a carbonated drink, I also ask for a straw. Stir vigorously with the straw and voila, a lot less bubbles!
posted by lioness at 4:54 AM on June 30, 2008
Stir. When I was a little kid with a stomachache, the doctor recommended coca-cola with the bubbles stirred out.
posted by filmgeek at 4:57 AM on June 30, 2008
I find that when I stir soda with a fork, the carbonation is removed faster than with a spoon.
posted by amicamentis at 5:07 AM on June 30, 2008
I don't know how it is in Australia, but in the US, root beer typically has less carbonation than regular soft drinks. I cut down on the bubbles by adding some cold water, which helps with reducing the sweetness as well.
posted by SoulOnIce at 5:28 AM on June 30, 2008
Pouring it back and forth between two glasses removes the carbonation as well.
posted by TedW at 6:40 AM on June 30, 2008 [1 favorite]
I know EXACTLY what you mean. The most efficient way to reduce the bubbles is to shake the bottle and slowly release the air, then repeat, 2 - 4x. (Disclaimer: close the bottle if your drink starts to explode, this can be a messy process.) I'll taste it after each time, and if its too fizzy I will repeat this process. I have not yet mastered how to do this with a fountain drink.
posted by thetenthstory at 6:41 AM on June 30, 2008
Stirring is going to be your best bet, but if no spoon, etc is available, try taking the drink and lightly tapping it on the table several times to free the bubbles. I always do this...pop is way too fizzy for me.
posted by phunniemee at 7:02 AM on June 30, 2008
"No Frills" brand (or similar, depending on your local supermarket) Soda Water rather than Mineral Water might be what you're after..
..and if it's too bubbly at first I'd definitely try stirring it with a fork to lessen them.
posted by cmetom at 7:16 AM on June 30, 2008
My college boyfriend used to put salt in his pop to get rid of the bubbles. I never tasted it, so I don't know if it altered the taste significantly. I don't know if that was a Chilean thing or just a him-thing.
posted by srah at 7:16 AM on June 30, 2008
Ginger ale is excellent for morning sickness. In fact, any kind of ginger can help settle your stomach. I used to carry a jar of candied ginger in my purse and nibble on it constantly.
posted by Addlepated at 7:29 AM on June 30, 2008 [1 favorite]
Seconding a pinch of salt. It'll make your soda fizz up quite a bit and lose a bit of the carbonation. Gramps taught me to pour a little bag of salted peanuts into my Coke, tastes great.
posted by zengargoyle at 7:57 AM on June 30, 2008
Mint tea is also good against morning sickness/nausea
posted by leahwrenn at 8:20 AM on June 30, 2008
I enjoy carbonated beverages, but find that some soda is too highly carbonated, such that I drink it and all I notice are bubbles, not its taste.
If it comes in a bottle with a screw-top (e.g., a normal old plastic bottle of Coke), I begrudgingly drink a bit, and then squeeze the bottle until the soda's at the very top, forcing any air out, and then seal the cap. Shake it a bit so it foams up until the bottle's nice and firm, and then, very slowly open the cap, letting out a lot of the carbonation. Rinse, lather, repeat. Try this one at home before you do in public, or you'll do what I do periodically and end up looking like the lunatic that shakes his soda vigorously and then opens it, having it spray all over him.
If it's in a cup (e.g., fountain drink), get two cups, and pour from Cup A to Cup B, raising Cup A in the air as you do it, which also cuts down on the carbonation. It looks a little strange, but it's very effective. (Unless you have ADD and end up looking away and pouring soda all over your dinner in the process. *cough* Not that I've done that *cough*)
I've never heard of the the sugar/salt trick, but I also think that in many cases (such as my can of Dr. Pepper right now), adding sugar or salt would make for a disgusting beverage.
In any case, it may take a bit of practice to shake and open beverages without them spraying everywhere, our to pour from cup to cup without spilling, but given a little practice, even klutzes like me can pull it off. Repeat a few times until you get the desired results.
posted by fogster at 11:31 AM on June 30, 2008 [1 favorite]
"...our to pour..." -- although I kind of like that mistake.
posted by fogster at 11:34 AM on June 30, 2008
You could experiment with cracking bottles open and leaving them open in the fridge, to see how long they should stand for optimal fizz. You can still buy soda siphons, you know - (the kind of thing you'd find in a good cooking gear or bar ware store): from my understanding they produce a lighter carbonation than packaged carbonated beverages.
posted by nanojath at 1:28 PM on June 30, 2008
Scheweppes make both soda water and tonic water which are available in Australia. I find the tonic water refreshing without being sweet or too bubbly. I like their ginger ale or dry lemonade when my stomach is playing up but am not pregnant so YMMV.
Alternatively try looking for sparkling bottled water. It's usually not as bubbly as soft drinks but still has a tingle on the tongue which is more refreshing than the still version. In NZ several of the standard bottled water brands you can buy in the supermarket come in a sparkling version now (so they aren't really mineral water and don't have that strong limestone taste), or you can get something fancy and imported like San Pellegrino.
Otherwise yeah, stirring is the best way to quickly get rid of some of the bubbles in an open glass while leaving the lid loose for a couple of day the safest (slow) way to deal with bottled drinks.
posted by shelleycat at 6:15 PM on June 30, 2008
I totally know what kind of bubbles you want. I agree with a lot of people here about how to get them:
Get your bubbly water/drink in a bottle, shake it, release the gas, close it, shake it again, etc.
Let it sit for a while (CO2 dissolves into water best when it's cold and under pressure - if it's warm and at normal atmospheric pressure, the CO2 is falling out of solution)
If you can't do the things above, try the salt thing (I haven't tried it myself - I like BIG bubbles - but a little salt won't affect the taste much)
Try fancy imported mineral water. Here in the USA we have Italian San Pellegrino (S.Pellegrino) water in glass bottles. I think they sell it in Australia as well. Anyway, it is lightly carbonated. So is Perrier.
or (best option)
Try the ULTIMATE setup and make your own carbonated beverages at home. I highly recommend reading the page that I linked to - it's very well written and very well AWESOME. My setup looks a lot like this one.
So basically I have unlimited carbonated water and I can put as much or as little carbonation in it as I want! Once I got all the parts (classified ads for the tank, welding supply store for the regulator, hardware store for tubes and valves), it took me about 10 minutes to assemble. I'm no DIY master genius tinker handyman, either. In fact, knowing how handy your typical Australian can be, I'm sure a 10 year old girl over there can put one of these things together faster than I did.
Step-by-step instructions
Another description
posted by redteam at 7:12 PM on June 30, 2008
Ooh! I just noticed fogster's very clever cup-to-cup pouring technique - replace the adding salt technique with that one!
posted by redteam at 7:14 PM on June 30, 2008
Thank you gorgeous folk. I appreciate all the tips and that nobody mocked my ignorance. I'm going to try most of your suggestions.
The only thing that I have to add is that San Pellegrino appears to be a VERY fizzy drink to me. That may be my spurious digestive system at the moment.... but it's the one most commonly available in cafes here, and the one I have the most trouble with. But no longer!
You're all fabulous and I'm sorry I didn't get back earlier to thank you.... time zones and toddlers.... again, many thanks. T.
posted by taff at 2:58 AM on July 1, 2008
« Older Where can I find a transcript ... | The phone jack of myth and leg... Newer »
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global_05_local_5_shard_00000035_processed.jsonl/17975
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Take the 2-minute tour ×
Used Universal USB Installer to make a USB stick with Ubuntu 12.04 alternate i386. Booted it.
On the menu, pressing enter on "Run Ubuntu from this USB" or "Install Ubuntu on a hard disk" does nothing. The automatic boot countdown appears at the bottom, counts down, and nothing again - resets automatic countdown, counts down, repeat indefinitely. No errors, nothing just happens.
"Test memory" starts, but cannot be stopped; ignores keyboard input and keeps running forever.
"Rescue a broken system" fails on the 4th step, loading stuff from the CD.
share|improve this question
Hardware specifications, Please? – Mitch May 27 '12 at 8:43
Pentium 4 @ 2.8 GHz, GeForce 6600 GT, 512 MB RAM, not sure about the rest. – Core Xii May 27 '12 at 8:52
1 Answer 1
up vote 1 down vote accepted
Used Universal USB Installer to make a USB stick
I don't know what that program is but you need to use the officially recommended UNetBootin utility to create your USB stick.
The reason it's failing is because Grub is unable to locate the boot kernel image (initramfs), and that's probably the fault of Universal USB installer.
share|improve this answer
Thanks, that was it; UNetbootin works fine. – Core Xii May 28 '12 at 8:38
Your Answer
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global_05_local_5_shard_00000035_processed.jsonl/17976
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Take the 2-minute tour ×
I have reinstalled my system, a Samsung Series 9 laptop with a clickpad, under Ubuntu 12.04. I reinstalled it a few times and re-configured it with the same OS because I had issues with the filesystem getting corrupted (ext4 on this SSD with this kernel isn't so great apparently).
Anyway, I re-installed it for a Nth time and configured the ClickPad the same way as before:
Section "InputClass"
Identifier "np900x3b clickpad"
MatchIsTouchpad "on"
MatchDevicePath "/dev/input/event*"
Option "ClickPad" "1"
Option "ClickFinger1" "1"
Option "ClickFinger2" "3"
Option "ClickFinger3" "2"
Option "FastTaps" "1"
Option "RightButtonAreaLeft" "2000"
Option "RightButtonAreaTop" "1500"
I had the same configuration before (I actually copied it from a USB drive), and it worked fine. Yet I get this after restarting X:
$ synclient -l | grep -i "\(right\|click\|fast\)"
RightEdge = 2974
ClickTime = 100
FastTaps = 1
ClickFinger1 = 1
ClickFinger2 = 3
ClickFinger3 = 2
AreaRightEdge = 0
ClickPad = 1
RightButtonAreaLeft = 0
RightButtonAreaRight = 0
RightButtonAreaTop = 0
RightButtonAreaBottom = 0
MiddleButtonAreaRight = 0
It appears that all options are being handled properly, except the RightButtonArea[...] ones. Looking at X logs gives me no clue about the problem, with no errors, only this:
[ 1499.416] (--) synaptics: ETPS/2 Elantech Touchpad: Vendor 0x2 Product 0xe
[ 1499.416] (**) Option "ClickPad" "1"
[ 1499.416] (**) Option "FastTaps" "1"
[ 1499.416] (**) Option "ClickFinger1" "1"
[ 1499.416] (**) Option "ClickFinger2" "3"
[ 1499.416] (**) Option "ClickFinger3" "2"
[ 1499.416] (--) synaptics: ETPS/2 Elantech Touchpad: touchpad found
If I set them manually using synclient:
synclient RightButtonAreaLeft=2000
...then it works, but obviously I have to set manually them every time I start X.
Note that RightButtonAreaLeft depends on ClickPad=1 to work, although it is set correctly.
So it seems that the RightButtonArea[...] options are simply ignored by X. Like I said, I just reinstalled the system a few times before and it worked perfectly fine on every occasion.
Any help is greatly appreciated.
share|improve this question
Have a look at askubuntu.com/questions/26290/… - it worked for me on 13.04 – Michael Gale Sep 13 '13 at 18:37
2 Answers 2
up vote 0 down vote accepted
As a temporary workaround, I've found this.
I've created a script, /usr/share/X11/startup.sh:
synclient RightButtonAreaLeft=2000
synclient RightButtonAreaTop=1500
...and modified /etc/lightdm/lightdm.conf accordingly:
# ...
Seems to do the trick for now. I would still like to know if there's any way to fix this behavior in X.
share|improve this answer
In /usr/share/X11/xorg.conf.d/*.conf you need to use the option "SoftButtonAreas" followed by eight values (left, right, top and bottom for the right and middle button).
