text:
'Frozen 2' tops 'Knives Out' at Thanksgiving weekend box office
In a photo taken on Nov 28, 2019, Olaf from Disney's "Frozen" balloon floats down Sixth Avenue in front of Radio City Music Hall during the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade in New York.PHOTO: AP
Dec 2, 2019, 1:14 am SGT
https://str.sg/J5BC
NEW YORK (BLOOMBERG) - Walt Disney's "Frozen II" carved out the biggest share of the box office over the post-Thanksgiving weekend, but North American theaters remain mired in a slowdown.
Anna and Elsa from Arendelle scored US$85.3 million (S$116.5 million) in US and Canadian theaters, Comscore estimated Sunday (Dec 1).
Box Office Pro had forecast US$85 million over three days.
"Knives Out," an acclaimed film from "Star Wars" director Rian Johnson, came in second with US$27 million.
The second straight weekend at the top for "Frozen II" still wasn't enough for the animated sequel to lift the overall box office above the year-earlier mark.
Thanksgiving weekend last year generated US$203.8 million during the three-day portion, thanks to "Ralph" and "Creed II."
The other new film in wide release, Universal's "Queen & Slim," opened in fifth place with US$11.7 million.
The drama is "a reminder of the compelling artistry that can come out of Hollywood when there's inclusion in front of and behind the camera," according to the New York Times.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


The Great Showdowns by Scott C.
Scott Campbell (Scott C) is a maker of paintings, illustrations, comics, kid's books and video games. He studied illustration at the Academy of Art in San Francisco, focusing on comic and children's book illustration. He now works for Double Fine productions as an Art Director on such games as the critically acclaimed Psychonauts and Brutal Legend. Alongside this career in games, he has published numerous comics and created paintings that have appeared in galleries and publications around the world.
Compiling all the screaming, while retaining all the dead-pan comedy from the Seoul-based artist's Yellow Scream (2012) video. Bob Ross would be proud.
Seoul-based media arts collective jonpasang has created 'hyper-matrix', a kinetic vertical landscape installation for the Hyundai Motor Group exhibition pavilion in Korea. The exhibition comprises of thousands of 30x30cm cubes, which make up the internal facade of the building. A steel foundation was developed to support the integrated stepping motors that control each individual volume.


In response to your post, which was by the way excellent to say the least. I believe teaching lesson plans in way that best suites your outcome and the students outcome. Yes, teach the needed knowledge, which is pre-scripted methods of learning. However, deviate not from being present within learning environments. I think too often as modern-day educators we tend to stick to pre-planned ideas on how we think learning environments should be administered. However, we often forget that in presence of learning, therein exist an element of being present. Like most Jazz players have said, you learn all of the fundamental ideologies of playing Jazz, but there's a point where you forget the rules and just play.
Being present allows for free-flowing ideas to become manifested. Being present centers oneself to embody the moment of learning that best suites all in the classroom. Learning isn't limited to textbook knowledge. Learning surpasses written knowledge, and thus becomes enhance knowledge, which potentially allows for a greater learning environment. Less indoctrination, and more education. And, education/learning is greater than what a book has to offer. In fact, if being present allow you to become more centered, you'd then offer the best that's yet to be brought forth from students.
Books are meant to be referenced, not relied upon, which stifles mental growth and forward progressive thinking to produce unforeseen scholarship contemporary academia has yet to witness.
Lots of great food for thought here, Veronica! One thing you might consider is how some of these themes connect with emotional intelligence. If the workshop is for your UH colleagues, they're very familiar with that vocabulary, and I see a lot of overlap between EI and affective dimensions of learning.
A few other ideas percolating in my head relate to the challenge of supporting affective learning in the constrained space of the one-shot library session. I enjoyed the Cahoy and Schroeder article you cited, and I see so much potential for their suggestions about helping students develop positive behaviors to manage anxiety and encourage learning, but that kind of change doesn't happen overnight–or in fifty minutes. Certainly an opportunity to work with sympathetic colleagues outside the library.
Thanks so much for sharing the provocative question "What is it like to be a person learning something?" Now that I don't do much formal teaching, much of my thinking about learning is in the context of parenting, and this question articulates something I wonder about all the time. I'm coming more and more to believe that reflection/metacognition is key to becoming a good learner, and that, to bring it back to emotion, good learners are well equipped to find meaning and happiness in their lives.


It's been a funny old week; we're having the bathroom refurbished so it's been plumbers, tilers et al.
Added to this mayhem, Don "had a pig 'coming back' on Monday, so did I want half?" Well it's true that we are about out of piggylicious delicacies, so I accepted. Of course I should have realised that it probably wasn't the best timing; plumbers tend to require the water turned off on a regular basis!
No photos I'm afraid, it's hard enough for me to do the necessary without taking pictures. My left hand isn't as strong as it should be, so skinning the meat and fat for sausage is a particularly difficult and sometimes painful job.
I made the brine for the ham and hocks on Monday morning, the curing salt was added just before use as it reacts very quickly. I injected the meat with 10% of its weight in brine cure - purists will scoff at this method but in my experience the result is no different to just immersing the meat in the brine - I don't of course use the chemicals that are often used commercially to hold water in the meat - so it absorbs no more than it would by soaking naturally.
Next was the loin, dry cured in two pieces, one for smoking and one for 'green' bacon. The belly wasn't very thick, so one piece was kept for eating and the other made into pancetta. The rolled collar, minus its fat and skin was put into dry cure to be made into Coppa (or Capicola), an Italian air-dried meat. Unfortunately, I made a big hole in one of the layers of meat when taking the fat off, so it'll be slightly lacking in the diameter department. Oh OK, keep it simple; it ain't goin' to be as fat as it should be.
So far so good, now we come to the sausage. I keep promising my chutney crunching nephew, Mickey, some chorizo, and 'cos he's bigger and stronger than me, and 'an all around good egg' - coming to tinker with my smoker every-time I change my mind as to what design will work best - I thought I'd better make some. The rest of the meat was going to be made in to two or three different types of sausage, but as I had used the collar for Coppa there wasn't enough meat, so I stuck to just my 'signature sausage'; the newly renamed, 'Thurlaston Sausage'.
All went well until we stuffed them; the sheep's casings for the Thurlaston sausage had more holes than a tramps vest! So now I've got to find something to do with the 2 kg of sausage meat that didn't get stuffed. I can feel some Scotch eggs coming on.
Well that's the sausage done, but what of the chorizo? Now, a quick lesson in stating the obvious; for the normal horseshoe shape chorizo in the supermarket you don't start of with a casing that size; it needs to be a lot bigger as the casing shrinks as the sausage dries, losing up to 40% of its weight, and of course reducing in diameter. So I buy 'extra wide' hogs/pigs casings, they start off at about 40 mm. Wrong, the last batch I bought must have got swapped with something else; if I'd used them, the chorizo would have ended up like those Peperami snack-sticks you get in the supermarket. On to plan B then; the chorizo are now fermenting in 60 mm collagen casings; somewhat annoying, as I like a traditional look to my chorizo; not chorizo that looks as if it's come from a massive factory. It'll also take a lot longer to dry which means that Mickey'll have to wait just that little bit longer.
As for the offal, I decided to make the lot into Pâté and added a small amount of cure and vitamin C to preserve the colour. Pauline's just tasted it and says it's bloomin' awful; fortunately others haven't got her fine tuned taste buds (honed by years of smoking roll-ups), and like it!
I'm going into hiding now 'cos when she reads this she'll kill me! In the meantime, I love this uniquely Italian answer to the credit crunch; it's the thought of British banks doing the same thing and ending up with freezers full of ready-meals that amuses me!


text:
Q: jQuery Menu Button Disappearing on drop down in webkit only, how do I make it stay put? I have a problem involving jQuery drop downs. Basically the button which reveals the drop down dissapears upon revealing the drop down. Here is the code
The HTML included in the navigation

Travel Blog

Destination

Item One

Item Two

Item Three

Map

About

This is the javascript generating the drop down effect
$(function(){

var config = {
     sensitivity: 3, // number = sensitivity threshold (must be 1 or higher)
     interval: 200,  // number = milliseconds for onMouseOver polling interval
     over: doOpen,   // function = onMouseOver callback (REQUIRED)
     timeout: 200,   // number = milliseconds delay before onMouseOut
     out: doClose    // function = onMouseOut callback (REQUIRED)
};

function doOpen() {
    $(this).addClass("hover");
    $('ul:first',this).css('visibility', 'visible');
}

function doClose() {
    $(this).removeClass("hover");
    $('ul:first',this).css('visibility', 'hidden');
}

$("ul.dropdown li").hoverIntent(config);

$("ul.dropdown li ul li:has(ul)").find("a:first").append(" » ");

});
And this is the CSS styling the buttons and drop down...
ul.dropdown                         { position: relative; list-style: none;}
ul.dropdown li                      { font-weight: bold;  list-style: none; zoom: 1;}
ul.dropdown a:hover                 { color: #CCC; }
ul.dropdown a:active                { color: #FFF; }
ul.dropdown li a                    { display: block; color: #FFF;}
ul.dropdown li:last-child a         { border-right: none; } /* Doesn't work in IE */
ul.dropdown li.hover,
ul.dropdown li:hover                { color: #CCC; position: relative; }
ul.dropdown li.hover a              { color: #FFF; text-decoration: none;}
ul.dropdown ul                      { width: 180px; background: url(images/transBlack_bg2.png) repeat; -moz-border-radius: 5px; -webkit-border-radius: 5px; visibility: hidden; position: absolute; top: 45px; right: 60px; }
ul.dropdown ul li                   { font-weight: bold; font-size: 13px; color: #FFF; padding: 5px;}
ul.dropdown ul li a                 { width: auto; display: inline-block; }
ul.dropdown ul li a:hover           { color: #111;}
ul.dropdown ul ul                   { left: 100%; top: 0; }
ul.dropdown li:hover > ul           { visibility: visible; }