See http://manpages.ubuntu.com/manpages/trusty/man4/synaptics.4.html
share|improve this answer
Your Answer
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global_05_local_5_shard_00000035_processed.jsonl/17977
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Take the 2-minute tour ×
When I put the the Ubuntu laptop to sleep (meaning I close the screen shut. It seems to work if I go to system shutdown -> sleep but still testing it) (I am using Ubuntu 10.04 and it is on an Presario X1000), when it wakes up, the screen has all these white and black noise signals across it and I have to restart.
How do I fix this?
share|improve this question
could you try it with 9.10 live CD then 10.10 live CD, but upgraded VIDEO DRIVERS?! Write the results here, I want to compare distros. – B. Roland Dec 17 '10 at 17:46
+1 on Video Drivers. What video card do you have? – madmaze Dec 17 '10 at 20:57
Does switching to VT#1 and back to VT#7 (press ctrl-alt-f1 then ctrl-alt-f7) help at all? I would recommend filing a bug against linux (the kernel package) in launchpad using the command 'ubuntu-bug linux'. – Andy Dec 18 '10 at 0:09
Hi, it doesn't work switching... how can I figure out what video drivers I am using? – roguecartel Dec 20 '10 at 19:43
product: Radeon Mobility M7 LW [Radeon Mobility 7500] – roguecartel Dec 21 '10 at 3:22
2 Answers 2
I had this issue - I tried a load of things and eventually the thing which fixed it for me was reinstalling. :/
share|improve this answer
check swap space of your system
sudo fdisk -l
find this kind of line
/dev/sda6 3796 3919 995998+ 82 Linux swap / Solaris
you need at least 1GB swap memory for hibernate(sleep)
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global_05_local_5_shard_00000035_processed.jsonl/17978
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Take the 2-minute tour ×
I'm switching from Windows 7 so please excuse my newbie question.
Is it possible to elevate privileges of local user so it can access entire file system from Unity UI (even if it's very very bad thing to do:) ?
For example I downloaded IntelliJ IDEA tar. I unpacked it to ~/temp_idea and want to move it to /opt. But I can't. As soon as I try moving it in the UI I get "Permission denied" error.
I can do it in terminal via sudo mv of course but it would be very nice to be able to do it in the UI.
share|improve this question
1 Answer 1
You can use gksu nautilus command in the Unity dash prompt ( Press Alt-F2 ). This will open the Nautilus file browser and then you can do the copy, move, delete stuff using UI.
Be warned! Using nautilus with root privilege is very bad and you can do much harm to your PC with it, of course unintentionally.
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Your Answer
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global_05_local_5_shard_00000035_processed.jsonl/17979
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Take the 2-minute tour ×
Installed LibreOffice, no problems but when I click on LibreWriter it takes 30 seconds before it's ready to go. I played with Memory in Options, no improvement. I unchecked Java, no improvement.
share|improve this question
Was that the first time you opened the application? Sometimes it is slow only during the first time, or immediately after some update. – user7182 Jan 7 '11 at 20:45
Could you please be more specific about the question ? You would like to understand why is it taking much longer ? Also please let us know how/where did you get it from. – João Pinto Jan 7 '11 at 21:30
5 Answers 5
Try using the systray quickstarter. Openoffice most likely is, and that is why it starts immediately. alt text
share|improve this answer
This is a known problem, at least on Arch Linux.
The problem is that LibreOffice tries to communicate with a WINS server (provided by Samba, I guess). If you do not have such server LibreOffice waits until the packets time out before continue loading.
Info taken from: https://bugs.archlinux.org/task/22693
share|improve this answer
Got LibreOffice from PPA. And I would like it to startup faster, afterall Ubuntu comes up faster than LibreOffice.
I don't have that option - Quickstarter.
share|improve this answer
why didn't you use your normal account and post a comment? Or you could add this info to your original question. If you don't have that option you may need to reinstall - it should be there. Something must be wrong with your installation. – RolandiXor Jan 9 '11 at 13:03
Open a terminal and run
and post back the output from this into your original question.
On my Toshiba U400 laptop (3Gb ram, 2Ghz CPU), that command completes in less than a second with no output to the terminal. I have, like you, unticked "Java", but otherwise, it's pretty much a stock install from the Libreoffice PPA outlined at OMGUbuntu.
share|improve this answer
I had the same issue with LibreOffcie and OpenOffice all the years ago and thought this was normal. However, since a few days the program start within 3 seconds now.
One of the recent Ubuntu upgrades fixed this.
I am using the stable distribution (12.04)
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global_05_local_5_shard_00000035_processed.jsonl/17980
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Take the 2-minute tour ×
Thanks for your help.
share|improve this question
I'd start by reading through here: askubuntu.com/questions/235441/… – Uri Herrera Feb 8 '13 at 18:12
2 Answers 2
Have a look at http://developer.ubuntu.com/resources/technologies/webapps/.
share|improve this answer
Why did you downvote? If my answer is wrong it would be important to know for the thread owner! – Avedo Feb 9 '13 at 10:26
That page links to reference documentation at developer.ubuntu.com/api/ubuntu-12.10/javascript/… which seems to be missing. :( – Brion Feb 23 '13 at 1:30
You can start by looking here http://developer.ubuntu.com/apps/html-5/tutorials/
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global_05_local_5_shard_00000035_processed.jsonl/17981
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Take the 2-minute tour ×
I'm quite new to ubuntu (with GUI) - just got over from OS X.
I have installed Ubuntu 12.10 on my MacBook Pro 9.2, and I have the habit of leaving one finger at the bottom of the trackpad ready to click while I am using another finger to move the cursor around. This is NOT possible with my current settings. The moment I have two fingers on the trackpad, either the mouse pointer stops moving or the window starts scrolling.
Is there anyone who know how I can get it to accept my habit, or am I just going to live with it?
share|improve this question
This is a problem with trackpads without "real" buttons, it confuses the two finger scrolling. – Seth Feb 8 '13 at 21:07
1 Answer 1
This article:
How to Get MacBook-Style Finger Gestures on Ubuntu Linux
... may not give you exactly what you want, but it should help make the transition a little bit nicer. I do not have this installed myself so I cannot test for the specific scenario you outlined. If it does work please report back here.
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global_05_local_5_shard_00000035_processed.jsonl/17982
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Take the 2-minute tour ×
Using ubuntu 12.10 and have putty installed, I am using ssh /putty to connect an AIX system once I do that I export the display and run something simple like 'xclock' or 'xterm'
Problem is its not working, I get the following 'Error: Can't open display:'
I have checked on the server side and on my laptop to make sure X11forwarding is enabled and it is within putty,
ssh_config (local) : ForwardX11 yes
ForwardX11Trusted yes
sshd_config (AIX Server) : X11Forwarding yes
I have tried connecting through Putty,and from the CLI
ssh -X user@<Aix_Server>
But no matter what I try I get the : Error: Can't open display: message This was working for me, but not since I have migrated to 12.10
Anyone out there come across this before have any suggestions?
The below is from AIX after I login using Putty:
echo $DISPLAY
xclock Error: Can't open display: $
share|improve this question
Ok the below is from AIX after I login using Putty. $ echo $DISPLAY $ xclock Error: Can't open display: $ – user138219 Mar 6 '13 at 23:23
2 Answers 2
Ok it seems that the following has resolved the issue.
After looking at this for the last while it appears that the xauth location changed from AIX 5 , so it wasn't able to find it.
So when using sudo after that, I used the following :
sudo DISPLAY=localhost:0.0 XAUTHORITY=/home/{home_dir}/.Xauthority {command_here}
Worked and I was able to launch and get done / installed what I needed.
Thanks to @zwets your help was great, sometimes after looking at something for too long you need some fresh input.
share|improve this answer
How about ssh -Y user@server?
share|improve this answer
Yeah tried both options ssh -Y and ssh -X but te same with both options. – D1979 Mar 6 '13 at 20:33
@D1979 You say "I export the display". Using ssh -X, -x or -Y you shouldn't do that as the X11 output gets tunneled. Ssh will set it for you. What is the value of DISPLAY right after you login? What does echo $DISPLAY show? – zwets Mar 6 '13 at 20:53
And to isolate that this is not a client-end issue, does DISPLAY get set when you ssh -Y localhost on the Ubuntu end? (Note: you are ssh-ing from a terminal window in the X environment, right? I once made the mistake to try and diagnose this from VT1.) – zwets Mar 7 '13 at 7:32
ssh -Y localhost when I try this I get the following : ssh: connect to host localhost port 22: Connection refused I guess this is because I have not got openssh-server server installed. On my laptop I am using the ssh-agent to connect to the server. – D1979 Mar 7 '13 at 9:18
OK, I assumed you had an ssh server running on your laptop. Everything seems in place (in fact, having X11Forwarding yes on the remote end normally suffices; the client options ForwardX11* are redundant with -X/-Y). Final check: do you have xauth? – zwets Mar 7 '13 at 10:35
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global_05_local_5_shard_00000035_processed.jsonl/17983
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Take the 2-minute tour ×
The time, power, notification, networking and weather applets are displaying in the panel on both of my monitors in Natty. Is there a setting that I can change to ensure they only appear once within my top panel?
share|improve this question
The same thing happened to me. It wouldn't have been as much of a problem if the indicators on my second monitor weren't cut off, either. This, and a bunch of other bugs, forced me to downgrade to Ubuntu 10.04 LTS. – Thomas Boxley May 2 '11 at 16:12
2 Answers 2
up vote 5 down vote accepted
Unfortunately I think this is classed as a feature in Unity. I personally don't like it either.
You can 'affects me also' or add your opinion to launchpad bug 754337
share|improve this answer
I think it's a bug : https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/unity/+bug/742020
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That's not the same bug – Cas May 2 '11 at 15:57
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global_05_local_5_shard_00000035_processed.jsonl/17984
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Take the 2-minute tour ×
Is there a Ubuntu Server Minimal CD? This can be helpful when you want to install Ubuntu on a server through KVM by selecting a local ISO file and the upload speed on your local computer is not great.
share|improve this question
Minimal + server would defy the purpose of minimal. "server minimal" = "server". – Rinzwind Jan 7 '14 at 14:45
1 Answer 1
Have a look at this wiki page which contains a list of Ubuntu minimal CDs:
share|improve this answer
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global_05_local_5_shard_00000035_processed.jsonl/17985
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Take the 2-minute tour ×
I've been manually applying patches to Wine for use on my own machine, but I want to put it in a PPA for my friends and relations.
Currently I follow this procedure:
1. Get the latest source from an upstream PPA via apt-get source
2. Use patch to apply my unofficial, unsupported patches.
3. Create a package using dpkg-buildpackage -rfakeroot -uc -b
This is fine for creating a package that will run on my local machine. However I now want to distribute this custom build to others via a PPA.
Is this procedure sufficient, or is there a more correct and/or easier to maintain procedure I should be following specifically for Wine?
share|improve this question
This answer, to another question, might provide a few useful sources - ubuntu.stackexchange.com/questions/320/… – andol Jul 30 '10 at 18:10
6 Answers 6
up vote 15 down vote accepted
You're pretty close with your example steps, but here's what I'd suggest:
1. Grab the sources with apt-get source wine and cd into the new directory
2. Find what sort of patch system the wine package is based on: what-patch; in this case, it tells us we that the wine package uses quilt for patch management
3. Since we're using quilt, add your custom patch(es) to the quilt series:
QUILT_PATCHES=debian/patches quilt import <your-patchfile.patch>
If you have multiple patches, do this for each patch, in the order that you want them applied.
4. Add a suitable entry to the debian/changelog file - you'll need to alter the version number to ensure that your PPA version is differentiated from the official version. Typically, you should increment the last version number, and add a tilde (~) followed by your custom version string (eg ~jbowtie1). The dch -i command can help with this too.
5. Build the source package:
debuild -S
6. Upload your source package to the PPA build system:
dput ppa:<your-ppa> ../wine*.changes
The <your-ppa> parameter is specified on the launchpad page for the PPA you want to upload it to (you'll have to create this beforehand).
It's usually a good idea to do a test build before doing the dput - the pbuilder command allows you to recreate what the PPA build system would do with your package (ie, start from a clean install, add required deps, then build).
In this case you would have to set up pbuilder first (see https://wiki.ubuntu.com/PbuilderHowto), then do this before the dput:
sudo pbuilder build ../*.dsc
share|improve this answer
This is about perfect. Is step 3 different if I use edit-patch, or am I better off learning quilt details? – jbowtie Aug 4 '10 at 9:10
If you use edit-patch, you'll have to apply your existing patch as a separate step. But the outcome will be the same, so it's really your call. – Jeremy Kerr Aug 4 '10 at 9:16
Use debuild -S -sa when initially uploading to your PPA. "-sa" will attach the orig source always. – blueyed Aug 4 '10 at 20:55
The Ubuntu Packaging Guide has all the information how to package for Ubuntu including howto deal with patches.
share|improve this answer
Can you point me to a more specific section of the guide? I can't quite make the conceptual leap from what's in the guide to understanding how wine patches specifically should be packaged. – jbowtie Jul 30 '10 at 0:30
wine patches are like patches in any other packages. You should you a patch system like quilt to add the patches. This allows you to easily remove them from the packages when the patch has been added upstream. Chapter 4 talks about the different patch systems. – txwikinger Jul 30 '10 at 14:01
You need to first build a source package-
Pushing it to a PPA is very easy for Ubuntu 9.10 or later
Just go to Terminal and type
dput ppa:your-lp-id/ppa <source.changes>
share|improve this answer
Jeremy's answer is straight to the point.
Alternatively, you can use bzr to handle the source, patches and building/upload.
See https://wiki.ubuntu.com/DistributedDevelopment, starting with https://wiki.ubuntu.com/DistributedDevelopment/Documentation.
While is simplifies some steps, e.g. merging for new upstream versions (if you plan to get ahead of the original Ubuntu package), the original "apt-get source" approach is probably more straight and easier in the end.
share|improve this answer
Ubuntu Tweak includes a PPA for Wine, once it is selected in Ubuntu Tweak it will stay updated via regular updates
share|improve this answer
I know about the Wine PPA, but I want to create my own PPA that includes some custom patches. – jbowtie Jul 30 '10 at 4:01
From the winehq website:
Open the Software Sources menu by going to System->Administration->Software Sources. Then select the Third Party Software tab and click Add.
Then, copy and paste the line below.
Then run sudo apt-get update and after it's done sudo apt-get install wine
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global_05_local_5_shard_00000035_processed.jsonl/17986
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Take the 2-minute tour ×
I have recently installed Ubuntu 11.04 and I really like it. My only gripe is that some GUI elements are too small on the screen. (My screen resolution is 1920 x 1200.) Over the last few days, I have been trying to customize the interface with various tools (Gnome Color Chooser, CompizConfig, GConf Editor), but I haven't managed to find any solution. What I would like to change in particular is the panel indicators and window buttons:
Indicators Window buttons
If possible, I'd like to keep the default theme.
By the way, thank you for being here and helping other users! :)
share|improve this question
1 Answer 1
The answer is DPI - dots per inch.
Easily changed in the Appearance applet.
A quick search brought up this helpful walkthrough by Kevin van Zonneveld: http://kevin.vanzonneveld.net/techblog/article/fit_more_on_one_screen_using_dpi/
share|improve this answer
this does not help with resizing the notification area and does not apply to ubuntu 11.10 or unity at all – nol Mar 4 '12 at 19:51
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global_05_local_5_shard_00000035_processed.jsonl/17987
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Take the 2-minute tour ×
I want to set up a vncserver on my machine. I need each remote user to start separate session - so they see the login screen after connecting, log in, and so on - without interrupting another users.
How this can be done?
share|improve this question
1 Answer 1
up vote 3 down vote accepted
VNC Server does not show you the login screen - instead it takes you straight to the desktop, after you have logged in. If your goal is make sure that the users can log in remotely with a GUI without interrupting the other users who are already logged in, here is what you need to do.
First, install vnc onto your machine.
sudo apt-get install vnc4server
For each user, you can make them set a vnc password
that asks for a password. Afterwards, each user can log in remotely (via the command line) and set up their own VNC server:
This will output something like
New 'machine:1 (user)' desktop is machine:1
Creating default startup script /home/user/.vnc/xstartup Starting applications specified in /home/user/.vnc/xstartup Log file is /home/user/.vnc/machine:1.log
Once this is done, each user can log in to the GUI of their respective accounts using your machine's ip address and the desktop session number. In the above example, if the IP address of the machine is then you can can put as the server to connect to in the VNC client.
share|improve this answer
The problem is, that I saw exactly what I described - user just typed "vncviewer host" and got a full login screen. The problem is that admin in that place was not very helpful - he failed to describe how it works, seems he just forgot. – Rogach Aug 18 '11 at 6:48
Possibly the vncpasswd would work then instead of the regular password? Or did the above solve your problem? – Sudipta Chatterjee Aug 18 '11 at 18:28
Actually, this thread nearly solved my problem: ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=122402 But it does not work on 10.10 - gdm login greeter hangs :( It seems to be fixed in 11.04, though. – Rogach Aug 19 '11 at 9:25
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global_05_local_5_shard_00000035_processed.jsonl/17988
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Take the 2-minute tour ×
When browsing the Unity menu, I get strange entries. Such as if I search "Monitor" for system monitor, I get entries for Camera Monitor and Battery Monitor, things I know are not installed. Is that normal?
share|improve this question
1 Answer 1
up vote 2 down vote accepted
Oh , those are some apps that are available to install from the Ubuntu Software Centre =) Everytime you search for apps , it will display the apps you have installed and apps that are available from the software centre . Its a faster way to search for apps from Ubuntu Software Centre =)
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Thanks! That is good to know, I was just confused was all. :) – NightwishFan Oct 15 '10 at 10:28
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global_05_local_5_shard_00000035_processed.jsonl/17989
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Take the 2-minute tour ×
Is there a package for backing up folders in Ubuntu with email notifications. I have looked at rsnapshot but it does not have email notifications.
share|improve this question
1 Answer 1
cron emails you the results of the jobs it runs, if they have any output, so if you run rsnapshot as a cron job and have installed a mail server ( such as postfix ), then you will get any output.
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global_05_local_5_shard_00000035_processed.jsonl/17991
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You are here:
Clinton's Cyber-Shotgun Wedding
Thursday, 05 June 2008 13:29
by Stephen P. Pizzo
Last night I understood, first hand, what Michelle Obama meant a few months ago when she said that, for the first time in a long time she was proud of her country. Last night, for the first time in years I was unconditionally proud of my country.
This morning the world woke up to learn that one of America's two parties had nominated a person of color -- a little black, a little white, a little brown a little like the world itself.
For the first time in a dozen years I didn't have to blush that the world awaking to learn that my President had been caught in the Oval Office with his trousers around his knees, or that my President had authorized torture, or that my president had launched an illegal imperialist war against a country thousands away that was, while annoying as hell, no real threat to the US.
It was a very nice, though albeit unfamiliar, feeling. I want more that. A lot more. It was like someone had just applied a soothing ointment to a long festering wound.
Then a fly plopped into my ointment.
As I watched Hillary Clinton begin her speech last night I wondered why she had chosen such an unlikely place, a university basement, three floors underground. It was the kind of public venue I'd expect Dick Cheney to select.
Then it became clear. Way down there, under all that concrete and soil, cell phones could not pick up a signal, Blackberries could not receive email down there and there were no TV monitors. All of which meant that the crowd of Hillary supporters, who had assembled hours earlier, did not know and could not learn that Barack Obama had already won the Democratic Party's nomination. And that Hillary had not.
That information blackout insured a lively, rather than subdued, reception for Hillary's speech. It wasn't that I was surprised that the Clintons were, as usual, calculating right down to the smallest detail. I was surprised instead that, even after losing, they were still at it.
That can mean only one thing; that the Clintons are wired that way. They could no more change their conniving, calculating, triangulating ways than a couple of brown bears could learn do their business in a toilet rather than in the woods.
Hillary refused to concede the obvious last night, or to congratulate Obama for his win. Because Bill and Hillary don't see concessions as the honorable or human thing, but rather as just another political asset to leverage, a payoff to barter, sell or use as a negotiating tool.
To Hillary, only suckers are magnanimous.
Then this morning I learned that Clintonite, Lanny Davis, launched a website petition for women who want to demand that Obama chose Hillary as his vice president. Never mind that Lanny Davis is a guy, his web site is called "Women For Fair Politics," (www.womenforfairpolitics.com.)
He wants women to flock to his web site and sign the petition demanding that Obama pick Hillary for his VP. He can call it a online petition drive, but what it really is an attempt to engineer the world's first cyber-shotgun political wedding. Davis claims that Hillary has nothing to do with the petition drive, but if you believe that....
I don't know who Obama will eventually chose for his veep, but it must not be Hillary Clinton... for all the reasons I listed earlier HERE.
I have my favorite. Senator Jim Webb D-Virginia. Webb, more so than any other so far named, fits the vision Obama has expressed through out this campaign. Webb is bi-partisan, having been a Republican, and having served as Navy Secretary in the Reagan administration,. But Webb saw the damage Bush/Cheney Neocons were causing and switched to become a Democrat, ran for the senate and won.
Like Obama, Webb is new to the US Senate. Traditionalists will claim two freshmen Senators on the same ticket would be a mistake. On the contrary. Americans are sick of same-old, same-old. If we wanted that Hillary Clinton would be the Democratic nominee this morning, rather than Obama.
Neither Obama or Webb have been in Washington long enough to be thoroughly corrupted by the place. They're staff's don't maintain long lists of favors owed for back room deals cut years ago.
Both Obama and Webb speak our language, rather than DC-speak. That means both men often say things so clearly true and in such an unvarnished way that it startles us. We're not used that. Instead, years of Orwellian DC-speak has caused most of us to automatically tune out when ever a politician starts pontificating and boviating The sing-song sloganism, the same old buzz words, the same old sentimental ticklers... we've heard it all.. and don't want to hear it again.
Jim Webb also knows all that's needed to know about things military. As a decorated combat Marine and former Navy Secretary, he's been there, done that.
Webb won my admiration when, just after being elected Senator President Bush came up to him at a White House reception and tried to make small talk. As usual, Bush, clueless as ever, chose the wrong subject. Webb's son, also a Marine, had just been deployed to Iraq. Bush asked, "How's your boy doing?"
Webb's response was along the lines of, "None of your business, Mr. President. That's between me and my son." and walked off.
Rude? Hell no. How else would a real person, a real father, a real patriot, respond to such a question uttered by the very man who started the illegal war to which he then sent son, where he could be maimed or killed? Webb responded exactly the way I would have, and the way millions of ordinary Americans would have as well, if they'd had the same opportunity.
That's what I'm talking about. Speaking truth to power. And speaking truth to us, even when we don't want to hear it, even when telling the truth can be politically dangerous.
Obama congratulated Hillary Clinton last night. Hillary did not return the favor. Instead she locked her supporters into a deep bunker of ignorance, just so she could harvest the last drips of personal glory out of her moribund campaign.
Remember that in the days and weeks ahead as the Clintons angle for the VP slot. As Chris Matthews noted this morning, the Clintons are treating the vice presidency as if it's the silver metal in a race, that should automatically go to the second-place candidate. It is not second prize. It is not a consolation prize.
Maureen Dowd said it best, "Whoever said that after denial comes acceptance hadn’t met the Clintons."
Obama was right when, at the beginning of this campaign he said that the time had come to close the book on the Bush's and Clinton's. It's long past time we moved on from all that. It's time to turn the page of history.
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Comments (3)add comment
Cam said:
I really doubt Webb will be offered the VP slot. I think he's only marginally more likely to be considered than Bill Richardson. And I'm puzzled that you think so highly of Webb, as the reasons you mention seem like pretty standard political behavior to me, and they are certainly superficial.