Any advice or answers will be greatly appreciated, thanks very much for your time :)

A: The problem is you are using the pseudo hover class incorrectly.  This link specifies how to use them properly.  Your problem is this (from link): Note: a:hover MUST come after a:link and a:visited in the CSS definition in order to be effective!!  So your hover style is not behaving correctly.  If you add these lines (adjusting as desired):
ul.dropdown li.hover a:link {color:#999}
ul.dropdown li.hover a:visited {color:#999}

before this line:
ul.dropdown li.hover a              { color: #FFF; text-decoration: none;}

it will work as expected.
Edit: Also, using a class named hover along with the hover pseudo class makes the css pretty hard to decipher.  I'd give the class you create a different name if possible.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


text:
New climate change findings could spell trouble for WA wineries
Environment | October 17, 2018 | 0 | by emilyfarmer
By Emily Farmer
Temperatures in WA's Swan Valley are set to rise above the targeted global average of 1.5C set out by UNFCCC. Photo by Emily Farmer
A report by the world-leading Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has found that wineries are among the industries that will be most hurt by climate change.
In 2016 the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change or UNFCCC, introduced the so-called Paris Agreement to combat climate change and adapt to its effects.
As part of this agreement the UNFCCC set a global temperature rise target of 2C with an "aspirational target" of 1.5C above pre-industrial levels. This aspirational target was outlined because some participating countries, particularly island nations, determined that a 2C rise would be far too high.
To examine the difference between a rise of 1.5C and 2C the UNFCCC requested a special report, released last week, from the IPCC to investigate what the implications of even a 1.5C rise would be.
Murdoch University climate scientist Dr Jatin Kala was a contributor to the first chapter of this report. He says that Mediterranean climates like the Swan Valley will feel the effects of climate change far more than other areas.
"The 1.5C that scientists talk about is a global average temperature," Dr Kala said.
"So you take land and sea temperatures from across the globe, calculate the mean of all of them and you get the average temperature of the entire globe."
Vineyards in WA are set to face new challenging climates. Photo by Trent Erwin.
"In places with a Mediterranean climate like the South-West of Western Australia with hot, dry summers and cool, wet winters it means that when the globe warms by even 1.5C the increase in summer will be felt much more," he said.
Jaden McLean, vineyard manager at Woodlands Winery said that while each growing season is different there has been a noticeable change to when their grapes come out of dormancy.
"A lot of our job is predicting what the weather will be like in the coming year," McLean said.
"This year for example, our May was quite warm which meant our vines were dormant for much longer than usual."
"Coming out of winter, I would have usually been watering for two or three weeks by now, but I haven't even turned the sprinklers on."
The IPCC report found that human induced global warming has been rising at a rate of 0.2C per decade.
A winning new attitude for Safety Bay Tennis Club
Airbnb hosts and users respond to calls for new rules
Righting the wrongs
Soccer teams struggle for players as Covid hits
Coal put on the back burner at controverisal cement plant
Climate inaction a costly legacy


Forex Moments & Forex Magnates are pleased to announce our new unique broker rating system, the first of it's kind on the net. This is not your run-of-the-mill broker review system, it's different to anything else, providing a much more accurate picture, rather than endless jargon that we usually see with "broker reviews".
So, if you are able to head over to the forum, and post your own review of the broker you are using, just clicking 0 to 5 for the six different catagories mentioned above, then your personal input would add real value.


The Starfish Cayo Santa María, located in Villa Clara province, is located on the sea fronting one of Cuba's most stunning beaches. Here you can stroll along 2.6 kilometers of fine white sand lapped by turquoise waters. The resort is fully integrated with the abundant flora and fauna that is home to the Biosphere Reserve Cayo Santa María and Buenavista Bay.
The resort offers fabulous rooms including fully-equipped Junior Suites and Suites with sea views, swimming pools and gardens, as well as extensive culinary options with a la carte restaurants, buffets, grills. There are also swimming pool bars and bars on the beach.
Starfish Cayo Santa María Resort is a hotel complex where you can enjoy a perfect independent holiday with your partner or family and let loose during the daytime and evening entertainment programs and participating in the many activities on offer.


text:
Joyce Carol Oates (born June 16, 1938 in Lockport, New York) is an American writer of novels, stories, plays, poetry, and non-fiction, known for being one of the most prolific of authors of literary merit.
She teaches in the Creative Writing department at Princeton University.
Oates has also written several books, mostly mystery novels, under the pen names Rosamond Smith and Lauren Kelly.
Biography of Joyce Carol Oates (http://jco.usfca.edu/jco.bio.html)
1 Novels
2 Essays and criticism
3 Short story collections
4 Short stories
With Shuddering Fall (1964)
A Garden of Earthly Delights (1967)
Expensive People (1968)
Wonderland (1971)
Do with Me What You Will (1973)
The Assassins: A Book of Hours (1975)
The Childwold (1976)
Son of the Morning (1978)
Cybele (1979)
Unholy Loves (1979)
Bellefleur (1980)
Angel of Light (1981)
A Bloodsmoor Romance (1982)
Mysteries of Winterthurn (1984)
Solstice (1984)
Marya: A Life (1986)
You Must Remember This (1987)
American Appetites (1989)
Because It Is Bitter, and Because It Is My Heart (1990)
Black Water (1992, also adapted for a late-90s stage play performed in Philadelphia)
Foxfire: Confessions of a Girl Gang (1993; the basis for the 1996 film Foxfire)
What I Lived For (1994)
We Were the Mulvaneys (1996)
Man Crazy (1997)
My Heart Laid Bare (1998)
Broke Heart Blues (1999)
Middle-Age: A Romance (2001)
Big Mouth and Ugly Girl (2002)
I'll Take You There (2002)
Freaky Green Eyes (2003)
The Tattooed Girl (2003)
The Falls (2004)
Essays and criticism
Contraries: Essays
The Edge of Impossibility
New Heaven, New Earth
On Boxing
Woman Writer
Where I've Been and Where I'm Going
The Faith of a Writer
Uncensored : Views and (Re)views
"Where I've Been..." is a collection of much of her non-fiction prose and writings.
"Uncensored" is a continued collection of her non-fiction writing, from 2000-2004.
By the North Gate (1963)
Upon the Sweeping Flood And Other Stories (1966)
The Wheel of Love And Other Stories (1970)
Marriages and Infidelities (1972)
The Goddess and Other Women (1974)
The Hungry Ghosts: Seven Allusive Comedies (1974)
Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been? : Stories of Young America (1974)
The Poisoned Kiss And Other Stories from the Portuguese (1975)
The Seduction & Other Stories (1975)
Crossing the Border (1976)
Night-Side (1977)
All the Good People I've Left Behind (1979)
A Sentimental Education: Stories (1980)
Last Days: Stories (1984)
Wild Saturday (1984)
Raven's Wing: Stories (1986)
The Assignation: Stories (1989)
Oates In Exile (1990)
Heat And Other Stories (1991)
Where Is Here? (1992)
Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been? (1993)
Haunted: Tales of the Grotesque (1994)
Demon and other tales (1996)
Will You Always Love Me? And Other Stories (1996)
The Collector of Hearts: New Tales of the Grotesque (1998)
Faithless: Tales of Transgression (2001)
I Am No One You Know: Stories (2004)
Many feel Oates' most famous work is her short story entitled Where Are you Going, Where Have You Been?, which was the basis for a movie, Smooth Talk, starring Laura Dern. It tells the tale of a young woman whose desire to "grow up" has her falling under the spell of a man whose intentions are decidedly unclear. It has been reprinted in numerous collections and is mysteriously dedicated to singer Bob Dylan.
The following is a partial list of her more than 700 short stories:
The Secret Mirror (1975)
Fatal Woman (1977)
Further Confessions (1977)
The Murder (1977)
Bellefleur (excerpt) (1980)
The Bingo Master (1980)
The Doll (1980)
The Virgin in the Rose-Bower (1984)
Desire (1987)
Haunted (1987)
The Others (1987)
The White Cat (1987)
Blue-Bearded Lover (1988)
Secret Observations on the Goat Girl (1988)
White Trash (1988)
Did You Ever Slip on Red Blood? (1989)
Ladies and Gentlemen (1990)
Why Don't You Come Live With Me It's Time [from Tikkun] (1990)
The Guilty Party (1991)
Accursed Inhabitants of the House of Bly (1992)
Don't You Trust Me? (1992)
Will You Always Love me? (1996)
Life After High School (1996)
Hysterical realismde:Joyce Carol Oates
it:Joyce Carol Oates
Celestial Timepiece: A Joyce Carol Oates Home Page. [1] (http://jco.usfca.edu). (Authoritatvie web site on Oates, from a reference librarian at the University of San Francisco)
Retrieved from "https://academickids.com:443/encyclopedia/index.php/Joyce_Carol_Oates"
Categories: 1938 births | American writers | American novelists | American poets | U.S. dramatists and playwrights | American short story writers | O. Henry Award winners | People from New York