It may not matter what Obama wants. He's in a unique situation. He may come under enormous pressure to offer it Clinton, unless she thinks it unwise herself. There are enough superdelegates with ties to the Clintons to ensure that.
You actually bother to read Maureen Dowd?! But she's insane!
June 05, 2008
Votes: +0
Lydia in MInneapolis said:
Clinton9s)are NOT Change
I HOPE that Obama does NOT offer Hillary Clinton the VP slot. She
s runa TERRIBLE campaign--switinching themes & strategies , willie-nille--saying & doing ANYTHING TO TRY TO WIN. Obama NEVER used sexism in his campaign --but,the Clintons had no problem resorting to racism in theirs.
And who needs Bill Hanging around the White House AGAIN? The Clintons had EIGHT YEARS--enough already!
I'd simply urge Obama to talk to Michelle & study up on making the case to women--and dont' forget THE UNIONS and being SPECIFIC about NEW trade policies that DON'T EXPORT JOBS of workingclass people of ALL colors.
I dont know much aobut Webb--but,I really like Ricahardson & the experince he brings.
I urge my fellow women--feminist or not_- who supported HIllary:she kciked the door in for the NEXT womanwho we can hope will run the kind of campaign we always dreamed a woman would--compassionate, ethical, unifying...rather like the one Barack Obama ran.
June 05, 2008
Votes: +0
Cam said:
I have trouble relating your attacks (quoted below) on our preferred candidate with your appeal for unity, as would probably call it (quoted above).
Since Obama is now our nominee, perhaps you'll stop "saying anything" you feel like about Hillary Clinton. Really, you ought to understand by now that Clinton's supporters see that sort of thing as a reflection up Obama's campaign and his supporters, as much as anything else. Remember the woman who called Clinton a monster? Or Obama's campaign leaflets which attacked Hillary's helathcare plan in such a low, despicable manner, and which was publicly denounced by health care specialists and economists across the nation? If that's not "saying or doing anything", I don't know what is.
We have a very different outlook on our Hillary Clinton, because we believe she is more likely to be able to deliver on her policies than Obama. I don't think that warrants your insulting attitude. Besides, what is so unifying about Obama's campaign, when so many of Clinton's supporters do? The trouble with your message is that you evidently can't resist wanting to have a dig at Clinton and by implication her supporters before you state your conciliatory message. And even when you do, you end it with another dig: and how can you say that Hillary Clinton is not compassionate? That's offensive. I expect this is the sort of criticism you have of Clinton sometimes. It's certainly the sort of criticism I've had of Obama sometimes. Why not just state you conciliatory message if you believe so wholeheartedly in unity etc.?
June 06, 2008
Votes: +0
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global_05_local_5_shard_00000035_processed.jsonl/17995
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About Us
According to InfoPro Research (July 2005 edition), SKB is the oldest company in Lebanon – established in 1800. The oldest document found that pertains to the family business goes back to 1894. In 1988, Societe Kamel Bekdache et Fils was transformed into a corporation with a general assembly. Until 2003, SKB was only a paper trading company. However in 2004, SKB became a converter as well.
In 2005, SKB was awarded the ISO 9001:2000 certificate for Quality Management System by the International Standards Authority Inc., USA.
SKB has 130 employees committed to serving a total number of 1,130 clients located in the Middle East, North Africa, and Europe. Since 2004, SKB has attained 7 warehouses with a total area of 19,200 m2 for stocking and converting paper. Future plans include the acquisition of a plot of 50,000 m2 to keep warehouses, offices and production in one site.
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global_05_local_5_shard_00000035_processed.jsonl/18031
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Today on Blogcritics
Home » The Long and Winding Box Set: The Beatles Anthology Comes to DVD
At several points during the early episodes of The Beatles Anthology, Paul McCartney comments on the stair-step rise of the early days of the Beatles’ career, from small to larger clubs, to conquering first England, then America, then movies, and then mastering the recording studio. Of course, nobody could have predicted their early meteoric success, but once the spark was lit, their course under manager Brain Epstein’s hand was sure and solid.
But what was fascinating, at least on the first viewing of several episodes of The Beatles Anthology, especially after Sgt. Pepper, and really especially after Epstein died, is how haphazard the rest of their career was, once they reached their apogee. It’s only in retrospect, and only in looking in from the outside, that the arc of albums and movies from Magical Mystery Tour to Yellow Submarine to the White Album to Let It Be really was. It’s almost as if the Beatles subliminally replaced the chaos of touring with a self-created chaos: the madness of the Maharishi, the insanity of Apple (where the Beatles actually encouraged-encouraged!–people to send in tapes to their offices on Savile Row! And if that wasn’t enough, look-there’s Yoko in the studio, alpha cyanoacrylated to John’s hip!
And if all of that wasn’t enough madness, the straw that broke the Beatles’ backs was filming Let It Be in Twickenham Film Studio. Filmmakers’ hours are the exact polar opposite of musician’s hours: filmmaking begins early in the morning and ends when the sun goes down. Musicians record at night. The two are mutually incompatible.
So naturally, the Beatles decided to record a live album there, and film it, complete with Yoko, for their Apple label. They were also unknowingly about to hit multiple icebergs in the Polar Lawyer Arctic Circle, as Apple and their affairs with duelling potential managers Allen Klein and Lee Eastman (Linda’s dad and McCartney’s father in law) simultaneously imploded. With no lifeboats present, the result was simple: no more Beatles.
Before the ship sank though, the Beatles went out with two grand gestures: a final live concert, on the rooftop of their Savile Row office building, and then a proper swan song: Abbey Road.
Which is where the actual episodes of Anthology end. But for the true hard core Beatlemanic, there is also a fifth disc’s worth of ancillary material-more clips of from the mid-1990s of the three surviving Beatles (it’s astonishing, considering how crisp George Harrison looks (and sounds-for ‘the quiet Beatle’, he was easily as sharp an interview as Paul McCartney), and lots of “making of” stuff: the making of their more complex 1960s songs, the making of their “Free as a Bird” and “Real Love” songs and videos-in which producer Jeff Lynne (a rabid Beatlemanic himself) mated mid-1970s cassette demos by John Lennon with mid-1990s studio performances by the rest of the Beatles-and not surprisingly, the making of the Anthology series itself.
So is the $59.99 cost of The Beatles Anthology worth it? For the die-hard, there’s a treasure trove of images here. God knows, all the big events in the group’s history are covered in a surprising amount of depth for a television documentary. Of course, because it’s a documentary, it goes where the footage is. Thus Let It Be, despite being only a so-so album, gets a disproportionate amount of coverage , because of all of the film footage shot (and the footage looks wonderful-brilliantly restored compared to the haphazard videotape and laser discs floating around from the early 1980s. It certainly wets the appetite for its much-anticipated DVD release later this year). But Abbey Road, which is a far, far better album, gets less analysis, because there’s no footage from the studios (but there was a nice film clip shot to promote “Something”, which is included here).
But that’s a minor gripe. If you’re like me, and grew up reading Beatle biographies and magazine articles by the score, there aren’t a whole not of new revelations in the actual history of the Beatles here. But seeing the enormous amount of footage assembled here-and hearing the songs (all remixed for 5.1 surround sound) again make it all worth while. Plop off your Cuban heals, light up a ciggy, curse Sir Walter Raleigh, kick back and enjoy. You’ll feel fine.
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About Ed Driscoll
• Eric Olsen
Another great one Ed, thanks
• rocco
The Beatles will always be the greatest.
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global_05_local_5_shard_00000035_processed.jsonl/18032
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Trigger Foods Can Cause Hangover Headaches Worse Than Cheap Red Wine
Headaches photo
Even from underneath the covers you know that this one is a doozy. Your head pumps with tension before you even sit up. It feels like you polished off a bottle of cheap red wine all by yourself. But what if you didn’t drink anything at all?
Trigger foods can cause common headaches and more severe migraines in much the same way as too many cocktails, according to a story in The Wall Street Journal. If you suffer from regular headaches or migraines you should consider adjusting your diet.
Migraine sufferers often blame stress, changes in the seasons, genes, and alcohol for the throbbing headaches that range from inconvenient to debilitating. But tyramine, a hidden culprit that’s long fallen under the radar, occurs in many seemingly innocent foods. It’s a naturally occurring compound derived from the amino acid tyrosine. A neurologist noticed human reactions to the compound after noticing his wife getting a headache from eating cheese. Processed cheeses aren't problematic, but aged cheeses can cause hypersensitive reactions.
The Wall Street Journal reports:
-Aged, dried, and fermented meats and fishes, such as pepperoni and salami
-Aged cheeses, such as blue, Brie, Cheddar, provolone and others
-Fermented soy products, like miso, soy sauce and teriyaki sauce
-Beans, sauerkraut, pickles and olives
-Alcoholic beverages such as Chianti, sherry, burgundy, vermouth, ale and beer
-Foods containing as ingredients monosodium glutamate, nitrites and sulfites
Consider eliminating the foods above and seeing how you feel. For those with debilitating headaches, it’s worth the diet sacrifice rather than suffering as if you’ve had a pitcher of margaritas.
"There's a fairly long list of foods that can potentially trigger headaches," says Linda Porter, a pain-policy adviser at the National Institutes of Health on The Wall Street Journal. "I think the difficulty is that the triggers may be more a combined effect from different things. They can sometimes be a little bit hard to identify." Still, she says, if it isn't an essential food, it's worth eliminating it from one's diet.
Photo: Thinkstock
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global_05_local_5_shard_00000035_processed.jsonl/18038
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Our team still get lots of questions from customers and partners about “SQL Azure” (aka “Windows Azure SQL Database”) and how it differs from the on-premise versions of SQL Server that they are used to managing and configuring. TechNet has an excellent article “Inside Windows Azure SQL Database” that is well worth reading if you are from a SQL Server background, as it takes you through the inner workings of SQL Database and how it relates to the more traditional server product.
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global_05_local_5_shard_00000035_processed.jsonl/18046
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Sefnit, a prevailing malware known for using infected computers for click fraud and bitcoin mining, has left millions of machines potentially vulnerable to future attacks. We recently blogged about Sefnit performing click fraud and how we added detection on the upstream Sefnit installer. In this blog we explain how the Tor client service, added by Sefnit, is posing a risk to millions of machines, and how we are working to address the problem.
Win32/Sefnit made headlines last August as it took the Tor Network by storm. Tor is an open source project for online anonymity and is commonly used to browse the Internet anonymously. Around August 19, 2013, millions of infected computers running Win32/Sefnit installers are believed to have been woken up and given instructions en masse, to download and install a Sefnit component using the Tor Network for C&C communication. Based on the Tor Network’s connecting-user estimates, evidence suggests this resulted in more than four million Sefnit-installed Tor client services pushed in just over two weeks, as shown in Figure 1.
Win32/Sefnit affects the Tor network
Figure 1: The effect of Win32/Sefnit on the Tor Network connecting-user base
The Tor client
The Tor client service left behind on a previously-infected machine may seem harmless at first glance - Tor is a good application used to anonymize traffic and usually poses no threat. Unfortunately, the version installed by Sefnit is v0.2.3.25 – and does not self-update. The latest Tor release build at the time of writing is v0.2.4.20. While no high-severity security bulletins have been issued affecting Tor v0.2.3.25, Tor has a history of high-severity vulnerabilities - as illustrated in Figure 2.
Versions Affected
v0.2.2.35 and earlier
Multiple heap-based buffer overflows. and earlier and v0.2.1.28 and earlier
Heap-based buffer-overflow.
v0.2.0.34 and earlier
Treats incomplete IPv4 addresses as valid causing unknown impact.
v0.2.0.33 and earlier
Unspecified heap corruption.
Figure 2: History of vulnerabilities affecting Tor with potential for remote-code execution
Cleanup efforts
These actions and their effect on the Tor Network’s estimated connecting-users is illustrated in Figure 3.