text:
Bennett's signing in Seattle thanks to Atlanta's Quinn
RENTON, Wash. (AP) On a Seattle Seahawks roster that was created mostly through the draft, it's difficult to find a more important free agent signing than the luring of Michael Bennett during the 2013 offseason.
And a big reason why he originally decided on coming to Seattle was his relationship with current Atlanta coach Dan Quinn.
''I can talk all day about him, what he meant to me as a coach, and it's because of guys like Mike that I have this fantastic opportunity here,'' Quinn said.
Bennett could end up being a big reason why Quinn's second season in charge of the Falcons could come to an end early when Seattle faces Atlanta on Saturday in the NFC divisional playoff game. When the teams met in Week 6 , Bennett and Seattle's defensive line held Atlanta to 52 yards rushing, had 13 quarterback hits and sacked Matt Ryan four times.
Another big performance like that from Seattle's defensive line is likely required if the Seahawks are going to take down the No. 1 scoring offense in the NFL during the regular season.
Since arriving in Seattle before the 2013 season, Bennett has 30 + sacks in the regular season, playing multiple positions on the defensive line. He's gone from being a rotational player in his first season with the Seahawks, to the most important player on Seattle's defensive front.
From Bennett's perspective, a great deal of that success is due to Quinn.
''He understands how to put people in the right positon to be a great player,'' Bennett said. ''I think when you can do that - Pete (Carroll) does a great job of that - you can put people in the position where they can be great, they can do great things on the field for you.''
The relationship between Bennett and Quinn dates to 2009. That's when Bennett had his first stint with the Seahawks as an undrafted rookie and Quinn was Seattle's defensive line coach. Bennett never played a game that season for the Seahawks and was eventually claimed off waivers by Tampa Bay at midseason. But the foundation of the relationship between Quinn and Bennett was created in that short time.
''Over the course of time, his game kept evolving and kept getting better and better and for those of you that see how quick his hands are and how hard he works, what you don't see is all the work that goes in behind the scenes when he's out in Hawaii and putting on all the training that he goes through,'' Quinn said.
That initial time together was at the root of why Bennett chose to sign with Seattle four years later. At that point, Bennett was an established starter in the NFL after getting his opportunity in Tampa Bay and Quinn was returning to the Seahawks as their defensive coordinator.
''I got the chance when he called me,'' Bennett recalled. ''Of course Pete (Carroll) called me but I didn't know who Pete Carroll was, but Dan called me first and was like, `You should come down here, I think we have something good, we just need an inside rusher.' I was like, `OK,' so I just came out here.''
Bennett wasn't pleased with one of Quinn's players after Seattle's 26-24 win in Week 6. Bennett was angry after a cut block by Atlanta's Jake Matthews caused Bennett to hyperextend his right knee. The injury ultimately led Bennett to have surgery and miss five games. Bennett was incensed after the game, but this week was more at ease - perhaps due to his recent contract extension .
''I don't have many reasons to be angry these days,'' Bennett said. ''I just want to go out there and play a game, playoffs, you just want to go out there and win a game. That's really what it's about.''
NOTES: Seattle RB C.J. Prosise (shoulder) was a limited participant in practice. It was his second straight day of practice after sitting out nearly two months due to a fractured shoulder blade. His status for Saturday's game is still unclear. ... DT Tony McDaniel was also limited in practice. He missed the opening round win over Detroit due to a concussion.
For more NFL coverage: http://www.pro32.ap.org and http://www.twitter.com/AP-NFL
tony mcdaniel
C.J. Prosise


And welcome to my online Portfolio. I'm a designer and Front-end Web Developer based in France. I have built this website to share with you my passion of Graphic design and Web development.
Here're just pictures that, I hope, can tell a thousand and one stories.
Hi, I'm Daroueche, an enthusiastic and self-motivated apprentice front-end web developer based in Lyon, France. I'm currently looking for a opportunity to join a dynamic and ambitious growing company for an internship, and to forge a career as Designer and front end web developper.
I am passionate about graphic design and interactive media. I'm student at Univeristy Lyon2 in order to validate marster's degree in graphic design and web development.


text:
Patrick K. O'Donnell on 'Washington's Immortals': 'Mass Grave of the Men Who Saved America Is Still Unknown'
30 May 2016 Washington, DC
"The mass grave of these men is still unknown … the men that saved America. And that is what inspired me to write this book," combat historian and bestselling author Patrick K. O'Donnell told Breitbart News Daily host Stephen K. Bannon while discussing his book, Washington's Immortals: The Untold Story of an Elite Regiment Who Changed the Course of the Revolution.
O'Donnell's book tells the story of the "Immortal 400," who can rightly claim to have saved the American Republic at its beginning with their lives:
In August 1776, little over a month after the Continental Congress had formally declared independence from Britain, the revolution was on the verge of a sudden and disastrous end. General George Washington found his troops outmanned and outmaneuvered at the Battle of Brooklyn, and it looked like there was no escape. But thanks to a series of desperate rear guard attacks by a single heroic regiment, famously known as the "Immortal 400," Washington was able to evacuate his men and the nascent Continental Army lived to fight another day.
Today, only a modest, rusted and scarred metal sign near a dilapidated auto garage marks the mass grave where the bodies of the "Maryland Heroes" lie—256 men "who fell in the Battle of Brooklyn." In Washington's Immortals, best-selling military historian Patrick K. O'Donnell brings to life the forgotten story of this remarkable band of brothers. Known as "gentlemen of honour, family, and fortune," they fought not just in Brooklyn, but in key battles including Trenton, Princeton, Camden, Cowpens, Guilford Courthouse, and Yorktown, where their heroism changed the course of the war.
Drawing on extensive original sources, from letters to diaries to pension applications, O'Donnell pieces together the stories of these brave men—their friendships, loves, defeats, and triumphs. He explores their arms and tactics, their struggles with hostile loyalists and shortages of clothing and food, their development into an elite unit, and their dogged opponents, including British General Lord Cornwallis. And through the prism of this one group, O'Donnell tells the larger story of the Revolutionary War. Washington's Immortals is gripping and inspiring boots-on-the-ground history, sure to appeal to a wide readership.
The book was extremely well received, and there's more available on O'Donnell's work here. The unit is also chronicled here as The Maryland 400:
WASHINGTON'S IMMORTALS has received sterling reviews from leading scholars of the American Revolution:
"Perhaps no war in American history has been more difficult to see through soldiers' eyes than the Revolutionary War. Patrick O'Donnell brings their experiences to life for twenty-first century readers in a way that no other historian has managed to do, accomplishing for the Revolutionary War what Stephen Ambrose's Band of Brothers did for World War II. The 1st Maryland Regiment participated in some of the most important battles of the war, gradually progressing from ordinary to elite status. Its story is the story of how the people of the United States became free."—Edward G. Lengel, editor in chief of The Papers of George Washington and author of General George Washington.
Breitbart News Daily airs from 6 AM to 9 AM Eastern weekdays on SiriusXM Patriot 125.
RadioBreitbart News DailyPatrick K. ODonnellWashington's Immortals: The Untold Story of an Elite Regiment Who Changed the Course of the Revolution


text:
journal.wiredreflexes.com
Jack the sound barrier. Bring the noise.
Author Archives: Dennis
Broken Curses and Cycles
Dennis	 January 7, 2020 January 13, 2020 No Comments on Broken Curses and Cycles
Previously, the adventurers investigated the crusader camp, finding out more about the situation they found themselves in and possible solutions. They spoke to Gorden, one of the guards in Lord Destan's retinue, to Lauriel Skycaller, the Senhadrim priestess, and to Ser Estienne, the legendary knight whose sanity had stayed somewhat in tact because of his mythical sword and its magical powers. The camp revealed some other interesting parties, like the apothecaries of Pholtus, or the dwarven scribes under the leadership of Ser Kadagar Ashbeard. The adventurers also rode into battle together with the cursed crusaders and managed to analyse it before being overwhelmed by the demon opposition and dying another horrible death. When they woke up again, they had a plan to preempt an attack on the demons in the hope of taking away their aerial domination.
Second Day, Third Wik, Æftera Līþa (Pasture Mōnaþ), 736th Year of the Crusade
James hatched a plan to coordinate the griffon riders in a preemptive attack against the demons flying around the tower. Luca and Quentin helped James organise an ambush by convincing the leader of the artillery crew, Ser Wentworth, to get prepared to support the griffon riders, and while Luca convinced a squad of infantry to take up a bow, Quentin convinced Ser Estienne to commit his infantry as archers as well. James ordered half of the griffon riders to hide high in the air, protected from sight by flying against the sun, while he took the other half of the griffon riders to lure the flying demons from around the tower, which worked out splendidly.
https://journal.wiredreflexes.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/Artillery.mp4
The demons eagerly followed James and the griffon riders, but the largest of the demons, Baraxxis the Balor, a huge brute wreathed in dark smoke and a fiery aura, with the head of a bull, the wings of an enormous bat, carrying a fiery whip and an electrified sword. The brute charged ahead and crossed the enormous distance between the demons and the griffon riders in the blink of an eye, suddenly appearing perilously close and hot on Tourbillon's tail feathers.
The archers and artillery had been set up in the treeline using the cover of the trees as protection. When Baraxxis arrived he immediately summoned two scores of demons who came crawling out of demonic circles which appeared on the ground in front of the archers. They were small and spindly, like a bipedal cross between an insect and a kobold. Without hesitation they fell upon the archers, and Luca was also set upon.
The fight between the adventurers and Baraxxis was violent and long. Early, James was riding Tourbillon, but quickly dismounted the griffon to help Luca and Quentin fight the brute, while Tourbillon went to help the archers by attacking the demons they were fighting. Luca sent bolts of eldritch force into Baraxxis and Quentin kept making charging passes on his horse, while James darted in and out of the battle to strike the enormous demon in vital areas. For a while it looked as if the demons was going to be unbeatable, especially considering that every time one of the adventurers came near the demon, they were burned by its fiery aura and at risk of being entangled bit its whip, or cleaved by its electric sword.
It took everything the adventurers had, including several of the magical potions they had received from Barnaby in Bournemouth, to keep them going long enough. Several of the adventurers were on the brink of death, only to be rescued by the daring interventions of their companions.
The fight saw more than its fair share of miracles. Once, Luca was snatched up by Baraxxis and both of them disappeared, only to appear high up in the air, where the wicked Balor let Luca drop to his death down below. Luca still has no idea how he survived the fall; likely due to a combination of memory-suppressing terror and a possible concussion he received from smashing into the ground. The biggest miracle of all was that through sheer will and determination, the adventurers managed to bring Baraxxis to heel. With one final charge, Quentin rode into the blaze surrounding the nightmarish demon, pierced its body with the lance he had been gifted by Ser Estienne, and brought the demon down.
Unfortunately, the demon had one more trick up its sleeve. As it went down, its demonic life escaping back to the Abyss, it exploded in a roar of fire. Quentin and James were nearly killed if it wasn't for the fact that Luca was far enough away from the demon to escape further injury and could administer more of Barnaby's restorative potions. Quentin's horse, sadly, did perish in the attack.
With Baraxxis out of the fight and the archers having had help from Tourbillon in defeating the wave of smaller demons, the remaining flying demons were no match against the griffon riders and their support. Once they were all defeated over half the griffon riders were ready to fight in the main battle later on. Some of them were wounded but would be capable of engaging. Only a few of the griffon riders didn't survive the battle, as had a few of the archers.
Soon after the fight, after Emma had seen to the remaining wounds of the adventurers who had engaged in the fight with Baraxxis, the bells started to toll and the expedition moved out towards the battlefield. Emrys ordered the griffon riders to support the cavalry and for the artillery to do the same; after each of the cavalry's charge, the artillery could fire at will and the air cavalry could swoop in afterwards. Two-thirds of the infantry was to focus on the incoming demonic ambushers, while one-third could move out onto the shore of the lake to support the cavalry.
Crucially, Luca decided to place a magic circle on the location of one of the five portals which were about to open in the woods. It's powers of abjuration would prevent anyone inside the circle from moving out, effectively nullifying one of the portals. Lauriel Skycaller, priestess of Sehanine Moonbow, used her powers to inflict a magical slumber on the demons coming out of two of the remaining four portals, further stemming the tide. The apothecaries of Pholtus were among the infantry to immediately apply healing and provide support where necessary. Astrid had gotten a hold of Dame Josephine's flaming sword because James was uncomfortable using it, and she was ready to charge into the oncoming wave, while Emma was ready to unleash her waves of water to keep the demons at bay.
When the battle started Quentin was riding side by side with Ser Estienne in the cavalry. The first charge was a success and as he wheeled the cavalry around, the artillery, air cavalry and infantry engaged, giving the cavalry plenty of time to turn around. The second charge was a success as well. Meanwhile, in the woods, the precautions that the adventurers had taken together with Lauriel Skycaller had almost halved the rush of incoming ambushers. Unfortunately, Lauriel was only half successful and she urged Emrys to come forth and enter one of the remaining portals before the demons came out. Hesitantly, he jumped into one of the open portals and collapsed it.
https://journal.wiredreflexes.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/CavalryKnight.mp4
The strategy had been a great success. The continual charges by the cavalry brought the demons on the shore of the lake to heel. The infantry stemmed the tide of ambushers coming through the greatly diminished portals. Of course there were casualties, many casualties. Infantry, sergeants, squires and knights. Chief among the casualties was Lauriel Skycaller, who was attacked by the demons that managed to break through the enchantment she had placed on them. She was viciously torn apart.
The adventurers all survived, though not without their own cuts and bruises. But more importantly, hundreds of the crusaders survived. As the battle came to its end, many of them did not quite know what to do with themselves. Some of them cried. Some of the laughed. Some of them walked into the lake until the water took them. Many of them just sat there as the sun crept across the sky and started sinking in the west; a sight they had not seen in countless years.
The curse had been lifted. Everyone who was dead would remain so. The battle of the Crimson Tower had been won, and the crusaders would never again be nailed to its white walls.
Conjunction of Planes	Recap
Dennis	 December 20, 2019 January 6, 2020 No Comments on Chapada Diamantina
This year, Joasia and I returned to Brazil to spend time with her brother and his family. He recently welcomed a baby boy, which was a perfect excuse to go and visit for the holidays. When we visited in 2015, we took Joasia's parents with us and decided to split off from the group and go for a week eco-tourism in Bonito in the south. We had a great time trekking through the jungle, bathing under waterfalls and swimming down rivers. So much so that we decided to do something like that again.
Upon arrival in Brazil, we took a flight from São Paulo to Lençóis in the middle of the state of Bahia. This is an old mining town of eight thousand people, close to Chapada Diamantina, a national park filled with forests, rivers, caves and waterfalls. We had a spectacular time, doing an excursion each day; some of them easy, and some of them quite challenging.
The challenge was ramped up due to the heat. With it being the start of summer in Brazil, temperatures in Lençóis were expected to go northward of 35 degrees Celsius. This meant breaking several of my own rules in order to prevent me from dying of a heat stroke; wearing shorts and wearing a hat.
The temperature was a big difference with Bonito, which was also warm, but not like Lençóis. Guides sometimes spoke English, and the organisation who organised our excursions made sure that our guides could communicate with us, which made things much easier than in Bonito, where we were often left to other people in our group that could translate for us, which wasn't always the case.
Another thing which was a significant difference was the poverty; apparently the northern states, like Bahia, are less prosperous than the southern ones, and while in Lençóis itself it wasn't that apparent, apart from a general "frontier town" feel that lacked basic infrastructure and facilities (like proper waste management), but the poverty ramped up quickly in the (even) more rural parts around the area.
I found that there were many buildings that had been built and simply never finished completely. Building materials scattered around, waiting to be used, sometimes for weeks, months or years. One of our guides, Indio, said that this was often due to funding running out, usually due to a lack of contingency planning, foolish optimism, or misappropriation. For instance, a little, two-storey house with a beautiful façade, which lacked even a roof for the second floor, effectively making it a single-storey house.
Another annoyance which my Teutonic brain couldn't comprehend was that lots of the dirty roads around the small villages were so poorly maintained that we saw lots of cars changing tires alongside the road due to punctures from the sharp rocks. If I were living in one of these villages I would get some people together and literally sweep the roads and clear them of rocks. It would save everyone a ton in car repairs.
In order to keep my frustration at this at a minimum I have told myself that there is likely a very good reason why they don't that I can't think of.
Chapada Diamantina was also much drier than Bonito, which meant there was less jungle vegetation and more so-called "Atlantic forest" and savannah vegetation. The soil had this deep, dark red colour, which reminded me of clay and ceramics. Salamanders were everywhere, hunting flies, or baking in the scorching sun. And yet, most days started off cloudy, which quite a few mornings seeing rain showers. There were many rivers, pools, lakes and waterfalls. The vegetation around those was immediate bright green and lush, more jungle like.
The landscape was dotted with "chapadas", which are hills and mountains with a ramp on one side, a plateau on top, with a sheer, sudden drop on the other side. These created large, beautiful valleys, full of small trails to hike, rivers to follow and waterfalls to explore. We did rather pedestrian excursions most of the time, with a few challenges to our legs and lungs at times, but the real pros did multi-day treks lasting three, four and sometimes five days, camping in the wild or sleeping in abandoned houses that used to belong to the miners.
Until the mid-eighties, the area was a wealthy mining area, looking mostly for diamonds. The techniques used in the mining industry was polluting the ground water so much, spoiling drinking water all the way to Salvador on the coast to the east, that mining was mostly prohibited and the remainder heavily restricted. The are became poor overnight as they lost their entire source of incoming. Soon, a large part was designated a national park, which meant no development of any kind could take place. Some villages, like Lençóis were so historic that they were given dispensation, but all other areas became depopulated as people (were) moved away. Around the park, areas were designated as "protected for preservation of nature" which meant development was allowed but restricted.
Pretty quickly the people in the area started to find new ways of generating incoming, tourism being the biggest of them. They are proud of the beautiful sites they have to offer. A lot of them were very special, too special to really capture in photos properly.
Journal	Brazil
Dennis	 December 9, 2019 December 9, 2019 No Comments on Recover
And I need you to recover, because I can't do it on my own.
Journal	Mass Effect, Music
Escaping the Madness
Dennis	 December 2, 2019 December 20, 2019 No Comments on Escaping the Madness
Previously, the adventurers found themselves inhabiting the bodies of several crusaders caught inside of Atilesceon's recurring dimension in which the same hellish day in which the crusaders suffered a crushing defeat at the hands of a demonic horde. They found that all of the crusaders were compelled to act out the same battle over and over, and for most it had meant their minds were destroyed. The fabled knight Estienne was one of the few who had some semblance of sanity and he explained many things. When the battle started the adventurers found themselves unprepared for the chaos and fear that washed over them, and some fled, while others futilely participated in the battle. Whether they fought or fled, it made no matter as eventually the battle played out as it had so many times before and the crusaders were defeated and their corpses nailed to the walls of Atilesceon's tower. After their defeat they once again woke up in the same position, at the start of the same day.
The adventurers quickly gathered at the commander's tent and let Emma perform her ritual of calmness in order for everyone to put their terror of what happened to them to rest. The first thing was to keep Gorden, the house Sheridan guard who had accompanied Lord Destan and the only one of his retinue to stay behind in Old Llygad, from committing suicide. Quentin went to find him and after explaining what was going on saw the relief on Gorden's face. He eagerly came along to talk to the adventurers.
Gorden managed to share a few important details that filled in the blanks and confirmed several suspicions. Quentin was indeed part of the expedition until being separated from the rest inside the Crimson Tower and he was genuinely relieved to hear Quentin had survived. He also explained that under Lord Destan's command they had penetrated the tower in Old Llygad in search for the Ritual of Returning. They had found the tower richly adorned, filled with wealth and opulence, with many curious servants.
Lord Destan and his group had performed the ritual on a spot in the woods to the south east of the lake, which the adventurers recognised as Isobel's Vale. They had gotten Patrick, squire to Ser Gregorian, to be their volunteer in the ritual. Luca remarked that it was inconsistent with what they learned from the Bristlecone villagers, who had found Jenna, Robart, and who the adventurers now knew to be Ser Edric, to the north of the path leading to Hunter's Hollar.
The ritual went awry, and Gorden could tell something was wrong. At the same time the demons were closing in on the vale. Attempting to complete the ritual, Lord Destan commanded Mark and Gorden to protect him, but Mark lost his nerve and charged through the opening portal. Jenna and Robart were transformed back to their own bodies as they headed through the portal, but that is where Gorden died.
Afterwards, when Gorden awoke once again, he found that Mark, Jenna and Robart were no longer in camp, and that Lord Destan, presumably still in the body of Ser Edric, was unconscious. He spoke with Ser Estienne and decided that if the ones who escaped survived and managed to call for help, he would have to survive enough iterations with his mind in tact. He decided the best way was to commit suicide before each battle for as long as his willpower would allow and before the compulsion had him in its grasp. Quentin was deeply shocked that Ser Estienne would suggest such morbidity and he started to mistrust the nature of the fabled Knight of Flowers.
When the adventurers explained that they were sent by house Sheridan and that Mark, Jenna and Robert made it back, Gorden was incredibly relieved and immediately willing to help the group with whatever they needed. Quentin decided to wilfully lie to Gorden and tell him that his companions made it back safely.
In an attempt to rouse the unconscious form of Ser Edric, James attempted to perform some of the magical powers that Dame Josephine was rumoured to posses. Strangely, he had the innate ability to perform these spells, even though he himself had never studied on how to perform them. He spread the fingers of one hand and concentrated for a moment before a jet of flame burst from his hand, severely burning Ser Edric, his clothes, his bed linen, and several items around him. But it did not wake him.
Inspired by James' attempt to access Dame Josephine's gifts, Emrys called upon the Platinum Father to heal Ser Edric's wounds and found himself a perfect conduit for His divine energy. A halo formed around his head and his hands glowed with radiant energy which flowed into the blistered form of Ser Edric, stitching together the badly burnt skin and smoothing it over, leaving him perfectly healthy, albeit in tattered, burnt clothes. James then took Edric's hand and found an identical burn mark on Edric's palm as he had on his and the same as the Edric he had seen in Isobel's care. James carefully gave Edric some water to drink to see whether he would have an involuntary response, which he did; Edric slowly drank little bits of water. James then began talking to Edric while holding his hand, lying to him about the state of his family. He was trying to provoke an emotional response from the unconscious man, which he received when a light frown came across the young knight's face.
The conversation between the adventurers quickly turned to what to do next. From the time of their wake up, until the time the bells tolled and the march to the tower began, they only had five hours, and there was a lot for them left to discover. Ideas were raised, from storming the tower, to letting devour all of the crusaders, to finding a way to reach out to the demons and forming an alliance for freedom. The consensus became that the best way was to break the curse and help the crusaders defeat the demonic horde. For that, the adventurers needed more information and see whether they could change some of the details of the battle. In particular, they were interested to know where the ambushers came upon the infantry and where it was they were coming from, the thought being that they were already in Old Llygad, and could possibly be preempted or obstructed before hand.
Emrys and Quentin made their way to Lauriel's tent to talk to her about some of the confusing things she said the previous day. Along the way, Quentin shared his concerns about Ser Estienne. He felt that the knight was behaving strangely and Quentin was starting to mistrust him. He hoped that Emrys would keep an eye out for any signs that Ser Estienne was not the ally they thought he was.
They found Lauriel in reverie to the Moonmaiden inside her tent. Many things became clear to Emrys during his conversation. He learned about the mysterious Sehanine priestess Mohiam, who had been granted a vision by the Moonmaiden about an unfathomably complex mixing of different human and elven bloodlines to produce a prophet who would be able to permanently restore the Seal of Divine Animus. Mohiam was the leader of a cult who were all working towards the goal of mixing the right bloodlines in order to find this prophet. From what Lauriel explained, some of the things each of the members was required to do seemed almost random; introducing people, deposing leaders, uplifting nobility, ordering assassinations, starting wars…
She herself had been tasked to start a new tribe of elves called the Aen Adhar, the children of the moon, of which Emrys was a product. She was only known to them as "Moonwhisper", a name Emrys had heard all throughout his childhood. They were taught just enough about the prophecy to do what Mohiam needed them to do. Over centuries the Aen Adhar turned into a magireligious cult that Emrys so despised.
Quentin learned that Lauriel had been given a second task; to improve elven-human relations by marrying Prior Benedict McAllister. She would then use her influence to prevent Dame Josephine LaValette from strengthening her house and allowing it to unify the tribes of Celticia, now modern day Beauclair, and found the first kingdom on the continent. Instead, the house was deprived of their legendary daughter, which left it influential, but not dominant. With the help of Mohiam's followers, house LaValette would be manipulated to one day become the royal house of another kingdom; now known as house Valois, the ruling house of Lyria.
Upon his return to the commander's tent, Emrys took a moment to tap into the divine connection that prior Benedict held with Paladine and extended his senses to feel out the corruption in the hearts of those inside the tent. Intent on only getting a measure of Ser Estienne, Emrys found that the only really dreadful thing in the tent was Blackstar.
In the meantime, Luca had gone to speak to the priests of Pholtus, who he felt would be better served among the infantry on the battlefield, rather than be held back at camp to tend to the dying and wounded coming back from the battle. What would come back for them from the battlefield was death, and if Luca could convince them to join the infantry, they might make a difference. Luca found the priests in a large tent preparing ointments, poultices and potions. He spoke to one of the priests who would acknowledge him and wasn't simply playing their part in the story of their horrible defeat. Luca managed to convince the priest to commit his order to march with the infantry. The priest raised his hands to the pale sun in the heavens in supplication and began instructing the others on their new mission.
Afterwards, James and Luca decided to search the camp for anything out of the ordinary. James was going to pay special attention to any correspondence he could find, as well as any items that might be magical. Luca was mostly interested to find more interesting people, and hopefully some that, like Ser Estienne, had retained some of their original vibrancy and could hopefully shake off the effects of the curse.
Near the edge of the camp, close to the treeline, Luca stumbled upon a camp that was made up of mostly dwarves. They had set up their tents around a large rock that was jutting out of the ground, and they were all chiselling away at it under the direction of one dwarf who was dictating to them in the dwarven tongue. Near them stood a squire with the same dead eyes that the others around camp had shown. She was helping the dwarves by handing them hammers and chisels when they needed them. Luca saw that the young knight wore the herald of a noble house that looked familiar to him; the head of a red stallion. Unfortunately, he couldn't put his finger on where he had seen it before, nor whose house it belonged to.
Luca quickly came to learn that the dwarves had taken to recording as much information as they could in a very complicated form of dwarven shorthand. His attempts to read it were for naught; he would need more time to study the runic script the dwarves were using in order to make nor tails out of it. He found out that the dwarves were under the leadership of Ser Kadagar Ashbeard, and that the woman was his squire.
James had found many different letters, both personal as well as strategic, which gave him the impression that the crusaders had set out their expedition with the full conviction that they would undoubtedly succeed in their mission. He also learned that there were many other conflicts that the crusaders were involved in, and that the fighting had spread to every corner of the continent. During his search, he also came across a very unusual looking robe and a beautiful brooch in the shape of a scarab, which lit up with curious symbols when he held it.