Tor Network connecting user estimate timeline
Figure 3: Tor Network connecting-user estimate timeline with marked events.
Our actions so far have put a dent in the number of users at risk, but more work is needed to address an estimated two million machines that have yet to be reached. Many of the unreached machines are likely not running Microsoft security software, and we need your help to reduce this risk further.
Home users:
Download and run our free Microsoft Safety Scanner to scan and clean your PC.
Network administrators and advanced users:
Download and run our free Microsoft Safety Scanner to scan and clean workstations.
Your anti-virus solution may have removed Sefnit from your workstations while leaving the Sefnit-added Tor service running. The remediation of the Tor service is dependent on the completeness of the removal by other AV scanners. For this reason, we recommend you check your workstations for Tor client services added by Sefnit. You can use the following commands to check and stop the Tor client service using Command Prompt as Administrator:
1. Query the basic information about the Tor service by issuing the command: “sc query tor.” If the service is found, it should result in something like the following:
Tor service is found
1. If the Tor service is found, and you weren't expecting it, it’s highly likely that it is a Sefnit-installed service. The configuration should be queried by issuing command “sc qc tor,” which should give you a result like that shown below:
Tor service configuration
1. If the “BINARY_PATH_NAME” above matches, the Sefnit-added Tor client service can be stopped by the command “sc stop tor”:
Stopping the Tor service
1. You can then delete the service with the command “sc delete tor”:
Correct Tor service removal
1. Verify that the service is no longer running by “sc query tor” again. If removed correctly, this should display the following error:
The service is no longer running
We also shared this information with our Microsoft Virus Initiative and Virus Information Alliance partners so that they, too, can help in the clean-up.
Geoff McDonald
* January 22, 2014: To clarify, this protection removes the services started by the Sefnit malware, but it does not uninstall Tor, remove any Tor binaries, or prevent users from using Tor.
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global_05_local_5_shard_00000035_processed.jsonl/18047
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Automation–Service Management Automation–Utility Runbook Spotlight–Get-SC-Product-Versions
• Comments 8
• Likes
Hello Readers/Viewers!
I know I keep posting stuff, but I have so much to get out I hardly have time to get my PowerShell formatted!
Don’t worry – this post will be short and sweet. I simply wanted to get a quick script in front of you, something that you can execute either from PowerShell ISE as straight PSv3 Workflow, or from as a SMA Runbook.
Many of us work with Beta, Preview, Pre-Release software. Here at MSFT, it seems that I “live in Beta” – always “dogfooding” the next big thing. We do this to be on the bleeding edge, but also to get the best possible product in front of you, before it arrives. That said, if you are reading this post, you likely have some to all components of System Center 2012 R2 Release Preview installed on Windows Server 2012 R2 Release Preview. This means you have a specific version of each component installed.
Do you know which version of each R2 component you have installed?
Sure, at this point you may know AND they likely all line up – But what happens after updates, patches, etc. to the various components? Then it gets a bit more complicated.
For this reason (and for my own, living in a pre-build world), I put together the PowerShell script that you will find below.
Scope of Example
This script does not gather every version of every component of System Center. Instead, it focuses on the bits that were most important to me for troubleshooting purposes. I hope that it can be used as an example of how to quickly and easily gather this type of information – while at the same time illustrating some pretty nifty PowerShell for retrieving data from registries on remote machines.
Product/Components Included:
• Windows Azure Pack
• Service Management Automation
• Service Provider Foundation
• Virtual Machine Manager
The Example
About Get-SC-Product-Versions
Before we get to the example, here are a few notes about its functionality and script example setup:
• The script walks the Registry::HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\ path for each of the stored values related to each product/component above (on each of their respective machines).
• The script leverages an array of “:” delimited data which is parsed (split), assigned to variables by specific array placement, and passed to the remote InlineScript call. You can certainly generate and pass data any way that you would like, this was just my way to encapsulate all the data necessary for the examples provided.
• $Products is used to store the component/product data. It is stored as “:” delimited array data, and uses the following format:
“Component Name from Registry:Field Name for Version:Component Server Name”
Note There is an array entry (like above) for each of the component/products.
• $Creds is leveraging a built in SMA Credential Variable call. Other methods of getting credentials to this PowerShell v3 Workflow / SMA Runbook are certainly acceptable, I just wanted to be consistent with other example SMA Runbook posts.
workflow Get-SC-Product-Versions
$Products = @("MgmtSvc:ProductVersion:WAPSever","ServiceManagementAutomation:Version:SMAServer","Service Provider Foundation:Version:SPFServer","Microsoft System Center Virtual Machine Manager Server:ProductVersion:VMMServer")
$Creds = Get-AutomationPSCredential -Name 'Contoso Creds'
foreach ($Product in $Products) {
InlineScript {
$ErrorActionPreference = "SilentlyContinue"
$ProductName, $ProductRegVersionPropName, $null = $Using:Product -split ':'
$ProdRegPath = "Registry::HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\" + $ProductName
$ProductComponents = Get-ChildItem -Path $ProdRegPath
foreach ($Component in $ProductComponents) {
"{0} : {1} Version: {2}" -f $ProductName, $Component.PSChildName, (Get-ItemProperty -Path $Component.PSPath -Name $ProductRegVersionPropName | Select-Object -ExpandProperty $ProductRegVersionPropName).ToString()
} -PSComputerName $Product.Split(':')[2] -PSCredential $Creds
Note This script has been modified based on “Comment” feedback below by @alexandair. Thank you for helping improve our content!
Example Output from PowerShell
Example Output from SMA
Note The versions you see here will differ from what you have installed.
That’s it! I hope this Get-SC-Product-Versions post provided you with another useful gadget in your SMA Runbook / PowerShell v3 Workflow utility belt!
Your comment has been posted. Close
Leave a Comment
• Instead of:
$ProductData = $Product.Split(':')
$ProductName = $ProductData[0]
$ProductRegVersionPropName = $ProductData[1]
$ProductServer = $ProductData[2]
You can use multiple variable assignment and accomplish the same in just one line:
$ProductName, $ProductRegVersionPropName, $ProductServer = $Product -split ':'
• Using a plus sign for string concatenation is fine, but -f format operator produce cleaner code:
"{0} : {1} Version: {2}" -f $Using:ProductName, $Component.PSChildName, (Get-ItemProperty -Path $Component.PSPath -Name $Using:ProductRegVersionPropName | Select-Object -ExpandProperty $Using:ProductRegVersionPropName).ToString()
• @alexandair - Thank you so much for your suggested improvements.
As you can see I have incorporated each in the modifications I made to the example script above.
Note I had to tweak the suggestions a little to work with PS Workflow.
*I had to place the "- split" portion within the InlineScript as when I placed it in the same area where the variable assignments originally were, I received the following notification:
"This type of assignment is not supported. Only variable names (i.e.: $variable) may be used as the target of an assignment statement."
*Adding them in the InlineScript actually saved a bunch of instances of "$Using:VariableName" calls.
*As $ProductServer is needed outside the InlineScript, I just used $Product.Split(':')[2] to get that part of the delimited string
*I used replaced $ProductName with $null to ensure that the "-split" assignments lined up properly given the data being split. Of course, if you wanted to leverage $ProductName data in the output string, that is perfectly fine. I just didn't want it being assigned with no use in the InlineScript.
Again, thanks so much for the feedback. I hope I incorporated it as you expected.
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global_05_local_5_shard_00000035_processed.jsonl/18048
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blinkbox turns to Microsoft Azure to power its TV and movie streaming service by switching from its own on premises set up. The shift to the cloud has already begun which will see its 20,000-strong movie and TV catalogue transcoded and run from Azure.
blinkbox discusses how the cloud helps them provide a great customer experience
How’s it all done?
Jon Robinson, Group Head of IT at blinkbox explains: “As our service got more popular we found that running our own data centre was getting prohibitively expensive and we were running out of the computing power necessary to encode our catalogue of movies quickly enough so we could get them to work on the multitude of devices and screen sizes we need to support. Using Microsoft Azure has got this process down from weeks to just days or hours.”
Why Microsoft Azure versus other cloud technology providers?
Robinson explains: “We looked at all of the offerings on the market and felt Microsoft best understood where we wanted to go as a company and the demands of our customers. blinkbox already runs a lot of Microsoft-based systems but a key factor was the ability for Microsoft Azure to work with our non-Microsoft technologies such as Linux. This flexibility allows us to use whichever tools are right for the job.”
Read the full story at Microsoft News Centre UK
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global_05_local_5_shard_00000035_processed.jsonl/18063
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• By
• John Letzing
A logo sits on a sign at the entrance to Wegelin & Co.’s offices in Zurich, Switzerland, on Wednesday, March 20, 2013.
Bloomberg News
Wegelin & Co., Switzerland’s oldest bank, doesn’t really exist as a bank anymore after being indicted in the U.S. But that hasn’t stopped American authorities from hitting it up for more information about its customers.
Wegelin recently received a request from the Internal Revenue Service for information about American clients—just a handful of months after the bank pleaded guilty in a U.S. court to helping Americans dodge taxes. Many assumed Wegelin’s time in the spotlight might be over following its legal flap overseas, given that it now consists of little more than a few rooms in a château in eastern Switzerland where a handful of employees wind down its remaining U.S. business. The parts of Wegelin untainted by U.S. business have long since been sold off.
Stephan Welti, Wegelin’s general counsel, confirmed the IRS request for data but declined further comment. A spokesman for the Swiss Federal Tax Administration, which is responsible for administering such requests when they come in, declined to comment. An IRS spokesman did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The IRS is able to make the requests for data thanks to a 1996 tax treaty between the U.S. and Switzerland.
Late last month Zurich-based Julius Baer revealed that it had received a similar request to pass customer data to the IRS, covering the years 2002 to 2012. In 2011, it was Credit Suisse that received an IRS request for U.S. client data—though that request was ultimately blocked by a Swiss court decision.
These days one is most likely to read about Wegelin only as a cautionary tale.
The Swiss Parliament is considering whether to pass a measure that would have many of the country’s banks start handing data to the Justice Department about U.S. clients who dodged taxes using Swiss accounts, in an attempt at a sweeping resolution. The move would require lenders to step around Switzerland’s bank secrecy laws, and some have cried foul. But if the measure doesn’t pass, it’s expected other Swiss banks could follow in Wegelin’s footsteps by getting hit with indictments and severe penalties.
Switzerland’s lower house of Parliament is expected to vote on the measure next week, after the upper house approved it on Wednesday.
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global_05_local_5_shard_00000035_processed.jsonl/18071
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Bryn Mawr Classical Review 94.04.06
Jean-Joseph Goux, Oedipus, Philosopher. Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1993. Pp. 227. $37.50. ISBN 0-8047-2169-6.
Reviewed by Stanley E. Hoffer, Seton Hall University.
G., who has written widely on modern social and psychological topics including Freud, Marx, and the symbolism of money, devotes the bulk of Oedipus, Philosopher to Sophocles' play Oedipus Tyrannus and ancient Greece. The book's two sections are neatly indicated by the title. Chapters 1-6 interpret the Oedipus myth by comparing it with mythic and ritual patterns of initiation, especially using Dumézil's theory of three Indo-European functions: priestly, military, and agricultural-sexual. Chapters 8-10 discuss the relation between the Oedipus myth and the rise of modern materialist philosophy, with reference to Plato, Descartes, Hegel, Feuerbach, Marx, Nietzsche, Freud, and, in chapter 2, Lacan; of these, Hegel and Freud explicitly used Oedipus to symbolize a basic part of their thought. The transitional chapter 7, "From Aspective to Perspective," equates Oedipus with the change from "mythos" to "logos" during and before the fifth century B.C. G. uses the development of perspective (or foreshortening) in painting to symbolize a whole system of innovations, including coinage, drama, democracy, a new conception of the individual (the "subject"), and Sophistic and pre-Socratic thought, with its challenge to religion and to traditional ways. He calls traditional, pre-Sophistic Greek society "aspective" (125), a word which had been used to designate the absence of "perspective" in "primitive" painting.