As James was planning on returning to Luca with the robe and the brooch, he heard the bells toll and the camp got ready to move out once again. The adventurers had decided that most of them would go on to support the infantry, including the priests of Pholtus, as well as Lauriel. Luca gave Ser Florian's battle lance to Quentin, who would use it by joining the cavalry. And lastly, James would take to the air on the back of Tourbillon, taking Hejduk along with him in order to survey the battlefield from up on high.
The battle started and the cavalry set in the charge against the demons on the shore, while high overhead the air cavalry were engaging the flying demons. Due to a lack of Dame Josephine's involvement in the aerial battle, the demons slowly took the upper hand. But it afforded James a good view of the surroundings. While Quentin was thundering his horde alongside the cavalry and the rest were laying in wait with the rest of the ambushers, James could see that the tower was quiet and that there was no other activity right before the rifts started to appear in the tree line. This meant that the demon ambushers were not laying in wait somewhere and they could not preempt the ambush itself.
Three portals opened up in the woods through which hundreds of demons came pouring forth. Emrys, in the guise of Prior Benedict, kept the moral of the infantry in check and commanded them to aid the cavalry and follow the original plan. He then used the divine might of the Platinum Father to disrupt several demon's advance, and then used the strange magical pipes to send several of the smaller demons scurrying. Luca used the power of the Lyrium crystal he carried with him to keep some of the demons at bay, while casting bolt after bolt of eldritch energy into the incoming onslaught of demons. Astrid could be seen darting through the forest with incredible speed, attacking the demons with a frenzy and a fury that was unmatched by anyone but the most wicked monsters on the battlefield. Emma called upon the power of Sedna to conjure up a powerful tidal wave, which held the demons at bay for a time. Lauriel, strengthened by the adventurer's steadfastness, created a shimmering symbol made from the purest moonlight, which exploded in devastating energy when the demons were almost upon them, felling many of them.
In the meantime, the infantry, supported by the priests of Pholtus, had engaged the demons on the shore and managed to allow the cavalry to make their pass with minimal casualties. The cavalry managed to wheel about unhindered and set in a second charge, clashing into the ravenous demons once more. Quentin's lance scored several piercing hits.
That's when the adventurers holding off the ambushers were overwhelmed. The infantry was quickly caught between the hammer and anvil of the demons but fought valiantly to allow the cavalry to continue their charge and make an attempt to wheel about once more. During their third charge, the cavalry was overwhelmed.
From up on high, James saw all of this unfold and saw that the demons were making their way towards the artillery in order to support the flying demons. He set Tourbillon into a dive to keep the flying demons off his back and see if the elementals that were fuelling the protective dome around the tower would react to his presence. As he soared past, with the demons in tow, the elementals tried to take a swipe at him. He managed to get away unscathed but noticed that some of the demons trailing him weren't so lucky. He decided to keep doing this to see how many demons he could get taken out like that, but eventually ran out of luck and one of the elemental heavy limbs crashed down like a tidal wave and he and Hejduk died, too.
The adventurers once again wake up feeling completely shaken to their core. They notice that with every death a piece of their resilience is lost and they can feel their willpower waning and the curse of the compulsion taking hold. Everyone gathers at the commander's tent and Emma performed her ritual of stillness to calm everyone's emotions and steadied everyone for the day ahead.
The conversation quickly turned to the successes of the previous day. Even though the battle was lost, they had learned several valuable lessons and quickly started to come up with new ideas on how the battle could be won.
While Luca performed the ritual of identification, using one of Isobel's pearl earrings, on the jewellery the adventurers had retrieved from the Crimson Tower, James went to retrieve the unusual robes and the curious brooch for Luca to divine the properties of. Luca found that the jewellery was imbued with several magical properties which would greatly benefit the wearer, but there was a dark side to the set, which would leave the wearer weak willed and compliant. When Lauriel's saw the set she screamed and nearly lost her sanity. She explained that it was a gift from Atilesceon to her, which she refused. Luca quickly surmised that the purpose of the jewellery was to protect Lauriel, keep her healthy and beautiful, but also make her subservient to Atilesceon.
A plan was formed for a preemptive strike. James ordered Ser Wentworth, who had been in charge of the artillery, to move the artillery just outside of camp and start preparing for a preemptive attack. He then moved on to the griffon riders and spectacularly convinced them to join in the attack. Quentin rallied a squad of archers and got Ser Estienne to commit his armsmen as archers as well.
It was not easy to pick up, but there seemed to be the slightest sliver of hope in the air.
Dreams of Dying
Dennis	 November 18, 2019 November 25, 2019 No Comments on Dreams of Dying
Previously, the adventurers, had entered the tower and started exploring the many floors after having found a young Beauclairois knight who was locked in the cellar. Quentin, as he called himself, had entered the tower together with Lord Destan, only to be separated from him and the rest of his expedition as he explored the lower level while they continued to venture to the higher floors. Together, they explored the library where they found much information in the different pages of Atilesceon's private journal. They learned about his time at the Senhadrim, his personal rivalries, his interests, his research and ultimately about his downfall and the his attempts to serve his master, Mammon, the archduke of Minauros, the third level of Ba'ator. Ultimately, they discovered his bedroom, his workshop, and a portal guarded by a stone statue which attacked them. After defeating the statue, they decided to enter the portal.
Each of the adventurers were assailed by the same terrible dream in which they were followed by a dark horse with flaming hooves. Luca was chased through an abandoned monastery, while Quentin was running through a hedgerow maze. Emrys was chased through an elven ruin, littered with human bodies, while James was trying to escape through the sewers. The damp and earthy smell reminded each of them of something which initially set them upon their individual quests which lead them to the Crimson Tower.
With each flash of the nightmare that was riding them down, they saw the future; of places foreign and familiar, in which a new age of fear had sparked violence and drove people to atrocities. Eventually the horrible images revealed that some people became corrupted by the chaos of demonic hordes, while others became corrupted by the cruelty of the infernal legions. Two armies were set to clash, one were beastly and ravenous in their appetite for destruction, while the other were disciplined and methodical in their wickedness. In between stood a small band of soldiers, dressed in steel armour coloured red white and blue, lead by golden warriors with wings of light. This band would be pulverised between the hammer of demons and the anvil of devils.
Then the nightmare was upon the adventurers and thundered its flaming hooves down on them, mortally wounding them. They were each shown what their spilled blood would cause; Luca saw fungus growing rapidly and spreading noxious spores. Quentin saw the hedges around him wither and die, the blight spreading outward with his death at its epicentre. Emrys watch his blood seep into the veins of the marble of the ruins, pulsing angrily until the dead bodies around him opened red, glowing eyes. James saw his blood mix with the sewage and spill down a drain, from which a strange eye stalk rose up to observe him as he drew his last, ragged breath.
Emrys woke up at an elegant writing desk in a large tent. He was holding a quill and the letter in front of him was one addressed to his beloved Lauriel and spoke of being wed after the military expedition was over. The letter then turned into a series of scratching, profanity before ending with a plea to Paladine to let death take him. Emrys did not remember writing the letter nor did he understand the contents. He suddenly noticed his arms were not his own, and when he found a mirror confirmed that the face looking back at him as he peered in it was not his own, but that of a black haired, bearded human man. The tent held a tactical table with a map of what he later concluded was Pinefall, in particular of the north-western corner of Lake Llygad and its strand. There were two beds in the tent, one of which was holding the unconscious body of a man he recognised as the tracker from Isobel's hut. He could not be awoken. There were armour stands, weapon racks and a shrine dedicated to Paladine. He eventually learned that he was inhabiting the body of Prior Benedict McAllister, knight-captain in the Order of the Gryphon and devout paladin to the Platinum Father and leader of the military expedition to Gwenllygad.
Luca awoke in a modest tent, with a bed, a chest filled with personal belongings, an armour stand holding a beautiful set of platinum gilded armour, like that of the Order of the Lance as wel as a set of weapons, including a shield bearing the lightning struck oak tree of house Ironwood, whom he last saw in the hands of Ser Florianus when the adventurers met him on their way to Pinefall, watched him ramble and wither away to die before burying his remains and using the shield as a grave marker. When Luca looked down at his own hands, he saw a shock of golden curls tumble past his face; he was inhabiting the body of Ser Florianus. Luca was comforted by the fact that Blackstar was still by his side.
For James the wake up was both more pleasant and more strange. He found himself setting at a dressing table in front of a mirror, in the body of a comely, strong woman with long auburn hair and a long neck. Behind him a short haired woman was brushing his hair, using a ivory-handled brush, decorated with mother of pearl, set with soft, white bristles. The tent he was in was enormous and opulent, set with furniture, carpets and decorations. There were three beds and three armour stands, each holding a splendid plate armour gilded with lapis lazuli. One of the beds was large and richly made up, and the armour next to it was adorned with sapphires and aquamarines. The woman behind him had dark rings around her eyes and looked she performed her tasks with a haunted reluctance. A handsome man came into the tent and announced in archaic Beauclairois, which James was surprised to learn he understood, that Tourbillon was saddled and groomed, before starting to don his own armour. James didn't know who Tourbillon was, but noticed that the man had the same dark rings and tired look about his eyes. By talking to two squires — or écuyer — he found that he was inhabiting the body of Dame Josephine LaValette, a knight in the Order of the Gryphon.
Finally, Quentin woke up in a modest tent listening to the sounds of a melancholic tune being played on a harp outside. He found his bearing and looked outside of the tent to find a military camp filled with soldiers. His tent was standing next to a larger tent, outside of which stood a handsome man, casually playing the harp. He was remarkable, not only for the harp, but also for the way in which he was observing the rest of the people in camp. There was a great sadness in his eyes. At his side was an unusual wooden scabbard, adorned with what looked like living vines, which occasionally sprouted small buds which quickly grew and blossomed into flowers, before withering away. It became apparent to Quentin that the man with the harp was the legendary Ser Estienne d'Epines and the sword at his side was Fleur, the Sword of Flowers. He also quickly realised that he was inside the body of Durand de Palemerin, Ser Estienne's squire. Looking around the camp, he spotted an enormous tent who was flying the herald of the LaValette family, an ancient house from the time before Beauclair formed as a kingdom. He decided to head there, hoping to find some answers.
The camp was filled with dozens of knights, hundreds of armsmen. There were artillery engines, horses, griffons, tradesmen, teamsters, cooks, and the supplies necessary to support an expedition of more than six hundred people. It was tricky at first, but it didn't take long before everyone had found each other and was gathering at the tent that Emrys had awoken in. It had a tactical map of the area and it held the unconscious body of the tracker in Isobel's care, whom they learned was Ser Edrick the Strong.
Astrid was found to inhabit the body of the seven foot tall monstrosity by the name of Ser Gregorian Longshadow. The adventurers had met him in the presence of the Ser Edrick on the shores of Lake Llygad the previous evening, during the clash of the cavalcades. Ser Gregorian was followed around by his squire Patrick, who kept trying to convince Astrid to keep her armour donned, something she absolutely refused.
Emma found herself inhabiting the body of Dame Victoria Greywater, from the eastern black bogs, not a reference anyone had heard of. She had been afflicted by a voice inside her head who was only screaming incoherently. It had given Emma a headache, which she tried to treat with a ritual at the nearby river where she was found by Luca.
At the river, they were witness to a handful of people who had walked into the deep end of the river to be taken by the current. Another suicide happened in front of the commander's tent, where a dead-eyed man opened his own throat with a knife and bled out while people nearby seemed not to notice. It became very clear that most people in the camp were acting like very strangely. Some were going through what looked to be well-practised motions, while others were acting out of sorts, committing suicide, weeping, screaming, or just sitting still in catatonia.
While talking to one another in the comfort of the commander's tent the adventurers started to piece together what was happening to them. They quickly realised that they were about to replay the events of the battle at Gwenllygad where the crusaders would be betrayed by the Senhadrim mage Atilesceon. With the help of Blackstar, Luca confirmed that all of their bodies housed a soul, and a faint, secondary soul, which likely belonged to the original crusader. Both Emma and Quentin had been able to hear a voice inside their head and identify it as their host's soul, but Quentin had not been able to commune with them, and for Emma it proved impossible due to the state of insanity that the soul was in. Quentin shared his suspicion that Ser Estienne was unlike many of the other crusaders in camp, and he was quickly summoned.
Ser Estienne was indeed unlike the other crusaders. He explained that this day had been played out countless of times and that everyone was compelled to play their part, always with the same outcome. As time wore on, everyone's ability to resist the compulsion to play their part was worn away until most people were nothing but mindless automatons. He explained that he believed that the magic of his sword was what had protected him and allowed him to retain some of his sanity, but that the sword had lost much of its power over time. Eventually, when the magic in the sword had depleted, he too would succumb.
The crusaders, Ser Estienne explained, were cursed to remain in Old Llygad for all eternity replaying the events over and over again. Many people had entered over the ages, some of them managed to escape, leaving the crusaders behind, and some of them had failed to escape and eventually merged completely with the crusader whose body that were inside of. Ser Estienne believed that the curse could only be broken by winning the battle for Old Llygad.
The knight also shared more details about the battle, about the betrayal, and about what was going to happen later that day. This was the original plan; air cavalry would engage the flying demons attacking Atilesceon's tower, supported by artillery, preventing them from harassing the ground troops. At the same time, the cavalry would charge the demons on the shores of the lake in formation. After the first charge, as the cavalry was wheeling around and preparing for their second charge, the infantry would emerge from their ambush inside the treeline and engage the demons on the shore, allowing for the cavalry to get ready for another pass.
But this is not how the battle played out. Instead of the infantry completing their ambush, they themselves were ambushed by demons emerging from portals that opened up with frightening precision behind them in the woods. The infantry were attacked in the back, routed, and the cavalry went unsupported and therefore found themselves out of position and quickly overwhelmed as they tried to wheel around. Once the demons collapsed the rear guard and overwhelmed the artillery, the air cavalry was doomed, and eventually the entire camp of civilians with them.
On occasion, Atilesceon would change a few things about the battle, especially early on. He would give them exotic weapons, strange mounts, others siege engines, different numbers, different opponents, but the result was always the same; he would look on from his tower and observe how the crusaders were defeated and defiled as their bodies were nailed to the tower walls by the victorious demons.
Lauriel Skycaller, the Senhadrim priestess of Sehanine Moonbow, who was to be wed to Prior Benedict upon completion of the expedition, and who was the one that Atilesceon was obsessed with before his fall, was also called to the commander's tent for conversation, but her mind seemed too fractured, she was too disturbed, to yield any immediately useful information.
When the bells started to toll, everyone in camp started to get ready for their departure south, along the river, in order to engage the demons on the shores of Lake Llygad. Most of the crusaders remained dead-eyed as they started to move out. James decided not to fly out on Tourbillon, her tempestuous griffon, but instead ride out on horse back together with the rest. The plan was to ride for the tower and try to gain entry.
https://journal.wiredreflexes.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/Cavalry.mp4
When the lake finally came into view, it was apparent that demons were already skirmishing on the shore in front of the tower. From afar the aberrant monstrosities looked like a crawling chaos. They came in all shapes and sizes, each defying description in their hideousness. High up in the sky, winged demons were circling the tower, probing its defences. Surrounding the tower was a shimmering dome made of what seemed like a thin sheet of water. At the base of the dome, on four sides of the tower, strange water creatures could be seen fuelling the dome. The creatures were large and closely matched the descriptions given by the Bristlecone villagers of Lady Llyn, the protector of lake Llygad.
Each of the adventurers were deeply shaken by the sight of the demonic horde. The crusaders marched on, the infantry breaking away early to enter the woods and flank from the west while the cavalry rode out in formation and the griffons riders flying in overhead, supported by the scorpion ballistae shooting bolts the size of small trees at the winged demons above the tower.
Both James and Astrid failed to steel themselves against the horror that was about to play out and decided that getting drunk back at camp would be preferable than to stay to watch the crusaders' inevitable defeat. The realisation that they were trapped in a reality which was playing out over and over was too much for their minds to comprehend and so they turned their horses and fled back to camp. Quentin, disgusted at the sight of such cowardice went in pursuit, while the others merely stood, awestruck at the unfolding carnage.
At camp, Quentin was incapable of convincing James to stand his ground as he relied on Dame Josephine's abilities to mount Tourbillon and take to the skies. On the back of the alabaster griffin he flew as far north as the bird would take him but soon found himself enveloped in mist, turned around and heading back south. After several attempts he landed the griffon in a nearby clearing and drank himself into a stupor until the horde of demons finally caught up with him as they had with each of his companions. He died drunk and screaming.
After each of the adventurers suffered a violent death at the hands of the demonic horde, side by side with the rest of the crusaders, they once again awoke in the same place, in the same position, in the same bodies, at the exact same time on the exact same day as before. The felt nauseous and incredibly shaken by what they had experienced, but luckily they found each other much more easily and Emma managed to perform a divine ritual that calmed everyone's nerves and they once again felt back in control. They did, however, realise that with every death they would suffer, their resolve to simply comply with the compulsion the rest of the crusaders were under would erode.
They made plans to see if they could talk to the Senhadrim priestess, to find Gorden, the remaining house Sheridan guard that is in camp somewhere, and to search the camp for any writings that would give them a better idea of the situation in camp before the assault. All in the hopes to find a way to defeat Atilesceon, to break the curse that holds the crusaders in its grasp, and to find their way back to Pinefall.
Conjunction of Planes (55)
The Blackwing (25)
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SPAH
Minor code SPAH-MIN
Spanish Minor
The Spanish minor provides students with the skills needed to develop an ability to understand, speak, read and write Spanish. Students are exposed to Spanish as used across the Spanish-speaking world, and a wide variety of sources (including newspapers, magazines, media, cinema, songs and literature) are drawn on. In this way, culture, history, politics and society in the Spanish-speaking world are incorporated into the classes to enhance the language-learning experience. Students also have the opportunity to deepen their understanding and strengthen their language skills through specialist courses in Hispanic Linguistics. Students with existing knowledge of Spanish can begin at a more advanced level, and the exact sequence of courses depends on the level at which the student begins the minor.
communicate in Spanish in a range of contexts
demonstrate a basic understanding of the structure and uses of Spanish
demonstrate a basic understanding of the cultural and linguistics aspects of Spanish language and societies and their socio-historical context
construct a schema of the connections between the Spanish language and its geographical, social and cultural origins
recognise the importance of intercultural communication.
Bachelor of Art History and Curatorship (BAHCR)
Bachelor of Asia-Pacific Studies (Year in Asia) (BAPYA)
Bachelor of Development Studies (BDEVS)
Bachelor of European Studies (BEURO)
Bachelor of International Relations (BIR)
Bachelor of Languages (BLANG)
(All Language Studies (LANG) courses must have a Course Topic of Spanish to be included in this minor.)
A minimum of 18 units must come from completion of courses from the following list:
SPAN1001 Introduction to Spanish I 6
SPAN1002 Introduction to Spanish II 6
SPAN2001 Continuing Spanish I 6
SPAN2002 Continuing Spanish II 6
SPAN3001 Intermediate Spanish I 6
SPAN3012 Intermediate Spanish II (Language and Culture) 6
SPAN3022 Intermediate Spanish II (Language and Linguistics) 6
SPAN3031 Advanced Spanish Topics in Language and Linguistics 6
SPAN3030 Advanced Spanish topics in Language and Culture 6
SPAN2102 CULTURA, cultura, kultura: Spanish Language and Culture Workshop 6
SPAN2107 Cinema from the Spanish-speaking World 6
SPAN2601 The Sounds of Spanish 6
SPAN2602 The Structure of Spanish 6
SPAN2603 History of the Spanish language. A linguistic time travel 6
SPAN2604 Multilingualism and indigenous peoples in the Americas 6
SPAN3100 Current Affairs in the Spanish-speaking World 6
SPAN3101 Music and Society in the Spanish Speaking World 6
A maximum of 6 units may come from completion of courses from the following list:
LANG 2103: Second Language Pragmatics
LANG3001 Translation across Languages: the translation of literary texts 6
LANG3002 Translation across Languages: specialised material 6
LANG 3003: Cont Euro Narrative
LANG3004 Language and Society in Latin America 6
LANG3005 Language and Identity in a European Context 6


How curiously this valediction rings, addressed as it is to a man who satirized every form of metaphysics and renounced any mental comfort that might subtract him from the exhausting experience of being alone with his conviction that the world was without meaning and expression futile, yet that all the same he was duty-bound to express the fact. But perhaps it is precisely in Beckett's repeated renunciations—of English for French, of a rich and traditional narrative facility for texts stripped of everything we would normally think of as plot or color—that we can find a link between these sometimes sentimental centenary remembrances and the core of the author's work, his special position in the literature of the twentieth century. "How easy," wrote Cioran, "to imagine him, some centuries back, in a naked cell, undisturbed by the least decoration, not even a crucifix." With Beckett, it is the persistence of a "religious" seriousness in the declared absence of any sustaining metaphysics that gives his work its special, for some, saintly, pathos.
Born in 1906, Beckett was brought up in a well-to-do Protestant family in County Dublin. Educated at private schools, he excelled in both academic work and sports and, after graduating in French and Italian at Trinity College, Dublin, in 1927, went back and forth between teaching posts in Dublin and Paris, where he met James Joyce, who was then writing Finnegans Wake. But Beckett soon decided he was not cut out for teaching and gave up his job, thus disappointing his parents. The ensuing and bitter arguments, with his mother in particular, plus what appears to have been a number of panic attacks, led to the decision to undergo psychoanalysis in London, where Beckett spent two years trying and failing to start a career as a reviewer. After an extended visit to Germany and another unhappy period in Dublin, he settled permanently in Paris in 1937.