In "Standard and Nonstandard Myths" (chapter 1), G. compares Oedipus with other young mythic heroes undergoing heroic ordeals, and isolates three essential parts of the Oedipus story as deviations from the "monomyth" of the hero: incest, patricide, and answering the riddle of the Sphinx. The "monomyth," exemplified by Perseus, Jason, and Bellerophon, represents a traditional and successful rite-of-passage. The young male hero undergoes ordeals at the command of a king (= "master of initiation"), violently slays female monsters with divine help (= separation from the maternal household and from feminine elements in his own psyche, 42), receives help from a god or seer-sage (= the receiving of traditional, mystic wisdom), and is reintegrated into society in a new role (as king or "complete man") through exogamous marriage with the princess. Thus, Oedipus' most important "crime" turns out to be his slaying of the Sphinx with no outside help, and with his intellect -- and the human-centered answer "a person" -- rather than through violent combat. This corresponds to being one's own teacher ("autodidact"), to the avoidance of traditional initiation, and to atheism. Oedipus' failure to conduct a symbolic violent matricide against the female monster leads to incest, the failure to break away from the mother.
Freudian and Lacanian approaches to Oedipus are discussed in chapters 2 and 10, ("Psychoanalysis and Murder"; "Oedipus's Legacy"). G. prefers Lacan's account of child development to Freud's, equating the two, respectively, with the "monomyth" of matricide/marriage (Lacan) and the Oedipus myth of patricide/incest (Freud). He considers Lacan's criticism of Freud's "Oedipus complex" to be a central thread of Lacan's thought, though he laments that Lacan never fully articulated this criticism. According to G., Lacan argues that it is not so much a paternal prohibition as the nature of human life that prevents perfect fulfillment of desire. In fact, the paternal prohibition makes the child think that this prohibition is the real blocking force, thus shielding him or her from a radical confrontation with "lack." G. equates the hero's confrontation against a monster with a confrontation and overcoming of Lacanian "lack" (30), which Oedipus avoids in his overreliance on rationality to overcome the Sphinx (and the dangerous, uncontrollable passions of the soul). G. actually asserts that the structure of human consciousness, and in particular the emergence of the unconscious, depends on the "post-Oedipal" avoidance of traditional initiation. Finally, he interprets the old Oedipus of Oedipus at Colonus as a synthesis of "perspective," the glorification of the rational subject, with "aspective," the pious acceptance of traditional wisdom, into an integral whole which he calls "transpective." Oedipus ends his liminal life of wandering by accepting mysterious oracular wisdom and becoming the founder of a cult of royal investiture at Colonus. Likewise, if modern secular humanity recognizes the limits of rationality, it can overcome the angst of existing in a continuous liminal situation, which is caused by the failure to cross the threshold decisively by means of a traditional initiatory ordeal.
G. postulates an ascending three-step process in the traditional rite-of-passage or royal investiture, corresponding to Dumézil's three functions: first, an ordeal involving agricultural fertility or sexuality; second, an ordeal involving the warrior's virtues; and third, an ordeal involving "knowledge of the sacred" (72). G. exemplifies these "three functions" in the three parts of Jason's ordeal (sowing the dragon's teeth, dealing with the sprouted warriors, getting the fleece from the dragon) and in the three parts of the Chimaera and of the Sphinx. Oedipus' three actions are the "worst" crimes on these three levels. Incest is a violation of sexuality, patricide is the worst perversion of warrior violence, and Oedipus' self-taught answer to the riddle, "man," is an impious denial of the gods, "something resembling atheism" (77). G. equates the same three functions (sacred-royal, military, and agricultural-sexual-fertile) with the Sphinx's parts (eagle-wings, lion, woman) and threats (as riddler, attacker, seducer), and with Plato's tripartite soul and city in the Republic (reason LOGISTIKO/N, spirit QUMOEIDE/S, desire E)PIQUMHTIKO/N; philosopher-king, guardians, masses; person, lion, many-headed beast -- Pl. Rep. 588C). Through Plato's tripartition, G. brings the "cardinal virtues" into correspondence with the "three functions": temperance (SWFROSU/NH) = sexual; bravery (A)NDREI/A) = warrior; wisdom (SOFI/A) = sacerdotal; and justice (DIKAIOSU/NH) belongs to the perfect initiated philosopher-king, who integrates within himself all three functions (or virtues).
Socrates, with his non-hierarchical "teaching" method, represents the auto-didactic resistance to traditional initiation (142). He refuses to play the hierophant even to Meno's slave (who, however, is surely not a "child"; W)= PAI= = "slave," Pl. Meno 82B). Plato, on the other hand, "offers protection" against Socrates' anti-initiatory radicalism, offering a "difficult pedagogical path" for the philosopher-king, and a tri-functional model of the soul which recognizes the unavoidability and even the desirability of acknowledging the non-rational parts (144-5). (G. offers this outlandish subtitle for The Republic: Concerning a Non-Oedipean Figure of the Philosopher.) With modern thinkers, however, starting with Descartes, the radical opposition to tradition returns. Descartes's Discourse on Method begins with radical skepticism (rejection of all masters = "patricide"); next comes the "cogito," basing all reality on the subjective thinker (= response to the Sphinx); and finally, the conquest of the mysterious laws of nature (possession of mother nature = incest??). Hegel fits G.'s master-metaphor of Oedipus better, because he himself used Oedipus to symbolize the emergence of consciousness and philosophy in ancient Greece: "Greece" superseding "Egypt" = Oedipus superseding Sphinx (Aesthetics: Lectures on Fine Art, 1975.1.360-61). Indeed, this passage seems to have been the inspiration for G.'s book (166). G. also fits the ideas of Feuerbach, Marx, and Nietzsche into this model of Oedipus' "three crimes." Feuerbach urged "the dissolution of theology into anthropology" (patricide/response to Sphinx) to restore "perceptible reality" to a founding role (possession of mother). For Marx, the triad is: rejection of God and idealism; class struggle as the revealed key; material base as the founding truth. For Nietzsche, it is Death of God; Advent of the Superman; Total domination of the Earth. Yet, in the resurgence of Dionysus in Nietzsche's thought, G. sees a recognition of the limits of rationality, a recognition which becomes explicit in Freud's "discovery of the unconscious."
Though flawed, this is a highly creative and thought-provoking book. G.'s treatment of initiation, especially in chapter 3 and parts of 1 and 4, brings together many useful heuristic tools, including his discussions of symbolic filiation, self-teaching and the "master of initiation," mystical wisdom, symbolic death, terrifying "heroic" ordeals, monsters, fear, violence, and sexual maturity. His treatments of the "monomyth" and of "trifunctionality," though overly rigid, also suggest more subtle ways of using these tools. Furthermore, his discussion (in chapters 2, 9, and 10) of initiation, religion, and rationality in the development of the mind casts an interesting light on the psychological meaning of initiation motifs and practices.
Still, there are flaws. The "monomyth" is far too rigid a concept to embrace the multitude of initiatory motifs in myth. Many of G.'s basic metaphors are faulty or over-extended, as, for example, the equation "monster-killing = mother-killing," which is part of his inexorably male-oriented presentation of human psychology. His use of Oedipus and his "three" (??) crimes to represent the rationalist-atheist trends of modern philosophy is implausible and unprofitable. Sophocles never calls our attention to what the Sphinx asked and what Oedipus answered, and Jocasta actually presents the stronger attack against religion. G.'s text tends to repeat its main points, often with advertisements of their originality, rather than bringing them into contact with the primary texts. The few close readings are unreliable; application of the "trifunctionality" straitjacket leads to misinterpretations of Sophocles' "hubris" ode at Oedipus Tyrannus 883-91 (KE/RDOS "profit" = sexual ravisher?? 93) and of Xenophon's Agesilaus (which is early evidence against, not for, the canonical list of four virtues 146). G. omits citations with insouciance, often citing by name only ("Plutarch's anecdote" 129; "as Hegel noted" 121). The apparently Greekless translator renders the French accurately and readably, but adds numerous spelling errors in Greek and chose not only Fagles' inaccurate Penguin translation of Sophocles, but even Fagles' (not Sophocles') line numbers. Finally, an index would greatly improve a book that some readers may not wish to read from cover to cover.
But it is easier to find fault than to present creative ideas, and even G.'s errors can be thought-provoking. We should be grateful to the author, translator, and publisher for presenting this stimulating book to an English-speaking audience.
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Search for content in message boards
Arthur Allen of Bacons Castle - Margery Woodhouse mother
Replies: 0
Arthur Allen of Bacons Castle - Margery Woodhouse mother
Posted: 23 Mar 2013 10:47AM GMT
Classification: Query
Surnames: Allen, Woodhouse, French
I thought I'd share my research into the English branch of the Allen family.
I descend from Arthur Allen's brother Roger.
I have evidence that Arthur Allen's mother was Margery Woodhouse, not Margaret King. The marriage licence of John Allen of Droitwich and Margery Woodhouse of Salwarpe appears in "Calendar of Wills and Administration in the Constitory Court of the Bishop of Worcester", which also includes marriage bonds during that time, dating to 1594.
The wills of William Woodhouse of Salwarpe (1603) and Richard Woodhouse (1606) mentions John Allen, described, respectively, as son-in-law and brother (that is brother-in-law) (note: the latter calls him his 'brother Allen', but I have little doubt it is the same man, especially since William Woodhouse also mentions his son Richard in his 1603 will.
The connection to the Woodhouse family is further confirmed by the will of the John Allen, the son of Roger Allen (and nephew to Arthur Allen), dating to 1696, in which he mentions his kinsman John French. John French was the son of Richard French and Alice Woodhouse, both of Salwarpe; Alice Woodhouse was the niece of Margery Woodhouse
I hope that some find this of interest.
Find a board about a specific topic
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global_05_local_5_shard_00000035_processed.jsonl/18104
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HOME > Chowhound > Kosher >
May 11, 1998 06:03 PM
kosher deli in Brooklyn
• a
I'm looking for serious Kosher deli in Brooklyn. Does
anyone have any rec's?
1. Click to Upload a photo (10 MB limit)
1. The Best Kosher deli is at
5823 Ave T
Mill Basin Kosher Deli
4 Replies
1. re: mark
"The Best Kosher deli is at 5823 Ave TMill Basin Kosher
Deli www.pastrami.net"
something tells me that Mark is more than a
disinterested observer...
In any case, Mill Basin's ok, not great.
1. re: Jim Leff
The best kosher deli in Westchester is Epstein's Deli. We were there Saturday and I had delicious matzo ball soup and a falafel sandwich with Israeli salad. Everything was out of this world. This deli is on Central Avenue in Hartsdale. And this review from a
1. re: Susan Nolan
Epstein's is not bad. There is another Epstein's on
Central Avenue in the same shopping center as Modell's.
Also in that strip mall is Syon Kosher Meat,which has
pretty good takeout. Brisket, Matza Ball Soup etc....
1. re: glenn
Susan, with gratitude for the plug, "goyim" is plural ("goy," or (for your gender) "goyah"), but appreciate the sentiment. But middle eastern (Israeli, Lebanese, Morrocan, Libyan falafel/couscous/tabouleh, etc.) ain't "deli", at least not the way my mother's litvak family could ever possibly accept. So be it: that's what happens when the "delis" in the 'burbs are run by sabras -- but head to Eastern Parkway, try a real Galizianer deli, and report back!
2. Gotlieb's Restaurant in wilamsburg on Bedford Ave.
Corner of Robling.
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global_05_local_5_shard_00000035_processed.jsonl/18105
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HOME > Chowhound > Home Cooking >
Jul 27, 2006 12:07 AM
What are your recipe sources?