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Students interested in entering a field in which there are plenty of job openings can choose to enroll in one of 17 programs of study for which FREE TUITION is available!
The HOPE Career Grant can be the boost a student needs to get started on a rewarding career in a well-paying job, and without accumulating a lot of student debt. It also helps Georgia employers by creating a pipeline of skilled workers they can hire well into the future. To learn more, or find out which campuses offer these programs, click on one of the programs below.
To be eligible for the HOPE Career Grant, students must first qualify for and be receiving the HOPE Grant. Please review eligibility requirements below. The two grants together will cover all tuition in these 17 programs of study. Students will still be responsible for student fees and any equipment necessary, although in some cases, financial aid is available for those as well.
HOPE CAREER GRANT. MEANINGFUL CAREERS START WITH TCSG.
The Bureau of Labor Statistics projects employment in the Automotive industry will expand five percent between 2014 and 2024. Graduates of TCSG's Automotive Technology programs learn the technological and mechanical skills to keep today's increasingly complex cars safely on the roads. All TCSG colleges offer training in Automotive Technology, ranging from maintenance techniques and electronic systems diagnostics, to performance technology. Learn skills that will give you a competitive edge from the assembly line to the racing pits.
The demand for new workers in all aspects of Aviation is well above average compared to other service industries. Whether working at the world's busiest airport, Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport, or any of the 500 aerospace companies in the state, graduates of TCSG's Aviation program are well equipped to support Georgia's growing aviation and aerospace industry. The Aviation Technology program offers courses to teach skills for aircraft, assembly, structural maintenance, and technology.
The Certified Engineering Assistant program provides students with the necessary training, through a series of courses, for a career as a certified engineer assistant. Students can either achieve a diploma in Architectural and Engineering Drafting Technology or a certificate in a number of programs, including various fields from computer engineering to railroad signal engineering. The program provides training in core engineering techniques, including drafting and design and complex mathematical calculations. The Certified Engineer Assistant program prepares students for a rewarding career in the growing engineering field.
Computer programmers are among the most sought after workers in today's information economy. More than 25 computer programming certificates and diplomas are available, some focused on specific in-demand programming languages such as C++, C#, Java, and Visual Basic. Students are also able to gain programming skills in a broad range of IT contexts including network and database administration, web design and development, game design and development, and cloud and mobile environments.
The Computer Technology program gives students the necessary knowledge to jumpstart a career in one of the fastest growing fields: information technology. Students have the opportunity to earn either a certificate or diploma with more than 16 fields to choose from. Students can pursue a myriad of majors from animation and game design, to networking and repairs. From learning basic computer fundamentals and hardware concepts, to learning more advanced design and business models, the Computer Technology program prepares students with the necessary skills for a career in computer technology.
The Construction industry in Georgia has had year-over-year growth since the recession. The professionally trained graduates of TCSG's Construction program have the knowledge and skills to work effectively on private, public and commercial construction projects. Majors include air conditioning technology, carpentry, construction management, electrical construction and maintenance, masonry and plumbing.
The Early Childhood Care and Education program is a sequence of courses designed to prepare students for a variety of careers in the field of early childhood education. The program emphasizes a combination of early childhood care and education theory and practical application as well as limited general core competencies necessary for successful employment. Graduates have qualifications to be employed in early care and education settings including child care centers and Head Start.
Electrical Line Workers install or repair electrical power systems and telecommunications cables, including fiber optics. Georgia is among the states with the highest published employment in this profession. TCSG colleges train students in the technical and mechanical skills necessary to be successful, preparing graduates for employment with utility companies. You will learn on equipment used in the field today, and will be prepared for problem-solving techniques, as well as the industry's safety requirements.
The Health Science program offers students the opportunity to enter the field of healthcare through courses that apply science and technology through medical care. Students have the ability to earn either a certificate or diploma, depending on the designated program. With more than 35 specific fields to choose from, students can earn the knowledge to accelerate their careers in a number of health science programs. Particularly, students have the ability to pursue certificates in various medical fields like pharmaceutical assistance or surgical technology.
Industrial Maintenance is a perfect career for those interested in tinkering with and maintaining machinery, or producing and manufacturing with your hands. Georgia employment in this field, which is also called Industrial Systems Technology and includes Manufacturing Maintenance and Mechatronics, is expected to grow by 8 percent over the next 10 years. Students learn skills in several areas, including electronics, industrial wiring, motors, controls, PLCs (program logic controllers), instrumentation, fluid power, mechanical, pumps and piping, and computers. Virtually any manufacturing industry in Georgia, including automotive, carpet, flooring, beverage, pharmaceuticals, and heavy equipment, has a constant demand for this type of skilled technician. Or, these programs assist students who decide to move on and get a four-year degree in Mechanical Engineering and Electrical Engineering.
Home to the busiest airport in the world and the largest single-terminal container facility in North America, as well as an extensive network of highways and distribution centers, Georgia is a transportation super-hub of the Southeast. The state ranks 5th nationally in logistics employment, and graduates of TCSG's Logistics program are fully qualified to join this skilled workforce. Logistics and Transportation Technology programs offer courses in areas of inventory control, purchasing techniques, warehouse and distribution technologies, and much more.
Film Technology programs will train competent entry-level Film/Video Production technicians who can successfully get an entry-level job in the film / video production industry or continue with their education goals in one of the other Film Production program areas. Subject matter includes basic training in occupational areas of interest, such as Electrical & Lighting, Grip & Rigging, On-set Production Assistant, Hair & Makeup, Set Construction & Scenic, and many others, emphasizing competencies in production protocols, the pre-production / production / post-production process and crew responsibilities / hierarchy. Hands on labs provide students with real world Film and TV production simulations.
The Practical Nursing diploma program is designed to prepare students to write the NCLEX-PN for licensure as practical nurses. The program prepares graduates to give competent nursing care. This is done through a selected number of academic and occupational courses providing a variety of techniques and materials necessary to assist the student in acquiring the needed knowledge and skills to give competent care. A variety of clinical experiences is planned so that theory and practice are integrated under the guidance of the clinical instructor. Program graduates receive a practical nursing diploma and have the qualifications of an entry-level practical nurse. Students most commonly will have to submit a satisfactory criminal background check as well as a drug screen in order to be placed in a clinical health care facility to complete the clinical portions of their educational training.
The Precision Manufacturing program prepares students for entry-level employment in a manufacturing environment or for continued education in manufacturing or engineering programs of study. Students are introduced to fundamental manufacturing processes, including manufacturing design, machining, and assembly; mathematical operators and analytical problem solving; technical schematics and symbols; drafting tools and techniques; and engineering tools and concepts. All didactic and lab principles are applied as practiced in an industrial setting.
The Welding and Joining Technology program is designed to prepare students for careers in the welding industry. Program learning opportunities develop academic, technical, professional knowledge and skills required for job acquisition, retention, and advancement. The program emphasizes welding theory and practical application necessary for successful employment. Program graduates receive a Welding and Joining Technology credential, have the qualifications of a welding and joining technician, and are prepared to take qualification tests.


Finally, this fall I feel like I'm going to be able to concentrate some time and cash in decorating our house. I'm really looking forward to it after YEARS of pouring all my creativity and funds into renovating and decorating a multitude of retail spots. Here are a few peeks at some of my favorite spots - first off, my sunny front porch where I take most of my at home photo's.
When we first moved in, I picked this apple green for the wood siding in the sun porch. Our house is almost 96 years old, and is pretty classic so the color was a bit bright. I've gone from loving it, to not liking it, to loving it again. I'm glad I didn't change it back to white like the rest of the house.
The front yard has 3 hydrangea bushes, 2 huge peony bushes, a lilac tree, a rose bush two giant lilies, and multi shades of cone flowers. Too bad they don't all bloom at the same time and last forever. Summer here is short, but it's pretty beautiful.
I bought this Symphonic travel record player through the online classifieds (kijiijii) and paid $20. I'm so glad I did because I haven't seen one like it since. It's a perfect summer companion.


Kirtas APT 2400 provides the highest quality image capture system. It can scan books up to a maximum size of 354 x 278 mm and a minimum size of 177 x 113 mm. The book is supported in a V-shaped cradle angled at 45 degrees, which holds the open book and keeps pages in focus. A page-flattening clamping system holds the open pages in place under a florescent lighting system, as two 21.1 Mpixel cameras capture the page images. They photograph each right- and left-hand page. Resolution can be set to 300 or 400 pixels per inch, with the potential to interpolate to as high as 600 dpi. The Kirtas APT BookScan 2400 can scan books with high speed up to 2400 pages per hour.
The Kirtas Page Edge Sensor is there to prevent the page-turning arm from picking up multiple pages. A mechanized page-turning arm uses a vacuum head to lightly grip the pages, which are gently separated by a fluffer arm that blows air at the page edges to separate them. In the rare instance when a page is missed, or multiple pages are lifted, the Page Edge Sensor detects the misfeed and automatically takes corrective action.
Kirtas is the only solution that integrates metadata into the production process to ensure seamless workflow and inventory control. Simply scan the book's bar code, and the APT Manager searches the selected library database for any metadata available— including MARC records, DublinCore, MODS, and other formats— and saves it in the Metadata folder for that particular book for easy access throughout the production process and beyond.
Realiscape Typorama is a leading informatics company that specializes in digital culture in all forms: from 2d and 3d digitization of all kind of artifacts, to content manipulation, management and distribution to a broad range of audience.