I inherited all of my grandma's recipes and have a large cookbook collection. I've also collected recipes since I was a kid and have binders full of handwritted, copied and clipped recipes. If I need recipe ideas I look online at allrecipes, epicurious, the food network or here!
How about you?
1. Click to Upload a photo (10 MB limit)
1. I have a huge library of cookbooks which I cull books from occasionally after much thought and deliberation but am always adding to anyway. I go to Epicurious frequently too. It just depends on what I am looking for. I do (and it does amaze me) tend to know just what is in my books and which book to look in but when I am just browsing for inspiration for a specific ingredient I often turn to Epi. It is quick and easy and sometimes jogs my memory and sends me back to a specific book or books
1. Mom and my own imagination.
1. Everywhere - my ever-expanding collection of cookbooks, the internet, my family and friends, restaurants I've eaten in, descriptions of foods and meals, movies and books.
1. For my wedding, my mother put together a huge book of family recipes for my husband and I.
Then, I have an ever growing collection of beautiful Japanese cookbooks, and a few American "must-haves."
(Joy of Cooking, 2 books by Julia Child, 2 books published by CIA, etc.)
1. The local newspaper is often a good source. Some have a request column for people who lost old treasured recipes. You get some recipes that aren't printed anywhere. Some aren't too sophisticated, but they're well loved recipes.
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HOME > Chowhound > San Francisco Bay Area >
Oct 1, 2011 10:28 PM
Between SF and Hayward....
Gotta do a friend a favor and drive out to Hayward tomorrow. Any must-eats for a City girl who doesn't get to East Bay much? Otherwise I'll probably end up grabbing a burger at Val's. I'd much rather get a great bowl of soup noodles, a tasty falafel, or some really great Korean food (spicy cold noodles, anywhere?)
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1. Val's is closed on Sun. I don't have anything to recommend in Hayward. I like QQ Noodle in Fremont for beef noodle soup or tomato egg noodle or tons of eats in Union City on Decoto/Alvarado Niles Blvd.
1. If it's spicy cold noodles you crave, stop in Oakland at Pyung Chang Tofu House for naeng myun.
Pyung Chang Tofu House
4701 Telegraph Ave, Oakland, CA 94609
1. Hi
In Hayward is Buon Apetito on A st, with good Italian, my fav is the Oso Buco made with lamb shank over polenta.
In San Leandro is Vo's on Parrot, have had lots of great stuff .
Also in Hayward is Buffalo Bills if you like beer, and they make a good salad. But take a miss on the Sushi Buffet across the street, not good.
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HOME > Chowhound > Home Cooking >
Jun 30, 2014 03:17 PM
July 2014 COTM: Radically Simple - 10 Minute Salads, Vegetables and Side Dishes
Greetings all!
Please use this thread to post your reviews of the following:
10 Minute Salads
Vegetables and Side Dishes
Remember to review the thread in order to ensure you reply to the original post on any recipe you are reviewing to make sure all the comments are grouped together.
As per usual the Chowhound Team would like me to remind you that verbatim copying of recipes is a violation of the author's copyright. Any posts with copied recipes will be removed.
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1. Apple Cider Cucumbers (Ipad version)
As I was planning our meals for the week I new I was keen on some of the simple salad and pasta dishes from this book. The first pasta dish I chose was the baked ziti with fontina, which I new was going to be relatively rich and dense so I chose this little side salad in the hopes it might lighten the meal and cut through some of that richness, and that it did.
As the books title suggests the dish is radically simple, consisting simply of peeled sliced cucumber swimming ina bath of apple cidre vinegar and maple syrup, accented with a fair amount of dill and some salt and pepper. You are meant to chill this between 1 hour to 1 day and you are good to go. I didn't expect any great revelations as I have had similar dishes before with sugar instead of the maple syrup, but I have to say I think the maple syrup was much better than the usual touch of sugar. Plus it went very well with the apple cidre vinegar and the healthy dose of dill from the garden at my husband's office.
This would be great fare for a BBQ or any simple picnic meal.
While I enjoyed June's book, My Paris Kitchen, it is nice to have some lovely summery options in this month's COTM.
17 Replies
1. re: delys77
This doesn't sound appealing on first read, but you make it sound very good. My kids love pickles so maybe I'll give this a try.
1. re: Westminstress
I hope you like it, the syrup really ends up just adding some sweetness to the brine, which is typical enough of a quick pickle.
2. re: delys77
I don't have the book. Looking forward to getting an excuse from this thread, for buying it. Pickles get me 30% there.
1. re: delys77
Happy Canada Day, delys!
Quick question - do you think that cider vinegar makes a big difference? Would maybe white wine vinegar do just as well? Cider vinegar turns me off.
1. re: LulusMom
Thanks LLM!
I'm at a family gathering and the weather is great, so far so good. I just had a quick taste test of vinegars from my sister's cupboard and the flavour profiles are different but not worlds apart. The apple cidre vinegar seems slightly less acidic with a touch more sourness than the generally sharper white wine vinegar I sampled (maille brand).
I would guess it will still be good, but the amount of vinegar called for will likely yield different results. That said since you don't like apple cidre vinegar I'm sure your better off trying it with the white wine vinegar.
1. re: delys77
Thanks so much delys. I'll take a taste and add approach with this one using white wine vinegar.
Great weather in Van? The gods must know I'm not there. We're on vacation and saw a man in a Canada t-shirt yesterday - Represent!
1. re: LulusMom
lol represent indeed. Yeah the weather has been lovely.
2. re: delys77
Loved the crunchy Apple Cider Cucumbers - p 64
As delys77 states, the cucumbers swim in the slightly sweet vinegar/syrup mixture. I think the liquid could be reduced by a third and would still be plenty, depending on the shape and depth of your serving dish.
Although these are supposed to chill 1 hour to 1 day, we ate them only 15 minutes after prep (failure to read the ENTIRE recipe, again). Liked them so well that I've got another batch chilling in the fridge for tomorrow - I just sliced more cucumbers into the liquid that was left. I used dried dill weed, teaspoons instead of tablespoons.
1. re: delys77
Apple Cider Cucumbers
My turn for this dish. Not much too add to prior posts. I served this as a side with brats. Super easy. What surprised me most was the maple syrup. I thought it might overpower the cucumbers but it was quite subtle.
1. re: delys77
Little late on this, but this cookbook looks up my alley (I usually at best just lurk a bit on COTM).
If any of you see this, since I've got a bunch of cucumbers as well as apple cider vinegar and some maple syrup brought back from Canada, would like to give this a try. Since I don't have the cookbook (yet), if anybody can give me a heads up about proportions of each ingredient? I know you can't post the recipe itself, and don't want to impose -- figure I could eyeball it, but thought might as well ask.
Sounds simple and really good for a summer snack! I almost live on cucumber salads in the summertime, anyway, so this one piqued my interest.
1. re: Gio
Well shoot, I should have figured that out myself! Thanks, Gio, for indulging my internet laziness, appreciate the link.
1. re: mselectra
We look forward to your report.
1. re: Gio
Thanks to Gio for pointing me to googlebooks (which I should have checked myself first).
Made this very simple cucumber salad last night. I'd say it was a success since my partner ended up finishing the liquid with a spoon after the cucumbers were gone. (We both tend to do that with salad dressings, actually, when we're at home and no one can see, but he seemed especially enthusiastic with this one.)
The ingredient list did sound sort of odd, but made a nice sweet and sour, sweet pickle, sort of taste.
Note that I did not have fresh dill, so used dried which I do think really made a difference -- didn't have enough dill flavor. Also did not have seedless cucumbers. Salad did seem a little watery, which I think might be because I lazily didn't seed the cukes. Wondering if I should have salted them first, perhaps.
Am looking at other recipes from the googlebook version -- does look like a nice cookbook.
1. re: mselectra
Nice report. Thanks. Because I really dislike extra salt in my salads I've taken to deseeding cucumbers then tightly wrapping each long half in a paper towel making sure to get the paper into the "seed gully". I do each half as I work so the paper absorbs piratically all moisture. Yes, it's a small extra step but works very well..
1. re: Gio
Nice tip, thanks -- as I think I said earlier, we do practically live on cucumber salads in the summertime, so I appreciate all the help I can get!
2. Watercress, Endive & St, Agur Blue Cheese, pg. 53
Toasted walnuts, endive, watercress, walnut oil, rice vinegar, and St, Augur. Lovely combination; made for a nice lunch yesterday.
1. Pistachio-Coconut Rice, p. 274.
Made this to accompany the Korean-style salmon on p. 147. I really liked the way the slightly sweet flavor of the coconut milk-curry-rice combo complemented the flavors of Gold's Korean salmon recipe. In the interests of full-disclosure I have to admit that I changed the recipe's method following another Chowhound's (Picawicca's) recommendation on the 2011 adjunct thread.
Because I really like what a preliminary sauté in fat does to create separate kernels of cooked rice, rather than simply simmering the rice in the coconut milk as directed, I first sautéed the 1cup of basmati rice and the 1/2 tsp of curry powder together in some fat (butter and olive oil) for a few minutes until the rice was translucent and the curry powder had bloomed. Then I added 1 cup of coconut milk plus 3/4 cup of water to the pot. I brought the mixture to a boil, than simmered it covered for 18 minutes, then tossed the finished dish with the 1/3 cup finely chopped and toasted pistachios before serving. The rice turned out perfectly cooked.
Here's the recipe from google books:
5 Replies
1. re: Goblin
Pistachio-Coconut Rice
I am a big fan of my rice cooker as it always seems to do a better job than me when it comes cooking rice. I simply added the suggested coconut milk and enough water to bring the liquid level up to the appropriate line for my rice cooker, and then let it cook away. The rice came out fluffy and rich from the coconut milk. I transferred the cooked rice to serving bowl with the requisite curry powder, butter and seasoning and tossed together. In went the pistachio's and there you have it. Lovely little rice dish that would go well with many things. I especially liked the combination of the butter and the curry, a little different and very tasty.
1. re: delys77
Delys77, this sounds like a very easy and tasty way to make this nice rice dish, and I will try it this way next time in my rice cooker!
1. re: Goblin
Hope it works well for you. I've resigned myself to the fact that the rice cooker is much better at cooking rice than me.
2. re: Goblin
Pistachio-Coconut Rice p. 274
Very nice as full-flavored side for the Galic-Miso pork chops p 212
I increased rice/water quantities to match the entire (1 2/3 C.) of coconut milk in my 13.5 fl oz. can., but left the salt at 1 tsp and would reduce to 1/2 tsp. next time.
I varied from recipe's cooking method. Brought the liquid to simmer, added the rice,stirred, and brought back to simmer. Tight fitting lid, lowest heat, for 15 minutes, no stirring, and checked for rice tenderness. It was, indeed, done despite the package-directions that said simmer for 35 minutes. Then no heat for 15 minutes, lid on, while I finished cooking the meal.
I removed the extra 1.5 - 2 C. of the cooked rice and stored it un-spiced for later use.
Butter and garam masala got stirred into the remaining rice, along with toasted pistachios - I used salted/roasted, chopped them then toasted.
The recipe says 1 C. uncooked rice for 4 servings. I think it probably made 6 generous servings.
1. re: Goblin
Pistachio Coconut Rice
I concur that this rice is easy and delicious. Following suggestions here I sautéed my curry powder in the butter before adding rice. Then cooked the rice with 1.5 cups water and 1/4 cup very thick coconut cream (from my freezer). It turned out perfect, though next time I may want to add a bit more coconut. Loved the pistachios in this rice.
Served with the garam masala lamb from this book, but there were so many user errors involved in that dish that I will not report on it.
2. Whole Cauliflower, Ras-el-Hanout Crumble, p. 262.
Couldn't be much simpler. A cored, whole head of cauliflower is steamed over boiling water until tender, about 15 minutes. One needs to take a bit of care while coring the cauliflower so the large florets don't fall apart, but even if they do you can reassemble the head successfully (can you tell that this happened to me?)
While the cauliflower is steaming, a cup of panko is sautéed in 1 TBS of oil and 1.5 TBS of butter until golden. Then 1.5 tsp of ras el hanout plus a pinch of salt is added and the mixture is cooked very briefly together. The hot cauliflower is placed on a platter, scattered with the crumbs, drizzled with a few TBS of oil and some salt, and served.
The ras el houout provides a very nice flavor to the crumbs and it sure is simple just to toss it with them. But to me, the panko crumbs were almost gritty. I will do this again, but with bread crumbs that I have whirled in my mini FP to make slightly larger, crispier crumbs.
1. Spooned Avacado, Lime & Smoked Paprika, pg 38
Not sure if we've ever tried the avacado + arugula + lime dressing before, but anyway, we liked it. My 1/4 recipe was in exact proportion, but I did sub adult arugula for the infantile variety. It comes together in a few minutes--washing the greens was the only thing that took effort--and went well with a simply grilled smallish piece of meat. Quick and easy summer supper, and just right for a meal without a starch.
2 Replies
1. re: qianning
I was all set to make this when I realized, gasp, that I was out of smoked paprika! I had to substitute Trader Joe's Smoked African blend of spices that includes flakes of paprika but I will be hunting down another tin of smoked paprika in the next day or two! :)
1. re: qianning
We really enjoyed this here, too. My husband said it was like eating guacamole in a salad format.
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HOME > Chowhound > Dallas - Fort Worth >
Aug 1, 2014 04:02 PM
Non GMO corn in Dallas?
Does anyone know where to find non GMO fresh corn on the cob in the Dallas area?
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1. Easy! The best can be found at Natural Grocers.
Three locations in Dallas.
Also, http://www.greengrocerdallas.com/
And of course, Whole Foods.
2 Replies
1. re: twinwillow
Thanks, twinwillow! I'll try Natural Grocers. I went to the Whole Foods at Park and Preston before posting my query, and they didn't have non GMO fresh corn on the cob, although they did have frozen. I'm dying for some corn on the cob, but I've watched too many documentaries and read too many Michael Pollan books. Don't want corn that's been doused in Roundup!!!
2. You should look into Azure Standard. They have monthly drops all over the country. You place your order of natural, organic, fresh/frozen food, and then you meet the truck at the closest location. It's great! I get all my organic dried corn, popcorn, corn meal, etc from there. Plus, a ton more.
1 Reply
1. re: Becca Porter
Interesting. I hadn't heard of that service before. I'll look into it. Thanks!
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Wrangle Async Tasks With JQuery Promises
Once you understand Promises, you'll want to use them for everything from AJAX calls to UI flow. That's a promise!
Understanding Promises
Once a Promise is resolved or rejected, it'll remain in that state forever.
A Promise is an object that represents a one-time event, typically the outcome of an async task like an AJAX call. At first, a Promise is in a pending state. Eventually, it's either resolved (meaning the task is done) or rejected (if the task failed). Once a Promise is resolved or rejected, it'll remain in that state forever, and its callbacks will never fire again.
You can attach callbacks to the Promise, which will fire when the Promise is resolved or rejected. And you can add more callbacks whenever you want - even after the Promise has been resolved/rejected! (In that case, they'll fire immediately.)
Plus, you can combine Promises logically into new Promises. That makes it trivially easy to write code that says, "When all of these things have happened, do this other thing."
And that's all you need to know about Promises in the abstract. There are several JavaScript implementations to choose from. The two most notable are Kris Kowal's q, based on the CommonJS Promises/A spec, and jQuery Promises (added in jQuery 1.5). Because of jQuery's ubiquity, we"ll use its implementation in this tutorial.
Making Promises With $.Deferred
Every jQuery Promise begins with a Deferred. A Deferred is just a Promise with methods that allow its owner to resolve or reject it. All other Promises are "read-only" copies of a Deferred; we'll talk about those in the next section. To create a Deferred, use the $.Deferred() constructor:
(Version note: state() was added in jQuery 1.7. In 1.5/1.6, use isRejected() and isResolved().)
We can get a "pure" Promise by calling a Deferred's promise() method. The result is identical to the Deferred, except that the resolve() and reject() methods are missing.
The promise() method exists purely for encapsulation: If you return a Deferred from a function, it might be resolved or rejected by the caller. But if you only return the pure Promise corresponding to that Deferred, the caller can only read its state and attach callbacks. jQuery itself takes this approach, returning pure Promises from its AJAX methods:
Using the -ing tense in the name of a Promise makes it clear that it represents a process.
Modeling a UI Flow With Promises
Once you have a Promise, you can attach as many callbacks as you like using the done(), fail(), and always() methods:
Version Note: always() was referred to as complete() before jQuery 1.6.
There's also a shorthand for attaching all of these types of callbacks at once, then():
Callbacks are guaranteed to run in the order they were attached in.
One great use case for Promises is representing a series of potential actions by the user. Let's take a basic AJAX form, for example. We want to ensure that the form can only be submitted once, and that the user receives some acknowledgement when they submit the form. Furthermore, we want to keep the code describing the application's behavior separate from the code that touches the page's markup. This will make unit testing much easier, and minimize the amount of code that needs to be changed if we modify our page layout.
(We're taking advantage of the fact that arguments passed to resolve()/reject() are forwarded verbatim to each callback.)
Borrowing Promises From the Future
pipe() returns a new Promise that will mimic any Promise returned from one of the pipe() callbacks.
Our feedback form code looks good, but there's room for improvement in the interaction. Rather than optimistically assuming that our POST call will succeed, we should first indicate that the form has been sent (with an AJAX spinner, say), then tell the user whether the submission succeeded or failed when the server responds.
We can do this by attaching callbacks to the Promise returned by $.post. But therein lies a challenge: We need to manipulate the DOM from those callbacks, and we've vowed to keep our DOM-touching code out of our application logic code. How can we do that, when the POST Promise is created within an application logic callback?
A solution is to "forward" the resolve/reject events from the POST Promise to a Promise that lives in the outer scope. But how do we do that without several lines of bland boilerplate (promise1.done(promise2.resolve);...)? Thankfully, jQuery provides a method for exactly this purpose: pipe().
pipe() has the same interface as then() (done() callback, reject() callback, always() callback; each callback is optional), but with one crucial difference: While then() simply returns the Promise it's attached to (for chaining), pipe() returns a new Promise that will mimic any Promise returned from one of the pipe() callbacks. In short, pipe() is a window into the future, allowing us to attach behaviors to a Promise that doesn't even exist yet.
Here's our new and improved form code, with our POST Promise piped to a Promise called savingFeedback:
Finding the Intersection of Promises
Part of the genius of Promises is their binary nature. Because they have only two eventual states, they can be combined like booleans (albeit booleans whose values may not yet be known).
The Promise equivalent of the logical intersection (AND) is given by $.when(). Given a list of Promises, when() returns a new Promise that obeys these rules:
1. When all of the given Promises are resolved, the new Promise is resolved.
2. When any of the given Promises is rejected, the new Promise is rejected.
Any time you're waiting for multiple unordered events to occur, you should consider using when().
Simultaneous AJAX calls are an obvious use case:
Another use case is allowing the user to request a resource that may or may not have already be available. For example, suppose we have a chat widget that we're loading with YepNope (see Easy Script Loading with yepnope.js)
Promises have proven themselves to be an indispensable tool in the ongoing fight against async spaghetti code. By providing a binary representation of individual tasks, they clarify application logic and cut down on state-tracking boilerplate.
If you'd like to know more about Promises and other tools for preserving your sanity in an ever more asynchronous world, check out my upcoming eBook: Async JavaScript: Recipes for Event-Driven Code (due out in March).
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To help avoid spray drift lawsuits, log on to, a new Web site serving Indiana, Ohio, Missouri, Michigan and Illinois where you can check to see if there are any registered spray-sensitive operations like orchards, beehives, vegetable or flower fields, etc., anywhere near a field you need to spray. Just enter the address, town or zip code for where you want to spray (or register your own spray-sensitive area). The Purdue site developers hope to include other states soon.
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global_05_local_5_shard_00000035_processed.jsonl/18160
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Speech::Recognizer::ViaVoice version 0.02 NAME Speech::Recognizer::ViaVoice - Perl wrappers for IBM's ViaVoice speech Recognizer library. SYNOPSIS use Speech::Recognizer::ViaVoice; $| = 1; if (0 == connectEngine) { if ( 0 == defineVocab('myTestVocab', ['hello','world','quit']) ) { print 'please say "hello", "world", or "quit" at each prompt...', "\n"; while (0 == startListening) { print "speak> "; if (0 == recognize) { my ($s, $score) = (getWord, getScore); if (defined($s)) { printf "%s, score=%d\n", $s, $score; if ($s eq 'quit') { exit 0; } } else { printf "not recognized!\n"; } } stopListening; } } disconnectEngine; } DESCRIPTION This module provides very basic use of IBM's ViaVoice library (http://www-4.ibm.com/software/speech/enterprise/te_3.html) in perl. It allows its user to pass a list of speech commands for recognition in a perl list, connect to the engine, and request recognized spoken words. The most notable feature missing from the current version is the ability to select different ViaVoice users. I plan to add this functionality shortly, but for now you must use the default user. Consult the ViaVoice documentation for ViaVoice setup. Most will probably just need to run vvstartuserguru, which requires a java runtime environment. Results will be better if you take the time to do a little training to your own voice in this utility. You can use this perl module for reconition of words from IBM's vocab dictionary for your chosen locale without further preparation. To recognize words not available in the dictionary or to recognize phrases, you need to create a file with phonetic spellings for use by the provided script pronunciations.pl (installed in /usr/local/bin by default). This utility reads a text file whose name is supplied as its sole argument. The file should contain lines with two fields separated by a tab character: Deborah --- TAB -->D EH B OW R AX Deborah --- TAB -->D EH B AXR R AX Axl Rose -- TAB -->AE K S AX L R OW Z The text on the left is the word or phrase to be recognized, and the text on the right is a phonetic spelling of the format specified in the ViaVoice docs (section 3 of /usr/doc/ViaVoice/bpreadme.txt in my installation). As in the example, a word or phrase might have more than one common pronunciation. You can provide all of them, one on each line. pronunciations.pl will most likely require super user privileges to write its output to files in the ViaVoice lib directory: /usr/lib/ViaVoice/vocabs/langs/En_US/pools/ INSTALLATION To install this module, first change the line in Makefile.PL that looks like the following to reflect your locale: 'DEFINE' => '-DLOCALE=\"En_US\"', Then, type the following: perl Makefile.PL make make test make install Note: "make test" will prompt you to say a word and attempt to recognize it. It will fail unless you have IBM ViaVoice setup and your microphone connected and ready to go. DEPENDENCIES This module requires IBM's ViaVoice to run. COPYRIGHT AND LICENSE This library is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the same terms as Perl itself. AUTHOR Richard Kilgore, [email protected] SEE ALSO the perl manpage.
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Watch: Direct Action Bee Die-In At WalMart
This is a direct action organized by people at the Occupy(Inter)National Gathering in Kalamazoo, Michigan.
Activists directly labeled GMO food and distributed Occucards throughout the store.
The action was meant to demonstrate the effects of colony collapse of honeybees, WalMart labor abuses, and the poisioning of our food system by Monsanto.
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Simon Cowell made what word trend?
big apple, the
Slang definitions & phrases for big apple, the
Big Apple, the
noun phrase
1. New York City •Popularized in the 1970s as a nickname: New York is the Big Apple/ young musicians storming into the Apple (1909+)
2. A jitterbug dance of the mid1930s
[apparently fr jazz musicians' term apple for a city, esp a city in the North; the dance may be so called from a Harlem club of the same name]
Copyright (C) 2007 by HarperCollins Publishers.
Cite This Source
Word of the Day
Word Value for big
Scrabble Words With Friends
Nearby words for big apple, the
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